by Kadie Scott
Carter breathed through her nose, searching for patience while he was in lawyer-mode. “Will and Rusty are at her ranch in Wyoming. Cash and Holly live in town. He’s the sheriff and she is one of the few large animal vets in the area. Plus, they’re strapped down with a passel of kids. Autry and Jennings have to run the ranch with Dad. You know how big a ranch it is. Jennings’s wife, Ashley has a new baby, and Autry’s wife Beth is pregnant and teaches at the elementary school.”
There. That’d should stop this line of questioning.
Logan blew out a heavy breath, running a hand through his hair, suddenly more human. Usually, he hid all emotion behind a robot façade. Mr. Perfection.
Except when he’d been inside her last night. Carter shook off the thought. The totally wrong moment to be thinking it.
“What if I hire a nurse to come stay with your mom?” he asked.
Carter turned away and scowled at her open suitcase. He just wasn’t getting this. “Is that what you’d do for your mom? Hire a stranger to take care of her in her own home?”
Beside her Logan went still. The man could’ve given a hot summer day with no breeze a lesson in how not to move. “My parents are gone.”
He seemed to force the words through stiff lips, almost as though he didn’t want to tell her.
Irritation took a flying leap and the guilt piled higher. Carter stepped into him, taking his hand automatically in a gesture meant to share the pain she could see reflected in his dark eyes. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s fine,” he said, still stiff as a branding iron.
Always self-contained. “That doesn’t make it any easier to have it thrown in your face,” she said in a self-effacing drawl.
She was rewarded to see the corner of his mouth crook up. “True.” But then he slipped his hand from her grip, taking a step back.
Carter tried not to be offended. She was touchy feely where he was not. She got that. “Anyway, I couldn’t let a nurse do this. Not for the first few weeks anyway.” Hopefully by then her mother would be mostly back on her feet.
“What about traveling back and forth?” he suggested next.
“It’s almost two hours to the ranch.” Carter shrugged.
His jaw set in a stubborn intractableness she recognized from every one of her brothers. Except maybe Will.
“High Hill is west of here right?”
Carter blinked. “How did you know the name of my family’s ranch?”
“You told me once.” Like his remembering such a tiny detail was no big deal. “Is it?”
“Yes and a bit south, but not much.”
He turned suddenly serious, like he did when he knew he had the judge or jury in the palm of his hands. “That’s about where the property for this water rights dispute is located, maybe more directly west.”
He had a point; she just wasn’t seeing it yet.
“You could get to the property from High Hill faster than coming into Austin, to do your analysis.”
She shook her head. “But I can’t leave my mom alone that long. I’m often gone all day for several days, or even weeks.”
He gave her a stare that she could easily have taken as hostility, but she recognized it wasn’t directed at her. He was in his head, using his impressive brain to solve the problem.
A sudden grimace told her he’d thought of something but didn’t exactly love it. “What if… I come to the ranch with you. I can stay with your mom when you’re out doing what it is you do, and we can work together in the evenings on your findings.”
If he’d proposed marriage, Carter couldn’t have been more bowled over.
When he raised his eyebrows in obvious question, she managed to find her tongue. “You can be away from the office like that?”
“We may have to coordinate certain days so I can come back into Austin, but this is my primary case at this time. I trust the team to get their stuff done without me there to babysit. I also need to interview both sides. I usually do that in the office but can go out to the properties this time. We can figure that timing out.”
He seemed to be conveniently forgetting that they’d had sex last night. Just like that, the irritation reentered the mix, swirling with the guilt in her stomach. Awkward didn’t begin to cover the situation he was blithely suggesting. Not to mention inconvenient, because thoughts of what they’d done together, and how it had made her feel hadn’t been far from her mind since. Granted, he hadn’t left her alone to brood, yet. But there was also the matter of her own integrity. She was damn good at what she did, and this was her job.
“Carter?” he prompted.
“I need to leave today,” she said. “When would you—”
“I have to do my closing statement and stick around for the ruling.” He waved at her suitcase. “Finish packing. I’ll swing you by the office for your truck and follow you out when I’m done.”
With that statement—more like an order—and before she actually agreed, he pulled out his phone and dialed. “Mrs. Landingham, something has come up and we need to change my schedule for the next few weeks.”
His voice trailed off as he left Carter, going into her small living area to discuss his schedule with his personal assistant.
Carter stared after him for a long beat, then shook her head. “And here I thought I was the one who made fast decisions and focused only on work,” she muttered.
The thing was, she’d always admired that about Logan. She just wasn’t so appreciative right this second when it meant he’d forgotten about a night that had rocked her world. Yes, she’d played it off as a casual one-time thing, but that had been in direct response to the expression on his face when she woke up.
But her words and attitude had been more about her pride than the truth. The truth was, she would love to try again—right now even—and see if the same magic happened twice, or if it had been a fluke of the moment.
Magic.
The scientific side of her brain scoffed at the word. The Disney-princess-loving side from her childhood stuck her tongue out at the science nerd.
Not that it mattered. Logan had obviously written it off and moved on.
Swallowing a sigh, she turned back to her suitcase and her worries for her mother, doing her damndest to not think about what having Logan Cartez in her childhood home, and underfoot twenty-four seven, was going to do to her.
*
Hospitals topped Logan’s most hated places to visit list. He’d spent weeks in a cramped room, sleeping in an uncomfortable chair, and getting to see his mother for only short periods in ICU before she’d eventually passed away. The fluorescent lights casting a purplish haze over everything and giving off a slight buzzing noise, the constant smell of antiseptic, the long bouts of hushed quiet punctuated by crying or shouts of pain.
Yet here he was, striding into the lobby of the small local hospital in La Colina, Texas. An elderly woman, possibly a volunteer, sat at the half-moon shaped desk at the front. She gave him a kind smile as he came in. “What can I do for you, hon?”
“I’m looking for…” What was Carter’s mother’s name? “Mrs. Hill’s room?”
The helpful woman, whose nametag read, “Esther” raised her white eyebrows. “Are you a friend of the family?”
Of a sort. “Yes.”
He knew small towns, had grown up in a small town until his parents’ deaths. If he said who he was, and the fact that he was here for Carter, by morning she’d probably be fending off questions about her new boyfriend.
His expression, not unkind, but not welcoming either—something he’d perfected as a lawyer—must’ve been enough for her to get the hint. Ether’s lips puckered and she gave a little, miffed hum.
“Sign in here.” She indicated a paper on a clipboard.
Logan deliberately made his handwriting hard to read. No doubt, she’d be checking his name.
Sure enough, she took the clipboard and frowned at what he’d written, and Logan had to hide his amusement. “She’s in room 110,
Mr. …” She left it hanging, her tone questioning.
“Thank you.” Logan nodded and headed down the only hallway in sight, hoping he wouldn’t have to backtrack.
Luck was with him, and he found the room with no problem. The door was open. Before he got to it, a burst of laughter filtered down the hall.
Laughter? From what Carter had said, he assumed her mother’s injuries to be pretty bad.
Pausing just outside the door, Logan took in the scene. Despite being tall himself, he couldn’t see Carter or her mother through the crush of people gathered in the room. Big family.
The man closest to the door—a man with dark hair and blue eyes just like Carter’s and wearing the standard tan of a Texas sheriff’s uniform—spotted him. Definitely her twin brother. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for—”
“He’s with me.” Carter’s voice reached him before he could see her. She threaded her way between what had to be brothers and sisters-in-law.
“Who’s your friend?” The sheriff’s hand rested on his holstered gun.
“Sorry about this.” She muttered the words in Logan’s general direction, rolling her eyes at her brother.
“I’d like to meet Carter’s boss,” a weak voice said in the hush.
The group parted like the Red Sea before Moses to reveal a small, finely boned woman with graying brown hair mostly hidden under a white bandage over her head, competing for paleness with skin leached of color, except the dark purplish-blue bruise spread out over one cheekbone. Hazel eyes regarded him with a sort of hazy look, as though she was trying to focus, but not quite there. She was lying on the bed with one entire arm cast in plaster from palm to shoulder. All sorts of tubes and wires connected her to various machines and an IV drip.
Just like his own mother.
“Everyone.” Carter turned to her family. “This is Logan Cartez.” To him, she said, “I’ll introduce the horde later. But this lovely woman is my mother, Evelyn Hill. And the fine gentleman holding her hand is my father, John Hill.”
Logan nodded at her mother and father—a tall, broad shouldered man with a deep tan and lines around his eyes that indicated he liked to laugh. “Nice to meet you.”
He turned to Carter. “I can see where the blue eyes come from now.” The Hill children appeared to be a carbon copy of their father.
Carter gave him a smile, but even Logan could see how she forced it a bit. Why was she tense about this? Or was it worry for her mother? Because that was some wreck to have left her so beat up.
Logan gave Carter’s arm a squeeze, and only realized what he’d done when she gave him a small, confused frown.
To cover, he turned to her mother. “I’m sorry about your accident, Mrs. Hill.”
Carter’s mother, lips pinched with pain, still managed to smile. “Not as sorry as I am.” Her voice was obviously strained.
“We should go,” Carter said. The two other younger women in the room nodded.
Carter left him in the doorway to kiss her mother’s cheek. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
She joined him in the hall, and they waited as everyone else did the same, leaving only John Hill in the room with their mother.
In the hall, once again, all eyes turned to him. Particularly her brothers’.
After an awkward silence Logan had no intention of breaking, Carter gave an annoyed huff. “Back off, boys. We just work together. You don’t need to stonewall him. I told you, he kindly offered to help with Mom so I can keep working on this project.”
The sheriff, the one most like Carter in looks stepped forward, hand outstretched to shake. “I’m Cash, her twin brother.”
“I figured.” Logan grasped his hand with a nod.
But Cash didn’t let go, tightening his grip. “I’m also the county sheriff.”
Having dealt with lawyers trying to intimidate him constantly in the courtroom, Logan didn’t blink. “Hard to miss the uniform. And understood.”
Cash narrowed his eyes observing Logan in a way that didn’t give an inch.
“Oh, my heavens. Men.” Carter pushed her way between them. In quick succession she rattled off introductions for the others.
Cash’s wife, Holly, with her almost waist-length hair and pretty smile and colorful clothes. He would not have pegged her as a large animal vet. Their children were being looked after by a friend apparently. Then came younger her brother Autry, the only Hill with hazel eyes instead of blue, taking after his mother apparently. Along with his very pregnant wife Beth, the adorable blonde schoolteacher. Finally the youngest brother, Jennings, and his wife Ashley with long dark hair and gray eyes, who held a sleeping baby in her arms. Apparently, Ashley was the family accountant.
“Will is the oldest. He and his wife Rusty are in Wyoming.” Carter wrapped up the intros.
The only one not to marry a hometown girl, apparently. Though Carter’s older brother still ended up with a country girl, it sounded like.
Carter had also almost married someone from the area, hadn’t she? Family tradition or simple coincidence?
“It might take me a while to put names and faces together,” Logan warned.
It wouldn’t. He’d learned networking tricks a long time ago, and already had them memorized, but saying he’d take a while was one of the tricks. Lower expectations and make them feel special when he did remember.
Except, for some odd reason, this time using a trick didn’t sit quite right. A niggling thought he brushed aside.
“We appreciate you helping Carter out,” the blonde, Beth, said.
Beside her Autry tucked an arm around his wife, with an air of possessiveness that couldn’t be misinterpreted. Beth hid a secret smile from her husband. Not that Autry needed to worry. Beth was cute, but Logan had a thing for brunettes with indigo eyes and almost scary intelligence hidden behind a smart-ass facade.
A distraction he didn’t need. He forced the reminder. No matter how thoughts of their night together kept cropping up, he wasn’t wrong about her. She was picket fences and he was… not. From here on out, he’d keep it strictly professional.
Carter turned her baby blues his way. “You are my ride back to the ranch. Dad’s staying here tonight, and Autry and Beth have to go pick up their son, Dylan, first. Plus, we need to swing by the grocery store on the way.”
Right. Why had he thought strict professionalism would be easy to maintain in these circumstances?
After a quick round of goodbyes for her family, she practically dragged him out of the hospital into the parking lot. Esther smiled and waved on their way through the foyer, her white brows practically disappearing into the teased white hair of her bangs. Carter didn’t seem to pay her any mind, though.
“Where’s your truck?” he asked as they got into his car.
“At the ranch. I rode in with Dad, but he’s going to stay the night with Cash and Holly. I didn’t want Beth to have to do the extra shopping with more people in the house.”
Saving her pregnant back and feet, no doubt. “Fair enough.”
She directed him through town, to the grocery store situated at the opposite end of main street, past the square. After living in downtown Austin so long, Logan wasn’t used to large parking lots with plenty of open spaces.
“I miss easy parking,” he said, and got a chuckle from the woman at his side who’d been staring blankly out the window.
Not like how Carter usually was.
“What was the decision?” Carter asked as they picked a cart.
For maybe the first time since becoming a lawyer, Logan had to think about what she was asking. The case. “We won.”
Carter whooped and threw her arms around him. “That’s fantastic. Not that I was worried.”
“Thanks.” Logan accepted through stiff lips, giving her back an awkward pat when what he wanted to do was bend her over and lay one on her.
She must’ve registered how his body had gone equally stiff, because she glanced up, her smile fading and a ligh
t pink tinting her cheeks. Logan instantly felt like he’d kicked a puppy that had come running up to him for a cuddle. He opened his mouth to say God knew what but didn’t get a chance.
“Carter?” a male voice called from behind him.
Logan had the unique experience of seeing Carter Hill at a total loss for words. Her mouth hanging open as her eyes went wide with an edge of panic to them. He also didn’t miss how the pink in her cheeks disappeared in a hurry, leaving her more pasty than she had been when her dad had called to say her mother had had an accident.
She visibly gathered herself before stepping around Logan, a smile in place that would’ve fooled even him, if he hadn’t witnessed her initial reaction.
“Hi, Brian,” she said.
That brought Logan’s shoulders back. The ex-fiancé?
Not sure why, except the fact that Logan had had this woman in his bed just last night, doing wicked, wonderful things to her body, but every part of him wanted to punch this guy in the face. Logan fisted his hands at his side and resisted the completely foreign temptation, letting Carter handle things. The last thing he’d pictured last night was coming home with her to be confronted by the man she’d thought to marry.
Only, the way Carter was holding herself, like broken glass glued back together but not quite dry, moved his focus to her.
The man across from them was good-looking. Tall, cowboy lean, dark hair, clean shaven. He smiled uncertainly at both of them. “I didn’t know you were in town,” he said.
“Mom had an accident.”
Brian’s brows drew down in a real show of concern. “Is she okay?”
“A concussion and a broken arm. But a clean break, luckily. No concern about bone fragments. They did surgery today to pin things back together. She’s in a lot of pain but will heal.”
“Jeez, C. I’m sorry to hear that.” Brian moved forward and wrapped Carter in a hug that had Logan stupidly wanting to step between them and pry the man off with a crowbar.
What the hell is wrong with me? Proprietary was not his thing when it came to women. Ever.
You don’t like it when Carter jokes around with the team at the office, either. A small, petty voice reminded him. He kicked it to the curb. Because jealousy about her would be ridiculous.
