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“I’m not very good with people.” Oops. She hadn’t meant to admit that.
Joe’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? The kick-ass woman who kept a terrified kid from shooting anyone and who managed to keep calm and steady enough to save another kid is very good with people. You had me jumping to your orders and everyone in that hospital sings your praises.”
Her flush deepened as she stared at him. “What?” He thought she was kick-ass?
Joe’s hand moved to cup her nape and his fingers gently rubbed her scalp. “You, Lia Moreno, are kickass. You’re probably the only one who doesn’t know it.”
For a long moment, he simply watched her with those steady, almost-black eyes. She figured she could study them forever. When those eyes lit with humor, he leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently.
More tingles. So many tingles.
Even better was the warmth of the contact. And then he moved away, his hand sliding down to squeeze her good hand. “The people here are among the best people I know. You’re going to like them and they’re going to like you. No question.”
As he tugged her toward the stairs, she realized she actually believed him.
Chapter 7
Who's In Charge?
Joe grabbed Lia’s hand when she hesitated at the beginning of the dock. They’d been at the lodge for a few days and while Tansy and Lia had spent a lot of time together, Joe had managed to snag her enough to confirm he wanted more. A lot more.
The clouds and rain of the day before had blown away and he’d asked Lia to take a canoe ride with him.
She looked up at him with worry in her eyes. “This is safe, right?”
He laughed. “Absolutely. I’ve been operating boats since I was a kid. The canoe may be old, but it’s as sturdy as anything they make today.”
Her smile was wry. “You sound like Aisling.”
The carpenter was a fan of all things old and refurbished, which was why she was the perfect fit to renovate the lodge and make it as energy efficient as possible. “The craftspeople knew what they were doing when they built this place. And the canoe.”
“What about the dock? Sam told us about crashing through one of these.”
If she hadn’t looked so worried, he might have laughed again at the reminder of the day his buddy had dunked himself because he’d thought Tansy was injured, not napping, at the end of the dock. “He did. That was the long dock over there. We all worked together to fix it up. We’ve had everyone on it at the same time. It’s perfectly safe. This one too.”
Figuring he might as well show her, Joe released her hand, walked to the end of the dock and did some jumping jacks. That earned him a smile and when he walked back to her, she nodded.
He held out his hand and she stepped tentatively onto the wood. She shifted her weight and pushed down. When nothing moved, she smiled and walked slowly forward with him. “I’m not very athletic or coordinated.”
She was always telling him what she couldn’t do, what she wasn’t good at. It seemed like her entire self-worth had been tied up in her career. He hoped to help her realize what an amazing person she was.
He’d watched her closely over the last couple of days to see what her hand could and couldn’t handle. When it ached, she tended to hold it against her body or rub it softly. She’d told him she was right handed but she did most things with her left hand now because of the injury.
The hand looked mostly healed from the outside. The scars were still fresh, but her hand was whole. Her fingers didn’t move as easily as her other hand. He imagined the tendons, ligaments, and muscles had all been torn by the bullet. Those would take a while to heal. She’d confessed she wouldn’t ever get her full mobility back.
When they were sitting around the dining table or the main room, Lia tended to keep her hand out of sight on her lap. Sometimes she stretched and moved the fingers in a repetitive way that told him it was probably physical therapy.
When they reached the canoe, her left hand tightened in his.
Her voice showed she was still worried. “How do we get down there?”
“First we sit.” He dropped to sit with his feet hanging over the edge. His toes reached the bottom of the canoe. When he tugged her hand, she lowered herself and sat beside him. He could feel her pulse racing in the hand he held.
“This isn’t supposed to be scary, Lia. If you don’t want to do it, we don’t. It’s no big deal. You’re in charge here.”
She choked out a laugh and her eyes twinkled when she turned to him. He realized his words could have been taken in an entirely different way. A dirty way which was just fine with him. He smiled back. “I like the way you think. You can be in charge in that department too if you like.”
Her dusky skin flushed and he wanted to peek beneath her sweatshirt to see just how far that flush extended. Joe brushed his fingers over her cheeks. Her eyes widened and she leaned into his touch.
