Cowboy for Keeps by Debra Clopton

couldn’t dwell on his muscles in any way, shape or form other than the ones she was here to fix.
    She got to work, focused on it and, like she had the other times when she’d given him his massage, she refrained from asking him anything about his accident. She figured if he wanted to talk about it he would. The red scars ran down his back on his left side, and there were also some on his arm and chest.
    From the heating unit she took heated pads and applied them to his back and hip then covered them with warm towels.
    “Just relax and let the heat loosen you up,” she said, then went to the small desk and opened his chart. One thing she was glad about was that he hadn’t pursued his line of questioning today.
    She’d had a rough night after telling him about Jonathan. Sleep hadn’t helped—what little she’d had was restless. She’d awakened more tired, it seemed, than when she’d closed her eyes.
    Her gaze wandered back to where Wyatt lay covered in towels with his head down staring at the floor through the hole in the table.
    “Your place is beautiful,” she said, suddenly needing conversation. “I found the stone stairway yesterday evening.”
    “You went down by the river?”
    “Yes. It was almost like being swept back in time sitting down there. I wonder how old that stairway is?”
    “At least a hundred and fifty years—like the house. I think it was all done at the same time.”
    “Amazing.” When he said nothing she filled in.
    “Those who passed this way over the years must have felt a sense of peace when they arrived here.” She’d felt it briefly. Very briefly.
    “That’s what I always thought.”
    She didn’t have anything to fill the silence with this time.
    Wyatt shifted on the table. “I’ve always loved it here.”
    That she’d gathered from others’ conversations. “Why did you move away?” The personal question was out before she realized it. But she was curious and she did need something to take her mind off her own troubles. Seconds clicked by as if he, too, was unsure about wanting to continue conversing.
    “I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer,” he offered finally.
    “Oh.” She searched for something to ask. Why had she initiated the conversation?
    “Are you always so bossy?”
    She was grateful for the unexpected question even if it was grunted. “My momma says yes.”
    He raised his head from the table and looked at her. “I have a feeling she’s right.”
    She could see it in his eyes that he was still in pain and she wasn’t sure whether he was talking to distract himself from it. But he didn’t need to be looking at her. “Put that head back down. You still have five minutes.”
    He ignored her. “So what was this sorry guy’s problem?”
    This was not the conversation she wanted to have. “He wasn’t sorry.”
    “What?” Wyatt pushed up from the table with his good arm. “If that’s the case, then what did you do?”
    She crossed to him and started hastily removing the heating pads. “Nothing. Can we not talk about this?” Why had she said that? It would only spike his curiosity further.
    She pushed him down and started working on his back. “So are wild hogs the norm around here? Am I going to have to dodge them?” She hadn’t begun her early morning jogs, but knew it was time. She needed the release jogging gave her. But the wild hog incident had put a damper on that and…in actuality she just hadn’t been able to make herself get out of bed like she usually did. She knew getting back into it would help her feel better…. She just wasn’t sure about jogging alone in the pastures at the crack of dawn.
    “Seth has trappers come periodically to keep them down. Most every rancher has problems with them. So you might run into them, but not likely in the daytime. Why, are you planning on starting to trap them?”
    “ Hardly. I really don’t want to have anything to do with those mean-looking things.”
    “Good. They might be back during