The Wedding Gift Read Free

your ribs? Are they tender? Do you have pain anywhere? There’s no telling what you might have bruised or injured or God forbid, jarred loose.”
    She opened an oversized purse and fished around inside. The next thing he knew, she was trying to press the end of a stethoscope to his chest.
    He backed out of her reach.
    â€œI’m a nurse,” she said gently. “Don’t worry, I’ve done this a thousand times.”
    He closed his hand around the end of the stethoscope and held it away from his body. She tried again to push it toward his chest but he held fast. Before either of them was ready to admit they’d reached an impasse, the wind intervened, dragging her hair out of the fastener at her nape, an effective diversion for both of them. Free, the blond tresses whipped and swirled around her head.
    She finally released her end of the stethoscope and reached up, winsomely tying her hair into a knot that begged to be undone again. She should have looked as out of place as an orchid in a patch of quack grass, and yet her presence seemed expected, binding somehow.
    Awareness surged through him so strongly he was tempted to forget he was standing in the middle of a construction site in plain view of a dozen curious men with a pretty young woman intent upon touching him. He wanted her to touch him almost as much as he wanted to pull her to him and cover her mouth with his.
    â€œI’d feel a lot better if you would sit down,” she said. “Could I at least take your pulse?”
    The question finally brought him to his senses. She was a nurse. Here to take his pulse.
    The thundering in his ears moved ominously into his voice as he said, “My mother sent you, didn’t she?”

Chapter Two
    R iley Merrick was standing three feet away.
    Madeline was certain her feet were planted firmly on the ground, and yet she felt as if she were drawing closer to him. Heat emanated from him, making her yearn to burrow into his warmth, her ear pressed to his chest. The rumble of the bulldozer’s engine and the sharp pounding of heavy hammers receded until the only sound she heard was the chiming of something sweet and delicate sprinkling into the empty spaces inside her.
    â€œWell? Did my mother hire you or didn’t she?”
    She blinked. And sound returned in a raucous,roaring cacophony of pitch and volume. “Your mother?” she finally asked.
    He scowled. “Knowing my mother, she probably told you to lie about your association with her.”
    â€œI’m a terrible liar,” she said dazedly.
    He finally released the stethoscope. “Keep that away from me. Who are you, anyway?”
    â€œI’m Madeline Sullivan. As I told you before, I’m a nurse, but—”
    â€œSo my mother sent you to play nursemaid. That’s so typical. No doubt she expects you to check my pulse and report back to her.”
    Since she still didn’t know what his mother had to do with her, she said, “I think we should keep your mother out of this.”
    â€œAt least we agree on one thing.”
    â€œDo we also agree that walking on narrow beams fifty feet off the ground is a risk you have no business taking?” Why was she so breathless?
    Angry, he was having trouble breathing, too. His next attempt made his nostrils flare as he said, “I was wearing my safety harness.”
    Eyeing the harness dangling from the end of a yellow rope, his hard hat upside down on the plywood floor directly beneath it, she shook her head. He could have broken his neck. He could have died, and it all would have been for nothing.
    â€œIt can take a long time for ribs to heal completely after a surgery like yours,” she said gently. “Especially with the medications you’re on. You are taking your medicine, aren’t you?”
    His eyes narrowed and his voice lowered as he said, “You’re fired, Madeline.”
    Her head jerked up. “You can’t fire