Healing Trace (6 page)

Running her hand back through his
hair, she divided it in a line, grabbed more, and held tight. "Do I cross to
the middle one?"

"Yes." He trembled.

She snorted. "Did I give you
the willies too?"

"Yeah." He lifted his
arm.

She smiled. Her stomach warmed,
knowing exactly how he was feeling. Who knew braiding hair was such an intimate
act.

"Okay, I got it." She let
her elbows fall to her sides. "My arms are shaking."

"If you learn to braid, your
arms will get stronger," he said.

She couldn't hide her smile. Before
now, she would never have guessed that the man who'd bucked her every step of the
way while taking care of him was capable of lighthearted teasing.

"What's next?" She pulled
his hair tighter and stretched her legs out on each side of him.

"Do the same thing on the
left. You want to go back and forth, gathering more hair from the sides each
time and bringing them into the middle, until all my hair is back into a simple
braid that starts at my neck." He lifted his arms and hung them over her
knees. His hands rubbed her lower legs. "Concentrate on keeping the
braiding tight and if you drop one, hold the others so you can pick up where
you stopped."

She continued bunching his hair,
pulling, rearranging her hands, and keeping each strand separate. Halfway down
the back of his head, she noticed he still stroked her legs. She chewed on her
lip. He made it difficult to concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing.

"I've ran out of hair to pick
up on the sides." She rested her arms again.

"Did you end up with three
strands?"

"Yes," she said.

"Go ahead and finish the rest
of my hair the regular way now." He dipped his chin to his chest.
"When you get to the end, I'll show you how to tie it off without using a
rubber band."

The rest of the process was
familiar to her, and she quickly came to the end of the strands. "Here it
is."

He reached back and took the bottom
of his braid from her. "Watch."

She marveled at the way his big
hands made fast work of tying the end of his braid. He impressed her with how
easily he'd taught her how to braid hair. Sure, there were stray strands
sticking out around his head at odd angles, but she could see the way the black
strands weaved together and held his hair back from his face.

"I did it! Now I'll have to
practice on my own hair when my arms regain their strength. Who knew that was
so hard." She wiggled her way around him and stood. "Let me help you
up."

She held out her hand. He grasped
her wrist, and pushed himself off the floor, until he stood in front of her on
one foot. She reached up on tiptoe and without thinking, kissed him on the
cheek.

"Thank you," she
whispered

Trace hooked his hand around her
neck and brought her back to him. He stared down into her eyes, questioning,
asking. She licked her lips, hypnotized by the desire darkening his eyes.

He captured her mouth in a gentle
kiss. His lips were warm on hers, moving with great care and attention. She
wanted to savor the way her body reacted.

She encircled his waist and held on
as the kiss deepened. She felt wanted and needed all at the same time.
Forgetting the real reason she was here at Lakota ranch, she let herself go.

When he ended the kiss and pulled
back, she whined, not wanting the closeness to end. Then she realized what
she'd done.

"Oh, my God, I'm sorry."
She moved away from him.

He only stared at her.

Brody and Devon's voice reached
them from further away in the house. Joan ducked her chin. Warmth crept up her
neck.

She didn't have time to react,
because the others entered the room.

"What the hell happened to
your hair?" Devon stopped, glancing back and forth between Trace and Joan.
"Is it National Wear a Braid Day?"

"Joan wanted to learn how to
braid hair. I showed her." Trace sat down on the couch and folded his arms
across his chest.

"Oh, um…yeah, I see that. I
think." Devon tilted his head to the side. "No, I really don't.
Braiding?"

Brody smacked Devon on the arm.
"Let's get out of here."

"Why? I thought we were coming
inside to cool off for a while." Devon started to walk toward the chair,
but Brody grabbed his shirt. "Hey. What are you doing?"

"Kitchen. Now." Brody
pulled Devon away, grumbling.

Joan moved to the couch, putting
distance between her and Trace. "I didn't mean…it won't happen
again."

Trace's gaze narrowed. She moved
back. How could she have let herself lose control?

"I'll just go into the kitchen
and make you a snack." She escaped and hid in the dining room, waiting
until she heard Brody and Devon leave the house.

Sinking down into one of the chairs
by the table, she held her head in her hands. The kiss didn't mean anything. He
mistook her thanks for something more. It was a common mistake.
Oh, God. I
wanted him to kiss me.

Chapter
Six

The next morning after they kissed,
Trace was in a grouchier mood than ever, and had Joan running all over the
ranch delivering messages to the other guys at the stable, getting him coffee,
bringing him files, and generally made her stay away from him by sending her on
insignificant errands. She pulled her shoulders back and climbed the porch
steps. She wasn't going to let his attitude ruin her day.

With such a busy morning, she had
no time to talk to him about what happened yesterday, or to right the situation
so they could go on being patient and caregiver. She yawned as she opened the
front door. The unspoken truth had sat between Trace and her at dinnertime, and
had kept her awake until after three this morning.

If he decided to fire her, she'd be
even worse off than she was now.

Car-less, sister-less, and soon
apartment-less, unless the stars aligned and she could find a place to hire her
soon. Going back to delivering meals fifteen hours a week, even if she did
manage to buy a cheap car, wouldn't keep her from losing the apartment, she
sagged against the door. When would life settle down?

Entering the living room, her cell
phone rang. She fished it out of her back pocket and answered the call.

"Hello?"

It was Ed Thomas from Thomas
Insurance Agency. Her sigh of relief soon turned into disbelief.

"What do you mean? Of course I
had a current insurance policy on the car?" She thrust her fingers in her
hair.

After learning she'd missed last
month's payment, and her insurance expired, she thanked him for calling and
hung up. There was nothing else she could do. No amount of crying or arguing
was going to change the facts. She'd screwed up. Again.

Without the money coming from the
insurance company, she'd have no other way to purchase a car but to use what
she earned working for Trace. That'd leave no money to pay for Katie's way
home.

"Dammit." She stomped her
foot. "Dammit!"

"Hey…" Brody leaned
against the wall in the archway leading to the dining room. "What
happened?"

She shook her head. "I don't
like dealing with the insurance company about my car. You know how they have to
have everything written in stone."
And, a monthly check. How could I be
so stupid?

"If you need any help. Devon's
great with that sort of stuff." Brody motioned her to follow him. "We
want to talk with you for a moment, if you have the time."

She pointed behind her toward
Trace's wing of the house. "Let me check with Trace, and make sure he
doesn't need me right away."

"He's not in there. He went
outside." Brody walked over and grabbed her hand. "He'll be fine for
five minutes."

She followed him down the hall.
"I told Trace yesterday that going out to the stables is out of the
question, until his next doctor's appointment. He kept trying to convince me he
was up to the long walk. He's not attempting to do something he shouldn't be
doing, is he?"

"Nope. He's meditating, and
not moving a muscle." He opened the door that led into Devon's part of the
house.

Past the door, she entered a large
sitting area. The flash of red against black took her by surprise. Devon had
red throw pillows, red vases, and even red braided rugs against a dark wood
floor scattered around his area. She closed her mouth and blinked. The décor
was opposite of what she imagined Devon would enjoy. He was quieter than the
others, and always seemed deep in thought pouring through the record books
every evening.

Brody pulled her into another room
where houseplants took up every square inch of space. Devon stood with his back
toward her. She pulled away from Brody, stepping farther into the room. Devon
had created an inside jungle that made the outside of the house with all the
flowers pale compared to his wing of the house.

Grow lights hung along the ceiling,
and pots lined the walls. She swiveled. Vines anchored along the edge of the
walls held the many trails of leaves and it wouldn't have surprised her if a
butterfly or two fluttered past.

"I've never seen anything like
this. It's incredible." She shook her head in amazement.

Brody chuckled. "It's
something else, isn't it?"

Devon turned and smiled. "Good
you're here. I'm in need of a woman, and you were the first one who popped into
my head."

"Lucky me." She laughed.
"Unless you'd like me to run around the ranch doing trivial things just to
get me out of your hair. In which case, Trace thinks that's his job for me
today."

"Ah…he's being an idiot again,
huh?" Devon pulled her closer. "Never fear, I only need your womanly
expertise."

She gazed down at the small table.
"Okay."

"I need you to tell me which
flower a lady would enjoy receiving the most." Devon picked up a lovely
white bloom she didn't recognize.

She stepped closer and inspected
each choice laid out before her. Then she leaned closer and inhaled the scents.
"This one."

The deep purple star shaped blossom
was the smallest out of the bunch, but the fragrance had her thinking of the
aroma of Trace's hair when he'd let her braid it. She picked the flower up by
the stem, turned around, and held her choice out to Devon.

"This one would impress any
woman," she said.

"Damn. I was wrong." Devon
scratched his head. "I thought you'd go for the red rose. I thought all
women liked roses, no matter what the color."

"She didn't pick the one I
would have chosen either." Brody chuckled. "I thought she'd go for
the one with the huge yellow blossom."

Devon blew out his breath and gave
her a half hug. "Thanks. You might have saved my life."

She grinned. Each of the men at one
time or another had shown her affection, but none of them made her knees weak
and her pulse thrum the way Trace did simply by being in the same room as her.

"I'm glad I could help."
She backed away to the door. "Good luck, Devon. I hope she likes your
surprise."

He winked. "Me too."

She walked out of Devon's part of
the house and returned to the common living area. Not wanting to stay away from
Trace too long in case he needed her, she went on a search to find him. Brody
had said he was outside, so she checked the backyard first. He wasn't there.

She hurried through the house and
out the front door. At first she didn't see him, and she turned to go back
inside when she spied him leaning against his crutches at the end of the porch.

Latching the door quietly, she
stepped to the left and sat down in the rocker without disturbing him. She
admired the strength in Trace's body. He balanced on one foot, eyes closed, and
his arms hung over the crutches and loose at his sides.

His shorts hung low on his hips,
and she sighed in appreciation. She counted down the remaining days she had
left working here. Anything to distract her from the way her body tingled and
the urge to go to him, to connect, and get back the closeness they'd found together
yesterday while braiding each other's hair.

He was a gorgeous male. She was a
healthy woman with sexual desires that she'd never explored fully. In any other
setting, she would've taken any attention he threw her way and enjoyed every
second of it. She raised her gaze and concentrated on his face. If not for the
way his jaw muscle flinched in pain, she'd think he had found his utopia.

Her phone vibrated. She removed the
cell, gazed at the screen, and warmth filled her.
Katie.

Katie:
Luv U.

She smiled and texted back.
Luv
U2

Katie:
Fingers crossed. Can't
wait to go home.

She glanced at Trace, and then set
her fingers to typing.
Don't worry. Soon! Miss U.