“I guess I could understand if animals talk to you all the time,” Cole teased.
The tone was gruff, but Maia was pleased he’d actually managed to say something to kid her. She tried to keep a stern face, but she knew her eyes gave her away every time. When she wanted to laugh, it always showed.
“You wouldn’t want to eat your clients,” Jase added.
“Oh you two are a laugh a minute,” Maia said. “You should take your little comedy act out on the road.”
“She’s getting grouchy. Must be the headache. Women, by the way”—Cole leaned across the table toward Jase, to impart his wisdom in a conspirator’s overloud whisper—“get headaches a lot.”
Jase’s grin widened.
Maia lifted an eyebrow. “Really? I wouldn’t have thought you’d get that reaction, Steele, but now that I’ve spent time with you, I can see it.”
Jase nearly fell off his chair laughing, so much so that Cole rolled up a newspaper and smacked him over the head.
“It’s not that funny, little bro.”
“If I’m little, what’s Maia? I’m taller than she is.”
“Everything is taller than Maia.”
Maia managed an indignant glare. “I’m not short. I happen to be the perfect height. Sheesh, not everyone has to be a moose.”
“Now she’s calling you a moose,” Jase said. He was laughing so hard he was beginning to wheeze.
Cole reached out and put a calming hand on his shoulder. “She’s going to kick off an asthma attack if you’re not careful, and she’ll be chasing you around the house with that needle she uses on the horse. Take a breath, Jase. Use your inhaler if you have to.”
Although he was automatically breathing slow, deep breaths to aid his younger brother, Cole was watching Maia as well. She was clearly becoming distracted, trying to stay in the conversation, but bothered by something he couldn’t hear or see.
“What is it, Doc?”
The smile faded from her face, and she turned her head toward the kitchen door. “Do you have a patio out there, a shelter?”
“Of course. Everything is connected by walkways to the house,” Cole said. “That way, when it snows, there’s no way to get lost.”
Maia stood up, pushing back her chair. “I’ll be right back.”
Jase was startled out of his wheezing when she left the room. “What’s she up to, Cole?”
“Lord only knows,” Cole said, but he glanced toward the kitchen door. The sound of the wind and tree branches hitting the house could be heard, but nothing else.
“I like having her here,” Jase confided.
“So do I.” Cole realized it was true. He never spent so much time in anyone’s company. Jase had been the first real commitment he’d made outside of his job. Maia brightened the house, brought warmth and laughter and a sense of home. His heart lurched at the idea. “Do you think any woman would make this place feel the way she makes it, or just the doc?” He kept his voice very neutral but found his stomach was tied up in knots. The kid mattered to him, even his opinion mattered, and that realization was almost as shocking.
Jase shook his head. “It’s definitely the doc. I like her a lot, Cole.”
Cole crumpled his napkin and threw it on the table. “Yeah, I do too.”
Jase frowned. “You don’t sound too happy about it.”
“Would you be? Hell, look at us, Jase. We’re about as dysfunctional as two men could get. You think the doc is going to be looking at me. I can’t even make up my mind if I want her to.” He shoved his chair back.
“She kissed you,” Jase pointed out. “Do you think she kisses everyone?”
Cole’s entire body tensed, every muscle contracting. The knots in his belly hardened into lethal lumps. “She’d better not be kissing everyone,” Cole said. There was enough of an edge to his voice that Jase looked wary.
“Are you angry, Cole?”
“I just don’t trust anything I don’t understand, Jase. I don’t altogether understand the doc or how she makes me feel.” Telling the kid the truth wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be when he’d first made the promise to himself. He hadn’t counted on meeting Maia Armstrong and feeling so intensely about her.
“Well talk nice to her,” Jase advised. “Otherwise, you’ll scare her off.”
“Scare whom off?” Maia asked as she came back into the room carrying her small bag. She was dressed in a thick coat and mittens. “If you’re talking about me, Jase, your brother doesn’t scare me. He’s all growl and no bite.”
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
Jase groaned and shook his head, covering his face with his hands. “Do you ever listen? Even I know you can’t talk to women like that.”
“Thank you, Jase,” Maia said. “You know, Cole, if you took a few lessons from your younger brother, you might develop a certain charm.”
“Just answer me.”
Maia sighed, color washing into her face. “I have to make a call.”
“A call? What the hell?”