Stockman’s Stormcloud (Stockmen #3)

Seven

Seve n

Dex couldn’t believe Sophie had the old board game of Battleship, and how easily she talked him into playing it. He hadn’t played it since he was a kid.

At first, he was helpless to deny the company of Nurse Kitty. Allowing her to manipulate his bed with a stack of plump pillows to get him into an upright position that didn’t upset his lungs, then with a round of hot chocolate and some cookies, he was reliving his childhood.

Dex was one of the lucky ones. He’d had a great childhood, with a junkyard to play in that was a wonderland for his mechanical mind. There were no nasty stories to bother some shrink over any mummy or daddy issues. He had none.

As the second oldest of seven siblings, Dex had a lot of fond memories from his childhood. If not at school, he’d hoon around the junkyard all day. At night they’d squeeze around the television, which only had one channel worth watching, so they’d put on an old DVD. Nearby, his mother taught the little ones to read or do homework, while watching over the others playing board games that took over the floor of the lounge room, as she knitted blankets, couch covers, chair cushions, and whatever she could think of to knit.

But now, as an adult, sitting across the table from Dex was Nurse Kitty. He’d only agreed to play the game because he wanted to spend time studying her face, admiring how the few freckles on her nose would crinkle. The way her perfect lips would curve into her differing smiles. There was the way her smart eyes showed her sensitivity, and how the fine strands of her blonde hair rose slightly when she huffed at one of her wispy locks that only highlighted her features.

She kicked his butt in that first game.

Dex didn’t care, he was too busy watching her.

But he wasn’t going to let her win again—not without a fight.

‘Your move, Dex.’ Her lyrical voice was playful, and it had the uncanny knack of making his name sound different, special. It made him want to hear her whisper it in his ear, as he held her to his chest, naked, his arms wrapped around her while he—

‘I said, your move, Dex.’

Dex cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes at the plastic grid before him. His nature was to play to win. And he was too much of an animal for the likes of Nurse Kitty. ‘G4.’

Her frown gave her away. ‘Hit.’

Dex put a red peg into the grid. ‘G5.’

She huffed. ‘Hit.’

His smirk grew behind the mask. ‘So let me guess, G6.’

‘Hit, and you win.’ Even though she’d lost, her smile was a pretty sweet prize, as she shook his hand over the boards. ‘Well done, Admiral. You have successfully obliterated my fleet.’ She was a good sport about it, too, and that was a rare and admirable trait in his world.

Dex chuckled, only to wince at the stabbing in his side. It was really starting to tick him off. ‘Go again?’

‘You’re meant to be sleeping.’

‘Miss Sophie Pendleton, I’ve been asleep for three days—even if it was against my will—so trust me when I say I am not tired.’ But his ribs were annoying him, and the inability to breathe was the biggest bother, and he had a purring orange cat on his bed.

Okay, so he’d admit the cat’s fur was soft, and the purring was oddly soothing. Plus, the animal didn’t care what Dex said, taking up real estate on the bed like he owned it, to snuggle against Dex’s leg while he played his part as the inpatient patient of this bush hospital.

To think, only a few days ago he’d been able to run five clicks without breaking a sweat. He’d then follow it up with ten minutes on the skipping rope at blinding speeds. Then he’d do a weights session, then on to the various punching bags for half an hour. He’d do that whole routine both morning and night when he was preparing for a fight.

Now, he struggled to walk the length of a corridor without getting short of breath. That stupid corridor wasn’t even a quarter of the distance from his shack to the farmhouse, which he walked twice a day for a feed. It made him feel pathetic.

‘How about we do some breathing exercises? And another walk down the corridor and back?’

‘Sure.’ Whatever. He was only doing it for Nurse Kitty. Otherwise, he’d steal the oxygen tank, hot-wire the ambulance to make the quick trip to the pub and pay some stockman to drive him home. But then Nurse Kitty would get in trouble, and he’d miss out on her smile.

But he wasn’t going easy on her, like she didn’t ease up on him to walk the corridor before they played again. He won the next two games, because he’d learned all her tells watching that pretty face of hers. As they played throughout the night, time just flew.

‘I have to go.’ Sophie peeked at her watch, then scooted off the end of his bed. ‘The day shift is starting shortly, which means it’s home time for you.’

Dex didn’t want her to leave. He didn’t want that darned sun to rise as a sign that Sophie’s shift was ending.

Yet he did the gentlemanly thing of helping her pack the game away, to slide it onto her trolley, filled with assorted board games, and a flipping big cat basket. The cat was obviously spoiled, just like Harper spoiled the ex-police dogs at home, turning them into pampered house dogs with fluffy beds and fancy collars.

‘I have rounds to finish before the day shift gets here.’ Sophie scooped up that great big orange lump of a cat. ‘But this was fun.’

‘I’ll admit it was.’

‘It’s good to just play a game now and again. It makes you forget your troubles for a few moments.’

Dex couldn’t remember the last time he’d played any game, besides the game to win his fights. And he’d never sat up playing board games all night, not with a woman he’d just met.

‘Well, good luck, Dex.’ She held out her little hand for him to shake again.

‘Thank you, Sophie.’ He held her soft and dainty hand a little longer, the air positively crackling around them.

Then a buzzer sounded down the hall.

‘I must go. Patients are waking. Don’t forget to breathe.’ And with a cute smile and a wave, she hoisted that large orange cat to drape it over her shoulder like a fur shawl, then pushed her chunky nurse’s trolley out the door.

‘Goodbye, Nurse Kitty.’

Even though he didn’t want her to leave, it was good that she had because today he was going home, back to Elsie Creek Station. Dex didn’t need any distractions like Nurse Kitty in his life, period. Especially since he’d sworn to never trust another woman again, unless they were family. He didn’t even trust his brothers’ partners yet.

But today he was going to be at the mercy of one woman who took no prisoners…