Chapter 18 #2
Lyndie smiled and went back to watching Griffin.
She wanted to be with him up there, even though she knew she’d have slowed him down, because her asthma was really getting to her today.
Still, she wanted to be with him in a way that was new and fairly terrifying.
She purposely buried herself in physical work so that she couldn’t possibly think.
She shoveled and raked, used her inhaler, and then shoveled some more.
It worked, and much, much later, hours after their lunch break and more hard work, she looked up in surprise when two arms snaked around her from behind.
“We’re contained,” Griffin said, the victory in his voice as he twirled her around and around. “Tell them as long as the wind stays calm, we’ve got the son of a bitch.”
She started to smile, but his mouth came down on hers in a hard-earned celebratory kiss.
At dusk, they fell out of the Jeep at the Rio Vista Inn, an exhausted, filthy, hungry bunch, parting ways as everyone stumbled on their various routes home.
Brody stood there for a moment in the pitch-dark night, as tired as everyone else, but unable to get over all they’d accomplished today. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been part of a team like this, or the last time he’d worked so hard.
Maybe he’d never worked so hard. Ever.
Not an easy admission even to himself, surrounded as he was by people who worked that hard all the time, including a woman he’d known all of one day and couldn’t get enough of.
He looked at her now. Nina looked right back, her eyes soft, sexy. Sweet. She waited until her father went inside his house. Then, managing to look cool and pretty despite being out in the fire all day, she put a hand on Brody’s chest and leaned in.
“Tonight?” she whispered.
He turned his head and watched Tom’s front door shut. It had the sound of his own coffin shutting, and yet the promise in her voice drew him in like nothing else.
“We could sit in the courtyard,” she said. “And read just like last night…”
Though they both knew that hadn’t been all they’d done last night.
“I know I can get a good job in the States if you show me just a little bit more,” she added softly.
“You underestimate yourself, you’re already reading English—”
“Are you worried I’ll keep you up too late? Work you too hard?” There was such a promise in her gaze, it took his breath. “Don’t worry, big guy. I’ll tuck you in if that’s what you want.”
“What I want,” he said, shocked to realize the truth, “is to just be with you.”
A slow smile curved her mouth, and she hugged him tight, pressing in closer, sighing when he wrapped his arms around her body. “You’re such a good man, Brody Moore. A good teacher too.”
Closing his eyes, he held on. A good man? A good teacher? Hell, he might be educated, he might have his degree and be capable of teaching, true, but he’d never bothered. Too much work, too much time…
And if he was facing truths here, then he had to face this one—he’d been quite lazy with his life, and quite content with that. “I’m not the man you think I am.”
“No?” Her smile was softhearted. “You did not travel five hundred miles to see that Griffin is okay while he fights this fire for us? You did not lend your own hand to the cause when you could have stayed in the village all day and let the others do it? You did not spend your valuable sleeping time helping me learn English?” She leaned in close and put her mouth to his ear.
“You did not make love to me beneath the night sky and showed me a heaven I did not know existed?”
“Nina…” He cupped her face and looked deep into her eyes, letting out a helpless groan as he saw the emotion reflected there. “I’m different at home. I don’t work very hard, I don’t. I just skate by, and…and people let me.”
“It’s your sexy smile.”
“I mean it. Until very recently I was a shitty brother, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see you again after we—”
“Shh.” She put her fingers to his lips. “I don’t know that man you describe.
I know the man I’m standing in front of, the man who is going to help me read better English, and then who is going to drive me wild for the rest of the night, because we are good together.
Now.” She let out a breath and smiled. “Any questions?”
He removed her fingers from his mouth and smiled back, his chest loosening with relief, with arousal, with other things too, things that suddenly no longer scared him. “No questions.”
Her smile caught his breath, his heart. “Good.”
Too keyed up to go to sleep, Griffin left Brody outside with Nina and went into the inn. He got halfway to the kitchen when he realized there was one thing he wanted more than food.
Lyndie.
He walked back down the hallway, but no Lyndie in the front room, the courtyard, anywhere. He checked her room, which was empty of all fiery-haired women.
And also empty of wild kittens.
What had she done with Lucifer? And how, after the day they’d had, did she have the energy to be anywhere but in that bed?
Exiting again, out the back door of the inn this time, he heard her voice in the darkness and moved forward. He found her sitting by the creek, Lucifer in her lap batting at her chin with his paw.
“Cool it,” she said to the cat, who did his best to climb up her body. “Did you really think I wasn’t coming back for you?” She let out a soft laugh over the sound of the rushing water. “Would have served you right, you obnoxious little fleabag.”
“Mew.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She stroked the little back and Lucifer arched with pleasure. “Look, I’m not going to ditch you or anything, but honestly, I’m not a good bet.”
Surprised, Griffin stopped short. She thought she wasn’t a good bet? She, with the strength and bravery of ten men? How could she believe that?
Still not seeing Griffin, she plopped to her back on the creek bank, lifting the kitten up to look into his face. “Look, cat…I’m not that good for you. I’m demanding and pushy, and quite honestly, I’m not even that nice. Seriously,” she whispered, “you ought to be running for your life.”
The kitten didn’t appear concerned, and Lyndie let out a soft laugh that broke Griffin’s heart as she brought Lucifer down to her chest. “Why aren’t you running?” she asked, rubbing her cheek to his.
Griffin ached to go to her, to prove her wrong about being a bad bet.
But he wasn’t a good bet either.
So he steeled himself, not an easy task, and turned and walked away.