“No, you wouldn’t have. You’d have had someone on your staff do it.” Lachlan’s head was pounding now that the meds had worn off completely. But as much as she wanted to piss her sister off more, she didn’t ask for something for the pain. She knew that the pain was making her snippy, but didn’t care all that much right now. “I don’t know why either of you bothered showing up here. It’s not like you give a shit what happens to me. It’s the baby you’re all worried about. Isn’t it?”
“Yes. I mean, it’s not like you getting hurt means all that much. You’re a grown woman. My grandchild has no one to protect him but you. And if you ask me, you’re doing a piss poor job of it.” Lachlan had enough and asked Dutch if she could rest for a few minutes. “You’re tossing us out of here? Oh Lachlan, you’re worse than a spoiled child. I’m going home if I can’t be in here with you to make sure you don’t do anything else stupid.”
“Then both of you, please go home.” Laying back on the bed, she felt the pull of the burn on her back. Not wanting to talk to them or have them say any more mean shit to her, she looked at Dutch. “How much longer before they put me under for this surgery? I’m beginning to see double, and my head is about to explode in pain.”
“Don’t be a big baby.”
She heard her sister talking to her mom about how much of a baby she was when Dutch told her that they were ready for her now. As she moved by her sister and mom, neither of them said anything to her. Not a “Good luck” or “I’ll be here when you return.”
It was just as well. She didn’t want them around her now, much less later. Soon she was in the elevator, Dutch walking along with her as someone else pushed her into the large opening.
“They’re not really ready for you, but I thought with them there, your blood pressure wouldn’t be in a good place.” Lachlan thanked him and started to cry. “Don’t do that, honey. I got your back. You just let them do their thing up there, and you’ll be just fine and dandy. You’ll have a nice story to tell your niece or nephew when it comes.”
“You’re the best, Dutch. Thank you for being there for me.” Dutch told her that he was her friend. “You really are.”
It wasn’t long before they were taking her into surgery. The surgeon told her what they were going to do and what concerned him. She tried to focus on what he was saying, but they’d given her something to relax her, and it was making her slightly ill. Something about a piece of the glass that she’d been hit with piercing her skull. That they were worried that she might have a few issues if it didn’t come out right. Or something like that. When they told her to count backward from one hundred, she got all the way to seventy before someone mentioned that she was awake. After that, there was nothing.
~*~
Dean worked until nearly noon before he decided to take a break. The solar panels were giving him fits. He thought it was because he wasn’t paying as much attention as he should have been, and had to keep taking them apart over and over. But he wanted to be home. With his son. He never knew that having a baby around could be so distracting. He looked over the side of the roof he was on when Heath yelled for him.
“You busy?” Heath didn’t have much of a sense of humor, so when he tried, everyone laughed. However, Dean wasn’t in the mood today. “I can see that you are. I need your help on something. It’s a car I was thinking of buying.”
“You have a car.” Dean started down the ladder, done anyway, and turned to look at his brother. “What sort of car are you planning on buying? To tell you the truth, Heath, I thought you were more of the type of person that would never buy something like a car until the one you had was nothing but dust and rust.”
“I’m sick of fixing this one. Not to mention, I want to start dating, and I can’t pick up women with my car looking like it’s as old as I am.” Dean pointed out that it was as old as he was. “Precisely. Anyway, I know that you and Bella just got new ones, and she let me drive hers a couple of days ago, and I really like it. But, I don’t want people to think that I can’t make decisions about a car on my own. People already think that I’m odd.”
“Heath, I’m sorry to break it to you, but you are odd.” Heath acted like he was going to punch him, and they danced around the yard for a few minutes. “I was just ready to call it quits anyway. I’m distracted today.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. You have this beautiful wife, a wonderfully adorable son, and you don’t want to be playing on your house anymore.” Using his own word, he told him that was it precisely. “But if you ask me, I think you’re doing a wonderful thing here. I can see the improvements here and what you’re doing with them. The panels alone should save you a bundle in costs over what you put into them. The gardens are ready for next spring, and you have the orchard all ready to go for long term usage as well.”
“Thanks. I didn’t think anyone had noticed.” They were walking to his new car when he remembered that Oakley was having his house redone. “Daniel has a crew working on it now, and they’re adding on something huge too. He figured out that two bedrooms wasn’t nearly enough for a family. I thought our house was really way too big, but it’s filling up nicely. I love having Fletcher around. He’s not doing too bad now. And he and Grandda are having a good time together too.”
“I saw that about Oakley. He was putting off working on it so much that I didn’t think he was ever going to finish it. I did it the right way, if you ask me. Buying a used trailer to put on the land while mine is being built. I think I’m saving a ton of money, too, because of the way I’m right there helping.” Dean had discovered something else while working on his home, and asked Heath about it. “Yes, I think I am having fun. You’re not, but I am. I only get to work on the weekends, but the contractor leaves me things that I can do after his crew leaves for the day. I’ve learned a great deal too. Also, did I tell you that Bella is going to do all the landscaping around my house? She said that at the end of each season, she has a lot of leftover plants and such. She said that I could have what I wanted.”
“She’s been having our yard worked on too. Bella is coming around about the house too. I don’t know what will happen to it when her dad has to have more long-term care, but for now, she’s having lots of good memories made. The entire upper part of the house is being gutted too.” Heath told him that he didn’t think he could stand the house either, after what had happened. “I think it helps her to have it taken to the studs then redone. Fewer bad memories. She’s having it done completely different too. Lots of windows put in, and shelving. I think she’s going to use it for a playroom for the kids. A place where they can go when it’s too wet or cold to go outside.”
“What does happen to the house after Fletcher is worse? I mean, he’s taken care of it, correct?” Dean said that he had, but that no one wanted to talk about it. “I don’t blame them on that. I don’t think I could have taken it had that been Mom. You know, getting worse daily and sometimes not knowing me. I think it would be hardest to have her staring at me and not having any idea who I was.”
“He doesn’t have those sorts of spells often, but when he does, he’s getting calm about it. Before he’d get very upset and try to hurt someone. But now he just sits and rocks, looking around until he comes back. Bella and the doctor thinks that it has something to do with Dru. I don’t know.” He looked at his brother when he got into Dean’s car. “I don’t think this is you, little brother. I mean, I’m tall, but you’re a couple of inches taller. Your head is hitting the top of the thing.”
They joked around about the car and what Heath wanted as they made their way into Zanesville. There were plenty of dealerships there that they were going to have a look at. That was where he and Bella had gotten their cars. Pulling into the first one, they walked around the lot, acting like kids hiding from the salesmen.
By the time he’d picked out what he wanted, a nice new crossover, and he’d made arrangements to have it ready in the
morning, they decided to have dinner. As they were waiting on their food, Dean thought about how much he needed this. Just a break from everything. He told Heath that.
“To be honest with you, Bella sent me over to talk to you. I did need a car, but I didn’t need to get it today. She said you’d been bitching about the house, and she was sure you needed to walk away for a bit.” Dean told him that he had a smart wife. “You do. I think what you’re doing, even though you have a home already, is great. There needs to be more houses built like the one you’re working on.”
“It’s expensive.” Heath said initially it was, but long term, it’s great. “People might not see the whole picture. I mean, even if I were to show people how it works out to be a cheaper price by having this or that done to their home, it’s hard to get over how much it’s going to cost initially. Harris has been able to reap the benefits of her home because it was built a long time ago. She has an orchard and water lines in. Having to do it now is a little overwhelming. I’m going to finish it. Shep said he thought that schools and other environmentally conscious people would enjoy looking the changes over.”
They didn’t leave right after they were finished eating. Being a Wednesday, the restaurant wasn’t that busy. They sat and talked about a great many things while the world around them seemed to take a breather too. Dean couldn’t remember the last time he’d sat and had a long talk with any of his family, and realized that meant that he had to do it more often.
They were just about ready to leave when Shep came into the restaurant. Dean was blown away by the fact that he knew where to come. He told them that he’d seen his car outside the place, and had decided to come in to see what they were up to.
“Nothing. Just came into town to get Heath a car. What are you doing?” Shep explained to him about a friend of a friend of Harris, and how she was going to go there and straighten out some asses. “I take it, then, that it’s not going to be a social call.”
“Hardly. This guy, his name is Dutch Jasper, called about an hour ago telling her that a friend of his is being fucked with. His words, not mine. Anyway, he asked that Harris come out and see what she could do to make sure that the hospital bills are taken care of. I guess a daughter of the owner of the restaurant where she works threw a dinner or something at the cook, and she had to have surgery. I didn’t get it all, because you know how Harris can be when she thinks someone is being fucked over. So she’s going to Cleveland to figure out what is going on.” The waitress asked if Shep wanted anything to eat. “No, thanks. I’m just hanging out with my brothers.”
They ended up staying for another hour. The staff was very nice to them, bringing drinks and a salad for Shep. As they were leaving, he noticed that Shep left a huge tip for the staff, which, when added to his and Heath’s, made the tip a couple of hundred dollars. It appeared that Shep was getting better at being rich, Dean thought.
As he and Heath were headed home, they talked about Harris helping out her friend. “You know what’s going to happen, don’t you? Harris is going to go there, meet up with this cook, and bring her home to meet one of you guys to be her mate. Then there is going to be a huge fight with the restaurant owner, and she’ll need protecting.”
Heath shook his head. “Nope. Harris will go there and bring her back, but she’s going to be ten times the bitch that Harris is, and we’ll just stand back and let her take care of us. I think that with the way things are going, that’s what really will happen.” They both laughed hard about it. “Who do you think it will be? Because as surely as I’m sitting here, I know that you’re right on that part.”
“I have no idea now. I mean, it could just be someone that knows someone, and none of you will be mated. I mean, for all we know, it might be decades before you find someone to fall in love with you.” Heath punched him in the arm. “Honestly, I can’t think of anything better that I’d like to happen to you guys. Having a mate and a child is about the best thing that has ever, in all my life, happened to me. I’d highly recommend it.”
Dropping his brother off at the model house, Dean drove home. Bella was there with his grandda and her dad, rocking on the front porch with Dru. Dean amended his thoughts. No, having this to come home to nightly was positively the best thing that had ever happened to him. Hands down.
Before You Go…
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Kathi Barton, a winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio, with her husband, Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband, who is an artist and potter.
Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance, with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi on line and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. [email protected].
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Dean: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (Marshall's Shadow Book 2) Page 16