“All right, we’ll talk about it later,” I yielded.

We fell silent again. This lasted a long time, so long, I heard Tate’s breathing go even and I knew from experience with listening to Brad sleep he was out.

I rolled to my other side and the instant I did, Tate’s arm came out and hooked me at the waist, pulling me back into his body.

“Tate?” I called, super quiet.

“Mm?” he replied.

“You asleep?” I was still being quiet.

“No,” he replied.

If he wasn’t asleep then why did he pull me into him?

“Um…” I mumbled.

“Your hair smells good.”

“It does?”

“Yeah.”

Wow. He thought my hair smelled good. That was nice.

I decided to ignore that and how nice it was.

“Why aren’t you asleep?” I asked.

“’Cause I got a woman in bed with me who won’t shut up,” he answered.

“Oh,” I whispered then pointed out, “I was quiet awhile ago.”

“This is true,” he murmured.

“So why aren’t you asleep?”

He was silent.

“Tate?”

He sighed then he said, “You smell good, babe.”

“I do?”

“You feel good too.”

Uh-oh.

“Tate –”

“Just be quiet, Lauren.”

I decided to go with that.

“Okay,” I whispered.

We were both quiet a long time and I was about to fall back asleep in the curve of his arm with his warm body at my back when he called my name.

“Laurie?”

“Yes,” I muttered, my voice sleepy.

“I was pissed last night.”

“I know.”

“You look good.”

“Sorry?”

“No way you can look like all the rest.”

My eyes shot open.

His arm curled me deeper into his body and I felt his face burrow into my hair.

“You’d always shine through,” he muttered and now he sounded sleepy but I was again wide awake. “Somethin’ special,” he finished.

Oh.

My.

God.

He fell asleep moments later, I knew this when I took his weight into my back, his breath evened and his strong arm curved deeper around me in a way that I’d never be able to slide out from under it, I’d never be able to move away. I’d have to stay right there, tucked tight to Tate.

I didn’t sleep for a long time but I didn’t care. I just laid there thinking if Brad had held me like this all those years, maybe I wouldn’t have tossed and turned and driven him nuts. Maybe I would have been perfectly fine with my insomnia.

If Brad had held me like this, every night, I’d look forward to it.

Chapter Nine

Damn Baby

The phone rang and my eyes opened.

I was in Tate and my hotel room, alone in our bed.

I knew I was alone (even though the bed was huge) because I couldn’t feel him, hear him or sense him. In fact, I couldn’t sense him anywhere, the shower wasn’t running, he was gone.

I turned toward Tate’s side where the phone was and saw the note. I sat up, grabbed the receiver and the note, putting the receiver to my ear as the words on the note registered in my brain.

Ace,

Running. Be back.

Man of few words.

“Hello?” I said into the phone.

“Hi hon,” Mom said back.

“Hi Mom.”

“I wake you?”

“That’s all right.”

“You sleep okay?”

“Not really, you?”

“No,” she replied. “Listen, hon, we’re meeting for breakfast then going over. Mack says he’ll come back and get you if –”

I looked at the clock. It was six thirty. I knew two things from this. Mom didn’t sleep a wink and Tate was a seriously early riser.

“Tate’s running but I’ll be down,” I told her.

“He’s running?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“In a town he doesn’t know?”

“Um, he’s a bounty hunter, he gets around,” I guessed. “New places don’t faze him,” I guessed again. “He’ll be okay.” That wasn’t a guess. I figured Tate could run through the fires of hell and emerge unscathed.

“We’ll wait until he gets back. They aren’t letting us in for long visits and visiting hours don’t start until ten,” Mom told me. “I already called the hospital and they say his status hasn’t changed but it’s…”

She stopped and I listened to her breathing heavily, trying to control emotion.

“Take your time, Momma,” I whispered.

I listened to her inhale then she said, “They said it’s good he made it through the night.”

Darn but this sucked.

“That’s good,” I said softly.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“I’ll get a shower in, go down and leave Tate a note. He’s going back to Carnal today anyway, maybe his flight is early and he’ll need to skip breakfast and get a taxi.”

“He’s going back today?” Mom asked, sounding surprised.

“Um… yes.”

“Why?”

“Well…”

“He should stay, at least a day, see the farm.”

“He’s got things to do,” I told her.

“It’s just a day,” she replied.

I’d heard that before.

“Listen, Mom –”

“I’ll talk to him,” she decided.

“No! Mom, really –”

“At a time like this, you need him with you. He’ll understand.”

“But…” I searched desperately for something then stated, “He’s got fugitives from justice to hunt down. It isn’t like his job isn’t important.”

I didn’t like lying to my mother. It was likely Tate would go home and help out at the bar and get pissed about doing it all because Bubba liked to fish. Still, maybe there’d be some fugitive Tate had to go round up.

“There’s lots of bounty hunters, Laurie, there’s even one on TV. He can delegate,” she said like Tate worked in an office with a bunch of bounty hunters who got a call then said, “I’ll go,” or “You go,” or “No, you go,” or “Butch is up next, he’ll go.”

“Mom –”

“We’ll talk at breakfast.”