For His Brother's Wife

“But you’ve been overseeing things from the lawn chair under the tree for the past several days,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, but that isn’t all that I normally do,” he said. “I like to inspect things, and that requires climbing ladders and making sure the job is done right.”

“You don’t trust your men?” she asked as they walked through the mud room.

“I do trust them, but—”

“You like doing some of the work yourself,” she guessed.

He grinned. “Well, there is that.”

When they entered the kitchen, Paige looked at the clock. “I think I better start dinner.” Turning, she caught Cole wincing. “And you had better stretch out for a while and elevate your knee.”

He gave her a short nod. “I might have been on it a little too long today.”

“Do you need my help getting your leg propped up?” she asked, taking a casserole dish from the cabinet.

“No, I think I can manage to stuff a couple of pillows under it,” he said as he continued on down the hall.

Two hours later, after she watched Cole devour the steak-and-potato casserole she had made for dinner and a huge slice of chocolate cake for dessert, she cleaned the kitchen and started the dishwasher while he went to turn on the baseball game. But entering the family room for their date to watch the baseball game, she stopped short when she saw how busy he’d been. There were several candles lit on the mantel, and he had propped up pillows for her to lean back against when she stretched out beside him. And he was sound asleep.

Smiling, she went around the room blowing out the candles, then went upstairs to change into her nightshirt. Cole had to be exhausted from being on his feet for several hours and if he was able to escape some of the lingering discomfort in his knee by going to sleep, she wasn’t going to wake him.

When she finished changing, she went back downstairs to the family room. Pulling the sheet back, she got into the bed beside him. She snuggled close and smiled when he pulled her into his arms and held her to him in his sleep.

At the age of nineteen, she’d envisioned her marriage might one day be this way. Unfortunately, after she’d gotten married and moved to the Double R she had never been able to see Craig as the loving husband in those daydreams.

Paige sighed as she felt herself start to drift off to sleep. She hadn’t loved Craig, and he hadn’t loved her. She had accepted that. But it hadn’t kept her from hoping that one day he would give her a reason to care as deeply for him as she had always cared for Cole—the way she still did.

* * *

“What time will your meeting be over?” Cole asked as he and Paige walked through the doors of the Texas Cattleman’s Club the following week.

The physical therapy had worked wonders, and he was down to using a cane. The therapist had assured him that by the middle of next week, he would probably be able to do without that as long as he took it easy and didn’t try to rush his progress. And that suited him just fine. He was more than ready to get back to work full-time, even if it was with a few restrictions for a while.

“I’ll give the program on the charity’s mission to the new volunteers, then we’ll break for brunch and have the business meeting after that,” she said, sounding distracted as she checked her tote bag for at least the tenth time since they’d left the ranch. “It will probably be early afternoon by the time everything is over.”

Cole put his hands on her shoulders and gazed down into her amazing gray eyes. “Stop worrying. Your notes for the program are still in the tote bag, the same as they were the other nine times you checked.” He kissed her forehead. “Relax. You’re going to do just fine, sweetheart.”

“What about you?” she asked. “How long do you think your meeting with Aaron will take? I hate to think you’ll just be sitting around waiting on me.”

“You’re fussing again,” he said, laughing.

She smiled. “I’ll have to work on that.”

He shook his head. “Don’t work on it too hard. I kind of like having you fuss over me.” He smiled. “Aaron and I are going to discuss plans for the new branch office and a couple of other ideas I’ve been mulling over. After that we’re meeting Luc for lunch. I’m sure by the time your meeting is over, I’ll be ready to go.”

She took a deep breath. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, then.”

“You look beautiful, you’ve got all your notes ready and you’ll blow the socks off all those women,” he assured her.