A Needful Heart Read online

  Matt shoved the memories aside and focused on the drive to Gina’s house. As he pulled into the gravel driveway of the little two-story cottage, she mumbled something under her breath, but stayed asleep. Matt turned off the ignition, slid out and slammed his door deliberately. She never roused. Circling to her side, he opened the door. She had melted into a boneless heap in the seat and her head rested on her purse in the middle. Her broken wrist was cradled to her chest. Matt thought she looked incredibly appealing, lying there all soft and unguarded.

  He squeezed her shoulder. She never moved.

  “Gina.”

  He shook her. Still no response. Matt debated for several seconds before he finally dug her overloaded keychain out of her purse. He needed to get her into the house. His legs brushed top-heavy flowers as he walked by and took the few porch steps two at a time.

  Unlocking the door, he peeked inside long enough to ascertain there was a couch in the living room he could lay her on, then returned to the truck. Gina hardly roused as he turned her over and lifted her in his arms, her head to the left and her feet to the right. She mumbled, and he almost thought he heard her say his name. Matt’s steps faltered a bit as she wrapped her tiny fist into his shirt and nestled her face into his chest. Need roared through him at the innocent contact, and he couldn’t help but squeeze her to him. What a tempting creature she was. He was actually holding her in his arms, something he’d dreamt about for so long. Unable to deny himself, his steps slowed as he ascended the stairs.

  As he maneuvered them through the doorway, he took care not to bump her head or feet. Gina sighed as he laid her on the tan couch, sinking into the cushions. Matt pulled the afghan from the back of the couch over her, tucked her in, and settled into an upholstered chair opposite the couch. Maybe he would just wait for her to wake up. He could watch her as she slept and imagine for a heartbeat of time that he belonged there, with her.

  Chapter Two

  Gina woke to pain in her arm and something tantalizing her nose. Blinking, she was surprised to see she was in her own house, lying on the couch. The hassock to the chair was wedged up against the front. Tossing the afghan away, she sat up. She didn’t remember moving the stool over or covering herself with the blanket. Those pills had really knocked her out. The pain in her arm was manageable though.

  She swung her legs to the floor and stood, then headed toward the kitchen. Who on earth was cooking?

  She was prepared to see Laurie from a couple houses down or maybe Madison from work. She certainly wasn’t prepared to see Matt Calvin standing at her stove, stirring what appeared to be soup.

  “Matt?”

  Red soup splattered on the white smooth-top stove when he jerked around. “Gina! I didn’t know you were up.” He dropped the spoon to the counter and moved toward her. “Are you feeling okay? Do you need anything?”

  Gina smiled at the big man’s concern. “No, I’m fine. A little achy, but I think that’s just the pain pills wearing off. Those little suckers work good. I don’t remember anything after giving you directions to the house.”

  Matt ducked his head and brushed at a spot on his nose. “Well, you kinda didn’t even get through the directions before you passed out.”

  Gina stared at him, dumfounded. “What?”

  He nodded once at her wide-eyed stare. “You passed out right in the middle of a sentence. I had an idea where you lived, though. I found your keys in your purse and brought you in.”

  “You carried me in? Oh. My. God. You carried me in the house.”

  Gina felt the blush start at the tips of her toes and move to the top of her head. How humiliating! No, she wasn’t fat, but she was certainly no lightweight either. Curvy was a better description. “Matt, I’m so sorry. No man should have to do that.”

  His pale eyes met hers for a long, intense moment before they slid away. “I enjoyed it actually."

  Once again that energizing tingle washed through her. Had he just hit on her? Big, scary, tattooed Matt? Kind of? It was a hell of a change from this afternoon when he couldn’t even talk to her.

  She was distracted when he placed a bowl of tomato soup in front of her, followed by a perfectly grilled cheese. Gina didn’t even realize she was hungry until the smell reached her nose and her tummy growled.

  “Thank you,” she sighed.

  Matt turned away before she could see his face. She reached for the spoon with her left hand, but fumbled the thing. It plopped into the soup with a splash.

  “Damn it!” she gasped as soup landed on her scrubs top. Right arm cradled to her stomach, she breathed deeply for several long seconds. When she looked up, Matt had knelt beside her chair. His dark brows were furrowed in concern. Gina shook her head and smiled ruefully.

  “This is going to take a while to get used to, I guess.”

  Nodding his head, he pushed to his feet. Gina was fascinated by the play of muscles in his tree-trunk sized thighs. He had to have done some serious lifting for them to be that massive.

  With her left hand, she took a bite of the buttery, gooey sandwich. It melted in her mouth. Matt stood at the counter, his back to her. “This is wonderful, Matt. Thank you so much.”

  He turned to acknowledge her thanks, and Gina was surprised to see him eating from the counter.

  “Oh, sit down, please. Why are you standing to eat? I won’t bite, I promise.”

  Matt regarded her for several long moments before he turned with his plate to sit across from her. He settled gingerly in the wooden Captain’s chair, and Gina wondered if finding one sturdy enough was a problem. He was a huge man, barrel-chested and brawny. Sometimes he deliberately intimidated people, she thought, so that he wouldn’t have to talk to them. But that size was what made Gina feel safe. He had a bowl of soup as well, and a single sandwich. Surely it took more than that to fill him up?

  “Was George okay today?” she asked.

  Matt nodded his head. “He was fine. Blood work was fine. As ornery as ever.”

  Gina smiled and shook her head. “You know, that man actually pinched my butt the last time you brought him in. And cackled about it.”

  “That sounds like him. He’s always been like that.”

  Gina took another bite of sandwich. “How long have you known him?”

  Matt looked off in the distance for a few moments, thinking. “Hmmm, at least twenty-five years or so. He was a drinking buddy of my father’s. After Rick died, George helped me out.”

  Gina thought it was curious that Matt referred to his father by his first name. If what she had heard was correct, it was understandable there was a distance. One of the girls at the office had gone to school with Matt, and she remembered many times when he’d come in with bruises darkening his face. Paula remembered he’d dropped out when he was sixteen, but she didn’t know what had happened to him after that.

  “When did your father die?” she asked.

  He looked at her from underneath the bill of his cap, and it was pretty obvious this was not something he wanted to talk about. But he answered.

  “Ten years ago. Got drunk off his ass and plowed head-on into a tree. Killed him instantly.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Matt waved a rough hand in the air. “Don’t be. It was a relief.”

  Gina could only gape in surprise as he stood and gathered their dirty dishes to take to the dishwasher. Things must have been really bad to cause that kind of resentment. She just couldn’t imagine the life he must have had to make him almost happy that his father was gone. Her family was the heart-stone of her life.

  She groaned as she thought of her mother. If she didn’t do damage control, and quick, Mom would be down here in a split second to take care of her. And as much as she loved her family, she treasured the independence she had gained when she’d moved away.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Once again, Matt was at her side, ready to help her do anything. With her left hand, Gina pushed her messy hair away from her face. Heck, she th
ought, how was she even going to do her hair? Or go to the bathroom? Pushing the worries aside, she focused on Matt. “My mother is going to want to come down when she finds out about my wrist. And if she finds out from somebody else about it, she’s going to think I’m hiding something from her. I have to call her.”

  Matt nodded and reached for the phone hanging on the wall. Passing her the handset, he offered to punch in the numbers. Gina let him, simply because she didn’t want to drop it and break it like her cell.

  Matt pressed the numbers, then disappeared into the living room to give her some privacy. Gina listened to the ringing at the other end of the line, and her stomach tightened just a little more with each ring. The sixth ring was cut off mid-way.

  “Hello.”

  Relief rolled over her, and tears clogged her throat as she heard her father’s gruff voice. “Hi, Daddy.”

  “Hey, Pumpkin, how are you? Haven’t talked to you for a while. Had that golf thing last Saturday, so I missed your regular call.”

  “I know, and that’s ok. I didn’t have anything in particular to talk about.” Gina paused and took a deep breath. “Uh, Dad?”

  “Yeah, Pumpkin?”

  “Is Mom around? I mean, is she in the room?”

  Her father was silent for several long moments. “No,” he said finally. “Why?”

  “Well, I, uh, kinda hurt myself, and I don’t want her to go off the deep end about it. It’s just my wrist. I fell at the office and broke it. It’s a clean break, no shards or anything. I’ve already got the cast on and everything.”

  “Which arm was it? And when did you do it?”

  “It’s my right arm, which is going to be difficult, and I did it this morning at work. A, uh, friend of mine took me to the hospital to get the cast. I’m fine, though. They did blood tests just to make sure, and my bones are fine. No more brittle than the average person’s, they said.”

  Relief eased her father’s voice. “Good, good. So, I guess you want me to run interference with your mother?”

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “There’s no need for her to drive two hundred miles just to look at my cast. I’m fine. Besides, I’ll be up there next weekend for Charli’s sweet sixteen party.”

  “Hmmm,” her father mumbled. “Okay, Pumpkin, as long as you’re sure you’re all right.”

  “I am, Dad, I promise.”

  “Okay. You better be. If you’re not, your mother will tan my hide.”

  Gina smiled at the familiar complaint. “I love you, Dad. See you next weekend.”

  “Love you too, baby. See you then.”

  Gina was smiling as she crossed the kitchen to replace the handset. She loved her dad. He was always willing to let her spread her wings. Her mother, on the other hand, worried incessantly.

  “They upset with you?”

  Startled, she turned from the counter. Matt stood just a few feet behind her. “Jeez, you scared me. For as big as you are, you move very quietly. No, they’re not mad. Actually, that was just my dad. He’ll let Mom know what happened. He was just concerned.”

  Matt nodded his head like he understood, but Gina was sure he didn’t. “When I was a child,” she told him, “I had leukemia. Took me years of radiation, drugs, and chemotherapy to get over it. Mom was right there with me the entire time. I’ve been in remission since I was about eleven. She still worries, though, a lot. It was after I broke a bone that we found out I had the cancer. Heck, she may still come down if Dad can’t convince her otherwise.”

  Matt frowned fiercely. “So, could this mean your illness is coming back?” he demanded.

  Gina raised her brows at the tone. “No, no. I had them check my white cell count while I was in there, and it’s fine. I’m fine. Really. Just more clumsy than the average human.”

  Matt still looked worried, and Gina thought it was endearing. She glanced down at his heavy fists. They were clenched, as if he wanted to punch something. That emotion she sensed under his implacable expression was a little closer to the top now. She hadn’t known that the thought of her being sick would upset him so much. It was sweet, though, actually. Made her heart warm.

  Where had this man come from? Six hours ago, he had been an obstacle in the hallway at work. Now he was very close to being a friend.

  She glanced at the clock, surprised to see it had crept toward evening. Man, being drugged out of your mind really made the time fly. “Matt, I’m so sorry. Am I keeping you from something? I just kind of wrecked everybody’s day, didn’t I?”

  Matt shook his head and tugged on the bill of his cap to shade his eyes. “Nah, you’re not keeping me from anything. And you didn’t wreck my day.”

  He smiled slightly, and Gina was taken aback at the hint of charm in his smile. The man was so reserved; she couldn’t remember him ever smiling at her. Or anybody else for that matter.

  “Are you sure nobody will be waiting for you? Your girlfriend or wife or anything?”

  Blazing heat spread across her cheeks. Why had she asked that?

  Not that he saw. Matt’s head tipped even further down, until all she could see was the button on top of the faded blue hat. “No, ma’am. Actually,” he said, standing from the chair and towering over her, “I need to go. Let you get some rest.”

  Gina looked up at him and found it hard to believe she had never noticed him before. He seemed like a very nice man, in spite of the ink on his arm and his prickly nature. Quiet. Was the dragon that decorated his forearm a turn-off? Not really, she decided. It was actually kind of pretty.

  She was surprised to realize she didn’t want him to go, but she didn’t know how to make him to stay.

  “Well, okay.” She followed him out of the kitchen and down the hallway, wrist cradled to her chest. Gina was struck with how he dwarfed everything. He was almost too broad to fit through the doorways. Automatically, he tipped his head as he walked under the doorjambs. Gina didn’t think he was actually tall enough to hit them, but he had probably done it enough times to learn to be cautious.

  Her eyes drifted from his broad shoulders, down to his narrow hips and settled on his tight ass. Damn! How had she never noticed that before? She was a butt-woman all the way, and Matt Calvin had the finest tush she’d seen in years. A tingle of heat spread through her belly. Followed quickly by guilt. He was here to take care of her and she was checking out his butt.

  Matt swung the front door open and ducked through. He didn’t say anything, and Gina wondered if he would leave without telling her goodbye. Or without even looking at her.

  “Goodbye, Matt. And thank you for everything you did. I really appreciate it.”

  The big man paused for just a moment at the front of the black truck. “You’re welcome.” Tipping his hat, he continued on around the hood and climbed in. The big vehicle roared to life, backed out of her driveway and took off.

  Gina stared down the street for a long time after he disappeared. Inside the house, her phone rang. Sighing, she turned and let herself into the house. “Coming, Mom,” she muttered.

  ***

  Matt took his first deep breath of the night when he was out of sight of Gina’s house and accelerating away. Claustrophobia had eaten at him. The entire time he’d been inside, he’d been worried about breaking something, or, God forbid, bumping into her while she was in pain. He gritted his teeth at the thought of what she was going through. Because of him. She could explain it away all she wanted to, but he knew the guilt rested solely on his shoulders. If he hadn’t tried to talk to her and been in that doorway, she never would have fallen in the first place.

  The tears in her ice-blue eyes had been the worst. For somebody like her, with a regular life, that pain was an anomaly, something they didn’t feel every day. In a heartbeat, he would take it away and just merge it in with his own. Hell, a broken wrist would be a drop in the bucket compared to what he was used to. He looked at his fists. The thumbnail on his left hand was black from a distracted hammer strike and would probably fall off soon. His knuck
les were scraped from moving concrete blocks yesterday. There was a cut on the meat of his right hand that just would not seal, and the fresh coat of superglue had broken open.

  Those tears had made her eyes sparkle, though. Prettier than anything he had ever seen before. Even with her kinky hair a mess around her face, she appealed to him like no other person ever had. It was difficult to look at her very long because he lost his train of thought and found himself floundering.

  Hell, not like that was anything new.

  What the heck was he doing though, seriously? After talking to her, and seeing her pretty, feminine house with the family pictures plastered over the walls, the differences between them could not be more clear. A white trash grunt like him had no business even being near her. For four years he had watched her, leery of making any kind of move because he didn’t know whether he had anything she needed. Now that he had spoken to her and gotten a glimpse into her shining life, he knew for a fact he had no business being there.

  A sparkle of red caught his eye, and he glanced down at the truck seat. Her phone was there, sadly scattered in three pieces. A crack split the touch-screen almost perfectly in half. Picking up one piece, he held it to his nose experimentally. Peaches and cream tickled his senses. She had been so heartbroken that it had shattered.

  With a heavy sigh, he snatched up his own phone and punched in a number by memory.

  “’lo.” The word was muffled, as if the speaker’s mouth were full.

  “Are you eating, Monroe?”

  There were noises at the other end of the line. “Mmmm hmmm. Wassup?”

  Matt shook his head in the dark truck. Anderson Monroe had been known to close down buffet lines at night because they were out of food. The man was a walking trash compactor, and his best friend in the world. Actually, he was one of the few people Matt considered an actual friend and the only person who knew about his infatuation with Gina Carruthers. “I tried to talk to her today.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line for several long seconds. “And how did that go?”