Читать книгу James Bravo's Shotgun Bride - Christine Rimmer - Страница 8
ОглавлениеOnce he got help on the line, James gave his phone to Addie so she could talk to the dispatcher directly. He scooped up his keys and wallet and stuck them in his pocket. And then he waited, ready to help in any way he might be needed.
Addie pulled his phone away from her ear. “You can go.”
He didn’t budge. “Later. What can I do?”
She listened on the phone again as Levi lay there groaning. “Yes,” she said. “All right, yes.” She made soothing sounds at Levi. Then she looked at James again. “If you could maybe go up and get a pillow from his bed. His room’s off the front entry on the main floor. And get the aspirin from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom there?”
He was already on his way up the stairs. He found the pillow and the aspirin and ran them back down to her.
“Thank you,” she said. “And really. We’re okay. You just go ahead and go.”
Levi was clearly very far from okay. James pretended he hadn’t heard her and eased the pillow under Levi’s head.
Addie gave the old man an aspirin. “Put it under your tongue and let it dissolve there.” Levi grumbled out a few curse words, but he did what Addie told him to do. Addie shot another glance at James. “I mean it. Go on and get out of here.”
Again, he ignored her. Not that he blamed her for wanting him to go, after all that had happened. But no way was he leaving her alone right now. What if Levi didn’t make it? James would never forgive himself for running off and deserting them at a time like this, with Addie scared to death and Levi just lying there, sweating and moaning and clutching his chest as he tried to answer the questions that Addie relayed to him from the dispatcher.
At the last minute, as the ambulance siren wailed in the yard, James glanced up at the hole in the ceiling. He looked down at the rope abandoned on the rug at the base of the chair and the shotgun that had landed in front of the TV. All that was going to look pretty strange.
He couldn’t do much about the hole, but he did grab the shotgun. He ejected the remaining shells and gathered them up, including the spent casing, which he found right out in the open in front of the sofa. He put the gun and the shells in the closet under the stairs and tossed the rope in there, too. The straight chair, he moved to a spot against the wall.
“Thank you,” Addie said. He glanced over and saw she was watching him.
He shrugged. “There’s still the hole in the ceiling. But don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
“Hope so.”
“Just a little accident, that’s all.”
She pressed those fine lips together, her eyes full of fear for her grandpa. “Would you go up and show them down here?”
“You bet.” He ran up the stairs and greeted the med techs. “Roberta,” he said. “Sal.” They were local people and he’d known them all his life.
Sal asked, “Where is he?”
“In the basement. This way...”
Roberta and Sal were pros. In no time, they had Levi on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face and an IV in his arm. James helped them get Levi up the stairs. As they put him in the ambulance, Addie ran back inside to grab her purse and lock up. Her sweet-natured chocolate Labrador retriever, Moose, followed after her, whining with concern. Addie told the dog to stay. With another worried whine, Moose trotted to the porch and dropped to his haunches. Addie climbed in the back of the ambulance with her grandfather and Roberta.
Sal went around and got in behind the wheel. James trailed after him.
“Who blew the hole in the kitchen floor?” Sal asked out the open driver’s window as he started the engine.
“Levi was cleaning his shotgun.”
Sal just shook his head. “You’ve got blood on your collar.”
“It’s nothing. You taking him to Justice Creek General?”
With a nod, Sal put it in gear.
A moment later, James stood there alone in the dirt yard a few feet from Levi’s pre-WWII green Ford pickup, which had no doubt been used to kidnap him. Overhead, the sun beamed down. Not a cloud in the sky. It wasn’t at all the kind of day a man expected to be kidnapped on. Gently, he probed the goose egg on the back of his head. It was going to be fine. He was going to be fine.
Levi, though?
Hard to say.
And what about Addie, all on her own at Justice Creek General, waiting to hear if her granddad would make it or not? At a time like this, a woman should have family around her. Her half sister, Carmen, would come from Wyoming. But how long would it take for Carmen to arrive?
He just didn’t like to think of Addie sitting in a hospital waiting room all alone.
As the ambulance disappeared around the first turn in the long driveway that led to the road, James took off toward the barn.
A couple of the horses Addie boarded watched him with mild interest as he jumped the fence into the horse pasture and ran until he got to the fence on the far side. He jumped that, too, and kept on running. Fifteen minutes after leaving Addie’s front yard, he reached his quad cab, which was parked in front of his nearly finished new house. He had a bad cramp in his side and he had to walk in circles catching his breath, now and then bending over, sucking in air like a drowning man.
There was blood on his tan boots—not much, just a few drops. He pictured old Levi, hitting him on the head and then dragging him to that green Ford truck of his—and not only to the truck, but then out of the truck, into the house at Red Hill and down to the basement. No wonder the old fool had a heart attack.
As soon as his breath evened out a little, James dug his keys from his pocket and got in his quad cab. He checked his shirt collar in the sunscreen mirror. The blood wasn’t that bad and the bump hardly hurt at all anymore.
He started the pickup and peeled out of there.
* * *
Addie needed to throw up. She needed to do that way too much lately. Right now, however, was not a convenient time. She sat in the molded plastic chair in the ER waiting room and pressed her hands over her mouth as she resolutely willed the contents of her stomach to stay down.
She had James’s phone in her purse. In her frantic scramble to get in the ambulance with Levi, she hadn’t thought to give the phone back. And then she’d clutched it like a lifeline all the way to the hospital. She’d only stuck it in her purse to free her hands when the reception clerk had given her all those forms to fill out.
Addie sucked in a slow breath and let it out even slower. Oh, dear Lord, please. Let PawPaw pull through this and let me not throw up now. Everything had happened way too fast. Her mind—and her poor stomach—was still struggling to catch up.
Her own cell phone was in her purse, too. She’d barely remembered to grab it off the front hall table before racing out the door. She needed to get it out and call Carmen in Laramie. But the nurse had said Levi wouldn’t be in the ER for long. They would evaluate his condition and move him over to cardiac care for the next step. Addie was kind of waiting to find out what, exactly, the next step might be so that she could share it with her sister when she broke the terrifying news.
A door opened across the room. The doctor she’d talked to earlier emerged and came toward her.
Addie jumped to her feet, swallowed hard to keep from vomiting all over her boots and demanded, “My grandfather. Is he...?” Somehow she couldn’t quite make herself ask the whole dangerous question.
“He’s all right for now.” The doctor, a tall, thin woman with straight brown hair, spoke to her soothingly. “We’ve done a series of X-rays and given him medications to stabilize him.”
“Stabilize him,” Addie repeated idiotically. “Is that good? That’s good, right?”
“Yes. But his X-rays show that he’s got more than one artery blocked. He’s going to need emergency open-heart surgery. We want to airlift him to Denver, to St. Anne’s Memorial. It’s a Level-One trauma center and they will be fully equipped to give him the specialized care that he needs.”
Her head spun. Denver. Open-heart surgery. How could this be happening? From the moment she’d caught sight of James Bravo tied to a chair in the basement at Red Hill, nothing had seemed real. “But...he’s never been sick a day in his life.”
The doctor spoke gently, “It happens like this sometimes. That’s why they call heart disease the silent killer. Too often, you only know you’ve got a problem when you have a heart attack—but I promise we’re doing everything we can to get him the best care there is. You got him here quickly and that’s a large part of the battle. His chances are good.”
Good. His chances were good. Was the doctor just saying that or was it really true? Addie sucked in air slowly and ordered her queasy stomach to settle down. “Can I see my grandfather, please?”
“Of course you can. This way.”
* * *
In the curtained-off cubicle, Addie kissed Levi’s pale, wrinkled cheek and smoothed his wiry white hair and whispered, as much to reassure herself as to comfort him, “PawPaw, I promise you, everything is going to be fine. You’ll be on the mend before you know it.”
Levi only groaned and demanded in a rough whisper, “Where’s James?”
That made her long to start yelling at him again. But he looked so small and shrunken lying there, hooked up to an IV and a bunch of machines that monitored every breath he took, every beat of his overstressed heart. Yelling at him would have to wait until he was better.
Because he would get better. He had to get better. The alternative was simply unthinkable.
Right now nothing could be allowed to upset him. So she lied through her teeth. “James is out in front waiting to hear how you’re doing.”
“Good.” Levi barely mouthed the word. “Good...” And then, with a long, tired sigh, he shut his eyes.
Addie bent close to him. “I love you, PawPaw.” She kissed him and had to close her mind against the flood of tender images. Her mom had died having her and she’d never known her dad. All her memories of growing up, he was there for her, and for Carmen. He was their mom and their dad, all rolled into one cantankerous, dependable, annoyingly lovable package.
She could not—would not—lose him now.
A nurse pushed back the curtain and announced, “The critical-care helicopter has arrived. We need to get your grandfather on his way now.”
“Can I ride with him?”
The nurse explained gently that there just wasn’t room.
About then, Addie realized her pickup was back at the ranch. She’d have to call someone to give her a ride home so she could get herself to Denver. And what about the horses? She had to find someone to look after them at least until tomorrow. And she still really needed to call Carmen immediately.
She thanked the nurse, kissed her grandpa one more time and hustled back out to the waiting room, where the clerk had more paperwork waiting for her to fill out. She took the clipboard the clerk passed her through the reception window, reclaimed her seat and got to work filling in the blanks and signing her name repeatedly, simultaneously praying that Levi was going to pull through.
At least they had the best health coverage money could buy now. Brandon had seen to that months ago. When she agreed to have the baby, he’d set up a fund that would pay thirty years’ worth of premiums for her and the child. At the time, she’d argued that she had Affordable Care and that would be plenty. But he’d insisted that she should have the very best—and that the fund would be set up to cover Levi, too, and any children she ever had.
“Everybody gets sick at some point,” Brandon had reminded her softly, a hard truth that he knew all too intimately. “Everybody needs health care at some point. When that happens for you, for the baby or for Levi, you don’t need to be worrying about how to pay your share of the hospital bill.”
Thank God for Brandon.
Tears searing the back of her throat, Addie signed the last form, got up and passed the clipboard through the window to the clerk. The clerk handed back a couple of forms and her insurance card. She jammed all that in her purse and was pulling out her phone to call her half sister when James Bravo pushed through the emergency room doors.
He came right for her, so big and solid and capable-looking, still wearing the same jeans and chambray shirt with blood on the collar that he’d been wearing when she found him tied up in the basement an hour before. Those blue eyes with the dark rims around the iris were full of concern. “How’re you holding up?”
She wanted to lean on him, to have him put his big arms around her and promise her that everything would work out fine. But what gave her the right to go leaning on him? She didn’t get it. It was...something he did to her. As if he were a magnet and she were a paper clip. Every time she saw the guy, she felt like just...falling into him, plastering herself against him. She didn’t understand it, felt nothing but suspicious of it, of her own powerful attraction to him.
And what made it all even worse was that she seemed to feel he was magnetized to her, too.
Addie didn’t have time for indulging in the feelings he stirred in her. She completely distrusted feelings like those and she knew she was right to distrust them. Really, why shouldn’t she reject all that craziness that happened between men and women?
Her dad ran off, vanished before she was born, never to be seen or heard from again, just as her sister’s dad had done before that, leaving their mother single, pregnant and brokenhearted both times—or so her grandpa always said. Addie had never been able to ask her mom about it. Hannah Kenwright had died giving her life.
So yeah, Addie was cynical about romantic love. And every time she’d tried it, she’d grown only more cynical. Yes, all right. Love had worked out fine for her sister. Still, Addie didn’t trust it. To her, romance and all that just seemed like a really stupid and dangerous thing.
And it wasn’t as if she hadn’t given it her best shot. Three times. In high school and then again when she was twenty-one and finally with a bull rider she’d met at the county rodeo. Her high school love had married someone else and her second forever guy had dumped her flat. The bull rider had dumped her, too, the morning after their first night together. For her, same as for her mother, love had not lasted.
And now she had a baby on the way. And her grandfather to care for. And Red Hill and her horses and a side business she loved. It was enough. She didn’t need the human magnet that was James Bravo, thank you very much.
He asked again if she was okay.
“I’m fine,” she lied and plastered on a smile. “It’s all taken care of. Before he died, Brandon saw to it that we have the kind of insurance that covers everything, no deductibles and no co-pays. So money is no worry. Everything is going to be okay.”
He didn’t buy that lie. She could see that in those gorgeous eyes of his. But he didn’t call her on it. He only asked, “How’s Levi?”
“They have him stabilized, they said, and they’re flying him to St. Anne’s Memorial in Denver for surgery.” She dropped her phone in her purse yet again and pulled his out. It was one of those fancy android phones with all the bells and whistles. “I’m sorry. I forgot to give this back to you.” She shoved it at him.
He took it. “No problem.”
“Thank you. For everything, up to and including not having my granddad thrown in jail.”
A smile twitched at the corner of his handsome mouth. “You’re welcome.”
She was just trying to figure out how to tell him gently to get lost, when he continued, “So you need to get to Denver? Come on, I’ll drive you.”
And then, with no warning, he touched her.
He wrapped his big, warm fingers around her bare arm right below the short sleeve of her T-shirt, causing a sudden hot havoc of sensation, like little fireworks exploding in a line, up to her shoulder, across to the base of her throat and then straight down to the center of her.
She stood stock-still, gaping up at him, thinking, Just tell him that you’ll manage. Just tell him to let go and leave.
“Let me drive you.” He said it low. Intensely. As if he knew what she was thinking and wouldn’t give up until he’d gone and changed her mind.
She demanded, “Don’t you have to be in court or something?”
He looked kind of amused—but in a serious and determined way. “Not today. Let me take you to Denver.”
She longed to refuse again. But the truth was she needed to get to St. Anne’s, and she needed to get there fast. As soon as PawPaw was safely through his surgery, she could figure out the rest.
James watched her face. He still held her arm and he smelled way too good. A little dusty, a little sweaty, with a faint hint of some manly aftershave still lingering even after all her grandpa had put him through. He demanded, “Have you called Carmen?”
“Not yet.”
“So it’s best to let me take you. You can make all the calls you need to make while we’re on the road.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, they were flying along the state highway on the way to I-25. She called Carmen.
At the sound of her sister’s voice, the damn tears started spurting again. “Carm?” she squeaked, all tight and wobbly, both at once.
And Carmen knew instantly that something was wrong. “Omigod, honey, what’s happened?”
James reached over in front of her and dropped open the glove box. He pulled out a box of tissues. Was there anything the man wasn’t ready for? She whipped out a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. He put the box back and withdrew his big, hard arm.
“Addie Anne. Honey, are you still there?”
“I’m here. I’m okay. It’s PawPaw.”
“Oh, no. Is he—”
“He had a heart attack, but he’s still alive.” At least, he was half an hour ago. She explained about the helicopter to St. Anne’s and the emergency surgery that would happen there.
“But...a heart attack? How...?”
Addie squeezed her eyes shut as she pictured James tied to that chair, Levi yelling and waving his shotgun, the hole he’d blown in the basement ceiling. “Long story.” Dear Lord. Was it ever! And Carmen didn’t know about the baby yet, either. “I’ll fill you in on everything later, promise. But...do you think you can come?”
“Of course I’ll come.”
Relief flooded through Addie. Times like this, a girl needed her big sister’s hand to hold. “I’m so glad.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. St. Anne’s, you said?”
“Yeah. I’ve got nothing but the name of the hospital at this point.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll find you. I can get family leave from work and figure it all out with Devin, see if his mom can come and stay with the kids.” Devin’s mother had moved to Laramie after her husband died. She’d wanted to be closer to her grandkids. “I’ll get everything arranged as fast as I can and then meet you there. Call my cell if...” Carmen faltered and then finished weakly, “If there’s any other news.”
“I will. Love you, Carm.”
“Love you, too...”
They said goodbye. Addie disconnected the call and sagged against the passenger window. Too much was happening. Losing Brandon followed by constant morning sickness had been more than enough for her to handle. She had simply not been prepared to deal with her crazy grandpa kidnapping James Bravo and then having a heart attack on top of the rest. Pressing a hand against her roiling belly, she dabbed at her eyes and willed James’s fancy quad cab to get there superfast.
* * *
At the hospital, they were sent straight to the surgery wing, where her grandpa was being prepped for bypass surgery. Addie dealt with yet more forms. James took a seat in the waiting room and Addie went in with the surgeon to look at images of Levi’s heart and listen to a description of the surgery to come.
James was waiting when she emerged. She knew the sweetest rush of gratitude, just to have him there. He was practically a stranger—or at least, no more than a casual friend—and she needed to remember that. Still, it meant so much to have someone waiting when she left the surgeon and his pictures of her grandpa’s blocked-up arteries. It meant the world to her not to have to do this alone.
At the sight of her, he got up and came for her. “Addie,” he said. “You’re dead white. You need to sit down.”
“I can’t... I don’t...” What was wrong with her words? Why wouldn’t they organize themselves into actual sentences?
“Come on now.” He reached out and drew her close, into his height and hardness and warmth. “It’s going to be all right.” She let herself sag against his solid strength. It felt way too good there, pressed tight to his side, his big arm banded around her.
But then her poor stomach started churning again. And this time, she couldn’t swallow hard enough or breathe slowly enough to settle it down. With a sharp cry, she pushed James away and ran for the ladies’ room.
At least it wasn’t far, a quick sprint across the waiting room. She shoved through the door and made for the first stall, knocking the stall door inward with the flat of her hand, flinging back the seat and bracing her palms on her thighs just in time. Everything started coming up as her long hair fell forward, getting in the way. She grabbed for it, trying to shove it back and keep her purse from dropping off her shoulder and spilling all over the floor, too.
And then, suddenly, there was James again, right there in the stall with her, gently gathering her hair and smoothing it back out of the way. God. How humiliating. And this was the ladies’ room. He shouldn’t even be in here.
“It’s okay, take it easy. You’re okay, okay...” He kept saying that, “You’re okay,” over and over in that deep, velvety voice of his. She didn’t feel okay, not in the least. But she was in no position to argue the point, with all her attention focused on the grim job of ejecting what was left of her lunch.
She gagged for what seemed like such a long, awful time. But then, finally, when there was nothing left inside her poor belly, the retching slowed and stopped. Panting, trying to even out her breathing, she waited to make sure there would be no surprises.
“Better?” he asked, still in that low, gentle, comforting voice.
Addie groaned and nodded. “Would you...?” Sentences. Whole sentences. “Go. I’ll be all right. Just...go on out. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. Uh, thank you. I’m sure.” She flushed away the mess and straightened with care, clutching her shoulder bag closer, physically unable to face him right then.
She felt him back from the stall, the warmth and size of him retreating. He said, “I’ll be right outside, if you need anything.”
“Thank you.” She stared, unblinking, at the tan wall above the toilet, willing him to go.
And at last, he did. She heard the door open and shut and instantly released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
Slowly, with another long sigh, she turned to confront the empty space behind her. On rubbery legs, she went to the sink and rinsed her face and her mouth. At least there were Tic Tacs in her purse. She ate four of them, sucking on them madly, grateful beyond measure for their sharp, minty taste. She brushed her hair and checked her T-shirt for spills. Really, she looked terrible, hollow-eyed and pasty-faced. But at least her stomach had stopped churning now that it was empty.
Note to self: Never eat again—and get out there and tell poor James that you are fine and he can go.
Smoothing her hair one last time and settling her purse strap firmly on her shoulder, she returned to the waiting room.
He was sitting across the room in the row of padded chairs, busy on his fancy phone. She got maybe two steps in his direction before he glanced up and saw her. He jumped to his feet, his handsome, square-jawed face so serious, his beautiful eyes darkened with concern.
For her.
Okay, he really was a good person. And he shouldn’t be so concerned about her. He should find himself a nice woman, one who didn’t have all her issues, one who believed in true love and forever. Clearly, the guy deserved a woman like that.
She marched right up to him and aimed her chin high. “You have been...amazing. I can’t thank you enough for everything. And my sister will be here before you know it, so there isn’t any need for you to—”
“Stop.” He actually put up a hand. And then he took her by the arm again, causing all those strange, heated sensations to pulse along her skin. “Sit down before you fall down.” He took her other arm, too, and then he turned her and carefully guided her down into the chair where he’d been sitting. The chair was warm from his body, and that felt both enormously comforting—and way too intimate, somehow.
Once he had her in the chair, he just stayed there, bent over her, his big hands gripping the chair arms, kind of holding her there, his face with its manly sprouting of five-o’clock shadow so close she could see the faint, white ridge of an old scar on the underside of his chin. It was a tiny scar, and she wondered where he might have gotten it.
She stared up at him, miserable, wishing for a little more gumption when she needed it. “It’s not right that you have to be here. It’s not fair, after...everything. Given the...situation. James, I’m taking total advantage of you and I hate that.”
“You’re not. Stop saying you are. I’m here because I want to be here.”
She laughed. It was a sad laugh, almost like a sob. “Having a great time, are you?”
“Wonderful.”
“Ha!”
He let go of the chair arms and rose to his height. “And you’ll feel better if you eat something.”
“Oh, no.” She pressed a hand to her belly, which still ached a little from the aftermath of losing everything that had been in it, including what felt like a good portion of her stomach lining. “Uh-uh. What I need is never, ever to eat again.”
“A little hot tea and some soda crackers. You should be able to keep that down. Then later, I’ll get you some soup.”
She glared up at him. “What I really hate...”
“Tell me.”
“...is that tea and soda crackers sound kind of good.”
His fine mouth twitched at the corners. “Sugar?”
“Yes, please. Two packets.”
“Don’t budge from that chair. I’ll be right back.”
* * *
Addie drank her tea and ate four packets of soda crackers. She felt better after that, and she told James so. He nodded approvingly as he munched on the turkey sandwich he’d brought back from the cafeteria along with her tea and crackers.
Actually, his sandwich looked kind of good, too. She tried not to stare at it longingly.
But the man missed nothing. He chuckled and held out the other half to her.
She should have refused it. It wasn’t right to take the guy’s food. He was probably starving. She knew she was. And just to prove it, her stomach rumbled.
“Take it,” he said, those blue eyes all twinkly and teasing. “I know where to get more.”
She did take it. Ate it all, too. And felt a whole lot better once she did.
A few minutes after she’d demolished half his sandwich, her cell rang. It was Carm, who said that her mother-in-law was staying with the kids and she and Devin were on the way.
“A couple of hours and we’re there,” Carmen promised. “How’s PawPaw?”
“In surgery, which is going to take at least three hours from what the surgeon said. When you get here, they’ll still be operating on him.”
“Anything you need?”
She longed for a toothbrush. And she still needed to find someone to take care of Moose and the horses back at the ranch. But she could call her neighbors herself. And she didn’t want her sister wasting her time stopping at a drugstore. “Just you. Just get here as fast as you can.” Carmen promised she would do exactly that and they said goodbye.
Addie got to work trying to find someone to look after the livestock. But the Fitzgeralds, who had twenty acres bordering Red Hill, were off visiting relatives in Southern California. And Grant Newsome, Levi’s longtime friend, had put his house and acreage up for sale and gone to Florida to live near his oldest daughter and her family.
She was trying to figure out who else she might try when James suggested, “How about Walker McKellan? He and his wife, my cousin Rory, would be happy to help. They’re not that far from Red Hill.” Walker and Rory lived at Walker’s guest ranch, the Bar N, which was maybe eight miles from the Red Hill ranch house.
Addie knew Walker, but not that well. He’d been more than a decade ahead of her in school. And Rory was an actual princess from some tiny country in Europe. Addie had met her just once and been impressed with how friendly and down-to-earth she was. “I hardly know them and I’m sure they’re busy and don’t have time to—”
“Stop,” James said again, in the same flat, dismissive tone he’d used on her when she tried to tell him to go. “I know them. And I know they’ll want to help. I’m calling them.” He had his phone out and ready.
“You stop,” she insisted, strongly enough that he quit scrolling through his contacts and looked at her with great patience. She added, “I said that I hardly know them and it doesn’t seem right to take advantage of them.”
“It’s not taking advantage. It’s just asking for help. And there’s nothing wrong with asking for help now and then, Addie.”
She didn’t really have a comeback ready for that one, so she settled for glaring daggers at him.
He gentled his tone. “Look. You’d do the same for them in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would, but—”
“So someday they’ll need you. And you’ll be there. And that’s good.”
By then, she didn’t know why she’d even tried to argue with him. “I bet you could sell an Eskimo a refrigerator,” she grumbled.
He shrugged. “Hey, with the way weather patterns are changing, an Eskimo might need one. Ah. Here we go.” He punched in the call.
Ten minutes later, she’d talked to both Walker and Rory and they were set to tend to the animals for as long as she needed them to. Walker said he’d take Moose back to the Bar-N. He even insisted she give him the phone numbers of the owners of the horses she boarded. He said he would call them personally and let them know what was happening, reassure them that their animals were being cared for and that if they needed anything, he would see that they got it.
Addie thanked Walker profusely.
He said essentially what James had said. “We should have joined forces years ago for times like this.”
When she hung up, she handed James back his phone. “I think I’m running out of ways to thank you.”
He didn’t miss a beat. “You can thank me by eating the soup I’m going to go get for you now. They have chicken noodle or New England clam chowder.”
“No clams. Please.”
“Chicken noodle it is, then.”
She dug in her purse for her wallet. But he was already up and headed for the elevators.
When he returned with the soup, he also brought sandwiches. Two of them—one roast beef, one ham, both with chips.
She took the soup and tried to give him a ten. He waved it away. She should insist he take the money, but so far, insisting wasn’t getting her anywhere with him.
So fine, then. She ate every last drop of that soup and half of his ham sandwich, too. Unfortunately, once the food was gone, there was nothing else to do but sit there and try to read the magazines strewn about the waiting room tables, try not to watch the second hand crawling around the face of the clock on the far wall, try not to think too hard about what might be happening down the long hallway beyond the automatic double doors.
Carmen and Devin arrived at a little after nine. Addie ran to her sister. Carmen grabbed her and they hugged each other tight. Then Carmen took her by the shoulders and held her a little away. Carmen was taller and thinner than Addie and her hair was dark brown, her eyes a warm hazel.
“Any news?” her sister asked.
Addie pressed her lips together and shook her head. “We’re still waiting to hear. I’m hoping it won’t be too long now.”
Devin, tall and lean with light blond hair, said, “Levi’s tough as old boots. He’ll pull through and be driving us all crazy again in no time.”
Addie turned to her brother-in-law. “I know you’re right.” He hugged her, too. “I can’t even tell you how glad I am you’re both here.” She wrapped an arm around each of them and turned for the row of chairs several feet away where James, on his feet now, was waiting.
Carmen leaned close and whispered, “Isn’t that one of the Bravo brothers?”
Addie stifled a tired sigh. “It’s James.”
“The lawyer, right, second of Sondra’s two sons?”
Addie nodded. “He was, um, there when PawPaw had the heart attack. He’s been wonderful,” she whispered back grimly, reminded again of all the news she needed to share with her sister. “I can’t get him to leave.”
“I heard that,” James said wryly. “Carmen, Devin. How have you been?” He held out his big hand.
Devin took it first, and then Carmen. Carmen said how grateful she was for his help. She assured him he could go now.
He just shook his head. “I can’t go now. I wouldn’t feel right. At least not until Levi’s through surgery.”
Carmen shot Addie a look and then turned to him again. “You and our grandfather are...friends?”
“Well, we’ve kind of formed a bond, I think you might say.”
Now Carmen glanced at Devin, who shrugged, then back to James and finally at Addie. “Okay. What is going on?”
Addie groaned. “Got a month, I’ll tell you everything.”
“I’m here and I’m listening,” Carmen replied.
Addie hardly knew where to start.
James got up. “I could use some coffee. Anybody else?”
Carmen piped right up. “I’ll take some.” She elbowed her husband. “Dev will go with you.”
“Uh. I will?” When Carmen elbowed him again, Devin caught on. “Sure. Great idea.”
“Tea?” Addie asked James, and then got uncomfortable all over again thinking how easily she’d started to depend on him.
“You got it—and maybe Devin and I will hang around the cafeteria for a while.” He gave her a look—one thick, dark eyebrow raised.
And she took his meaning. “Go ahead. Tell him,” she said. “Tell him everything you know. Believe me, he won’t be surprised.”
“My God,” murmured Carmen. “What is going on?” For that, she got another bewildered shrug from her husband.
James asked, “You sure?”
Addie nodded. “He has to know eventually anyway.”
So the men left. And Carmen said, “Okay. Tell me everything.”
Addie told all—from how she’d agreed to have Brandon’s baby, to the fact that she was now pregnant with said baby, to Levi snooping in her trash and finding the test stick and then kidnapping James just the way he’d done to Devin eight years ago. Carmen sat there with her mouth hanging open, as Addie went on to describe finding James and Levi in the basement and the shotgun going off, blowing a hole in the ceiling while Levi had a heart attack.
Finally, when the totally out-there story was told, Carmen hugged her again and told her she loved her and could hardly believe she was going to be an auntie.
Then came the questions. “If Brandon’s the father, why did PawPaw kidnap James?”
“He won’t believe it’s Brandon. He claims he’s seen the way James and I look at each other and he just knows there’s been a lot more than looking going on.”
Carmen was silent. Too silent.
Addie was forced to demand, “What is all this silence about, Carm?”
“Well, now, honey. I did see the way you and James looked at each other just now...”
“What are you talking about? I swear to you, James Bravo has never done more than shake my hand—at least not until today, when he put his arm around me to comfort me, held my hair while I threw up and then made me sit down when I tried to get him to leave.”
“But that’s just it, see?”
“No, I don’t see.”
“He seems very devoted. And I saw the blood on his collar.”
“I told you, PawPaw knocked him out, tied him to a chair in the basement and put a shotgun to his head. Because you know PawPaw. He thinks we live in some Wild West romance novel where it’s perfectly okay to hold a man at gunpoint in order to convince him to ‘do the right thing.’” She said that with air quotes.
Carm snickered and then quickly switched to a more sober expression. “And yet, even after all the abuse PawPaw heaped on the poor guy, James drives you to Denver and holds your hair while you hurl? He knows you’re having another man’s baby, but he brings you food and tea and insists he has to stay with you to make sure that your crazy old grandpa makes it through surgery?”
“Carm, it’s not like that. It’s just that he’s a good guy.”
“Beyond stellar, apparently.”
“Really, I hardly know him. We...well, we talk now and then.”
A sideways look from Carmen. “You talk.”
“Yeah. He’s bought land that borders Red Hill and he’s building a house there. I go by there a lot, working with the horses, you know?”
“Right...”
“Quit looking at me like that. Sometimes I stop is all. We visit. We talk about life and stuff—in general, I mean. Nothing all that personal.” Well, okay. Once, James had told her about his ex-wife. But as a rule, they kept it casual. She added, “And now and then, he drops by the ranch house. We sit out under the stars and chat.”
“Chat,” Carmen repeated, as though the simple word held a bunch of other meanings that Addie wasn’t admitting to.
“Yeah.” Addie straightened her shoulders. “Chat. Just chat. And that’s it. That’s all. I’ve never gone out with him. It’s casual and it’s only conversation and you couldn’t even really call us friends.”
Carmen patted her hand. “I’m only saying I’m not surprised that PawPaw jumped to conclusions.”
Addie batted off her sister’s touch. “It is Brandon’s baby. I have never even kissed James Bravo.”
Carmen put up both hands. “Okay, okay. I believe you.”
“Oh, gee. Thanks a bunch.” Addie pressed a hand to her stomach, which had started churning again.
Carmen hooked an arm around her shoulders and drew her close. “And I don’t want you upset.” She stroked Addie’s hair. It felt really good. Carmen was only two years older, but Addie had always looked up to her. When you grow up without a mom, a good big sister really helps. Carmen chided, “It’s bad for the baby, for you to get so upset.”
“No kidding.” Grudgingly, Addie leaned her head on her big sister’s shoulder.
“Just breathe and relax. We’re going to get through this. PawPaw is going to be fine—and here come the guys.”
Addie glanced up and saw that James and Devin had just come around the corner from the elevators. “I don’t like the way you say the guys. Like James is suddenly part of the family.”
“Honey, stop overreacting. It’s only going to make you want to throw up.”
Well, okay. That was true. And Carmen was right. They just needed to stay calm and support each other. There’d been more than enough drama today to last Addie a lifetime.
So she focused on speaking softly, on being grateful—for her sister and Devin. And yes, for James, too. He’d made a horrible time a lot less awful and she needed to remember how much she owed him.
She drank her tea and ate the toast James had brought her. Strangely enough, she’d kept more food down in the past few hours than she had in days. Yet another reason to be grateful to James.
When she finished her tea and toast, she realized she was completely exhausted. She leaned her head back against the wall behind her and closed her eyes just for a minute.
* * *
The next thing she knew, James was rubbing her arm, stroking her hair, whispering in her ear, “Addie, wake up. The doctor’s coming...”
With a sharp cry she sat bolt upright—and realized she’d been sound asleep, her head on James’s broad shoulder. The big clock on the far wall showed that over an hour had passed since she leaned back and closed her eyes.
And James was right.
Levi’s surgeon had emerged from the long hallway between the double doors and was coming right for them.
