Read My Lips: Restricted Version

RML: Chapter 19 (R)

Chapter 19


Linc didn’t want to comment on the fact that Amber was suddenly speaking perfect English.  He didn’t want to comment on much of anything.  He just wanted to sit back and breathe and allow his heart rate to calm down.  She was gone for almost half an hour, and twice he stood up to go look for her before making his butt drop back down.  His mind raced through all the horrible things that could happen to her without him there.

And then, he’d have to start the breathing exercises all over again.  

He’d never felt so scared and helpless as when he looked over to her at the gate entrance and discovered she wasn’t behind him.  Dammit, he pounded his fist on the stretch of table in the box seating area.  He didn’t like feeling this way.  He didn’t like feeling responsible for a person and then find out he was helpless to protect her properly.  He could see in Amber’s eyes what she thought about his protective attitude.  He’d seen the exact same anger in Macie’s eyes countless times.  He’d tried to protect Macie and in the end, he’d been worthless.  And she got just as mad about it as Amber was right before she went in search of a bathroom.

Why can’t these women understand that he wasn’t trying to strip away their spirit and independence?  He just wanted to protect them!  Keep them safe!  Hold them when they’re hurt or scared!  Prevent them from doing stupid things -- like riding unpredictable horses or getting kidnapped in the middle of a parking lot!

Shit, I need a drink.

The beer vendor passed up the aisle next to him, and Linc’s mouth watered for a brew.  But he turned away from the temptation.  He was so spitting mad right now, he’d need a keg of beer to cure what ailed him.  Instead, he called out for two water bottles and some hot dogs from a boy down the stands.  Amber didn’t need to see him drunk...especially in public.  Not after the display he put on at Wil’s wedding.  He didn’t know if he could handle getting drop-kicked with all these people watching.

And just the thought of that brought a small smile to his face.  That sweet, ragdoll standing over him with her tiny fists balled up and her blue eyes flashing.  She came back from her trip to the bathroom then, saw his bemused expression and gave him a tentative smile of her own.  Linc was able to relax now that she was back where she belong...beside him.

“I hope you like hot dogs,” he said, pushing two of them along the table to her.  “I can get you just about anything, but these are really good.  Perfect for a ball game.”

“Thank you,” she said, unwrapping the foil.  “I missed dinner.”

There it was again, a complete sentence out of her mouth, a conjugated verb and everything.  Linc watched her eat and wondered about the change.  He couldn’t remember when it started, whether before he crushed her into his arms after finding her, or after.  Maybe she’d been just as scared as he had and something knocked loose in her brain.  But she’d been so calm earlier, standing there on the edge of the parking lot, waiting for him.  Only the tears glistening along the edges of her eyes showed him any kind of emotion.  And that could have just been anger for how he pulled her roughly into a giant hug.  

“Feel better?” he asked after she inhaled both her hot dogs.

“So good,” she moaned with a smile and a cheek full of her last bite.  “Thank you.”

“You are very welcome.  I like it when a woman has a healthy appetite.”

She shot him a narrow glare.  He laughed.  “I didn’t mean it that way, and you know it,” he said.  Reaching over, he wiped a smear of mustard off the corner of her mouth and instead of cleaning his finger on a napkin, he stuck it in his mouth, thinking that he could taste her though the tang of the mustard.  But that was absurd.  Amber blushed in reaction and glanced away, looking for something else to divert his attention. She started asking questions about the game, and he answered her, but mostly, he just watched her, forgetting why he’d been so upset at her and himself earlier.  

The ball cap shaded most of her face, but the sun made the rest of her skin glow, and he liked the way she kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet under her like a pretzel.  Those black leggings hugged her thighs and hips perfectly, the fabric ending just below her knees, and he was fascinated by the pink nail polish on her toes, which were peeking out from under her legs.  He liked the sheer, billowing shirt which shifted in the light wind, shaping and molding across her upper body as though caressing her.  And he loved the strands of hair curling out of the back of his cap, tickling her neck as she moved her head back and forth.

But what he couldn’t stop staring at was that mouth of hers.  Every time she spoke, every time a carefully constructed sentence moved those lips, he was drawn into some kind of spell.  By the fifth inning, he had no idea what the score was or who was winning the ball game.  The stadium lights were on and shining down on the field, and Amber sat in a halo of light, talking and smiling and watching the players and game with fascination.  In fact, she was so engrossed with the action down on the diamond, Linc caught the sleeve of a runner for the boxes and suites and sent him after a pair of binoculars in one of the gift shops.

Amber was thrilled and spent the next three innings peering through the glasses to the players and coaches.  “Who is Maurice?” she asked at one point, turning to him for an answer.

Linc tore his eyes away from her mouth and said, “What?”

“The pitcher is asking to be taken out and he wants Maurice in,” she explained, frowning in concentration on her words.

Linc looked out at the game and focused on the coaches and the catcher gathered around the pitcher on the mound.  They were arguing over something and he noticed that the commentator was speaking his conclusions for the meeting.  Linc had lost most of the game from watching Amber, so he didn’t know what was going on.

“Maurice Sanchez is the backup pitcher, a rookie,” he said to Amber.  She nodded and looked through her binoculars again.  He studied her for a moment, and then gently lowered the binoculars so she could look at him.  “Are you reading their lips?”

She rolled her eyes in the cute habit of hers and said, “Yes...it is what I do best.”

Linc could argue that fact, but he didn’t.  He thought she kissed pretty damn well, too.  “What are they saying now?”

She peeked again through her looking glasses and smiled.  “They are letting Maurice come in to pitch.  The coaches do not want to, but the pitcher’s arm is hurting him.”

“Jason’s arm is hurting,” he muttered to himself.  “He said he was in top form this season.”  He glanced up to see Amber reading his words.

“Do you know the pitcher?  Jason is his name?”

“Yeah, he’s my cousin.”

“Really?”  Her eyes brightened and she looked out to the diamond again.  “He is handsome,” she commented vaguely.  Linc felt the twist of jealousy in his gut and didn’t like it.  He had no right to it.  Amber lowered her binoculars and flicked her gaze over Linc’s face.  “I can see the family resemblance.”

In an offhanded way, he was pretty sure she just complimented him, and the jealousy went away.  He gave her his most charming grin and she snorted cutely in reply, going back to watching the coaches and players.  “I think I like baseball,” she mused softly.  Her lips twitched with mischief.  “I really like the uniforms.”

Linc knew she was playing with him.  He rubbed his chin as he looked down at the field.  She peeked at him for his reaction.  “Yeah...too bad baseball doesn’t have cheerleaders,” he said.

Amber scowled,  and he chuckled.  “I guess I deserve that,” she replied.

He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice.  “Were you a cheerleader, Amber?  Maybe in high school?”

Her semi-good mood vanished.  “No,” she snapped, shadows forming around her frown.

Persistent to the end, he tipped her a grin and asked, “So, what did you do in high school?”

A darkness, blacker than the shadows in her expression, entered her eyes.  “I was home-schooled,” she said in a voice that ended the subject.

He blinked at her.  “You didn’t go to school with other kids?”

“I went to a special school for the deaf,” she informed him curtly.  “Then I studied at home.”

Linc thought he just learned something about her childhood right there.  Were her parents really that over-protective?  “Surely, you wanted to go to school with other kids.  It’s a shame that you missed the high school experience.”

“No,” she said angrily, uncurling in her seat to sit upright.  “It is not a shame.  High school is not fun, like people say.”

He couldn’t figure out what she was getting so hot about.  He missed the teasing banter from just a few minutes ago.  “Hey,” he soothed, reaching across to her, hoping to calm her.  She suddenly stood up and distanced herself.

‘Don’t touch me,’ her hands flashed as she resorted back to sign language in her anger.  Linc knew that phrase by heart, and he noticed that her stance changed, like she was ready to punch and kick him.  He brought his palms up in surrender.

“I’m sorry, okay?  What’s wrong with you?  All I wanted to know was what you did when you were younger.”

People in the boxes around them were turning to stare.  Amber glanced around, flushed with embarrassment and sat back down...as far away in her seat as she could without falling out of it.  Linc just reclined and let her cool off on her own.  The first game of the double-header ended, and there was a small break until the next game started.  The Royals lost by one run.  Linc didn’t care.  His attention was focused on the woman beside him.

He’d seen that spark of fire in her eyes before.  The first time was at Wil’s wedding when he tried to grab her before he realized she was deaf.  And then again right after he kissed her in her bathroom.  There was something in her past that was the blame for that particular anger flare-up.  If he could ever figure out what that was, he might get some insight into her life.  Maybe, it was time to call her sister and ask some questions.  Chloe owed him a favor.

In an effort to appease her, he suggest a tour of the private areas after the game was over.  Jason would help him out in that respect.  All Linc would have to do was mention how pretty Amber was, and his cousin might leap over the dugout to meet her.

Then again...that might not be such a good idea.  Jason was a player...and Linc wasn’t talking about baseball.  His cousin was handsome.  But he was also a hell of a charmer and heart-breaker.  Linc glanced at Amber.  Sweet Amber.  She’d be putty in Jason’s hands, and Linc didn’t think he could stand to watch that.

However, when he told her that she could meet some of the players during the tour, her face lost all those shadows and anger, and she smiled at him again, those perfect, pink lips turning up beautifully, a smile just for him.  Linc didn’t have the heart to say no to her.

As the next game played on, Amber studied everything with vigilance, her eyes darted back and forth between players, and she even leaned over the railing to peek at the box below them and two kids flipping through a stack of baseball cards.  And since she almost went ass over shoulders trying to read the cards that the boys showed to her, Linc hauled by her shirt tails back into her seat and sent the runner after a set of team cards and a game book.  When the boy got back with the items, Amber’s face glowed as she ripped into the card package.  First off, she shuffled until she found Jason’s card.  Linc suffered another bout of that infernal jealousy, but Amber only scanned the picture for a second before turning it over to read the back.  The she set it aside and forgot about it.  

For the next hour, she chewed on the eraser of a pencil as she wrote down the game stats in the back of the book and studied the cards.  Linc had never seen anyone so diligent about learning something, and he wondered if she tackled every new task with such fervor -- as she had with the dancing.  She seemed determined to master the rules of the sport before the night was gone, and he was quite happy to let her.  She wasn’t getting pissed at him anymore, that was for sure.

He’d never enjoyed a Royals game -- one he didn’t watch -- more than that night.  Macie had never wanted to go to a game, and the one time she did accompany him, she either talked his ears off about nothing and everything, or she bitched about the sun being too hot or the noise too loud.  Amber did none of those things.  When she did talk, she asked intelligent questions about strategy or the rules, or she would make shrewd comments about something she observed.  And obviously, the bedlam of the stands and crowd didn’t bother her.  Oh, she noticed when the fans got mighty upset over a bad call and her eyes could read all the slander being shouted down to the refs -- the usual affair for a pro ball game -- but she actually looked as though she enjoyed it.  The blue in her eyes would sparkle like a kid on Christmas morning whenever a die-hard fan got especially rowdy.

“It is just like on tv,” she whispered to him, her gaze locked onto the security guards escorting a man out of the stadium at the top of the ninth inning.   Linc chuckled and said, “I’m glad you’re enjoying our pain.”

A question entered her eyes.  Linc pointed to the scoreboard.  “We’re losing, if you haven’t noticed.  And bad.”

Amber looked down at the record sheet in the book.  Sympathy covered her beautiful face as she looked back to him.  “Oh...I am sorry.”

He smiled at her.  “It’s okay.  The season is still early, and they’ve got a lot of rookies to break in.”

She bit on her bottom lip, watching as the third out was called and the teams switched places on the field.  “Maybe we should skip the tour,” she said as solemnly as a person could get.  “Your cousin will be very upset after losing.”

“I’ll call him and ask in a bit, when the inning is over and the coaches finish bitching at them,” Linc informed her.  

“I do not want to be a pest,” she said, making an effort to say words she wouldn’t normally say when speaking.  Linc thought it was cute how she concentrated on getting every word out, but he wasn’t dumb enough to mention it again.  He was just glad she was working on something that obviously caused her a lot of grief.

“Don’t worry about it.  Jason has a weakness for pretty girls.”

“Oh,” she said, even more mellow than before.  “Then I do not want to take him away from the pretty girls.  He will be busy.”

Linc laughed at her joke.  Then he observed the confused expression she sent him and he shut up.  “Honey, I meant you...you’re the pretty girl.”

“Oh,” she said and nodded, but then she turned away as if he said nothing complimentary to her at all.  So, he tried again.

“Amber?”  He used his finger to tilt her face to him.  “You just mind yourself around Jason, okay?  He’ll take one look at your lovely face and sweep you off your feet.”

She rolled her eyes.  Linc stared at her.  “You do understand just how beautiful you are, don’t you?” he asked, as serious as possible.

She flickered a smile and patted his hand.  “Thank you.  That is nice of you to say--”

“Nice, hell!” he exclaimed. “I’m telling you the damn truth, woman!”

“Stop shouting,” she said patiently.  “I am already deaf.”

“Yeah, I know that,” he said, frustrated with her.  Why did the truly beautiful women always ignored how attractive they were?  Macie had been just as beautiful and she knew it, sometimes using it against him.  Why couldn’t Amber be like that?  Why did he have to spell out every compliment to her?  It was damn annoying, was what it was.

Then again...did he want her to start acting like Macie?  He’d already told her that he never wanted her to be Macie.  If he did, then he’d be half in love with her...and only half in love with Macie, and that just won’t do.  He loved Macie.  End of story.  Until the end of time.  There would never be a change in that.

She sat there, not saying anything.  Linc rubbed his fingers through his hair.  “Amber, I know you’re deaf, but I also know a pretty woman when I see one.  I’m not trying to be nice.  I’m not even trying to flirt or anything.  I’m just stating the truth.”  He pointed straight at her nose.  “You -- are -- one -- pretty -- beautiful -- lady.”

Her crystal blue eyes blinked.

Blinked!

Like he was brainless or stupid or something, and she was tolerating it.  How in the world was he going to get this through to her?  Inhaling strongly, he pointed at her again, ‘You.’  He circled his fingers around his face, ‘Beautiful.’  And then spread out his hand, touched his thumb to his chin and brought it down to his chest, ‘Woman.’

Her face filled with a rose color and she turned away, shaking her head.  Linc threw his hands up.  It was pointless.  She was never going to understand.  Truly understand...how her sable hair glistened like strands of silk in the moonlight, how her lips pouted so perfectly begging for a kiss, how the freckles across her nose seduced him every time she smiled, how her dark eyelashes framed those hypnotic blue eyes of hers and fanned with a demure grace that no soul on God’s creation could fake...how warm and sweet it was to hold her to him, to look deeply into her gaze, to turn his world topsy-turvy every time she was near him...

Get it together, man...she doesn’t deserve your brand of heart ache...

“You know what, Amber?” he grinned and asked when she deemed he was worthy of her attention again.  “Never mind.  I was wrong.  You’re about as unattractive as a mangy mutt in a rainstorm.”

And she rolled her eyes and breathed out a small giggle.

“You liked that, huh?”

“That was funny,” she admitted, and he was glad she’d not been offended.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t seem to like my sincerity.”

“There is a difference between sincerity and delusion,” she informed him, her face completely serious, except for that small hint of mischief in the corners of her eyes.

“Then I’d rather be delusional,” he told her, completely serious without the hint of mischief.  She didn’t get a chance to comeback with another smartass remark.  Linc’s cell phone rang.  It was Jason.

“Hey, cuz...is that you I saw up in the stands?”

Linc mouthed, “It’s Jason,” to Amber and then answered his cousin, “Yeah, it’s me.  What’s with the arm tonight?”

“Ah, shit, you saw that, huh?  Sprained my elbow back in spring training.  It’s still bugging me,” Jason said and then paused for a moment before asking, “So, uh, who’s the smokin' hottie I saw with you?”

Linc blessed his stars that Amber couldn’t hear that.  She was watching him carefully as he talked to Jason, so she only got half the conversation.  “She’s a friend,” Linc said, debating on whether to mention that she was deaf.  But then he figured if Jason had a problem with that, then Linc would have a reason to kick his ass.  That was, if Amber didn’t beat him to it.  “Her name is Amber, and she’s never been to a baseball game before.  I thought I’d treat her.”

“So, it’s not a date?”

“No.”

“That’s too bad,” Jason commented, but he sounded rather pleased.  “She sure is a looker.  Sorry I couldn’t make Wil’s wedding.”

“That’s okay,” Linc told him.  “You were on the road that weekend, right?”

“Yeah, it’s been a shitty start to the season so far.  Fucking rookies are killing us.  Hey, why don’t I round up some passes, and you and your friend come on down?  I haven’t seen you in ages.”  

From Jason’s tone, his cousin could care less about seeing Linc.  It was Amber he was anxious to meet.  Linc recalled the last female Jason got involved with.  She’d been nineteen.  Or at least, that’s what the girl claimed.  Later, Jason discovered that she was only seventeen, and he almost ended up at the alter himself, or worse, in jail.  And it turned out that the girl was pregnant, but when the child was born, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that the baby wasn’t Jason’s.  She was just using him to avoid becoming an unwed, teenage mom.  In the end, Jason paid off the family to keep the scandal out of the papers.  He swore off women after that.

But it seemed, Jason wasn’t completely rehabilitated in that respect.

“Hang on,” Linc said to Jason and sent up a silent prayer that his cousin didn’t have any designs on Amber.  Linc covered the mouthpiece.  He looked at Amber and asked, “You still want that tour?  Jason can be a bit of an jerk.  You may not enjoy yourself.”

She nodded eagerly anyway, and Linc suppressed a sigh.  Jason was in rare form; that much was true.  This could be a bad idea.  Speaking to his cousin, he said, “Yeah, man.  That sound’s great.”

“Hell yeah, it does!  Give me twenty minutes to shower and look presentable, okay?  I’ll  meet you at the players’ entrance out back.”

“We’ll be there,” Linc told him and ended the call.   “He’s going to meet us down at the players’ entrance.”

She smiled happily.  And Linc had to think of something fast to get her mind off of meeting his cousin.  “Hey, uh...remember that horse I told you about?  The one I’m learning sign language for?”

She nodded, and he could see her mind switching subjects.  That was good...wonderful, even.  “Would you like to come out to the ranch tomorrow and see her?”

Her expression dampened.  “I am working tomorrow.”

“On a Saturday?”

“I got a promotion,” she explained with pride shining in her eyes.  “I have a lot of things to straighten out.”

He rubbed his chin.  “It won’t take all day, will it?”

“No,” she answered slowly.  “But I do not have a car yet.  So I would have to take a taxi.”

“Nah,” Linc said.  “Just call me when you’re done and I’ll come get you.”

Indignation flared briefly in her gaze.  “No.  I can get there on my own if I decided to go.”

“Amber,” he began to reason with her, but her mouth tightened, so he forfeited his argument.  “Okay, okay, don’t get all pissy on me.  Just call me before you come -- if you decide to -- so I know when to expect you.”

She stared at him more...and harder.  Linc sighed.  He just couldn’t win on this.  “Hey, I’m just trying to be a good friend here,” he said.  “And I really don’t want to fight with you anymore.”

A tentative smile ruined her intense frown.  “I do not want to fight with you either, Linc.”

Something tingly seared his nerve endings when she said his name.  He loved her voice, and his name sounded so natural coming from her mouth.  But Lincoln Martin didn’t do “tingly.”  It was unmanly.  He cleared his throat and stood up.  “I’ll bet that Jason is waiting on us now.  You ready?”

Amber’s expression turned excited, which really irritated him.  She never got excited over him.  Guiding her up the stands and down to the players’ entrance, Linc thought, God, I hope Jason behaves himself.  He really didn’t want to kick his cousin’s butt tonight...not without his boots on.  And he really didn’t want to have to hold Amber back if she got her temper up.

Then again...maybe releasing Amber on Jason wasn’t such a bad idea.  She could teach the man some new manners.  He smiled a secret smile as they found the gated entrance just for the team and the stadium staff.  Jason was there, waiting on them, with a big, fat, eager grin of his own.

Linc took one look at Jason sizing Amber up, and felt Amber’s instant bodily response to the lecherous gaze, and decided to let the she-cat off her leash.  Jason had it coming, after all.  The man was thirty-two years old.  He should have learned some respect a long time ago.  Maybe this time, the lesson would stick.

*****

Amber decided right away that Jason was not as handsome as Linc.  He was a louse.  Linc warned her, and she didn’t believe him.  Dang it.  And the night had been going fairly well so far.

Linc took her to a ball game, he bought her a hot dog, and he insisted she was beautiful -- a decent night out, by her standards.  Never mind the few times she got so angry with him, she couldn’t see straight.  That was to be expected when spending any amount of time with Linc.  Now, she’d have to deal with his cousin, who seemed to think he was Heaven’s gift to all women.  Just from the way he held himself and smiled...creepy shivers traveled up her arms.

Could she change her mind?

Amber peeked at Linc, who moved ahead to give his younger cousin a brotherly hug.  There was love there.  Amber could feel it radiating off each of them, the same kind of love she felt for her sister, even though Chloe irritated the crap out of her, too.

No, she couldn’t change her mind.  Linc was obviously pleased to see his cousin.  Then that cousin turned to Amber as Linc introduced them, and she had the giant urge to step behind Linc and hold onto him for security.  But that would be stupid and not independent at all.  She’d just have to watch this baseball player carefully.  

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Amber,” Jason said to her, but his eyes said something else, and Amber wished she was blind and deaf at that moment.  She didn’t want to see the way his gaze swept over her, taking measurements of her body from her knees to her neck.  Though needing to wrap her arms over her breasts to hide them, she kept them locked by her side and met his scrutiny with a calm expression.

“It is nice to meet you, too,” she said slowly and carefully...and stepped closer to Linc.  It was better than clasping his hand and pulling him closer.

Jason’s smile faded when she spoke, and right then, she knew how to handle this man.  He noticed the difference in her speech.  He might not know she was deaf, and if Linc said anything, then she didn’t see it.  

This could be fun, actually.

Linc noticed her tiny smile and raised an eyebrow.  But he didn’t comment on it.  “Amber wanted to see the training areas,” he said to Jason.  “Are you too busy for a tour?”

“Nah, come on back,” Jason said and moved aside to fall in step next to Amber.  He stood too close, and he smelled like expensive cologne.  Amber felt the need to sneeze, but that would be rude.  “So, where are you from, Amber?” he asked when they had to stop to let some of the stadium’s staff out of a storage area.

Keeping her expression neutral, she said, “I am from Arkansas,” as she signed the words and fingerspelled Arkansas.  Jason’s stance froze.  He stared at her while people brushed by them in the hallway which led deeper into the private areas of the stadium.

“That’s nice,” he replied, his face deadpanned.  He darted his eyes to Linc, who leaned on the wall behind her.  “She’s deaf?”

Amber sensed Linc nodding.

“Then how does she know what I’m saying?”

Amber stomped on his shoe.  “I am right here.”

“Ow!  Shit!  What the fuck?!”  Jason hopped around furiously on his good foot.

“I can read lips,” she informed him, flashing him a heated glare.  Jason stopped hopping around and narrowed his eyes.  Then he covered his mouth and looked at Linc over her head.

Suddenly, Linc pulled her to the side, and pressed a broad palm on his cousin’s chest, shoving him into the cement wall of the hallway.  Amber couldn’t see what Linc told his cousin because Linc’s face was right up in front of Jason’s and his lips barely moved.  Then Linc let go of Jason, and Jason straightened his shirt and swallowed.  He turned to Amber and said, “I’m sorry, Amber.  I can be a real jackass sometimes.  Please don’t think I meant any disrespect.”

Linc looked satisfied.

She gave them both a serene smile.  “That is okay.”

Now Linc frowned, unsatisfied with her response.  She softened her smile even more and said to him, “You can keep him in line.  I trust you.”

Linc slowly returned her smile and his eyes glowed with an emotion she could only describe as pride.  She’d seen that look when her father looked at her mother, or when Daniel looked at Chloe.  Amber never expected to see it directed at her, and she got a warm, fuzzy feeling inside her.

“Thank you, Amber.  That means a lot to me.”

Jason glanced between the two of them until he settled on Amber with resignation.  “Just friends, huh?” he asked, grunting strongly enough to make his chest jerk.  “Yeah, right.”  He turned on his heel and gave her that tour she so wanted.  He was very polite and respectful from that point on.

Two hours later, Linc dropped her off at her building and didn’t ask to walk her up to her apartment.  That was good.  Amber was having a difficult time keeping her heart locked away from this man.  Ever since she said she trusted him, he kept looking at her like she was the best thing to happen since the microwave oven.  And it was late anyway, after eleven.  She was tired.  And she planned to go into the library tomorrow on Saturday and do some more make-up work.

Unstrapping her seat belt, she let it slide across her chest, and she turned to him.  “What did Jason say to you?  When you got mad and pushed him into the wall?”

“You don’t want to know,” he said, his face darkening from the memory.

“Then what did you say to him?”

A quick grin flashed his teeth.  “You really don’t want to know that.”

She sighed.  “Okay.  Thank you for tonight.  I had a lot of fun.”  She waited for him to say something in response, but he didn’t, so she exited his truck and headed toward the door.  Just as she typed in her code, she felt his heavy, warm hand on her shoulder.  He turned her gently to face him.

“Amber?”

She looked up into those brown eyes of his and got lost.  “Yes?” she barely breathed out.  He opened his mouth to say something, but then his lips didn’t move at all, and his gaze landed on her own mouth...and she knew he was going to kiss her again.  She couldn’t handle that.  Not tonight.  Not after everything that had happened between them.  Not since he last kissed her and they had drawn a truce on their relationship, calling it a friendship, and especially not after he told her she was beautiful, moving those strong, calloused hands to make the signs, making her heart leap violently in her chest.  And after dancing with him Monday night, and her date with Caleb on Wednesday, and after his cousin, and the two very different ways both of them stared at her in the last two hours...

No, if he kissed her, then she would surely lose her heart to his man, and he might not ever give it back.

He must have seen the panic written all over her face, because he just smiled kindly and said, “Thank you for trusting me tonight,” and lightly kissed her cheek...like a brother would.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Then he was gone, and Amber wanted to cry.  Because there was no prayer for her...she was already in love with that stubborn, over-protective cowboy, so he should have just gone ahead and kissed her, dammit.  Amber went up to her apartment, took out the biggest, fattest permanent marker she had and completely marked over Fall In Love on her list, covering up every letter.  It was a shame, really.  She honestly thought she could hold off falling in love with him for longer than three weeks.  The man was just too damn irresistible.  So much for being the single, independent woman she always dreamed of being.  As she tossed the marker back in her desk drawer, she let out a precarious breath and went to take a long, hot bath.

Come Hell or high water...Amber was taking Linc’s heart away from precious Macie.