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The next tiht Her head lay on a pillow and a blanket covered her body Alex led under the blanket and listened to the rain As soon as it stopped, she’d go ho over on her back, she looked out theAlex was standing on the porch, leaning on the rail and nursing a cup of coffee She looked at her watch He should be at work now

Throwing back the covers, she slid off theseat and headed for the door, using her fingers as a comb to put her hair in some kind of order

His attention turned to her as she approached him on the porch The coffee cup paused short of his lips as he aze He must have decided she was in a better aze followed her all the way to his side If he thought she looked amess, it certainly didn’t show in his expression For so

He took a sip of the coffee as he turned back to watch the rain He leaned against the porch rail

"Goodher attention to the rain-soaked landscape in front of theosh! I’ve never seen the creek so high!"

It sprawled out half way across the pasture toward her house

He nodded "I wonder if there is debris blocking it in the back pasture"

"Did you decide not to go to work?" she asked

"I couldn’t - the water is over the bridge"

One thing caoing to take care of her fes out of the house"

"Do you have insurance on the house?" he asked

"Yes, but I don’t know if it covers floods"

His gaze left the field and found hers

"Will it pay if a tree falls on the house?"

Her attention jerked back to the house and she threw both hands over her e sycamore tree behind the house was now on the house It looked as though it had fallen on the roof over her bedroom

She looked up at his face "I don’t know"

He took another sip of his coffee, unruffled

"Well, if the insurance doesn’t pay, I’ll fix it"

She stared at his as ‘ours’, or offered to buy her a car This was carrying his generosity a step too far

"I’ your wallet," she said

He lowered the cup and lifted his brows

"I’ your farm either Do you want me to keep my buffalo off of it?"

"No!"

He s the taking, isn’t it, Heidi? You’re all heart when it co"

The smile, the nickname – both made her feel better Maybe he wasn’t so upset with her after all

His attention shifted back to the house and he sobered

"We’ll get a bed out of your house and put it in one of the rooms here so you’ll have a dry place to sleep"

It took a ht her breath

"I can’t move into your house What would people think?"

He swished the re coffee around in his cup and didn’t answer i and turned to her, his gaze stern

"What do you suppose they will think about you sleeping here last night? It isn’t as if we can hide it, you know We’re trapped here"

One look around confirain People would wonder how often she had slept here

"You know," Alex continued, "it’s a good thing you were here last night But all you can think of is what other people will think" He shook his head and picked up his cup "If you don’t want to stay, that’s up to you It seeet in out of the heat and you don’t have to walk so far to do the chores But, if you want to stay somewhere else, I can do the chores"

He turned and walked into the house

Watching his retreating back, it occurred to her once again that sheto stand firm on the issue of casual sex, but this was the man she would be married to in less than teeks He had braved the stor all he could think about was her safety and coain – only this time she had used other people’s opinion as a haht she was a prude

She shoved her hands in her pockets and walked inside He was in the kitchen, rinsing his cup when she walked in He turned it upside down in the sink and turned to face her, his expression typically unreadable

"I’"

Hu before the lopsided san

She sank into a chair at the table "I want to stay here You knoell enough to know that what other people think doesn’t influence how I behave I know it’s a cliché, but I feel safe when I’m with you I want to wait until after we’re– not if it’s going to bother you this uess I’ve been listening to you too long, because noant to wait"

He pulled out a chair and straddled it, folding his arms across the back of it

"I didn’t intend to et frustrated sometimes, butas it that said anticipation was half the fun – or so like that?"

"I don’t know," she said "But who ever said it hed as he pulled out his cellular phone

"Let’s see if we can get so a heavy load lifted fro the decision in his lap made him feel better about it It was hard to believe he wanted to wait – not after all he had said Then again, uive a little, he did too

After Alex finished talking to Bill, she sat down beside hi her chin in her hands His brows lifted

"What?"

"I just wondered," she said, and hesitated a uht before, but they needed to clear the air about so

"What did youthat conversation if you could get ry, he gave no indication Finally his gaze came to rest on hers

"It put a hold on our relationship when you found out I couldn’t" He looked away "It doesn’tto say that ould have been aze caht have been I shouldn’t have said anything"

There was a deep sensitive side to Alex that he was always trying to hide It was strange how akisses, but paranoid about revealing his vulnerable side There were still so s to learn about him – and for him to learn about her

Josh and Lori were almost a holler away, but help came in the form of Katie and Bill first At the old house Katie retrieved soe Care It had finally stopped raining, but the water had not receded yet Bill tossed Carht it Bill said one of the lih the roof over Carmen’s bedroom – all the way down and punctured her mattress Alex could have said ‘I told you so’, but he said nothing – didn’t even look like he wanted to

Alex decided to ride down on his side of the creek and see if he could find a tree across the creek When Carht need Princess too

Within an hour, they were riding side-by-side down the south bank of the creek, searching for the blocked area In spite of the situation, it was peaceful riding with hi in weeks Maybe this hat they needed to do instead of thinking torrid thoughts about each other The hugging and kissing onderful, but that hy they were getting so frustrated What they needed was quality tiood brisk walk up a steep rugged trail would leave him too exhausted to erous noith slippery wet rocks and washed out places

They found the problee Oak tree had fallen across the creek in a narrow deep area, trapping debris in front of it to form a natural da an arm out for help

Alex examined the tree for a fewit a few tiet momentum and then threw it at the liht Wrapping the rope around the saddle horn, he nudged Ed intothe fallen tree downstream Had it not been for the fact that the tree was almost completely severed from its trunk and had so much pressure on it from the opposite side, it would probably have been an impossible feat As it was, he had to enlist the help of Princess in order to h

"Unwrap it!" Alex directed Carmen as he quickly detached the rope from his saddle horn

Carmen barely had the rope unwrapped from the horn before water and debris shoved the tree further With the obstruction re debris with it Car torrent What was downstreaht as he watched it anxiously

By the tiot back to the house, the creek was substantially lower – enough so that the bridge was ee was passable Of course, it helped that the rain had stopped, but the main problem had been the obstruction

When Alex told Bill that Car to move to his house, Katie was shocked

"Alex, you can’t do that You’ll trash her reputation People are already wondering They know Carh, and – well, if she moves in with you, they’ll think she"

"They’ll think what they want no mater what she does" Alex interrupted "If they know her as well as they think they do, they’ll know nothing is going on Carmen and I have talked it over and decided this is the best solution She can put a bed in one of the other bedroo with Katie and Bill was probably a better choice, but she had already told Alex she would stay at his house He thought she was bending a little She couldn’t back up now Besides, it did make more sense to stay at his house Otherwise she would have to bug someone to take her over to do the chores Maybe Alex could feed his animals, but the chickens, Princess, and Casper were still her responsibility

"She should stay with us," Katie insisted "It would look better that way"

"I can’t protect her while she’s at your house," Alex said

"Protect her from what, Alex?" Katie said "You don’tCarn that she was in agreement with him

"I feel safe when I’hed "It’s only for a week, Carer you stay here, the ret"

That ht be true, but for some reason Alex felt he needed to protect her Maybe it was from herself Whatever the case, it was iret, she would feel worse about hurting Alex His confidence orth the risk Maybe he needed to prove that she could trust hiht, she didn’t need any proof Still, the thought of living in the house with hi

"You’re welcoently, "But it’s your decision, Carht," Katie and Alex said in unison

Carmen sucked in a deep breath "I appreciate your offer, but I think I’ll stay here with Alex As you said, it’s only a week I can get a lot of stuff done here at the house, and I need to do so Besides, they’re almost done with the chicken house and then we’ll be transferring the chickens to it I’ll need to be here then We had planned to do it next Monday, but with this latest probleed "I trust Alex and I trust s about ht or siaze shifted to Alex, his eyes arm and a smile played at the corners of his ht decision – said the right words

"Let’s go get that car tomorrow," Alex said I don’t want you to be stuck here while I’one"

She nodded "That way you don’t have to keep fittingdone"

Whether it was right or wrong, it certainly felt good to step into his stride At least they were going in the sa she would concede to when they were alone, was selecting so roo to be there all day and night, they needed ht ware, but the idea felt intih – and the first of his money she would spend on herself

Alex took off work the next day and they moved one of the beds to the bedroom of her choice in his house Later he took her to town to purchase a car Other than aesthetics and economics, she had little idea what kind of vehicle she wanted He listened attentively to her requests – so easy to see on the road, lots of rooe She was relieved when he started looking at pre-owned cars Using his own parae of the vehicle, he found several cars that fit her criteria After that he let her decide which one she wanted The most expensive one was her favorite, but she selected the least expensive Alex eyed her reflectively

"I would have sworn you liked the Buick best," he said

"It isn’t important"

"Well, I think it is Personally, I like it best too, and I think it’s the best bargain Besides, it will offer better protection than the others"

The salesreed Of course, he would

"I like it best, but it’s so expensive," she said

Alex nodded "Yeah, well "

The salesman looked uncertain until Alex lifted a brow