So it was as though his thoughts had summoned her to his doorstep, shivering in her puffy black coat. She wasn’t wearing a hat, and the snow had gone straight under the hood. Her dark hair fell in wet curls around her shoulders.
“Well, come on in,” he said. “You’re letting the heat out.”
She hesitated one second longer, then stepped over the threshold of the little cabin. Even underneath the wet snow he could still smell her light, floral scent. Was it possible she still used the same shampoo after all these years? He couldn’t focus on that now. Not with her teeth chattering and her body wracked with chills. Wow. It was a lot snowier than he’d thought. Liam jumped into action. He took the coat from around her shoulders and hung it on a peg by the door. Next step—wood for the fire. It had started to burn down to embers. Inside of a minute, he had the flames jumping in the hearth. “Get those boots off,” he said from the spot by the fireplace. “You’ve got to get warm.”
A surprised look lit up her features. “I know that, Liam Wells,” she said.
“Then why haven’t you taken them off yet? Hands frozen?” He went back to where she stood on the doormat and helped her out of the boots. It didn’t do much good. “All of you’s frozen, by the looks of it.” They both looked down at her clothes. The coat had been essentially useless. Her pants were soaked through, and he’d bet good money her socks were wet, too. “Come on. This won’t do.”
“What won’t do?” Her teeth slammed together so hard he worried she’d chip one of them. “I can just sit by the fire a minute and warm up.”
He shot her a look. “Do you think I’m going to let you sit by the fire in wet clothes? Forget about that.” He guided her through the main room to the bathroom. “Here’s the bathroom,” he said, though he figured she could see inside from the door. “Take a warm shower. Get clean and dry.”
Mina narrowed her eyes at him.
“Don’t look at me like that. You know I keep the bathroom clean.”
“Do I?”
“You should. I’ve never liked dirty bathrooms. When I come back from the circuit, I like everything to be spic and span.”
“You don’t like to leave a mess, huh?”
There was some deeper meaning to this, and all the memories of high school flashed through his mind in a carousel of colors and sounds and smells. “I don’t,” he said softly, something in his chest twisting at those blue eyes looking up at him. For a moment he could see Mina exactly as she was back then. Sixteen. So wide open to the world. And after…
He shoved all those feelings to the side. Get her warm. Get her dry. That was what he had to focus on now. “You shower off. I’ll get you something dry to wear. Then we can talk.”
Her eyes lingered on his for another long moment. Then Mina went into the bathroom and shut the door firmly behind her. The lock clicked into place a moment later.
Liam let out a long breath. Of all the people to show up on his doorstep. Mina Heath. Mina, Mina, Mina. Her name echoed in his mind as he rushed around the cabin, listening with all his might for the sound of the shower. The rush of water hit him a heartbeat later. Liam froze with his hands in his dresser drawers. The sound of the shower meant that Mina Heath was naked. In his house.
The rush of blood between his legs was so powerful it almost took him out at the knees. Liam couldn’t afford that. He gripped the dresser tight, staying upright until he could get his head together. His head hardly cooperated. It kept taking him by the collar and throwing him back to high school. Back to when he was seventeen.
She’d helped him out. Mina had been so sweet to help him out that day. At the time, he figured he’d done all he could to make things even, but now, looking back—he hadn’t done nearly enough. Liam had no idea if she got in trouble with that cranky old man. Mina had been cute and shy and sweet, and he’d done absolutely nothing about it. Never even asked her what happened. To be fair, she’d done her best to avoid him after that. The rest of his senior year, he’d only seen her two or three times in the hallways and always with her hair bouncing as she moved quickly in the opposite direction.
And now she was in his shower.
In. His. Shower.
He dug deeper into the dresser. She needed something dry and warm. He came up with his favorite sweatpants, worn soft from years of washing, and a long-sleeved T-shirt from one of the rodeos he’d ridden in on the circuit. That, and a thick pair of socks.
Liam came back to the bathroom door just as the water stopped. He waited a decent interval to give her a chance to towel off, then knocked lightly at the door. “Hey, Mina? I’ll step away as soon as I put the clothes down, but there’s an outfit waiting for you out here. You can put your clothes in the hamper there. I’ll take care of them for you.”
“Okay.” Her voice sounded overly cheerful, like she was hiding something. “I’ll be right out.”
He left the clothes in a folded pile on the floor and went into the kitchen. Then he spent a full minute at least staring into his own reflection in the window above the sink. What had he done? She’d obviously been pissed at him. Was it about the thing with the cranky old man? Was that it?
He couldn’t ask her about it now.
Well…he could, but what good would that do either of them? She’d only come here because her car had gone off the road. It was snowy and cold and too dangerous for her to leave. Now that he thought of it, maybe it was more dangerous for her to stay. Not because he was dangerous…but because she was. She did things to him. To his heart. To his body.
But his heart and body weren’t the things that mattered right now.
“Hey.”
He turned around fast, finding her in the doorway with wet hair and pink cheeks. His heart did a fast flip and a bang bang bang at the sight of her in his clothes. All of them were so big on her, and the whole package was so sexy and adorable it chased all the words from his mind.
Say something. He had to come up with something. “Hey, Mina. You’re looking good.” Well, it was something.
“Thanks.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the doorframe. “What are you doing in here? Were you looking at something outside?”
He’d been staring at his own face in the mirror the dark made of the window. Heat burned across his cheeks. “Thought I saw something out in the snow. It was nothing. I really came in here to make you something to eat.” Now that he’d said that, he wasn’t entirely sure what was in his pantry. Even if he had been sure when he woke up this morning, the sight of her in his sweatpants would have erased that from his memory completely. “You’ve got to be hungry.”
Mina laughed, the sound a cousin to a giggle, and his heart melted. Liam had spent the last few years doing hard rides on the rodeo circuit and practicing his lasso skills. He’d honed his finesse work until he was one of the best in the business. It took the kind of focus that most people couldn’t dream of. But all the concentration in the world couldn’t stop him from melting over her.
If she ever found out, he’d never live it down. What he did instead was clear his throat. “You hungry?”
“No, I’m sorry, that was weird to just laugh. I’m not hungry. I just—” She ran a hand self-consciously over her hair. “I had dinner with my Grandma Aileen not long ago. It feels like a long time ago, but it wasn’t. I’m good.” A smile spread over her face and she quickly got it under control. “Plus, I’m having a hard time imagining you cooking.”