RaeAnne Thayne - The Pines Of Winder Ranch

He gazed at her mouth for several long seconds, his eyes silvery-blue in the moonlight, and for one effervescent moment, she thought again that he might kiss her. He even angled his head ever so slightly and her gaze tangled with his.

Her pulse seemed abnormally loud in her ears and her insides jumped and fluttered like a baby bird trying its first awkward flight.

He eased forward slightly and her body instinctively rose to meet his. She caught her breath, waiting for the brush of his mouth against hers, but he suddenly jerked back, his expression thunderstruck.

Tess blinked as if awakening from a long, lovely nap as cold reality splashed over her. Of course he wouldn’t kiss her. He despised her, with very good reason.

With ruthless determination, she shoved down the disappointment and ridiculous sense of hurt shivering through her. So what if he found the idea of kissing her so abhorrent? She didn’t have time for this anyway. She was supposed to be working, not going for moonlit rides and sharing confidences in the dark and fantasizing about finally kissing her teenage crush.

Since he now held the horses’ reins, she shoved her hands in the pocket of her jacket to hide their trembling and forced her voice to sound cool and unaffected.

“I’d better go take care of Jo’s meds.”

“Right.” He continued to watch her out of those seductive but veiled eyes.

“Um, good night, if I don’t see you again before I leave.”

“Good night.”

She hurried up the porch steps, feeling the heat of his gaze following her. Inside, she closed the door and leaned against it for just a moment, willing her heart to settle down once more.

Blast the man for stirring up all these hormones she tried so hard to keep contained. She so did not want to be attracted to Quinn. What a colossal waste of energy on her part. Oh, he might have softened toward her a little in the course of their ride with Jo, but she couldn’t delude herself into thinking he was willing to forgive and forget everything she had done to him years ago.

She had work to do, she reminded herself. People who needed her. She didn’t have time to be obsessing over the past or the person she used to be or a man like Quinn Southerland, who could never see her as anything else.

* * *

SHE DID HER best the rest of the night to focus on her patients and not on the little thrum of desire she hadn’t been able to shake since that almost-kiss with Quinn.

Still, she approached Winder Ranch for her midnight check on Jo with a certain amount of trepidation. To her relief, when she unlocked the door with the key Easton had given her and walked inside, the house was dark. Quinn was nowhere in sight, but she could still sense his presence in the house.

Jo didn’t stir when Tess entered her room, which worried her for a moment until she saw the steady rise and fall of the blankets by the glow of the small light in the attached bathroom that Jo and Easton left on for the hospice nurses.

The ride up to the lake must have completely exhausted her. She didn’t even wake when Tess checked her vitals and gave her medicine through the central IV line that had been placed after her last hospitalization.

When she was done with the visit, she closed the door quietly behind her and turned to go, then became aware that someone else was in the darkened hallway. Her heart gave a quick, hard kick, then she realized it was Easton.

She wasn’t sure if that sensation coursing through her was more disappointment or relief.

“I hope I didn’t wake you,” Tess said.

The other woman’s sleek blond ponytail moved as she shook her head. “I’ve still got some pesky accounts to finish. I was in the office working on the computer and heard the door open.”

“I tried to be quiet. Sorry about that.” She smiled at her friend. “But then, Jo didn’t even wake up so I couldn’t have been too loud.”

“You weren’t. I’m just restless tonight.”

“I’m sorry.”

Easton shrugged. “It sometimes knocks me on my butt if I think about what things will be like in a month or so. I’m trying to get as much done now on ranch paperwork so I have time to...to grieve.”

Tess placed a comforting hand on her arm and Easton smiled, making a visible effort to push away her sadness. “Quinn told me about your adventure tonight,” she said.

Tess made a rueful face. “I’m nowhere near the horsewoman you are. I felt like an idiot up there, but at least I didn’t fall off.”

“Jo was so happy when I checked on her earlier. I haven’t seen her like that in a long time.”

“Then I suppose my mortification was all for a good cause.”

Easton laughed a little but her laughter quickly faded. “It won’t be much longer, will it?”

Tess’s heart ached at the question but she didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “A week, maybe a little more. You know I can’t say exactly.”

Her friend’s blue eyes filled with a sorrow that was raw and real. “I don’t want to lose her, Tess. I’m not ready. What will I do?”

Tess set her bag on the floor and hurried forward to pull Easton into her arms. She knew that ache, that deep, gnawing fear and loss.

“You’ll go on. That’s all you can do. All any of us can do.”

“First my parents, then Guff and now Jo. I can’t bear it. She’s all I have left.”

“I know, sweetheart.”

Easton didn’t cry aloud, though Tess could feel the quiet shuddering of her shoulders. After a moment, the other woman pulled away.

“I’m sorry. I’m just tired.”

“You need to sleep, honey. Everything will seem a little better in the morning, I promise. Midnight is the time when our fears all grow stronger and more vicious.”

Easton drew in a heavy breath, then stepped away, swiping at her eyes. “Brant called from Germany earlier. He’s hoping to get a flight any time now.”

She remembered Brant Western as a tall, serious-minded boy who had always seemed an odd fit to be best friends with both Quinn, the rebellious kid with the surly attitude, and Cisco Del Norte, the wild, slightly dangerous troublemaker.

“Jo will be thrilled to have him home. What about Cisco?”

Easton’s mouth compressed into a tight line and she focused on a spot somewhere over Tess’s shoulder. “No word yet. We think he’s somewhere in El Salvador but we can’t seem to find anything out for sure. He’s moving around a lot. Seems like everywhere we try, we just keep missing him by a day or even a few hours. It’s so aggravating. Quinn has his assistant in Seattle trying to pull some strings with the embassy down there to find him.”

“I hope it doesn’t take much longer.”

Easton nodded, her features troubled. “Even if we find him, there’s no guarantee he can make it back in time. Quinn has promised to send a plane down to bring him home, even if he’s in the middle of the jungle, but we have to find him first.”

Her stomach gave a strange little quiver at the idea of Quinn having planes at his disposal.

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” she said, then picked up her bag and headed for the front door. Easton followed to let her out.

“Get some rest, honey,” she said again. “I’ll be back for the next round of meds around three. You’d better be asleep when I get back!”

“Yes, Nurse Ratched.”

“I mean it.”

Easton smiled a little, even past the lingering sadness in her eyes. “Thanks, Tess. For everything.”

“Go to sleep,” she ordered again, then walked out into the night, with that same curious mix of relief and disappointment that she had avoided Quinn, at least for a few more hours.

* * *

HE AWOKE TO the sound of a door snicking softly closed and the dimmer switch in the bathroom being turned up just enough to jar him out of dreams he had no business entertaining.