The Cowboy's Surprise Bride

by Macie St James

  “It’s cold.” The words flew out of her mouth, more as a personal observation than information she wanted to share with the man who was now holding her up. Suddenly, she was shivering, and she didn’t like the feeling. It was making her stomach hurt.

  He leaned toward her. “Let’s get you inside. Can you stand? Wait, never mind. I’ll carry you.”

  He was already sliding his other arm under her knees. Something made her stop him. The idea of this man-not-bear carrying her to his home-not-den filled her with anxiety.

  Tinsley shooed him away. “Let me try to stand.”

  She lifted her leg and set her right foot down, then tried to push herself up. The instant her foot pressed into the ground, though, a pain shot through her body. She gasped and clenched her teeth against the pain.

  “Okay, we really need to get you to a hospital,” he said, standing.

  “No!” She was yelling too much, and she didn’t like it, but this was some of the worst pain she’d ever felt.

  “Can I carry you inside, at least? Then we can decide what to do next.”

  She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. The tears were actually a surprise. She was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion and the only thing she could connect it to was the trauma of what had just happened.

  He knelt, scooped her up, and turned, gracefully striding toward the house. It seemed completely effortless for him, despite her added weight. He didn’t even seem to struggle to climb the stairs while carrying her.

  She had reflexively draped one arm behind his neck and realized she was gripping his shoulder in an effort to hold on, despite the fact that even if she let go, he had a solid grip on her. That meant she was just clutching him…and enjoying it.

  She had to help him open the door that led from the deck to the living room. It was a big sliding glass door, too, and not so easy to pull from an awkward angle. It was only complicating matters that he jostled to get her in a better position, which meant their bodies were coming into contact far more than was usual for two people who technically hadn’t even met.

  Finally, she got the door open and he carried her across the threshold, depositing her gently on an oversized black leather sofa. He then left her there, rushing off into another room, hopefully not to call for an ambulance.

  He returned, a pillow in each hand. “Some pillows. One for your head and one for your foot.”

  She watched as he approached her foot, staring down at it for a moment. Was he trying to figure out a way to get the pillow underneath without causing pain? She’d pretty much convinced herself of that when he looked over at her.

  “We’re going to have to get you to a doctor,” he said. “Now.”

  “I really don’t want—”

  Her words stopped abruptly when she got a look at what he was talking about. She’d lifted her foot to make it easy for him to slip the pillow beneath it, but the right side of her ankle, where that little bony knob stuck out, was swollen. The knob was a huge lump.

  “Uh.” She had no idea what that one syllable was supposed to mean. It just seemed like the best word to capture what she was feeling. Sure, she could sit here and watch her ankle turn into a gigantic balloon, or she could do as this man with the captivating eyes was suggesting and get some medical help.

  “Can you drive me?” She hated to ask that, but she couldn’t risk the ambulance thing, and she certainly couldn’t drive herself. Not in this condition. But as he was preparing to lift her, she remembered something.

  “My camera!”

  Tinsley winced. That had come out much louder than she’d intended. But the realization that her camera was out there, possibly being destroyed by the snow, sent her into a panic.

  “What?” He was looking around, confused.

  She remembered then that he’d had no idea why she was even in his back yard in the first place. She wasn’t sure now was the time to break that news to him. Maybe she should take care of getting to a medical professional first, then alert him to the fact that she’d been trespassing on his property.

  “My camera. I dropped it in the snow somewhere, probably around where I fell. Could you get it for me?”

  She gave him her beggy eyes and just hoped it worked. She’d learned the art of getting what she wanted out of people through using her charm, but this guy intimidated her. She didn’t think she’d ever met anyone who made her quite this nervous, and she couldn’t explain why.

  “Sure. Wait right here.”

  She let out a dry laugh. “No problem.”

  He disappeared through the sliding glass door, leaving her suddenly all too aware of being alone in a stranger’s house. That was when it hit her, exactly what was happening here. There was something very definitely wrong with her ankle, and she doubted it was something she’d walk away from today. That was a problem.

  Tinsley lived alone. She’d moved to a small house close to where she’d gone to college to build her wedding planner business. Normally, that was no big deal, but if she couldn’t walk for a few days, living alone would become challenging.

  She was so caught up in that panic, she forgot about her camera anxiety until the sliding door opened and he entered, camera in hand. Despite all that was going on, Tinsley breathed a sigh of relief that at least her camera was safe.

  “Does it still work?” she asked.

  Closing the door behind him, he looked down at it. “Looks like it.”

  Shrugging, he crossed the room and held it out to her. Tinsley looked down and was relieved to see the last image she’d captured on the screen. She held up the camera, snapped a few pictures, then shut it off and clutched it to her chest.

  “Are you taking that with you?” he asked.

  “I don’t know if I’m coming back here. You’re taking me to the hospital, right?”

  “I’ll make sure your camera gets to you.” He reached out and she handed the camera to him. “Hopefully, you can pick it up when you come back for your car. You do have a car here, I assume?”

  She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t stop everything to ask what she was doing here in the first place. Right now, figuring out what damage had been done was top priority. He seemed to realize that, too. After a brief pause, the conflicted expression on his face turned to a determined one.

  First, he rushed over to the front door and opened it, grabbing his coat and keys before crossing back to her to lift her up. She found herself actually looking forward to him carrying her, which was odd, considering the sharp pain in her ankle was getting worse.

  Focusing on how nice it felt to be in his arms helped take her mind off her pain, she told herself. She tried to concentrate on the warmth of his body as it enveloped her. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him. He smelled clean, like soap, and she wondered if it was him or the detergent used to clean the coat he was wearing.

  “Can you get the door?” he asked as they approached the big black truck she’d parked next to that morning when she arrived.

  She lifted the passenger door handle and the door popped right open. “You don’t lock your doors?”

  “It’s usually pretty safe here. Most people up to no good aren’t going to drive all the way back here to get to my house.”

  Most people. She hadn’t missed those two words and the implication behind them. Yes, it had been a drive to get back here, and she had known exactly where she was going from the start.

  “Thank you,” she said as he gently set her down on the passenger seat and shut her door.

  He took such care, it almost brought tears to her eyes. When was the last time anyone had done anything like this for her? She never let anyone take care of her like this, and she wasn’t sure why. It actually felt good to have her fate in someone else’s hands for a change.

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