Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

122 DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT
workers over tomorrow to help your mother with
anything that needs to be done until you can move
around on it a little better.”
“We don’t need your arrogant Cold Creek charity.”
“It’s not arrogance to watch out for a patient and
make sure she doesn’t overdo things. And before you
tell me again that you’re not my patient, how about
watching out for a friend? Am I allowed to do that?”
She opened her mouth to tell him she absolutely
wasn’t his friend, either, and had no desire to be but the
words clogged in her throat. They sounded sulky and
rude and also didn’t ring true.
Since her return to Pine Gulch, in a strange, twisted
way, he had become a friend of sorts.
Friends with a Dalton? The concept shook her but she
couldn’t dismiss it completely. Friends had been in short
supply these last few months. She had a few loyal ones
from the Army who visited her at Walter Reed to keep
her spirits up during rehab, and a couple other amputees
she’d become friendly with during treatment.
She had kept most others at arm’s length, unable to
bear their pity. After Clay’s defection, it had become
second nature to shut people out.
Jake didn’t make that easy. And, Dalton or not, in his
overbearing way he had been kind to her since she
returned to Pine Gulch. She had repaid his kindness
with sarcasm and meanness at every turn.
Maybe it was the exhaustion or the natural outcome
of spending all day in his company, but she was tired of
being bitchy with him. More than anything, she
suddenly craved an evening of quiet conversation and