Page 25 of A Twist of Faith
She turned from the casserole so fast he thought she might fall over. “Excuse me?”
When Reese replayed the question in his mind, he was pretty sure he’d already started the fire—on his face. “I mean, do you want me to heat things up in here for you.”
Her eyes grew wider. His face got hotter.
“Let me fix you up a fire.” He pointed to the fireplace just to rule out any doubt. “Right here. In the fireplace.”
She stood there staring, so he got to work. Anything to keep from opening his mouth and proving his stupidity out loud. Changing the subject seemed like a good idea.
“Why don’t you warm up some supper? I bet you’re hungry after a full day.”
He shuffled through some kindling and beat himself up in his head. What an idiot. He needed a whole lot more than accent therapy. He needed brain therapy. This particularly woman crossed-up his thinking. Proof-positive he should steer clear of her as much as possible.
A strangled noise from behind took his attention off of his self-beating. Doc had her back to him, one hand on the counter, and the other up near her face. The sound came again. Louder.
Was she choking? Could she breathe? Her shoulders started shaking. He jumped up and quickened his pace. The sound grew into something resembling … laughter?
“Dee?”
She swung around and brought a full laugh with her.
“You’re laughing?” He pushed a hand through his hair to keep from shaking her. “I thought you was chokin’.”
She laughed harder. Her dark eyes glimmered. Evidently dying-by-choking wasn’t such a bad idea in her book. Well, since she was crazy anyhow, it made perfect sense.
“What is so daggone funny?”
She snorted a reply in a cute-unladylike-kind of way and then leaned forward, bracing her shaking body with a hand to her waist. More of her dark hair fell around her shoulders.
“You need help, woman.”
Her shoulders shook harder, but she managed a broken reply. “Help? With lighting my fire?” She lost her laugh again. “No, thanks, mountain man.”
He’d thought she was pretty before, but when her eyes lit with humor, her cheeks glowed ruby, and her smile spread full and beautiful across her face. He turned plum befuddled. He couldn’t help but grin back. Crazy sure did look good on her.
“Proves my need for speech lessons, don’t it?”
She snickered behind her palm. “I don’t know if my degree reaches to that level, Mr. Mitchell.”
He stared at her a little too long, trying to figure out how the glow on her transferred heat to his chest. And arguing with himself to leave the house immediately, before all that warmth forced him to say more dumb things. He’d kept attraction at bay a long time—and this type terrified him. It tempted to spill over into something a lot deeper with the ease of another laugh.
Her eyes sobered. Her smile faded. She kept looking at him … and he looked right back like the loon he was.
Getting to that fire was probably a good choice. Andnotthe one starting in his chest.
He stepped back until his heel hit a chair.
“It’s good to see you laugh, Doc. I gotta feeling that needs to happen a whole lot more than it does.”
“I haven’t laughed that hard since …” She paused and touched a finger to the corner of her lips. “I can’t even remember. And after the day I’ve had, I needed it. Badly.”
He bent down to the fireplace. “Rough start?”
“Of my own making, I’m afraid. I was mean.” She lifted the lid on one of the dishes on the counter and paused to take a deep breath of its contents. The large open room, with living room spilling into the kitchen, gave him a clear visual of her. “Have you ever wished you could rewind an entire day, maybe even an entire year, and start over?”
Reese tossed another log on the fire then leaned his arm against his bent knee, studying her. “I’m pretty sure everybody’s been there some time or other.”
She put a hand to her head and leaned back against the counter. No doubt the woman was tired and probably pretty hungry. And if those eyes of hers got all fragile again, he might do something they’d both regret. Like kiss her.
