Their gazes met and locked. What kind of game was she playing here? Was she trying to humiliate him? Put him in his place?

  But no. There was absolutely no malice in her beautiful green eyes.

  As usual, she wasn’t thinking of herself at all, although how that was possible with as bad an injury as she had was beyond him. She had to be in some serious pain right now. Yet as awkward as it was for both of them, this was all about Judah’s reaction, helping him feel comfortable in what might otherwise turn into something completely different. It didn’t take much for Judah to become anxious and panic-stricken.

  Judah was an ultrasensitive little boy. If he realized his favorite teacher Miss Molly was in the amount of pain she was so graciously trying to mask for his sake, he might not respond well to it.

  He’d already had enough overexposure for one day at the festival even without worrying about his teacher getting hurt.

  Clearing his throat, Logan combed through his hair and then leaned down and brushed the tenderest of kisses over Molly’s swollen ankle.

  His parents whistled and applauded, which only made the hot blush on his cheeks grow worse. Did they really have to make such a big deal about this?

  “Is your owie better, Miss Molly?” Judah asked her, his wide-eyed gaze as serious as ever.

  “It is,” Molly replied. “All better. I’m so glad you and your daddy were here to help me out. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

  Logan noticed she didn’t mention that she wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place if it wasn’t for him throwing her to the ground the way he had.

  Before he knew what she was about to do, she attempted to rise, putting the majority of her weight on her uninjured side.

  “Argh.” She swallowed her painful outburst so Judah wouldn’t hear her, but she immediately folded back to the ground.

  Judah didn’t notice. But Logan did.

  Stubborn woman.

  Seriously.

  Did she think she was just going to stand up, walk off the field on her own and pretend nothing had happened?

  With a sprained ankle?

  He met her gaze briefly and he realized that was exactly what she intended to do. Always putting others ahead of her own needs. Probably thinking of Judah and how it would look to him if she expressed that she was in pain and needed help to walk.

  Well, getting up and walking on her own wasn’t going to happen. Not that she could even if she wanted to, and definitely not if he had anything to say about it.

  He stood quickly and gently scooped her into his arms. Rufus, who hadn’t taken his doggy gaze off Molly since she’d given him his last command, got to his feet and inched forward, clearly concerned about his mistress’s condition—and who was holding her so oddly.

  Her brothers closed in as well, until they saw the expression on his face. Then they backed off a little. But not too far.

  “Put me down,” Molly protested in a whisper meant only for him.

  “Not gonna happen,” he informed her briskly. “Now, stop wiggling and be a good patient. I’m taking you to urgent care. You need an X-ray on that ankle.”

  “That’s really not necessary. I probably just need to wrap it with a bandage. Worst-case scenario, I can get Sharpe and Frost to take me to urgent care.”

  “No sense interrupting your siblings’ fun,” Logan insisted. “Look, guys,” he said, addressing Molly’s brothers. “This festival only comes around once a year. I don’t want you to have to miss the fireworks. This is on me, and I’m not going to rest easy until I know for sure how Molly and her ankle are doing. I promise I’ll keep you updated by text.”

  Molly sighed, clearly realizing the wisdom of Logan’s words but nonetheless frustrated by her inability to walk on her own. He was fairly certain she would rather be anywhere else in the world besides in his arms. But no sense involving her brothers.

  “Boys, can you take Rufus back to the farm tonight?”

  At the sound of his name, Rufus pricked up his ears and looked as if he might be considering a repeat of his earlier movements, but Frost grabbed his lead and commanded him to heel before more damage could be done.

  “Okay, we’re off,” Logan said, heading toward the church parking lot where he’d parked his truck.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured into the fabric of his shirt.

  He stopped and glanced down at her in surprise.

  She was sorry?

  “For what?” he asked, bemused.

  “Oh, well, I don’t know. Take your pick. That you got slammed to the ground by my overenthusiastic puppy. That you have to miss the rest of the Independence Day Festival to take me to urgent care so I can get an X-ray on my stupid ankle. And most of all, that you lost the race because of me—well, me and Rufus.”

  Every muscle in Logan’s body tensed all at once. Did she really believe he was that shallow, that winning or losing a race meant anything to him when her health was on the line?

  But then again, it wasn’t as if he’d given her any reason to trust him. And he had to admit, that was how he used to be. All about the game.

  “No worries.” Logan shrugged and Molly groaned in pain. Just that little bit of movement had her wincing. He was seriously concerned about her ankle. Maybe it was worse than they’d first thought. What if she’d broken the bone? As far as he was concerned, the faster he got her in to see a doctor, the better.

  He reached his truck and gently settled her into the passenger side, then slid behind the wheel and put the truck into gear.

  “Hang tight,” he said. “It won’t be long now, and I’ll get to the doctor to get you all fixed up. I promise.”

  The look she flashed him stabbed him right in the heart.

  I promise.

  Two words he knew she would never, ever believe coming out of his mouth again.

  Chapter Six

  “This certainly isn’t the way I’d intended for this day to go,” Molly said, sighing as she settled her head back onto the exam table.

  A nurse had already strung her up to an IV drip and a doctor had briefly visited, examining her ankle and ordering pain medication and an X-ray.

  Her ankle still hurt, but now she felt a little loopy and much more relaxed than she had been on her ride over with Logan. It had been the most intensely painful few minutes she’d ever spent in her life. She could tell he was trying to drive carefully, but every bump and curve had been excruciating. Worse, she couldn’t think of a thing to say to Logan, and he’d appeared deep in thought, anyway.

  A month ago, she wouldn’t have been able to imagine a single scenario in which she would spend time with Logan Maddox for any reason whatsoever, especially boxed up in the cab of a truck together. Or being hobbled for a three-legged race.

  Now, not only was she his son’s teacher, but here she was in an urgent care exam room with Logan sitting beside her in a chair near her bed, his hands tightly clasped and a worried expression furrowing his brow.

  In many ways, it was surreal just to consider.

  In other ways, it was all too real. Logan was no longer the immature boy who had betrayed and deserted her all those years ago. From everything she’d seen of him since his return, he was a kind, compassionate man and a dedicated father.

  Maybe it was the pain medicine talking—probably it was—but at this moment, her if only was sliding dangerously close to a what-if.

  Was it even possible for them to cross the enormous chasm between them? Repair the damage and move forward?

  It was conceivable that they might actually be able to become friends again, if only she could truly put his past actions in the past where they belonged. She knew that’s what she should do, for her own sake as well as his.

  But that was an enormous if.

  She couldn’t even believe she was thinking about such a thing. Yet for her own good, might it not be better not to be carrying the burden of anger and hurt?

  “How are you feeling now?” Logan asked, his deep, concerned voice breaking into her thoughts.

  “A little loopy.” She chuckled. “My ankle still hurts like crazy, though.”

  One side of his lips curved into the half smile that had always made her heart do backflips. “I’m sure it does. Praying it’s just a sprain and not broken. Hopefully the doc will be able to get you all straightened out without too much trouble.”

  Her chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh. “I think it’s going to take a lot more than a boot on my ankle to straighten me out.”

  He snorted and shook his head. “I can’t believe you can make jokes at a time like this. No, wait. I can. I really can.”

  “I’ve always believed it’s better to laugh than to cry.”

  And that lesson had been hard-earned, courtesy of Logan Maddox.

  Suddenly her smile dropped from her lips.

  He stood and moved to the bedside. At first, he reached out to grab her hand, but he dropped his arm again when she pulled away from him.

  “Is the pain getting worse?” he asked. “I can go find a nurse and get you more pain meds.”

  She shook her head. All the pain medication in the world could not touch what truly ailed her, and it didn’t seem to be touching the pain in her ankle, either, so what was the use?

  This wasn’t the time to try to repair her damaged heart.

  “So, when we were back there on the field with Rufus, why did you have him sitting and lying down and sitting again so many times in a row?” He was clearly trying to get her mind off her pain with his question.

  “It’s a strategy we use sometimes to snap a dog out of a particular action,” she explained. “For some reason, Rufus really got overexcited when he saw us running and decided to plow us over. I used the sit-down-sit maneuver to force him to pay attention to something other than licking all the whiskers off your face.”

  He chuckled. “Well, I do appreciate that.”

  There was a quick knock on the door, and the doctor entered, holding her X-ray scan in one hand. He clipped it to a light board on the side of the wall and then turned to Molly, his expression grim.

  This time it was Molly who reached for Logan’s hand. He gave her a tender squeeze to let her know he was there for her, which Molly appreciated. She didn’t really want to be alone if the diagnosis was worse than she’d anticipated.

  All that had happened was she’d taken a hard tumble and twisted her ankle, and even then, Logan had done all he could to cushion her from crashing on the ground. He’d been the one to receive the brunt of the fall. It should be him up on this exam table, not her.

  “I’m afraid you have a hairline fracture,” the doctor informed her, pointing to her X-ray scan to outline the exact details. “The best way to help it heal properly will be to set it in a balloon cast. You’ll have to use crutches for the next six weeks.”

  Molly sucked in a breath, gut-punched by the diagnosis.

  Six weeks in crutches? She had things to do and big plans for her summer vacation time. A balloon cast and crutches would quite literally cripple all of those plans. In eight weeks she’d be back in school, and the summer would be over.

  Logan must have noticed her cringe, because he tightened his hold on her hand.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her quietly. “Is the pain getting to be too much for you? Don’t be a martyr, Molly. Just say something.”

  Molly shook her head. The pain she was feeling was all in her head and heart as discouragement washed over her.

  “Your ankle will feel better once we’ve stabilized it in a cast,” the doctor said. “We’ll give you a second shot for the pain before I start manipulating your foot, and then I’ll send you home with a couple of prescriptions.”

  Molly hesitated for a moment before she spoke. “Thank you, Doctor.”

  She decided it was easier to just go with the flow than to try to explain what was really bothering her.

  But the moment the doctor left the room to gather the supplies he’d need and find a couple of nurses to assist him with the procedure, Logan turned to her, his face full of apprehension.

  “All right. Spill.”

  She lifted her eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s been a long time since we were a couple,” he admitted, “but I still feel as if I can read your expressions. This isn’t about your physical pain, is it? What’s really going on?”

  For a moment, Molly considered brushing him off and not telling him what was actually on her mind and in her heart.

  She exhaled deeply. Did she really want to get into her personal business with Logan, a man with whom she’d once shared every tiny detail of her life?

  “No, you’re right. It’s not the physical pain that’s bothering me so much. I’m frustrated, more than anything. I have—had—big plans for my summer vacation that I’ve been working on for months now. To have to put that aside—well, it really gets my goat.” She paused and despite everything, she chuckled. “Gets my goat. Oh, my.”

  He frowned and looked at her as if she were crazy. At the moment, she was feeling pretty crazy, for such a joke to seem funny to her.

  “Big plans?” Logan echoed, having caught the issue she’d first mentioned.

  “Yeah. Because of my teaching job, I don’t have as much time as some of my brothers and sisters to work on the tree farm and dog rescue. I get that some of them have made their careers out of it, but I still like to help out when I can.”

  She took a deep breath and sighed. “You know, it’s hard for me to believe that I ever wanted to leave, to live elsewhere than Winslow’s Woodlands. I just love it so much now. And during the summer and Christmas breaks, I actually get to help with the workload a little more. But as it looks right now, I won’t even be able to do my daily chores, much less put into motion any other plans I might have had.”

  “Which are?”

  Now that she was talking to him it didn’t feel quite as awkward as she’d expected, especially because he appeared genuinely concerned not only with her health, but her answers to his questions.

  “I clean the dog run every evening. You know, our dog run isn’t like a typical kennel. It’s more of a large, fenced open space that I have to walk every night. With it being mountain terrain, there’s no way I can navigate it with crutches, and even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to carry my bin and rake.”

  “You clean the dog run?”

  “It’s not very glamorous, I know, but I actually don’t mind doing it. I let out all the dogs and we play around while I work. I hate to have to ask one of my siblings to take over when they already do so much. Sharpe and Frost run the tree farm, Felicity and Ruby are in charge of the rest of the landscaping items, and Avery runs the business end of the business. All I do is pitch in when I can.”

  “I’d hardly say that’s all you do, Molly. You’ve got a very important job teaching the town’s children. I highly doubt your siblings resent you for that.”

  She sighed. “No. They don’t. Which in my mind only makes it worse. I do love teaching. It’s my life’s passion. But my family is important to me, too.”

  “So your frustration is all about not being able to clean the dog run?” he clarified.

  “Yes. Well, that, and regularly I exercise some of the dogs on the agility course to relieve some of their energy and train them with certain commands. I definitely won’t be able to do that, as it requires a lot of running and gesturing on my part, neither of which I can do in a cast and crutches.”

  “Hmm.” He dropped her hand and leaned his hip against the counter, which contained a small sink and drawers full of various medical items. “And for the summer project you mentioned?”

  “Well, seeing as the most successful part of our family business is the Christmas tree farm, we’ve been trying to think of ways to bring in more customers year-round—something in the way of a winter wonderland, I guess. Where they can find a little Christmas in the middle of summer. At this point it’s just something we’ve all been talking over. Not a lot of specific plans. This isn’t all going to happen this summer, but I had an idea I thought I might be able to implement this summer. Not going to happen now, though.”

  “The concept sounds interesting.”

  “I think so. We’re trying, anyway, especially to make it so, you know, Winslow’s Woodlands isn’t just for the adults’ landscaping needs. We’re looking to make it something fun for the kids, somewhere they’ll ask to visit. During the Christmas season, picking out a tree is fun and exciting for everyone, including the littles. But how boring is it in the middle of summer when their parents are looking for bushes or aspen trees for their yard?”

  “Judah is really good at entertaining himself no matter where we are, but I guess I can see what you mean.”

  “Right. Judah is really smart that way.” She smiled softly at the thought of the sweet little boy. “Anyway,” she continued, “here’s where my summer project crashes and burns. I came up with the idea of putting together a petting zoo. I thought that would be a good start, even before we lean into the whole Christmas-all-year-round, winter wonderland thing. We can keep it open in the summer and fall as easily as in the winter.”

  “Now, that idea I can grab on to. I know Judah would love to visit a petting zoo. We’d probably have to visit once a week.” He paused, and his lips curled into a smile. “I guess you could say it’s your pet project.”

  Molly groaned and rolled her eyes. “That was bad. Really bad.”

  Worse than her goat pun, for sure.

  Logan just shrugged and chuckled.

  “I guess all I can do now is hope I can at least do the organizing part while I’m on crutches—talk to local ranches and purchase some friendly animals. I’m thinking donkeys, goats, sheep, maybe a couple of miniature horses.”

  “That’s a good start.”

 

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