Page 56 of Unwilling Wolf

“You could find a real husband.”

She closed her eyes against the hurt. Stupid man. He saw nothing.

“You could find a real husband, and I wouldn’t ever let Boston find out about what happened in the front yard here. No one would ever find out you’d been married to a man in Texas.”

“Sometimes I really hate you, Garret Shaw.”

“Hmm. That makes two of us, Eliza Shaw.”

It was the first time he’d said her new last name aloud. She didn’t know how to feel. She was mesmerized with his touch in her hair, but angry that he was throwing her away, but heartened that he’d let her have his last name for the sake of their conversation.

“If Roy hadn’t asked you to marry me, you would’ve never spoken to me again,” she said.

“I would’ve never even known you were Elizabeth Flemm. I don’t have the memories you do.”

“That’s sad. We had some good ones.”

His fingers paused in her hair as he massaged the hair mask into her ends. “Like what?”

She drew her knees tighter to her chest and closed her eyes to get lost in the memory. “Once upon a time, there was a little boy with a bluetick hound named Sammy.”

His fingertips pressed her shoulders forward, and he dipped the bar of soap into the water and began to lather the washcloth. “Go on.”

“Sammy was protective of the boy and didn’t let anyone around him except for an obnoxious, younger little red-haired girl. She managed to follow the boy to a stream one day when their mothers were visiting and gossiping over a pair of sherry glasses. He’d found a little island out in the middle of the river, and had discovered a shallow sandbar that he and the bluetick hound could cross easier. He’d built a fort on the little island. When the girl saw him cross the sandbar, she followed. Only she was much shorter and wasn’t quite as strong, and the swift current pushed her legs right out from under her. She cried out and the boy heard her, and though he was angry, he jumped in the river that was carrying her away and dragged her back onto the little island. His dog went wild because the girl was coughing water, and the boy was yelling and angry, so the bluetick hound lunged forward and bit that girl right on the arm.”

“I thought you said we had good memories. This is fuckin’ traumatizing.”

“Let me finish. That was the only time that grumpy old dog went after the girl, because the boy yanked him off and yelled him up and down, and then he pulled the girl up and hugged…” she gasped at the sudden well of emotion. She had to take three steadying breaths and try again. “He hugged her tightly and said she was his friend. And then he sat down with the girl and called the dog to him, and he made that dog let the girl pet him. It felt like hours to the girl, because she’d just been bitten and she was scared. Probably it was just a few minutes. After that, Sammy loved the girl and protected her like he did the boy.”

He dragged the sudsy washcloth across her shoulder blades. “I found that fort when I came back here. It felt familiar, but I couldn’t recall any solid memories of it. What happened to Sammy?”

“Sammy died by snakebite. A rattler was in the grass by the boy and the girl’s ankles, and he attacked it. He was old, but still fast. He saved the girl, who was closest to the snake.”

And Garret Shaw did something that shocked her to her bones. He suddenly rested his forehead against the back of her wet hair, and just stayed like that.

“You were trouble from the start, weren’t you?” he rumbled, his fist gripping the back of her hair.

“Some of us are born to it.”

He eased his forehead off her, and then she swore she felt his lips press to the back of her head. It was a quick peck, and then he stood, threw the sopping washcloth on the wooden floor, and walked out without another word.

The slamming of his bedroom door rocked the house.

Hot and cold. Hot and cold.

Chapter Sixteen

After a restless night, Eliza woke with a start to a firm rap on the door. She shot up in bed and rolled right off the edge she’d been perched on while she slept.

At the great thump her body made against the floor’s wooden planks, Garret called, “Eliza?”

“Yes? I’m fine!” A horrifying glimpse at the mirror revealed her hair had dried while she’d slept and resembled the mane of a lion, and her eyes were puffy from lack of rest.

The door creaked open and Garret poked his head in.

“What? What’s wrong now? What have I done?” she asked.

Try as he might not to smile, the effort must have proved fruitless because now he grinned like a fool. In hopes he would go away, she glared at him. His gaze raked down her body, taking in the nightdress he’d admitted was too thin to wear in front of mixed company.

---