Kiss Me That Way: A Cottonbloom Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Lay down please.”
    He maneuvered his legs up, grimacing and swallowing back a groan.
    Her head was down as she made notations in a thin file folder. “You lied to me. You are wearing underwear.”
    The unexpectedness made him chuckle, the pain in his leg taking second stage. When was the last time he’d bantered playfully with a woman? Maybe never. “No. I said, ‘ What if I’m not wearing underwear?’ And you shouldn’t be peeking. It’s shockingly unprofessional, Miss Kirby.”
    Her smile changed, and even without being able to see her eyes he knew it was a real smile this time. She set the file aside. “Try to relax while I evaluate you.”
    He tried, but her prodding made him yank his leg out of her hands more than once. When she worked his kneecap in circles, he grabbed her upper arm in an unspoken bid for her to cease and desist.
    Her hands quit their torment and massaged his tight calf muscle. He relaxed his grip on her arm but didn’t let her go. Through the layers of her clothes her arm was taut and strong.
    “I’m sorry, but I need to understand what I’m dealing with,” she whispered.
    “I’m sorry I fell off a cliff.” He was going for a joke, but it fell flat considering his voice was hoarse and pain filled. “Can you fix me?”
    She harrumphed, but a smile lit her eyes. “According to Tally, you’re a hermit curmudgeon who is humorless and insufferable. In short, unfixable.”
    He raised his head, the paper under him crinkling. “Humorless?”
    “ That’s what you take exception to?”
    “I’ll have you know I honed my sense of humor with years of Monty Python and Saturday Night Live sketches.” He’d found the dusty videos in a box tucked in the corner of the charity store. The silliness had been a welcome distraction from the grind of his everyday life in Cottonbloom. The rest of Tally’s assessment hit too close to the truth.
    She laughed. The low, husky sound somehow made him feel immeasurably better. “I’ll get you a temporary brace for your knee and develop some exercises that will have you back to your old self in no time.”
    “What about my hand?” He held out his left hand, and she cradled it in both of hers, prodding the scar tissue and testing his grip strength.
    “Are you right-handed?”
    “Yep. But I need both hands to do my job. Right now I’m having a hard time holding a wrench.”
    “You still work on engines? I thought you designed them.”
    “How did you know that?”
    “Tally told me.”
    “I didn’t realize the two of you had become close.” In his mind, Monroe had been set apart from his family and everyday life. She’d been the keeper of his secrets. Was she still?
    “Have you forgotten how small a place Cottonbloom is? She was bragging about your company and your place in Seattle.”
    “Bragging?” Another surprise. His relationship with his sister had gone through a freeze after he’d left. They’d only reconnected when she’d choked her pride out and asked him to invest in her gym. He’d considered the money a gift, but she sent him payments the first of every month.
    “She’s proud of you.” Monroe glanced up from her examination of his hand to flash him a smile that was like a punch in the chest.
    She refocused her attention on his hand and rattled off instructions his brain followed automatically. Her features were delicate and pretty, the classic Southern belle, and her hands were small compared to his, her fingers thin but strong where they kneaded his palm. He couldn’t tell much about her body through her white medical-type coat, but she appeared slim and moved with an innate grace as if she was completely comfortable in her skin. Nothing like the doe-eyed, gawky girl he remembered.
    “It’s really a matter of loosening the scar tissue and giving your nerves a chance to heal themselves.” Monroe set his hand down, glanced at her watch—a sporty plastic type—and closed his file.
    “Late for a hot date?” Instead of