No Hero Like Him. Elaine Grant

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СКАЧАТЬ if you were whole, I would expect you to avoid physical force.”

      “Number one, I am whole, lady, just broke my leg,” Seth snapped, pushing himself up from the chair and setting his hat back on his head with a thump. “And number two, I think you need to find somebody else to wrangle this kid.”

      If his attitude was a reflection of how he would handle students, she might just be creating more problems by hiring him. Besides, the sex appeal oozing from his pores might be too much of a distraction. Still, she had to have an assistant.

      “I’m sorry, I should have said ‘even if you were completely healed.’” Claire rose also. “There are other ways of asserting authority besides being physical, you know.”

      “No, I wouldn’t know much about that. I’m pretty used to physical.”

      “Libby told me you were a bull rider.”

      “Am. I am a bull rider,” Seth said, his words clipped with irritation.

      “I understood from your sister that you wouldn’t be able to ride again after this injury.”

      The color drained from his face and his breathing quickened perceptibly. “Libby’s got no business saying that. That’s my decision to make.”

      “I must have misunderstood,” Claire said quickly. “I thought she mentioned that was the doctor’s prognosis.”

      “The surgeon is probably the best there is, but he’s not God. I hope you find somebody for your camp.” Seth spun toward the door, and in the process lost his balance. He caught hold of the door frame to steady himself.

      Claire’s first instinct was to rush to help him, but she refrained. He froze in the doorway as if paralyzed, and she realized he was in pain physically as well as emotionally. His pent-up frustration and fear were palpable.

      Claire’s nurturing instinct kicked in. “Seth,” she called quietly. “I could really use you this summer. Libby almost promised you’d help me out.”

      He wouldn’t turn back to her. “She’s got no business saying that, either.”

      “I do need help.” Claire eased around her desk. “If I can’t give the guidance counselor a name by early next week, my camp may not be able to open.”

      Seth’s grip on the door frame tightened until his knuckles went white. “You need somebody else,” he said between gritted teeth. “Like you said, somebody whole.”

      “I wouldn’t offer you the position if I didn’t think you could handle it.”

      He didn’t respond, but he didn’t leave, either.

      “And, Seth,” she said, “I could work with you to strengthen your injured leg and improve your balance. That’s what I do for a living, you know. Therapeutic riding. Think about it overnight, okay?”

      He shook his head in a brusque, dismissive movement and started for his truck.

      “I’ll be here at eight tomorrow morning, if you change your mind,” Claire called after him.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      “SETH, GET UP.”

      Libby’s voice outside his bedroom door startled him awake.

      He groaned and muttered, “What?”

      “Get up and go tell Claire you’ll help her.”

      Seth sat up in bed, the covers pooling around his bare stomach. His sister had harangued him all last night for turning Claire down. “Don’t start on that again, Libby.”

      “I just talked to her. She’s at the stables for a few hours this morning. Get your butt dressed and get out there.”

      Seth did a double take, staring at the closed door. Libby never used an off-color word, not even butt. “Come on. I told you I don’t want to—”

      “This is the way it is, Seth! Either go work for Claire this summer or I’m going to tell Daddy you’re just wallowing in self-pity, and that he should come up here and get you.”

      Seth breathed a few choice words that Libby couldn’t hear. Just what he needed—his father and two of his older brothers on his case all summer. Lane, the one closest to his age, might cut him some slack, but his oldest brother, Howdy, wouldn’t. Sometimes Howdy acted as if he thought he was Seth’s father anyway. “Okay. All right. I’m getting up.”

      “Good. Get up and stay up.” She was in full schoolmarm mode now and not to be denied. “I’m teaching early Sunday school today. If you get things straight with Claire in time, it wouldn’t hurt you to come to church.”

      “Don’t count on that,” Seth muttered.

      “What?” Libby said though the door.

      “I said I’ll try,” he called. “You can stop the lecturing now. I’m up.”

      He heard Libby cross the hall to her bedroom and close her door.

      It was 7:00 a.m. He hadn’t been up this early since he’d gotten out of the hospital. Before his accident, he’d never lain in bed past six. Maybe it was time for him to get back to normal. But he hated the thought of facing Claire Ford again after yesterday. She must really be desperate if she was willing to hire him in his current physical condition.

      He shook his head. He wasn’t used to a woman studying him with that analytical, sympathetic expression, something akin to pity. Seth didn’t want anybody, especially a good-looking woman, feeling sorry for him.

      His jaw clenched as he recalled how other women had reacted to him, screaming his name and cheering while he flung his hat across the arena in celebration of a great ride. Pressing around after the event as he loaded his gear into his truck. Sidling up to him in the bars the cowboys frequented. Offering to come to his hotel room, or inviting him to theirs. Depending on how pretty she was or how drunk he was, Seth had taken some of them up on their offers. They had never looked at him with pity.

      His blood pumped hard with rising anger. He sure as hell didn’t want Claire pitying him. He wanted that old sense of power, that cocksure attitude that had carried him to victory in and out of the arena. Sweat popped out on his forehead when he stood, and the ache in his leg threatened to lay him flat again. The anger turned into a hot, fluid rush of terror. What if he never got back to where he had been before the accident? What if it just never happened?

      Stop it! He forced his breathing back to normal. Chased the dread out of his mind. No way would he surrender to a broken leg. He’d faced injury before, and looked at death every time he settled on a bull’s back. This was just a bigger setback than most. Still, as he hobbled to the shower, uncertainty gripped his stomach, like a hunger he couldn’t sate.

      A hot shower and a big dose of ibuprofen eased the pain. He rubbed a hand over his freshly shaved jaw and splashed on aftershave. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he went to the closet in search of clothes. As usual, Libby had arranged his shirts by color and lined up a row of perfectly pressed jeans next to them. Maybe that was another reason she wanted him gone. Her life had been a lot simpler СКАЧАТЬ