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“Probably.” Nash rose and grabbed another handful of grain and offered it to the mare. She ate that little bit as well. It reassured Nash for the moment. “I wouldn’t worry too much about her unless she doesn’t get up in the morning.”
“Right.” Londyn chewed on her bottom lip as she stared down at the mare. “I can’t imagine what caused her to freak out.”
“Let’s hope the blood test will give us a clue.”
Londyn nodded, her gaze shifting to Nash. “Thank you for saving me from being swept away in the creek.”
“Just doing my job,” he said. “What kind of protector would I be if I let a little flooded creek carry you away?” His mouth pressed into a thin line. “But seriously, I’m sorry I let you get swept away at all.”
She laid a hand on his shoulder. “If you hadn’t been there, Butterscotch and I might not have made it across that creek.”
He stared at the horse nibbling the grain from his palm. He laid his other hand over hers on his shoulder without saying a word. Despite the electric shock, or maybe because of the sensation, he held onto that hand longer than he should have.
Having almost lost her in the raging floodwaters, he wanted to hold on and keep holding on.
Nash curled his fingers around hers and gently pulled her around to stand in front of him.
“This might sound stupid, or maybe even like a pathetic excuse for a pickup line, but I have to say it.”
Her lips lifted in a smile. “Now you have my full attention. Say what’s on your mind.” She brushed a lock of his hair off his forehead.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We haven’t known each other long, but for some reason, I feel like I’ve known you forever. I’ve lost friends. One minute, they’re there; the next, they’re gone. For a moment back there, I almost lost you.”
“But you didn’t,” she said and brushed her lips across his forehead. “You saved my life.”
He shook his head. “A tree saved our lives. If I hadn’t run into it, we wouldn’t have survived much longer. The tree saved us.”
She grasped his cheeks between her hands. “No,” she said. “You saved our lives. Your quick thinking and strength got us out of that creek.”
He let go of her hand, gripped her hips and pulled her into his lap, burying his face against her neck. “I promise to do better,” he said. “I can’t let you die.”
She slid her hands behind his neck and pulled him close to where their lips almost met. “I’m not going to die.” Her lips brushed his softly. “I’m not going to die.”
“You almost did,” he whispered against her mouth.
“I’m a lot tougher than you think.”
“Don’t you see?” He gripped her head, his fingers sinking into her damp hair. “It isn’t always how strong, fast or tough you are. I want—” He crushed his mouth to hers, drinking her in like a man who’d been in a desert too long.
She opened to him.
His tongue met hers, stroking the length, caressing with a passion borne of desperation.
He’d almost lost her. It could have been Waterson all over again. There one minute. Dead the next, in a ground-rocking explosion.
The barn door creaked open.
Lightning flashed, the lights overhead blinked out and thunder boomed like a grenade detonating, shaking the very ground on which they sat.
Nash froze.
“Holy shit!” A male voice exclaimed. A beam of light splashed through the barn’s interior, a glowing stream crossing in front of the open stall door. “Hello?”
Before he could stop her, Londyn scrambled off Nash’s lap. “Hang on.” She stepped out of the stall. “We’re in here.”
Nash was on his feet and at her side in seconds.
A man wearing a rain slicker carried a flashlight and a backpack. “I’m Cookie,” he said. “I take it you’re our guests with the sick horse?”
