“My agent said they couldn’t argue with the numbers. I’m all over the internet, thanks to you.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been unmasked already.” She grabbed her phone off the end table and tapped one of the saved reels. It was a series of photos of her; receiving her R.N. pin, the shot from her ID badge at the hospital, a shot of her with Ethan outside the Cantina. Under the photos were bullet points.
Lily Ellen Hyde, R.N. from Ithaca, New York
Works at a small-town hospital
Father Hyram Hyde, chef & restaurant manager, retired
Mother Lily Maria Hyde: R.N. Died of cancer two years ago
One brother, Harrison Hyde
Brother is married to Ethan Brand’s cousin, Maria Brand
Lily moved to Texas a year ago with her father and brother
Ethan looked at the post, rolled his eyes. “I’m real sorry, Lily”
She shrugged. “At least they aren’t saying anything mean. I’ve been branded a ‘nice girl,’ so far at least.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Wait until they find out I quit my job to work for you at the Cantina. Bet they change their minds to gold-digger in a hurry.”
“When I go back on the road, they’ll get over it,” he said.
The thought of him dancin’ with some honky-tonk honey had her seeing red. “That’s not for a while, though.”
“We’ll see. I can get things pretty well underway here in a couple of weeks.”
She set her iced tea down on the table and tried to catch hold of his evasive eyes. “You are running away,” she said. “Just like I said you would.” Then she heaved a huge sigh. “And it isn’t right. I can’t have you running away because of me. You need to be here for the good of your career, and I think for your own good, too. I don’t need to work for you. They’d take me back at the hospital, or even at the clinic in Quinn.
“That’s not what I?—”
“I can call the hospital right now, prove it to you so you don’t feel bad about letting me go and?—”
“I don’t want to let you go.”
She stopped speaking. God, she loved how those words had sounded. If only they meant what she wanted them to mean. “Well, I don’t want you to leave town, so…”
He closed his eyes. “I think your first idea was probably the best one.”
“What first idea?” she asked with bunched-up brows and an irritated tone. Sexual frustration would do that to a girl, she reasoned. Although it had never been a problem until now.
“A hands-off policy while we’re working together. You said that, remember?”
“Yeah. Before I kissed you. Twice. Which you liked as much as I did.”
“Maybe more,” he admitted. “But I’ve told you why it’s a bad idea for us to be together just now. So your hands-off policy makes sense. And I don’t have any better ideas, besides hittin’ the road.”
“Well, I have a better idea.”
He looked at her with naked fear in his eyes and did not ask.
So she asked for him in her best Ethan voice, all deep and drawly. “What’s your better idea, Lily?”
“Why thanks for asking, Ethan,” she replied to herself. “My idea is that you stop worrying so much and make love to me like you want to.”
She didn’t get up and go over to him, though. She thought about it, but sliding onto his lap on her dad’s recliner would feel disrespectful of her dad, and besides, he needed to have a choice. She didn’t think his brain would keep functioning if she sat on his lap, and that wouldn’t be fair. And if their roles were reversed…damn! She wished their roles were reversed.
So she stayed where she was, on the sofa, gazing at him and he stared back at her, looking deep into her eyes. He swallowed. She could tell by the bulge and retreat of his Adam’s apple. And then he said, “Lily Ellen Hyde, you’re the prettiest, sexiest, most amazin’ female I’ve ever set eyes on, and I’ve never wanted to say yes more than I do right now.”
