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Oh, yes, she could see the perfect life with Michael Hammond, and it was just out of her reach.
16
Mike grunted through the exercise, fire starting in his shoulder. The doctor and physical therapist both had told him there’d be some pain with these new exercises. Boy, they hadn’t been kidding.
Everything seemed so hard in that moment, and Mike dropped his arm, determined to wrap it in the sling and leave it there for the rest of the day. He could make up the lost progress later.
“When later?” he asked, completely disgusted with himself that he wanted to quit. But his shoulder and upper arm ached, and the fire had moved along his back. Tears filled his eyes, and blast it all, the front door opened and Gerty walked in.
“Morning,” she said in her cheery, pre-seven-a.m. voice. She went to work at seven to avoid the heat of the day and have a few hours off before her lessons started, and that meant Mike had been getting up early to do his therapy so Gerty could then help him get dressed, do a few of his household chores, and he could walk to work with her.
Today, he wasn’t staying at Pony Power, but he’d head into the city to the highrise building that housed the HMC corporate offices. Hunter was expecting him by nine, and Mike couldn’t be a blubbering mess.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Gerty arrived in front of him, and Mike quickly tried to turn his back on her. She wasn’t a big woman by any means, but she was strong, and she gripped his left arm and stopped him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He sniffled and lifted his healing arm to wipe his eyes. “I’m fine. The therapy is just hard today.”
“The new exercises?” Gerty frowned. “Are they supposed to hurt that bad?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Collin said there’s always going to be pain when a new motion is introduced.” He looked at her, their eyes finally meeting. “I’m sorry, Gerty.”
“Don’t you dare,” she said, her voice hard and unyielding. She took his face in both of her hands. “You are the strongest, sexiest man I’ve ever met.”
Before he could protest, she kissed him, nearly crushing her mouth to his. He didn’t mind that at all, and in fact, it gave him the jolt he needed to get outside his head, outside his pain, and outside his humiliation that she’d seen his tears and his pain.
She saw it every day.
He wouldn’t let anyone help him but her, and she served him graciously and gladly. He kissed her back, matching her stroke for stroke, trying to take control from her. She finally gave it to him, and he slowed the kiss, turning it more toward passion than abandon. When he finally pulled away, she’d pressed herself flat against him and had both hands buried in his hair.
That meant she couldn’t go far, and they breathed in and out together. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m not.”
She looked at him, searching his face. “I’m scared,” she whispered.
“Of what?”
“Us.”
“Why?” He held her close, not letting her put a single centimeter between them. He felt closer to her than he ever had another human being outside his family, and he didn’t want to lose that. Not yet.
“Because I’m falling for you,” she admitted, letting her eyes drift closed again. “I’m thinking about what our life could be like together, and it’s this. It’s me helping you in the morning, and you walking me to work on our very own farm before you drive into the city.”
Mike started to sway with her. “And that’s a bad thing?”
“Not necessarily,” she said. “I just…I was going to take time to find myself after everything with James.” She swallowed and laid her head against his chest. “I’m still working on believing that someone can love me.”
Mike wouldn’t say he loved her when he didn’t. He’d never been in love before, but he had the distinct feeling that he wasn’t quite there yet. “Your parents love you,” he whispered. “Everyone at Pony Power loves you. Your brother and sister. There are so many people who love you.”
“It’s different,” she said. “You know it is.”
He didn’t argue the point, but said, “In your thoughts, are there kids, baby doll?”
She nodded against his chest. “Yeah, there are kids. Do you want kids?”
“I’d be happy with kids,” he murmured, ducking his head so he could breathe in the scent of her skin and hair. They stood there together for a long time, her breath washing over his chest with every exhale, and the scent of eucalyptus and pomegranate in his nose.
He finally stepped back and said, “You’re going to be late.”
