The shower was still going… she was still in there, naked…
Putting her coffee on the dresser, Josh downed the espresso, the liquid only slightly scalding his throat, then opened the bathroom door and slipped inside. The room was filled with steam, the glass of the shower door fogged up, but Beth’s hazy silhouette was enough to have desire clawing at his veins. He felt like a randy teenager with the way his body reacted to her, but instead of worrying about it, he figured he should just enjoy the experience. And make sure she did, too.
“Beth?”
Her head poked out from behind the door, her hair darkened to gold when wet, plastered against her shoulder.
“Coffee’s ready?” she guessed.
He grinned as he stepped closer. “It is, but I had a better idea for waking you up.”
Her eyes widened as she ran them down his bare chest, her cheeks tinged with that tell-tale pink. She looked back into his eyes then slowly pushed open the shower door.
It took Josh only seconds to pull off the sweats and step under the hot spray, lifting her into his arms and making her very late for work.
“Are you kidding me with this?”
Beth winced as Brooke’s voice rang out across the bakery.
Thankfully, the lunchtime rush was over, so there weren’t many people to witness the realtor waving her phone around and stomping over to the counter. Her voice had been loud enough to summon Zoe from behind The Book Nook’s counter, and she rushed over to where Brooke was seating herself on a stool.
Jenna was already making Brooke’s coffee order without needing to ask what she wanted.
“You might as well wait a bit,” Brooke set her purse on the stool beside her. “I’ve texted Paige, and she’s on the way.”
“Oh, thank the Lord,” Jenna set Brooke’s cappuccino down in front of her. “She’s been tight-lipped all morning, said she’d fill us all in together.”
Beth didn’t know why she’d been so hesitant to spill that morning when she finally rushed over to the bakery, hair still damp and wearing yesterday’s clothes, with one of Josh’s sweatshirts over it.
Zoe and Jenna had taken one look at her — the Harvard hoodie, the hair thrown up into a mess of damp curls — and dragged her inside demanding minute details.
But she’d brushed them off with the flimsy excuse of wanting to wait until they were all together.
She was scared, Beth supposed, that they’d question things, meaning she’d start questioning things.
Like, why the sudden change of heart? And how long would that last?
Yesterday and this morning, when it had just been her and Josh, she could enjoy the romance of it all. Could pretend that there weren’t any issues left.
He’d said yesterday that he owed her honesty, but he hadn’t wanted to get into it, and truthfully, neither had she.
She was always being warned that her romantic heart would get her into trouble. And now she was worried that her friends would tell her she’d been stupid not to insist on having a real conversation before jumping into bed with him. And the shower, if she was going to get technical.
The bell over the door rang, and Paige swept in, her ponytail swinging as she hurried over. “Did I miss anything?” she asked, smiling her thanks as Jenna set a chamomile tea down in front of her.
“No, we were waiting for you.” Brooke pulled her purse from the stool so Paige could take a seat.
They were a study in opposites: Brooke in a killer black suit and Paige in a feminine sundress.
Beth, meanwhile, still looked like the wrong end of a horse. She was tempted to run away, but since her ankle was still bothering her, she wouldn’t get very far.
Grayson and Seth had driven out to collect her truck and bring it back to Big Sky until she could drive it. Grayson hadn’t asked her where she’d spent last night, assuming she’d been at Zoe’s, which was closer to the town. And Beth was eternally grateful for that. Gossipy friends would be hard enough to deal with without an overprotective big brother asking uncomfortable questions.
Her head started to hurt. But looking around the determined faces staring at her, she knew she wasn’t getting out of here without answering questions.
“Ugh. Fine.” She sighed and propped herself on a stool behind the counter, her leg resting on a pillow like she’d promised Josh.
“What do you want to know?”
“Um — everything,” Jenna laughed.
The bell over the door went again, and they looked up to see Tara Reid, the waitress from Bella’s, come in.
“Hey, Tara,” Beth called, grateful for a minute’s reprieve from the upcoming inquisition.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to share. Boast, really. She was just worried that she’d gush over her dreamy doctor only to have him go cold on her again. Her insides flipped uneasily, and she knew that she didn’t need Brooke, or Zoe, or anyone else to point out the need for a serious talk.
She already knew it needed to happen. She could only hope that it would end with her and Josh together.
“Hey…” Tara smiled. “…I come in search of your chocolate chip cookies.” She waved a friendly hello to the others. “Teddy had a doctor’s appointment today, and I promised him some for being so brave. The ones at work just don’t cut it, apparently, but let’s keep that between us.”
Jenna moved to fill a box with the cookies.
Tara and Teddy had only moved to Rocky Valley a couple of years back. Beth didn’t know that much about the pretty waitress. She kept herself to herself a lot, but she was always pleasant and friendly. And Teddy, her five-year-old, was adorable.
“Is Teddy alright?” Beth asked.
“Yeah, he came home with from school Friday with an earache, so I took him to get checked out. Dr. Larson is so good with him. Teddy thinks he looks like Thor, so he’s always happy to see a superhero doctor.”
Beth felt her heart skitter listening to Tara talk about Josh with Teddy. And she tended to agree with the kid with the whole Thor reference.
“Thor, huh?” Zoe grinned, eyeing Beth.
Her other friends were smiling at her too, while Tara frowned.
“Why do I feel like I’m missing something?” she asked, her brown eyes narrowed in confusion.
“You’re not missing anything,” Brooke said casually. “We were just about to find out all about Thor’s hammer from Beth.”
Beth’s shocked gasp was drowned out by the burst of giggles from her so-called friends.
Tara’s eyes widened before she laughed along with the others. “You know, Teddy is with Mrs. Beech and I know your grandma loves to spoil him, Zoe,” Tara said with a grin, “so I’ve got time to kill.”
Beth groaned and dropped her head into her hands, knowing that her cheeks would be on fire. So much for waiting to see where things stood with Josh before making a big deal of it. She looked up into the expectant faces of her friends.
Well, here goes nothing, she thought.
Chapter Nineteen
Josh checked his watch as he walked toward Beth’s place. He was hoping to snatch some time with her now that the lunchtime rush would be done.
He had it bad.
There was no denying it anymore. All morning, while he’d seen his patients and caught up on paperwork, he’d thought of her. The fear of commitment he’d carried around for the last few years seemed to be fading with every thought of her. On paper, it was way too soon to be thinking of anything long-term. He knew that. But he couldn’t seem to think of Beth without thinking of a forever with her.
But she knew nothing about his past. Nothing about what had driven him to Rocky Valley, and nothing about why he was starting to think that maybe he could make his forever right here. The constant calls from Ellen had been eating away at him, so he’d tried calling back this morning but had gotten her voicemail.
He’d have to rectify that, Josh knew. But for now, he just wanted to see her.
After crossing the street, he got to Beth’
s, opened the door — and froze as six sets of eyes flew around to watch him. Feeling like he’d walked into something, Josh hesitated before smiling a little self-consciously.
“Um… hey, ladies,” he said.
Was he in trouble? It felt like it.
The collar of his light blue shirt was open, but it still felt like it was strangling him under the weight of the eyes fixed on him. Rather than worry about it, he focused on the face he was here to see. Beth looked happy to see him, but a little uneasy, and he found himself wondering what the hell they’d been talking about before his entrance had stopped all conversation.
“Is this a bad time?” he finally asked.
“No!” Beth jumped up from the stool then winced as her foot hit the floor.
Josh frowned and rushed forward.
“I told you to stay off that foot,” he said in doctor-mode, walking around to the back of the counter without invitation, but when he met her eyes and saw the flash of heat in them, he knew she was remembering last night… and this morning… yesterday afternoon, too, he thought with a smug smile, and he felt a lot less like her doctor and a lot more like the man who’d enjoyed keeping her off it.
“I have been staying off it,” she insisted as he lifted her and sat her back down. He knew he was being a bit of a caveman, but hell, he’d take any opportunity to touch her.
“I was hoping to catch you when you weren’t busy,” he said quietly, painfully aware of the eyes boring into his back.
“Let me guess. You want your brownie?” She smiled.
“No, I want you,” he whispered for her ears only “But I’ll take the brownie since we have an audience.”
He loved making her blush, loved the hitch he heard in her breathing. Straightening up before he did what he wanted to, audience be damned, Josh turned to smile politely at his avid onlookers.
“Tara, how’s Teddy doing?” he asked, coming back around the counter and sitting at a safe distance from the gang of women.
“Oh, he’s doing ok. Thanks, Dr. Larson. I was just picking him up some cookies. And I’d better get back to him.”
Tara’s exit seemed to move the others into action. They moved toward the exit, Zoe and Jenna backing away toward the bookstore.
“Hey Beth, let us know how it goes with that hammer,” Brooke called breezily as she swept out into the afternoon sun.
Josh frowned in confusion and turned to see Beth glare at her friend.
“You doing some DIY?” he asked.
Apparently, he’d said something funny because she giggled as she reached out and grabbed a tray of brownies.
“If I’m lucky.” She laughed.
He knew he was missing something, but instinct told him he was better off not knowing.
“Bethy. Our saviour. Our only hope.”
Beth rolled her eyes at Seth’s dramatic greeting when she hobbled through the door of the main house later that day.
Josh had come back to pick her up when the bakery closed to drive her home.
It was only when they pulled up in front of the house, that she even thought of what she’d say to her brothers.
How she’d explain the fact that she was wearing his clothes, for example.
“What’s up, Seth?” she asked as she hobbled inside, Josh at her back.
“What’s up? We’re starving to death here,” he whined. “Oh, hey, Doc. You staying for dinner? You’re cooking, right, Beth? Because I don’t know how long the kitchen will survive any of us in it.”
“Er—“ Josh sounded hesitant.
“Stay if you want to,” Beth said quietly so Seth wouldn’t hear over his claims of starvation. “But don’t feel you have to. I know we’re not— I mean…”
Well, this was awkward.
“I know dinner with the family is a bit… intense after one date. Not that it was a date. I mean, I’m not saying we’re dating but…“ She trailed off uncomfortably.
Josh studied her intently for a moment before he turned to answer Seth. “I’d love to stay, thanks,” he said casually. “As long as it’s not you cooking.”
Beth rolled her eyes again to disguise how happy she felt that he was staying then hobbled her way to the kitchen.
Most of the big house was open-planned on the first floor, the kitchen to the right, where a wall of glass looked out over the ranch.
It wasn’t as impressive as the Beckford place, but it was still pretty spectacular, and Beth felt a burst of pride as Josh whistled as he looked around.
“Wow. This place is amazing,” he said, trailing after her.
“It was Pop’s pride and joy,” she said. “We’ve all kind of turned the upstairs into mini suites. Makes us feel better about still living at home in our twenties and thirties,” she added wryly.
“I prefer to think of us as roommates,” Seth called from the lounge where he’d put on some game that Beth had no interest in. “Doc, you wanna watch?”
“I’m going to help the patient,” Josh called back.
He pulled out one of the stools at the island that dominated the kitchen area.
“Help me?” she eyed him doubtfully. “After you cooked dinner yesterday? Thanks, but you sound about as helpful as my brothers.”
“Well, I was a little distracted.” His smile was pure sin as he whispered to make sure her brother didn’t hear. “I think I can control myself around three big brothers.”
His eyes dropped to her lips and darkened in a way that made her stomach twist with longing.
“I think,” he emphasised quietly.
Jeez, Beth thought, the man should come with a warning sign.
“Up you go.”
Just like earlier, she found herself lifted from her feet and placed on a stool as if she was made of china. She should probably find it chauvinistic, but it just made her sigh dreamily. He was staring at her, and she was completely trapped in the intensity in his eyes.
Gradually, the sound of throat clearing pierced the bubble surrounding them, and she looked over Josh’s shoulder to see Seth, the fridge door opened in his hand, watching them both with his eyes narrowed.
“Grayson know about this?” he asked.
“Not yet,” Josh answered, sounding completely unfazed by the question.
If he did end up explaining himself to Grayson, she hoped she would be in the room. Then maybe she’d find out what this was, too.
“And I take it you weren’t at Zoe’s last night?”
Seth had always been the joker of her brothers, the youngest of them, less inclined toward the overprotectiveness that afflicted Grayson and Zach.
But right now, it didn’t feel like it and even though Beth was a grown woman, she felt like a teenager with a disapproving father.
“Um, no?”
Why was she nervous? She could do what she liked!
Seth was quiet for another few minutes before he took out a couple of beers, handing one to Josh.
“I’m going to need a dessert too, Bethy. So I can process all of this.”
“Shut up, Seth,” she flung at his retreating back.
“One down, two to go, huh?” Josh winked. “You think I’ll get the whole ‘What are your intentions?’ talk?”
Beth smiled weakly at his joke while he handed her the beer and moved to get himself another. At least he had more manners than her stupid brother. But her insides fluttered at his jokey question. She wondered if he realised that she didn’t know his intentions.
She’d have to find out. Tonight.
“Put me to work, chef,” he said as he came back to her side.
He seemed so happy. So at ease. So different from how he’d been only days ago. A part of her was scared that asking him the questions she wanted to would give her answers she wouldn’t like.
Chapter Twenty
Dinner was going well, Josh thought as he sat listening to the good-natured bickering among the siblings. Grayson and Zach had been curious. He could see it in their eyes. But they hadn’t quizzed him, much
to Seth’s disappointment. Apart from a couple of raised brows and a somewhat ominous promise to chat properly at the next boys’ night, the Carroway boys seemed to accept his presence with ease.
In fact, the only one who seemed a little on edge was Beth. And he couldn’t help but wonder why. Was she not glad he’d stayed? She’d seemed to be happy enough, laughingly ordering him around the kitchen, instructing him how not to burn one of her frozen lasagnes.
He’d kept his hands to himself, not wanting to make things too obvious in front of her family.
She was chattering away with her usual bubbliness. But there was something on her mind, he knew. He watched her closely as she verbally sparred with her brothers.
It couldn’t have been easy for any of them losing both parents, but they were obviously a close and loving family.
His own mother would be horrified by the raucous chaos. His father would have been too busy to make a Monday night family meal.
He listened while Zach and Seth told horror stories about them trying to heat up Beth’s food while she was gone. And even though she laughed along, Josh couldn’t help but think about how much pressure there was on her shoulders between the ranch and her bakery. If he didn’t know her better, he’d question why she ran her own business when there was clearly more than enough for her to do here.
But Beth had an energy that he’d never seen in another person. He imagined the challenge of running the bakery would be an adventure for her. And seeing the dynamic around the table, hearing how much Grayson, in particular, Zach, and Seth did in the ranch, he could understand her wanting something that was hers and hers alone.
Something more than keeping house for her brothers.
He wondered if she ever felt unappreciated. It wasn’t that her brothers seemed ungrateful. And they clearly needed someone to cook for them if their horror stories were anything to go by. Plus, he’d been here long enough to know that ranchers just didn’t have the time to be popping back home three times a day to cook and clean. It wasn’t that sort of life. They worked hard, damn hard, from sun-up to sundown.
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