Read Online One Hot Momma by Cara North - Free Book Online Page B

took in a fortifying breath.
    When she came closer to the bedroom, she could hear him talking to Savannah and Brice. They were so afraid he was dead they cried every night. It didn’t matter that they could see him in the bed, and that everyone had told them otherwise. Until today, they didn’t fully believe it. Of course, he looked a wreck to grown up eyes, so he must have looked worse to the children.
    “Be careful, Savannah,” Layla whispered unintentionally. Savannah was on the bed next to him, and it made her nervous. She could hurt him very easily right now, and that would only make her little heart sad if she did.
    “Yes, ma’am.” Savannah eased off the bed.
    “She’s fine,” he said, defiance laced his tone. “What are you doing here?”
    “Well, it’s a long story…”
    * * *
    “I’ll take the readers digest version if you don’t mind.” He was certainly in a foul mood today.
    “Savannah, Brice, why don’t you ask Buck if he would put in a movie for you. Let mommy and Rafe have a few minutes alone.” She watched him watch them. They listened to her now. She wasn’t frazzled or confused. By no means was the relationship perfect, but she was learning, and they were eager to help her be the best mom she could be. They had open communication now, and that made a world of difference.
    She set the tray on the tray table and then sat boldly next to him on the bed. “I’m taking care of you.”
    “The hell you are,” he said in a low breath.
    “You wanted the readers digest version.” Layla looked at him, at the stitches over his right eye, the bruising on his chest over his ribs, the cast on his arm. It was pointless for him to refuse. “I’m here. Actually, we are here. Bethany told us to move in because you needed twenty-four hour supervision and assistance, and everyone else around here has to work, and you know better than me this place is a full-time job all on its own. It never sleeps with the guests and the workers…”
    “I know how this ranch operates, but that doesn’t mean Bethany, or anyone else can let you move into my house, or… what about your job?” He seemed to think she cared more about the job than she actually did. If she could apply elsewhere, she would have, but no one else was flexible with the childcare hours and what she almost had a degree in wasn’t in high demand in Montana. “I lost my job. They closed the shelter. The lease is month by month, so of course, in a week this month would be up, and I couldn’t see spending my last paycheck on a place if it would only buy us a month. When we came to the hospital, Bethany pulled me aside and asked if I needed a job. So now, I am here, at your beck and call. My job is to take care of you.”
    He snorted. It hurt; she could tell because he put his hand up to his ribs.
    “When you’re better, if you don’t want us here, we’ll leave. I have my aunt in Texas…”
    “That’s not fair.” He looked at her. His brown eyes were sad, frustrated, and painful. “I want
them
here.”
    “It’s a packaged deal.” She sighed. No point in putting him through the emotional gauntlet while he was hurting physically. “For now, I am your nurse, your housekeeper; whatever you need I am just a bell ring away.”
    She nodded toward the bell on the table. “So do you want to eat soup or not?”
    “I can’t hold a spoon.” He showed her his cast as if she couldn’t see it herself.
    “Again, that’s why I’m here.” She picked up the bowl with one hand and the spoon with the other. “Open up.”
    Rafe narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth. He was hungry. His stomach rumbled from the need for real food. It was the worst kind of punishment his family decided to enact on him. Sending Layla to be his keeper, knowing he was trying to get away from her in the first damn place. What had he done to make them so? He knew what he had done. He scared them, and he had been a complete jackass for at least three months. Now he