In Shining Whatever (Three Magic Words Trilogy #2)(26)

She crossed herself as a precaution before she sank into the tub with a moan. The hot water was wonderful and the soap on the edge of the tub smelled like roses. There was a bottle of shampoo with the same fragrance, so she dunked her head under the water and lathered her hair. She could have leaned back and stayed an hour or until the water got cold but she decided not to tempt fate. The storm still raged, and there was a possibility Maw Maw was right, so she stepped out onto a rug and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her hair and one around her body.

A glance in the mirror revealed dark circles under her brown eyes and a face so tired it looked every minute of its thirty-one years. She picked up a bottle of rose-scented lotion and rubbed it on her arms and legs. Sure enough, there was a brand-new toothbrush still in the bubble wrap in the drawer and two kinds of toothpaste. She brushed her teeth, finished drying her hair, and dressed in Hart's pajama bottoms, which she had to roll twice at the waist and two turns on the legs. The T-shirt he gave her advertised a bull ride in Denver, Colorado, and hung to her knees, but it was comfortable.

She picked up her purse at the same time the cell phone rang. The noise startled her so that she dropped it on the floor, spilling the contents everywhere. She sat down on the tub and retrieved the phone first.

"Hello?"

"Are you still at the ranch?" Mary asked.

"Just got out of the tub and brushed my teeth. I'm going to take a nap before I leave. I don't even know if I could make it home. My energy is gone and I'd be dangerous on the road." She talked too fast.

"Were you in that tub alone?" Mary asked.

"Yes, Momma. I don't have energy to drive, much less let Hart wash my back, but he did offer," she said bluntly.

"The tornado has gone on but the wind and rain is to keep on for a while. Take your nap. Business is slow. I'll see you when I get home tonight," Mary-laughed.-

"I'll call when I leave," she said.

"You sound exhausted. Maw Maw used to say that what goes around comes around"

"Good night, Momma. I'm hanging up now," Kate said.

Hart was coming down the hallway when she opened the door.

"I heard a noise and you talking. I thought maybe you'd slipped and fallen." His mouth went suddenly dry at the sight of her standing there in pajamas that hung on her and her hair in a towel. She looked tired, but she was even more stunning than she'd been in the red satin dress at Theron's wedding.

"No, just a phone call," she managed to get out, without stumbling all over her words.

Water beads clung to his wet curls. A small tuft of light brown hair showed at the V-neck of his T-shirt, and he smelled like the Bayou Teche in the springtime. Clean and musky all rolled into one.

"How did you manage to keep that bandage dry and wash your hair?" She tried steering her mind away from what she'd like to do to such a delectable hunk of male flesh, even in her worn-out state.

"Wasn't easy. Took some acrobatics in the shower. I was glad there wasn't a window in the bathroom. Grandma would have my hide for getting into a shower with a lightning storm going on," he said.

She laughed. "Maw Maw Miller's fear of the same thing came to mind as I ran a tub of water. But I took a chance and won."

A crack as loud as dynamite at the front of the house made them both jump. Hart headed up the hallway in a hurry with her right behind him.

"Guess you're not going anywhere for a while," he said.

She looked out the window to see the rain working hard to put out the fire at the base of a smoking oak tree that one bolt of lightning had sent falling in front of the yard gates. It had split right down the middle of the trunk, but with the help of the wind, both pieces fell to the same side, branches sticking through the rail fence that had been broken in several places.

She moaned.

"You can get a good sleep rather than a nap. Tomorrow, when the rain stops, I'll get the chain saw out and clear the gate. Or you can have your Mom come get you-when-the-weather clears up"

She headed for the sofa. "I'll think about that tomorrow. Right now I'm going to sleep"

He took her elbow and steered her toward the hallway. "I don't think so, chere. You can have the bedroom across the hallway from me. No arguments. And if you need a reason, it's because if I wake up disoriented with a bleed in my brain and need you, you can hear me when I call."

"I'm now a nurse?"

He opened the door to his grandparents' room and left her there. "You are my sleepy chere. Good night or good day, whatever it is. There's food in the fridge if you wake before I do. Make yourself at home"

She barely took time to think about where she was and the fact that his grandparents had slept in that room for their whole married life. She did notice the picture of Hart and his mother, Elisa, on the bedside table. Hart must have been about six and was a pretty boy even then. She wondered if a son that she and Hart shared would look like that.

"Probably not," she mumbled, as she tossed the towel from her hair on the floor, slid in between the sheets, and pulled the white chenille bedspread up around her chin. Tomorrow her hair would be all bumpy and lumpy since she hadn't taken time to brush it out straight, but right then, she simply did not care.

She slept fitfully. She dreamed of the bayou and dancing at a party at Maw Maw's place at a cousin's wedding. Zac was there, and they danced several times together in the sweltering-hotsummer Louisiana night. The stars twinkled and the moon was a big round ball of white in the black sky. The swamp smelled of ages past, and the trees swayed in the gentle breeze that didn't have a chance of cooling the temperatures.