Nick figured that was natural since they were identical twins, but it had always made him want to kick himself for noticing anything about her. That she was more outgoing, for instance. A risk-taker. Whereas Carol Ann had always made it clear she had deep roots in Wrangler’s Creek and had wanted to have and raise a family here.
The family plans hadn’t actually appealed much to Nick since he’d been a teenager, but Carol Ann was the “safe” twin. She had the good-girl label whereas Lindsay had been dubbed the wild child. There’d been no risk of getting in trouble or being arrested while he was with Carol Ann.
Staying out of jail had been a big priority for him in those days, since his dad had had repeated run-ins with the law. His father had been a screwup, and Nick had seen how it messed up his life. No way had he wanted to be Screwup Junior.
Nick still didn’t want that label, and while he was no longer concerned about arrests and such, that didn’t make this situation all right. Far from it. Because Lindsay could be a big problem.
He’d learned his lesson about taking his hand off the towel, but he used his head to motion to various parts of the room. Other than one chair, a small table and the bunk bed frames, there was no furniture. In fact, there were only two mattresses on the frames because the others had been taken to the new bunkhouse. Everything was scuffed, frayed or just plain old, and the smells of livestock and sweat had seeped permanently into the wood.
“Obviously, this isn’t a good place for you to stay,” he clarified.
She glanced around at the same things he’d just pointed out with his head tips. “It’s better than sleeping under the roof with sixteen other hands. Plus, if it’s good enough for you—”
“I want to be here,” Nick growled. Of course, that was a bad argument, one that only caused Lindsay to lift her eyebrow again.
“So do I.” She opened her mouth, probably to give him a better argument than the one he’d just given her, but then her expression changed when he shifted his position.
At first Nick thought that was because the towel had gaped in the wrong place and he’d flashed her, but she wasn’t looking at his groin area. She’d noticed the fist-sized bruise on his side. The one that was contributing significantly to his pissed-off mood. Of course, Lindsay’s being here sure wasn’t helping.
“What the heck happened to you?” she asked.
“A piebald gelding named Gumball. Trust me, there’s nothing sweet about him.”
Since Lindsay was a trainer, too, he nearly launched right into some details of the plan he had for future training sessions, but this wasn’t a conversation he wanted to continue. Somehow, he had to convince her to leave and go anywhere but here.
“The Grangers have a guesthouse you can probably use,” he added.
If Lindsay heard him, she didn’t respond. She went straight to the open kitchen, threw open the freezer. It was practically empty except for a frozen pizza. That sent her looking in the fridge, and she grabbed a cold beer before she headed back to him.
“Hold this,” she instructed when she thrust the bottle into his hand, then she dug through her suitcase to come up with a tube of something. “It’s an herbal lip balm,” she explained.
Sitting down on the edge of the bunk so that she was eye level with his side Lindsay began to dab the goo onto his ribs. Or at least that’s what she was doing before he stepped back.
“It works,” she assured him. She took hold of him, catching on to his hip, and pulled him closer.
Nick wanted to move, but the idiot part of him behind the towel started to react. Not just to the fact that she was touching him but also to her warm breath hitting his bare stomach. He just stood there, gritting his teeth and hoping for a quick end to the torture.
Apparently, though, Lindsay didn’t think that was enough to drive him crazy, because she stood, then bent down to continue the goo-smearing. Her hip brushed against the front of the towel.
And against the front of him.
She obviously figured out that he was a man with full working parts, because she moved back a bit. “Sorry,” she said, standing so that they were face-to-face. Breath-to-breath.
Their gazes held for a couple of seconds before she smiled. Again, there was nothing to warrant that grin.
“Well, I hadn’t expected you to react to me like that,” she added. “But it’s a nice perk. Now, hold that cold beer on your side to bring down the swelling.”
Since she’d run all those words together, it took Nick a moment to process the first part. He wanted to deny that he had any kind of thoughts about her that didn’t involve her leaving now. But it was difficult to lie when he had the beginnings of a hard-on.
“You’re sleeping here tonight,” he concluded when she took a pair of pj’s from the suitcase.
Lindsay nodded, smiled again and said something that Nick was certain would come back to haunt them.
“You’ll never even notice I’m here.” She added a wink. “And if you do notice, then all the better. Good night, Nick.”
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