Texas Temptation by Bárbara McCauley Page A

of the trailer.
    She nodded. “My bag is in the back seat.”
    He reached around and grabbed it, then took her hand and led her inside. “Go ahead and get in the shower. I’ll make us some coffee.”
    She started to protest, but Jared took her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. Her face was pale, so pale it frightened him. “Do what I say, Annie Bailey, or I’ll drag you in there myself.”
    She smiled at him and a touch of color came back to her cheeks. Without thinking, he kissed the end of her wet nose, then released her.
    When she came out a few minutes later, dressed in a pink blouse and jeans, he sat her on the couch, shoved a cup of coffee into her hands, then took a quick shower himself. By the time he came out, the color had returned completely to her face, and she was working on a second cup of coffee. Her damp hair curled around her cheeks.
    He poured himself a cup and sat on the couch beside her.
    They sat there for a long moment, listening to the rain.
    â€œYou okay now?” he finally asked.
    She nodded. “Yes, I...” She turned her head away. “Oh, Jared, I feel like an idiot.”
    â€œDon’t.” He touched her shoulder. She’d stopped shaking, and he could feel the warmth of her skin through the cotton blouse she wore. “It was stupid of me to try and catch your attention like that.”
    â€œWhat were you doing up there?”
    â€œIt was either sit around my place and get drunk or come down here and work. I was headed for the office when I noticed a pulley was loose. I’m sorry I scared you.”
    She held her coffee cup in both hands. Steam rose from the black liquid and she stared at it. “It was raining that night, wasn’t it?” she asked quietly.
    His hand tightened on her shoulder. “Don’t do this, Annie.”
    She shook her head. “No. It’s all right.” She looked up at him. “Jared, not talking about it doesn’t mean it never happened. It did happen. There’s nothing anyone can do to change that.”
    He held her soft gaze, then released a slow breath. “Yes, it was raining.”
    â€œDo you know what happened, I mean, what really happened?”
    I lost my brother. My best friend. The only person who ever really knew me. The ache in his chest swelled until Jared thought he might not be able to breathe.
    â€œThere—” he swallowed back the thickness in his throat “—there was a cable loose. I told him to wait.... We’d get it in the morning when we could see better and the rain stopped. He...he was anxious and went, anyway.”
    Jared could hear the thunder, see the flash of lightning. But it was another storm, another time, not the one he’d just come out of.
    â€œSlater and I followed Jonathan up the platform,” he said as if he were narrating a film moving through his head, “giving him a bad time about being green. He just laughed and said the only thing green about him was all the money he was going to make.”
    Annie watched as Jared stared, unblinking, at the coffee in his hands. There was no emotion on his face. No expression.
    But his eyes. God, his eyes. The torment she saw there ripped through her like a sword. Pain welled up inside her, and her own eyes filled with tears. She set down her coffee, then took Jared’s cup out of his hands. His fingers were stiff and cold.
    â€œI was still several feet away,” Jared went on, his voice empty, “when he reached for the cable and slipped. I...I couldn’t stop him. I couldn’t help him....”
    He stared at her then, his eyes wide, and grabbed her by the shoulders. “A few feet. A few lousy miserable feet.”
    She touched his face. He’d shaved after his shower and his skin was smooth under her fingertips. “I loved him, too,” she said softly.
    He made a wild choking sound in his throat and closed his eyes. There was