Anything You Can Do (28 page)

"Come back here and finish saving my life," he said. "And don't pull that anger business on me. I've got your number now, Bailey Russell. I've seen you when you're really mad." He raised his arms invitingly.

He was right. She wasn't really upset with him, but she wasn't going to give in so easily. "You don't look very dignified lying in that ditch. I will not get down there with you. Get up and come on back to my place. As I recall, we were discussing the error of your ways before this interruption."

He groaned in mock agony and started to rise, then groaned more loudly, more sincerely, and fell back.

"Forget it," Bailey said, trying to suppress a smile. "No
more mouth-to-mouth in the ditch."

But when he looked up at her, his face had lost its smile, and beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. "I think I twisted something in my right leg," he said, his matter-of-fact tone belying the pain in his eyes.

"Take my hand," Bailey offered, suddenly alarmed that he had a real problem.

He shook his head. ''I'm all right. Just give me a minute." Again he tried to rise, made a grotesque face, and sank back down.

Bailey stooped beside him and tentatively examined his leg, eliciting a loud curse from him.

"It's a damn good thing you decided to practice law and not medicine," he complained. "Are you still tr
ying to kill me?"

"I think your ankle's sprained," Bailey told him.

"And just what do you base this diagnosis on, Dr. Russell?"

"The fact that I don't recall your ankle being the same size as your thigh prior to the present time," she snapped.

Austin moaned as he raised his head and twisted around in an attempt to view the limb under discussion.

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "The man in the truck went to call an ambulance."

''I'm not going to lie here in this ditch and wait for an ambulance." He tried again to get up, this time making it to a posture somewhere between sitting and stooping.

"I think you injured your brain as well as your leg. Get back down before you do more harm."

As he began to totter, Bailey rushed over and grabbed his arm. This time he didn't protest. Returning Samantha to the ground, she helped him stand, one arm draped around her neck, his injured leg dragging. Extending her free hand to Samantha, she caught the dog as she jumped, cradling her in the crook of her arm.

"Okay, Mr. Macho. What now?"

"Your place," he whispered, taking in deep gulps of air.

The truck driver rushed up. "Mister, you ran right out in front of me. It wasn't my fault."

Austin waved him away.

"I called an ambulance," the man said, hovering over them as they started across the street. "It's on the way."

"Uncall it," Austin ordered.

"Send it across the street," Bailey said, countermanding the order as they continued on their way. "Number 219. Or the stairs leading up to 219. You'll never make it up those steps."

"I can make it up your stairs with no problem."

"Maybe with my help."

They moved in silence for a few seconds with Austin hopping on his good leg, leaning heavily on her.

"We make a pretty decent team," he ventured as they left the pavement for the driveway.

"Stands to reason," Bailey agreed. "When you have the best and the second best on the same team—" She grinned up at him tauntingly.

In an unexpected movement, he pulled her to him for a quick kiss, almost upsetting their unstable balance.

"You never did answer my question about whether you meant what you said when you were mauling me," he pointed out as they teetered in the middle of the parking lot.

"I don't say things I don't mean." She hesitated for a moment then asked shyly, "Did you mean what you said?"

"I'll even repeat what I said," Austin replied. "I love you, Bailey Russell. And I'd like to propose a merger, make our team official."

"A merger? You want to start our own law firm? No, I don't think so. I could never work with you. You're too pushy."

Austin threw back his head and laughed, then urged her on to continue their slow trek. "I'm pushy? You're the pushiest person I've ever met. But one day, yes, I do want us to have our own firm. We'll be unbeatable. However, right now I'm just asking you to marry me."

He tossed out the words so casually it took a minute for their meaning to sink in. When it did, her heart rate accelerated, and her blood rushed to and fro ecstatically.

Marry Austin. Roll over in the middle of the night and find him there beside her. Raise children with his incredible eyes who'd be able to run faster than both their parents.

"People who're in love do it a lot, you know," Austin said when she didn't reply. Then, more seriously, "I won't go so far as to say I'd die without you, but the outlook would be pretty bleak. I want to spend the rest of my life with you
, loving you, fighting with you—"

"Not fighting," she interrupted with a shudder. "Competing, maybe, but I don't ever want to fight with you again. That was awful."

They reached the stairs to her apartment and sank down on the bottom step. With a groan, Austin stretched his injured leg out in front of him. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," he said, his fingers touching her cheek gently. "I promise never to mistrust you again." He cleared his throat. "So what do you say? Are we going to make it legal?"

Samantha chose that moment to squirm from Bailey's armlock and into Austin's lap, rolling over to allow him to rub her stomach.

"There are still a few issues to be negotiated," Bailey said. "You have to adopt Samantha."

Austin rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll adopt Samantha. What else?"

"I'm not going to cook."

"Thank goodness," Austin mumbled.

"What?"

"
I said, that's fine. I’ll cook or we’ll eat out."

"Okay
," she agreed casually.

"
Okay
? I offer you my heart, my soul, my name, even agree to adopt your dog, and all you say is
okay
?"

She laughed and leaned against him, wrapping her arms confidently around him. "Yes, Austin Travers," she whispered. "
I love you. I want to marry you."

"That's a little better," he said, grinning, as he pulled her to him.

"Race you down the aisle," she said just before his lips claimed hers.

THE END