Stone Cold Cowboy(68)

She tossed her phone on the bed. It rang immediately. She ignored it and pulled out the clean nightgown Rory had packed for her. She walked out of his room down the hall to Ford and Colt’s shared bathroom, her back to the ringing phone and a past she needed to leave behind. Her father told her she’d have to make the hard choices where Connor was concerned. She never thought it would hurt this much.

She closed herself into the bathroom, turned on the shower, stripped, and stepped into the hot spray, letting the water wash away two days of hospital smells and the tears of grief she shed over losing her father and brother all in one day.





CHAPTER 18

Rory walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair dripping down his back. He hated to tempt fate, but had planned poorly and forgotten to grab a pair of sweats to wear after his shower. He wondered what Sadie would say to him walking back in nearly naked. He stood in the wide opening and stared at his empty bed, her cell phone sitting in the middle of the mattress, buzzing and chirping every ten seconds.

With Sadie gone, he quickly went to his dresser, found a pair of comfortable black sweatpants, and dragged them on. Tired of the incessant noise coming from her phone, he grabbed it off the bed. The screen lit up with three missed calls from an unknown number and a dozen texts.

The last one chilled his skin and froze his heart.

UNKNOWN: I’ll fucking kill you for this.

“Rory?” Sadie’s soft voice called to him from the doorway. “What are you doing?”

He faced her with the phone in his hand. “He’s threatening you. What did he say to you when you spoke?”

“The people he’s working with are going to kill him unless he comes up with the cash for the drugs they lost. Same shit, different day.” She walked to him with her hand out. He dropped the phone in her palm just as it chirped again.

“What’s it say this time?”

“Nothing.” She scrolled the messages, a frown on her pretty lips. The single tear that rolled down her soft cheek pissed him off.

“Don’t shut me out. I hate it when you cry.”

“I’m not shutting you out. He doesn’t mean any of this. At least he won’t when he comes down off the high he’s riding.”

“That’s just it. You’re trying to reason with a junkie.”

“I know what he is. I know who he is. I told him tonight that I can’t help him. I’m done. I’m out. He’s on his own. Happy?”

“Do I look happy?”

“No, you’re back to scowling at me. And put on a shirt. I can’t fight with you when you’re naked.”

That made him smile and laugh. “If I was naked, we’d be in that bed and you wouldn’t be fighting with me.”

“I don’t want to fight with you. I’m sorry. I’m tired and angry and overwhelmed with you, my father, and my damn brother.”

“All right, sweetheart, I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have said anything. You’ve had two days of pure hell and I’m not helping.”

“Believe it or not, you are. You brought me here because you knew I couldn’t stay at my house alone. Your brothers and grandpa fed me and treated me like part of the family. The toast . . . was really sweet.”

Rory reached for her, sliding his hand along her cheek and around her head to the back of her neck. He pulled her close. Not that she needed much coaxing to come into his arms. She laid her cheek on his chest and sighed.

“Oh God, do you have to smell so good and feel so warm?”

“I could say the same about you, sweetheart.” As much as he loved her close, her hands rubbing softly up and down his bare back, her deep sigh and huge yawn made him gently set her away. “It’s late. You barely slept an hour last night. Get in bed.”

Her eyebrow shot up and a sexy smile tilted her lips. “Oh yeah?”

“Stop. You’re killing me.” Rory leaned down and pulled back the covers.

Sadie sat on the edge of the bed and stared up at him. “Thank you for understanding, taking care of me, and, well, everything.”

He cupped her face, leaned down, and kissed her softly on the lips. With her here in his room, he wanted to take the kiss deep and lose himself in her, but this wasn’t the right time. “No thanks necessary. I’m leaving before I can’t stop myself from finding out what you’ve got on under that nightgown.”

Sadie lay down on her side, her damp hair spread on his pillow. “You know exactly what I don’t have on under the nightgown because you didn’t pack me anything to wear under it. Either it’s your diabolical plan to torture both of us, or you’re just planning ahead for later and saving yourself time getting to me.”