to lose the momentum.
She did the breakfast dishes as Andy labored over his workbook.
The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Jenna said, walking into the living room to get the front door.
She looked through the peephole. Standing on the porch, propped up by a pair of crutches, was none other than Dustin Morgan.
His hair was darker than ever, and his eyes were as blue as the Arizona sky above. If possible, he looked better than he had in high school. Her cheeks heated just looking at him. TV didn’t do him justice.
Jenna could never forget the guy who’d flirted with every girl in high school. That is, everyone but her.
He’d been a star quarterback and the best player on the basketball team in freshman and sophomore years as well as a rodeo champ. He had all the girls drooling over him, including her.
But he never paid her any attention. In fact, she was the only female he seemed to avoid.
And he’d turned down a full scholarship so he could ride with the PBR. Jenna had never been able to understand this.
She swung the door open, and he smiled widely. Her gaze drifted to his crutches, his torn sweatpants and the cast that went from his foot to his knee.
“Hello, Dustin. It’s been a while.” She offered her hand. So far, so good.
He took her hand for several heartbeats and held it before he finally shook it. She could feel the calluses on his palms and fingers.
It was a simple thing, just a handshake, but at his touch, she felt like a giddy schoolgirl again instead of a levelheaded almost-thirty-year-old.
“It’s good to see you again, Jenna.”
He smiled warmly, and she could understand why a gaggle of buckle bunnies always vied for his attention.
“You, too. Although I see you on TV all the time at the bull riding events or … or …” She lost her train of thought for a moment. “But this arrangement is going to be … different.”
Jenna could hear the quiver in her voice, and wondered why seeing Dustin up close and personal was unnerving her.
“I guess you’re stuck with me,” he said.
She pulled her hand away from his. Maybe then she’d relax. “I—I guess I am,” she blurted anxiously. Then, realizing what she said, she tempered her statement. “But you need help, and Tom said that you’re going to oversee the ranch, so that’ll help out. Besides, Andy is over-the-top thrilled that you’re going to be here.”
“It’ll be fun to spend time with the little cowboy,” he said.
She avoided his eyes and stared down at his cast and crutches. “I am sorry that you hurt your ankle. Cowabunga walked all over you.”
He pushed back his cowboy hat with his thumb. “Thanks. It wasn’t my best dismount, but I got lucky. It could have been a lot worse.”
Jenna shuddered. “You did get lucky.”
He shrugged. “You know what they say about bull riding—it’s not when you’ll get hurt, but how bad and how often.”
An awkward pause hung in the air between them. Were they doomed to make innocuous small talk the entire summer?
“Let’s go inside so you can sit down,” she said. “I’ll get your duffel.”
“I can get it,” he said quickly, scooping it up from the ground and then trying to get his crutches over the threshold.
She moved closer. “What can I do to help you?”
“Nothing. I can do it myself.” She heard the edge in his voice.
What was she supposed to do to assist him? He seemed put out that she even offered to help.
They’d better figure out a way to exist in harmony. Didn’t he understand that, for the most part, they’d be living together? She’d have to watch out for him, cook for him, do his laundry and help him get around on those crutches.
Would she have to help him bathe, too?
Her face heated in embarrassment and her heart raced at the thought of seeing Dustin Morgan naked.
Well, she’d wanted adventure and excitement, didn’t she?
The cast was so awkward! It felt like he was lugging around an extra thirty pounds of dead weight. To make things worse, his duffel slipped off his shoulder, slid down his arm and crutch, and hit the floor of the porch.
He struggled to pick up the damn thing.
Jenna offered to help, but there was no way he wanted to impose on her—a woman that he barely knew but had adored from afar since high school. No way.
And there was that damn promise he’d made to Tom niggling at the back of his mind. Was this Tom’s idea of a joke, having Jenna and him live together for several weeks? Or didn’t Tom remember their conversation in the ambulance when Tom had saved Dustin’s life?
Dustin remembered it very clearly.
“Thanks for saving my life, partner. I didn’t see that bull heading for me. I owe you big-time,” Dustin said.
“Forget it. You’d do the same to me. And the only thing you owe me is your promise.”
Dustin held his breath. He knew what was coming.
“My sister. I see you looking at her.” Tom winced in pain. “She’s … not as … experienced as you are. She’s been protected her whole life, first by my parents, then by me. You’re like a brother, but you love the women too much. You’ll hurt her, you know. And you know, you’ll never be around for her, riding the circuit. She deserves someone who’ll be home all the time.”
Dustin looked at Jenna waiting for him to enter the house. He’d rather cut off his riding arm than hurt her, but his friend was right about him never being there for her—not when he was still riding—and he figured he had several good years left in him yet.
So Dustin renewed his promise to stay away from Jenna. But, again, maybe Tom had forgotten about it, or why else would he have asked him to stay at the ranch knowing that Jenna would be there?
As if on cue, Jenna snatched the duffel from him, and held the door open, giving him a wide berth to maneuver inside the living room.
Damn. He hated feeling like an invalid.
He should have holed up in his apartment, done things for himself. But the surgeon who’d operated told him that if he took it easy, he’d heal quicker, and he’d return to the PBR quicker.
That was his goal. He was poised to win the PBR World Finals in Vegas, and that was just what he was going to do. With the money he’d win, he could hang up his spurs and finally settle down on a ranch of his own.
That’s
