More Than Cookies (The Maple Leaf Series) Read Online Free PDF

had better things to do than sit by the bedside of a perfect stranger. He’d make this call then send her on her way. She’d already done more than enough for him. More than Adriana would have done if they were still married.
    “Adam,” he said when his buddy answered the phone.
    “Dude, where are you?” Adam asked. “Did something happen to your phone? Your father has called me in a panic twice. I was about to go over there.”
    “Shit, sorry. Can you go over there? I had a little… accident, I guess you’d call it. My phone is in pieces. I’m in the hospital.”
    “What? Are you okay, man? What happened?” Adam’s voice rose higher with each question.
    “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a pesky bullet wound.”
    Sage snickered beside him, and he found himself grinning at her.
    Stop that. Stay vigilant, man. Don’t let her wear you down.
    “Well, I guess a bullet wound is better than cutting off any key appendages with one of your chainsaws.”
    “This is true.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Can you check on my dad? He’s not going to understand why I’m not there, and I need to stay in the hospital for a few.” He sifted out a breath through his teeth. If his father was left alone too long, bad things could happen.
    “Not to worry, man. I’m on it. I can stay over there tonight, but I will drink any beer you have in your fridge and ransack your kitchen for the good potato chips.”
    “Have at it. Thanks, Adam. I owe you.”
    “No problem. Call me in the morning and we’ll arrange for someone to take care of your dad. I can come get your sorry, apparently shot, ass too.”
    “It’s my leg, not my ass, dickhead.”
    “Whatever. Later.”
    Adam was still laughing when Orion pressed the screen to end the call. He held the phone out to Sage. “Thanks.”
    “Sure.”
    He could tell she wanted to ask questions about his conversation, about what was wrong with his father, about why his ex-wife would want to shoot him, but he wasn’t going to answer any of those questions. Sage had done her Good Samaritan duty, but he didn’t owe her any explanations.
    Something on his face must have conveyed what he’d been thinking, because Sage stood and stuffed her phone into her purse. “I should let you rest.”
    He nodded, not sure what to say.
    “Maybe…” She paused and cleared her throat. “Maybe I could come check on you in the morning? I have this thing where I like to make sure the men I drop off at the hospital are okay.”
    “Do you drop off lots of men at the hospital?” Orion let his gaze travel from her shimmery, straight blonde hair down to the neon green toenails in her silver flip-flops. She definitely looked as if she could send men to the hospital. His own heart was feeling a little racy in her presence.
    “No. You’re the first, but I’d like to set a nice bedside precedent for myself.” She arched a slender, blonde brow. “Besides, I need to get an address so I know where to send the bill for the new couch you’re going to buy me. You know, because you bled all over mine.”
    “Fair enough. My apologies. Cressen’s place borders my property. I was closer to her house than mine. I thought maybe I could tend to my injury or call 911 from there, but the phone service had been turned off already and I never got around to finding any medical supplies.”
    “Still, you could have been neater about your bodily fluids, Orion.”
    He smiled at her and mentally chastised himself. Man, she was fucking charming. “You’re really buying Cressen’s place?”
    “Yes, despite the bloody footprints, I love the house and the land.” She headed for the door. Looking over her shoulder, she said, “I have a feeling I’m going to like the neighbors as well.” With a quick wink, she was gone.
    But her scent wasn’t. Maple syrup and… peanut butter. No way a man could resist a woman who smelled like that.
    Most men anyway. Orion, however, was not most men.
     

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