Part 13 (1/2)
”Not everybody wants people looking inside them,” Tyler said.
”I wouldn't like to have a beard,” Zac said, ”but it's n.o.body's business what I'm thinking.”
”They wouldn't have to wonder long,” Daisy said. ”You'd tell them soon enough.” Daisy was startled by her own words, but neither Zac nor Tyler seemed to take offense.
”Your wound is healing nicely,” Tyler said. ”I doubt you'll have much of a scar.”
He covered it with salve and began bandaging it again.
”Now all I have to do is hide in a closet for three years until my hair grows out.” She didn't mean to keep harping on the same complaint, but after suffering with freckles and being six feet tall, a scar and a singed head added stinging insult to grievous injury.
”What you need is a wig,” Zac said. ”You'd be amazed what they can do nowadays. I had a marvelous one for a play we did at school a couple of years ago. I wonder if I still have it? You're welcome to borrow it if I do.”
”I'm sure Daisy's friends will be happy to have her safe and sound no matter the length of her hair,” Tyler said.
”It's not my friends I'm worried about,” Daisy said.
”It should be. No one else matters.”
Daisy didn't replay. Only a man could be so right and so completely wrong at the same time. And never understand why.
Daisy was even more bored the next day. Rain had been falling since dawn. The sky was a dull grey, and the clouds showed no sign of breaking up. The steady drip from the roof was getting on her nerves, but Tyler said it was still impossible to start for Albuquerque.
”It'll freeze tonight and turn into a sheet of ice. That'll make it even more dangerous.”
”I've never been cooped up so long. I need to do something. Let me fix dinner tonight.”
Zac lifted his gaze from the cards.
”Thanks,” Tyler said. ”It's no trouble.”
”I want to,” Daisy said. ”It's about the only thing I can do for you. I feel utterly useless.”
”I'd get over that soon if I were you,” Zac advised.
”Get over what?” Daisy asked.
”Needing to feel useful. People will take advantage of it. Before you know it, they'll be expecting you to do things for them all the time.”
Daisy smiled. ”I gather you've managed to control the impulse.”
”Never had it.”
Daisy looked back at Tyler. ”I mean it,” she said.
”I'd rather do it myself.”
”I promise to put everything back in its place.” She couldn't disguise the annoyance in her voice.
”Tyler doesn't like anybody cooking for him,” Zac said.
”I'm a good cook,” Daisy said.
”Tyler's better.”
”I'll have to spend the rest of my life cooking, so why don't you teach me some of your tricks?” she asked.
”I'm not very patient,” Tyler confessed. ”Besides, I make up a lot of things as I go.”
Daisy didn't have to be hit over the head to figure out Tyler was trying to tell her to leave him alone. ”Okay, suppose I wash your clothes?”
One look at Zac's expression told her she'd stumbled into another forbidden area.
”I don't know how you can stand living in a place without curtains on the windows,” she said, frustration making her petulant. ”Do you mind if I make some?”
”What are you going to use?” Zac asked. ”Your petticoat?”
”It would be better than bare walls,” Daisy said.
She was frustrated, hurt, and thoroughly miffed. Tyler was the most self-contained man she had ever met. He could do everything better than she could. What he couldn't do, he didn't want done. He didn't need a woman. He didn't even want one. She was just in the way.
She didn't understand why she should care about Tyler when she didn't care what Zac felt. It must be because Tyler was the one who took care of her, who seemed to be genuinely concerned about her.
”You ought to buy some curtains next time you're in Albuquerque,” she said. ”It would make the place look nicer and give you some privacy.”
”There's n.o.body to be private from,” Tyler pointed out.
”You could use some pictures, too,” she said, persevering. ”This place looks like a cabin in the woods.”
”It is a cabin in the woods.”
”I know, but it shouldn't look like it.”
She didn't know why she bothered. He clearly wasn't going to take her suggestions. Maybe he had lived by himself so long he didn't know how to include other people in his life, even let them know he wanted to include them. Feeling excluded annoyed her.
She guessed she liked him.
That didn't really surprise her. She had thought for some time he was rather nice even though he was domineering and uncommunicative to the point of rudeness. What did surprise her was discovering it was important he like her back.
Frustrated and confused, she started pulling books off the shelf and dusting them. The cabin was very neat, but this was one area Tyler had forgotten. She found herself imagining what she would do if she lived here, how she would rearrange the furniture, decorate the walls, the things she would buy if she had the money. It was really a remarkable cabin. Most homes in Albuquerque weren't built half so well.
The feel of a hand closing around her wrist caused her heart to leap into her throat. She looked up into Tyler's deep, brown eyes about the time he took the book from her hand.