She looked up at him, her wide eyes dazed and slightly unfocused. “I just slipped. It wasn’t icy when I came out here, and I didn’t notice the surface.”
Cole felt the lump on her head through the mass of thick dark hair. It was sticky with blood. He studied the walkway. There was no dripping water that could have caused the snow to ice over the way it had. The surface was slick with a layer of ice, almost as if someone had sprayed water over it. He studied the latticework. A few drops of ice clung to the wood just about level with his waist. “Don’t move, Doc, just lie still while I take a look at you.” Jase was the only person around. He swore silently. He didn’t want to think the boy could in any way be like their father, but his own past and his job gave him a suspicious nature. He had to eliminate Jase as a suspect. There were ranch hands—even Al—living on the ranch and even in a blizzard one of them could have arranged the “accident.”
He glanced once more at Jase. The boy looked so anxious, every instinct Cole possessed told him he couldn’t possibly have sprayed the water on the walkway to make it icy.
“The fall just stunned me for a minute.”
“Did you get knocked out? Jase, was she out for any length of time?”
“She swore a lot,” Jase reported.
“Did she now? I wasn’t sure you knew how to swear,” Cole said, looking down into Maia’s eyes. It was a big mistake. A man could lose himself there. He couldn’t look away from her. He bent his head and brushed a kiss across her mouth to break the spell.
Her eyelashes fluttered, and she managed to glare at him. “I work with animals, believe me, I know how to swear. And was that another apology?”
“Sheer desperation.”
“You do look a bit desperate,” Maia conceded, struggling to sit up. “And I didn’t lose consciousness. I think I knocked the wind out of myself, and my head hurts pretty bad, but if you’ll help me up, I’ll be fine.”
“I’m going to lift you, Doc. Just put your arms around my neck. Jase, watch your step, the surface is icy, and we don’t need another accident.”
“I’ve never seen the walkway ice over before,” Jase said. “Maybe there was rain or slush coming down with the snow.”
“Maybe,” Cole conceded, but the temperature was far too cold for rain or slush, and they both knew it. “Just stay close until I can take a look around, Jase.” He lifted Maia into his arms, holding her against his chest. Her skin was cool after being outdoors for so long. She was heavier than he expected, her muscles solid and firm. He felt the tension in her the moment he cradled her close. The same faint fragrance of peaches and rain he’d noticed the night before clung to her skin and hair.
“I can walk,” she protested. She tried to hold herself rigidly away from him. “I’m ruining your shirt.” Maia felt silly being carried by Cole Steele. If her head hadn’t been throbbing with enough intensity to make her teeth ache she would have insisted on walking.
“Relax, Doc, I have a lot of shirts, and there’s only one of you. I don’t give a damn about the shirt.”
“That’s a good thing, because it’s a mess already.” She tried to move her head to keep the blood from dripping onto his shirt.
Cole made a single sound of impatience and she subsided, trying to relax against him in spite of her embarrassment. Jase skirted around the ice and hurried ahead to open the door. “I’ll get blankets,” he called over his shoulder.
Cole carried her to the oversized couch, placing her with care in the middle of the cushions. “When you went to the barn this morning, you’re positive there was no ice on the walkway?”
Maia looked up at the concern on his face. His voice was low, obviously to keep Jase from overhearing. “It was easy to get to the barn. I remember thinking everyone should have a walkway like that. Most ranches in the outlying areas use rope or cable as a guideline when it’s snowing.”
“We’ve got cable up in places,” Cole said. He took the ice pack and washcloth from Jase as the boy hurried up to them. “Thanks, Jase. The doc’s going to be fine. She just looks a little pale. Women do that to give men heart attacks.”
Maia laughed. Cole should have known she would in spite of her injuries, but he wasn’t at all prepared for the sound filling the space around them. His space. It was always there, between him and everyone else, but she didn’t seem to see it, and she put things there like her laughter. She was definitely getting under his skin, and it made him edgier than usual.
“Well, I don’t think you should, Doc,” Jase chastised, his hand over his heart, “because I was really scared.”