Читать книгу The Rancher's Return - Karen Whiddon - Страница 13

Chapter 5

Reed knew enough about post-traumatic stress disorder to understand what had happened. His touch had sent Kaitlyn back. Back to that awful place where a touch had meant torture, a beating or rape. He clenched his jaw and seethed with anger at the man who’d done this to her.

One thing he remembered about Kaitlyn Nuhn was the way she’d always been brimming with life. Even alone, her positive energy brightened the room. He’d seen her joy in the race against the storm; hell, he’d caught some of the excitement, too.

And then to see it all quashed by a casual touch... He shook his head. Stuff like that made it difficult to focus.

After helping Kaitlyn remove the saddle from her horse, he carried it into the tack room and set it on the wooden tree, drying it off with a towel. Then he did the same with his and grabbed a couple more towels from the small stack and two curry brushes. Handing one of each to Kaitlyn, he returned to his mare and began drying her coat before he started brushing out the sweat. The rhythmic sounds as he brushed never failed to soothe him.

Except now, he felt overly aware of the woman next to him, doing the same thing. He hoped the simple repetitive motion might bring her some peace.

His cell phone rang. “Hey, Brock,” he answered. “What’s up?”

“Someone broke into your house.” Brock sounded pissed. “I just left there. The police are still there. And they assigned that idiot George to investigate.”

Reed swore. “He’s probably the one who broke in. He called me wanting to search my house. I told him to get a warrant.”

“Search for what?”

“Tim’s old girlfriend.” In his peripheral vision, he saw Kaitlyn flinch.