Paige wondered why his voice made her heart flutter, weak as the first motion of a hatchling’s wing.
“Hey, Molly,” Calvin cried exuberantly.
By that time, Paige was standing close enough to hook an arm around Calvin’s middle and hold him up so he could see the black-and-white mare without clinging precariously to the stall door.
Her arm touched Austin’s, and she took a half step to the side.
Molly had been groomed since Paige had seen her last, and she was on her feet, too. There were raw strips on the animal’s head, where the nylon halter straps had been, glistening with ointment.
“Can Molly be my horse?” Calvin asked, squirming so that Paige had to set him down. “I could feed her and ride her and put medicine on her cuts—”
“Calvin,” Paige interceded softly, laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
He was so excited, he was practically vibrating.
“Could I pet her?” he implored, tilting his head back to gaze up at Paige’s face, then Austin’s. “Please?”
Paige felt a jolt worthy of a stun gun when her gaze connected with Austin’s. Again she had that odd sense that he was a stranger, that he’d never been the Austin she’d loved so much when they were both teenagers.
“If it’s okay with your aunt,” Austin drawled, looking at her instead of Calvin, “then sure.”
Paige hesitated, then nodded her permission.
Austin unlatched the stall door and stepped slowly inside, holding Calvin by the hand.
“I can’t reach,” Calvin said.
Paige took a step toward the boy, intending to lift him up again, but Austin beat her to it. He paled slightly, beneath the bristle of his beard, holding Calvin in the curve of one arm.
“Austin,” Paige said, reaching out to take the child from him.
He hesitated before he let Calvin go.
Calvin, for his part, was too busy petting Molly’s nose to care who was holding him. He hooked an arm around Paige’s neck, though, and she felt a rush of such love for her sister’s child that it made her light-headed.
After a few more moments, she carried Calvin out of Molly’s stall and set him back on his feet. She was aware of Austin moving behind her, shutting and latching the door.
“Can I sleep out here in the barn, with Austin and Shep?” Calvin asked, his upturned face earnest with hope.
“Not tonight,” Paige told him gently.
Conveniently, Shep wriggled out from under the cot, wagging his tail, and Calvin, distracted from the camping prospect, squatted to ruffle the dog’s ears.
Looking up at Austin through her eyelashes, Paige was both gratified and shaken to find him watching her.
His color was coming back, but she couldn’t help wondering if he’d hurt himself, lifting Calvin up to pet Molly the way he had.
The grin came suddenly, nearly setting Paige back on her heels, dazzled.
“You know,” he drawled, leaning in close and keeping his voice low, “I’m starting to think I might need a nurse after all.”
ONCE HE WAS fairly sure Molly’s visiting hours were over for the night, Austin took a couple of muscle relaxants, throwing them back with tepid tap water from the tack room sink, shut off the barn lights and eased himself down to sit on the shaky cot he’d set up earlier. He began the tricky task of taking off his boots.
With some sighing and some shifting around, Shep settled himself underneath the makeshift bed.
“Don’t snore,” Austin said. So far, that was the only drawback to having Shep for a dog.
Austin smiled and rubbed his chin with one hand, hoping it wouldn’t start itching before morning, when he could reasonably shave.
Just sitting there, thinking his own thoughts and mostly at peace, the way he generally was around dogs and horses, he almost missed the movement in the doorway of the barn, would have disregarded it as an illusion if Shep hadn’t growled once and low-crawled out from under the cot to stand guard.
“Best show yourself,” Austin advised the unknown visitor mildly, rising to his feet with a lot less ease than he would have liked. “It’ll save us all some grief—you, me and the dog.”
No answer.
He rubbed the back of his neck and waited. How long would it be until the pills kicked in, anyhow? Austin wasn’t exactly hurting, but he was stiff as hell, and in all the wrong places, too.
The shadow in the darkened doorway resolved itself into a small and enticing shape.
“It’s me,” Paige said. From the tone of her voice, she was a little surprised to find herself in that barn, after nightfall, with all the lights shut off. Maybe even more surprised than Austin was to see her there.
He felt the right corner of his mouth kick up in a grin, as his heart staggered like a drunk and slammed against his rib cage before righting itself.
A shaft of moonlight found its way in through a high window way up there in the hayloft and Paige passed through it, a goddess in blue jeans and a pullover sweater, moving slowly toward him.
Shep had long since given up growling by then, and taken to wagging his tail instead.
Paige bent to muss the dog’s ears, then straightened and looked up into Austin’s face. “Did you hurt yourself?”
He couldn’t stop grinning. Good thing it was dark in that barn—mostly. There was that liquid-silver moonlight spilling in, but things were cast in angled shadows.
“Hurt myself? How would I have done that?”
She might have been flustered; there was no telling, since he couldn’t really see her face and her tone of voice wasn’t giving away much of anything. “Earlier, when you lifted Calvin so he could pet the horse?”
“Oh, that,” Austin said. He splayed the fingers of his right hand and pushed them through his hair, just to be doing something other than grabbing Paige Remington by the shoulders and kissing her until her knees buckled. Right then, that was about all he wanted to do.
She saved him from temptation by stepping away to stand in front of Molly’s stall door. There was enough light to see that the mare was on her feet, crunching away on the scoop of sweet feed Austin had given her just before cutting the lights.
Molly wanted for some fattening up, and a few alfalfa pellets now and again would probably do the trick.
Austin didn’t move from where
