Victoria Pade - Cowboy's Caress

“There’s a little girl up the street,” she answered.

“How old is she?”

“I think she’s six.”

“That’s good. That’s how old I am—six. I just turned it and I got Angel Barbie for my birthday because she’s the prettiest one.”

“You’ll have to show her to me.”

“I could go get her now.”

“I think we’ll have to do that later. My sister is at the medical building where your daddy will be working. She just had a baby last night and I want to go over and see how she is.”

“What kind of baby?”

“A boy.”

“Can I come with you?”

Carly laughed again, not minding the little girl’s chattiness or persistence. “It’s okay with me if it’s okay with your dad. But we can’t go without checking with him first.”

Evie Lee hopped out of the chair. “I’ll go ask him right now.”

“I want to clean up and then I’ll come across to the house to check with him.”

“I’ll clean up, too,” Evie Lee said as if she liked the idea.

The child ran for the door, opened it and turned back to Carly. “See ya.”

“See ya,” Carly answered.

And out went Evie Lee.

Since Carly wasn’t too sure whether or not the little girl might return within minutes—alone or with her father—she wasted no time getting to her crutches and heading for the bathroom.

But on the way she realized she was wearing only her slip, that the dress she’d had on the night before was tossed over the back of the love seat, and that she hadn’t brought any of her things with her from the house.

That meant she couldn’t take the fast shower she had in mind or so much as run a comb through her hair or brush her teeth or fix her face or change her clothes.

It also meant that if Bax McDermot was up and about, she was going to have to meet him looking even worse than she had the first time.

Not a proposition she relished.

But what was she going to do? She was in the cottage and everything she needed was in the house. She didn’t have any choice.

Her only hope was that he was still asleep and she could slip in and out before he woke up.

With that in mind, she put her dress back on over her slip and made her way out of the cottage.

The cottage was separated from the main house by only an eight-foot, brick-paved breezeway. The breezeway was covered on top but open on either side so it could be used as a patio in good weather. There was a cedar wood bench seat along one side, but Carly had left the rest of the patio furniture—chairs and small tables—in the garage so far this season. Minus the clutter of it, she maneuvered herself and the crutches across the breezeway without impediment.

When she reached the back door, she peeked in the window that filled the top half of it and spotted Evie Lee alone in the kitchen, standing on a ladder-backed chair to get herself a glass of water.

Carly knocked on the door to draw the child’s attention and then opened it enough to poke her head in. “Is your dad around?”

“He’s in the shower so I didn’t ask him yet about going with you. But he’ll be out in a little bit.”

Carly didn’t want to think about Bax being in her shower. Naked in her shower…

“I need to get up to my room. All my things are still in it.”

Evie Lee jumped down from the chair as if it were a tall cliff. “Okay. Come on.”

Carly pushed the door open wide with the end of one crutch and got herself through it. But as she did, it occurred to her that if she didn’t let the new doctor know she was coming inside, she was liable to bump into him accidentally. As he left the bathroom after his shower. Maybe not dressed…

And while that possibility erupted some wild goose bumps on the surface of her skin, she knew she couldn’t let it happen.

“I think it might be a good idea for you to go up and warn him I’m here.”

“It’s all right. He’s always in the shower for a looong time. Come on,” Evie Lee encouraged with a flapping wave of her hand, shooting off ahead of Carly.

Carly didn’t seem to have a choice but to follow, wishing the whole way that she could just send Evie Lee to get what she needed.

But most everything was packed and Carly had closed the suitcases to make sure she could. Evie Lee was too small to deal with what it would involve to get into them.

The stairs to the upper level presented a problem and after several attempts with the crutches, Carly conceded that she needed help.

Since Evie Lee was already on the landing at the top, Carly said, “I’m going to need you to carry the crutches up for me. But why don’t you let your dad know I’m coming first.”

Evie Lee shrugged and did her little-girl-happy-dance until she was out of sight.

Carly heard her holler through the door to her father that Carly was there, but no answer came in response.

“He can’t hear me,” Evie Lee said a moment later, at the top of the steps again. “It’ll be all right. I told you, he’ll be in there for a really, really long time.”

The prospect of standing there waiting for that really, really long time was not appealing. Especially when the alternative was that Carly could get in and out of her room without seeing him at all.

“Okay. Come and get the crutches for me, then.”

The child obliged and while Evie Lee dragged them up in front of Carly, Carly used the banister to aid in hopping one step at a time on her good foot.

It was noisy and awkward and Carly kept up a silent chant of Please don’t let him come out of the bathroom, Please don’t let him come out of the bathroom, the whole way.

When both she and Evie Lee had finally made it to the top and Carly was on the crutches again, she realized that sometime during the trip the shower water had stopped running. Not a good sign.

Before she moved from that spot at the top of the stairs, she said, “It sounds like your dad is out of the shower. Knock on the bathroom door and yell in again to let him know I’m out here.”

“Okay,” the child agreed as if she just didn’t understand what the big deal was.

But Evie Lee barely made it to the door when it opened before she had the chance to do or say anything. And out stepped Bax.

It was obvious he was fresh from the shower. His short hair was still damp and all he had on was a pair of faded blue jeans that rode low on his hips. His feet were bare and so was his entire upper body—broad shoulders, big biceps, muscled pectorals, flat belly and all.

And an even worse case of goose bumps sprang to the surface of Carly’s skin than the mere thought of the same scenario had caused.

“Whoops,” Evie Lee said at the look of surprise on her father’s face. “I was just comin’ to tell you Carly was out here.”

“I’m sorry,” Carly was quick to say. Once she could drag her eyes off his chest. “I didn’t bring any of my stuff with me to the cottage, and I was trying to get to my room for it now. Evie Lee knocked before and called in to you, but you must not have been able to hear her.”

And didn’t Carly just want to crawl into a hole rather than face him looking the way she did!

Bax recovered himself and granted her a smile that made her suddenly feel wobbly on the crutches. “No problem. Do you want to use the bathroom up here?”

Hot, steamy air was wafting out into the hallway, smelling like a far more manly soap than she’d ever used. The idea of stepping into that was too arousing to entertain.

“No, I’d rather just take my things down to the cottage.”

“How did you plan to do that?” he asked reasonably.

Only then did it occur to her that he was right. How was she going to manage suitcases and crutches, too?

“I guess I hadn’t thought it through,” she admitted.