Carnal Innocence

say. Why don’t you check?”
    She ignored the smirk in his voice and unbuttoned his shirt. “I certainly hope this teaches you … oh, God, Tucker.”
    His eyes jerked open. “What? What?”
    “You’re all black and blue.”
    He took a moment to be grateful she hadn’t found a rib sticking out. “Those’re old. Austin.”
    “Why, that’s hideous.” Horror stung her voice and turned her eyes green as emeralds. “He should be locked up.”
    He had to smile. “He is locked up, darlin’. Right and tight in the county jail. Carl transported him yesterday.”
    Caroline laid gentle fingers on his bruised ribs. “He really hurt you.”
    Pride nettled. “He didn’t walk away smiling.”
    “Of course, that makes it all right.” Caroline jerked her hands away and popped open a bottle of painkiller Dr. Palamo had prescribed for her stress headaches. “Men are all idiots.”
    Carefully, Tucker propped himself on his elbows. “I didn’t start it. He came after me.”
    “Just shut up and take one of these.”
    “What am I taking?”
    “Something that won’t laugh at that headache I imagine you’ve got.”
    He took the pill, grateful, but also scanned the label of the bottle. If it did the job, he’d have to ask Doc Shays to get him some for the rest of his pains. Tucker swallowed it with a sip of the water she offered. “Can I have that beer if I’m able to stand up?”
    “No.”
    He laid his head back against the cushion. “Just as well. Darlin’, do me a favor and call Junior Talbot. He’s going to have to come on down and tow my car.”
    “I’ll take care of it.” She rose, then shot him a warning look. “Don’t go to sleep. You’re not supposed to sleep if you have a concussion.”
    “Why not?”
    Frustration added an edge to her voice. “I don’t know why not, I’m not a doctor. It’s just something you hear all the time.”
    “I won’t go to sleep if you promise to come right back and hold my hand.”
    Caroline lifted a brow. “If you go to sleep, I’m calling Doc Shays and telling him to bring his longest needle.”
    “Christ, you’re a mean one.” But his lips curved as she walked out.
    She gave him less than three minutes to consider drifting off before she returned with an ice pack. “Junior said he’d be out as soon as he could get away.” When he only grunted, she laid the ice pack on his head, and the grunt turned into a long “ah” of gratitude. “I didn’t know whether I should call your family.”
    “Not yet. Della’ll be in town awhile longer. I forgot she was running a bake sale today. Josie’s not likely to go anywhere, especially if Dwayne wakes up with his usual Sunday head.” Lord, he was tired. Not the pleasant, sleepy tired of a lazy afternoon, but tired clean to the bone. “Anyway, wrecking cars is kind of a hobby in my family.”
    She frowned at him. Since his color was coming back, she felt she had a right to demand an explanation. “Then the lot of you should take up croquet or needlepoint.Where the hell were you going in such a hurry?”
    “I don’t know. Anywhere.”
    “Anywhere’s a stupid place to go barefoot at a hundred miles an hour.”
    “More like eighty. You tend to exaggerate.”
    “You could have killed yourself.”
    “Since I felt like killing somebody else, it was a better bet.” He opened his eyes, and though she could see the pain had misted away—Dr. Palamo’s magic worked quickly—there was something else, something deeper and more poignant.
    “Did something happen?”
    “There wasn’t a baby,” he heard himself say.
    “Excuse me?”
    “She wasn’t pregnant. She lied to me. She stood there, looked me right in the eye, and told me she had my baby inside her. And it was a lie.”
    It took Caroline a moment to realize he was talking about Edda Lou—the Edda Lou she had found floating in the pond. “I’m sorry.” She folded her hands in her lap, unsure what to say or how to say it.
    He didn’t know why he was telling her, but once started, he couldn’t stem the words. “These last few days … it’s been eating at me. Thinking about her dying that way. She meant something to me once. Almost meant something to me. Thinking about that, and thinking that a part of me died with her was … but there wasn’t any part of me in Edda Lou, except for a lie.”
    “Maybe she made a mistake. She might have thought she was pregnant.”
    He gave a short laugh. “I hadn’t slept with her in nearly two months. A