"New Year's Eve, the bridal shower, now a wedding reception," she said, her Southern accent stretching every syllable. "I'm beginning to feel quite the regular here."
Josh couldn't stop himself from reaching out to lightly stroke her long fall of dark hair. She didn't flinch, and he savored the moment, just as he'd been savoring each one since they'd made love a few nights before. Though they hadn't shared a bed since – once again he was waiting for her to initiate the event – each day she relaxed around him more. For himself, he'd been able to relax some as well. One night of passion didn't have to mean an irrevocable change to his life.
"Whitehorn doesn't take long to make you one of its own," he said.
Shaking her head, Lori paused and put her hand on his forearm. "No, Josh. It's thanks to you. I know that. You're the one who introduced me to your friends. You're the one who invited me as your date to the wedding today."
"You would have received your own invitation, except Darcy and Mark know we're a couple."
A teasing smile played over her mouth. "Is that what we are, then? A couple?"
Josh swallowed, treading carefully now. There was a whole laundry list of things they hadn't talked about. How lovemaking had changed their relationship. What they were to each other now. Where they went from here. What to do about the potential threat of her ex-husband.
Every time he thought of that damn threat, despite his vow to take this slow, a primitive need drove Josh to want to bind Lori to him, to claim her as his own. Taking a breath, he clamped down on the impulse for the hundredth time.
"Close enough to a couple," he made himself respond lightly.
They had just attended Darcy and Mark's wedding, and now they were headed to the reception. It was a time for celebration, and he didn't want anything – including serious conversation – to mar the occasion. Lori seemed to read his mind. She smiled again, a carefree smile that lightened the day like a burst of sunshine, and he touched her cheek and then the small of her back as he urged her toward the door.
Her peachy scent drifted up to him as he held it open, and he sniffed with appreciation before taking the first step to follow her in. "Mmm. Did I tell you that you smell de—"
"Hold the door, Josh!" an exuberant voice sang out behind him.
Lori kept walking as Josh paused and looked over his shoulder. Another Whitehorn resident, Connie Adams, was hurrying toward him, the sides of her open coat flapping in her haste. He gave the forty-something woman a polite smile. "Good afternoon," he said.
"I'm looking for Wyatt," Connie answered. "Have you seen him?"
"No—" Josh started.
"You must have. I'm sure it was Melissa who just walked inside."
Josh frowned, looking into the restaurant. "Melissa?" As he said the name, Lori apparently noticed he wasn't right behind her and she turned, backtracking toward him. "Ah. Not Melissa. That was Lori. Is Lori." As she reached him, her head tilted in mild inquiry, he made the introductions.
Connie's eyes narrowed, and she raked her fingernails through her ash-blond hair. "You look like Melissa," she said, her tone almost accusing.
Lori blinked. "Well, um…"
Connie swept past them, no longer interested. "I have to find Wyatt," she said.
As the other woman moved away, Josh met Lori's gaze, then shrugged. "I think she's been spending a little too much time with our town eccentric, Homer Gilmore. Connie's a nurse and has been taking care of him."
"Ah." Lori nodded. "I think I saw her wandering around downtown the other day with an elderly man. Does Homer have long gray hair? Wears a bathrobe and slippers?"
"That's him." The distinctive sound of a cork being released reached his ears and he laced his fingers with Lori's. "Come on. That champagne is calling my name."
"Your name is Pop? And here I've been calling you Josh all along." She grinned.
"Aren't you the jokester?" Then he smiled, pleased at her cheery mood. He slanted her a glance, then slowed his footsteps. "You know, Connie's right. You do look like Melissa."
"Must be more of Whitehorn rubbing off on me," Lori said.
Before he could answer, they ran into the end of the line of guests waiting to sign the guestbook. After their turn with the feather-topped pen, they were directed to find their places at one of the round tables in the room. Bless Darcy's heart, because their place-cards were at the table where the Norths were seated, as well as Mark's sister Maddie and other good friends of Josh's that Lori had met on New Year's Eve or at the bridal shower.
If he couldn't wrap her in his protection, he could at least wrap her up in Whitehorn friendship.
Just as they seated themselves, Wyatt slipped into the empty chair beside Melissa's, handing her the glass of cola he'd apparently retrieved for her at the bar on one side of the room. "You were supposed to rescue me," he muttered.
"What?" Melissa's eyes rounded in innocence.
"You know what I mean," Wyatt grumbled.
Josh reached over Lori's head to grab a couple of glasses of champagne from a passing waiter. "What's going on, you two?" he asked, handing one glass to Lori.
"There's a tenet of marriage that my wife appears to have conveniently forgotten," Wyatt said.
"What tenet is that?" Maddie asked. "Not that I have plans on getting married anytime soon, but I like to be prepared."
Josh leaned toward Lori. "Maddie is a champion barrel racer. She travels all over the country competing in rodeos. I can't imagine her settling down in one place, let alone settling for one man."
Maddie wrinkled her nose at him. "You be quiet, Josh Anderson. My brother got married today and there isn't anything he can do that I can't do too." She turned her attention back to Wyatt. "So what is it that Melissa forgot?"
"It's one of the unspoken vows between husband and wife," Wyatt said. "'Thou shalt rescue thy spouse from awkward situations.'"
Melissa sipped her champagne and smiled serenely. "Wyatt, my love, I rescued you from an awkward bachelorhood by marrying you. What more do you want?"
Everyone at the table laughed, Wyatt too, though he shook a teasing finger at his wife. "What you were supposed to do is rescue me from Connie Adams," he said. "She cornered me while I was standing in line at the bar."
Melissa waved her hand. "I freely admit it. I escaped, leaving you with her because I wasn't in the mood to hear more complaints about the Hip Hop's food."
"She doesn't like the food?" Josh asked. "I've seen her eat there dozens of times."
"No, no," Melissa replied. "She likes the food all right. It's Homer who says we've been trying to poison him. For some reason Connie feels compelled to pass on every one of Homer's nutty grapes."
Maddie frowned. "Does Mark know this? Isn't he in charge of the Hip Hop's arson investigation? Maybe Homer—"
"It wasn't about the Hip Hop," Wyatt said. "Connie wanted me to promise to dance with her once the music starts."
"Oh." Melissa threw Wyatt a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry. That was awkward for you. What did you say?"
"That I save all my dances for you," he answered, wearing a patently adoring expression.
"Aaaaah," the other occupants of the table cried as one, then burst into laughter.
Melissa tilted her nose in the air. "Go ahead and laugh all of you without romantic bones in your bodies, but I do adore this man. It's not every husband who would save all his dances and thus all the broken toes just for me."
As the people around the table laughed again, Josh watched Melissa soften her teasing by leaning toward Wyatt and giving him a long, warm kiss on the mouth. Wyatt lifted his hand and touched his wife's face, as if he still couldn't believe that her beauty and her love belonged to him.
Josh glanced at Lori. Her gaze was on the married couple too, a faint smile curving her lips. His heart slammed against his chest.
What Melissa and Wyatt had, he wanted too.
That same laughter, that same ease and confidence in the relationship. The partnership of marriage that
he'd never achieved with Kay, either because they were too young or because she'd never let him get that close.
He noticed that Lori was looking at him now, her expression slightly puzzled. "Are you okay?" she asked.
A sudden chill edged down his spine and he shook it off. "I'm fine. Fine." He lifted his champagne glass and touched it to hers. "To…"
He couldn't think what kind of toast to make.
Her eyebrows rose.
"To today," Josh said firmly, because that was all he was going to ask for at the moment.
It seemed like enough. As the band started to play and the lids were lifted on the chafing dishes at the buffet table, Josh thought he could live forever on good music, good food, the company of good friends. With Lori by his side. Her soft Southern voice, her soft peachy scent, the promise that he would be able to sink into her soft body sometime soon.
As the afternoon wore on, Josh's good mood only escalated. He leaned back in his chair, not joining in the conversation, but instead watching Lori, her face animated and trusting. Her shyness was almost completely gone now, and he half listened as she plied Maddie Kincaid with questions about her life on the rodeo circuit.
This was the real Lori, he thought. The one who approached life with smiles and self-confident assurance. He promised himself to nurture this Lori, not, to push her too hard or hold her too tightly. With more time in the security of Whitehorn, she'd come to him of her own accord, she'd embrace them as a couple instead of teasing about it.
He could wait for that.
He would wait for that.
A collective gasp went up around the table and he straightened, tuning back into the conversation. Maddie was cataloging the injuries she'd suffered over the years as a barrel racer. Melissa shook her head. "I don't see how you can be so stoic about that, Maddie. I don't like to break a fingernail, let alone bruise my ribs."
Maddie grinned. "That's because you're such a girly-girl, Melissa. My brother Mark and my Aunt June raised me to be tough…"
At that, war stories about scrapes, bruises and broken bones were swapped around the table. Wyatt regaled them with details of a fractured ankle, Lori had once broken her arm and collarbone. Melissa, of course, complained of a particularly disastrous manicure mishap. The talk continued and Josh lazed farther back in his chair, grinning to himself. All's right with the world, he thought, lifting his champagne glass. His mind drifted again.
"…they wired it shut."
Josh caught the tail end of Lori's words and saw Melissa shudder with a sympathetic wince. His fingers tightened on the stem of his glass. "What?"
Even Maddie looked a little green. "Lori was telling us what the doctors did when she broke her jaw," she murmured.
When she broke her jaw. When she broke her collarbone. When she broke her arm. He'd dismissed the latter two as childhood injuries, but now he guessed he'd been wrong.
Her ex-husband had done those things to her.
Josh stilled, something inside his chest going as hard and cold as Montana earth in winter. Then that frozen place cracked open, and heat spilled out, liquid and burning to fill his body. His soul. He jumped to his feet, his chair falling backward, hitting the parquet floor with a crash.
"Josh?" Lori's eyes rounded. The rest of the table looked at him as if he were crazy too.
"We have to go," he said.
Lori blinked. "What?"
He didn't have an explanation, at least one he could make in front of the entire table. Hell, he didn't have one he felt comfortable telling her.
"Are you sick?" Melissa asked, starting to rise.
Josh laughed, the sound harsh. "No, no." He waved Melissa back down. "I…I…" He reached out to Lori.
"Of course," she said, coming to her feet. She put her warm hand in his. "If you want to go, we'll go."
She was puzzled of course, but willing. He saw her exchange a concerned look with Melissa. He wanted to kick himself. There was no reason to leave. No reason other than he couldn't stand the idea of someone hurting her.
The idea – the idea of those broken bones – rose like bile in his throat. He closed his eyes, trying to find his breath. "Lori," he said hoarsely.
She squeezed his hand. "We'll go, Josh. Maybe you'll feel better outside."
He opened his eyes. "No, no. I'm better now." It was a hell of a lie, but he couldn't take her away. He shouldn't. She was having fun and he was going to have to live with … whatever this was that was going on inside him.
Rage at what had happened to her. Fear that something might happen to her again. And…
Love.
God help him, there was no use pretending it wasn't true any longer. He was in love with her.
She was staring at him with those eyes of hers, honest and blue. It was all he could do not to haul her up against him and whisper – hell, shout! – what she meant to him. What she'd done to him.
Josh Anderson, who had thought he'd had his one chance at love, had fallen once more. Fallen harder, fallen deeper than he'd ever thought possible.
Josh Anderson – who'd thought he was smarter than that – had fallen in love with a woman who could break his heart once and for all. Forever.
"Dance with me," he said hoarsely.
She hesitated. He remembered New Year's Eve, when she'd been leery of being in his arms. But he had to touch her, hold her. After another moment, she nodded.
He led her to the dance floor, hoping like hell he could keep the truth his secret.
* * *
Lori moved into Josh's arms, letting him pull her close. Still concerned, she looked up. "Are you sure you're all right?"
His face was tense and unsmiling, not a Josh kind of expression at all. "I'm fine," he answered. "And you … is it okay if I hold you like this?"
His arms enclosed her, but Lori was so worried about him that she hadn't even noticed. She nodded, realizing it was okay. Very okay. With a sigh, she rested her head against his wide chest and let herself savor the sensation of being held.
His shoulders rose and fell slowly, as if he were inhaling his first full breath in a long while. He lowered his head and leaned his cheek against hers. "Lori?"
"Hmm?"
"This is good, isn't it?"
Lori closed her eyes. "Oh, it's very good."
"We're good."
"Yes." Lori couldn't deny it. Didn't want to. Josh – his touch, his humor, his patience – was mending her. Healing her. Making her feel normal again. When they'd made love the other night, it had been a balm to her soul. They hadn't made love since, and she appreciated Josh's patience even more, but they would make love again. She wanted to. She wanted him.
"You're enjoying yourself today?" he asked.
"You know I am. I hoped it could be … like this." She lifted her head to look into his dark eyes. "I wanted to find a place in the community. I wanted to find … friends." She'd wanted to find her sister, and that had turned out even better than she thought because Melissa was turning into a friend, too. "I just never expected it to happen so quickly."
He nodded. "Very, very quickly."
She frowned for a moment, not sure if he was talking about the same thing that she was. "It's really happened, though, right? I'm not just imagining it?"
He shook his head. "It's true. All of it. You've made a place for yourself, Lori." He hesitated. "In my heart, too."
She smiled at him, delighted with the sentiment. "You are the sweetest man," she said.
He sighed, his smile rueful. "There you go again. Cute. Nice. Sweet."
"I keep telling you those are the best kind of compliments," she said lightly. "I've had my share of dangerous you know, Josh."
His expression shifted, his half-smile turning strained. "Yes. Well." He lifted his hand and put it on the back of her head, tucking her cheek against his chest once more. "Tell me what you hoped for when you came to Whitehorn."
His heart was beating steadily against her ear. "I told you. A place. Friends."
&n
bsp; "What about family?"
She froze for a minute, but then Josh continued. "Did you see yourself raising kids here?" he asked.
Lori closed her eyes. "I'm not sure I ever got that far," she said. But the idea rose in her mind now. Marriage, children, a small town and wide-open spaces. They would grow up western kids, with horses. Unless they were like Josh, of course, and didn't like riding the big beasts.
Like Josh? Lori hastily pulled herself up short. Where had that come from? Had she really made the instant leap from kids to Josh's kids?
A little boy with Josh's shaggy hair and patient grin. A little girl with long pigtails and his dark, intense eyes.
She banished their images, impatient with herself. What gave her the right to imagine his – their – children? It was enough to he here, today, in the company of her half sister and in Josh's arms.
Except…
She swallowed, then lifted her head to meet Josh's gaze. "It could all happen, couldn't it?" she found herself saying.
He didn't ask her what "all" was. Instead, he smiled at her, melting her fears, her knees, her heart. "Yeah," he said, his voice soft but sure. "You could have it all, honey. We could."
We could. Lori's heart seemed to leap, then twirl. There was every reason to dance, she thought dizzily. The possibilities were endless, the potential for happiness not around the corner, but right here. Right now.
She smiled at Josh. He smiled back. His mouth opened. "Lori, I—"
"A doctor! We need a doctor!" The anxious shout had them turning.
Wyatt was standing beside their table, Melissa in his arms. Her face was white and she didn't look as if she was breathing. "For God's sake," Wyatt shouted again, his voice full of fear. "Call an ambulance!"
* * *
On Sunday, the day after the wedding, Lori's hands were shaking as she pushed open the door to Melissa's room at the Whitehorn Memorial Hospital. Under the white hospital blanket, Melissa lay still and quiet, but Wyatt looked up from his chair beside the bed, his face lined with exhaustion.
Lori swallowed, then spoke, keeping her voice low. "Hi, Wyatt. The nurse said it was okay to visit."
He gestured her in, though his gaze turned immediately to his wife. "I think she's sleeping."
IN LOVE WITH HER BOSS Page 12
