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She smiled, and her green eyes shone in the moonlight.
“You’d better be,” she teased.
She kissed him once more, then let him help her to the ground so they could both pivot and go their separate ways. But just as he was about to head toward the clinic, she grabbed his wrist. “Wait,” she said softly, for once not freaking him out that he’d done something terribly wrong.
So he waited, not daring to take another step toward the guesthouse for fear neither of them would be strong enough to stop themselves.
Eli watched her stride toward the front door, grateful for a reason to keep his eyes on her, if only for a few moments more. She’d barely stepped inside before she turned back to face him, his cattleman in her hand.
His stomach clenched at the reminder of why she had it, but then he remembered what she’d just told him.
“I can wait. Not forever, but I’ll do it on your timetable.”
Beth meant more than just her riding Midnight, and the realization made him dizzy.
When she stood before him again, she reached up and dropped the hat back on his head.
“There,” she told him. “There’s the Eli I’ve missed all week.” She kissed the tips of her fingers and then pressed them to his lips. And then she left him standing there, a smile tugging at his mouth as he unapologetically watched her walk away until the door closed behind her and she was safely inside.
Tess didn’t talk to him anymore that night. Instead, the entirety of his thoughts overflowed with images of a woman who lived just across the yard. If he ever fell asleep that night, he knew his dreams would be only of her.
Chapter 11
Beth should have known better.
She groaned. No, this was a growl because she…was…mad. How could he go back on his word after last night? After the way he kissed her, the things he said?
“I’ll be right back, okay, girl?”
Beth patted Midnight on the nose, and the mare snorted in response.
Then, as best she could with the boot still slowing her down, Beth stormed out of the empty, Dr. Murphy-less barn.
She mumbled under her breath all the way to the clinic about waking up early and letting Eli be a distraction when she knew she should be focusing solely on her recovery. But she’d googled it. Horseback riding was great for strengthening her core. It promoted stability and flexibility, both of which were really hard to work on with limited mobility. Riding would keep her from having to bear weight on her left leg and would keep her in shape for when she could actually start dancing again. All she had to do was not fall off.
Actually, all she had to do was get on the horse, but without her MIA riding instructor, that wasn’t happening.
When she found the clinic door locked, she hesitated. She’d never been inside Eli’s house or apartment or whatever he called the living space attached to the back of the clinic. Two weeks of working with the man and living on his property, and he hadn’t so much as invited her over for a cup of coffee. Storming up to his front door—or was it technically a back door?—somehow felt like a violation.
Then she heard it, the squawking.
“It’s just a chicken,” she reminded herself aloud as she walked along the side of the clinic to the fenced-in yard—and chicken coop—that lay beyond.
The squawking grew louder.
“She’s not going to peck your eyes out,” Beth continued through gritted teeth.
Beth paused at the gate and squinted as the morning sun glared back at her. She swore she saw an un-chicken-like figure sitting in the grass outside the coop, but the sun in her eyes made her second-guess whether it was a human, an unusually short scarecrow, or possibly another animal that might see her as the enemy like Lucy and Ace had.
She steadied herself with a calming breath, unlatched the gate, strode hesitantly through, and then relatched it behind her.
Using her hand as a visor, she slowly made her way across the grass and toward the coop, waiting for a hen to attack with each step.
Another squawk sounded as she approached, but the closer she got, the more she also heard…chirping.
Beth stopped short of a pair of cowboy boots that were crossed, one ankle over the other. As her vision cleared, she followed the long denim-clad legs up to where they met Eli’s broad torso. In his lap paced a half dozen baby chicks. Another roamed in circles around the upturned cowboy hat sitting in the grass, and one more sat on Eli’s shoulder, pecking at his ear as he threw his head back and laughed.
Good god, that smile. And he was covered in chicks. Baby. Chicks. How the hell was Beth supposed to muster anger at being stood up when this sort of sight lay before her? It was like a page out of a Twelve Hunky Cowboys calendar. The best page.
