by J. M. Madden
“How far have we driven?”
“Just a few hours, but I needed to get out and stretch. And get gas. This Yukon is a gas-guzzler. There’s not a lot through here on this stretch of interstate.”
Nodding a little, he stirred the ice cubes in his water glass. “It is pretty desolate,” he agreed. “We should get into Denver in a few hours. When you reach the outer belt I’ll give you directions to my place.”
Cat didn’t say anything, just let him assume that was where they were going. She had other plans.
Their food came surprisingly quickly considering how busy the place was, and it was good hearty food. The cook in this little hardscrabble place had some talent.
Harper ate as if he hadn’t seen food for a week. Which he kind of hadn’t. It was hard to get excited about hospital fare. The burger he had ordered was gone in a few big bites, as well as the fries.
Cat was not surprised when he ordered an extra serving of mashed potatoes and gravy and a slice of apple pie, then ploughed through that food when it came. Even working with only one hand he obliterated the mountain. When he finally sat back against the booth seat, she had to laugh at the somnolent look in his eyes. “Are you ready to go?” she asked.
Harper nodded. They paid the tab and left. Cat walked to the little attached gas station part and bought some snacks and a drink for the road, then they piled back into the Yukon. “I’m wide awake,” she assured him. “Go ahead and sleep if you can. We may stop for the night somewhere along the way.”
“Okay. Thanks, Cat.” He ran his big hand down her shoulder. “This reminded me of our little road trips.”
She nodded, throat tight. “Me too. I miss them.”
He cleared his throat. “I do too.”
With that he reclined his chair and bundled his head in the blanket again. Cat didn’t know how he could breathe like that. Maybe breathing wasn’t as important as keeping it dark to protect his eyes.
They drove for another three hours, long straight stretches of nothing. Once the sun went down Harper sat up and looked around. He winced and rubbed at his eyes. “I thought once the sun set I would be able to look around but I can’t see much.”
A car approached from the opposite direction, still the better part of a mile away. Cat watched Harper’s reaction to the lights as they drew closer. When it got within a quarter mile he had to close his eyes and turn his head away.
“I wouldn’t expect too much of yourself right now. You just got out of the hospital and are recovering from serious wounds. Don’t stress about anything.”
Harper didn’t even glance at her, but he gave her a single nod. “I know that. It’s just hard being so debilitated.”
Cat could understand that. Harper Preston was the classic SEAL type—at the gym every day, eating fairly healthy, being the strongest man he could be, literally and figuratively. All of the other injuries he’d dealt with had been recoverable, no serious lasting effects. The loss of the vision in his eye would take him a while to deal with.
He stayed awake with her for the last part of the trip and when they pulled into Cańon City, he looked around in curiosity. Cat brought up the address of the house she’d rented on the GPS on her phone and followed the directions. The last of the twilight was dwindling away as they pulled up the drive twenty minutes later. It was just at the edge of the Temple Canyon Park and nestled on the slope of a mountain. The outdoor light was on but she couldn’t see much of the house itself.
“What are we doing here? I thought we were going to stop at a hotel or something.”
Cat shrugged and glanced at him, her heart pounding. “Not exactly. I rented this house for us for a while.”
Harper scowled as he slid out of the SUV and circled the hood to meet her. “What do you mean you rented it ‘for a while’? How long is a while?”
Cat slammed her door shut and moved to the passenger door where she’d stored her suitcase and his shopping bags. “Just what I said. A while. However long you give me. You can’t go back to work yet anyway. I talked to Duncan and he says you need to take a couple weeks off at least. So I rented it for a couple weeks.”
Dragging her suitcase across the paved drive she went to the lockbox visible at the side of the door and punched in a code. It popped open immediately and a gold key dropped into her hand. Cat let them inside the house but tried to follow only the illumination of nightlights positioned low along the hallways. When they reached the kitchen she moved to the glass-top stove, hoping there would be a light in the hood. It probably wouldn’t be too sharp for Harper’s eyes.
She tapped the button and the kitchen brightened.
The space was beautiful that she could see. Dark granite counter tops, pretty cherry cupboards, a side-by-side refrigerator. She opened the door. Awesome! The realtor had taken care of the essentials like she’d asked. Anything other than that she could drive into town for later.
Cat could feel Harper glaring at her from the kitchen doorway.
“Why didn’t you tell me we weren’t going back to Denver?”
Cat chuckled. “Well, you didn’t really need to know. There’s nothing you need to do here. No job, no responsibilities. I want you to recover. But I also want you to think about us, and the place we play in your life. You don’t need to decide anything tonight, though. I’m going to find a bedroom and crash because I’m about to drop. Do your security check, because I know you won’t rest being in a new environment without it. But do it quickly.”
Crossing the kitchen, she leaned up to press a kiss to his stubborn, clamped jaw and disappeared down the hallway.
It took everything he had in him to stand for her kiss and not grab her arms and shake her senseless. What the fuck was she thinking, bringing them out here in the middle of nowhere? He’d seen houses on the drive from Canón City, but not very many. The only thing that stopped him from yelling at her was the tiredness even he could see with his damn single eye in the slump of her shoulders and the droop of her mouth. She’d driven for seven hours today. He had slept most of that time and hadn’t helped at all.
Harper looked around the space, then crossed to the patio doors he could see on the back wall. Finding the faceplate with his hand, he squinted his eyes in preparation of pain and flicked a switch. The light behind him came on, illuminating a heavy cherry wood dining set. He flicked the switch off then the one next to it up. Light illuminated a cement patio with a large swimming pool, then a rocky back yard beyond. Checking that the door was locked, he left the light on and moved to the next room.
Living room with more heavy wooden furniture, pale walls, a nice flat screen mounted on the wall beside a huge stone fireplace. Another set of patio doors leading to the pool area. He made sure they were locked then moved on. A bathroom was next, which he used before continuing. One bedroom, two, then a third. When he opened the door of the third Cat looked up in surprise, having just ripped her t-shirt over her head.
Harper stared at the swell of her breasts in the pink satin bra, his mouth suddenly watering. Fuck, it had been a long time. He didn’t have a lot to be thankful for but in that moment he was extremely thankful he had the vision of at least one eye to see the beauty before him.
Cat lifted a dark brow in question. “My room is secure, Harper.”
His cheeks heated. “Yeah, sorry.”
Backing out of the room he pulled the door shut behind him, but he could still see her standing there, curves lit by a soft bedside lamp. It was several long seconds before he forced himself to release the doorknob.
The rest of the house seemed secure so he went to one of the first bedrooms and stripped down. And though he had the hard-on from hell and had slept most of the way to Colorado, as soon as his head hit the pillow he drifted away.
Cat woke surprisingly early. She figured she’d have slept in, but excitement to meet the day urged her out of bed. Hurrying through a nice, hot shower she combed her short hair and dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. Padding to the kitchen in her
bare feet, she found the coffee maker. Damn. The sucker already had water in the reservoir and coffee in the filter. She bumped the brew switch and started going through the house.
The realtor had outdone herself. The house was beautiful. And completely stocked. There were towels in the cupboards, trash bags, cleaning supplies, everything she needed for a stay. There were even spare toiletries in the bathroom if they needed them. The refrigerator had several types of meat and various accompaniments. It had been expensive to rent the house this way, but she prayed that it would do the job she wanted it to do.
The downstairs had a finished basement too. Might be a good, dim place for Harper to hang out. She could check it out later.
Cat paused in front of the great room windows and gazed out at the view. Short scrub filled the land between a few swaying pine trees and the expanse of untouched land was simply stunning. There were rocky, snow-capped peaks to the west and long, sweeping hills to the right. Simply magnificent.
The coffee pot gurgled as it finished brewing and she walked back into the kitchen to pour a cup. When Harper roused she would take him a cup. Perhaps.
Cat spent a lazy day on the computer catching up with emails and work while Harper slept. Late in the afternoon he got up and got himself a drink from the refrigerator. Cat watched him gulp the better part of a quart of water, then sit at the kitchen table. The dark glasses were there and he slipped them on to turn and watch the sun go down beyond the mountains.
Cat looked down at her Kindle. It had gone dark because she’d been staring at her husband. Though he’d only been out of the hospital two days she could already tell he was regaining his strength. Even as she watched he pushed to his feet and began to circle the room. Picking up and putting down knick-knacks along the way, he made his way over to her chair. Once he was beside her he rested one of his massive hands on her shoulders, squeezed and moved away. Cat heard him explore the entire house but he didn’t go down to the finished basement. Good. She didn’t want to try to pick his big butt up off the floor.
Not long after that he headed back to bed.
The ridiculous part was he slept most of the next day through as well. Cat kept him fed and when she handed him pills, his antibiotics he assumed, he popped them without a care. It wasn’t until evening that he realized that she’d been giving him a light sedative. When he confronted her about it she’d laughed. “On the doctor’s orders. I promise. He said that after the drive you needed to relax as much as humanly possible.”
Harper had tried to glower at her but it hurt his face. “No more sleeping pills,” he ordered. Cat gave him a narrow eyed look but didn’t say anything.
Unfortunately, when he wasn’t sleeping there wasn’t much he could do. The flash of the TV gave him an instant headache, worse than what he’d already had. Cat found a newspaper on the front drive, but he couldn’t make his good eye track smoothly enough to read. It had been all he could do to even look at the menu the other night. He tossed the paper to the table in disgust and retreated to his room. The only thing he could do was listen to the music he streamed on his phone.
So he laid down on the bed and covered his head to block out the light and listened to music.
And fell asleep.
Cat woke him for dinner. When he shuffled out, grungy and out of sorts without the arm brace on, she gave him a dirty look but didn’t say anything. She offered to cut up his oven-baked chicken, but he waved her away. “I can do it, damn it.”
Hands up in entreaty, she left him alone to struggle through the meal.
“That was very good, Cat. Thank you.”
He stood up from the chair and left the table, knowing he left a ridiculous, mutilated mess on the plate and table.
Being down was royally pissing him off. He went to bed, determined to have a better day tomorrow.
Cat shuffled to the coffee maker and pressed the power button, then leaned against the counter to eat a banana. When the coffee was ready she pulled down a ceramic mug from the cupboard and poured a cup. Crossing to the patio doors, she was about to open one when she spotted Harper sitting in one of the lounge chairs under the porch. Retrieving a second mug of coffee she let herself out of the house and crossed to the chair beside him.
The heavy black glasses were on but he turned his head to watch her with his good eye as she set the mug down beside him.
“Thank you, babe.”
A shudder rolled through her at the rumbly, sleep-roughened tone of his voice. He’d greeted her just like that many, many mornings over the years. Sometimes he hadn’t said a word, just slipped into bed and loved her awake.
It had been everything she could do not to strip off her bra and invite him into bed with her that first night. Her body craved him. But her heart craved him more. It wasn’t time for them to take that step yet.
“Did you sleep okay?”
She nodded. “I did. I love seeing the sun coming up out here. The area is beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
She fidgeted with the cup, wishing he’d let her in on what he was thinking. It was a wish she’d made many times over the years. Harper was not a talkative man on a good day, let alone a sleepy morning.
Cat rested her head on the back of the chair and gazed out at the brightening vista. This area of the state was so secluded. Definitely one of the most solitary areas they’d been through. The thought of having no responsibilities other than taking care of Harper and herself for two weeks was quite liberating. She’d had her mother come up from North Carolina to stay with the kids and dog, so she had no worries there. Although the creeping need to cuddle her little man was growing. It was hard just talking to them on the phone.
“Did you sleep okay last night?” she asked him.
“I did, surprisingly. Even though I slept most of the past two days.”
“Well, your body is recovering. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you need rest, take it.”
He sighed deeply and Cat was actually glad to hear it. The bullet that had struck his chest had deflated his left lung, but his respirations were steadily coming back. For days she’d listened to every sound he made in the hospital room.
In her purse she also had a stack of paperwork from the rehab department on things to do to get back to normal. Harper had been through it all before, but it was still nice to have the documentation. This was the first eye injury he’d ever had.
“I don’t know if I can stay here for two weeks.”
Cat flinched internally at the flat words. “Why not?”
Out of her peripheral vision she could see his hands tighten on the chair arms, the only outward sign he was uncomfortable. She forced herself to stay relaxed.
“Because I need to get back to work. I can’t leave LNF short-handed.”
“They’re not. Duncan said he’d had to hire three people to take your place, but the new guys are already working. Your position is secure, however. I checked with Wilde before I arranged all this.”
The information didn’t seem to relax him at all. The wood creaked beneath his massive clenching hands.
“Why are you stressing?” she asked calmly.
“I don’t know if I can stay here with you that long.”
Searing pain shattered her heart at his cold words, but she forced herself to breathe. Icy determination pushed away the pain. “Well, you’re going to have to, because this is the last time I’m doing this. This time here at the house is also meant to be for us to decide where this marriage is going, because right now it’s circling the drain. I can’t hang in this limbo anymore and it’s not fair to the kids to expect them to either. So before you bolt out of here just be aware that this is the last time I am going to fight for our marriage.”
Unable to stay still any longer, she pushed up out of the chair. “I’m going to go soak in the tub. Or something.”
She went through the patio doors, fuming at the ridiculous situation they were in.
Chapter Five
Harp
er gasped in a breath, unable to believe she’d left him gutted that way.
What the fuck?
She’d completely misunderstood him, yet again, because he couldn’t make his mouth connect to his brain. This was the most verbal interaction he’d had with anyone in weeks—hell, months maybe.
Choking down a swallow, he searched for the calm center in his being, but she’d just walked out the door. Cat had always been his calm. Even when he wasn’t with her just thinking about her slow smile and steady disposition leveled him out. Harper looked down at his hands, unsurprised to see them quake. The thought of not having Cat in his life or even connected to it devastated him.
Resolution filled him. He couldn’t let her think he didn’t want to be with her.
Shoving up out of the chair he stalked into the house, barely even noticing the twinge in his chest. Cat stood leaning back at the kitchen sink, arms braced on the counter, her head down.
She looked up when he entered and frowned, crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive motion he hadn’t seen for a long time.
“You misunderstood me out there,” he growled, stalking toward her. “I don’t know if I can stay in the same house with you for two weeks and not touch you. And I don’t know if touching you would be the wisest decision right now.”
She huffed and lifted a sleek black brow at him. “Since when are you the wise one?”
Harper stopped a foot away from her, looking down into her liquid gaze. Had she been about to cry? Her eyes seemed moist. Unable to help himself he reached up to stroke a thumb across her cheekbone. “I’m not the wise one,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to screw anything up worse than it is.”
She gave him a sardonic look. “Things can’t get much worse, Harper. And I’m serious about resolving this. Do you know how many excuses I’ve had to make just to the kids about you? I know you think you’re protecting us all, but you’re not. We are a family, whether you want to admit it or not.”
