Read Online The Accidental Bride by Denise Hunter - Free Book Online

couldn’t get him every time. “I’ll buy you another.”
    â€œI don’t want your money.” This she spat with a little venom. The money he’d left her for. She didn’t have to say it.
    â€œI ruin ’em, I replace ’em.” He owed her more than a pair of boots, and they both knew it. “Come on, Shay. What’re you gonna do—wear them to bed? They have to come off.”
    He watched the emotions play out on her face as the battle waged inside her. She knew he was right. She was mule-headed, but she wasn’t dumb.
    She crossed her arms and gazed out across the pasture. “In the tack room, left side.”
    â€œAtta girl.” Travis retrieved the shears and returned. She’d pulled up her jeans, exposing that sliver of skin below her knee. There was a day he would’ve reached out and drawn his finger across the softness of her skin.
    â€œCan you just do it already?”
    Her hands were knotted on the ground at her side.
    He began cutting away the tough leather. The blade was dull, making the cutting difficult and slow. She tensed as he approached the ankle.
    â€œWhere’s it hurt?”
    â€œOutside of my foot.”
    He slowed down, taking his time, careful of the tender area. Tried hard not to jostle her as the blades sliced down on the leather. “Easy now . . .”
    â€œI’m not a horse,” she snapped.
    He bit back a grin he knew she wouldn’t appreciate. Maybe a distraction was in order.
    â€œThe other day I was remembering that time Sparky got in a fight with your mom’s cat.” He made another cut. “He thought he was so tough. Came slinking back to us with his tail between his legs.” Over the arch . . . easy . . .
    â€œWasn’t even hurt.” She spoke between gritted teeth.
    Almost there. “Just his pride. Didn’t go near your mom’s cat again. What was her name?”
    â€œJasmine.”
    â€œThat’s right. Jasmine. She was a prickly one.” He pulled the blade out and eased what was left of the boot from her foot.
    Even with the sock on, the swelling was obvious. “This is the easy part.”
    He eased it down over the heel and off, lowering her foot to his lap. The purplish-blue bruising wrapped around her foot and toward the arch. Looked a lot like his foot when he broke it in Houston falling from a particularly feisty bull.
    â€œHow’d it happen?”
    â€œDropped a salt block on it.”
    â€œNeeds an X-ray.”
    â€œIt’s just bruised.”
    â€œIt’s broken, Shay.”
    She pulled her foot away. “You’re no doctor.”
    â€œThat’s right, I’m not.”
    â€œThanks for your help.” She made to stand. Braced her weight on her right foot and inched up the barn wall.
    â€œI’ll take you now.”
    â€œI’ll wait and see how it is in the morning.”
    â€œNo, you won’t. You’ll go right on with your chores.”
    â€œYou don’t know me, Travis McCoy.”
    â€œI know you more than you think. You haven’t changed at all, that much is clear.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?” She tottered on one foot. Sweat dotted her forehead, and she looked ready to pass out.
    Stubborn woman. He fetched her hat and set it back on her head. “Nothing. It means nothing.”
    He took a few breaths, looked around the property, listened to a starling sing a quick song. “If it don’t set up right, you’ll have permanent damage.”
    â€œHow would you know?”
    â€œBroke my foot a few years back, and it needed a pin. You don’t want surgery, now, do you? Or a permanent limp? Make it hard to get around. ’Sides, I’d have to start calling you Hop-along.”
    He could see the indecision in her pain-glazed eyes.
    â€œDr. Garvin can give you something strong for the pain.”
    â€œClinic’s closed.”
    â€œI’ll call