He barked out a laugh, drawing a few stares. “I won’t even ask who you learned that from. But that’s good. And you keep a special eye on Jordan. She might try to go kick one.”
“Yeah, she’s got a mad face. She doesn’t like this. None of us do.”
“I bet.” They had to be having terrible flashbacks. “I love you. Did I say that? Y’all call me if you need me.”
“We will. Love you too. Call when you know.”
“I will, baby girl. Make sure everyone gets some food. I’ll holler later.”
They hung up, and he checked the board. Still in surgery. So he called Bonner to tell him to get the kids ice cream, then just sat, waiting for Wiley to call, which would be a bit.
He’d dozed off when the doctor came to him, this baby-faced young man who couldn’t have been six years old if he was a day. “Are you with Mr. Rodgers?”
They both stopped for a second, then they both cracked up. It was not a wonderful day in the neighborhood.
“I am. Sorry, I was stress napping.” He stood up, wiping his suddenly sweaty hands on his jeans.
“Good. He’s out of surgery and in recovery. He’s going to be in ICU for at least a couple of days so we can watch that lung.”
“What all did you do?”
“He has a broken collarbone and a broken orbital bone. Those are painful, but not his biggest issue. He had what we call flail chest—three ribs were broken in multiple places—and the lung was deflated. I went in and wired the ribs together. He’ll be on a ventilator for a few days. I have a specialist coming in to look at his eye, but I’m hoping we can avoid a surgery there.”
“Anytime we can avoid surgery is good. No major head injuries otherwise?” Ribs sucked. Lungs inflated. Brain injuries were a whole other world.
“The CAT scan didn’t show any major bleeds or soft spots. He was conscious enough to make sure we knew you were coming, he knew where he was, and he knew what year it was and could tell us, basically, that a ‘fucking buffalo bastard squished’ him.” The doc’s eyes were dancing. “He’s a character, and strong.”
Relief hit him, damn near doubling him over. “He is. He’s amazing. Rodeo cowboys, you know?”
“I’ve worked on more than one. Like I said, he’ll go from here to the ICU. He’ll be there two days at a minimum on the ventilator, and then we’ll take it day by day.”
“Okay. That’s great, Doc. I mean, it’s better than I feared.” He laughed a little, the hysteria reaction setting in.
“It’s not going to be easy. If he gets pneumonia, it’s going to be a completely different song. But we’ll keep him heavily sedated for a few days and watch him.”
“Okay. I’ll be here. Should I move up to the ICU waiting room?” They would tell him when he could see Seth, he knew.
“Yes, that would be best. They’re on it, and they’ll walk you through what you need to do.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The doc raised a hand and left him, so he gathered his shit and moved on to the general waiting area on the floor with the ICU. They would come get him when he could move into the smaller area where he could go back and forth and see Seth. He made the next round of calls, filling everyone in.
As soon as he texted Wiley, he got a phone call. “What happened?”
“Bison. Smashed him in the inoculation area.” He ran down what the surgeon had said. “The recovery will take time, but it sounds like everything went well. How was your solo?”
“Fine, I guess. Is he going to die?”
“No, kiddo. Even if things take a turn for the worse, he’s not gonna die. His head is fine. No scrambled brains.” Law paused. “I’ll never lie to you, okay? Not even to make it easier.”
“Okay. Is he awake? Can I talk to him? I can drive up.”
“He’s in ICU, and they’re gonna keep him drugged for the lung, kiddo. Let me call y’all tomorrow and maybe you can come up.” If Bonner could drive. Wiley didn’t need to be on 40, even on Saturday.
“Are you sure? I can help!”
“I know you can. But I need you with your sisters, Wiley. They’re freaked out.” He sighed. “Look, son, I swear, no one is getting in to see him tonight.”
“Okay. Okay, are you cool? Do you need food and stuff? Do you have your charger?”
“I brought a bag with chargers and clothes, but I’ll need some stuff tomorrow. Promise me you’ll wait until I call?” He couldn’t live with himself if Wiley got hurt.
“I swear. Last thing we need is another wreck, right?”
“Exactly.” He grinned. “Thanks, son. I appreciate it. I’m sorry you got the news like you did.”
“I’m sorry he got hurt so bad.”
“Me too, kiddo. Me too. We can do this, though. Give Bethany a hug when you get home.”
“I will. Promise. I’ll text when I get home.”
“Thank you. I’ll be sitting right here.” Probably for hours.
“Yeah. Hospitals suck. Tell Uncle I love him.”
“I will. Love you.” He loved his whole family so much. This was a mess.
“Mr. McMann, I’m here to take you to the ICU. Your patient will be moved in a few minutes.”
“Oh. Thank you.” He climbed to his feet, grabbing his bags.
“Are you here by yourself?” the tech asked. “We have a place where you can stash your stuff when you want to see him in his room.”
“I am, yes. Do you know when I can see him?”
“Give them half an hour?”
“You got it.” He could wait that much longer. Once he assured himself Seth was okay, he would get something to eat.
He answered eight thousand more texts, because every human being he’d ever met seemed to have heard there was trouble, and then they were calling his name.
Thank God. Law stowed his gear where the tech, who was named Amanda, showed him, then headed in to wash every part of his hands and arms. They even had a foot pedal sink so he didn’t have to touch anything.
Then he went to see what he could see of his lover, which wasn’t much. One hand, part of Seth’s face—everything else was covered up with medical equipment, sheets, or bandages. Damn.
He shook a little, staring down at the bed. How had he never noticed that Seth was so small?
He sat in the hard-plastic chair by the bed with a thump, because his bad leg wouldn’t hold him. “Oh, baby. You’re something else. I’m not sure what.” He reached out and took Seth’s hand, so dark against the baby blue blanket. “This is what I get for falling in love with a cowboy, huh?”
Whoa.
Whoa, he’d said that. Out loud.
It was nothing but the unvarnished truth. He was in. A lifer, as they said in the Army.
“You did it up right. You’re going to be pissed when you wake up.” Law kept talking, knowing Seth could hear him. Hell, he thought it was Hunter who’d kept him sane while he was in recovery, coming and reading aloud to him while they were in the same hospital.
The quiet whoosh of the ventilator kept him company, along with the random twitches of Seth’s fingers.
He needed to get a paperback. And a hamburger or something. Whatever they had. Hell, he hoped something was open.
Then he needed to find a better chair. His back couldn’t handle this shit.
18
The world was a strange place made of pain and beeps and lights coming on and off. Seth kept floating to the surface and allowing himself to sink down.
This whole thing seemed familiar, but not. There was something hard about it, something not just antiseptic and lumpy pillows. Law’s voice was there, though. Always there.
When he came up again, he forced his eyes open, surprised when it only worked for one.
He opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but his throat was too raw to make noise, and his freaking teeth hurt.
“Hey. Hey, baby. Don’t struggle. You’re all right.”
No. No, he was about ten thousand percent sure he was absolutely
not all right.
The kids. Where were the kids?
“Shh. You’re in the hospital. Bison accident, Seth. The kids were up Saturday, and they’ll come up today after school.”
He frowned, then immediately stopped, hands flying to his face. Which only worked on one side and sent agony searing through him. Fuck. Fuck, that hurt.
“Hey. Hey, no touching. You broke your orbital bone, your eye socket.” Law kept talking, gently pulling down his hands.
Oh, he’d done that once before. Hurt, but that was no big. Bruised like a bitch, though.
“You have a collapsed lung, a bunch of wired-together ribs. They say you didn’t scramble your brains…” He thought Law might be laughing at him.
He flipped Law off with his good hand.
“There, now. See? I knew you were in there just fine.”
Yeah. Yeah, he was in here. In here hurt.
“I got you, baby. I swear. The band boosters are with the kids today. Tomorrow the 4-H ladies.”
He frowned. What? “D—” He swallowed hard, the sound simply not there.
“Dawn? She’s okay.”
He sighed, trying to communicate, to let Law know that he needed to make sure Wiley got home from the game.
“Hey, it’s okay. Wiley has been told he can’t drive up here alone. Dawn’s friends spent the night the first night, along with Marge.”
“H-how long?” Fuck, he was tired.
“Three days. It’s Monday.” Law stroked his hand.
“No.” A whole weekend. He didn’t… There was no way he was ready to leave yet, but he had the kids.
“The kids are okay.” Law seemed to be able to anticipate him.
He blinked over, sagging suddenly with the effort of keeping himself awake.
“Shhh.” Law hummed out. “It’s okay. Rest. I’ll be right here.”
“Right here…” He needed to go home. Now.
“Yep. Sleep.” Law kissed his hand.
“Love.” He hurt so bad. So bad.
“You want me to get the nurse? I’ll be right back. She can get you something.” Law showed him a button by his good hand. “Or you can press this.”
Seth knew that button, and he pressed it. The world turned blue seconds later.
“There. There, that’s better. I can tell.”
Right. Better. Okay.
“Sleep now, baby. Next time you wake up, it will be better. I know this.”
Love you. I’m tired.
Law squeezed his hand gently. “Sleep.”
Yeah. Yeah, he thought he could. He thought he didn’t have a choice, because he thought he was already asleep.
19
By Wednesday, Law wanted to kick something. He’d lost his voice talking and reading to Seth, his ass was so sore he couldn’t sit anymore, and he and Wiley had snarled at each other over the kids coming up again. Every other night was enough.
Seth simply wasn’t healing, not like Law wanted. He was trying hard, but he wasn’t bouncing back.
They still needed to move him to a regular room, but the docs kept putting it off. He was waiting to chat with the pulmonary surgeon, in fact.
They weren’t even discussing repairing Seth’s eye socket yet, for fuck’s sake. Just that lung.
James, Seth’s day nurse, popped his head in. “Hey, Law. You guys have visitors. Did you want to see them?”
“Yeah. Do I need to come out?”
“Do you mind? There’s five of them.”
“No problem.” He was going to kill Wiley if there was not an adult.
He walked out, coming face-to-face with five cowboys, hats in hand.
They all looked at one of the older guys, who rolled his eyes and walked right up into his space. “Mr. McMann? I’m Winchester Allen. I worked with your brother and Seth for a lot of years. We’re here to help.”
“Oh.” Not the kids. “Wow. Thank you.” He held out a hand to shake.
“Anytime. This is Frank, Javier, Ollie, and Horse.” Obviously most of the guys were bull riders, except for Horse. Horse was the size of a moose.
“Nice to meet you guys. If you want to see him, he’s sleeping, but they’ll let you in two at a time.”
“Do you mind?” Winchester asked. “I’d like to pray over him.”
“Not at all. We’ll take all the prayers we can get.”
“I’ll come with you,” Horse said.
“Good deal.” Winchester took the big man’s hand, leading him into the ICU.
“So, what can we do?”
Law looked at Javier. “Well, I’m not sure there’s much here. At the ranch, Bonner needs help, the kids need rides, and stuff needs to be shuttled back and forth.”
“Rock on. We haven’t got hotel rooms yet, because we weren’t sure if you wanted us here or there.”
“The ranch would be best.” He grinned. “The kids are going crazy.”
Frank shook his head. “We can’t have that. I mean, they’ll be looking for Win, but we’ll do until him and Horse come up.”
“Thank you guys so much. I can’t tell you what it means.”
Everyone was being so kind.
“Seth paid for my little sister’s braces. Pistol gave Ollie here a place to stay when he lost the ranch.”
Frank nodded. “Seth helped my wife for a month when I broke my pelvis.”
“He’s a good man.”
Ollie met his eyes. “Is he going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. His damn lung won’t heal. It was supposed to be easy.” Law felt a little sick thinking about it.
“Win will pray. He’ll get better.” Frank didn’t sound sarcastic in the least.
A lot of his Army brethren had the same faith. “Good.”
“We’ll head to the ranch. Can you let your foreman know we’re on our way?”
“I can. I owe you boys a beer.” Maybe a few.
“When you get home. We’ll have a cookout.” Frank grinned at him. “See you later, man. I’ll leave you with Win and Horse.”
“They have their own vehicle?”
“Yeah. We’ll have three trucks ready to run.”
His knees were going to give out.
“Frank, let’s get Law to a hotel, hmm?” Horse was suddenly right there, the man making him feel small. “You need a real bed. Real sleep. Me and Win will stay and keep watch.”
“Oh, I don’t want to…” It didn’t matter. The cowboy crowd was on the move, steering him and his stuff out to the parking lot.
Before he knew it, he was in a hotel room, five new phone numbers in his phone, his bag of dirty clothes sent out to the laundry.
He blinked at the bag of food he’d been left. He would microwave it. First he plugged in his phone, then took a shower, long and hot.
He stumbled out of the bathroom, crashing down on the bed, sound asleep before he even covered himself up.
20
“Wake up, cowboy. You got to wake up and breathe.”
That voice was familiar, Seth knew it. It wasn’t Law, it wasn’t the kids, and it wasn’t the nurse guy, so…
“I’m serious. Open your goddamn eyes.”
Seth opened his eyes, frowning. That was… a bullfighter. “Win?”
“There he is! Lord have mercy, son. You can sleep.”
“I feel like shit, man,” he gargled out.
Win nodded. “Look rough too. You want to sit up a little? You got to get those lungs working.”
He wanted to go home, that was what he wanted. He wanted to know where Law was, how the kids were.
What he said was “Sure. Help me up.”
“Good deal.” Win slowly eased the head of his bed up, nice and slow.
He groaned, but he didn’t ask Win to stop.
“There you go, son. You need to stop being lazy.”
“Not,” he protested, and Win snorted.
“Bullshit. You’re hurting. Deal with it. You got to get to work.”
“I—I feel old, Win. I ain’t bouncing
back.”
“Tell me about it.” Win offered him a crooked smile. “This getting old thing sucks. Like your new man, by the by.”
“Where is he?”
“Frank made him go to a hotel. He was hurting, man. Looked whooped.”
“Good. He needs sleep.” He took a breath, the whole of his body aching. Damn.
“And a shower, because damn.” Win stared at him, head tilted. “Want some broth? I can get you some.”
“Can I have a Dr Pepper? I’m thirsty to death and dry as a bone.”
“Let me see what we can do.” Win ducked out of the room.
He sat there, feeling the world spin around him. Lord, he shouldn’t be so tired just from sitting up in bed. What the hell was wrong with him?
Of course, he knew the answer. He wasn’t twenty and bison had ill-used his happy ass.
“Hey. The nurse says no bubbles for right now. Juice is in, though.” Win handed him a cup of apple juice.
“Damn. A guy can’t catch a break, can he?”
“Drink your damn juice, Rodgers.”
A chuckle tried to escape, but it was too damn painful. “Yeah, but I want coffee soon.”
“That you can have, she said.”
“Okay. Good. I’ll drink this first.” He drank, but the whole effort of it made him sweat.
“There you go.” Win nodded and smiled for him. “You got to get some nourishment in you.”
“Yeah. You bring Horse?” Everyone knew where Win went, there went Horse. They’d been together since he could remember, the bullfighter and the horse trainer.
“Yep. Frank and Javie and Ollie are at the ranch. I sent Horse to get some food.”
“Thank you. Those damn buffalo are… tough.” Tougher than him, that was for damn sure.
“No shit, son.” Win gave him a wide-eyed stare. “Why on earth did you get them?”
“I wanted something to run in the back pastures, and beefalo is selling good.” And they looked fucking cool.
“Well, don’t be surprised if Law sells them.”
“What?” Law didn’t care about the livestock.
“He’s worried about how dangerous they are. And that Dawn will try to take care of them.” Win snorted. “I also think he wants to shoot one for hurting you.”
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