Winning Heart. Laura Browning

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СКАЧАТЬ doctors tell me the exercise helps, so humor me.” His lean face twisted.

      She swallowed and looked away, anywhere but right at him. “Yes, sir.”

      Wynter gathered the papers together. She noticed him studying her, but he said nothing when she stood back up, holding the papers against her chest.

      “Ready?”

      “Yes, sir.”

      He stiffened for a moment but didn’t say a word while he limped toward the door. Wynter followed. He held the door open, and she felt herself blush. She ducked her head as she went past him. Wynter waited for him to turn off the lights before adjusting her pace to walk beside him. The silence stretched her nerves to the screaming point. When she reached the driver’s door of the small truck, she looked at him. Close up she had the feeling he wasn’t as old as he seemed, maybe somewhere around her mother’s age.

      “I’m sorry, Mr. Anderson. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

      His face relaxed. “It’s all right, Wynter.”

      She nodded and climbed in the truck. To her horror, when she turned the key, the engine turned over again and again, but didn’t catch. He watched, and Wynter bit her lip. One glance at the gas gauge and she swallowed. Empty. It was what she feared.

      “Anything wrong?” Anderson asked.

      “I’m out of gas.” She smiled at the man looking in. “It’s okay. I’ll walk. It’s not far.

      “Nonsense,” he stated. “It’s too late and too dark for you to walk along the road. I’ll take you home. My car’s in back of the office.” He started to turn away.

      “No, really,” she insisted. “I…I like walking, and it’s not far…”

      “Wynter,” Nelson Anderson warned, “you’re being ridiculous. I’ll take you home, and that’s the end of it.” He turned to limp toward the back of the office building.

      Wynter swallowed when she climbed out of the truck. Her shoulders hunched as she dug her hands in her jeans pockets.

      “Mr. Anderson?” He stopped, one eyebrow raised. She grimaced and scuffed her sneaker in the gravel.

      “What?” he prompted.

      “You can’t take me home.”

      “Excuse me?” he asked as if unaccustomed to someone telling him what he could or could not do.

      Wynter stared at him with defiance. “I don’t have a home.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “I don’t have a home,” she repeated, chin jutting. She didn’t like his tone. She was already embarrassed and humiliated.

      He hobbled back. “Just where have you been living the past three days?” Those eyes again. Even in the dark his gaze shot sparks of blue fire.

      She glanced at the truck.

      “In your truck?” His tone was incredulous. “You’ve been sleeping in your truck since you started working here?”

      Heat flooded her cheeks. What right did he have to take an attitude? Shoulders squared, she stared back.

      “Yes. I have. Not all of us are as privileged as you or your clients.” She glared at him. “I can assure you, it hasn’t affected my work, so it’s none of your business where I sleep.”

      He’d reached her side by this time. She turned to walk down the drive, but Anderson grabbed her wrist. A sudden vision of other hands grabbing, touching and bruising flashed through her head. She gasped and jerked away, but this time she wasn’t the one to fall. Anderson’s cane clattered when it hit the driveway. A grunt of pain followed when he struck the side of the truck. It was a moment in which time slowed to a crawl. In the glow from the security light mounted on the front of the barn, his face twisted with pain and he clutched at the side of the small truck.

      “Damn it!” he swore while he struggled back up.

      Wynter moved as though she had just unfrozen, scrambling to pick up the cane and rushing back to his side.

      “Mr. Anderson?” she asked. She shook almost as much as he did. “I’m sorry!” She hated the frantic note of panic in her voice. She wasn’t sure if she was more concerned he might be hurt or he might fire her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she rushed on. “Are you okay? Can I help you?”

      “Wynter.”

      “Here’s your cane. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ll help you to your car. Then I’ll go. I—I’ll have to come back to get my truck in the morning.”

      “Wynter.” His tone commanded. “Stop. What on earth are you talking about?”

      “I’m fired, aren’t I?” she demanded.

      His face softened, and blue eyes searched her face. “No, I’m not firing you. I know it was an accident, although I must say your reaction seemed a little extreme.” His expression questioned, and around him hung an air that said if she had something to share, he was a man who didn’t repeat confidences. She stared into that searching blue gaze and swallowed.

      “I’m a bit jumpy. I’m sorry. It was something that happened, before I came here.”

      His eyes narrowed. “Where you worked?”

      “Their son, Payton.” When she said it, she noticed Anderson went still.

      “What did he do?”

      “It was following a hunt. I’d gone out to my truck to change out of my coveralls. All of a sudden he was there.” She stopped and swallowed.

      “Go on.”

      “He touched me…offered me money to…anyway, when I started to punch him, he grabbed hold of my wrist and twisted. I guess I kind of flashed back.”

      “Did he hurt you?” Anderson’s voice was quiet.

      She shook her head. “No. Not really. Wythe got there and took a hunt whip to him.”

      “Wythe?”

      “Oh. He whips in for Southard, but he’s friends with my mom and me.”

      Anderson nodded. “Is that why you got fired?”

      “Uh, no. Mr. Southard had already fired me. I laid a drag before the hunt that ended in his son’s brand new Mustang convertible. I gave them a great couple of miles before the scent ended at Payton’s car. Well, there were a lot of refusals at the hedge next to the house. And that was so funny because Payton’s girlfriend looked like a raccoon! And then, the top was down on the Mustang, and those hounds so trashed that car. They were all over the white leather upholstery like flies on sh...”

      Wynter’s eyes snapped up when she heard a cough and she caught what looked like the faintest smile flashing across Anderson’s face.

      “Shit,” СКАЧАТЬ