Page 83 of Tempting as Sin
She woke up in the night, because somebody was talking, she thought. Her grandma, but she was only coughing. More than usual. After a while, she stopped.
Bailey lay in the dark and listened, but she couldn’t hear anything except a mosquito, which kept whining around her head. She thought she heard something else, though. Like her name. After a second, she got out of bed and turned on the light, and she thought she heard it again. So she went into the living room.
Her grandma was still under the blanket. She coughed another time, really long, like she couldn’t get her breath, and Bailey asked, “Grandma?”
Her grandma said, “Water,” and Bailey went to the sink and poured a glass, then brought it back. Her grandma opened her eyes, and they looked funny. Almost like Ray’s when he was drunk, like she was about to cry. She was shivering, too, even though it wasn’t cold. She said something, but Bailey couldn’t tell what it was, then coughed some more, and Bailey wondered what she should do. After a while, the coughing stopped, and her grandma said, “Call 911.”
Bailey hesitated. 911 was the cops. Her grandma said, “Call and tell them I need the ambulance.”
Bailey picked up the receiver and punched the buttons on the phone. Her grandma was still shivering, like she needed more blankets.
“Nine-one-one,” the lady on the other end of the phone said. “What is your emergency?” Just like on a cop show.
It made Bailey think of a show her grandma had watched last week, where a lady had called the police for help because somebody was hurt, even though the lady had broken into the house. She said, “Hello. Somebody here is very sick. She needs to get an ambulance to take her to the hospital.”
“Can you give me the address?” the lady asked, and Bailey gave it to her. She knew it because of filling out the forms for the library and for school. “Seven thirty-six Hacienda Lane, Sinful, Montana, 59970.”
“All right,” the lady said. “I’ve got it. What’s your name?”
Bailey said, “Hermione Wu,” because it was the only name she could think of. She didn’t want to get Hermione in trouble, but she didn’t want to say her own name. If they came and got her grandma and knew she was here, they’d take her to a foster home. They never let kids stay by themselves, even if you knew how to fix your own food.
“How old are you, Hermione?” the lady asked, and Bailey said, “Twenty-six.” That was how old her mom was. It was a grown-up age.
“All right, Hermione,” the lady said. “Stay on the line with me. What is the person’s name, the one who’s sick?”
“Her name is Ruby Johnson.” She had to get out of here before they came. “I know that because I’m her neighbor. I have to go, though. There’s a fire at my house.”
The lady said, “What? Who is it that needs attention? Please give me your address.”
Bailey hung up. Her grandma was coughing again, sounding like Chuck after he’d eaten grass, before he threw it up. She was still shaking, too, so Bailey ran and got her blanket off her bed and put it on top of her.
She could hear a siren now, and waited a second, standing on one foot and then the other. Then she ran. She’d worn her clothes to bed like she’d planned, so she grabbed her backpack, then yanked her jacket from the hook in the closet. She could see the lights. Red lights, flashing across the front window. She heard aclunklike car doors were opening, and she stood on the bed, heaved up hard with her arms, and got halfway out of the window. Then she fell. She hit the ground hard, skinning her knee and her palm, and it hurt, but she didn’t wait, because she could hear noise from behind her. They were coming inside. She didn’t even put her backpack on, just held onto it and her jacket, grabbed her bike handlebars, and rode.
It was harder in bare feet, and it was dark, and she couldn’t see. She couldn’t ride on the road, because that was where the ambulance was. She could see it now. She went behind the trailer next door instead, even though they had a mean dog and she could hear it barking. It was inside tonight, but she rode faster anyway, until she hit the curb and fell off her bike.
Her knee really hurt now, and so did her elbow and her chin, because she’d hit them, but she got up, dragged her bike over the curb, and rode away.
Lily woke up hurting, and she woke up comforted. Rafe’s arm was draped over her side, and it didn’t feel confining. It felt safe. And when she rolled over and he opened his black-lashed eyes, he smiled.
He wasn’t just beautiful, and he wasn’t just strong. He was so sweet, he made her heart ache, and she couldn’t regret anything at all. Not sleeping with him. Not telling him the truth. Maybe she’d exposed him to scandal again, and maybe she hadn’t even done that, or not too badly. The scandal wouldn’t last this time. He hadn’t done anything that could evenlookwrong. He’d done everything right.
What happens now?Part of her mind tried to ask, and she didn’t shut it down. She answered it.I don’t know. It could be hard. It probably will be, because I want to keep waking up with him, and I know I won’t be able to. But I don’t get to choose anymore.
“You don’t have to get up,” he said, throwing the sheet off and standing up, showing off all that Beast body. Or maybe the sheriff one. His new leanness only made his muscles more defined, and she’d just say that morning was a good look on him. Black scruff, blue eyes, and…everything else. One hundred percent beautiful man.
“I’ll get up,” she said, and forced herself to do it without a groan. “I’ll be less stiff once I start moving, and I’ll be happier once I start thinking about happy things.” She took another look at his morning body and said, “Although I’m thinking some happy thoughts right now, too. At least happyfuturethoughts.”
He smiled again and headed into the bathroom, and a few minutes later, he and Chuck headed out to help her with the animals. Rafe didn’t wear his sunglasses, since there wasn’t any point, and Lily did. Her swollen, bruised eye was absolutely not beautiful, and she didn’t want Antonio to see it. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
Chuck was fully himself again, though. Well, notfully,not with his missing parts, but he bounded out with an enthusiasm for the ages and peed joyfully on a tree like he’d already put the episode behind him and moved on.
Unfortunately, the sounds around them weren’t just the soft, musical trill of a red-winged blackbird on a fence post, the drowsy morning cackle of chickens still in their coop, and the rustle of goats rising from the straw and preparing to get up to mischief. She heard doors opening on the road, too. There was no way she was turning around to look, but when Chuck turned his hairy butt toward the cameras, squatted, and gave them a close-up view of dog elimination? She laughed.
“Look at it this way,” Rafe said, heading into the shed and out of sight of whoever was out there. “How early did they have to get up just to get a shot of you in your flowered overalls? How stiff must they be from sitting in their cars since dawn? Chuck and I will do the chickens.”
“Maybe you should take off your shirt,” she suggested. “Make it worth their while.”
He grinned, put an arm around her, and dropped a soft kiss on her mouth. “Nah. They have to pay to see that. Besides, cowboys wear shirts. I know, because Jo told me.”
