The Harvest by Gail Gaymer Martin Read Free Book Online

her head,but he ignored her, moving past to snatch a pillow from the bed and heading across the room.
    He kicked off his shoes, adjusted the ottoman under his legs and leaned his head back against the pillow.
    Tess chuckled at the picture. His long legs and feet extended beyond the footstool and he looked miserable. “This is ridiculous, Ryan. I’m smaller. You take the bed.” She snapped on the bedside light and waited.
    “No gentleman allows a woman to sleep in a chair while he takes the bed.” He pushed the ottoman away from the chair to catch more of his leg. “This is fine. Comfortable.”
    His “comfortable” position looked awkward, but she stopped arguing and stepped across the room to bolt the door and turn off the larger light. When she returned to the bed, she loosened her belt, slipped off her shoes and stretched out on the top of the quilt before glancing at Ryan who had closed his eyes, his hands folded in his lap, his head tilted back.
    “Good night,” she said, and snapped off the light.
    She felt miserable without a toothbrush or clean change of clothing, but Ryan looked more pitiable twisted into the chair.
    Darkness shrouded the room, and Tess held her breath and listened to Ryan’s even breathing. He’d been true to his word. Not one sexual overture. Not even a joke about them being alone in the room.
    Feeling a chill settle over her, Tess rose and climbed beneath the blanket, but soon her thoughtsshifted to Ryan. Fearing he’d be cold, she stood again and pulled off the spread, then with moonlight streaming in from the edge of the window shade, she carried the quilt to his chair and draped it over him.
    “You didn’t have to do that,” he said.
    Hearing the nearness of his gentle voice sent her heart dipping to her stomach before fluttering upward to repose where it belonged. “It’s getting cold.”
    “Thanks, Tess.”
    In the moonlight through a chink between the wall and shade, she saw him tuck the quilt beneath his chin and nestle down again.
    Tess returned to the bed, but her mind felt as agitated as Ryan appeared hanging between the chair and ottoman.
    Under cover of night, Tess longed to open her heart and talk to Ryan about the things she’d struggled with for so many years. Though her family knew the details of Al’s death, she’d held back the greater fears that scarred her heart. But these past days, she’d let God’s presence and Ryan fill her thoughts, and the new hope helped to dislodge the anger and hurt that had adhered so tightly to her emotions.
    Rolling on her side, Tess gazed at Ryan’s outline in the darkness. His silhouette had grown familiar and comforting. Today, unknowingly, he’d proved himself honorable and trustworthy.
    The shadowed form shifted in the chair, and before Tess’s eyes, the chair and ottoman parted company while Ryan thumped to the floor between them.
    He released a loud “oomph” and struggled to rise, tangled in ottoman and quilt.
    Tess flung her legs from the bed and snapped on the light. She watched him free himself and settle his feet on the floor, an embarrassed look covering his face. She couldn’t help but laugh. Yet her mind and heart knew that he’d done everything tonight to show her respect. He’d honored her morals and beliefs. Beneath Tess’s chuckle her declaration rang with sincerity. “Enough, Ryan.”
    “I’m sorry, Tess.”
    “No,” she said, walking toward him and grabbing the spread from the floor. “Enough of this silliness.”
    She returned to the bed and threw the quilt to the other side.
    “Come here and get some rest.”

Chapter Six
    R yan faltered, squinting in the brightness and wondering if he were sleeping and this were all a dream. Since they’d agreed on the sleeping arrangements, he’d questioned how he’d get through the next ten hours holed up with Tess in the same hotel room. “You sure about this?”
    Tess patted the mattress. “I’m sure. If you wanted to ravage me, you’d have