Can’t Hurry Love by Nadine Millard (primary phonics books .txt) 📕

ache, so she turned her head away and looked to distract herself.

“How are you liking the apartment?” she blurted for want of anything else to say.

He shrugged slightly. “It’s fine,” he said. “It suits for now.”

“For now?”

“Yeah, I don’t—” He stopped abruptly and glanced at her. “I guess I haven’t really thought about how long I’ll be here.”

Beth felt her stomach drop at his words. “You’re not staying?” she asked, trying and probably failing to sound casual.

Josh sighed, his shoulders tense, his jaw clenched. “I don’t know,” he said. “When I made the decision to come here, I wasn’t really thinking beyond getting out of Chicago. But now…” He shrugged but didn’t expand.

“Now the town is growing on you?” she asked lightly. “You don’t know how you’ll drag yourself away?”

He looked at her again before turning his eyes back to the road. “Yeah, that’s it.” The tone in his voice made her heart slam. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to just walk away and never see — the town — again.”

“Oh,” she said a little awkwardly. “Well, I think you’d be missed… by the town.”

They rode in a silence for a while, Beth lost in her thoughts. She wondered if tonight would even be worth it. If it was going to be a room full of Johns and Geralds, she’d never be able to forget the man beside her. But more than that, she was finding it harder and harder to make herself want to forget him. The idea of him leaving made her feel sick.

“Are you going back to the ranch?” Josh broke the stilted silence. “You’ll have to rest that foot.”

She grimaced at his instructions. “I can think of a hundred things at the ranch that will stop me from resting,” she said. “Besides, I have to get ready for later.”

“Beth, you’ll be going nowhere later if you don’t rest now.”

“Fine,” she said on a long-suffering sigh. “I’ll rest.”

But she wouldn’t, because she had work to do — prep for the bakery and some cooking for her brothers and the ranch hands.

Some of their summer staff had arrived early, and Lord knew those boys could eat! She’d been meaning to hire some extra help for the ranch, but there had never been any urgent reason for it. If nothing else, this minor injury made her realise that she really needed to get started on that.

“After I’ve done my chores,” she said stubbornly.

“Right. That’s it.”

Before she could object, Josh swung his car around and drove back down Main Street.

“What are you doing?” Beth demanded. “Where are we going?”

“I’m making sure you do what your doctor tells you,” he answered smoothly. “And we’re going to my place.”

“Excuse me? We are not going to your place,” she said in her most authoritative tone.

Judging from his expression, he didn’t seem all that impressed or cowed by it. “We’re going to my place where you’re going to rest, or no dates tonight. Doctor’s orders.”

Beth narrowed her eyes at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. The tension that had been surrounding him earlier seemed to have disappeared. In fact, he seemed pretty darned pleased with himself.

“You can’t just kidnap me,” she tried again. “I have things to do.”

“And you’ll do them when you’ve rested,” he answered, his tone annoyingly measured.

There was no use arguing. She could see it in the set of his jaw.

They pulled up outside his apartment building, and she sat there seething while he pulled out his phone and began tapping away on the screen. After a minute or two, he unclipped his seatbelt then leaned across her to do the same to hers.

Beth had to stop herself from sniffing him as the masculine scent he wore flirted with her nostrils.

You can’t be attracted to your kidnapper, she told herself sternly. That’s Stockholm Syndrome. It’s a serious condition.

“Grayson knows you’re out of action, and Jenna is ok to cover the bakery, so you’re all set,” he said as he leaned back, and she was able to inhale before she passed out.

“What?” she demanded, hating herself for enjoying the feeling of being taken care of.

He was out of the car and around at her door before she could blink.

“Come on, invalid.” He smiled that smile that made her toes curl, which was painful with a sprained ankle. “Let’s see if we can keep you out of trouble.”

He bent down and scooped her into his arms as though she were weightless.

Beth could do nothing but hang on to his neck and what was left of her sanity.

Keep her out of trouble? She was in more trouble than she’d ever been in her life.

Chapter Fifteen

“Alright, let’s get you settled.”

Beth didn’t trust herself to speak, so she said nothing.

Being carried injured up a flight of stairs by the world’s most gorgeous man was not a situation she felt well-equipped to deal with, so she kept her mouth shut in case she said something stupid.

Anyway, she was still angry. In all of her many, many fantasies about being carried around by Josh, it had never been with a dodgy ankle after a sweaty three-hour hike.

He sat her on the plush grey couch that dominated the room and pulled a lever so her legs were elevated.

“I’m going to get some ice for the swelling and take another look at it,” he said matter-of-factly, not even winded from lugging her around.

Clearly their proximity had zero effect on him.

While Josh disappeared into what she assumed was the kitchen, Beth looked around, taking in the bright room, searching for clues about his life before Rocky Valley. There were a couple of photos framed on the fireplace, but she was too far away to really make them out. They seemed to be the only personal touch in the room. Decorated in muted greys and whites, with a flat screen TV her brothers would approve of, the space screamed bachelor pad.

She wondered if he’d decorated it himself or if Beck had rented it to him like this.

Remembering what