Texas Cowboy's Protection by - (best book clubs .txt) 📕
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“I’ll let Griff know we’re on our way.” He sent off a text and then fished keys out of his pocket.
“Call me if she wakes.”
“How about a text? I’ll call if she wakes crying.” That seemed to satisfy Gina.
“Thank you, Mom.”
Isaac could only imagine what holding his own child would be like. Everly had seemed so small and fragile. Three of his brothers had become fathers in the past couple of years but Isaac hadn’t been home long enough to spend much time with any of them. And since he didn’t ‘do’ regret, he wouldn’t go there about missing important events in his brothers’ lives.
He surveyed the area as he walked Gina to his pickup. He helped her climb into the cab. Skin-to-skin contact wasn’t his brightest idea. Electricity fizzed through his fingertips and up his right arm.
Isaac claimed the driver’s seat and started the ignition. A question had been bugging him and he wanted to clear the air. “Why’d you get up from the table earlier? Did I say something wrong?”
“It’s not you, Isaac.”
“Oh. Right. The it’s-not-you-it’s-me routine. Heard that one before.”
“I doubt it.”
He chuckled as he navigated onto the country road and then turned toward town. “Well, you’re going to have to clue me in because I’m lost here.”
“It’s none of my business.”
“Gina, we go way back. You can say anything to me. You won’t throw me for a loop and you can’t scare me away.”
She sat there in a quiet that stretched on for minutes. Then, she blew out a breath. “There was someone you were serious about once, wasn’t there?”
“Yes.”
One word shouldn’t hit Gina in the chest so hard. She had no designs on Isaac. She’d been married and had had Everly. So, the fact he’d been in love with someone else shouldn’t bother her.
Except that he’d probably been in love. It felt very different from what she had with Des.
Des was comfort and history. The two had been close. She cared for Des deeply and that was a form of love. Maybe it wasn’t the all-consuming, heart-fluttered-every-time-he-walked-into-a-room. She hadn’t expected to have it with anyone. Aside from Isaac.
“What happened? Why aren’t you married? Or can’t you commit?” Settling down to someone with Isaac’s lifestyle probably wasn’t high on his list.
“Wasn’t the problem.” His voice had a quiet reverence.
“Was it her?”
“She died.” If one word was a punch those two stole her breath.
“I’m so sorry.”
He white-knuckled the steering wheel.
“I really am. I had no idea.” Talk about wishing she could take back a conversation. Hurting Isaac was the last thing she wanted to do. “You don’t have to talk about her.”
“Maybe I should,” came after a few beats of silence. “I closed up after she died. Something in me died. I stopped coming home.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, what happened to her?”
“She got sick. Terminal. Bone cancer. Long, slow death. Not a lot of hope. Stupid thing is I didn’t realize how much I loved her until she was gone.” He stopped at a red light.
Gina reached across the seat and touched his arm. No words of comfort came to mind. She didn’t try to force any.
“Kept telling myself I’d think about buying a ring and asking her to marry me. At first, it was Christmas. Then, it was New Year’s. After that, I thought Valentine’s Day. Those were just excuses because I wanted a guarantee that we wouldn’t end up as miserable as my parents had been before she died.” He shot a knowing glance at her. “I know how my family looked from the outside. Believe me, it wasn’t like that on the inside. Our lives changed drastically after our mother died. T.J. became angry, closed himself off. I learned to hold back my emotions. I could only go so far in relationships.”
She wondered if he was explaining his sudden emotional retreat in high school. “Thank you for talking to me Isaac.”
“I could say the same to you for listening.” The light changed to green and he refocused on the stretch of road ahead. “The whole experience taught me to speak up.” He paused a beat. “It’s good to see you, Gina. I thought about you over the years more times than I care to admit.”
Her heart shouldn’t leap at hearing those words. It did.
“It was the same for me, Isaac.” How could she not compare what she’d felt with Isaac to her relationship with Des? Isaac had been all heat and butterflies and the feeling of being out of control in the best possible way. Des had been comfort and shared history. She’d wanted to love Des in the same way. Wanting and doing were two different things.
She couldn’t help but wonder if Des had felt the same. Comfort instead of uncertainty. Because giving her heart to Isaac had been the scariest feeling. And then the sting of rejection had marked her. She’d been too young, too naïve, too uncertain of herself to confront him.
Would life had turned out differently if she had said something? Gina couldn’t regret Everly. Her little girl was the best thing that had ever happened to her. But losing Isaac had been devastating.
Pulling into the parking lot of Griff’s office stopped the train of conversation before it could go somewhere that neither of them would know what to do with.
Isaac parked and came around to the passenger side to help her out. Her left ankle burned when she put weight on it and stepping down from the cab, she rolled it and lost her balance. Grabbing at anything to steady herself, she ended up with a chunk of Isaac’s shirt in her fist.
“Whoa there.” Isaac’s steady hand kept her from biting the pavement.
“That’ll need ice later.” The pain was real.
“Griff will have some in the cafeteria. Let’s get you inside and sitting down.”
This is the point where Gina was supposed to let go of his shirt. She didn’t. Couldn’t bring herself to and especially when their gazes locked. For a split second, time stilled. She fisted both hands in his shirt.
His blue eyes darkened with need. His gaze roamed her face, settling on her lips. “I’d like to ask permission to kiss you, Gina.”
She pushed up to her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. He brought his hands up to cup her face. He tasted like coffee, smelled spicy and male. The scent was intoxicating. Her knees were melting as he slowly deepened the kiss. She parted her lips to provide better access and his tongue darted inside her mouth.
She brought her hands up to his shoulders and dug in with her fingernails as need welled inside her like a squall, sudden and intense. The kiss robbed her breath and her heart pounded against her chest.
His breath quickened, too. And his hands dropped to rest on her shoulders as he pulled back like he needed a minute. “I’ve been wanting to do that all damn day.” His mouth moved against hers when he spoke. He pressed his forehead to hers.
Gina had never experienced so much tenderness, so much heat and so much promise in one kiss with anyone. But Isaac, an annoying voice in her head chimed in. His skilled thumbs moved in small circles near her collar bones. His touch sent sparks flying. Sensual shivers skittered across her sensitized skin. She could only imagine what other pleasures those hands could give her.
It was her turn to breathe out a sigh as she did her level best to regain her composure.
“Was that a bad idea?” Isaac asked.
“Only if it’s the last one.”
Isaac managed to get Gina settled in a chair in his cousin’s office. Sherry had informed them Griff was busy in the county jail, which stood at the opposite end of the lot.
He tried to keep his mind off the kiss they’d shared. But, damn. Hot didn’t even begin to do it justice. The fireworks it had ignited were beyond description.
“I’ll run and get ice. Be right back.” He left her for a few seconds and returned with a Ziploc full of ice wrapped in a clean dish towel. “Let’s get that ankle elevated.”
There was swelling. Bruises. He should’ve taken care of this earlier.
Before he could claim a spot next to her a commotion sounded from down the hallway.
“Thanks for coming down tonight, Gina.” Griff shooed away the deputy who’d come
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