by Darcy Daniel
She looked right at Anthea and gave her a little wave. “Hi, sweetie. You must be Andy.”
Anthea made her way down the rest of the steps and gave a grunt of agreement.
“I’m Gail, the local Avon lady. I’ve got Cole’s sunscreen here.”
Gail held out a tube of sunscreen, and as Anthea reached for it, Gail grabbed her hand and studied it.
“Oh,” she cooed. “I love a man with soft hands. Here, you should try some of this.”
Mortified, Anthea tried to pull her hand back, but Gail’s grip remained firm as she squirted on some sunscreen, placed the tube between her breasts and rubbed the lotion into Anthea’s hand in a far too familiar way. Anthea squirmed. Getting a sensual massage from a woman she’d never met—any woman for that matter—hadn’t been on her list of possible things that might go wrong while disguised.
Much to her relief, Cole walked over from the field. Gail instantly released her hand.
“Oh, Cole,” she crooned, “It’s Gail. I’ve got that sunscreen for you. Can I trouble you for a glass of water?”
Was Gail flirting him?
“Of course you can,” Cole said as he offered her an elbow. She eagerly weaved her arm through his, and as they walked past, Gail gave Anthea a knowing smile and moved closer to Cole.
Okay, so she wasn’t imagining things. The woman wasn’t just flirting with him; she was blatant about it too. Anthea watched them disappear inside, surprised to find a tight knot twisting in her stomach. She didn’t like the idea of him alone in the house with that woman. Not one little bit.
By the time she hurried in after them, Cole was handing Gail a glass of water. Anthea watched Gail take a tiny sip before releasing an exaggerated sigh of pleasure. A sigh that sounded suspiciously sexual.
“Oh, my!” Gail suddenly gasped. In a flash, she homed in on the Manolos, seized one and admired it much the same way she’d been eyeing Cole.
Anthea’s eyes widened in fear as Gail caressed the soft leather.
“I love these shoes! Where on earth did you get them?”
Anthea stared at Cole with dread. Was her cover about to be blown? What other reason could he possibly give for having stilettos in his home?
“Guess someone must’ve dropped them off for the op-shop,” Cole said.
Good answer, she thought as she released a long breath, letting her tense muscles relax.
“But I can’t see any harm in you taking them,” he finished.
Gail’s squeal of excitement pierced Anthea’s ears as the woman grabbed the other shoe.
Horrified, Anthea’s mouth dropped open, and she clenched her fists at her sides.
With the shoes dangling by their straps from her fingers, Gail sidled up to Cole and seductively rubbed his arm. “Thank you, honey. Well, I’d better be on my way. Bye-bye.”
Anthea watched Gail sail out the door with a huge grin on her face. As soon as the woman disappeared, she marched over to Cole and jabbed a finger at his chest.
“You just gave away an eight hundred dollar pair of shoes!”
Cole shrugged. “Think of it as research. No farmer’s wife’d spend money like that on shoes, let alone have any use for them.”
Unable to believe what he said, she stormed off.
After returning to the field, she dug at the earth like a crazy woman. How dare he give away her things? She shoved a sapling in the hole and covered its roots. When she saw movement from the corner of her eye, she looked over to see Cole sauntering calmly toward her. The nerve.
Having just planted the last sapling in the second last row, she turned away from Cole, grasped the shovel and moved on to the last row. If she kept going at this pace, she could finish the whole row all on her own by the end of the day.
When his footsteps grew closer, she dug at the earth with more ferocity, grunting as she heaved the dirt from the hole.
“Take it easy,” Cole said from behind.
Unfortunately, he was right. The heat, combined with the exertion, was starting to get to her. She didn’t want to faint. It would be too hard to stay angry with him if she lost consciousness.
Exhausted, she dropped the shovel, grabbed a bottle of water from the wheelbarrow and took a nice long swig.
Finished, she wiped her mouth and looked at him. “So, what’s with you and Gail?”
“What? Nothing.”
“She was all over you.”
Cole grinned. Suddenly she realized she wasn’t mad about the shoes, she wasn’t mad at all. She was jealous. What the hell was wrong with her?
“She’s all over everybody,” Cole said. “Didn’t she try it on with you?”
Anthea cringed. Gail had been all over her before Cole interrupted. Worse still, that realization made her feel significantly better. If Gail did that to every man, then she wasn’t serious about Cole.
“Well, wasn’t she?” he asked again.
“Shut up.”
Cole chuckled, grabbed some gloves from the wheelbarrow and held out his hand. She gave him the shovel and led him to the next place to dig.
“How do you do all this on your own?” she asked.
“I only need someone to help when it’s time for the trees to come down, and after that, when the field needs plowing. The rest, well, I bet even you could do it blindfolded.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
As she watched him dig, she felt an overwhelming surge of genuine admiration for him. Here was a man who hadn’t let a little thing like losing his sight stop him from doing what needed to be done. And that was something she rarely experienced in her world.
“Your turn,” Cole said as he held the shovel toward her.
She stepped over to him and took it.
“Seems like your digging sessions are getting shorter and shorter,” she pointed out.
He licked his lips and smiled. “Only seems that way because it’s the hard part.”
“Hmm. I think I’ll have to start timing you.”
“Bit late now, we’re almost done.”
She liked the way he said we’re, like they were a team. Anthea watched Cole saunter to the wheelbarrow and push it closer. He reached in and found a bottle of water.
She dug the shovel into the earth. Two shovelfuls in, she stopped as Cole tilted his head back and took a long drink. His Adam’s apple bobbed and the muscles in his neck strained.
Ever since the incident in the bedroom when she’d hidden from Mike, she seemed to notice every little thing about him. And every time they were close, in each other’s personal space, her heart beat faster until she had to move away.
When he’d found her in the bedroom that day and reached for her, she knew exactly where his hand was about to land, yet she’d remained frozen. Then he touched her, and the only thing she could think of was to pull him in close and tell him to get rid of Mike so Cole himself would leave before she did something stupid.
Huge mistake. The moment their bodies touched, she found herself melting against him. She’d never reacted to a man in such a way before, and when he made no move to pull away, she felt that same spiraling need she’d experienced when she’d kissed him.
Inadvertently, she’d trapped his hand on her breast, but he never once moved that hand. Even when he put his arm around her and held her closer, he’d been a complete and utter gentleman—he hadn’t tried to cop a feel like every other man she’d ever been with.
All he’d done was hold her, hold her like she’d never had anyone hold her before. And in that moment, she felt herself falling for him. When he finally moved, she knew he was going to kiss her, and she wanted it more than she ever wanted anything in the world.
Then Mike called out and they broke apart. She’d felt empty, cheated, like some unknown part of her had opened up and left
a gaping hole. A hole that ached to be filled.
Since then, she’d tried to keep her distance, had even added more cushions to the barrier she formed nightly down the middle of the bed, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking at him, from studying every curve and crease in his face.
If he hadn’t been blind, she never could have studied him so intently without him knowing. And sometimes, when his green eyes seemed to look right into her, she stared right back, deeper than she’d ever dared look into anyone’s eyes.
When she did, she felt herself connecting to Cole in a more profound way than anything physical.
Right at this moment, though, not one fiber of her body could miss the physical show going on in front of her.
Cole drew the bottle of water away from his lips, tilted his head. “I don’t hear any digging going on.”
Unable to trust her voice, she sank the shovel into the earth, tossed the soil and stopped again to watch him raise the bottle over his head, tilt his face toward the sky and let the remaining water splash over him in a cascade.
Her breath caught as water flowed in a river over his neck and soaked into his T-shirt. Sighing with pleasure, he shook the water from his hair.
As cool droplets hit her bare arms, she finally remembered to breathe. With her eyes riveted to the raised nipples beneath his wet T-shirt, she shifted slightly. Intending to make him think she was still working and not gaping at him, she brought the shovel down hard.
And struck her toes.
A cry of pain shot from her mouth as she fell to the soft earth.
“What? What happened?” Cole asked with alarm.
“Ow, ow, ow,” she whimpered, gripping the gumboot where the shovel had connected with her toes. Pain was not her strong suit.
Cole rushed over, found her on the ground and squatted beside her. “Tell me. What’s happening?”
“My toes,” she gasped. “Got them with the shovel.” She didn’t want to cry in front of him, but her throat closed all the same.
“Bloody hell,” he said. And before she knew what was happening, his hands were on her, determining her position. One strong arm hooked around her back and the other slid beneath her knees. In an instant, he lifted her into his arms and strode swiftly toward the house.
“Wait. I’m fine,” she croaked, almost forgetting the pain in her toes as his closeness engulfed her.
“You don’t sound fine.”
Why fight it? Her arms seemed to have a mind of their own anyway. Somehow, they’d managed to wrap themselves behind his neck. Relaxing into him, she let her head rest against his shoulder as he carried her between the planted rows of Paulownias.
* * *
Racked with guilt, Cole hurried toward the house with Anthea in his arms. He had no experience playing games with people and now she’d hurt herself. And it was his fault. The last thing in the world he wanted was to hurt her.
He almost came to a stop when that thought hit him. He’d been thinking about her being hurt in a physical context, but was that all he meant? Since getting to know her, he no longer had the urge to hurt her emotionally either. In fact, if anyone else tried to teach her a lesson, he’d want to punch their lights out.
As he walked on, he tightened his hold on her. She wasn’t the person he’d thought she was at all. After her initial resistance to getting dirty and pitching in, she’d helped enthusiastically, listening well and learning everything he taught her.
How could he continue to punish her when, in her eyes, she didn’t see anything he did as punishment? Quite frankly, he wanted to put an end to this whole lie and tell her the truth.
But fear stopped him. He knew she would be angry that he’d lied to her all this time. And he knew without a doubt that something was happening between them, something neither of them expected. But it was there all right. And he’d be damned if he’d ruin it before he got the chance to explore exactly where it might lead, what it might mean.
As he crunched across the gravel driveway, he slowed, found the veranda steps and gently eased her down in the cool shade.
Kneeling on the lower steps, he patted his thigh. “Here, let’s have a look.”
When her foot touched his thigh, he carefully removed her gumboot, tossed it aside and peeled off her sock. As he held her ankle, he asked, “Any blood?”
“I don’t want to look.” He detected a shudder in her voice, though it didn’t sound like she was about to burst into tears anymore.
“You’ll have to,” he said gently, and waited.
She let out a relieved breath. “Nope. No blood.”
“Good. Okay, I’m going to touch your toes, make sure nothing’s broken.”
She tried to pull her foot away. “I don’t think so.”
He held onto her ankle, refused to let her escape. “It’ll be fine.”
“No way. Besides, you wouldn’t know whether or not anything’s broken.”
“I will if you scream,” he said, and smiled at her.
“That’s not funny. I know you think I’m a joke, but I happen to be a total wimp when it comes to pain.”
His smile faded. “I don’t think you’re a joke.” Damn, he wished he could see her face so he could get a hint as to what she was thinking. He waited for a long moment, but when she remained silent, he decided to go with his instincts.
“Relax,” he instructed. She still resisted him as he eased her foot onto his thigh. He looked up to where he hoped her face was. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
Her muscles relaxed beneath his hand. As gently as he could, he released her ankle and trailed his fingers over her foot and, ever so softly, touched her toes. She tensed again.
“That tickles.”
He smiled. “I’ll have to use a bit more pressure. You okay with that?”
“So far, so good.”
He touched her big toe, massaged it between his fingers and, when she didn’t complain, he gently explored each toe. “How’s that?”
“Good.”
“Well, I think you’ll live.” He released her foot, but it remained on his thigh.
“I didn’t say better. It still hurts.”
He had no trouble detecting the cheekiness in her voice. Slipping one hand beneath her foot, he placed the other on top and cupped it between his hands. “I’d say you’ll have some bruising, but nothing’s broken.”
He eased his hands over her toes and heard her suck in a sharp breath. He froze.
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “I’m a total sook when it comes to pain. But I think it might help if you just, you know, massage it out. Carefully.”
He moved this thumbs over the tops of her toes in small, light circles. “Like this?”
“Yeah. Just like that.”
“You’re tensing.”
“That’s because it still hurts. But don’t stop. It’s getting better. Just…maybe you could distract me. Tell me something about yourself.”
Cole continued massaging her toes. “Like?”
“What was your life like before you went blind?”
He was sure she didn’t want to hear about how his father continually gambled away everything they earned, shattering his mother’s dream of one day owning their own home. He was sure she didn’t want to hear about the fights he’d witnessed, the fights his grandparents had tried to shelter him from.
No, she was fishing. She already knew he’d lost his sight at the age of nine, not too long after her family had left town. So what she really wanted to know about was herself. Did he remember the little girl who teased him in school? Well, if that’s the way she wanted it, he’d tell her the truth. He just had to be careful how he went about it.
“I don’t know,” he said. “There’s not much to tell. I lived here with my parents and grandpar
ents, spent a lot of time with my grandfather learning how to do everything I do now. When I wasn’t doing that, I went to school. Hated it.” Her foot tensed in his hand. Bingo. He’d hit the right nerve. The ball was in her court. If she truly wanted to know how she’d made him feel, then her next question should be…
“You hated school?”
Close enough. “Well, not school itself, but there was this girl. Made my life hell.”
The tension in her foot increased until her muscles were rigid beneath his fingers.
“She was…mean to you?”
Cole removed his fingers from her toes and went to work on her foot, kneading the tense arch with his thumbs.
“She was popular,” he said. “And I was the poor farm kid she had great fun tormenting. The girl was relentless, never let up.”
“She was that bad?” Cole heard a clear note of remorse in her voice.
He nodded. “It got to a point where I started pretending to be sick just so I didn’t have to go to school and face her…but my mother didn’t buy it.”
His hands stilled on her foot then. Talking about it brought forth a flood of memories: his mother’s concern, and more importantly, what she had told him. Until that moment, holding onto the delicate foot of the girl who used to bully him, he’d forgotten all about his mother’s advice. Maybe the fact that he never liked to think about his mother had something to do with it, but the way she had made him feel that day… how could he have forgotten? He supposed the traumatic events that occurred not long after that had blocked the good memories. So stupid.
“So what happened?” she prodded.
“Well,” he said, and began massaging her foot again. “My mother eventually pried the truth from of me, and when I told her what was going on, she laughed.” Cole smiled at the memory as it washed over him with full force.
* * *
Anthea studied his face intently and couldn’t for the life of her understand why he was grinning. Shouldn’t those memories be reminding him of bitter feelings? Yet his smile grew even wider.
