She could have gotten a freezer with it, as well, but she’d wanted smaller than the company offered. Since she already had a large freezer in the garage, she could store excess food there and have more available space in the stand.
With sliding windows on the front for taking orders and money, plus some on the side for selling rodeo tickets and registering contestants, the concession stand would be a multitasking hub, with the bathrooms behind it. Larae had already decided she’d work there to save money.
“Can I work in the ’cession stand, Mommy?”
“Concession stand. You can help me. You can definitely be the designated fly swatter since you’re good at that.”
“The windows are all glassed in. We won’t have any flies.”
“Trust me, every time we open the windows to take money or pass food out, they’ll make a beeline to get in.”
“Excuse me, miss. I’ll take two cheeseburgers with the works.” Rance grinned at them from the front window.
“You’ll have to come back next weekend, mister.” Jayda giggled. “Are you gonna work the concession stand with us, Daddy?”
“Oh no, Pumpkin.” Larae’s heart skipped a beat. “That’s too much to ask. I’ll hire someone to work with me.”
“There’s no need for that. I can help out. Save you some money.” He disappeared around the side, opened the door and stepped inside the stand. “We’ll make it a family operation.”
Except they weren’t really a family. And the stand suddenly seemed entirely too small with him in it, as if he sucked all the oxygen out of the space with his mere presence.
“Let’s do it, Daddy. It’ll be all kinds of fun.”
Not the exact words Larae had in mind. More like torment. “You really don’t have to do that. You’re my stock contractor, and you’ve already gone above and beyond.”
“I want to do it. It’ll be fun working with Baby Girl, here. And if your rodeo is successful, that makes me successful.”
There was just no way to get rid of him. And the worst part was that she didn’t want to get rid of him. How had this happened? Despite all her defenses, Rance Shepherd had wormed himself into her heart all over again. Had he ever actually left it?
“You got any burgers fried up?” Denny popped his head through the side window.
“I’m sorry, mister, but the rodeo isn’t until next weekend. We’re just in here getting ready.” Jayda giggled.
“Oh, well in that case, I got all my morning chores done, and there’s a pinto pony that needs somebody to ride her. Any takers?”
“Me! Me! Me!” Jayda raised her hand, jumping up and down.
“Well, come on then. Time’s a-wasting.”
Jayda scampered out the door.
“Thanks, Denny,” Larae said, although his timing was off, leaving her alone with Rance.
“No problem.” He tipped his hat and ambled off after Jayda.
“I really can handle this, if you have something else to do.” Her gaze caught Rance’s, then flicked away before she could drown in those eyes.
“Nothing better to do. I’m just glad she seems okay and didn’t have any more nightmares. What can I do to help?”
Go away. And stay away. “Chris sent the menu sign over. I’m impressed. He’s fast and accurate, just like you said. We can put it up.” She handed it to him.
“Just hamburgers, hot dogs, nachos and sunflower seeds. No fries or onion rings?”
“In my experience, those are the items that sell. We might try a bigger variety once we’re indoors, but that’s it for now.”
“Where do you want it?”
“Let me go out and help you center it on the beam over the grill.”
“See, you do need me.” He shot her a wink.
Her face scalded as she turned away and stepped outside. “That’s debatable. But whatever.” By the time she got to the front, her cheeks felt normal. “Hold it up higher. Higher. Higher. Right there.”
“You sure it’s not too high? We don’t want customers having to crane their necks.”
“It’s high enough that the workers won’t obstruct the view, but I can read it without tilting my head back.”
“All right then, if you’ll hold it, I’ll put it up. Got a hammer and nails handy?”
She hurried back inside and reached as high as she could to hold the sign in place. “Tools are right behind you on the counter. There’s even a level so you can make sure it’s straight.”
“I forgot what a perfectionist you are. And you’re a shorty.” He snickered.
“I prefer the term petite.”
“Whatever.” He grinned and tapped a nail into one corner of the board before crossing to the other corner in front of her.
Too close. All her nerve endings went on alert. Why hadn’t she turned her back to him instead of facing him?
“That looks just about right.” He tapped the second nail in place, and his gaze dropped to hers.
She let go of the sign and tried to step back, but there wasn’t anywhere to go.
Only inches separated them, and his gaze dropped to her lips. Her breath hushed as his head dipped.
“Is Larae in there?” Stella asked.
Rance jerked back and spun around.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Stella stood at the front window, and her gaze pinged back and forth between them. “Now, don’t freak out. I think she’s okay. Except for maybe her arm.”
Larae bolted out the door and headed for the barn. There was a circle of ranch hands in the barnyard. Beans was standing with no rider. “Oh, dear God”—she glanced Heavenward “—please let her be all right.”
Rance passed her and got there first. The men allowed him access.
By the time Larae caught up, Rance was kneeling beside a crying Jayda.
“It hurts, Daddy.” Her right wrist hung at an odd angle as she held it up with her other hand.
Nausea hit Larae, and she swallowed hard.
“I know, Baby Girl.”
“Can you move it, sweetie?” Larae knelt on her other side.
Jayda shook her head then hiccuped a sob.
“I’m pretty sure it’s broken.” Rance winced. “I’m going to pick you up, Baby Girl, and we’ll get you to Urgent Care. Does anything else hurt?”
“No!” Jayda wailed.
“Let me stabilize it.” Denny pushed through the crowd of hands and slipped a small board under her wrist and hand. “Lay it down now, Little Miss.”
“It’ll hurt.”
“I know, but it’ll help keep your bones lined up, and that’ll help the doctor fix it where it won’t hurt so much.”
With trusting, tear-filled eyes, Jayda let Denny lay her injured arm on the board. She grimaced, and more tears came as he put a soft towel over her arm. Then he wound a strip of baling twine loosely to secure the board and tied it in place. “That’ll keep it from flopping around till you see the doc.”
“I know it hurts, Pumpkin. But the doctor will make it all better.”
Rance picked her up gently while Larae supported the board, and they tag-teamed it to her SUV. Larae opened the door to the back seat and slid across while holding Jayda’s injured arm steady. Rance set her inside, jumped into the drivers’ seat and peeled out as Jayda whimpered against Larae.
“It’s gonna be okay, sweetie. Just a few more minutes and we’ll be there.”
But it seemed like an hour had passed, and they’d barely pulled out of the driveway.
Chapter Fifteen
Rance was driving entirely too fast, but a vise grip tightened around his heart with each one of Jayda’s cries. He pulled into the urgent care clinic, jumped out and swung the back door open.
“Easy, let me hold her arm while you get her out.” Larae slid across the seat as he gently picked up Jayda.
&nb
sp; With a whimper, she clung to him with her good arm and buried her face in his neck, while Larae supported her injured arm. They made slow progress across the parking lot, as if they were in a potato sack race with too many limbs not in unison.
Larae opened the door and backed inside, and they made it to the front desk. “She fell off her pony. I think her arm is broken.”
“Name please.” The nurse smiled reassuringly. Larae gave the pertinent information, and the nurse handed her a clipboard. “Fill this out. Once you get the first two forms finished, give them to me, and I’ll get her logged in while you finish.”
“Thank you.” Rance managed, even though he wanted to barrel through the doors and shout until a doctor came running. He sat down without jarring Jayda and took the injured arm from Larae so she could get busy on the paperwork.
“It hurts, Daddy,” Jayda whimpered.
“I know, Baby Girl. We’ll see the doctor real soon, and he’ll make it all better.” He hoped. What if she ended up needing surgery? Lord, please let it be a clean break.
“I saw a bull by the arena in the back pasture and I got scared, so I got Beans to run the other way, but I didn’t have a good hold of the reins, so I lost them and fell off. It wasn’t Beans’s fault. It was the bull that made me fall.”
His eyes met Larae’s over the top of Jayda’s head.
“Pumpkin, we don’t have any mean bulls. He wouldn’t have bothered you.”
“I don’t like bulls, Mommy. Can we get rid of him?”
“We’ll figure something out to make sure you feel safe.” Rance ran his hand over her back in soothing circles as he scanned the rest of the people in the waiting room. All adults, no blood. Hopefully, they’d get Jayda in soon.
Larae finished the second sheet and turned it in to the nurse.
Before she got back to her seat, the door opened. “Jayda Collins.”
Rance stood.
“I can get her wrist.” Larae stuck the remaining forms under her arm.
“I’ve got her.” He followed the nurse down a hall with doors on each side.
She escorted them into a room. “If you know her height and weight, we won’t have to get it.”
Not a clue.
Larae supplied the info.
“And she’s seven?” A hint of surprise sounded in the nurse’s tone.
“Yes, I was always small for my age, too.”
“And you’re her mother?”
“Yes.”
“I’m her dad.”
The nurse barely acknowledged him as she typed something on the laptop and asked a few more questions he didn’t know the answers to.
Maybe he was insignificant when it came to Jayda. He’d have to be sure and change that.
“I’ll check with the doctor on ibuprofen for the pain, and he’ll be with you shortly.”
Jayda’s whimpers had turned into a steady stream, and Rance’s heart was about to burst as Larae finished filling out the paperwork.
The door opened, and a baby-faced man wearing a white lab coat stepped inside. “I’m Dr. Prewitt. Who do we have here?”
“This is our daughter, Jayda. We think her arm is broken.”
“How old are you, Jayda?”
“Seven.” She sniffled, her face still hidden in Rance’s neck.
“Can I take a look at that arm?”
She shook her head.
“He can’t fix it if we don’t let him look at it.” Larae gently coaxed. “Turn around so he can get to it.”
Rance turned her around to face the doctor, supporting her arm as he did so.
“That’s some splint you got there. Is your daddy a doctor, too?”
“Our ranch foreman did that.” Rance was ready for this guy to do something. “Can she have something for the pain?”
“The nurse is bringing ibuprofen. Maybe your ranch foreman should become a doctor. I need to take it off, but I’ll be real easy with it while your daddy holds your arm straight for me.”
Rance held her hand and her elbow while Dr. Prewitt unwound the bailing wire and gently pulled off the towel and board.
The doctor cupped her wrist in both hands, feeling around with his fingers. “It looks and feels like you broke your radius. That’s the large bone in your wrist. We’ll need to x-ray to make sure. What happened?”
“I fell off Beans.” Jayda sobbed.
“A pony.”
The door opened, and a nurse stepped inside. “Ibuprofen for Jayda Collins.”
“Thank you.” Larae took the plastic cup of pink medicine and handed the nurse the completed forms before turning her attention back to Jayda. “Here, sweetie. This will make it stop hurting.” She helped Jayda sip until the liquid was all gone.
“It feels like a clean break, so if that’s the case, I’ll be able to set it without surgery. We’ll know for sure once I get an X-ray. The nurse will show you the way, and you can carry Jayda there.” The doctor gave them a reassuring grin. “You’re being awfully brave, Jayda. Just a little longer.”
“This way.” The nurse hurried out of the room, with Rance and Larae following.
Once in the X-ray room, Jayda kept her face buried in Rance’s chest while the technician gently laid her wrist on the machine, took a picture, repositioned it and took another.
The nurse met them in the hall with a cheery smile. “All done. I’ll take you back to the exam room now.”
Jayda didn’t seem to be crying as hard now. Maybe the ibuprofen was kicking in.
They each settled into chairs with Jayda sideways in Rance’s lap, leaning into him.
“Is it feeling better, Pumpkin?”
“A little.”
The doctor strolled in and turned on the X-ray screen. “It’s a clean radius break, right here.” He pointed to a dark line on the screen. “I can set it today and cast it. Six weeks later, Jayda will be good as new.”
“Is it gonna hurt?” Jayda whimpered.
“Can you give her something to deaden it?” Larae asked.
“Let me see.” The doctor gently cupped Jayda’s wrist in his hands and felt around with his thumbs, then did a quick little twist.
“Ow.” Jayda wailed.
“Wait a minute.” Rance tried to push the doctor’s hands away.
“I just set it.” The doctor placed her arm in her lap. “How does that feel, Jayda?”
“Better.”
Rance could clobber the doctor for hurting her. But as her tears dried, the heat of his anger slowly seeped away.
“The nurse will put a cast on it. You can pick the color—pink, purple, anything you want. Keep it dry for six weeks, and we’ll set up an appointment to take it off.”
“You mean I can’t swim?” Jayda’s face puckered again.
“By the time it gets warm enough for that, your cast will history. In the meantime, if you go to an indoor pool, you can wrap it in a plastic bag and keep your arm out of the water.”
“Don’t worry, Pumpkin. Time will fly by.”
“What color cast do you want?”
“Pink.”
“I’ll tell the nurse.”
“Thank you, Dr. Prewitt.” Larae smiled as he hurried out of the room.
The nurse returned with a roll of pink fiberglass casting. She slipped Jayda’s arm into a soft sleeve, then began wrapping her arm from between her thumb and index finger up to a few inches from her elbow.
“Who do you want to sign your cast first?” The nurse finished her task.
“Daddy.”
His heart warmed, until he saw the hurt in Larae’s eyes.
“A daddy’s girl, huh?” The nurse gave them a few more instructions on keeping the cast clean and dry, then said they could go.
“You okay, Baby Girl?” Rance stood and tucked her close.
“It doesn’t hurt near as much as it did.”
“Your bones are lined up now, and the medicine has probably kicked in.” Larae patted her back, looking like an outsider with her nose pressed to the glass. “Let’s go home.”
He had to do something to include Larae.
They walked out of the clinic, shrouded in silence all the way to the SUV.
“You can sit in the back with Mommy.” Maybe that would fix it.
“No.” Jayda clung to him tighter.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at Larae. “Listen, Baby Girl. Now that I know about you, I’m not going anywhere. We’ve got the rest of our lives to be together. But you can’t forget your mama. She took care of you all these years by herself, and she’s worried about you, too.”
“I’m sorry, Mommy.”
He chanced a glance at Larae and glimpsed her glossy eyes as she ducked into the back seat. He set Jayda down beside her, and Larae helped her into her car seat. Once she was all snapped in, she leaned her head against Jayda’s.
Tread carefully. He couldn’t oust Larae while he bonded with Jayda. Larae would never forgive him. And she already had enough to forgive him for.
* * *
Despite her broken wrist, Jayda insisted on going to church the next day. But Larae did convince her they shouldn’t go to class just yet with a promise they’d attend next week.
Jayda’s cast had received a lot of attention and signatures, and Larae felt just as at home and peaceful as she had the week before.
As soon as the sermon was over, Rance hurried them to the lobby. They shook the pastor’s hand and exited as Rance ushered them across the parking lot.
Why was he in such a hurry? Was he worried Jayda’s arm might start hurting?
“Larae Collins, is that you?”
Rance tugged her toward her SUV.
“Larae?”
“Wait, someone’s calling my name.”
He stopped and closed his eyes.
Larae frowned and turned around. Evangeline Chadwick hurried down the church steps toward her. Delia Rhinehart’s cohort. Larae’s jaw dropped. Dressed in discount department store clothing instead of Gucci.
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