Worth the Risk_ A Contemporary - Megan Hart Page 0,15

fly over a horse's head like that before."

Laila watched Hal force a grin. His mouth was still slightly swollen on the right side from where he'd hit it on the edge of the trough. His eyes were bloodshot.

"I've seen you take some pretty rough tumbles," Michael's wife, Hannah, said from the other side of the table. "And you've landed in worse things than water."

"'member when Uncle Eli fell off into the horse poop?" Henry laughed wildly until orange juice squirted from his mouth.

"Gross, buttwad!" Eli and Sarah's daughter, Rebecca, a worldly nine years old, imitated gagging.

Henry, who pretended with Noah to despise his older, female cousins, closed his mouth. His lower lip trembled. Laila, feeling sorry for her sweet, little nephew, reached over to give him a quick squeeze.

"Don't feel bad, Henry," she said. "I've changed Rebecca's diapers, remember? Talk about gross."

That put a smile back on Henry's face, and he threw a piece of pancake across the table. The table erupted into chaos, as was usual at these family gatherings. Laila couldn't help smiling until she caught a glance of Hal. His expression was strained, though he tried gamely to hide it behind a smile so fake it looked like plastic.

Guilt assailed her. It was partially her fault he'd been thrown. She knew he wasn't a good rider, and she knew Stanley would want to catch up to the other horses if left behind. Suddenly, Laila felt like an ant at a picnic. An undeserving pest.

"C'mon, H--oney," she said. Her cheeks pinked as she realized she'd almost called him Hal instead of David. "Let's get our bathing suits on and go in the hot tub."

Silence circled the table at her statement, then everyone who'd heard her burst into catcalls and kissing noises. Her blush deepened, but she pretended not to be bothered by her family's good-natured teasing.

"Have a good time!" Ruth's husband, Frank, called from a few chairs down. "Don't get overheated!"

The adults laughed, but Henry merely gave her a puzzled look. "But, Aunt Laila, don't you want to get all hot and wet? That's what you do in the hot tub."

Her nephew's innocent remark sent Laila's ears and cheeks into an inferno of blushing. Her siblings nearly choked on their laughter, while her mother pretended to be shocked. Esther had to ask twice what it was Henry said, and when Elijah finally managed to stop laughing long enough to tell her, the old lady's laughter was louder and longer than anyone else's.

Through it all, Hal sat stoically, a fixed grin on his face. Laila made shushing noises, which everyone ignored, and finally saw that nobody was going to stop teasing until she and Hal left. She stood and waited for Hal to do the same. He did so with a stiff dignity she thought meant he was offended.

But how could he be offended? Especially because of what he did for a living? It wasn't until they'd left the others behind in the dining area and had begun the long walk back to their room that Laila realized why Hal was moving like a toy with rusted gears. He was in pain.

She saw it in the shuffle of his feet and the way he clenched his hands at every crack or obstacle he had to maneuver around. She saw it in the beads of sweat lining up on his reddening brow. Every few minutes, his tongue snaked out to swipe across his thinned lips.

"You'd better take some ibuprofen right away," Laila said sympathetically as they finally reached the door to their room.

"No, thanks," Hal said rigidly. He leaned against the doorframe while she fumbled with the key, but couldn't quite get his body to relax enough to make the stance look casual. "I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"I'm...fine."

Laila shrugged and opened the door. It took her only a few minutes to change into her bathing suit, a demure tankini in a vivid shade of violet. She pulled on a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, and went out into the bedroom again.

Hal sat on the loveseat, one leg out of his jeans, but the other still inside. "I can't move."

Pity flooded her. "Let me help you."

He started to protest, but fell quiet as she knelt before him. Laila eased his legs out of the jeans, trying not to notice the firm muscles of his calves or the thick furring of gold-brown hair covering them. She peeled off his white athletic socks. Hal's feet, she didn't want to see, were large