Page 101 of Reckless Skye

‘Why don’t you go back to physical therapy?’

‘Because I’d rather be on the road with you.’ The words slipped out in an unguarded moment of truth. But TJ felt no embarrassment just then; the pain was too intense for him to care about tiptoeing around her.

Skye didn’t say anything for a long moment. And then she turned and walked back inside the trailer.

TJ thought she was ignoring him and his foul mood, but she came back out almost immediately, a bottle of wine in one hand, a sleeping bag in the other.

He watched her, his heart filled with equal parts dread and anticipation, as she unzipped the sleeping bag and spread it over his legs. She sat down next to him, close enough that she could slip under the blanket with him.

When she passed him the bottle of wine, TJ took a deep sip.

He sighed as Bandit came and curled up against his thigh.

For just one moment, the anger receded.

But the moment ended too soon.

‘This isn’t good enough for me,’ Skye said as she took the bottle out of his hand and took a sip.

‘Yeah, no shit. But until you find someone who can stick and has a working back, I’m your best bet.’

‘I’m not talking about you. Or, not really, I guess.’ She gave him those blue eyes, filled with concern. ‘I’m talking about the way you ignore your body. It’s not working, TJ.’

He wanted her to stop, needed her to just pretend that everything was fine.

But Skye didn’t let it go. ‘Something has to change.’

‘I tried everything,’ TJ replied quietly. And when Skye opened her mouth to argue, he said the only thing he knew that would stop her in her tracks: ‘Do you think I would have broken my promise to you if I’d seen another way out? This is my life, Skye. This is what the rest of it will look like.’

Skye wasn’t sure how to reply. She still held that anger over the way he’d ended things, but it was difficult to blame TJ now that she’d seen the gruelling pain he lived with on a daily basis. ‘Did you ever think that if you hadn’t cut me out, I could have helped you? Maybe even made the pain easier to live with?’

‘Of course. I knew you’d stay, absolutely. That’s why I did what I did. It wouldn’t have been fair.’

Skye knew they’d hashed it out before, but still, she snapped, ‘It was my choice to make.’

‘You were too young to make it, Skye. Especially after just a few days.’

Oddly, Skye didn’t think so. ‘I think, after everything I survived before, being able to choose my place in the world would have been really nice actually.’

‘You did choose your place,’ TJ reminded her. ‘And from what I’ve heard, you found a good one at Hunt Ranch.’

Skye rolled her eyes at him. ‘I know you called Mav and got me the job there.’

‘I knew him,’ TJ replied simply. ‘Why wouldn’t I?’

‘Well, I won’t be mad about it because I genuinely love my life there.’ Skye yawned, fighting the fatigue from the day – the long drive and the race and the vandalism. ‘Do you mind watching the horses while I go shower quick? Once I’m done, we can head out for the night.’

TJ stroked one big palm over Bandit’s head, and although she tried not to remember a time when that same hand had run over her skin, it was hard not to. A heavy weight settled between her thighs.

TJ stopped moving, letting his hand rest on the dog’s head. ‘Go for it,’ he said, but his tone, tight and gravelly, had her swallowing.

She risked a glance at him, knew by the dark green of his irises that he’d read her thoughts, or maybe sensed her mood.

Skye didn’t dare close that distance. She’d been snubbed by TJ before, and remembering it made her doubt herself, or maybe him. But she waited for three long, tension-filled seconds, hoping that he’d make a move.

He didn’t.

He merely stared off over the fairgrounds.