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“Hey,” he said, “I know what you’ve been through, Lindsey. It’s got to be tough on you. How about you climb into my spare bed here and get a good night’s rest, okay?”
“This isn’t your bed?”
“No,” he said with a grin. “My bed is much bigger. And it’s in another room.”
“Thanks for cleaning me up, Taz,” I remarked, now feeling the blush that was absent while he bathed me.
“It was my pleasure, sweetheart.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yep.”
“What is your real name?”
It had struck me after all of this time that I had never heard anyone refer to him as anything other than ‘Taz’.”
“Hmm,” he said, giving me an ornery look, “I don’t share that information with a lot of people, you know? I guess I can make an exception for you. It’s Trace,” he said.
“Trace,” I repeated, liking the way it sounded on my tongue. “Thanks, Trace.”
CHAPTER 2
When I awoke the following morning, I stretched trying to work out the kinks of having slept in a strange bed.
Immediately, my chest felt as if an elephant had been sitting on it all night. My mind was fuzzy.
The room where sunlight was streaming was unrecognizable. Then the events of the previous evening came quickly flooding over me. My ribs and chest ached because of the wretching I had done.
Oh shit! I remembered there was alcohol, lots of it. I recalled spewing all over Taz’s truck. He had undressed me and put me in the shower, cleaning me up.
I looked down at the clothes I was wearing; they were huge on me but clean and comfortable. They were Taz’s. I mean Trace’s.
I smiled, remembering that he had shared his given name with me: Trace. Trace Matthews. He had been totally sweet to me, a gentleman to be sure. I blushed under the sheets of the bed in his guest room.
I looked around. A glass of water and a bottle of Advil had been placed on the nightstand next to the bed. Taz was thoughtful, too. My head was fine though.
I sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and quickly realized my head was not fine. It felt like a hundred thunderous horses were pounding their hooves inside of it.
Ouch!
I picked up the bottle of Advil, removing a couple of tablets and quickly washed them down with the full glass of water.
Somewhere, I could hear the sound of dishes clattering together. The smell of freshly-brewed coffee caught my attention.
My stomach had a gnawing ache in it from being totally empty.
I slowly raised myself up off of the bed and poised myself to face the man who had seen me naked and hadn’t yelled at me for leaving my DNA all over the inside of his truck.
I quietly made my way down the hallway to the end where I could now smell bacon cooking.
Taz was there at the stove turning the bacon. He was wearing black tee shirt that had the sleeves ripped off. It accentuated his muscular chest and shoulders. His jeans were faded and ripped, hanging low on his narrow hips.
“Good morning,” I said, trying to sound normal but my voice croaked. Damn! My throat hurt from the retching.
“Hey, baby girl,” he said, flashing me a dazzling smile. “I see you survived the night no worse for the wear.”
“Barely,” I said, hurriedly taking a seat at his kitchen table afraid my legs would give out.
