Texas Proud and Circle of Gold (Long, Tall Texans #52) - Diana Palmer Page 0,9

was deformity in the hands and feet. Not only that, but RA was systemic. It could cause a lot of issues in other parts of the body, as well.

Chance, Bernie thought, would be a fine thing. She’d have to be very well-to-do in order to afford something so expensive as those shots. Well, meanwhile she had her other meds, and they worked well enough most of the time. It wasn’t every day that she fell in a cold rain almost in front of somebody’s fancy limousine. She smiled to herself and went back to her book.

* * *

Breakfast the next morning would have been interesting, Bernie thought to herself as she ate hers from a tray her kindly landlady had provided. But she couldn’t get up. A weather system had moved in, dropping even more rain, and Bernie’s poor body was still trying to cope with yesterday’s fall. What a good thing it was Saturday. She’d have had a time getting to work.

Just as she finished the last drop of her coffee, there was a perfunctory knock and the man who’d rescued her walked in.

She pulled the sheet up over her breasts. The gown covered her nicely, but she’d never had a man in her bedroom in her life, except for her late father and her doctor. She flushed.

Mikey grinned from ear to ear. He loved that reaction. The women in his life were brassy and easy and unshockable. Here was a violet under a staircase, undiscovered, who blushed because a man saw her in her nightgown.

“Mrs. Brown said you might like a second cup of coffee,” he said gently, approaching the bed with a cup and saucer.

“Oh, I, yes, I...thank you.” She couldn’t even talk normally. She was furious with herself, especially when her hands shook a little as she took the cup and saucer from him. He lifted the empty one from the tray, so she’d have someplace to put the new one.

He cocked his head and looked at her, fascinated. Her long blond hair was in a braid, a little frizzled from being slept on. She was wearing a cotton gown, and he could see the straps with their eyelet trim. It reminded him of his grandmother, who’d never liked artificial fabric.

“You aren’t feeling so good today, are you?” he asked. “Need me to run you over to the doctor?”

The flush grew. “Oh. Thank you. No, I’m...well, it’s sort of normal. When it rains, it hurts more. And I fell.” She bit her lip because he looked so guilty. “It wasn’t your fault, or your driver’s,” she added quickly. “I’m clumsy. My toe hit a brick on the sidewalk that was just a little raised and it caused me to lose my balance. That’s why I use the cane on bad days. I’m clumsy even on flat surfaces...”

“My grandmother had arthritis,” he said softly. “Her little hands and feet were gnarled like tree roots.” He wasn’t watching, so he didn’t notice the discomfort in Bernie’s face—her poor feet weren’t very pretty, either. “I used to carry her in and out of the house when she had bad spells. She loved to sit in the sun.” His dark eyes were sad. “She weighed barely eighty pounds, but she was like a little pit bull. Even the big guys were afraid of her.”

“The big guys?” she asked, lost in his soft eyes.

He shrugged. “In the family,” he said.

She frowned. She didn’t understand.

“You really are a little violet under a stair,” he mused to himself. “The family is what insiders call the mob,” he explained. “The big guys are the dons, the men who run things. I’m from New Jersey. Most of my family was involved in organized crime. Well, except Paulie,” he added with a chuckle. “He was always the odd guy out.”

She smiled. “He’s married to Sari Grayling, who works in our office.”

He nodded. “Sweet woman. Her sister is one hel—heck of an artist,” he said, amending the word he’d meant to use.

“She truly is. They had her do a portrait of our local college president, who was retiring. It looked just like him.”

He chuckled. “The one she painted three years ago saved her life. Her father whacked a woman whose son hired contract men to go after Grayling’s daughters. Merrie painted the big don from back home, and he called off the hit.” He didn’t add how Tony Garza had called it off.

“We heard about all that. I wasn’t working for the district attorney’s office at the