Count on Me (Petal, Georgia)

by Lauren Dane

  “As soon as Matt takes over I will. I promise.”

  Which happened two breaths later.

  “You’re a troublemaker, Caroline Mendoza.” But Matt Chase grinned as he said it. “I have an awful lot of troublesome females in my life as it is, so how about you stop getting shot at?”

  He looked into her face, latching her gaze. “I need to be sure you didn’t get shot or injured from the glass in places I haven’t seen. Can you stand?”

  “Yes. I’m freaked and shaky and really mad, but I don’t feel like I’ve been shot.” He helped her to her feet, and Holly stayed close, a steadying hand on her waist. “Not that I know what being shot feels like. I imagine it would not be fun. And probably that it would hurt enough to feel.”

  Matt chuckled and touched her carefully as he looked her over. “You managed to miss getting shot.”

  “Achievement unlocked.” She managed a thumbs-up.

  “If your attitude is any indication, I think you’re going to be okay. I’d like to take you to the hospital. You’ve got a pretty nasty gash on your back and it might need stitches, but it certainly could stand getting cleaned up either way. I can only do so much here.”

  “Holly can you tell Royal they’re taking me to the hospital but underline that I’m not dying or anything,” she called out weakly. Holly was apparently already speaking to Royal, and Caroline didn’t want to interrupt. Plus if she heard his voice right then she might cry. And badasses didn’t cry in public.

  “I’ll take her right now.” Edward stepped closer. “Good thing your insurance kicked in already.” He winked and she groaned. “Matt will help us out to the car. The police have cordoned off your office but I managed to grab your bag for you.”

  Holly came back over as they waited for the elevator. Justin had run down to bring Edward’s car around. “Royal will meet you at the hospital. Peter is going to cover your hearing this afternoon. He’ll get you rescheduled. Now go.”

  Royal made it to the hospital in one piece and that was sort of a miracle given how fast he drove. The ranch was about equidistant to the hospital as downtown Petal so he figured he’d get there pretty soon after they did.

  He’d come back to his house, grabbed his truck keys and rushed over. After parking, he ran from the parking lot into the main building, heading to emergency.

  He saw Edward as he rounded a corner.

  “They just took her in. Matt’s with her. He said she’d most likely need stitches in at least one place.”

  “Thanks, Edward.” Royal held up a bag. “I brought her a change of clothes and some shoes. I thought she might appreciate it. Holly said her stuff got torn and bloodied. She likes to look neat. Caroline, I mean.”

  Edward’s smile deepened. “Yes, the glass tore her up. She’ll appreciate it. You truly do love her, don’t you?”

  “Huh? Well sure I do. There’s doubt?”

  “I knew you when you were with Anne. And Anne is like one of our family so when you and Caroline got so close so fast, I admit I wondered. But every time I see you and see the way you look at her, I’m more and more convinced you two have something truly special and lasting. That you thought to bring her clothes, well that’s just proof to me I guess, that you care about her.”

  Edward pointed to a room. “They’re in room B.”

  Royal knocked and Matt opened. There was a drape pulled around where the exam table was. Because he needed to say something, to hear her voice and know she was all right, he spoke. “I brought clothes for Caroline.”

  “Royal?” He heard the relief in her voice and he felt better too.

  Matt held a hand up to stay Royal’s progress into the room. “Let us get her cleaned up and then I’ll call you. Okay?”

  The room they were in was quite small so he stepped back. “I’ll be right out here, darlin’.”

  “Okay.” Her voice was a little thready. Fighting off tears, he knew. Holding back the fear. Because that’s who she was.

  He needed to keep it together. She had to lean on him so he put all his own panic and fear as far aside as he could as he walked back to join Edward. “They’re stitching her up now. Thanks for bringing her here. And for being so good to her, in general.”

  Edward nodded. “In her I see a girl who got a pretty raw deal. A woman who turned all that insanity and lack of control over her circumstances into a hugely promising career. Polly and I, well, we want to scoop her up and mother and father her because heaven knows the Lassiters are useless fools. I have children myself. Love them more than is reasonable sometimes. But you do because you created them and raised them and they’re your babies even when they’re well over six feet tall and have babies themselves. Caroline is brave and she stands up for what she believes in and for people who need her to defend them.” He shrugged a shoulder.

  Royal was so glad Caroline had Edward and Polly in her life. “She’s going to apologize for this you know. I’m so sorry some freak shot through the window and I know it’s causing trouble and I understand if you need to fire me.”

  “It’s good you understand her. Yes, she will and I’ll tell her exactly what I think of that. But this means we need to work even harder and faster to find this man before he truly hurts her.”

  Matt came out, and about two minutes later, the doctor followed with Caroline. Royal hadn’t realized he’d come to stand until he was at her side.

  “If you have any problems give us a call. Watch out for infection. Careful using this arm for a while. The stitches in your back will pull and that’s no fun. Come back in three days and we’ll get the stitches out.”

  Shane rolled up as they were heading toward the parking lot. Royal waved. “I’m going to get Caroline back to my place. Can you get her statement there?”

  “Oh for God’s sake.” Caroline managed to get herself into a seat in a waiting room. “He’s here. I’m here. He’s got other stuff to do. Let’s do this now.”

  Royal held back a snarl. Barely. “Caroline, Jesus, you were just shot at. Can you ease back if for no other reason than my heart?”

  She took his hand, and she was so cold he put his around hers to warm them. “Can you please just let me do this? I’m still mad and that helps.”

  He got it then. She needed her anger to help her get through this. So he sighed, sitting next to her, keeping her hands in his. She leaned against him as she told Shane everything that had happened.

  “I’ll keep this short since you need to get some rest. We found a bullet from a high-powered rifle lodged in the far wall in your office. Given the general angle, it looks like the shooter was up in a tree just beyond the back parking lot for the building next door.”

  “Was it an easy shot or a complicated shot?” Caroline asked.

  “The rifle was one used by someone who wanted to kill something. A deer, a nosy attorney, whatever. That says he’s serious. That he’s been camping and watching you is also an indicator that he’s focused on getting rid of you. The angle? Are you asking if I think the guy is military or law-enforcement level trained? If so, I don’t know yet. It wasn’t from a long way and through a bunch of crazy obstacles or anything like that. You’d need that sort of aim and concentration for deer hunting too.”

  She nodded.

  “We’re on it. Asking around. Some of the nearby businesses have video so we’re trying to piece something together now. I’ll let you know what else I hear. Now go home and be safe.”

  Caroline faced Edward, who shook his head before she could say a word. “No you don’t, Caroline. You aren’t responsible for what this person did, so no we’re not firing you and no one is mad at you. We have your schedule handled today. Also, head’s up but I’m fairly sure my wife will be knocking on your door in about half an hour. I told her you’d been hurt and were here.”

  Caroline smiled. “All right. We won’t sick Spike on her because she’ll probably have pie.”

  “We definitely won’t then.” Royal helped her to stand and they walked out.


  Once they were on the road, after she’d called Shep’s phone and left a message, she tipped her head back and rested it against the back of the seat.

  He knew she was on the verge of losing it, so he waited until he’d gotten her into the house and changed into pajamas.

  “You want me to set you up on the couch or in bed?”

  “You need to go back to work. It’s still daylight. I’m just going to take some pain relievers and sleep a while.”

  “Do you really think I’d just tip my hat and let you be here alone? You’re out of your mind. Bed or couch?”

  “Why are you mad at me?”

  He pointed to the bed and she got in. He kicked off his shoes and followed. “I’m not mad at you. I’m scared something is going to happen to you. I’m worried for your emotional and mental well-being with all this stress. I hate that your grandparents weren’t there. I hate that I can hear the tears in your voice that you won’t just share.”

  She burst into tears and he felt bad for a moment. “I didn’t mean to make you cry! Well I wanted you to let go but not because I made you upset.”

  Caroline snuggled into his body, and he held her, mindful of the stitches on her back and forearm.

  After a few minutes she’d calmed to an occasional hiccup. “I hate being shot at.”

  He grinned, unable to stop himself. “Fancy that. I hate it when you get shot at too. Let’s never do it again.”

  “I can’t even with this. And by the way I trust you enough to cry. I was just trying to hold on until you were out of here. I hate that my stuff keeps interrupting your work. I don’t want you to have to be my babysitter.”

  “Maybe you could play babysitter. I think I’d like that.”

  “You’re a deviant.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Totally. Now, take a nap. I’m not leaving the house so don’t even suggest it. But I’ll do some work in my office. The door will be open so yell and I’ll hear you. Polly should be here in a bit anyway.”

  “Thank you for coming for me.”

  “Oh, baby, I will always come for you. As long as I draw breath I will come for you.”

  Her smile was wobbly, but genuine. He stacked pillows so she wouldn’t roll back and hurt her back, and then he headed down the hall.

  “You’re aging me prematurely,” Royal told her as she finished applying her lipstick. “Can’t you just take one more day?”

  “No. I have so much stuff today it’s not funny. I can’t expect Peter, Edward and Justin to pick up all the slack all the time. Plus I like my job, Royal. I like it and this shithead is not going to steal that from me either.”

  He groaned.

  “I’m going to work. And you will go to work too and that is that. I’m allowing you to drive me in. No one is going to let me do anything alone anyway. Plus the investigator is coming to my office at four. Shep is coming over to hear the update. Then you’ll be there at five thirty to pick me up.”

  “I’ll be there at four to hear the update from the investigator and then we’ll go home from there.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Of course. I want to know too. Your struggle is my struggle, silly. This has been a long road for you. I just want it all to be positive. And safe. So I’ll see you at four. At the office?”

  “Yes, okay. I’d like that. Thank you for being interested in this, or at the very least faking it well.”

  It wasn’t like she actually got shot or anything. She got some stitches in non-important places. There was no reason for her to be anxious or sore or freaked out.

  Royal told her about his plans for the day, and she turned slightly in the seat so she could look at him as they drove.

  A song started, one that made her sigh wistfully. “I forgot my iPod was still in your car.” Kate Nash’s “Nicest Thing” sounded between them. She looked at his hands on the steering wheel. Capable. Strong. The hands of a man who used them to work hard. They were work rough and sometimes he’d apologize when he’d stroke up her thighs.

  But she liked it. Liked the slight burr. Liked the contrast between using his hands to haul and pick and throw and all that, and the way he touched her.

  “I love that song. It used to make me a little melancholy. I mean who hasn’t felt that way toward someone? The words are so wistful and full of yearning. But now I hear it differently.”

  She’d shifted her gaze from his hands back up to his face. He was smiling. “And how’s that, then?”

  “I was that person, the one in the song. Only not really about anyone, just that dreaming of having someone who knows you so well. I wanted that connection. And now when I hear it, I know I’ve found him. It’s like reading back through journal entries from a year ago, or from a time in your life when things were very bad. You appreciate it all the more now that you’ve weathered that storm. You’re different because of whatever that moment is. You’re that moment, that person. You’re my nicest thing.”

  Royal took a deep breath. “I don’t think we’ve really talked a whole lot about me and Anne because it’s weird. I know it’s unusual that she and I are such close friends. But you seem to deal with it in stride and I love you for it and I also love that you’re secure in my feelings for you.”

  “Pffft. Listen, mister, if she ever steps over the line again I will take her out. However, she seems to be a total idiot and gave you up. Her loss is my gain and I will not tolerate any nonsense.”

  “You are a zero-tolerance-for-nonsense sort of person. At last with your grandparents even. Anyway I’ve touched on most of it, but not what finally drove me away.”

  She waited, not wanting to spook him.

  “You were talking about that song, and I hadn’t heard it before but I heard it in two ways too. The obvious one is that you’re that special and important to me. All the time I was with Anne, she was settling. And part of me knew it. And part of her knew it. But I loved her and kept hoping she’d love me, and she was comfortable with me so she never really made a move to go. So I took whatever she gave me and lied to myself that the closeness we had was enough. That it was love in its own way. And it was. It is.

  “I don’t even know if the last year or so we were together that I actually believed it. But she and I just let ourselves get comfortable. And I watched another one of my friends truly fall in love with someone who deserved them, and it just hit me that I could not live that way another day. She came to my house, the old one, before this one was finished, anyway, and I’d packed up her stuff that she’d left around and I ended it once and for all. I got some coverage here at the ranch and I took off. I was in San Diego for a month. I just needed to be gone.”

  And, if Caroline wasn’t wrong, to try to fuck himself into happiness. But he wasn’t that type. Oh sure fucking felt good, but fucking to fill up some empty space in your life never worked.

  “I came back, and there was a time when I think she waited to see how it was going to go. We’d always gotten together in the past. But I was done. Being gone it just allowed me to really own my shit. I told myself the day I came back to Petal that I would never settle for someone who didn’t love me as much as I loved her. It’s lonely and fucked up even when both people truly care about one another. I look at you, or I hear your laugh, smell you on my sheets, and I know not only how I feel but how you feel. I see it reflected on your face, or in the tone you use when you talk about me. I never feel like I’m not quite enough when I’m with you. That means everything. Despite being shot at and broken into and vandalized and threatened, I wouldn’t trade this. I never expected what you’ve given me.”

  “Yep. We’re awesome all right.” He took her hand and squeezed briefly.

  Of course he insisted on escorting her inside where her window had been replaced and a special film put over it to make it impossible to see in. She also had new curtains and her desk had been moved.

  “Wow. Thanks.”

  Holly grinned, handed her a mug of coffee, a stack of messages a
nd welcomed her back.

  She worked her way through her day steadily until she looked up to find Anne Murphy in her doorway.

  “It’s lunchtime and I’m starving. And I bet William will be extra nice to you if I take you along with me to the Honey Bear. You know, he’ll ply you with treats and because you have good manners you’ll share. Also you’ve had a pretty craptastic time of it lately, and I think you could probably use a break.”

  “Thanks. Yeah I’m hungry.” She stood and carefully reached to grab her wallet from her bag.

  “You’re okay to walk a few blocks? Tate said you had to get stitches in two places.”

  “I’m fine. The stitches are in my back and arm. Thanks for asking.” She checked in with Holly, sure to tell her where they were headed, and they made their way out and down to the sidewalk.

  “So Tate told you? How’d she…oh! Matt. I forgot for a moment.”

  “This time next year you’ll be saying how’s your momma and that’s so precious like an expert again. First you need to remember that nothing is a secret in this town very long. A friend of Beth’s saw Royal in the hospital with you yesterday and was telling everyone how gone he is for you. So don’t touch your stomach in public or everyone will start timing your cycles to see if you’re knocked up.”

  “Joy. I mean, toe to toe with getting shot at, I’ll choose everyone in town knowing when I’m on the dot.”

  When they went into the front doors of the Honey Bear, Maryellen saw her and came over to gently hug her. “Honey, how are you? Melissa told us all about that whole mess yesterday. Come on back and have a seat. Get off your feet. Hey, Anne, I really do love that new hair color. Looks so pretty on you.”

  Maryellen grabbed menus and took them to an open table. She looked at Anne. “You’re an orange soda and you’re cherry vanilla coke, right?”

  Both women nodded and looked over the menu before ordering. William sent out orange sticky buns as a treat for Caroline, who shared them with Anne.