Lucky Number Thirteen: An Inspirational Western Romance Novella (Three Rivers Ranch Romance Book 9)

by Isaacson, Liz

  “Maybe you’ll be dating before you know it.” She stood with the other nurses, somehow keeping up with the meeting and the conversation. Summer watched her go, wondering how Belinda knew everything Summer thought or felt. Maybe she wore her emotions on her face, too easy for everyone to read.

  She collected Tanner’s chart, along with her wits, and knocked on his door. “Good morning,” she said as she entered and found him sitting up in bed. He clicked off the TV and grinned at her. The power of his smile at full wattage nearly knocked her backward. She stumbled at the sight of his tan face, his short stubble, his straight teeth. Without pain to hamper him, without drugs to subdue him, he was glorious and handsome.

  “Morning. I didn’t see you yesterday.”

  “It was my day off.” She took his temperature and pulse, making notes on his chart. “You’re set to be released today. Doctor Verdad just needs to come over and meet with you.”

  “I’m not in a hurry,” he said. “I have friends coming to pick me up, but they can’t come until this afternoon.”

  “All right.” Summer wrote on his chart. “I’ll tell Doctor Verdad that. I also see that you’ll be receiving home health for eight weeks to help with the recovery. Where will you be staying?”

  “With Ethan Greene. Do you know where he lives?”

  “Built a house on the west edge of town, I think. What’s the address?”

  Tanner chuckled, but nervousness filled the sound. “I don’t really know. I was supposed to go see the house after the rodeo, and well….”

  “I’ll ask him,” she said to fill the uncomfortable silence. “How long will you be staying with him?”

  “I don’t know.” Tanner leaned his head back against his pillow. “Hopefully not very long.”

  Summer looked at him, directly at him, something she hadn’t allowed herself to do yet. “So will you not be using the full eight weeks of home health?”

  “I sure hope not,” he said darkly.

  “Because you’ll be leaving town? I mean, you don’t live here, right?”

  His eyes flashed, but Sumer couldn’t quite read the emotion in them. “I have a place in Colorado Springs,” he said. “But I’m hardly there anyway. I suppose it won’t matter if I stay here for eight weeks, or ten, or forever.”

  Must be nice, she thought. She couldn’t imagine having houses all over the country, or not having to worry about paying for them. She cleared her jealous thoughts and said, “So is that a yes to the eight weeks of home health? It’s usually best to commit to the full term.”

  “I think I can manage myself,” he said. “Ethan and Brynn will be there to help me.”

  Disappointment cut through Summer. “All right,” she said airily. “I’ll tell the doctor to assign me to someone else.” She turned to leave his bedside, but his fingers curled around her forearm.

  Heat rushed through her body like she’d been dipped in pure sunshine. She sucked in a breath that echoed through the quiet room and focused on the point of contact. His large hand gripped her arm with a gentleness she didn’t know a man so bulky could possess.

  She looked back at Tanner and found a flush in his face. He blinked and the spell between them broke. “You’re going to be my home health nurse?” His fingers slipped from her skin, leaving her cold and empty.

  “I was assigned this morning, yes.”

  “Assigned,” he repeated, his voice softening.

  Summer didn’t know how to tell him she’d desperately wanted his case but had been too afraid to volunteer herself. So she simply said, “Your breakfast should be up in a few minutes,” and got out of there before she did something completely inappropriate—like kiss him.

  She pressed her back against his closed door and breathed. Breathed like she’d forgotten how when she’d entered his presence. Margie exited the room next door, startling Summer into her next task. Maybe being Tanner’s homecare nurse was a bad idea. She tried to convince herself to find Dr. Brady and ask him to assign someone else as she made her rounds, gave out meds, and started delivering breakfast.

  She entered Tanner’s room and found him sitting in the recliner instead of the bed. “Look at you.” She grinned and set his breakfast on the rolling tray.

  “I’ll commit to the eight weeks of homecare,” he said, his eyes boring straight into hers. “If you promise not to treat me like I’m about to break.”

  She pushed the cart in front of him and leaned into it. “Mister Wolf, by the time I’m finished with you, you’ll wish you’d never said those words.” She grinned and started laughing, glad when his deep chuckle mingled with hers.

  “After I finish eating, will you walk with me?” he asked.

  She pretended to check something on the monitor behind him though he wasn’t hooked up to it. “Sure,” she said. “But you have physical therapy at ten this morning.”

  “And you’ll walk me over there?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good, because yesterday some guy came and got me, and I didn’t like it nearly as much as you tellin’ me about your life.” He grinned at her, something dangerous and electric in his eyes just before he dropped them to his plate of food. “Oh, and I’m gonna need more to eat than this. I swear you’re trying to starve me here.”

  “Well, most of our patients aren’t as…big as you.”

  “Are you saying I’m fat?” He grinned, that twinkle in his eye downright charming. It stole her breath and made her abandon her status as Queen of First Dates. She wanted a lot of dates with this man.

  She giggled and put a couple of steps between them so she wasn’t inhaling the manly scent of his skin. All those manly pheromones clouded her reason. “You just have more muscles than we normally see on our patients.”

  “Well, wrestling a four-hundred-pound calf to the ground ain’t easy.” He frowned and his countenance darkened. “Of course, walking ain’t easy right now.”

  Compassion filled her, almost choking her. “You’ll get back to where you were,” she said.

  He shook his head. “Nope. Not gonna ride again.”

  “Maybe not in a rodeo,” Summer said, her heart expanding for this man. “But surely you’ll be able to ride a horse again. You could rope.”

  Tanner met her eye and held it. “We’ll see.”

  “Yes, we will.” She gave him a careful smile, one she hoped didn’t come across as too flirty. “I’ll see you later, okay? Ring me if you need anything.”

  5

  Tanner wanted to ring for Summer every other minute. He constantly talked himself out of pushing that blasted button. He didn’t need pain medication, and he could get up and get his own drink of water.

  After a half an hour of arguing with himself he got up and left his room. She’d said she’d walk with him, but he didn’t see her at the nurse’s station. He didn’t want to ask after her, thinking that too obvious when he’d been traipsing around the floor alone for a couple of days without her. So he set his feet to walking as best as he could, trying to employ the strategies he’d learned in his physical therapy over the past two sessions.

  He tired quickly but decided to go around one more time, his hopes hovering near the clouds that he’d see Summer. She came out of his room as he rounded the corner, her expression worried.

  “Hey,” he called, immediately cursing himself for practically yelling at her from down the hall.

  Relief eased her features back to their usual gorgeousness. “There you are.” She strode toward him. “You have physical therapy in an hour. You shouldn’t be up.”

  “I said I wanted to go for a walk. You were supposed to come with me.” He put his hand on her arm and leaned on her. “I should’ve brought a stand or something.”

  She moved closer to him and leant him her strength. “You shouldn’t have gone so far.”

  “I’ll be okay.” He wanted to lift his arm over her shoulders, but the thought of what pain would cascade through his ribs was enough to keep him from doing so.

 
; And he was okay through physical therapy. He’d asked Summer about the church in town, and she spent the walk to the PT unit talking about the pastor, the people, the picnics. He wanted to experience them all, and when she came to pick him up, he asked, “Can I go to church with you next week?”

  She stalled, her step pausing before picking up again. “Well, Ethan and Brynn go every week.”

  “Oh, sure they do.” Tanner focused on the end of the hallway, every cell in his body tired. He probably had overdone it with the walking this morning, doubled with the physical therapy. Suddenly the possibility of the male aide pushing him back to his room in a wheelchair sounded great.

  He wasn’t sure how to say he didn’t want to go to church with Ethan and Brynn. In a lot of ways, he felt far inferior to Ethan, like he’d never measure up. He’d dismissed the fleeting thoughts as they tried to infiltrate his mind over the past months. He did again now, replacing those negative feelings with a sense of gratitude instead.

  Still, he wanted to sit by Summer at church. He liked her smile, enjoyed the way she put him at ease, wanted to breathe in the floral undertone of her scent. “Can I sit by you anyway?” he asked, deciding to be brave and lay a couple of cards on the table. “Or do you have someone you sit by? You know, a boyfriend or someone?” He resolutely kept his eyes on the elevator bank at the end of the hall.

  Summer tipped her head back and laughed, the sound delicious and carefree in Tanner’s ears. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Oh, well, then the seat next to you is open, right?”

  “I usually sit by my parents.”

  “You have two sides.” Tanner realized he was being relentless, and part of him angered. Why was it so hard to overcome the man he’d been? If she didn’t want to sit by him, she didn’t have to sit by him.

  They reached the elevator and Summer pushed the button to call the car. “I do have two sides, Mister Wolf, and I’d love to sit by you at church.” She beamed up at him, the sincerity in her blue eyes diving straight into his heart.

  *

  Tanner got discharged that afternoon, and the drive to Ethan’s house nearly undid his composure. He’d slept for hours, but his ribs did not like the tiny jostles of the truck. Even the slightest bump sent pain from front to back. He was panting by the time Ethan pulled alongside his truck.

  The house before them fit Ethan to a T. Dark gray siding and white trim, with a black garage door, the house rose two stories above ground with a beautiful lawn.

  “Thanks for bringing my stuff here,” Tanner said, spying his horse trailer on the side of the garage.

  “Brynn has dinner ready,” Ethan said, but he made no move to get out of the truck. “I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out to Courage Reins. Not right away, but maybe once your ribs can handle it.”

  “Courage Reins? That’s the therapeutic center, right?”

  “Right.” Ethan twisted and looked at him.

  “I’m fine, Ethan.” Tanner reached for the door handle, unwilling to have this conversation today. No, he hadn’t come to terms with everything he’d lost, but he didn’t need to right away.

  Ethan waited for him at the front of the truck, which annoyed Tanner. He could walk into the house by himself. Ethan didn’t touch him, didn’t try to coach him up the front steps, just followed him, his steady breathing almost as much of a comfort as it was an annoyance.

  “The guest room is in the basement,” Ethan said. “If that doesn’t work, you can take our bedroom.”

  “I’m not taking your bedroom,” Tanner growled. “The basement’s fine.”

  Brynn wiped her hands on her apron as she came out of the kitchen. “Tanner.” Her smile was made of nerves as she stretched up to kiss his cheek. “I made hamburgers and potato salad.”

  “You can cook?” he asked in a playful tone.

  “Hey.” She swatted at his bicep and he started to flinch away when a sharp pain radiated through his core. He groaned and her face paled. “Come sit down.”

  “I’m fine,” he said, though his breath came quick and left quicker. He hobbled to the kitchen table and sat in a chair, the cast on his lower leg a heavy burden. He reminded himself that he’d only have to wear it for a week or so, determined to find all the silver linings he could.

  Ethan joined Brynn in the kitchen and he sliced tomatoes while she murmured to him about making over-easy eggs for the hamburgers. Tanner knew the egg was for him—he loved a fried egg on his hamburger, and both Brynn and Ethan knew it.

  He didn’t tell them they didn’t need to make the eggs. Everything seemed too heavy for him at the moment. Living with them. Trying to get around by himself. Being responsible for his own pain care. Everything.

  He managed to make it through dinner and get down to the guest room. Ethan had set up a TV across from the bed, and the bathroom was right across the hall. Tanner wouldn’t have to go upstairs unless he wanted to get to the kitchen, and Brynn said she’d bring his food down to him. Whatever was easiest.

  They left, and Tanner made himself as comfortable as possible in the bed. What would be easiest would to be whole again. His thoughts spiraled into fury, and he stared at the dark TV. “Why did this happen to me?” he whispered, finally allowing the reality of his future to fully cover him.

  No more rodeo.

  No more roping.

  No more bull riding.

  No more traveling.

  Tanner had been on the rodeo circuit for twelve years—his entire adult life. He had no idea how to live in one place for more than a couple of months. No idea how to do much besides train a horse and throw a rope. He had no college education, no technical experience.

  Doesn’t matter, he told himself. He’d been reckless in his past, wild even. But not with his money. He had plenty to live on, probably for the rest of his life.

  “Still can’t lie around all day,” he muttered to himself. His emotions seemed to be on a roller coaster, first soaring toward fury, then settling toward acceptance, all within the timespan of a heartbeat.

  True, he didn’t need a job to survive. He was lucky that way. But he did need something to do with his life. Some sort of purpose.

  As he closed his eyes and wished for sleep, he prayed that God would let him know what he should do with his life now that he didn’t have the rodeo.

  The next morning, he got up early so he could be ready for church on time. He waited on the couch in a pair of Ethan’s slacks and one of Ethan’s black-and-white plaid shirts. The clothes fit well enough, if Tanner wasn’t all that worried about the fabric pulling across his shoulders and the pants not quite reaching the floor the way they should. He had about forty pounds on Ethan, a couple of inches, and broader shoulders.

  “You’re ready already?” Ethan asked as he came padding out of his bedroom. “We don’t have to leave for an hour.”

  “Didn’t want anyone waitin’ on me. I even made coffee.” He lifted the mug he’d poured for himself. He wouldn’t tell Ethan he was already so tired that he wanted to go back to bed for a few hours. He also hadn’t told Ethan about his arrangement to sit with the pretty, available Summer Hamblin.

  No time like the present, he thought.

  Ethan finished pouring his coffee and joined Tanner in the living room. “So, once we get to church, I need to find Summer Hamblin,” Tanner said.

  Ethan choked and slopped his coffee onto the back of his hand, bolted to standing, and hurried into the kitchen. He ran cold water over his hand and cleaned up his coffee spill. “Summer Hamblin?”

  “She said I could sit by her.”

  Ethan got over his initial shock and started laughing. “Leave it to you to find a date in the hospital.”

  “It’s not a date,” Tanner said. “It’s church. You’re the one who said I should go.”

  “Absolutely you should. How long you been goin’?”

  “About a year.”

  Ethan beamed at him. “Good for you, Tanner. How’s it going?”

 
Tanner exhaled and took another sip of his coffee. “Slower than I thought, actually. You make everything look easy.” He slid Ethan a mock glare.

  His friend chuckled. “Change is always easier on the outside,” he said. “It took me a while too. You’ll get there.” He refilled his coffee cup and came back into the living room. “And Summer Hamblin is a nice girl.”

  “You know her?”

  “Superficially. See her at church every week. Her brothers are big rodeo fans.” Ethan threw him a grin. “So you have that going for you.”

  “Not in the rodeo anymore, remember?” Tanner wished his words didn’t have quite so much bite.

  “It’s not all lost yet.” Someone knocked on the door as Ethan finished speaking. He glanced toward it with puzzlement on his face.

  “Wonder who that could be.” Ethan got up to answer the door, blocking who stood on the porch. A higher, feminine voice reached Tanner’s ears, but never in a million years did he expect Ethan to step back to allow Daisy Keller entrance to his house.

  Tanner couldn’t even get up and hide. So he sat rooted in place, everything inside him icing over. “What are you doing here?” he asked as she drew nearer. He hadn’t seen Daisy in probably two years. She’d been his last fling before he’d decided to give religion a try. Their relationship hadn’t ended well, to say the least.

  “I heard about your accident,” she said. Her voice didn’t belong in Texas. Didn’t have enough twang, enough sway to the words. “I came to see how you were doing. Your mama said you were staying here.”

  “I’m fine.” Tanner switched his gaze to Ethan, silently pleading for him to get Daisy out of here.

  “Ethan,” Brynn called. “Are you showering or can I get in?”

  “Coming,” Ethan said. “I’ll let you two get caught up.” He continued past Tanner, clearly misinterpreting the glare Tanner sent him.

  “You should go,” Tanner said as soon as Ethan’s bedroom door closed.

  Daisy laughed. “I’m not going to go. It took me two days to get here.” She glanced around Ethan’s house like it held more manure than she liked. “This place is out in the middle of nowhere.”