Lizzie wondered about Katie and how she was feeling, and her good mood slid away. If she thought she was helpless, she could only imagine how things were in Katie's situation. Lying there in that hospital bed unconscious. Totally dependent on everyone for everything, not being able to tell anyone you wanted or needed something. The whole situation had her, once again, feeling frustrated and helpless. Looking on the bright side at least Jake kept her from being bored. But only until he had to get back to work.
39
Jake
Lizzie sighed. "Thanks."
"Anytime." He paused, taking in the stitches and bruising along Lizzie's forehead and he bit back a curse. "You need anything else? Amy ran back up to the main house for her laptop, so for the time being I'm your helper."
"No, I'm fine. I was just going to get out of bed and walk around the house a little bit. Maybe sit on the front porch and get some sun."
He heard the underlying annoyance in her voice but had no clue what brought it on. "Where's Bailey?"
"Ryan stopped by earlier and took pity on him. Said he needed to run and get some exercise, so he took Bailey with him when he went to work. Of course, Bailey jumped at the chance to get outside."
"I see. Well, why don't you put on your robe, Darlin', and I'll sit with you on the porch for a while."
"Don't you have work to do today?" Lizzie said, her tone irritable and maybe even slightly accusing.
Wow. Her moods were all over the place. Laughing Lizzie had been there when he came in, then it was as if someone flipped a switch and Cranky Lizzie took over.
Heck yeah, he had work to do. He was so far behind on the paperwork for the ranch he wasn't sure he'd ever catch up, but she was more important than work.
He shrugged. "I've got extra help today." One of the kids in town had come by with an offer to help with the horses while he helped Lizzie.
"Oh." She reached for her robe, and carefully pulled it over her injured arm. The fabric caught on the waterproof cast. She gave it a yank and when it didn't give, yanked again. She huffed.
He took a step forward. "Need some help?"
Her, "I've got it," about bit his head off.
He watched her struggle with the fabric for a couple seconds before reaching over to help. His fingers tangled with hers. Her hand smacked at his.
"I told you I have it."
He freed the bit of fabric and tugged the sleeve up. "I know you did, but I thought I'd help anyway."
She took a step away from him, shoving her good arm into her sleeve. "I don't need your help."
She flailed behind her for the sash.
Obviously, she did, and whether she liked it or not he was going to give it to her. He tugged the robe up over her shoulders then tied the sash at her waist.
"There. All set."
She sent him a squinty-eyed glare. "Thank you."
"No problem." He slung an arm around her waist. "Let's go."
"I can make it on my own."
"I'm just trying to help, Lizzie. Why not take it if it's there?"
"Because."
When he just raised a brow at her whiny tone, she slumped back down on the bed, sliding out of his grasp, with an exasperated sigh. Her cheeks now rosy red with anger and frustration, but he'd be damned if he could figure out why.
"What's the problem, Lizzie?"
"There is no problem."
"From your tone, I can tell you've got a problem."
"What tone might that be?"
"That tone right there."
He looked around. On the bed sat the remote to the TV, a stack of books, and a few magazines. It all looked entertaining, but how much reading and TV could a person stand before they went stir crazy?
"You bored, Lizzie?"
"Now why would I be bored? I'm getting waited on hand and foot, I've got a huge stack of reading material and the TV to keep me entertained. How could I possibly be bored?"
They were back to sarcasm, were they? We'll he'd just have to find something for her to do to keep her mind occupied and off of Katie and whatever else was eating at her. He had something.
"Come with me." He grabbed her good hand and when she rose, he slipped his arm around her waist. When she started to protest, he promptly cut her off. "Be quiet. Not one single word." She huffed out an angry breath, which he ignored, and led her to his office.
"What are we doing in here?"
"Didn't I ask you to be quiet?"
"No, you ordered me to be quiet."
"That's right. Now be quiet." He pulled her to the chair behind his desk and motioned for her to sit. He knew if her head weren't hurting, she'd have flopped indignantly into it, but as it were, she sat gingerly on the edge.
He turned and grabbed a shoe box from the top of the file cabinet and walked to the other side of the desk. Her eyes still glittered with anger and resentment at her situation, but what flitted around the edges was exactly what he was hoping for. Curiosity.
He dumped the contents of the shoe box out onto the desk and confusion replaced both the anger and curiosity. She watched paper after paper drift on top of one another, until a heap settled before her on the desk.
"What is this?"
"Take a look."
She lifted a scrap of paper and frowned. "A receipt?"
"Yep."
"Are all these receipts?" The horror in her voice made him want to laugh.
"Receipts and invoices."
"And what am I supposed to do with them?"
"You've got two choices. You can leave them right where they are and ignore them, or you can log them into the computer. I promise you, you won't be bored anymore."
"Wait a minute. You want me to do your work for you?"
"Anything to get rid of your boredom and pissy attitude."
"Pissy? I'll give you pissy." She looked down at the papers in front of her. "And what the hell kind of filing system is this anyway?" She picked up one receipt, looked at it, then picked up another receipt. After a few minutes she began to organize them into piles. She gave him a look of disgust and horror. "You are a living, breathing accountant's worst nightmare."
He chuckled.
"What are you laughing at? There is nothing funny about this situation. Lord knows how your entries look." She visibly shuddered as she picked up one unrecorded receipt after another.
After a few minutes she looked up to find him still standing before the desk. "And why are you just standing there? Go get me my reading glasses from the bedside table and a Diet Coke. It looks like I'll be here a while. Hell, it could take me days or even weeks to straighten out this mess."
He left the room on a stream of muttered profanities he was sure he had never heard strung together quite so adorably. He smiled, entertained and relieved.
When he'd found Lizzie slumped on the bed, looking defeated and lost, he'd wanted to do something, anything, to get that look off her face. Then, when her sarcasm had shown through, he knew she was frustrated as well. Frustrated and pissed off at her situation and her helplessness. Now he was grateful for the fact he was behind on his paperwork. Getting his books in order would give her something to keep her mind occupied for a little while.
He grabbed her glasses from the bedside table and headed to the kitchen for Lizzie's Diet Coke. Amy walked in just as he closed the refrigerator door.
"Hey, Ames."
"Hey. What are you doing here?"
"Came to check on Lizzie. It wasn't pretty."
Amy shrugged. "She's injured, Jake, and she can't do anything for herself. What do you expect from a woman who's used to self-reliance?"
"Well, it should be good now. She's in the office working on the books."
"What?!" His sister was nothing short of horrified. "You have her working when she's recovering from a concussion? And with a broken arm? Jacob Leonard Kramer, you should be ashamed of yourself!"
He tsked. "You say that now. Come with me and see for yourself why what I did is a good thing."
&nb
sp; They walked silently to the office where the computer hummed, and Lizzie sorted through receipts. Observing her from the doorway, Amy's jaw dropped, then widened into a smile that stretched across her face. Lizzie must have heard them because she turned and glared at Jake.
"What are you waiting for? Get over here and give me my glasses so I can enter these numbers into your ledgers. And I am definitely going to need the caffeine in that soda to keep me going while I do it. Damn pain pills make me drowsy."
He held her glasses out and she snatched them from his hand and hastily put them on. Lizzie turned to Amy. "I don't know how your brother runs a successful ranch with this mess for record keeping. It's obscene is what it is."
Amy tried swallow her smile but ended up smirking anyway. "I can only imagine. I'm sure you'll be able to clean it all up, won't you, Lizzie?"
"I'll do my best, but I'm not making any promises."
She laughed and Jake guessed it was because Lizzie wasn't paying any attention to them, but rather going through and organizing receipts. She saw exactly what he did—rather than sulking, Lizzie was now a woman on a mission. Amy turned into his arms and hugged him.
"You found just what she needed. You really are perfect for her."
His sister's assessment pleased him. Now if only he could convince Lizzie of that. "Let's let the 'master' work her magic."
40
Lizzie
Three days later she was still organizing and inputting invoices and receipts from Jake's disaster of a shoe box. She shook her head. Though she had been joking when she initially said it, she now knew for fact that he was an accountant's worst nightmare. He had invoices, not entered or filed, from three weeks prior, and with a ranch the size of Jake's, that added up to quite a large number. She was down to the last two invoices to input to the computer program and file.
Satisfaction washed over her as she slid the last receipt into its file folder. She glanced around Jake's office and figured she better look around for any stray invoices. The man had papers upon papers but at least those were organized in file trays and folders. She looked through the folders on top of the file cabinet and came up empty. Maybe he wasn't as unorganized as she thought.
She went over to the desk and flipped through a few of the folders there. No receipts. To her chagrin, she was disappointed. She had enjoyed throwing herself into the work. It had stopped her from dwelling on how she could work things out so she could stay with Jake, but more importantly it had kept her distracted from thoughts of Katie. She hadn't gone to see Katie yet, not once. She couldn't bring herself to face her best friend in that condition, but today Jake hadn't asked her if she wanted to go but rather firmly told her they were going to the hospital and to be ready.
All she could think was that it wasn't fair. Katie was lying in that hospital bed fighting for her life, while Lizzie sat here feeling pretty good. She hadn't needed the pain medication for a day or so and her head had stopped throbbing. She only had the occasional ache in her arm.
Lizzie sighed as she rifled through a folder from Jake's breeding program and then one regarding his feeding program. As she read on, she was a little surprised to see just how much work went into the programs Jake had implemented on the Rocking K. From the profit margins noted, it was clear that Jake employed a business savvy that had turned his ranch into quite a success. Lizzie smiled as pride filled her.
She picked up the last file from the bin, noting it had her name on it. What could Jake possibly be doing with a file on her? She paused, knowing it was wrong to go through his personal stuff but if it was about her, she wanted to know just exactly what was in there.
She opened the folder and started to read. She saw her grade point average and a list of her friends and acquaintances from college. The next page noted information pertaining to her volunteer work at the animal shelter, mainly what she did there and who she worked with. She continued through all the history Jake had accumulated about her, fascinated but unperturbed. Until the last bit of information. Very recent information that seriously ticked her off.
41
Jake
As Jake dismounted the horse, he his thoughts strayed to Lizzie once again. This morning when he had left her, she was in his office sitting at his desk working on his books, and he got a lump in his throat at the rightness of the situation. She was where she belonged. With him, in their house, in his bed, in each other's arms.
As he approached the barn, Logan and Ryan stepped into the sunlight.
"The feed came earlier and it's all in storage." Logan handed Jake the invoice.
"Thanks. Would you mind cooling down Charm? I'm running behind and I've gotta get a shower before I take Lizzie to the hospital to visit with Katie."
"No problem." Logan took the reins from Jake. "How's she doing?"
"Who? Lizzie or Katie?"
"Either. Both."
"Katie's still unconscious but fighting. The internal damage she suffered was so bad that they had a hell of a time stopping the bleeding."
"Man. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea."
"Well, it gets even worse. They lost Katie on the table for a few minutes but brought her back. Lizzie's feeling responsible for the whole damn situation."
"Someone ran her off the road. How is that her fault?"
"Exactly my point but try rationalizing that to Lizzie. She keeps dwelling on the 'what ifs.' She's going through a hell of a time right now and I'm doing all I can to help but even that doesn't seem to be enough."
Ryan lightly slapped Jake on the shoulder as Logan turned to lead the horse to the corral. "I'm sure you're doing exactly what she needs, big brother."
Jake nodded. "Thanks, but I'm not so sure. She hasn't been to the hospital yet. She's always coming up with an excuse why she can't go, but today I told her we're going." He had never been one to second guess himself or feel insecure, but when it came to helping Lizzie get through this, his confidence had long fizzled out.
Ryan clamped a hand on Jake's shoulder. "You're doing the right thing. If forcing her to face Katie in the hospital is what it takes, do it. She can't hide forever."
"My thoughts exactly." Jake took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair.
"Did you hear from Sheriff Brooks?"
Jake put his hat back on his head. "Yeah, he called last night. The paint traces found on Lizzie's SUV matched a metallic red 2020 Chevrolet Silverado."
"Well, that's something at least. Pretty cool how they get that detailed of information from just a few paint scrapings, don't ya think, bro?"
"It was a custom paint job, so it made things easier for them. Now they're running a local search and then expanding from there."
Ryan tucked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. "Then they should find that asshole pretty quickly."
"I hope so. Whoever did this is gonna pay. He better just pray the sheriff finds him before I do."
"I'm with you on that. Lizzie and Katie are good people. I don't know who would want to hurt them. I hope they catch the bastard soon."
"You and me both, brother. You and me both."
Jake turned and headed for his truck. He needed to hurry if he was going to get Lizzie to the hospital before visiting hours ended, and he needed Lizzie to see Katie. To see and hear that she was improving daily even though she hadn't woken up yet. It was the only thing he could give Lizzie to reassure her and make her realize none of what was going on was her fault.
42
Lizzie
When they arrived at the hospital, Brand and Mrs. Maguire were standing outside Katie's room talking softly. Lizzie quickened her pace. When she reached Brand, she gave him a hug, careful not to clobber him with her arm cast. Then she turned and embraced Mrs. Maguire.
"How is she?"
Brand spoke first. "Vitals are stable and her color is good."
The way he spoke, so cautiously and factually gave away the fact that he was holding something back. Lizzie inwardly screamed in frustration at h
is unwillingness to tell her the whole truth. "But?"
Mrs. Maguire shook her head. "No change."
"I don't understand it. She should be awake by now." She stepped to the nurse's station. "Is it alright if I go in?"
"Sure, honey. I'll come get you when fifteen minutes are up."
"Thanks."
Jake pulled Lizzie into his arms. "Want me to come with you, baby?"
She shook her head. "I think I better go alone."
Jake stepped back and gave her a quick kiss before she turned, poised yet hesitant to enter Katie's room.
"Okay. I'll be right out here if you need me."
She squeezed his hand, then took the first step toward her best friend. Then another. Nausea roiled in her stomach. As she approached Katie lying in the hospital bed, she noticed her skin wasn't as pale as she thought it would be. There was a slight rosy hue on her cheeks. That had to be a good sign, right?
She pulled the chair close to the bed and sat down. She looked at her best friend. IV's ran in one arm, a heart monitor blipped in the background, and all kinds of tubes and wires ran to various machines.
She reached for Katie's hand, careful not to disturb anything as she put both hands around Katie's one. It was warm, so very warm. Why wasn't she waking up? Lizzie wasn't sure what to say. She could try begging, pleading, and brow beating, but where should she start? She leaned her forehead against their joined palms and took a deep breath.
She raised her head and looked at Katie. She needed to let her know she was here. Maybe she knew just from her touch, but she needed to be sure that Katie knew she'd never, ever give up on her.
When Petals Fall: A Cowboy, Second Chance Romantic Suspense (Chance Creek Book 1) Page 21