Instant Gratification

She stared at him, torn. She’d been given her freedom. And yet…and yet she wasn’t running for her suitcases. “You’re really okay with that, with selling?”

“I think that’s best, yes.”

“Let me at least help you find a buyer.”

He stabbed at the flames with a poker and sparks rose, cutting into the still air. “You have the second file? The one beneath my medical records?”

She opened it, and stared down in astonishment. “You have a stack of offers on the Urgent Care.”

“The vultures began picking at me once the word got out that I was out of commission for a while. I know it’s hard for you to imagine, but there are doctors who would sell their soul to work out here. I’ll take one of those offers. It’ll free you up to go home.”

She was released from her ties here. Free. She should be jumping over the moon. Instead she set the file aside and crouched at his side. “I’m not running out of here. I’m not going anywhere until you’re settled.”

“It won’t take but a few days.”

“Dad. I want you to have a full physical.”

“Will that make you feel better about going?”

Not even close. “Is it so weird that I worry about you?”

His smile warmed and he reached out to squeeze her hand. “Same goes.”

“So will you?”

“If I say yes, will you sit and have lunch?”

She gave him a half smile. “We don’t do lunch.”

“We don’t do a lot of things. Many of them my fault. But it turns out an old dog can learn new tricks. Question is…” His eyes sparkled with a dare. “Can a new dog accept them and give more as well?”

She blew out a low breath. “People keep telling me I’m falling short in the giving more department.”

He raised a brow. “I hit a nerve.”

“Apparently so.” She looked at the fish and her stomach rumbled hungrily. “Can you really cook?”

“Of course. Can’t you?”

She had to laugh. “Not even a little.”

“Ah,” he said, looking amused. “So maybe this old dog can teach you something after all.”

Stone spent the next two days working his ass off. He took a group rock climbing at Mile High Lakes, and then that night led another group on a moonlight hike along Thigh-Breaker trail, named Thigh-Breaker for a damn good reason. The next day he taught wake boarding to a group of local kids, then looked at a property for sale in town. It was boarded up, and he managed to get a handful of splinters getting back out, which pissed him off, especially as the place was so overpriced he couldn’t even seriously consider it. Halfway back to the lodge, he got called in to volunteer at Search and Rescue to help locate a missing hiker. After a very long night of searching, they found the guy sleeping off his twelve-pack on the north shore of Jackson Lake.

Idiot.

Irritated, tired, hungry, hand hurting from the last splinter he hadn’t been able to get out, Stone once again headed for home. “I have a massive splinter and a headache,” he told TJ on the phone.

“Hey, you’re the one working yourself to the bone.”

“Well, someone has to.”

“You don’t have to do it all, Stone. No one ever asked you to. In fact, you need to do as you’re always telling everyone else, you need to relax. Go get laid. Call the pretty doctor. I promise not to show up this time.”

Stone opened his mouth, then shut it, and at his silence, TJ gleefully pounced. “So you closed the deal, nice. Why didn’t it relax you? You doing it right?”

Stone shut his phone, cutting his brother off.

He’d done it right.

They’d done it so right that it was pretty much all he could think about. He wanted to do it again.

And again. But he wanted something deeper than just sex this time.

And he didn’t care that that made him sound like a cheesy movie.

When he stepped into the lodge kitchen, he found Annie and Nick entwined together, kissing as if they hadn’t been together for twenty years already. “Isn’t that getting old yet?”

Annie separated her lips from Nick’s and smiled. “Nope.”

“Definitely not,” Nick said.

With a grin, Annie pulled on an apron that read: DOES NOT COOK WELL WITH OTHERS, and made breakfast burritos.

Starving and exhausted, Stone sat to stuff one in his mouth. Annie poured him some orange juice, then pushed back his hair to look at the healing cut on his forehead.

See, he didn’t need love. He had his family. He didn’t need more than what he had right here. Except…except he did. Catching her hand, he looked into her eyes. “I’m okay.”

“Are you really?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you’re working too hard around here. We all know there’s other things you’d rather be working hard at.”

“You too? Jesus, my entire life isn’t about Emma.”

Annie looked at Nick, then carefully stuck her tongue in her cheek and turned back to Stone. “Honey, I was talking about the renovating.”

Ah, shit. He downed the juice.

“So…” Annie sat at his side. “Do you want to talk about Emma?”

“Hell, no. As far as the renovating, I’m looking at properties to buy, but I still want to be here. Okay?”