Page 22 of A Dangerous Heart (Wind River Mail-Order Brides #4)

Isaac stepped up to the bed, like a soldier obeying his commander’s order.

“Aunt Clare, is she gonna cut my boot?” Ben’s face scrunched, tears flooding his eyes again. “I won’t have a pair of boots then. I’ll only have one. I can’t just have one boot!” His cry escalated, his body tensing.

Isaac put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “We’ll get you new boots.”

“But, but…my ma got me these boots,” Ben cried, overwrought.

Hattie, Doc’s teenage daughter who was acting as his nurse, shifted her attention to Clare while the doc bustled away.

Clare tensed, needing to comfort Ben without unraveling the delicate topic of his parentage.

At least Eli wasn’t here to chime in. He’d stayed on the homestead with Drew and Kaitlyn.

She opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Isaac interjected.

“We’ll hold on to those boots. It’s not every day a man gets injured and has his boot cut off. We’ll keep them as a souvenir.”

“All right,” Ben sniffled. “Can we put them in your special chest?”

A muscle in Isaac’s jaw twitched. Clare dropped her eyes. Nothing was resolved between them. He’d returned from the main homestead this morning to a crisis. And risked his life to save Ben. But Isaac didn’t want a wife or a family.

“We’ll see,” Isaac said softly.

Clare tried to focus on Ben, but the scent of disinfectant was so cloying she found it hard to breathe. When they’d arrived, the doctor had said he’d never seen a break so bad.

The tinkling sound of glass bottles startled her. She jumped.

Clare watched as Hattie dosed Ben with something on a rag and he slipped off to sleep. Apprehension tightened her chest. How would she pay the doctor? She closed her eyes and willed herself not to think about it now. Ben was safe, and he would heal.

Doc Powell motioned for Isaac to join him near the doorway. They were still close enough for her to hear every word.

“Your wife is agitated. I think it might be best if she left the room. We need to keep the patient calm.”

A fiery blush burned across her cheeks. She stared at her threaded fingers and waited for Isaac to tell the doctor that she was not his wife.

When the silence went on for a moment too long, she braved a glance and found Isaac watching her.

He arched one brow. The movement drew her attention to the bruise forming beneath the scrape on his cheek.

Blond stubble shadowed his handsome jaw, but it was that mesmerizing dimple that truly stood out—especially when he flashed her a reassuring almost smile.

“She’s a strong woman. She’ll want to stay.”

Something in his manner and words unlocked the tension in her chest, and she breathed deeply for the first time since they’d found Ben on the cliffside.

Isaac strode back to her side, his focus on Ben. Why hadn’t he told the doctor she wasn’t his wife? Just yesterday he’d been livid, ready to send her and the boys away. She didn’t come up with any answers as the doc and Hattie worked. After what seemed like hours, Doc pulled her and Isaac aside.

“We’d like to keep Ben here overnight. We’ll want to observe him as the laudanum wears off. I’ll check for broken ribs, new bruising, and signs of internal bleeding.”

Clare’s eyes went to Ben, still out, pale as the bleached sheets on the bed.

“He’ll sleep for a bit longer. Why don’t you go stretch your legs and get something to eat?”

She knew she should eat. But her stomach was still knotted so tightly that she wasn’t sure she could force anything down. “I can’t leave him,” she murmured with a look over her shoulder at the pale sleeping boy in the bed.

“Won’t do him any good if you faint away from hunger,” Isaac said.

“He’s right.” The doctor was already moving away. She could only imagine how busy he was, and he’d spent hours helping Ben this afternoon.

She shook her head. She felt sick at the thought that Ben had been hurt because of her negligence. She’d been sleeping so deeply she hadn’t heard him rustling around in bed or climbing down the ladder. Had she heard the snick of the door closing in the deep of night?

“I don’t like being away from the boys,” she whispered to Isaac, aware of him standing just behind her shoulder and Hattie across the room, cleaning up the supplies on the counter behind the bed where Ben rested.

She knew Eli was safe on the ranch, knew that Drew and Kaitlyn would watch over him, but there was a part of her that wished he’d come along too, wished she could watch over him every moment of the day. Especially now.

“This wasn’t your fault.” Somehow Isaac had followed the trail of her thoughts.

She sniffled, then widened her nostrils to keep the tears burning behind her nose at bay. “Of course it was. I’m their aunt. I’m supposed to watch over them.”

“He shouldn’t have snuck out. He’s old enough to know better.”

That was the marshal talking, the same man who’d given Ben a gentle lecture about what’d happened in the night as they’d ridden toward town in the wagon. Clare had spent the time staring daggers at Isaac, but Ben had tearfully hung on to every word.

But when she sent a sharp glance over her shoulder, Isaac was watching Ben with a soft expression on his face. When Isaac caught her looking, his face hardened, turning distant.

“Ed wandered off once,” he said now. “He was eleven, if memory serves. The horses had gotten out of the corral, and he went after them too close to dark. Got lost. He was out all night before I found him the next morning, shaking and sniveling and crying.”

She wasn’t sure the affable Ed would appreciate his brother telling this story. She couldn’t imagine the calm, strong McGraw brother looking the way Ben had when they’d found him.

Isaac cocked one eyebrow as if he knew she didn’t quite believe his story.

“Ma was beside herself for a week,” he murmured.

His hand rested at her waist, and the touch shocked Clare so that her feet moved toward the door at his urging.

“Until the terror of that night had time to wear off. And she remembered that us boys were good at getting ourselves out of scrapes.”

Clare hung back at the threshold, a blip of fear stalling her feet. Isaac hadn’t realized her intention and nearly bumped into her. The warmth of his shoulder brushed hers, and she caught the flash of consternation in his expression.

“You and your brothers must’ve been good at getting into scrapes too,” she said, raising her chin.

She saw the slight crinkle at the corner of his eyes, though he didn’t crack a smile. Her stomach did a funny flip.

She cut her eyes away and was opening her mouth to tell him she wouldn’t leave when he pressed his hand to her lower back again. “C’mon, Clare. Let’s get something to eat while he’s sleeping. And then if you want to sit at his side all night, you can.”

She couldn’t. But somehow, she let Isaac lead her out of the office and onto the boardwalk.

Outside, the sun had fallen low behind the buildings lining the street.

The moon was making a showing in the dusty-pink sky.

Clare could just make out the subtle twinkle of the first star.

Her stomach grumbled, but she didn’t think she could eat.

A couple of men moseyed down the street, and a staccato of raucous noises intruded into their silent stroll.

Clare, no longer able to hide her confusion, blurted, “Why did you lie?”

He narrowed his eyes, his focus down the street.

“In the doctor’s office, he called me your wife, and you didn’t—” She cut off her nervous babble.

“Doc’s a busy man. He doesn’t keep up with folks. Besides, I thought that’s what you wanted.” His eyes took on a gleam she couldn’t read when he looked at her again. Her face heated, but she didn’t look away.

“I thought you wanted us to leave. Isaac, I don’t want to put you or your family in any more danger.”

“You won’t. You were right too, Clare. Those boys deserve a real pa, not an outlaw. Wasn’t that the point of all of this?”

Yes, that had been the plan. Before she’d come to know the McGraws.

To know Isaac McGraw, the man who still wrestled with his past. Clare let her eyes caress his face: the strong, handsome jaw, the beautiful, discerning green eyes, and the expressive mouth that could light up her world if he learned to smile again.

“I can’t pretend anymore,” she whispered.

No more secrets.

No more pretense.

Isaac took her hands in his. He looked down at her, his expression serious. “No more pretending. We should get married. Make it real.”

Isaac’s words landed between them. Clare blinked up at him, her chest tightening. She drew in a shaky breath. “You mean it?”

His jaw flexed as he gave her a curt nod. “I’ll share my name with you. But that’s all it can be.” His voice was low, steady, and brutally honest.

The words knocked the air out of her. That’s all it can be.

Even as the finality settled in, Clare understood the magnitude of what he was offering.

A man like Isaac McGraw didn’t give anything lightly, especially not his name.

He wasn’t offering love. He was offering safety—hers and Ben’s and Eli’s—and that was more than she’d dared to hope for after he’d found out the truth about her.

She swallowed hard.

Her voice wavered as she answered, “Yes.”

His hands tightened around hers. Relief flickered in his eyes before his usual guarded expression returned.

“Good,” he said, stepping back and releasing her. The cold night air swept between them.

Clare turned her face away, trying to rein in the storm of emotions churning inside her. She didn’t love him—not yet. But she was falling, little by little, and she didn’t know how to catch herself.