Free A Heart Decision by Laurie Kellogg Page B

believe I
actually said that.”
    He hurled one of the extra pillows after her and hit
the doorjamb as she disappeared into the hall. “I told you it
wasn’t a good idea for you to stay here,” he hollered. “How am I
supposed to sleep like this?”
    She poked her head back into the room. “Believe me,
with as tired as you are, the pain medication will knock you out.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at him and grinned. “But if you’d like, I
can always bring you two ice packs.”
    He snatched the pillow from under his head and fired
it at her face. She ducked, laughing as it sailed past her.
    Great. Not only had he missed, now he had no pillow
to sleep on.
    ~*~
    Sabrina continued chuckling to herself while she
waited for Dusty to finish sniffing around the half-acre backyard.
If she took the puppy inside before he made a deposit, he would, no
doubt, have an accident. “Come on, Dusty, choose a spot already.
I’m beat.”
    The dog wandered toward the line of pine trees that
separated Luke’s property from the rolling farmland behind it. He’d
planted several varieties of flowering trees and shrubs in the yard
since the last time she was at the house. She couldn’t wait to see
them all in bloom next spring. It would be beautiful.
    Finally, after several minutes, the puppy left a
little present in the corner of the yard and scampered back into
the house ahead of her. She locked the back door and picked up the
ice bag she’d filled. As she headed up the stairs, Dusty let out a
pathetic whimper and scrambled up the steps, sliding back down one
for every two he conquered.
    She scooped him up and carried him upstairs. As
she’d predicted, Luke was already out cold when she crept into his
bedroom.
    She picked up the two pillows he’d flung at her
earlier and laid them next to his head. After folding back the
bottom corner of the sheet to expose his cast, she set the ice bag
on it. She tucked the towel she’d left on the bed around his leg to
keep the bag from sliding off his ankle.
    He looked so vulnerable asleep. And sexier than
ever. It was criminal for a man to have lashes as long as his. The
dark stubble covering his jaw and his thick inky eyebrows would
make him appear slightly dangerous if not for the soft fringe
spread over his tanned cheeks.
    “I love you,” she whispered. Her throat tightened as
she brushed a stray lock of hair from his forehead and pressed a
kiss to his brow, breathing in the clean, spicy scent of his
soap.
    He turned his face away and swatted at her hand,
rejecting her even while asleep.
    Ben was crazy to think a guy like Luke would do an
about-face in his attitude toward marriage. Even if he did make
love with her and, by some miracle, felt something for her—it
wouldn’t last. She couldn’t recall one woman he’d ever dated longer
than a few months. And he’d been involved with women a lot sexier
than her through the years.
    But regardless, she owed it to Ben and their future
happiness to try to exorcise Luke from her dreams—even if it meant
sleeping with him for a few weeks to get him out of her system.
Except, what would she do if he gained an even stronger hold on her
heart? Could she still marry Ben? And how would it affect her
future relationship with Luke? Would she wind up hating him?
    She couldn’t worry about what might be right
now. She could barely think straight. Making sense of her personal
train wreck would have to wait.
    Rubbing her eyes, she stifled a long yawn. If she
didn’t get a nap soon she would collapse. She grabbed one of Luke’s
old police academy T-shirts from his clean laundry and headed for
the closest bedroom. Opening the door across the hall, she groaned
at the sight of wall-to-wall bookcases and a big oak desk with a
computer on it.
    She scanned the shelves crammed with a wide variety
of nonfiction subjects ranging from auto mechanics to Zimbabwe.
    Medical books, alone, occupied two whole shelves and
were only outnumbered by bestselling novels that,