Page 13 of All Night with the Cowboy
“Let me help,” she said, getting up from her seat. She held onto the armrest for a moment, the champagne hitting her faster than she’d expected it to.No more drinks for you, missy.
“No, just sit down,” he ordered. “It’ll pass.”
She watched as Tanner stretched his leg out, wincing as he shifted his weight.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked, taking the step to his chair and dropping to her knees. She watched his face and saw him hiss in a breath of air as he lengthened his leg.
“Just sitting here, it’s…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s being stiff because I’m not moving here but, hell, nothing feels right. Shouldn’t I be feeling better than this after being in a cast?”
She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know that youshouldbe feeling better yet. You’ve just had your cast off and you’ve been through one hell of a trauma, and all that’s happened is that thebonehas healed, not everything around it.” She dropped to her knees and touched her hand to his leg, glancing up at him to catch his eye before she went any further. “May I?”
He grunted and she took that as a yes. Lauren pressed more firmly, the softness of the worn denim at odds with the tight, solid muscle beneath it. His calf was bunchedup, and she knew that the only bit of relief she could give him now was a massage of sorts. She leaned in, head bent as she ran her fingers up and down his leg, pushing into his muscles to try to help him, even though what she really needed was to be touching skin not denim.
Lauren startled when he exhaled, the noise taking her by surprise, and when she looked up at him, her eyes fixed on his, she saw so much there. The pain of what they’d once had, longing and dammit, she’d be lying if she didn’t see desire matched by the heat coursing the length of her own body right now.
“Lauren…”
“Oh, I’m so sorry!”
Lauren’s head snapped up, her skin ignited as if she’d been set on fire. The poor attendant was standing there, face as red as Lauren’s felt, backing up so she could disappear into where she’d just emerged from. She looked at Tanner, at her hand on his leg, at the way she was bent forward…
“I’m a physical therapist,” she choked out. “I…”
“It’s none of my business. Excuse me,” the attendant said. “Please let me know if there’s anything you need.”
Lauren pushed up, palm to Tanner’s leg.
“Shit, you trying to hurt me or heal me?” he muttered.
She quickly pulled her hand back, wrapping both arms around herself. “She thought I was giving you ablow job,” she whispered. “Oh my god, she thought I was… shit! What if she knows someone from my team? What if…”
Tanner looked amused. A smile played across his lips as she glowered at him.
“If you’d spent your entire career trying to prove toeveryone around you that you were beyond professional in your role, you’d be pissed too,” she fumed. “You have no idea how hard I’ve had to work to get the trust of the players’ wives and girlfriends!”
“Hey, I wasn’t the one who told you to drop to your knees, sweetheart.”
She opened her mouth to say something back but bit down on her lip instead.Asshole.Just when she’d been wondering if walking away from Tanner all those years ago had been a mistake, he went and acted like a total jerk.
Lauren sat back in her seat, downed the last of her champagne, and pulled out her headphones and iPad. It was going to be a long flight, and she intended on watching a movie or two and not looking up until they’d landed.
She certainly wasn’t going to give Tanner the satisfaction of showing him how much he’d hurt her. Not now, not ever.
***
Tanner looked up from his device and watched Lauren. She’d been ignoring him for almost two hours, and he was starting to realize just how much his joking around had hurt her. The attendant had been brave enough to come back out, offering Lauren a cashmere blanket and bringing her bottled water, but other than seeing her shy smile and watching her mouth move as she’d spoken to the attendant, that was it. She hadn’t looked at him, hadn’t spoken to him, and she sure as hell hadn’t smiled at him.
The girl he’d known way back when had liked to joke around and hadn’t stopped laughing. She’d spent more time with her lips stretched wide into a smile, head back,laughing the hell out of whatever dumb thing he said. Her eyes had danced when she’d spoken, lighting up whenever she was happy. But Lauren was every inch a woman now, no longer just a fun-loving girl, and from her reaction before? One who had worked her tail feathers off to get where she was today. And defying others’ expectations and walking your own path were two things that Tanner respected.
He tried to stretch his leg out but his ankle was stuck and everything felt rigid. He needed Lauren’s help, and he needed it badly. Her nightmare might be someone thinking she wasn’t behaving in a professional manner toward one of her clients, but his was never climbing aboard a bull again. And right now she was the one thing standing between his retirement and his comeback.
I’m sorry.They were the words he needed to say. He just had to find a way to actually get them off his chest, which wouldn’t have been so hard if they weren’t the two words he’d been waiting twelve years for her to say to him.
“Mr. Ford, would you like me to serve lunch now?”
He looked up into the warm, pretty-as-a-picture blue eyes of the attendant, but suddenly all the pretty blue eyes in the world didn’t appeal to him. The only eyes he wanted up close and looking back into his were a different color.
“Thanks, that’d be great,” he said.
