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Clipping her ankles as she attempted to skirt the haphazardly stacked boxes, she dug through the smallest of the cartons for her scrapbook. Next to her rosebushes, it was her most prized possession.
She managed to unearth the overstuffed book and carried it to the huge four-poster bed, dropping it onto the mattress. It did a lovely little bounce before scattering a few odd mementos across the spread. To her amusement, one of them was a note she’d written, praising her last apartment for being so roomy. Of course, without furniture to clutter up the place, ashoe box would seem spacious.
Stripping off her clothes, she dug through another box for her nightgown. Pulling on the slip of cotton, she returned to the bed and plopped down beside her scrapbook. “Plopping” proved to be her undoing. For some inexplicable reason, landing so solidly on the bed proved one mistake too many in the multitude that comprised herlife.
The bed collapsed at one end and the mattress tilted against the wall, sending her and the scrapbook cartwheeling toward the headboard. She banged against the heavy oak frame, instantly buried beneath an endless cascade of downy pillows and soft cotton bedding. With a muffled shriek, she kicked her legs to try to free herself from her cocoon. Not that it did much good, since her feet stuck straight up in theair.
The next thing she knew, the door ricocheted open There was an instant of absolute silence, broken by a half-smothered chuckle.
“Don’t you dare laugh!” she ordered crossly.
“Sorry.” She heard Ty’s leisurely tread as he approached. Asecond later, he peered down at her with an expression of careful inquiry. “Need help?”
With all her heart, she wished she could refuse. Considering she practically stood on her head, her dignity spared only by the fortuitous drape of a sheet, she didn’t dare brush him off. She glared at her toes for several long seconds as she weighedwisdom against pride. Too bad she hadn’t been able to spare the extra couple bucks to purchase an eye-catching red polish for her toenails, she thought irritably. Maybe it would have distracted him just a tad. But, no. They were as naked and exposed as the rest of her and he didn’t appear the least bit distracted. Her dilemma held his full attention.
Crud.
“Yes, Icould use your help,” she said, surrendering with a sigh. “If you wouldn’t mind.”
“My pleasure.” He reached down and slipped his hands beneath her arms, carefully lifting her free of her predicament. To her relief, he also snagged the sheet, so her assets remained well protected. “Should I bother asking what happened?”
She grimaced, carefully draping herself in the sheet, her scandalously naked toes peeking out from beneath the improvised robe. “It’s your bed. You tell me.”
“Give me a minute.” He stripped away the rest of the bedding, including the pillows. Her poor scrapbook had scattered across the floor and he worked cautiously around it. “Looks like the rails have been disconnected from the headboard. You’re lucky the whole thing didn’t collapse on top of you.”
She eyed the heavy piece of carved oak and winced. That would have hurt. “How did the rails get disconnected?”
He gathered up the small pile of bolts he’d unearthed beneath the bed. “I assume with a wrench.”
She stared in bewilderment. “I don’t understand. Why would someone do that?”
“When I find out, so will you. In the meantime, I’ll get the tools I need to reassemble the bed.”
Before he could act, the door flew open and Hutch stood there, Miz Mopsey at his heels. “Something woke me up,” he said, making a big production of rubbing his eyes. The dog barked her annoyance,too.
“Sorry about that, sweetpea,” Cassidy said. “My bed collapsed.”
“Oh.” His attention switched to Ty. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to help your mom.”
“Oh,” Hutch said again. “You were rescuing her, huh? That’s really cool. Isn’t that cool, Mom? You have somebody to rescue you now. You’ve never had someone do that before, have you?”
Ty folded his arms across his chest and fixed a certain young troublemaker with a piercing gaze. “Why do I have the impression we need to have another discussion, boy? Idon’t suppose you know how this bed got derailed.”
To Cassidy’s surprise, Hutch began scuffing his toe against the carpet and hemming and hawing. She groaned.
“Oh, Hutch! You didn’t.”
Hutch swallowed. “I think I’m really sleepy now.” He gave an exaggerated yawn. “I better get back to bed. Come on, Mops.”
“Good idea,” Ty inserted smoothly. “Good night.”
The instant Hutch and his dog disappeared, Cassidy turned on Ty. “You don’t really believe he unbolted the rails?”
“Sure do.”
“But why?”
