Page 54 of Calling on the Matchmaker
A couple of apprentices lingered in the workshop, trying to be useful. They also lived in the rooms upstairs, and Riley had sent them down to give her blankets and tend the fires while he changed.
By the time Riley had returned to the workshop, her body was no longer cold. The trouble was that her heart was still icy, and she wasn’t sure it would thaw.
As he stood in front of her, she examined him, needing to reassure herself, as she had already several times, that he was alive and unharmed. His hair was damp, but it was combed away from his forehead. His skin was paler than usual, but the ruddiness of his sun-browned face was returning.
“You’re sure your fingers and toes will survive?” Her gaze shifted to his big hands.
He wiggled his fingers. “Look, there’s nothing to worry about.”
She released a taut breath, but it ended on another shiver.
Riley’s brow furrowed before he nodded at Big Jim. “Would you mind giving us a few minutes alone?”
Big Jim paused in the tapping and smoothed a hand over the metal arch. “You think that’s a good idea?”
“I’m a different man than I was three years ago.”
“But you’re still a man, ain’t you?”
At the nature of the conversation, mortification pushed Finola up to her feet. After all that Riley had revealed about Helen, she knew exactly what Big Jim was referring to. “Please don’t trouble yourself with leaving.” She addressed Big Jim. “I need to be on my way home anyway.”
Riley held out a hand as though to stop her. “No, not yet—”
“I’ll walk.” She didn’t want to impose on Riley for a ride, not after the ordeal he’d just gone through. And it was getting too late now to work in the campaign office, not that he’d been eager to have her there after their disagreement over the slavery issue.
“Of course you’ll not be walking this late, especially by yourself.” Riley dropped onto the bench, tugged on her arm, making her lose her balance so she toppled onto his lap. “I’ll be the one taking you after you spend a few more minutes warming yourself.”
She tried to hop up and off his lap, but he snaked an arm around her waist and pinned her in place.
“Riley Rafferty.” She pushed against his chest, but at the ridge of muscles flexing beneath her hand, she paused. “Whatever are you doing?”
Riley shot Big Jim a narrowed look. “Since my friend insists on staying to be my chaperone, I figure I might as well take full advantage of the situation.”
The very idea that she was touching and sitting in so provocative a position sent more heat to her limbs. The graze of his fingers at her hip, the nearness of his mouth to her neck, the warm invitation in his eyes. Big Jim didn’t only have to worry about Riley needing a chaperone. She clearly had wayward thoughts and needed one too.
Her face was much too close to Riley’s, near enough to see the thick stubble that had formed over his face and jaw. Her fingers itched to brush over it, feel the scratchiness, and remind herself that he was alive. He was here.
But he’d almost died....
“I need to go, Riley,” she whispered, torn with the desire to remain with him but also unable to deny the urgency that had been building since she’d watched him nearly die—the urgency to get away and never see him again.
What was becoming clear was that she’d started to careabout him too much, so much that the prospect of losing him had nearly devastated her out there on the pond. If she cared about him this much now, after knowing him for such a short time, her feelings would only grow the longer she was with him.
She wouldn’t be able to survive day after day watching him push himself to the brink of death, waking up every morning and wondering if the day would be his last.
She already knew how quickly life could end, in a blink, without any way to bring that life back. She’d experienced that with Ava, and she couldn’t go through it again. That’s exactly why the convent was the right place for her. It was a safe place and would give her a safe future.
Riley was the complete opposite of that.
He didn’t make any effort to release her, his brow furrowing deeper. Did he sense her hesitation? Was he afraid that if he let her go, she’d retreat from him forever?
Doing so would be best for both of them.
“Please, let’s not drag this out.” She forced herself to speak the words.
His intense gaze took her in a moment longer, then he expelled a taut breath, his shoulders slumping. “I’m giving you a ride.”
“That’s not necessary....”
