Page 14 of Loving Her
“Maybe not on purpose. I can admit that you’re right. I do feel something when I’m around you. I’m attracted to you. There’s a powerful pull to spend time with you?—”
“Then—”
“But,” she grumbles when I try to interrupt her. “We don’t know one another. You have a lot to figure out and if we just ignore whatever this is, it will pass. We just don’t feed into it.”
I blink. “You think this electricity between us will just fade away if we ignore it?” I laugh, but there’s no humor in it.
“I think we can control it. We’re not animals.”
“Speak for yourself, Doc. You make me feel like an animal.”
“Then, maybe it’s best if I get Jeff and Cooper to take you to Kentucky now,” she whispers.
It’s odd. I don’t know my own name. I have no memory of my past and my mind is mush for the most part. Yet I’ve not truly been afraid. I panicked at first, but that pales in comparison tohaving Indy tell me I should go back to Kentucky now. I force my exhaustion away. Sitting up, I pull Indy to me just by the hold on her hand. She tries to escape my hold, but I don’t let her. Her eyes are dilated, filled with trepidation as she looks at me.
“You can’t get rid of me that easy, Doc.”
“Breaker, I’m not trying to get rid of you. We may not know what it is, but youdohave a life in Kentucky. You need to return and sort it out. At the very least, you need to see if it jogs your memories. Perhaps find a doctor to help find the proper way to let your brain heal and bring them back. The truth is you don’t belong here. You can’t change that.”
“You think you have this all planned out, don’t you?”
She exhales, shaking her head. “I’m just telling the truth.”
“Bullshit. You know there is such a thing as fate. What if I was meant to be in North Carolina? What if this is fate’s way of bringing us together, Doc? Did you ever think of that?”
“I’m not a big believer in fate. I think people make their own decisions and reap the consequences of those choices, be it good or bad.”
“You think it’s my fault I was shot? Hell, what kind of person do you think I am? It’s a wonder that you trust me to work puzzles with your daughter. Although, that might explain why Jeff is always close by, right?” I ask, suddenly pissed.
“Breaker—”
“Never mind. I think I have my answer. I believe it’d be best if I go ahead and move into the ranch hand quarters tonight,” I mutter, forcing my legs to brace so they can take my weight as I move to rise off the bed.
“Will you stop!” she snaps. Indy moves so quickly that before I even realize it, she’s leaning over my lap, using her body as extra weight to keep me from standing. “You arenotgoing outside tonight. You would probably fall flat on your face before you took three steps.”
“What does it matter anyway? If I drop dead, you will at least know your daughter is safe.”
“You cannot seriously be mad that I would have someone watch over my daughter when I don’t really know you. You were just gunned down a week ago. This is my daughter, Breaker. She comes before anything andanyoneelse. Of course, I’m going to have her monitored while she is with you. Her father was a big enough dick. There’s no way in hell I will expose her to someone else that might hurt her.”
“I’d never hurt Tinny! I love that little girl.”
“You don’t know her!”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know her mother either, but I’m pretty sure that I could love her if she’d let me.”
I see the minute my words hit her. Her entire body jerks like it just suffered a hard blow. Her gaze locks on mine and I’m almost positive that I see panic brewing in those bright blue depths.
“You’re talking insane. Despite this crazy attraction between us, we don’t know one another.”
“Maybe I am insane, but I feel this need to have you in my life so deep inside of me that I know it’s useless to try to stop it. Everything about you calls to me. I may not know my past, Indy, but I know I want more of you in my present and in my future.”
“And if you happen to have a woman you love hidden away in your past? What happens then, Breaker? Take what we feel out of the equation. If I allow you to kiss me—if I allow this to go any further—how are you going to feel if there’s a woman back home grieving your death? A woman who loves you with everything in her. How are you going to feel then?”
“What if I never get my memory back, Doc? Am I supposed to be with a woman I can’t remember? Will she even want a man who can’t love her like the man she remembers?”
“That’s something you won’t know until you return to see what’s waiting in Kentucky for you.”
“Okay, I’ll make a deal with you.”