A Country Affair(90)

“I can’t believe you’d do anything so stupid.” His voice was low and angry, his face blanched with concern. “Don’t you know you could’ve frozen to death out here? If you don’t want to consider your own life, then what about Devin away on his honeymoon? If anything happened to you, he’d never forgive himself.”

Kate bore up well under Luke’s tirade, refusing to cry even though she was trembling with shock and cold and the truth of his words. As for the part about being frozen, she was already halfway there, but he didn’t seem to notice that.

“Kate, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you’d left the truck and tried to make it back to the house on foot.”

“I knew enough to stay here at least.” She’d been a fool not to have taken the danger more seriously. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He pulled her to him and held her so tight she couldn’t move. His face was buried in her hair, one ungloved hand gently stroking her forehead, her cheek, her chin, as if he had to touch her to know he’d found her safe. When he lifted his head, he gazed into her eyes, his own dark and filled with unspoken torment. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and tried to talk, but her teeth began to chatter. Luke shrugged out of his coat and draped it over her shoulders.

“Tell me what happened.”

“I swerved to miss a rock and hit...the embankment. It was already snowing and I...the song... I changed stations and that’s when it happened... I don’t know what I did, but after I turned so sharply, the truck wouldn’t start.”

“I’ve got to get you to the house.” He half carried her to his truck and placed her in the passenger seat. He climbed into the driver’s side and leaned over to wrap a warm blanket around her, then began to rub some warmth back into her hands.

“What about Dad’s truck?” Kate asked, shocked by how tired and weak she felt.

“We’ll worry about that later. I’ll send someone to fix it when the storm’s over.”

The blast from the heater felt like a tropical wind and Kate finally started to relax. She was terribly cold but dared not let Luke know.

All the way back to the ranch he didn’t say a word. Driving was difficult, and she didn’t want to disturb his concentration. So she sat beside him, her hands and feet numb despite the almost oppressive warmth, and her eyes heavy with weariness.

Several of the ranch hands ran toward the front porch when Luke pulled into the yard. Kate found the flurry of activity all centered on her disconcerting, but she tried to thank everyone and apologized profusely for the concern she’d caused.

If Luke had been impatient and demanding when he rescued her, it didn’t compare to the way he rapped out orders once she was inside the house.

“A bath,” he said, pointing toward the bathroom as if she’d never been there before. “Warm water, not hot.”

Bill Schmidt, Luke’s newly appointed foreman, followed them to the doorway of the tiny room, looking pale and anxious. Kate felt so weak that she simply stood, leaning against the sink, while Luke ran the bathwater, testing it several times to check the temperature.

“It’s stopped snowing. Do you think I should contact one of her female friends? Maybe Miz Franklin?” Bill asked, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. When Luke nodded, Bill charged out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

Luke turned off the bathwater and straightened. He shook his head, arms limp and at his sides, mouth stern and tight. “Kate, Kate, what could have possessed you to drive in from town during the worst storm of the year? Can you imagine what went through my mind when I was looking for you?”

It took all her strength just to manage a few words. “How’d...you know...where I was?”

“You told me you were going to town to look at an apartment on Saturday. Remember? When you weren’t back after the blizzard hit, I called around town until I learned you were renting one of the apartments on Spruce Street. Mrs. Jackson told me she’d warned you herself and that you’d left a few hours earlier. Also that she’s fond of April because of all the flowers, whatever the hell that means.”

“I’m...sorry I worried you.”

His hands gripped her shoulders and the anguish he’d endured during the past few hours was written plainly on his face. The anger and pain in his eyes told her about the panic he’d felt. A rush of emotion crossed his expression and he pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her.

He didn’t speak for a long moment. Instead, quietly, gently, he stroked her hair as he dragged in several deep breaths.

Kate’s heart pounded wildly in her chest. She longed to look at him, to gaze into his eyes again. She was puzzled by the intensity she’d seen there. Fear, yes, doubt and anger, too, but there was something more, something deeper that she didn’t recognize.

She longed to tell him she loved him, just the way he claimed she did, but the thought didn’t make it to her lips. Love was a strange, unpredictable emotion, so painful and difficult. Her eyes held his and she tried to smile, but her mouth wouldn’t cooperate.

Her fingertips mapped out the lines of his face, as she strove to reassure him with her touch when her words couldn’t. He captured her wrist and brought her palm to his lips.

She’d just opened her mouth to speak, when Bill Schmidt came crashing into the room. “Rorie Franklin will be over as soon as she can.”