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She nodded and wiped one hand across her face. He wasn’t sure if she’d been crying, but if she had, no tears had actually escaped her eyes. His hadn’t run down his face either.
“I’m overwhelmed today,” he admitted as he picked up his shirt. He handed it to her, and she snapped it a couple of times, a loudcrack!filling the air between them. Then she helped him thread his good arm through one hole, and then she did most of the work on his injured arm.
“Why’s that?”
“I need an ice pack already,” he said. “I’m going to call Collin and find out if this is normal or not.” Frustration built inside him, and he didn’t want Gerty to see it. “I feel like I should be further along than I am.”
She said nothing as she picked up his tie and looped it around his neck for him. The things that took two hands astounded him, because he’d never thought something as simple as putting on a tie and tying it would be so difficult for him.
He pressed his teeth together, making his jaw jump, while she got the job done.
“There,” she said, patting his chest and smoothing the tie down. “Why are you upset?”
“I’m not.” He turned away from her, because he didn’t want to look her in the face and lie to her. “We can skip the chores so you’re not late.”
Gerty glanced into the kitchen and back at him. “All right,” she said without putting up a fight. He draped his jacket over his forearm, because he wouldn’t put it on until he got to Hunt’s office and could have his cousin help him. She stepped right in front of him when he turned, and he caught the fierce look in her eyes.
“This surgery can take a year to recover from, Mike.”
As if he hadn’t heard that before. “So I’ve been told.”
“It’s been what? Two weeks?”
Two and a couple of days. Her birthday was this weekend, and Mike simply didn’t want her to come dress him in the morning when he should be making her day as easy and as fun as possible.
He didn’t answer her and instead, stepped around her to leave. She didn’t come with him, and he turned back once he’d reached the porch and hadn’t heard the clunking of her cowgirl boots behind him. “You comin’?”
“No,” she called from inside. He returned to the doorway and found her at his kitchen sink, the water running. She lifted the coffee pot and poured the water into the machine, then set it to start.
“Gerty,” he said, definitely loud enough for her to hear. She didn’t even flinch toward him. He’d seen her stubbornness before, but usually with a horse or her daddy. Never directed at him.
A sigh moved through his body. He couldn’t very well walk her to work if she didn’t come with him, and he re-entered his cabin. He joined her in the kitchen, and she handed him a plate she’d rinsed without a word.
He took it and put it in the dishwasher, and they worked around the house like they normally did. Then she picked up his sling, which he always left on the kitchen table, and finally looked at him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m allowed to have bad days.”
“Yes, you are,” she said simply. She helped him get his arm fitted in the sling, and she tightened all the straps, checking with him like she usually did. When she stood in front of him again, she swept her lips along his cheek and kept her mouth close to his ear as she said, “I’m sorry today is a bad day.”
That made him want to break down and cry again, but he pulled in a tight breath to stop himself. She settled flat onto her feet again, nodded at him once, and said, “Okay, now I’m ready.”
They left his cabin together, and she walked on his left side so he could hold her hand. She’d never made a big deal out of that, but he knew she did it deliberately. “You know,” he said casually as they started down the dirt road that ran straight to Pony Power from the cowboy cabins. “My sister told me that you were out of my league, and I wasn’t sure what she meant.”
Gerty didn’t say anything, which left Mike to continue with, “I do now. You’re an amazing woman, Gerty.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “Thank you for helping me today.”
She glanced up to him. “Thank you for telling me how you feel.”
He focused on the horizon, because he had something hard to say. The fact that she’d confessed some of the things she’d been thinking about gave him courage and strength. “I think you’re very lovable, for the official record and all that.”
“Mike, you don’t have to say that.”
“I don’t say anything I don’t mean,” he said. “The Marines taught me that, and Hunt’s said it a time or two this month too.” He looked at her, but she kept her gaze on the barns in the distance, a thoughtful look on her face.
“Iwantto be the strongest and sexiest man you know,” he said. “It makes me feel weak when you walk in on me when I’m about to cry.”
“When I need to cry,” she said without missing a beat. “I hope you’ll be the one who rescues me.” She whispered the last few words, and Mike pulled her closer and dropped her hand so he could put his arm around her. Their steps stumbled for two or three strides, and then they evened out.
They fit together, and Mike hadn’t really acknowledged it or felt it until this moment. He kept his feelings to himself, because six weeks into their relationship didn’t feel slow to him, even if they’d known each other before.
