Page 17 of Rocky Mountain Desire
“Is it even running anymore?”
“Doubt it. I got the shop to haul it out of the ditch for her, but I haven’t heard anything after that.”
A solid thump hit the wall between them. Matt paused then peeked cautiously around the corner. “Jaxi? You having problems controlling that rake?”
She slammed the head to the ground hard enough for puffs of dust to rise up. Then she leaned forward and glared at him. “The rake ain’t hitting anything I don’t intend it to.”
Not an auspicious announcement. Not with her glaring as if he’d just tracked mud through her entire house. “You’re pissed at me, that’s clear, but hell if I know what I’ve done.”
“Okay. So, you rescue a woman from a storm, then get her car hauled home.”
Matt waited. She wasn’t making this easy. “And…yeah. That’s about it.”
“Shit, Matt. What is wrong with you?”
“Not sure, obviously. I’ll wait for you to tell me.”
Her face lit with laughter for a second before she must have remembered she was upset with him and planted her hands on her hips.
“No, you tell me. If I’d gone off the road, is that all you’d have done? Hauled my ass home then got my car dragged to the shop the next day? Bull. You would have at least called later to find out if I was okay. Heck, you probably would have gotten the car out for me yourself, maybe helped gather some of the stuff that might have gotten ruined from being dumped in the snow.”
Hope’s stuff. He’d forgotten about that. He’d been working so hard at forgetting all the other things about her, like how soft her skin felt against him, that he’d forced her out of his thoughts every time she’d popped up.
Which was disturbingly often.
Guilt hit for a moment before he jerked to a stop. “Wait—but that’s you. You’re family.”
“Matt Coleman, you’re not actually going to tell me your mama would be happy to know that you left someone like Hope to fend for herself, power still off when you left her apartment—”
“Whoa, right there. How the hell you know all this? Did Hope complain to you?”
“Course not. That girl complain? She’s got bigger balls than any of you Coleman boys, and she’d never think of bitching about losing money or being ignored by someone who said they were going to be her friend.”
“Okay, now I know you talked to her.”
He hadn’t said a word about staying the night at Hope’s because it was nobody’s damn business. Nor had he shared their talk about being friends.
And he certainly hadn’t mentioned crawling into the tub with her, and if Jaxi knew about that part, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.
Jaxi marched in closer. “I heard the first bit from the repair shop—Mr. Thompson called the house looking for you since you’d put in the order for the tow. He was mixed up. Thought it was your car and wanted to know what to do withHerbiesince, as you said, they think it’s a sorry hunk of junk worthy of not much more than hauling to the dump. So I took a trip to town to talk to Hope, and found her using a hairdryer to try and salvage the stuff that had gotten wet. She’s not mad at you, by the way. Said you were right to leave it.”
“But you’re mad at me.”
“Damn right, I am. She’s got no one, Matt. She’s not going to complain, so I’m going to do it for her. That night going off the road probably shut down most of her profits for the holiday season.”
And she’d already said she’d been trying to get a few extra sales because of the bad weather. Matt dragged a hand through his hair.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m still not sure what else I can do. Yeah, I should have followed up faster afterward, but—”
“You were too busy being a chickenshit.” Jaxi gave him afuck youlook, then went back to raking. Her shoulders moved easily under her coat as he watched her work for a minute.
“You know, you might be married to my brother and all, but I can still turn you over my knee and spank some sense into you.”
Just like he’d anticipated, that got a rise out of her. Jaxi carefully leaned her rake against the wall then turned to smile sweetly at him. “You and what army?”
Matt held up his hands pleadingly. “Come on, give me a break. Explain.”
Jaxi rolled her eyes. “Fine. Hope scares you to death, doesn’t she?”
