by Marie Force
“Hi, honey,” his mom, Vivienne, said. “Can you believe this snow?”
“Mom, I need a huge favor.”
“Of course. Whatever you need.”
He filled her in about running with Charley and how she’d fallen down a steep ravine.
“Oh my goodness! Is she okay?”
“We’re still waiting to hear, but she was awake and talking to the paramedics.”
“That’s a good sign.”
Tyler had wanted to hear her say that. She’d worked as a registered nurse for a home-health service until she retired and took a part-time job at the store owned by Charley’s family to stay busy. She loved that job and the Abbott family, too. “Do you still have friends at the nurses’ office?”
“I sure do.”
“I need you to call in some favors for me.” He gave her a list of what he needed and asked that she have the equipment delivered to his house. “You’ve got my card. Get anything else you think we might need.”
“I’m sure her insurance will cover it.”
“We’ll worry about that later.”
“Tyler . . .” When she said his name in that particular tone, he knew he was about to get mothered—and lectured. “What about her family? Aren’t they going to want to be involved in her care?”
“Her parents are in England on vacation, and her siblings are all working crazy holiday hours at the store and the Christmas tree farm. It’s my fault she was up in those hills on a day like this to begin with. This is the least I can do to make it right.”
“It’s not your fault that she fell.”
“Will you take care of getting the stuff for me?”
“Yes, of course I will,” she said with a sigh. “Just tread lightly, will you? If you alienate her family, you won’t have much of a chance of winning her over. They’re a tight-knit clan.”
“I know that, and I have no desire to alienate anyone. I feel responsible for what happened to her, and I’m just trying to make it right.” The door from the exam rooms swung open, and two doctors appeared, wearing scrubs that had blood on them. Charley’s blood? The thought of that made his eyes swim. “I’ve got to go, Mom. The doctors are here.”
“Keep me posted.”
“I will.”
“Charlotte Abbott’s family?” one of the doctors said.
Ella, Gavin, Lucas and Landon rushed over to the doctors. Tyler followed them, unwilling to wait for secondhand information.
“Your sister is stable and responding well to treatment,” one of them said. “She’s up at X-ray for scans of her knee and head. We’ll have more information after we get the results.”
“Do you think she has a head injury?” Landon asked.
“We don’t think so, but we’re not ruling it out until we see the scan. There’s a good chance the knee injury will require surgery to repair.”
Hearing that, Tyler took a couple of deep breaths as the dots in front of his eyes continued to swirl.
Gavin happened to glance at him and moved quickly to get him into a chair, pushing Tyler’s head between his knees. “Breathe.”
Tyler did as directed, forcing air into lungs that didn’t seem receptive. It took a few minutes, but eventually his head stopped spinning.
“Let’s get him looked at,” the lead doctor said.
“No, I’m fine.”
“You were exposed to the elements for hours,” Lucas said. “Let them check you out, Tyler.”
“You’ll let me know what’s happening with Charley?”
“Yeah, we’ll keep you posted,” Landon said.
Because that was the best he could hope to hear, Tyler allowed the doctor to lead him to an exam room where he was attached to all sorts of monitors and given an IV to replenish his electrolytes. Settled in the hospital bed with nurses in and out of the cubicle, Tyler tried to stay awake but something they put in the IV dragged him under. He’d take a short nap and then get back to making sure Charley had everything she needed—including him.
Charley woke to darkness and pain. Everything hurt. She moaned, which started a flurry of activity around her. She forced her eyes open to find Ella, Gavin and her brother Wade looking down at her, their faces tight with concern. Where was she, and why did everything hurt so badly?
“She’s in pain,” Gavin said. “Push the button.”
Ella did something that led to almost immediate relief. Whatever that was, Charley wanted more of it.
“Charley,” Ella said. “Open your eyes.”
Charley would’ve sworn they were already open. She forced her lids to move when they felt too heavy to lift.
“Do you remember why you’re here?” Ella asked.
“Something about a fall . . .”
“Yeah,” her sister said, breathing a sigh of relief. “The good news is you don’t have a head injury, and the only serious damage is to your knee. You got very lucky.”
“What happened to my knee?”
“Torn ACL and MCL. You really did a number on it. You’ve been in surgery for the last few hours to fix it. That’s why you’re so groggy.”
The whole thing came flooding back to her—marathon training, Tyler Westcott’s annoying challenge, the run in the snow, the ground dropping off beneath her, the long wait for help, the bumpy trip down the hill, the ambulance ride, Tyler fighting to go with her.
“I was down to see Tyler a few minutes ago,” Wade said. “They’ve admitted him.”
“Why?” Charley’s tongue still felt too big for her mouth and didn’t want to cooperate with her need to know everything.
“He’s being treated for exposure. He was in the cold for hours getting help for you and leading them back to where you fell.”
“He’s okay?”
“Except for being pissed off that he has to stay down there rather than up here with you where he wants to be,” Wade said. “You should know . . . He feels responsible for what happened, and he intends to take care of you when you get out of here.”
“No.”
“He’s quite determined, Charl.”
The thought of Tyler taking care of her sent her into a panic that far surpassed any fear she’d experienced after the fall.
“The whole Abbott crew was here earlier, but they wouldn’t let us all be in here with you, so the others went home and said they’d be back tomorrow,” Ella said. “Everyone is worried about you.”
“Tell them I’m fine.” Her eyelids were so heavy. She couldn’t keep them open.
“Do you want us to call Mom and Dad?” Wade asked. “We haven’t yet. We waited to see what you wanted us to do.”
Charley forced herself to focus. “No, don’t call them. They’ve been looking forward to this trip for a year. We’ll tell them when they get back.”
“And we’ll let you take yet another fall with Mom when she flips out that we kept this from her,” Ella said.
“Don’t call them. Tell Gramps and Aunt Hannah not to tell her either.”
“We will,” Wade said. “Get some rest. One of us will be here.”
“Mmm, go home. I’m fine. No need to watch me sleep.” Charley gave in to the pull of sleep and stopped trying to fight it. The next time she awakened, the room was still dark, and she could only see a tall silhouette standing by the window. She couldn’t tell if it was Wade or one of her other brothers, so she cleared her throat to let him know she was awake.
He turned, and Charley bit back a gasp at the sight of Tyler Westcott.
“What’re you doing here?” Her voice sounded rough even to her own ears. “I thought you were admitted.”
“I was. I am.” From behind him, he produced an IV pole that came with him when he sat in the chair next to her bed. “How’re you feeling?”
“Great. Never better. You?”
“Same.”
“Liar.”
“So are you.” He released a shuddering deep breath. “Charley, I’m really sorry—”
“Thanks for what you did up there�
�”
They spoke on top of each other.
“What’re you sorry about?” she asked.
“I never should’ve laid down that challenge with the weather we were having. It was dangerous and foolish, and I was only trying to push your buttons. I never expected you to go along with it. I should’ve known you’d be too stubborn to back down from a challenge. I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
“It’s not your fault the ground disappeared from under me. You couldn’t have planned that even if you wanted to get rid of me.”
“I don’t want to get rid of you. That’s the last thing I want to do.”
Charley was too drugged up to properly process that information. “What’s this I hear about you making decisions for me after I get out of here?”
“Before you dismiss my plan, hear me out. I have a one-story house with a ton of space. I work from home, so I’m always there. Your entire family is dealing with Christmas season at the store or they work weird hours like Lucas and Landon, they’re out of the country or they have stairs in their homes. You can’t very well recuperate on Colton’s mountain or at Hannah’s house when she’s getting more pregnant by the day. You can have your own room with lots of movies and your own remote control. I’ve got state-of-the-art Wi-Fi and I can cook. Once upon a time, I’d planned on being a chef, so I can really cook.”
Charley couldn’t believe she was actually tempted to take him up on his kind offer, but the thought of living with him when she could barely stand to run with him had her shaking her head. “It’s too much to ask of you. We hardly know each other—”
“Don’t give me that bullshit, Charley. We know each other. We’ve known each other for years. Let me do this for you. It’s the least I can do after challenging you to run up that trail when neither of us had any business being up there today.”
“I knew that as well as you did. I could’ve said no.”
“You’d never have said no to a challenge from me. I might see it as a sign of weakness or something equally ridiculous.”
It was frightening—and rather unnerving—to realize he understood her so well, when she’d like to think they didn’t know each other at all. It was also intriguing that seeing him like this—undone by her fall, vulnerable and desperate to make it right—made him attractive to her in a way he never had been before. She wanted to see more of this Tyler, the less-than-perfect Tyler. And he could cook. Charley loved to eat and hated to cook.
He was also right about her siblings—and their schedules. They were extra busy with the holiday season underway at the store, and most of them had stairs in their homes that would require her to recuperate on a sofa rather than the comfy bed that Tyler had offered her. Her own apartment was on the third floor of an old Victorian, and it bummed her out that she wouldn’t be seeing her cozy place for a while. Her siblings would raise a fuss about her going with him, especially Ella and Hannah, who’d object to anyone but them caring for her.
“My sisters are going to want to help.”
“They can do whatever they want. I’ll give them keys.”
“What if it doesn’t work out . . . me being there?”
“I’m not going to shackle you to the bed, Charley, as appealing as that sounds.”
What the hell? How was it possible when she was drugged to the hilt that his suggestive comment made all her girl parts stand up for a closer look at him? The words he’d said to her last month, when they’d danced together at the Grange, came rushing back to her. I’m not giving up on you, Charlotte, he’d said then. And P.S., I don’t buy all your abrasive bullshit. Underneath all that bluster, there’s an interesting woman lurking. I’d like to get to know that woman.
At the time, and every other time he’d asked her out in the past, she’d encouraged him to give up, but now . . .
“You’d be my guest, not my prisoner,” he said with a small grin that only added to his new appeal. “You’d be free to come and go as you please.” He surprised the hell out of her when he took hold of her hand and ran his lips over the back of it, setting off another of those reactions that registered in her most important places. “I really want to do this for you, Charley. I hate that you got hurt because of me. Let me help you get back on your feet.”
For the first time since she’d known him and had been aware of his interest in her, Charley wasn’t annoyed by him. No, she was too busy being aroused and intrigued to be annoyed. Blame it on the drugs and the trauma of the day, but she found herself saying, “Okay.”
The smile that lit up his face when she agreed to his plan had her hoping she wouldn’t live to regret being taken in by the man who’d driven her nuts for years. But that was before he saved her life, revealing a whole new—and intriguing—side to his too-perfect-to-be-believed self.
CHAPTER 3
Charley spent a week in the hospital, mostly because of an infection that set in after her surgery that left her weak and drained from the ordeal of fighting it off. Her brothers, sisters, grandfather, aunt and cousins came by every day after work, between shifts, whenever they could, bringing books, movies, flowers, chocolate and anything they could think of to cheer her up and help pass the time. Hunter loaned his laptop to the cause, and she used it to watch movies.
While her family was in and out, Tyler was there all the time. He’d appointed himself her ambassador of sorts with the doctors who did rounds when she was asleep and the nurses who came and went throughout the day and night. During the worst of the infection, when she’d been gripped with a fever, he added blankets when she shivered with cold and bathed her forehead with cool cloths when she was sweltering.
It took far longer than it should have for Charley to come to the realization that her siblings, particularly her sisters, had to be in collusion with Tyler for him to have such unfettered access to her. She waited until he’d gone to get some food before she pounced on Ella.
“What gives?” she asked.
Ella paused in the midst of folding a blanket. “What do you mean?”
“He is here all the time. Morning and night. The nurses even let him sleep here. How did that happen?”
“He offered to stay with you, and he was so nice and sincere and worried about you that we couldn’t say no to him.”
“Yes, you could have.”
Ella averted her gaze and bit her lip, a classic Ella “tell.”
“You’re lying! What’s really going on? You’d better tell me, or I’ll kick your ass the second I’m out of here.”
Ella rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You won’t be kicking anyone’s ass for months.”
“I’ll remember this, and I’ll kick yours the minute I’m able to.”
Ella draped the blanket across the foot of Charley’s bed and then sat, gingerly, so she wouldn’t jar Charley’s injured leg. “We like him, Charley. He’s a really good guy, and he cares a lot about you. Plus, when you said you agreed to go to his place after you get out of here, we thought you must like him, too, or you never would’ve gone along with that plan.”
She wasn’t sure how to reply to that, because it made far too much sense.
“Do you like him?” Ella asked.
Charley would’ve squirmed under Ella’s intense gaze, but squirming led to pain. “He’s okay.”
“How can you be so nonchalant when the guy has put his whole life on hold to be here for you when you needed him?”
“I never said I needed him. He decided that.” As she said the words, Charley felt guilty for downplaying his help. He had been amazing and selfless and wonderful. She couldn’t deny that.
“I have something I want to say to you, and I want you to listen to me, all right?”
The unusually serious tone of Ella’s voice put Charley on alert. “What?”
“Tyler is a good man who cares about you for some strange reason. He’s incredibly handsome and adorable and devoted. Will you please be nice to him and show some gratitude for what he’s done for you? Vivienne said he’s got a room
set up for you, including everything you’ll need to do physical therapy at home rather than having to go somewhere.”
In need of something to do with her hands, Charley played with the blanket, letting it slide through her fingers. “When could he have done that when he’s been here so much?”
“Apparently, he had it done. Called people. Hired them. Whatever. He’s gone to a lot of trouble—and expense—to make things easy for you. All I’m asking is that you be nice to him and give him a chance.”
“He overwhelms me.”
Ella stared at her, agog. “I’ve never once heard you say anything or anyone overwhelms you.”
Charley scowled at her. “Well, he does. He’s so . . . I don’t even know what the word is.”
“Devoted?”
“Yes! And why is he so devoted? Before this happened, I’d never given him any encouragement. I don’t get it.”
Ella began to laugh, her body silently rocking.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“You are. He likes you, Charley. He really likes you.”
“Why? Why does he like me? I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I can be somewhat unlikable at times.”
“I have no idea what you mean,” Ella said with a smirk. “And you’re not unlikable. You’re exacting. There’s a difference.”
“Exacting . . . Is that what it’s called? Men like me are considered badasses. Women like me are bitches.”
“You’re not a bitch. You’ve got a great big heart, and you’d do anything for anyone. You know what you want and what you don’t, and there’s nothing wrong with being true to yourself. All I’m saying is it might be okay to let down your guard a little with Tyler. He genuinely cares. Even when you were shooting him down, he still kept trying. You’ve got to give him props for that.”
“Maybe,” Charley conceded. He had been determined. She’d never deny that. “Let’s talk about you rather than me. How’s it going with Gavin?”
“Fantastic,” Ella said with a happy, dopey smile and a deep sigh. “It just keeps getting better all the time.” She glanced over her shoulder and then lowered her voice. “We’re moving in together after the holidays.”
