“I’m fine,” she said. “Just don’t…”
“Don’t touch you?” he asked. And he chuckled. “Trust me, I promise not to touch you unless you want me to.”
Her heart beat fast, and her head still spun. Gray fog moved in, and JoJo felt herself tip over on the bucket.
“Sorry,” he said, as he dove to catch her, “I have to break my promise.”
JoJo fought the haze sucking her down, and through that haze, she realized that Max was easing her to the ground and then removing his hands from her body.
“Hey, Tiger, talk to me,” his said, his voice sounding like he was in a long tunnel. “What’s wrong? Talk to me. Do I need to call an ambulance?”
“No,” she said shaking her head from side to side. “I’m okay.”
“You don’t look so okay,” he said. “You’re kind of pale and pasty.”
“No, really. I’m okay,” she said, pushed the hair out of her face and tried to sit up. Her vision blurred, and she lay back.
“Let me help you sit up,” he said and held out his hand.
She looked at it for a moment, and then reached out and placed hers in his.
He gently pulled her up into a sitting position. “Now, you want to tell me what that was all about?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
His eyes narrowed, and he stared into hers.
Heat rose into her cheeks. “It’s not any of your business.”
His lips twitched in the hint of a smile. “It is when I’m thrown, kicked and bitten.”
She glanced away from his face. “It’s not something I want to talk about.”
Max’s brow furrowed as he continued to stare at her. Finally, he sighed. “At least, let me get you up to the lodge.”
“No,” she shook her head, “I need to help Gunny.”
“Let me get you up to the lodge, and I’ll go help Gunny.”
She shook her head, her lips pressing together. “He wouldn’t have asked you to come get me if he didn’t need me.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “True, I’m not as fast as you are delivering trays to tables. I might have dropped a few glasses on the floor. Gunny muttered something like, ‘Snowblower be damned. Go get her.’” His grin broadened.
“Sorry. I should’ve skipped fixing the snowblower and come to work at the bar.”
“It’s okay,” Max said. “I know my limitations. It didn’t hurt my feelings.”
“I just need to get on my feet, and then I’ll be all right.” Though her head had stopped spinning, JoJo wasn’t positive her legs would hold her if she stood.
“Seriously,” Max said, “you need to go up to the lodge and lie down for a little bit.”
Ignoring him, she bunched her legs beneath her and pushed to her feet.
When she swayed, he reached out and cupped her elbow. “Again, I broke my promise, but I didn’t want you to fall.”
She leaned into his grip until her body quit swaying and her head cleared. “I’m feeling better already,” she said though she felt sick to her stomach. Why did she have to be this way? Why couldn’t she act like a normal person, instead of flipping her shit when somebody came up behind her? Add the fact she’d told Max never to touch her again, and then he’d had to touch her to keep her from falling all over the floor. Heat burned in her cheeks. She squared her shoulders and faced him. “I’m really sorry if I hurt you.”
His mouth quirked up on one side. “It wasn’t something I was expecting, but I’ll survive. Now, which direction are you going? To the lodge or to the Watering Hole?”
She gave him a tight smile. “The Watering Hole.”
“Okay then, I’m going with you.”
“That won’t be necessary,” she said. “I’ll get there on my own.”
“I’d rather you didn’t. Not a choice,” he said. “I promise not to touch you this time, unless you fall again.”
A flash of guilt filled her. The man had taken care of her when she’d more or less attacked him. “I’m sorry. Thank you for looking after me.” She went to the hose outside the barn and washed her hands, getting some of the grease off before she walked to the Watering Hole where she would scrub her hands with a strong soap.
Max walked alongside her, his limp more pronounced than before.
JoJo grimaced. “Did I hurt your leg when I threw you?”
“Don’t worry about it. Sometimes, I just have to work out the kinks.”
“Do you mind if I asked what happened? I mean, you were active duty at one point. Did you get injured in the war?”
His lips firmed into a thin line.
“Hey,” she said, “if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine with me.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I deployed five times. Five times, I came back intact with no major injuries. It was just my lucky day when I got this.” He tapped his leg.
“How so?” she asked.
“I was in charge of mountain training. We were rappelling on a cliff. I’d done it maybe a hundred times before, no problems. Just happened to be that day something went wrong, my D-ring broke, and I fell two-hundred-fifty-feet to the ground.”
JoJo shot a startled look toward him. “Oh my God, that’s awful. How can you call that your lucky day?”
He gave her a slow smile. “Though I broke almost every bone in my body, I survived. I didn’t have bleeding on the brain. The doctor said I was lucky I didn’t die.” His smile faded, and he stared off into the distance. “Sometimes, I wonder.”
“For having broken every bone in your body, and you still lived to tell about it, I’d say you’re doing pretty good.”
“I suppose. It’s hard to start over when all you’ve known is the Army.”
JoJo nodded. “I know exactly what you mean. I enlisted straight out of high school. Coming off active duty and trying to assimilate into civilian society has been a challenge,” she said. “I may not have been shot at as many times as you were. But
