Dragon Warrior (Midnight Bay) (26 page)

“Or that you wear nothing at all,” Charlotte added. She grabbed Maddy’s arm. “Come on, let’s go show you off.”

After one last glance at herself in the mirror as they led her away, Maddy quickly found herself at the center of a parade that made its way to every room in the nursing home—including the kitchen—where she would then have to twirl like a ballerina, shake her head to make her curls move, and let everyone touch her new hairdo. It was when she was on display in the sitting room, performing for the day campers, that she spotted William and Elbridge pulling into the parking lot.

“I have to go,” she told everyone, bowing repeatedly as she backed out of the room. “I have an important errand to run.”

She ran down the hall, got her purse out of the medicine cabinet, raced to the shampoo room, and grabbed her braid off the counter. She stuffed it into her front pocket and ran outside just as Elbridge and William were getting out of William’s truck.

She waved at Elbridge heading inside as she rushed up to William. “I know I’m contradicting myself, but can I borrow your truck? I have an errand I need to run.”

William stood stone-still, staring at her in stunned silence.

Maddy nervously touched her hair, just now remembering her new look and realizing she’d shocked him.

“Ye cut your hair,” he whispered, also reaching up and touching one of her curls. “And it’s blond in places.”

“I . . . um . . . I’ve been planning to cut it for months,” she whispered back, uncertain whether or not he liked it.

He let go of the curl and gently feathered his fingers through her hair, letting them slowly glide all the way through before doing it again. And every time his fingers came to the end of the curls that stopped at her neckline, he would linger to rub them between his fingers.

Unable to tell what he was thinking, she wet her lips and his gaze dropped to her mouth—even as his fingers continued moving through her hair, sending salacious shivers down her spine.

“The truck?” she asked hoarsely. “Can I borrow it?”

“Hmmm.”

“Can I borrow your truck to run my errand? I’ll have it back in an hour.”

Wow, she’d impressed herself, getting out two whole complete sentences.

Which seemed to be more than William could do; he just grunted.

His gaze lifted from her mouth, stopped briefly at her eyes, then continued up to her hair again, where he watched his fingers slide through her curls.

Maddy felt herself starting to melt—and it wasn’t from the blazing sun. “C-can I have the keys, please?”

His fingers stopped and wrapped around the back of her neck, and he pulled her forward as he leaned in—only instead of kissing her, he brushed his lips over her hair.

“I-I’ll only be gone about an hour,” she managed to croak, her insides clenching and her legs turning to rubber.

He grunted again.

Or maybe it was more of a guttural moan.

“And before you take off on your motorcycle, could you go visit with Hiram, if he’s awake?”

Wow, another whole sentence.

“Maddy! The harbormaster just called back to say Trace’s boat is off-loading,” Katy shouted from the entrance.

Maddy tried to remember why she cared.

William straightened away with a sigh.

She placed her hand on his chest when she felt herself sway toward him, and looked up to find him running his
eyes
through her hair now.

“Well, Maddy?” Charlotte shouted from the entrance. “Does he like it?”

She was pretty sure she nodded.

Since he wasn’t handing her the keys, she slowly backed away, bumped into the mirror, and then worked her way to the door handle. “Um . . . are the keys in it?” she asked, even though she couldn’t remember why she needed them.

Please stop staring at me so I can breathe
, she wanted to shout.

Maybe . . . maybe she should stop staring at him.

She groped for the door handle, pulled on it, and the interior buzzer went off the moment the door opened.

Which meant the keys were in the truck.

So Maddy got in, too.

But her purse nearly made her fall back out when she sat on it.

It would probably help if she watched what she was doing instead of watching William watch her. She pulled her purse free and tossed it onto the passenger seat, then pulled the seat belt around and clicked it shut—all without taking her eyes off him, the loud ding of the key buzzer keeping pace with her thumping heart.

You can do this!
she silently screamed, groping for the key and pulling it out just enough to stop the infernal beeping.
Stop looking at him! Just close the door and start the truck, and go . . . somewhere
.

Somewhere important, she thought.

She was also pretty sure that she had a time constraint.

But there was something else nagging at the back of her mind; something she was supposed to do first.

“Maddy!” Charlotte shouted from the entrance. “If you’re going to the docks, bring me back some rock seaweed so I can make us some more face cream.”

Fairly sure she nodded again, Maddy finally managed to close the door and turn the ignition at the same time, starting the truck as she continued to stare at William staring at her—his marine-blue eyes gleaming in the hot August sun.

She groped at the window buttons when she suddenly remembered the something else she needed to do. She rolled down the rear window, realized her mistake, and rolled down her window.

“Um, are you still interested in that favor you asked for yesterday?”

His eyes grew guardedly intense, and he nodded ever so slightly.

Maddy took a deep breath. “Then . . . yes.”

She’d intended to say more; something cheeky that she’d thought of last night as she’d lain in bed staring up at her ceiling. But when his eyes went from intense to downright dangerous—though he remained utterly still except to nod again—Maddy reversed the button and rolled her window back up.

She adjusted one of the vents to blow directly on her flaming face, pushed down on the brake, pulled the gearshift into drive, and slowly pulled away—not daring to glance out the window at him again.

She did look in her rearview mirror when she reached the road and saw William still standing there in the middle of the parking lot staring after her—his cuffs rolled up his sexy arms and his large, masculine hands balled into fists at his sides.

Chapter Seventeen

“I
sn’t she beautiful?” Charlotte asked, coming to stand beside him.

“She steals my breath,” William managed to get out, still staring at the road even though Maddy had long since disappeared.

“She did it for you, you know, though I’m not sure
she
knows it,” Charlotte said. “I believe our Maddy girl has taken a real shine to you.”

Finally able to pull his gaze away from the road, William looked down at the aging sprite smiling up at him. “I believe I’ve taken a shine to her, as well.”

Charlotte’s worn face took on a few more wrinkles as she frowned. “Only she’s terribly gun-shy, so you’re going to have to be patient with her.” She shook her head. “Lord knows we’ve all spent the last four years trying to crack that armor she’s wrapped around herself, but Maddy’s got a defense system the Pentagon would envy.” She smiled again. “But then, that’s a large part of her appeal. You let anyone try to mess with any of us here, and she’ll break every rule on the books making sure the doctors and our families don’t bully us into doing anything we don’t want. And if you really want to piss her off, just try messing with her family. Sarah is Maddy’s whole world, and so are her mother and her brother, Rick.”

She chuckled gaily. “Why, I remember last fall when Rick got into some trouble at school; you’d have thought a three-day suspension was a death sentence for the boy. But Maddy was afraid Rick might lose his chance at a college scholarship.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what dirt she had on Principal Adams, but she ambushed him outside the supermarket one day, and the suspension mysteriously disappeared.”

William suddenly stiffened, his gut twisting in a knot as he remembered seeing Maddy’s braid of hair in her pocket as well as Trace’s threat to cut it off if she attempted to mother Rick anymore.

Holy hell, she wasn’t running an errand; she was going to war with her cousin!

He turned to Charlotte and took hold of her shoulders. “Did Katy just tell Maddy that Trace’s boat is at the dock?”

“Yes, she did,” Charlotte said, her eyes widening at his tone. “Maddy apparently called the harbormaster and asked him to let her know when her cousin was coming in to off-load his catch. I believe that’s where she’s going on her errand. That’s why I asked her to bring me back some seaweed.”

William gave her a quick kiss on her forehead. “Thank ye, sweet Charlotte, but I have to run now. We’ll continue our conversation later, okay?”

“Okay,” she said in surprise when he released her and ran to his motorcycle.

He slipped into his leather jacket but tossed the helmet on the grass instead of putting the damn thing on. He started the engine and shot out of the parking lot, only briefly glancing for traffic before speeding off toward the harbor.

Dammit to hell, something had gotten Madeline’s underpants in a twist all of a sudden, and he would bet his new motorcycle it concerned Rick.

But she had to go through Trace to get to the boy.

William wasn’t worried Trace would harm her; it was Huntsman he was concerned about!

He downshifted and turned onto the narrow lane leading down to the docks, just missing a truck loaded with shellfish as he skidded to a stop when he saw Maddy walking—no,
marching
down the ramp to the fishing boats off-loading their catches.

He flipped down the kickstand and started running. He reached the top of the ramp and came to a stop just in time to see Trace leap off his boat to intercept Maddy. William slowly walked down the ramp but stopped at the bottom, deciding to see how this played out before he chose sides.

“What are you doing here?” Trace asked, folding his arms over his chest.

“I need to talk to my brother.”

Trace shook his head. “That’s not going to happen, Peeps.” He started to say more, but his eyes suddenly widened and he dropped his arms in surprise, taking a step back. “What in hell did you do to your hair!”

Maddy reached in her pocket and pulled out her braid. “I cut it before you could!” she snarled, slapping it against his chest, putting her whole body behind the blow and shoving him off the dock.

Huntsman grabbed the braid as he fell back with a grunt of surprise that turned to a shout of outrage when he hit the water. Maddy immediately scrambled onto the boat and grabbed Rick’s arm as he ran toward the stern in disbelief.

“You dropped out of college!” Maddy cried as she spun him around to face her. She waved an envelope in his face. “
Per our phone conversation on August 19
, the letter says,
you are no longer enrolled in this semester’s classes
. You dropped out of school!” she shouted, waving the letter at him again. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to go!” Rick shouted back. “I never wanted to go!”

“But without an education, you’ll be stuck here the rest of your life.” She grabbed his shirtsleeve and started dragging him toward the dock. “You are calling the university right now and telling them you’ve changed your mind.”

He jerked out of her grasp. “No. This is
my
life we’re talking about, not yours. I’m old enough to make my own decisions, and I’ve decided I’m not going. I don’t want to work a nine-to-five job in some stupid office. I want to fish, just like Dad did,” he said a little more softly, though still roughly.

Trace heaved himself out of the water and climbed over the stern, still clutching Maddy’s braid in his hand. “Get off my boat, Maddy,” he ground out. “Now!”

She swung toward him and started waving the envelope at Trace. “You put him up to this! Goddammit, Trace, he needs to go to college!”

“You walking off this boat or swimming?” he asked, advancing on her.

She actually took a step back, and William started forward. But he just as suddenly stopped when Rick shot around Maddy and placed himself between his sister and his cousin.

“Don’t touch her,” the boy said through clenched teeth, his hands balling into fists as he took up a defensive stance. “Or I swear I’ll knock you flat on your ass.”

Trace moved to go around him.

Rick took a wild, poorly aimed swing, the blow catching Trace on the side of the head and causing him to stagger backward.

Maddy screamed and grabbed Rick, trying to pull him away. “Are you nuts? Come on, let’s get out of here!”

Rick shrugged her off and lifted his fists when Trace straightened.

Maddy tried to move around Rick to get between them, but the boy swept her back with his arm. “Stay back,” he ground out, his attention on Trace. “Jesus, Maddy, why’d you piss him off like that?”

“Oh, I’m pissed, all right,” Trace growled, shaking the braid at her. “You think this bought you the right to shove me in the water and then board my boat? I am shaving you
bald
.”