by Mimi Barbour
"Not a chance in hell."
"You're not going in there alone, especially after the pills I gave you. Besides, I’m really not a hundred percent certain about you not having a concussion. You need someone close by in case there's a delayed reaction to the accident. Meantime, I'll get supper started. The girls will be home soon."
"Liam ignored Sadie's frustrated sigh and set her down like a collector would handle precious china. Then he moved to do Bea's bidding.
He supposed it was the least he could do, staying with her in the water and keeping her safe. After all, it was his stupidity and carelessness that put her in this devastating state.
His interest in the little firebrand increased every time he laid eyes on her. She made his blood pump at such an alarming speed it left his heart racing and his mouth drier than the plains in the thirties.
He grinned coldly when warnings bombarded and wouldn't be shut down. “So who's going to keep her safe from you?”
As soon as he’d shut the door to the change room, Liam reacted. He swung around, waiting for his shadow to appear, and sure enough, there he was. Medium build, wearing his gay pirate’s outfit and the famous grin the actor used so convincingly.
“What the hell do you want from me?”
“I want you to leave her alone. She’s delicate, and you like to break things.”
“Look, I’m not interested in women right now. I have a lot on my plate. But I can’t ignore the fact that I almost killed her today, now can I? If her mother asks me to help, then, buddy, you better believe that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“You didn’t kill her because I stopped you. And, buddy, women have always flocked around you like you were chocolate, but this girl’s different. She has no ammunition against your experience.”
“I beg to differ. She’s shot me down at every turn.” The droll note in Liam’s voice made the angel smile happily.
“I should think so. She sees right through ya, she does.”
“Then go away and let me do what I have to do.”
“And that be…”
“I’ll help her in the hot tub, and then leave.” Liam blinked and the spirit disappeared—poof, gone! Except for his parting shot that echoed in the small room:
“Just be sure that you do. The less time she spends around a bounder like you, the better.”
***
Both women's eyes widened when he returned dressed in the only choice of bathing suit that would suffice—a cargo camouflage style that, no matter how tight he tied the strings, hung low on his hips. Their stares made him uncomfortable, especially when he realized he'd pulled in his gut and tightened his chest muscles.
“Do us a favor then, Stud. Don’t let it swell your head.” So, his ghoulish friend hadn’t left after all, probably just hovered around, spying like some otherworldly peeping tom.
“Sticks and stones…”
Liam answered. “You can do me a favor…go away!” The spook’s laugh faded, then disappeared.
Bea whistled softly and caught his attention. Stares always followed him whenever he bared his toned and tanned body. Usually it annoyed, but today he felt kinda flattered until Sadie's words left him rather deflated.
Sadie slipped off her cover-up clumsily and then said, "Are you waiting for a drum roll?"
He pulled out the smart-ass, one-sided grimace he used when the guys in his troop gave him the gears, lifted her up in his arms, and strode up the steps, intending to gently lower her into the bubbles.
Instead, an outside force gripped him, and before he knew it, he’d dumped her in without any warning.
Once she surfaced and wriggled to a seat as far away from him as possible, she gripped her dripping hair to push it back behind her ears and made as if to rise. Except that the awesomeness of the heated water registered. A look of bliss replaced the glare of anger.
"Oh, Lordy, lordy, lordy. This is heaven."
With great care not to get in her path, Liam stepped into the tub and took the seat farthest from where she lounged and closest to the steps for escape. He heard Bea chuckling in the distance and watched as she disappeared into the house.
A few minutes of silence followed as Liam observed Sadie stretch and exercise her neck and shoulders very slowly, careful not to be too extreme in her movements.
It was like watching a sleek cat perform her ablutions. He found himself fantasizing her licking her skin like a puss would it’s fur, and then thanked all that was decent for the bubbling water that hid his unexpected erection.
All of a sudden, music could be heard from near-by speakers, and a good old country-and-western song wailed out in a woman's marvelous twang. The words made him smile and look around. He knew who’d helped Bea make the song choice. "Heaven's just a sin away-y-yy."
Not so Sadie. Her head dropped to her chest, her eyes closed comically and then he heard what she'd obviously known to expect.
Worse than the caterwauling of a female cat being overpowered by a determined male suitor, the voice that sang along to the words grated on every functioning nerve end.
Amazement he couldn't begin to hide had to be plastered all over his face.
"Doesn’t it hurt?" he asked.
"You have no idea!"
"I meant her throat."
"What can I say? She loves to sing."
"And you love her."
Silence reigned as she tried to ignore his comment. But he kept staring, fully intending for her not to look away. His S.W.A.T. training gave him the edge, and it worked. Mesmerized, she stared back, and finally a small grin appeared.
"Yeah! I love her."
Saints be praised. The first genuine smile he'd seen on her face was a lovely sight to behold. Already beautiful, she rose up the scale way past ten, right to infinity.
Vying for his attention, his body's swelling became enormously uncomfortable. He perused the multi-flowering bushes, the patio lanterns entwined with twinkle lights barely visible and even the red roof tiles. Anything to keep his mind off the woman lounging across from him, the woman whose internal magnet drew at the one pitifully whining in his own body.
Finally the song ended and wonderful silence wrapped around them in their private little world. With a sigh, Sadie leaned her head back and relaxed.
Liam let her enjoy the quiet while he enjoyed her enjoying the quiet. A splash in the pool caught his attention.
Susie, the bloodhound, was swimming in a straight line from one end of the pool to the other. Liam watched, and it soon became apparent, the wacky animal was doing laps. He chuckled.
"It's how she exercises. Bloodhounds are notoriously lazy dogs, so this is quite unusual. Once Mom realized how much Susie loves the water, she trained her to do laps. Two or three times a day, the dog ends up in the pool. She likes it best to have someone with her. Then she really performs."
"This is eye-opening. I've always thought people had to walk or run their dogs to give them exercise."
"Susie suffers through walks three times a week with a dog walker, who I'm happy to say isn't due for two days."
His quizzical frown must have registered, because before he could even form the question, she answered. "I'm the dog walker."
Chapter Seven
The words didn't register at first. The quiet had lulled her while she let the pulsating heat and heavenly water work its magic. Even having to share the tub with Liam stopped bothering her once she understood he wasn't going to try chatting her up.
Then it hit her. For the first time since the accident, Sadie recognized what a pickle she was in. She realized she had a lot of phone calls to make and some explaining to do if she couldn't carry on with her regular routine. Wait, she thought, I can still lead the yoga classes, just have to hold off on the extreme moves for a while.
Walking the dogs, well, that was another matter. Every afternoon during the week, she had six dogs on each of her three runs to exercise.
The first batch, the smallest group, she picked up at
the local SPCA, and that wasn't a problem because she could take them to the nearby yard and let them run or, if she wasn’t available, there were other volunteers to take over.
It was the hoity-toitys’ pets that required more of her time and stamina. Eight frisky dogs whose rich owners paid her top dollar to be responsible for their daily workout. To pick them up in her van, get them to the park, walk and run the scheduled two miles and deliver them all back home in an hour and a half required vigilant clock watching and a whole lot of patience.
Those animals weren't your run-of-the-mill, happy-go-lucky, glad-to-see-you kind of dogs. Many expected to be carried. Others pulled and tugged on their leashes, stubbornly trying to wield control. Still others, the shit disturbers Sadie called them, purposely ran back and forth getting the leads twisted, acting ornery, growling, biting at each other until separated.
But over time Sadie knew she'd worked wonders. Most of them had settled into their routines and even looked happy to see her now, rather than running to hide or flatly refusing to move.
Now what'll I do? It had taken her many months of hard work to get to this comfortable zone. It could all be undone in a matter of days with the wrong person to replace her. If she only had to walk, it might be doable, but the way she felt right now, managing and controlling those dogs would be impossible. Alone, anyway.
"Something's bothering you. I can see by the changing expressions on your face." Liam's soft voice interrupted her worrying.
"No. Nothing's wrong."
"Hell it's not."
Sadie decided, since he asked, she'd hit him with truth. "Here's the thing. I can't be laid up right now. I need to work…" She stopped talking when he frowned.
"Don't ask if you don't want to know." Sarcasm ripped through the words.
"Hey, settle down, Miss Doomsday. I'll be happy to reimburse your wages during this time—"
"I don't need or want your money, Hotshot." She lowered her voice once she heard herself yelling. "I need someone reliable to replace me for the days I can't do the job." Sarcastically she added, never expecting he might agree, "So if you want to walk my canines, you might be of some help. Otherwise…" She didn't say the words, but the smirk she glared at him was more than adequate to let him know her thoughts.
"I'll do it." The plus side was that he hadn't hesitated. The minus was that he'd offered, and she was tempted.
"Give me a break. I'm serious."
"So am I. Look, I might not have a great reputation as a driver, but I assure you, not only can I walk, I've been doing it with no problems to speak of since I was a year old."
Sadie's stomach somersaulted. Warnings went off in her head like church bells ringing in the New Year. That man's smile is lethal, she thought. How can I spend the next few days near this charmer—yet how can I not? On the weekends, she'd have had all kinds of help. But during the week, it would be nigh on impossible to find someone with two days open.
"What about your own work? How can you take the time off?"
"I'm between posts right now. I've finished my stint in Iraq, and not sure if I want to sign up for another placement. Still have a few weeks to think on it. So, I'm free and all yours."
Not even tempted, you cheeky bugger! The thought popped into Sadie’s head and wouldn’t be dismissed.
"If you don't want him, can I have him?" Her sister Dora arrived just then. Her voice actually whined with desire. "Pretty please?"
"Settle down, Sis. He's not mine to give. But I can introduce you. Liam, this tease is my oldest sister Dora." Sadie pointed to a large-sized girl who now had her pretty face propped up on her hands as she leaned against the side of the tub, eating up the gorgeous male with her hot gaze. "This is Liam. As long as you never get near his car, he's probably harmless."
Liam shot her a sly grin, and without intending to, she returned it. Don't go there, girl! He's too much man for you. There’s that warning voice again. That’s all she needed—to start hearing things.
Dora looked wickedly curious. "So what did he do to you in his car?"
Realizing how her sentence had sounded to her sister, she tried to back up, but it was too late. Now she understood the naughty grin. How the hell did she get herself into these fixes?
Liam cut in before she could answer. "I accidentally hit her with it."
Dora jokingly backed away and held up both hands. "He's all yours, Sadie. I like 'em rough, but that's a wee bit mean, even for me."
Just then Bea and another female wandered up to stand beside Dora. The three women were all the same size; the two were younger replicas of their mother.
Sadie often wondered if she was actually related to the other three females in her family. Every one of them was large, happy-go-lucky, and beautiful in her self-confidence. Whereas all Sadie’s life, she'd hated being chubby and, from the moment she'd left home, had worked hard to be the size she'd always dreamed of being.
She'd planned her meals around a sensible eating plan. And exercise not only became her way of life, it became the means for her to make a living.
"Liam," said Bea, pointing at the giantess beside her. “This is Sadie's sister Maggie, our brilliant financier who manages the family business."
Sadie saw him look somewhat bemused by the three strikingly attractive, full-bodied women who surrounded his side of the tub. She knew what a force her family was and how overwhelmed they made one feel by their dramatic presence. Heck, when the Bertolli females actively worked at being overpowering, awesome didn't even come close to describing their compelling attraction.
Liam, looking a bit stunned, whispered to her in a voice everyone heard. "I think I need to get in touch with my feminine side."
The boisterous laughter fueled by his remark made Sadie flinch. Too loud, too rough, too happy…just too much. Secretly, her family had mortified Sadie for as long as she could remember, and hiding her feelings from them had become a daily Oscar-winning performance.
Her friend Greta, after one wine-drinking, soul-sharing night of confessions, came to a conclusion that made the most sense. As much as Sadie loved them, they embarrassed her. To compensate, she gave in to them every time—except for once. She’d moved out and saved her soul.
Maggie's smile faded first, and then she leveled him with the old gimlet-eye Maggie-stare that had most people, men even more so, slinking for cover.
Sadie watched as Liam not only returned the look but had the audacity to wink. Oh-oh! Sadie thought. My friend—you're a goner.
Except that Maggie surprised her by winking back and saying. "Wanna join us for a barbecue, Gorgeous? I can promise such good food, you'll think you'd died and gone to Iron Chef Heaven."
Sadie secretly appreciated that Liam first glanced her way, eyebrow raised, silently asking for permission before accepting. Pretty classy for such a speed demon.
Not wanting to seem too eager for his company, because she wasn't—really—she shrugged her best “who cares,” turned away, then listened while holding her breath.
"Might not be a good idea, honey. Sadie is pretty annoyed with me, and with good cause. I wouldn't want to overstay my welcome.” With the water sluicing his muscular frame as he rose, he sloshed over to her and knelt closer. "I'm a hungry guy and the smells coming from the house have been driving me nuts, but say the word and I'll leave."
Dora and Maggie's audible unison sighs let her know where their preferences lay. And the fact that Bea hadn't yet overridden her even having a choice was perplexing. Given authority in a group who usually never acknowledged that she had a vote, made her feel stunned. This power could be addictive.
She looked from one to the other and old habits kicked in. "Sure. Stay if you want to." Then she topped off her capitulation with a big fat lie. "Makes no difference to me."
Chapter Eight
Bea overrode Sadie. “You need to take Liam up on his offer and stop being so bullheaded. Do you have someone else you can hire to walk the dogs at such short notice?”
Dora
cut in. “Sadie, you know those folks expect to get their money’s worth when they pay top dollar for a service. You’ve taken on the responsibility of looking after their animals, and they’ll assume that either you’ll do the job or you’ll have help. I work with them every day, and I know how they think.”
Liam looked around the food-laden table. The wonderful smell of barbecued ribs was only exceeded by the taste. Corn on the cob, baked potatoes, sweet-and-sour meatballs, salads, and homemade buns had been piled on his plate with never a thought of asking him his preference—which, by the way, wasn’t a problem. Best meal he’d had in ages.
Listening to the women conversing, he relaxed and decided he didn’t need to be his own advocate when he had Sadie’s family. Whether or not he should have offered, he didn’t really know, especially since he’d clearly heard the shouted “Hang on!” in his head. All he did know was that her dilemma was his fault and, truth to tell, the longer he could put off dealing with his own shit the happier he’d be.
Once he zoomed back into the heated argument surrounding him, he could see that Sadie had lost the battle. Poor little doll looked whipped, and his conscience kicked in big time.
“If Sadie would rather work with someone else, that’s not a problem.” He smiled at her to let her see his sincerity. And he liked that she smiled back, a small tug at her pretty lips with their curled-up edges, but nevertheless a smile.
Bea spoke before the others could. “She has no one else. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but our family own a business called ‘Angels’ and we do home care for the infirm, the elderly, and the rich who can afford to have someone come to their homes and look after them. We employ a number of women who like to look after folks—retired nurses, caregivers, and so on. But early in the program we realized that many of these people had animals they cared about, especially dogs that needed to be exercised every day.
