Holding my bathrobe closed, I opened the front door. “Officer Gomez, you’re early. Come on in. Garrett should be out in a minute or two.”
The guy filled up the doorway, and his gaze fixed on me. It dropped ever so slightly, but only for half a second. “You?” He closed his eyes and rubbed two fingers up and down on his forehead. “I’m confused. At the hospital, you said you didn’t know this guy and that he was a stranger who you’d picked up off the side of the road. And—”
“Oh, I haven’t talked to you since—”
He put up a hand. “Let me finish.”
I sighed and forced a smile. “Go ahead.”
“You did say that y’all had a bond.” He added air quotes, which just irritated me. “I wasn’t too surprised to find you in his hospital room, but here? That’s some bond.”
“Are you coming in or not? As my dad would say, we don’t want to heat the entire town.”
He stepped inside.
I slammed the door. “Are you finished now?”
Nodding, he scanned the house. “Nice place.”
“Because of how beat up he was, I didn’t recognize Garrett. And for reasons I will not explain to you, I’m staying here and helping him as he recovers.”
His lips curled into a smile. “The reasons seem pretty obvious.”
Fire raged inside, and I let go of the robe and popped my hands onto my hips. “You don’t know squat.”
He stared at my swimsuit a second before his gaze snapped to something over my shoulder.
“I see you’ve met Tessa.” Garrett walked up and pointed at the kitchen counter. “Why don’t we have a seat over there?”
Officer Gomez nodded in my direction. “Miss Best.” Then he strolled to the counter.
Garrett lifted his eyebrows. “You okay?”
I shrugged, then blew out a breath, half expecting to see flames. “He’s pompous and aggravating. Did you hear the implication dripping from his words?” I kept my voice at a whisper because I wasn’t going to give Deputy Dense the satisfaction of hearing me gripe. “I’m going to run back and change.”
“I’ll talk to him.” Garrett bumped my hand.
“Thank you.”
In record time, I changed and ran back toward the living room but stopped before the guys spotted me.
“This house isn’t mine. It’s a rental. We’re only staying here a week. For personal reasons as I explained the other day, I don’t want my family to know about my injuries right now, and Tessa is helping me. Until yesterday, I could barely use my hands.” Garrett made it all sound so reasonable and nothing like the officer had implied.
“Are you serious? She finds you on the side of a road and agrees to spend a week with you? Just like that? Dang.” Officer Gomez chuckled. “I want to know where I can sign up for that.”
I peeked out to see Garrett’s reaction, but I wasn’t sure why that mattered to me.
His face looked like it was carved out of stone. “Listen. I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea.”
The steel in his voice sent a shiver down my spine.
“Tessa and I are friends.” Garrett leaned forward. “Am I clear?”
The deputy nodded. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply . . . anything.”
“Back to the reason I called.” Garrett crossed his arms.
I strolled out and transferred the last few doughnuts to a platter. “Coffee?”
“That’d be great. Thanks, Tessa.” Garrett picked up a doughnut then nudged the platter across the counter. “Officer Gomez?”
“Call me Nico. And I’d like coffee also. Thank you.”
Garrett pointed at the platter. “She makes doughnuts for a living. These are the best. No pun intended.”
Nico grinned as he chose a doughnut. “Before we get to why you called. A funny thing happened. Just before I left the office, a woman called in asking me to do a well-check on you. Says she saw her husband beating you up. She worried you might be dead on the side of the road somewhere.”
I almost dropped a mug. “Is she trying to get her husband arrested?”
It was easier to focus on that than on the idea of Garrett being dead on the side of the road. Blinking away tears, I grabbed milk out of the fridge.
“Maybe that’s her game.” Garrett shook his head. “She’s called my phone about fifty times since Friday, but she hasn’t left a message.”
“What she did doesn’t excuse the beating you got. Are you sure you don’t want to press charges?” Nico glanced at me, then focused on Garrett.
“He accused me of stalking his wife and laying hands on her, so I’m not sure what she told him. She lit his fuse. I won’t press charges.”
“Fair enough.” Nico set his doughnut down. “You are right about these being the best. Where is your shop, Tessa?”
Garrett tucked an arm around my waist as I slid mugs onto the counter. “It’s in Stadtburg.”
I stirred sugar into my coffee. “What he said.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” Nico sipped his coffee. “Tell me more about what the woman said when she hired you.”
I stayed beside Garrett as he explained. Later, I’d tease him about the timing of putting his arm around me. I was pretty sure that was his guy signal, telling Nico to leave me alone. I didn’t mind. If I were going to break my no dating rule, Garrett was who I’d go out with.
Poor Nico was going to leave here more confused than when he arrived, but after the way he acted at the door, I didn’t feel bad about that.
Two days later, Garrett stared at his phone as it rang. “I’m not going to answer that, but maybe this time she’ll leave a message.”
When the ringing stopped, I held my breath and waited to see if a voicemail notification popped up.
The phone buzzed, and he snatched it off the table, then played the message on speaker.
The voice of the she-devil echoed in the room. “Mr. Wright, I’m very concerned about you. Please call the county sheriff’s office and ask for Nico Gomez. He’s handling the case, and you can talk to him about pressing charges. Please contact him soon.” The message ended without an apology for what had happened.
“She is heartless.” I patted Garrett’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
He forwarded the voicemail to Nico. “He can take care of it. Hot tub or roof top?”
If I couldn’t see that the phone call had stressed him, the question would’ve given it away.
“The roof. I’ll grab a blanket.”
“I’ll make popcorn.” He strode into the kitchen.
I hated seeing him upset, but it was clear why he was bothered. If I wanted to pluck out the woman’s eyelashes and shove staples under her fingernails—not that I would actually do those things—I could only imagine how Garrett felt.
Ten minutes later, he sat down next to me on the patio sofa. “What are we going to talk about?”
I tapped him to lean forward, then wrapped the blanket around both of us. “I want you to check with everyone at the ranch before I give a final yes, but if they are fine with it, I’ll take off a few days and spend Christmas out there. Technically, I could stay open and just drive out there after work, but I’m starting to like having days off.”
“Good. It’ll be fun. What about your parents?”
“I’ll run up and see them one evening. My mom has been hounding me about getting out and doing more, so she’ll be thrilled if I tell her that I’m going to spend Christmas with a friend. She’ll be extra excited to learn that friend is a guy.”
He laughed. “I think you’ll enjoy it. Ava makes so many desserts. You can help her, I bet. I mean . . . if you want to.”
I pulled a handful of popcorn out of the bowl. “Cooking and baking with Ava would be fun.”
“Eating what you make would be even more fun.” He ate some popcorn. “What are we going to do for fun without a rooftop patio and a hot tub? Well, we’ll still have access to a hot tub. Dad has one.”
“We might have to make use of that. We could watch movies. Take walks.”
“There are lots of beautiful spaces on the ranch. We can definitely walk. As far as movies . . . so far, I think you’ve stayed awake through only one. The one where they kissed at the end.”
I leaned into his shoulder. “That’s why I stayed awake. For the good stuff.”
He grinned as he grabbed another handful of popcorn. Then he grew serious. “I don’t think I want to continue being a private investigator.”
“I don’t blame you. It’s dangerous.” I didn’t want him to continue being a private investigator, but what right did I have to tell him that?
“I need to heal a bit more, but I think I’m going to tell Dad that I want to learn about ranching.” Garrett stared at the blanket.
I moved the popcorn bowl to the table, then shifted to face him. “I think that’s wonderful. You’ll make a great cowboy.”
“Right. I know nothing about cows or horses or where to buy hay.” He shot me a side glance. “This will be challenging.”
I brushed his cheek, careful not to press on his bruises. “You’re protective, honest, and kind. You have more integrity in your pinky finger than some men have in their entire body. That’s what will make you a good cowboy. A truck, jeans, and a hat help, but you already have jeans and a truck. And you’ll rock the hat.”
“How do you know so much about cowboys? Was Skeeter a cowboy?”
We hadn’t talked about Skeeter since that night up here on the roof.
“He had a truck and a hat, but no integrity.” I shivered when the wind blew.
Garrett put an arm around me. “Where is he now?”
“Around. He married and settled down in a small town near Stadtburg. His wife and kids come into the doughnut shop from time to time.”
“It must be hard seeing him.” Garrett’s tone was tender.
“It was for a while mostly because I was embarrassed and felt rejected. But realizing he wasn’t a prize helped squash those feelings. I don’t care about Skeeter. I haven’t for a long time.”
“You deserve a prize.”
When he said things like that, hope sparked, but then like a bucket of cold water, Skeeter’s words, which played on repeat in my head, washed all the hope away.
I needed a new topic. “Your dad is going to be excited about you taking up ranching.”
Garrett pulled me closer. Was it wrong to like a person because they were always warm?
“I think you’re right. But when I have a hard day and feel like I made the wrong choice, I’m coming to you.”
I patted his chest. “And I’ll give you a doughnut and a pep talk. Any time. That’s what friends are for.”
I’d fallen asleep while watching a movie again and woke up in Garrett’s bed, but I was alone. This week had been amazing, but it was almost over. I wasn’t ready for it to end. Spending time with Garrett and redefining what friendship looked like had ripped the bandage off some of my wounds. I was quick to tell people I was happy, but having a happy face bandage covering up the pain wasn’t the same as happy.
That was the hard lesson I’d learned this week. What I hadn’t figured out was if the wounds could ever heal.
Stretching, I wandered out to the kitchen.
“Hey there. Have a seat. The pancakes are almost ready. And the bacon”—he peeked into the oven—“needs about two more minutes.”
“You don’t have to cook for me.”
He flipped a pancake, then focused those baby blues on me. “You made it through the first half of the movie last night.”
I perched on a barstool at the counter. “You didn’t wake me up so that I could crawl into my bed.”
“I’m going to miss snuggling with you and watching movies.” He went back to making pancakes.
“I’ll miss it too.” I blinked so he wouldn’t notice the mist in my eyes. “How are you feeling? You seem better.”
“My ribs are still sore, but not nearly as bad today. My face feels much better but looks horrible.” He turned off the stove and pulled the bacon out of the oven. “I think that cream is helping the pain and bruising.”
“I can put it on again after your shower.” I carried the platter to the table, then whipped around to look at Garrett. “If you want.”
“That would be great. Thanks.” He pulled mugs out of the cabinet. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
He fixed my coffee with lots of cream and sugar, just how I liked it.
“Thank you.” I drizzled maple syrup over my short stack. “These look good. I’m impressed.”
“You haven’t tasted them yet. You might not be as impressed after you do.” He broke a slice of bacon in half. “Want to soak in the hot tub for a bit after breakfast?”
“Yes, I do.” I popped a bite of pancakes into my mouth and moaned. “Oh my gosh. Where did you learn to make pancakes like this? They are like yummy clouds.”
“My grandma.” Garrett beamed. “I’m glad you like them.”
This perfect little bubble was about to pop, so I tried to soak up joy out of every last second.