Page 44 of Wicked Healing

Chapter 11

Erin didn’t understand.Something had changed over the past two weeks and she wasn’t sure what. After she’d given Luca the papers for the police department, he’d withdrawn from her. Physically, he was still there, but he’d distanced himself from her emotion. They talked about surface things like the dogs, but she didn’t feel like he was looking for a way to connect with her.

Had she come on too strong? She had thought it was kind of a mutual thing. Especially with what he’d told her about coming into their lives when she did.

It had gotten harder to ignore him, too. At first she thought it was because he’d now become forbidden candy. But no, that wasn’t it, she decided. He had begun to rebuild himself, and it was thrilling to watch. At first it was just walks up and down the pasture lane, then she’d looked out one day and seen him actually running. It was a little ungainly, but it had been effective, with Wicked at his side. Then she’d walked into the barn one day and found him doing chin-ups on an iron bar in the rafters. He’d worn a thin T-shirt, but it was saturated with sweat and outlined every muscle down the line of his abdomen and into the low-slung shorts. It had suddenly been hotter inside the barn than outside. Erin had turned and left before she’d done something rash, like demanded to know why he wouldn’t kiss her anymore.

She never heard anything more about the PD, but then, she wasn’t Luca’s confidant anymore. They talked, but only about surface stuff. That hurt her heart, because she’d thought they’d been reaching some kind of true friendship built on honesty and trust.

Luca was working toward something, she understood that. First he’d walked the lane, then he’d begun jogging. Again, it was not a smooth jog, but it was Luca’s new rhythm. He drove himself into the VA one day for a rehab appointment, letting her watch Wicked, and the next morning he’d been on the lane with a blade prosthetic for his leg. Then he’d begun to run smoother, and faster. She was so proud of everything he’d done, and if she could have told him that she would have, but he kept his distance.

It must be some kind of Navy SEAL thing, closing himself off from everyone around him and burying himself in work.

Her mother called one day. “I thought I would slide over and meet the new tenant,” she said and Erin could hear the innuendo in her voice.

“I don’t think he’s here, Mom.”

“Well, where is he? You haven’t said more than a few words about him. I thought you guys were getting friendly. Why all the mystery?”

“We were,” she sighed, “but I think he’s working on finding himself.”

Linda sniffed. “I think you all are carrying on an affair and just don’t want me to know.”

Erin couldn’t help but laugh, though she knew it sounded a little sad. “You’ve got it all wrong, Mom.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Well, I would still like to meet him at some point.”

“I’ll let him know, Mom.”

And she hung up. Her mother made her tired. The constant relationship haranguing was tedious.

Erin continued to do her own work and when the owner of the feed store in town asked her out, ostensibly to talk about a fund raiser for her kennel, she decided to take him up on his offer. It wasn’t like she was doing anything else with her evenings. It would be a nice break to the monotony.

Sean Cruz was a handsome devil. He came from a long line of horsemen and he’d built a solid business helping his fellow ranchers. Phoenix was a booming, metropolitan community but there were still parts of it that were true country. Sean was a strong part of that community. As they walked into the Stockyard Restaurant, more than one man waved or called out to him.

During the dinner, Sean kept up a steady stream of conversation designed to entertain and draw his partner in. Erin found herself caught up in the gossip of the area. Sean was a pretty funny guy and she laughed more than she expected to. It was a testament to his wit that he was able to draw her out.

The steak was fabulous, of course. And when they finally got to talking about the fund raiser Sean had thought about doing, Erin was completely receptive. She had to be careful of the slants some people took to ‘help’ her out in the name of the military. She’d been approached more than once with shady deals to raise money for her kennel and had had to turn them down. Sean’s idea, though, was straightforward, and helped several other local business people too. She promised him she would think about it.

They talked all the way to her house and Erin appreciated that he was a decent guy, but there was no spark of attraction. Even as handsome as he was, and as community-minded, there should have been some tiny flickering interest, but there wasn’t. As a friend he was great, but it would never be more than that.

As she greeted her dogs when she walked into the house, she realized she liked them so much more than most of the rest of the world. Greta brought her the floppy orange nylon frisbee and Erin threw it a few times before heading to her bedroom to get changed into nightclothes. The desert had cooled so she cracked a couple of windows, letting the breeze swirl through the house, then let the dogs into the back yard to do their business. Dropping down to the top step she curled her arms around her knees, enjoying the night.

Greta took off toward the back corner of the fence, tail wagging, and Erin realized Wicked was there on the other side. She wanted to stand up and peer into the darkness for Luca. He had to be there. Wicked didn’t range loose. But she forced herself to stay on the back steps, waiting to take her cue from him.

* * *

Luca groaned inwardly,caught in his own trap. When Erin had mentioned she was going out earlier, he hadn’t thought much of it. Seemed like she was always heading into town for dogfood or groceries or something. But when the heavy duty white pickup had pulled in and the tall guy in cowboy boots and hat had jogged up to her front door, he’d been a little stunned. Obviously she’d meant she was going on a date.

Luca had been pulling out of the drive at the time, heading for a popular hiking trail a few miles away, but he kept glancing back in his rearview mirror. He’d paused at the end of the driveway just long enough to see Erin come out onto the porch and greet the man, her tan legs looking extraordinary in her flirty little blue short-suit thing. He realized he wasn’t breathing as he watched her greet the man, who took off his hat to lean down and kiss her on the cheek. Erin smiled but didn’t do any more than that. Then her golden gaze had swung in his direction and Luca had had to leave.

The entire time he and Wicked were hiking, he was thinking about Erin with her hair curling softly to her shoulders. The long line of her thighs haunted his thoughts, and that distraction made him fall for the first time in a long time. The blade had dragged going up a rocky patch and he’d gone down pretty hard. Luckily there hadn’t been anyone else on the trail within sight, so he’d salvaged some pride there, but his hands were a little shredded. Plus, his right hand had brushed a cholla on the way to the ground and he could still tell he had some of the tiny spines in his skin. They were in such an awkward position to dig out, though.

He looked through the night to the island of light ahead of him. Rather than deal with the pain in his hand he decided to go for a night jog on the flat lane. It was so much cooler in the evenings, and with the full moon out there wasn’t much that he couldn’t see. As always, Wicked had ranged ahead and he’d headed straight for Erin and the other dogs.

Knowing he needed to talk to her, Luca let himself through the side gate and went around the side of the house. Wicked had jumped over the fence and was letting little Sophie lick him in welcome. Erin looked up with a smile when he drew close, but he could see a guardedness in her eyes.

“Hey,” she said.

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