Cowboy Welcome

by Alyssa Bailey

  Speaking to Connor, who held onto a shaken and clingy Joey, Zane spat out directions after he heard from the attendants what happened.

  “Ask that asshole deputy where the hell Shanna’s car is and get the damn keys.”

  Cassie’s eyes seemed to grow as big as saucers and she snuggled deeper into the arms of her obviously irritated boyfriend as he tightened them around her for comfort.

  “Zane, it wasn’t our fault…” Cassie began to explain in the face of so much irritation from her brother that he cursed fluidly.

  “Hush, honey, I know it wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry to cuss in front of you, but I am not angry with you, sweetheart. I am angry you are still here and were not at least allowed to go to your hotel.”

  “Oh, that deputy would have let Cassie and me go, but not Shanna and we couldn’t leave her, you know. Who would leave their friend and almost sister?” ended Joey with a hitch in her voice.

  “Shh, I know, Joey. Don’t worry, honey. I have this. You just wait for Connor to come back and bring me the keys. Let me get Shanna changed. Where are her clothes?”

  The deputy came back and said, “Sir, those clothes are evidence. They were ripped and I needed to keep them.” After looking at Zane a few seconds, he reiterated and clarified, “for evidence,” and after another few seconds he added, “Mr. Gideon, we have some clothes for her if she needs them.”

  “What do you mean ‘if she needs them,' why wouldn’t she need clothes?”

  Zane’s frustration was clearly heard and seen, creating an expectant hush while everyone in the room tried to think fast so Zane would not aim his poison darts of irritation at them.

  “Well, we were going to press charges for assaulting an officer of the law but decided she was under exceptional duress.”

  “You were going to what? Joey, give him Chandler’s contact information so he can contact our attorney for any further hair-brained conversations.”

  Zane must have had a look of thunder and lightning because as soon as Connor walked back in the little exam room with the keys, he found the deputy fidgeting in the corner. Connor heard Joey trying to speak in that ‘let's look at this calmly’ voice. He saw Shanna dozing, occasionally sniffling in her sleep holding on to Zane for dear life, which shot straight to the protective side of his heart. He looked over at Dylan, who shot back a look that read exactly what Connor had been thinking so Connor spoke it.

  “Let’s get our women out of here before you get too intoxicated on anger due to other’s stupidity, Zane.”

  Leading the way, they walked out of the hospital. Conner with Joey tucked under his arm, Dylan with a protective arm around Cassie, and Zane carrying Shanna in a little sundress that was simple but covered her.

  He got her to the truck and tossed Shanna’s keys to Dylan. “Can you and Cassie stop at the hotel and get them checked out? Joey, do you have Shanna’s bag with her ID and things in it?”

  “Oh, the deputy took her wallet with her ID and I don’t think I got it back,” remembered Joey cringing with the expectation of the next explosion from her brother.

  Quickly, before Zane growled anymore and the colorful language started up again, Connor began to move as he said, “I have it. I’ll go get it, just hold on. You go and get their things, Dylan. Just leave the keys in the room. You okay to do that, Cassie?”

  “Oh, sure, we can take care of the room. You just get Shanna home and Zane calm. I am afraid he is going to annihilate someone.”

  Connor nodded, went in for the wallet, came out with it along with the deputy’s information, and started out of town with Zane stretched out in the back holding Shanna and Joey next to Connor. After a few miles, Joey began to fill in the blanks. It was twenty minutes later that Shanna started to wake up and immediately was tense as though she was in danger again. She was responding to the perceived threat with some alarmed noises and tentative movements as though she did not quite recognize where she was. She was still disoriented in the medication fog. She tried to place the voice of Zane from dream to reality. Shanna’s mind began recalling the earlier trauma and she started to respond in the same terrified fight or flight manner. Shanna never froze in emergencies. Shanna wasn’t one to start any altercation, except with Zane. However, she was never reticent to end it so she was ramping up to full battle mode.

  “Shanna, stop, baby, it’s me. It’s Zane.” It was as though she was not processing, pushing at his strong encircling arms. After a few moments of struggling and not able to get through her fear and fog, Zane reached back and brought his hand down on her barely protected ass. Several sharp, swift swats to Shanna’s bottom and she immediately stopped, stiffened, then relaxed, and sighed, “Hmmm.”

  Quietly murmuring in her ear Zane soothed Shanna, “Hush, baby. I have you, you are safe. You just had something for your anxiety, and it made you tired. I have you with me now. Go back to sleep.” All the while Zane spoke gently to Shanna just as he did to gentle his horses, only with a love so deep it wrapped around Shanna like a cloak.

  “Zane.” Shanna smiled, sniffed his shirt, “You smell good. Yellowish green and purple. Angry, scared. I’m sorry.” Then, as if satisfied, it was truly Zane, made another sighing sound and snuggled back into his chest to fall into a restful sleep.

  Connor and Joey laughed hard as Zane chuckled and kissed Shanna on the top of her sleeping head. Zane thought it was the cutest thing he had ever seen that Shanna immediately related the swats to him and it reassured her. Yeah, mine. All Mine.

  Chapter Nine

  Shanna slept the rest of the night in one of the guestrooms at the ranch and when she awoke later that morning, she got up to an empty room. She was wearing a big tee shirt she thought must have been Zane’s and seeing she had nothing else but the little unfamiliar sundress on the dresser, exchanged the tee shirt for the dress.

  Earlier that morning, Zane had stepped out to get a look at some of the new breeding stock that was arriving that day. He had decided to take over running the stables when he met Shanna. He had walked into the house from the airport, greeted his parents, and took it on that night. Of course, they were thrilled and relieved he had made that decision, for it was what they had hoped he would do. His father could see more grandchildren in his future. Now Zane needed to add stock as he assessed and devised a plan for growth and improvement to his stables.

  He had been confident that Shanna would sleep most of the morning, and so after checking on her, he gave the housekeeper instructions to call him when she woke up. Shana couldn’t remember much of the evening and none of the night, thanks to the medication, but knew she just wanted to be home. Deep down, if Shanna were being truthful to herself, she would have acknowledged that she wished home was with Zane, not an either or proposition.

  Shanna shook her head. It was too much to consider right now the depth of the feelings that propelled that thought. Her head was still fuzzy. She wasn’t entirely sure protecting her heart was what she wanted anymore. She was also unsure if protecting her heart meant not letting Zane in, for it felt as if self-preservation was giving herself over to Zane. Not just sexually, although the release and surrender to him would be incredible, yielding her heart, mind, and soul would be harder. Her emotions were tied up in knots and she did not know how she would survive the intensity of the ensuing chaos.

  Then there was Zane. There was always Zane. She missed him. She didn’t think he was angry with her because she remembered his soothing tone and how he held her so securely when she would rouse, wrapping arms of comfort and protection around her. What had happened with the sheriff’s deputy? Where were her discharge papers to help fill in some blanks? Were Cassie and Joey safe? Shanna began to wonder when did I fall so hard for a man that I would rather be with him than anything else. When did I let someone else take over so effortlessly?

  Shanna knew she had never felt that strongly attached to her ex, and for good reason. He had never earned the privilege. Zane, because he had earned her respect, he expected it. He
expected her to let him take care of her, and she had no doubt he had taken care of everything yesterday, but at what cost? Did he decide she was too much trouble and better rid of her to uncomplicate his life? Is that why he was gone when she woke up this morning? Was she more than he could or would handle?

  There were certainly more questions than answers and Shanna knew she would need to get some of them from Zane, but right now, all she wanted was her own bed. After moving into a small one-bedroom place of her own, she was desperate to get there and lick her wounds. After going to the bathroom, she grabbed the bag that she had brought with her on the trip which someone had graciously left for her at the bathroom door, grabbed Zane’s tee, grabbed the spare keys out of her bag, and left. She quickly jumped into her car and went home ruthlessly ignoring the feeling of loss as she drove away. Unfortunately, the housekeeper was doing laundry in the back of the residence when Shanna left and never knew she was gone.

  Driving home, she realized she missed Zane already and if she was honest, he was her addiction. She admitted that she spent many hours of a day trying to ignore the craving of him, the desire to seek him out in any arena. She planned her life around the next time she would be able to partake of his presence. It was undeniably the definition of addiction. The thing was, she had no desire to correct or change her habits, she was happy to keep the routine of Zane Gideon her whole life, but was he?

  She had just spent an evening, causing him trouble she never meant to cause. Took a night he needed to have sleep and when he came back and found her gone soon, a morning of…what? Would he even notice right away that she was gone? Did he care enough to check? Dear Lord, make him care because I need him. The phone rang as Shanna pulled into her driveway and she smiled when she saw the name on her radio console dash. Zane. A roller coaster tummy ride appeared to be in motion again.

  In one word, it was just a name, but that name meant so much to Shanna. It meant she had a protector and a champion whether she needed one or not. She had someone to listen to her stories and tell her as it was even when she would rather not hear it. He was always on her side, even if the side he was on included her upturned bottom assisting in a corrective action plan, his plan for her correction in action.

  Shanna punched the button on her steering wheel to answer her cell phone, “Hey.”

  “Hey yourself, are you driving?” Just a straightforward question filled with loads of unspoken demands. He expected a forthright answer and Shanna was a little bit surprised that that was the first thing he said to her. And equally happy she could be absolutely honest and it would not result in a lecture.

  “No, I just drove into my driveway, so I was sitting in the car to answer the phone. That is not a loving way to talk to me first thing in the morning. Did you get any sleep at all?”

  Shanna could hear the frustrated sounds that he made on the other side of the line and she smiled. It was not often that she caught him off guard taking him off his chosen path. He tried to stay solidly in control and it was nice when she could do it. Her voice showed that she was a little tickled and that she was still smiling when she responded further to him.

  “I had a whole different night than that planned and well you know it, missy. I also spent a very frustrating and unfulfilled evening followed by restless wee morning hours.”

  “I had a really easy night, well at least after you came to my rescue, and I was sleeping the whole time after that, or at least I think I was. It was sweet of you to let me stay the night at your house.”

  “My parent’s house and you were supposed to still be here when I got back. What made you leave so soon? I thought you would sleep a lot longer or at least be asleep by the time I came back. I wasn’t gone long.”

  Shanna shrugged as she answered his question as though he was in front of her and could see her nonverbal communication as well as hear her verbal.

  “I felt a little awkward being in your parents’ house, so I thought I’d just come home. I needed a shower anyway. I couldn’t take one at your parents’ house. I thought I would make a little breakfast and kind of relax for the rest of the day. I did not expect to be home until late today, so I thought I would just hang out. Did you need something?”

  Shanna heard another frustrated sound and it warmed her heart that Zane had wanted her to be there when he came back. Not that that was going to make any difference about whether she let him take over her life, but it certainly did make her feel warm and fuzzy. Being warm and fuzzy after yesterday was nothing to shake a stick at that was for sure.

  “You didn’t need to feel awkward at my parents’ house. I am sorry that you did because I would not have left and gone to take care of some things first thing this morning if I had known. I would have stayed and watched you sleep. Watching you sleep would have been a bit more enjoyable anyway.”

  “Zane, we didn’t…didn’t sleep in the same, um, bed last night, did we?” Shanna asked in a shocked way, as though she was a virgin, having found out she lost her virginity without her knowledge.

  Zane laughed a full, deep-chested laugh. “No, baby, we did not sleep together. Not that I wouldn’t have loved to have sex with you, you understand, but it would never have done either one of us any good. You slept the whole night, hard as a rock. You didn’t move an inch.”

  “If you didn’t sleep with me, then how do you know that is how I slept, that I did not move around?”

  Shanna asked with great suspicion. She didn’t think that he would have had sex with her without her permission, even lying on the bed with her would be something she would want to agree to and it sure sounded like it. She knew as she said it that Zane would have been in such a protective mode, if needed, he would have definitely slept with her. If he thought that is what it would take to give her peace in her sleep, she had no doubt that that is what he would have done.

  “I promise, I promise, we did not sleep together,” Zane said, laughing. “I did not sleep in the same room with you, but I did put you to bed. I did check on you and hold you when you were restless. I did go in there in the middle of the night and I checked on you before I left to go out to work on the ranch, so I know how much you moved. I say again that you hardly moved at all. I figure it was that medication they gave you to control you when you were kicking at that damn idiot deputy.”

  Zane’s voice hardened immediately and Shanna knew he was angry about what had happened, but she just was not sure what that was. Her memory was sketchy at best.

  “Good to know it takes more than brute strength to get the better of my baby.”

  Shanna felt panic begin to tighten her chest as her mind started to drift to the events of the night before. She did not want to go there yet. She needed to change the subject.

  “Stop. I need to go in the house now. Do you want to come over later today? I know you are working and you have a lot of stuff to do. I’m sorry I took you away from everything yesterday. So if you have to make up work, I get it, but if you do not and want to, why don’t you just come over. I might take a nap later on because I am still somewhat woozy from yesterday, but actually not too bad. I’m rambling aren’t I?”

  Both laughed at the same time and then laughed because they were both laughing. Zane made sure that Shanna stayed home for the rest of the day and promised to come by later after he had gotten some chores done that he could not put off until tomorrow. Shanna promised to make dinner and Zane promised to eat everything she made, which made them laugh again.

  It was good to feel more at ease because Shanna was concerned about how her first meeting with Zane would be after she had known it to be such a chaotic day, the day before. Actually, she was anxious to sit down with him because she really was not clear on what did happen when she got to the emergency room. She couldn’t remember anything afterward, or much anyway. She worried that without him there to chase her fears away, if she just allowed the memories to flow out, she would panic.

  After sitting for a few moments, she decided that action was a dis
traction and she needed lots of distraction. Shanna checked her cupboards to see what she had to create some kind of dinner. She then went to lay down for a little bit longer finding that she did not have as much energy as she had thought earlier. By noon, she had woken up and found that Zane had called her again. Puzzled, she called him back.

  “Zane, did you call?”

  “Hold on, just a minute,” answered Zane as he took his gloves off and put his wire tool way. “Yeah, I called you. I was just checking on you. How are you doing? Were you sleeping when I called?”

  Tummy tingles again, knowing that he cared. It was something she was not familiar with in her male companions outside of Zane. The tingle put a little shake in her voice. A little tremor that Zane picked up on and caused him to smile.

  “Yeah, I was sleeping a little bit. Did you need something? Do you know when you are going to come over for dinner so I can plan when to have it done? Because actually, I am feeling pretty good now, so I thought I’d go over to the clinic and get some work done so I do not have so much to do on Monday morning.”

  “Why don’t you just rest today, sunshine? I don’t want you to go to work even for a little while because once you get in there you’re hard to get out. I think it is imperative that you just rest. Today we’ll watch a movie or do something that you like to do. Maybe garden a little. You were talking about putting some flowers out, why don't you do that. Just do not go to work. It can last until Monday.”