Unexpected Admirer by Bernadette Marie Page B

about that,” he said.
    “You’re a busy man.”
    “Yeah, and my manager just caught wind that I’d come here.”
    He moved to her and gathered her in his arms.
    “I have to get back. The storm is growing he says, and if I don’t get my flight out as soon as I can, I’ll breach the contract for my show in Saint Louis.”
    She nodded her head. “I’ll get you back.”
    As she turned, he reached for her arm and spun her back to him.
    “I love you.”
    Melissa sucked in any words that she could retort.
    “Don’t say anything. Words come over me when I feel them,” he apologized. “You need to know how deep this goes in my heart.”
    “Don’t sing some song to me. Those are serious words.”
    “I don’t take them lightly.”
    She didn’t know what do with that. She broke from his grip and hurried down the stairs. He followed, but she was in a hurry to get away from him now—to get him out of her life was more like it.
    Melissa was in the car before he even reached her. She put the key in the ignition and cranked, but nothing happened.
    “No!”
    She did it again and again. The car was dead, but her emotions had kicked into overdrive.
    Jesse was standing just beyond her car door, in the snow, in a pair of very expensive and now wet shoes and a stolen coat.
    Why did he have to say that? Why did he go over that line?
    She opened the door and climbed out.
    “I have to call to have William come jump the car.”
    He let out a breath on the frozen air. “Okay. They’ll have to deal with that.”
    “Deal with it? We have no choice.” She slammed the car door. “I’d flap my arms if it would get you back to your life faster.”
    “Is that because you don’t want me?”
    “It’s because you’re wrong to want me.”
    The tears that stung her eyes were frozen there as he moved in to reach for her. She couldn’t have it. She couldn’t have him now that he said he loved her, and he had no basis for it.
    She hurried past him to get in the house.
    Up the front steps she flew with him right behind her, and as she reached for the door, the board beneath her gave way and her leg went through the porch.
    She let out a scream, and Jesse was right there.
    “Are you okay?”
    “No, you idiot, I’m not.” She screamed again as she tried to pull her leg from the hole.
    “Let me help you.” He crouched down next to her and gently eased her foot through the board. “You tore it up pretty bad.”
    She looked down. Her pant leg was ripped, and her sock was bloody. “This isn’t happening.”
    “Yes it is, and we’re going to deal with it, even if you think I’m an idiot.” He wrapped his arm around her. “Can you stand?”
    She put her arm around his shoulder and let him pull her to her feet, but the moment she put weight on her foot, she fell against him.
    “I did something to it. It might be broken.”
    Without another word, Jesse scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the house.
    The couch was covered, but she pointed to it and he gently set her down. He knelt on the floor next to her and examined her leg.
    “I’m going to take off your shoe. Your ankle is swelling.”
    She nodded and winced as he moved her even slightly. The moment he brushed against her ankle, her stomach rolled.
    “Oh, sweetheart, you might have broken it.”
    She inched up to look at the already swollen ankle that was turning shades of purple.
    She leaned back on the couch, kicking up dust as she did so. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her phone.
    Jesse stood. “Do you have some bags? I could put some snow in them and put them on your ankle.”
    Melissa took a deep breath through the pain. “Trunk of my car. I have a survival kit. There are some bottles of water, bags, and some blankets.” She fished the keys from her pocket and handed them to him.
    He nodded and headed outside as she dialed William’s number.
    By the time Jesse walked back through the door, his hair and coat were covered in