Southern Charm : A BWWM Cowboy Romance

by Tiana Cole

  “Listen, don’t worry about that. Let’s just keep it our little secret. Plus, there is plenty of empty space in there. You won’t be taking anything from anyone,” she told her with a kind smile.

  “Okay, if you are sure,” Cecilia told the young woman, following her out of the waiting room and down the hallway toward the reserved section. It was situated much closer to intensive care, so she would be right there if anything happened during the night.

  “Here you go. This back section is completely empty tonight, so you can choose from whichever chair you choose and I’ll mark it down on our chart,” the young lady told her, gesturing to a row of empty spaces.

  “Thank you, thank you so much,” she told her. The young woman smiled knowingly.

  “I’ll be out at the main desk just beyond the doors if you need anything else,” she told her before stepping away.

  Cecilia lay back in one of the recliners and watched the TV hanging nearby on the wall. It seemed like only seconds before it all turned to gray and she was embraced by the darkness. The peace didn’t last. She was startled from her sleep by a hand shaking her awake.

  “Mrs. Mayhew?” an older nurse asked as she blinked up at her. “I’m sorry to wake you, but I thought you might want to catch the last visitation before they end for the night. Mr. Mayhew is asking for you.”

  Cecilia was up like a shot, smoothing down her hair and making her way to the intensive care unit. Stepping into Jack’s room, she marveled at how much he seemed to have improved just in the few hours since she had last seen him. She smiled and walked over to the bed, placing her hand on the rail.

  “There’s my girl,” he said, his voice much stronger than it had been earlier.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked as his hand covered hers on the railing.

  “Like someone shot me in the head,” he replied with a smile.

  “Then you remember what happened?” she asked.

  “Unfortunately. Is she still out there? Are there officers here to protect you?” he asked, looking very concerned.

  “Don’t worry about all that. She is back behind bars where she belongs and won’t be getting out anytime soon,” she told him, stroking his arms, his chest, wherever she could reach. The need to touch him was so strong in her, it was as if she couldn’t feel him, and that he wasn’t real, wasn’t safe and alive, and there to worry about her, of all things, the silly lug. He was the one who had just been shot in the head by his psychotic ex girlfriend.

  “I didn’t think she would be getting out anytime soon before, but she did,” he replied, not seeming convinced. Cecilia thought again of the mistake that had allowed her to be set free, gritting her teeth against the flair of anger. She could deal with that later. Jack didn’t need to know all the details just yet. She just wanted him to focus on making a full recovery.

  “Yes, well, you aren’t alone in that. However, I don’t think it is a mistake that will be made again,” she told him, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about that. Just get better so that I can take you home.”

  “I’m going to have a hell of a scar,” he replied, putting a hand to his forehead but only able to meet the layers of bandages that were still wound around his head.

  “Since when are you vain enough to worry about a scar? Besides, don’t you know that chicks dig scars?” she laughed, grabbing his hand, lacing her fingers with his, and pulling them against her chest. Cecilia laughed again at the face he gave her. It was the first time she had been able to do that since all this happened.

  “Only one that I’m worried about,” he replied, looking around the barren intensive care room. He looked distraught for a moment before adding, “Do you know where my things are? Keys, wallet, and stuff?”

  “No idea. Probably in your pants. You want me to see if I can find them?” she asked, looking around now too for any hidden drawers or dressers.

  “Um, no. It’s fine. I’ll get one of the nurses to help me. I just want you to stay right there and let me look at you until they kick you out again.

  I hate that you can’t stay back here with me, but since you can’t, why don’t you go home and get some rest?” He gave her hand another squeeze, trying to convince her, but she noticed it was quite a bit weaker than normal. It would take a while for him to regain his strength, and she was sure the drugs they were pumping into him weren’t helping.

  There was no way in hell she was going to leave him. She remembered when she had been rushed to the emergency room after the incident with the fire in the barn. Jack had stayed by her side every single step of the way, long before she realized that he had feelings for her, let alone was in love with her. He was there for her, and she would be there for him. That was just how things were going to be between them, and if Jack didn’t like it, well… Her thoughts trailed off as she stared down at him in mock severity.

  “That isn’t happening. The doctor said you would go to a regular room once you stabilize and you look like you are doing pretty well, so hopefully you will be out of here and down the hall somewhere tomorrow. In the meantime, they gave me a comfy recliner, a pillow, and a blanket to sleep with in the reserved waiting room, and Hannah gave me an extra of each before she left.

  I’ll be fine,” she told him, even though he still tried to convince her to go home. But what would be the point? She would just worry endlessly about him, be unable to sleep anyways, and end up back here first thing in the morning, bright and early for the next wave of visitation.

  “Hannah was here?” he asked curiously, interrupting her wandering thoughts.

  “Hannah, Tommy, Manny and Cort,” she replied. “Some of the others wanted to come, but Tommy told them to hold off until you were in a room since they couldn’t really get back here to see you.”

  “Yes, I guess they couldn’t all claim to be Mrs. Mayhew,” he said with a sly grin, telling her that she had heard that little lie when the doctor or nurse had called out to let her come back and visit him.

  “I didn’t tell them I was Mrs. Mayhew: they made an assumption,” she tried to defend herself, blushing a little.

  “You just didn’t correct them,” he said, still smiling at her.

  “I was afraid they wouldn’t let me see you if I did,” she explained to him.

  “Or maybe you just like the sound of it,” he coaxed.

  “I’ll never admit such a thing,” she said with a sheepish grin.

  “I think you just did, Mrs. Mayhew,” he teased.

  “And I think you are feeling a lot better if you feel like picking on me about it,” she said, trying to regain her composure and shut down the butterflies bouncing around in her midsection. But the sight of him smiling and joking was doing wonders for her nerves. She had been on edge since early this morning, and now, for the first time, she finally let herself relax. Although his teasing wasn’t helping much with that either.

  “Other than a killer headache, I think I might be just fine,” he answered when she asked him how he was feeling now. Cecilia heard the announcement over the loud speaker that the visitation for intensive care was over and frowned in dismay. She didn’t want to leave him.

  She knew she had been so close to losing him, she didn’t want to let him out of her sight now that she had him back, safe and recovering. She had overheard the doctors say that if the bullet had been less than a quarter of an inch to the right, he would have died.

  She squeezed his hand once more as the fear that had been eating her up inside finally began to dissipate. His eyes were drowsy when she looked down at them, his eyelids already beginning to droop. She knew he needed sleep, even though she hated to go.

  “I guess that is my cue,” she told him hesitatingly, leaning down to kiss him softly on the lips.

  “Okay. I will see you in the morning. I still wish you would go home and get some rest though,” he replied, still trying to convince her even as his eyelids slid shut sleepily.

  “I will go home when you go home,” she whispered the words soft

ly.

  “We will see about all that. Someone has to run the ranch,” he mumbled.

  “Tommy can handle it for a few days,” she told him, giving his hand one final squeeze before letting go. She felt like that was the hardest thing she had ever had to do. “I’ll see you in the morning, my love. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight,” he replied a bit glumly, and when she looked back once more before she let the room, she saw that his chest was already rising and falling in the rhythmic breathing of sleep. There was a small tired smile on her face as she made her way back to the waiting lobby.

  Cecilia returned to her recliner and curled up under the blankets. Even though it wasn’t the most comfortable sleeping arrangement, she quickly dozed off again. The day’s events had left her too exhausted to worry with much beyond Jack and getting some rest. She drifted off to sleep, waking throughout the night to shift in the recliner before dozing some more. Somewhere around five a.m., she gave up on getting any sort of real sleep and gathered her things. The food Hannah had brought still sat in a bag beside her purse. She realized she was hungry, but it was certainly not edible now. Walking down to the intensive care unit, she noted that there were no visitation hours until seven a.m.

  “What time does the doctor make rounds?” she asked the nurse at the station outside the unit.

  “Usually not until about seven or eight,” the woman replied, briefly looking up from the stack of charts she held in her hands.

  “Okay. Thank you,” Cecilia replied. She walked down the hall to the restroom and began freshening up as best she could with the limited items in her purse.

  Her clothes were a bit crumpled and her hair was a mess, but she found some pins to secure it up so that it wasn’t falling everywhere, and she smoothed her shirt with a damp hand and the heat from the hand dryer on the wall. Afterward, she made her way down to the lobby.

  The hospital cafeteria wasn’t open yet, but if she remembered correctly, there was a small café just down the block.

  Sitting down over a plate of hot pancakes with a side of bacon and eggs, Cecilia found she was ravenous. She ate most of what she was served, along with two cups of coffee before making her way a little further down to the only open grocery store where she could buy a toothbrush and some toothpaste before returning to the hospital.

  She brushed her teeth in the restroom and returned to the intensive care floor. It was almost time for visitation by the time she got there.

  “Oh, Mrs. Mayhew, you just missed the doctor. They are in the process of moving your husband down to room eight thirty two if you’d like to go ahead and wait down there. It’s straight down the hall, about the sixth door on the right,” the nurse at the station told her as she saw her pass by. Her words left Cecilia elated and she quickly headed in the direction the nurse had pointed out to her.

  “Thank you!” Cecilia replied excitedly, the words thrown over her shoulder as she practically ran to the room. Perfect timing on getting back and great news. Things were looking better already. She headed down the hall toward Jack’s room, pacing back and forth as she waited for them to bring him in. It was a huge surprise when she saw him being rolled in with a wheelchair rather than on a gurney for transfer to the bed.

  “You ready to do some wheelies down the hall?” he asked playfully as they brought him in.

  “Someone is feeling much better,” she replied, unable to keep the massive grin off of her face.

  “You bet I am. The drugs don’t hurt either,” he laughed. She smiled at him again as the nurse helped him up and into the bed.

  The nurse checked his IV, and then hung his chart on a peg on the wall, making a few marks before departing with a stern warning for Jack to not cause any trouble.

  Cecilia sent him another sly grin as she teased him. “Have you been causing trouble, Mr. Mayhew?”

  “Always.” He grinned back at her before holding out a hand, a gesture that was impossible for her to resist.

  “Come here and kiss me,” he told her after he was situated and they had been left alone. Cecilia walked to the bed and gave him a soft kiss on the lips, before placing her head on his shoulder in a half hug, half cuddle. Everything was going to be okay. They lay there against one another, grateful to be alive and together. The worst was past them now and it was only a matter of getting back to their lives together.

  Cecilia gave Tommy a quick call as Jack rested, letting them know that he had been moved, and the room number, telling him that Jack was doing better and if they wanted to come see him his room was now open for visitation from eight am to nine in the evening.

  Tommy said a quick thanks, and that he would let everyone know. By the time she got back to the room, he was awake again, smiling at her, looking almost like his normal self again if she could ignore the giant white bandage on his head.

  They were laying together on the hospital bed, Jack’s arms wrapped tightly around her, when Tommy’s bald head stuck through the door.

  “Uh, hey guys,” he said with a small grin, “is this a bad time?”

  “Shut up, Tommy,” Jack replied good naturedly. “It’s always a bad time for you,” he teased, before shooting him a big welcoming smile.

  Cecilia climbed out of the bed, part of her hating to break the contact between them, but as everyone from the ranch filed in with hugs and well wishes, she couldn’t stop the surge of love and affection she had for these people who had grown to mean so much to her, and she knew meant the world to Jack. They truly were a family.

  After they left, the room was filled with get well balloons, and brightly colored flowers, and even a giant stuffed teddy bear that held a heart reading, “best wishes for a speedy recovery.” They had all laughed at that as Tommy had handed it to him. Too big to hold, they had ended up sitting it on the chair, the only available space big enough for it.

  Two days later, and the doctors cleared Jack to leave the hospital, leaving him with a long list of instructions to care for his still healing wound, but as there was no brain damage, he was free to go.

  They drove back to the ranch, holding hands the entire time, and more than ready to put the entire episode behind them.

  Chapter 10

  Several months later, the scar near Jack’s temple was barely visible below the re-growth of hair around it. Barbara remained in jail, where she would be for a very long time, thanks to the additional attempted murder charges.

  It was unfortunate that her brother, Steve, one of Jack’s oldest friends, had decided to leave the ranch for employment several states away, but the stigma of Barbara’s actions were too much for him to deal with among the locals.

  He had gone from being one of the boys to someone kept at a distance after her attack at the ranch. He had graduated to a complete outcast after she shot Jack. In the end, he decided it best to pull up stakes and get a fresh start elsewhere despite Jack’s best efforts to keep him on at the ranch.

  Cecilia jumped a bit in her chair as someone knocked on the office door. Though she felt safe with Barbara locked away, she often got used to it being so quiet in the office, and the slightest noise would catch her off guard. Before she could call out for them to come in, she saw the door opening and one of the local deputies sticking his head in.

  “Mr. Mayhew?” the deputy called out.

  “He is out checking on some things,” she replied, getting up and stepping around the desk as he entered. “Can I help you?”

  “You are an employee?” he asked, his voice sounding serious enough to have dread suffusing her stomach.

  “I’m sorry. We haven’t met before, Officer . . . Hanson,” she replied, reading the name on his badge. She held out a hand as she introduced herself. “I’m Cecilia Barnes, Mr. Mayhew’s Chief Financial Officer. Can I help you with something?”

  Panic had just begun to increase her heart rate when his next words had her sawing out a relieved breath. They had just had too many scares the past few months. She never knew what to expect next.

  ��You know, you probably can. The sheriff just asked me to stop by here and return some personal effects that were recovered from Mr. Mayhew’s incident. We had to hang on to them until after the trial was over, and normally we’d just send a notice that they can be picked up. Anyway, the sheriff said he wanted to do Jack a favor and make sure he got this back as soon as possible. He asked me to drop it off personally while I am out this way,” he shrugged, shifting back and forth on his feet. Cecilia wasn’t sure if he was always this nervous or being around her was making him that way, but it made her smile.

  “Well, I can call him in if you’d like or you can leave them here with me,” she replied.

  “I don’t see any reason to disturb him. If he trusts you with his money, I’m sure he trusts you with a few personal valuables,” he laughed, handing her a sealed evidence bag. She accepted it and lay it to one side on her desk.

  “Thanks so much, Officer Hanson,” she told him with a wave.

  “Thank you, ma’am. Have a good day,” he tipped his deputy’s hat in her direction before heading for the door, stepping out of the office and closing the door behind him.

  Cecilia sat looking at the envelope. What possessions could they have of Jack’s that they would need for the trial? Though he had been forced to testify when the time came, he had specifically asked Cecilia not to be present. He had wanted to keep her as far away from Barbara as possible, in case she got anymore crazy ideas. Cecilia had refused to stay away and let him go through it alone, but had compromised and sat in the outer corridor rather than in the courtroom. She sat looking at the envelope, resisting the urge to open it.

  It called to her again and again throughout the day, and she would find herself staring over at it before forcing herself to focus back on her work.

  “Hey, you about ready to call it a day?” Jack asked as he came in a little later, covered in dust from working outside all day, but the sight of his handsome face had a smile lighting up her own.

  “Sure. Let me shut everything down and I’ll lock up,” she replied. He nodded as he headed over to his desk to put his radio back in its charger. “Wait for a moment and I’ll walk back to the house with you.”

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