by Gray Gardner
It was cold and dark and I was surrounded by strangers.
“Blake!”
My head jerked up at my name. Had Dan come all of the way out here to see if I was all right? That didn’t make sense. Suddenly West was crouching in front of me, shooting questions up at that nice EMT and gently running his hands up and down my arms. She told him I was in shock. Well, that made a lot of sense, actually. He took my hat off and looked right into my eyes as he held my face in his big hands.
His hands felt good resting on my cheeks.
“Have you eaten anything since breakfast?” he quietly asked, smiling at me. It felt reassuring to have him smile at me instead of frown.
I shook my head and shivered again. Then he frowned. He stood and frowned at the EMT, too, but was smiling at me again when they brought him a blue blanket. He gently took my hand and stood me up, wrapped it tightly around my shoulders, then reached down and lifted me up against his chest.
“Is she okay otherwise?” he asked over my head.
“If she still seems confused tomorrow, bring her in. Some hot tea, a cookie, and a good night’s sleep should help her, though,” the lady smiled, winking at me as people milled around the ranch road behind her.
West turned and began effortlessly striding into the darkness. I could only see his face every few feet when a gas lamp lit up the pathway. I laid my head against his chest and exhaled, relaxing a little as the sounds died down. He squeezed me a little tighter and I closed my eyes. I wished he would hold me like that all of the time. Why was he being so nice?
I lifted my head up at that. He wasn’t supposed to be nice to me. I looked up at him in confusion. “What’s…”
“Shh,” he hushed, not in a demanding way, though. “Let me take care of you.”
That sounded kind of nice and I was so tired. I let my head fall back to rest on his shoulder and took in his manly scent when I heard his steps echoing. Looking up, I found we were climbing steps up to a large porch. This must be more of the staff lodging. We went through a door and a dim light clicked on, causing me to squint. He fussed over me a little as he set me on a long, shiny wooden tabletop and looked over every inch of my body in a very big, very fancy kitchen.
“S-stop!” I giggled, as he lifted my left arm and ran his hand down my side in concern.
He stood up straight and took his hat off, revealing messy light brown hair pointing every which way. I giggled again as he narrowed his eyes down at me, and the corner of his mouth turned up into a grin.
“Feeling a little better?” he asked, turning and running his fingers through his hair as he busied himself with opening the off-white cabinets and pulling out various items.
Feeling better? Was I feeling better? I furrowed my brow as I looked down at the hardwood floor and wondered about that. Yeah, I was feeling fine. Was Kelly feeling better, though?
Kelly!
I suddenly gasped as the entire evening came back into focus at a hazardous pace. After spending a considerable amount of time traipsing all over the property trying to seek out Kelly, I’d finally gone to the receptionist at the front desk in the Administration cabin and asked where her cabin was. It took me an hour to find the women’s staff dorms, but I knocked on every door and looked in every window until I found her blonde head wavering back and forth over the back of a chair.
I knocked, called her name, and finally used an old coat hanger lying out in the courtyard between cabins to rip through the screen in the opened window. I would be damned if she was trying to avoid me. I pulled myself in, yelling at her the whole time about how abandoned I felt.
Then I rounded the chair and saw her. She was practically comatose, staring off into nothing, with yellow vomit dried all down her chin, shirt, pants, and pooled at her feet. I shook her shoulders, called her name, and finally called up to the front desk. I told them to get the paramedics to the staff women’s cabins immediately. Then I hung up and called 911 myself, anyway.
I paced as I spoke, explaining that we were at a guest ranch ninety miles from the nearest town. I explained her symptoms. They were just asking me to remain calm when her whole body began to convulse.
Dropping the phone, I cried out her name as I wrapped my arms around her body and slid her to the tiled floor as gently as I could. That’s when I saw the empty brown prescription bottles.
“Pills! She’s taken pills!” I screamed out to my phone, hoping the operator was still listening.
The convulsing stopped and I exhaled, wiping my brow and watching for another seizure. She didn’t move. She wasn’t moving at all. I quickly leaned my ear down to her nose. No breathing. I stuck my trembling hand under her nostrils. I couldn’t feel anything.
Oh God. I knew there was a first step. What was it? Check for an obstruction? I tilted her chin upwards as she lay on her back and pulled her jaw open. Then I slowly stuck my index finger into her mouth, feeling around. Nothing. I stuck it further back into her throat. I felt something!
I curled the tip of my finger around whatever it was and yanked it out. Kelly suddenly gasped for breath and began vomiting again. I leaned her on her side as the sun set outside of the windows and just waited. What else could I do?
“Blake.”
EMTs broke through the door.
“Blake!”
I turned my head up and found deep blue eyes looking at me in concern.
“It’s all over now, Sweetheart. You’re going to be okay. Kelly’s going to be okay,” West softly said, standing between my knees as I slouched on the table, struggling to remember everything.
“She stopped breathing,” I choked, not able to get enough air into my own lungs.
He held my face in his hands and grinned down at me. “You saved her life. She’ll be alright now because of you.”
He turned and handed me a steaming mug of tea. I slowly took it and sipped, grateful for the warmth spreading through me. He held up both hands and smiled again. “Oatmeal or chocolate chip?” he asked, wagging the large cookies back and forth.
“Chocolate chip,” I nodded, setting the mug down and taking a big bite of the cookie. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I swallowed that first bite. I finished the cookie quickly and he handed me another. I ate that one a little slower as I thought about something.
“She took all of those pills,” I muttered, nibbling on the edge of the cookie.
“Blake…”
“Why would she do that to herself?” I asked, looking up at him.
Sighing, he put his hands on his hips and shook his head, looking down at the floor. “Shouldn’t have let her come back after the last time,” he growled.
“She’s done this before?” I squeaked, dropping the cookie to the tabletop.
“Yes,” he admitted, handing me the tea again and watching me take a few sips. “Not like this, but close. And she went to rehab and came back and we all thought…” His shoulders sagged as he rubbed his eyes. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, warming up and letting the blanket fall back off of my shoulders.
He stared at me for a moment before gesturing at me. “Because when I heard the call on the emergency radios about the paramedics being called to the staff quarters I was standing right next to Ingrid, who was telling me that she’d sent you off in the direction of the staff quarters! It scared me!”
I leaned back a little as I watched him slightly unravel in front of me in the dimly lit kitchen.
He sighed heavily and rubbed his whiskers as he calmed down. “I’m sorry. You don’t need to look so concerned. Kelly will be fine. She’ll be fired, but she’ll be fine.”
“I’m more worried about you,” I mumbled over the lip of my mug, taking a long sip and gulping as he pinned me with his glare again.
“Well the feeling seems to be mutual,” he nodded, pacing in the elegant kitchen. He looked a little out of place with his worn jeans and dirty boots, but I wasn’t complaining.
“Honest
ly, I don’t know why you’re so worried about me…”
“Why is it so hard for you to believe someone is concerned about you and what you’re doing?” he snapped, pausing and frowning.
“I…It’s not, I just…I know I have people who worry about me,” I replied indignantly. Wait, Caroline!
I dropped my phone as I yanked it out of my pocket, then leapt to the floor and swiped at the screen. Twenty missed calls and messages.
“Caroline!” I loudly said as she commenced the conversation like she was in the middle of a rant. I looked up at West who was still frowning down at me, except now I was crouched on the floor and his arms were folded over his chest. “N-no…no, I’m fine. Yes, it was Kelly. I found her…yeah, that was the helicopter for her, not me…I know, I’m sorry. Yes, I-I’m totally fine. Um, uh, I’m at…”
I looked up at West for a little help. He quickly leaned down and grabbed the phone out of my hand. “She’s at the Hamilton Cottage. Rowdy will know where that is. I’m keeping her here tonight and you can see her in the morning. Yes, I will. Yes, good night.”
My mouth fell open as I stared up at him. Keeping me here tonight?
“Come on. I bet you’re tired,” he gently said, holding his hand out to me. The harsh glare left his face and was replaced by a slight grin.
I was and I wasn’t. My body was coming down from the adrenaline rush and anxiety and I found I could hardly make myself move. My mind, however, was in overdrive. What would have happened if no one had found Kelly? Why was West being so nice? Was I really going to stay the night? Withhim?
Taking my hand, he pulled me to my feet and didn’t let go, leading me from room to room, each one bigger and grander than the last: formal dining room, formal living room. We stopped in a room large enough to hold an entire guest cabin, with L-shaped, deep leather couches and a monstrous scenic window overlooking a rocky hill and a river, gleaming in the moonlight. It must have been a common room, so I felt pretty safe in there. I let myself fall back onto a couch as he draped me with a velvety blanket and sat down next to me.
“You don’t have to…”
“Just relax and close your eyes,” he sighed, sounding annoyed. I rolled my eyes but complied as I exhaled and snuggled into the blanket. I frowned when he reached around my shoulder and pulled me into his chest, but quickly grinned as he kissed the top of my head and stroked my back very lightly. I don’t know how long he did that because I was asleep in the next five seconds.
My eyelids burned. I tried to open them but was blinded. Squinting and turning my head down into my pillow, I found a leathery couch cushion instead. Lifting my head, I peered around at my surroundings and slowly recalled where I was.
“Morning.”
“Fucking hell,” I said in my throaty morning voice, jumping and leaning away from the tall, handsome, smoldering cowboy suddenly standing in front of me. He sat back on a large square coffee table and held out a bottled water and two tiny pills.
“For your headache,” he nodded, urging me to take them.
I slowly sat up and grabbed my head as my brain pounded around inside. How did he know I’d have a headache?
“I called the hospital to check on Kelly and they asked about you. Told me once the adrenaline wore off you’re have quite a headache,” he grinned, as I took the pills and downed the entire bottle of water. I quickly smiled as he reached around from behind him and pulled out a white mug of hot coffee.
“So,” I sighed, feeling a little more like myself in this large, ranchy room with the large, bossy cowboy. “Kelly’s doing alright?”
It looked like he was fighting a grin as he quickly nodded and turned his eyes down to his own coffee mug. “She has a long road ahead of her, of course. But her rehab is taken care of and really all she has to do is take the first step herself.”
Nodding, I reached up to brush my hair out of my face and found a messy heap on the side of my head. Shit! Setting my mug down quickly, I pulled out my two rubber bands and tried to brush the dark brownish red strands out with my fingers as casually as I could. I had thick hair and it could be really unruly first thing in the morning. West had the decency to let me pull myself together for a few seconds.
“Here,” he offered when I finished grooming, leaning over and setting a folded pile of clothing on the arm of the couch. I caught a whiff of his soap and my eyes half closed as I inhaled a second time. He was trying not to grin again as he sat back on the edge of the coffee table.
“Thanks,” I sighed, looking at the change of clothes and wondering where he’d gotten his own black Death Star shirt and dark washed Alice and Olivia jeans. I glanced over curiously at that stupid smirk on his face, then bit my lip as I pulled the blanket back and found myself in nothing more than my underwear. Gasping, I yanked the blanket up to my chin and hopped up off of the couch, trying furiously to wrap it around my back as I yelled, “West!”
“I tried to just let you sleep peacefully there next to me,” he argued, standing and holding up his hands in surrender. “But you smelled like vomit…”
“And your first instinct was to undress a total stranger and let her sleep half naked where anyone can see?” I squealed, looking around the enormous room and waiting for one of the hosts to walk through and catch us in this…compromising position.
“No one saw,” he began, but I interrupted him with a shove into his chest.
“Okay, that’s it!” I hollered, as he fell back onto the wide coffee table. “I’ve been quiet and nice and somewhat understanding of your uncanny ability to just show up wherever I am and totally ruin my day with your unreasonable safety measures, but this is going too far!”
I knew I was blushing as I tried to keep the blanket around the important parts of my body. It was thick and heavy, though, so it ended up draped in front of me more often than not.
“I especially like how your socks match your underwear and bra,” he smiled, ducking his head as I abandoned the blanket altogether and picked up a firm crimson pillow and began hitting him with it.
“You arenot as cute as you think you are!” I shouted and thenI ground my teeth. God, I looked so ridiculous! I had on pink and white argyle socks,to my knees, with pink and white striped boy shorts and push-up bra, and I was trying to knock the head off a man twice my size with a throw pillow.
“Alright,” he loudly said standing up, apparently having had enough of my assault. His hair was messed up and pointing in all directions again, and his starched white shirt had come un-tucked from his old jeans on one side.
I was satisfied that he’d taken enough, so I lowered the pillow to cover my chest and heaved in a few breaths. “Sorry,” I quietly said, watching him raise an eyebrow as his eyes raked over me again.
He grinned and shook his head as he asked, “You really are all sweetness, aren’t you?”
“N-no,” I replied, offended. Sweet people let everyone walk all over them. I was tough.
“If you weren’t sweet you wouldn’t be apologizing to me all of the time,even though Itotally ruin your day with my unreasonable safety measures,” he said, still grinning. “And this wouldn’t have been the first time you yelled at me or hit me with a brutally feathery object.”
“Oh just shut up,” I mumbled, squeezing the pillow a little tighter to my chest. I was wondering if I should just drop the pillow and put my clothes on or just try and scoot out of the room and give him a view of my perky ass.
“I’ve seen a lot of bi…” he paused and took a breath, correcting himself, it sounded like. “Bitter women in my lifetime but you have to be the sweetest little thing I’ve ever seen. Even when your temper gets the best of you…”
“Stop,” I ordered, holding up my hand and glaring up at him. “Just because I’m not rude to you all of the time doesn’t mean I can’t be…unpleasant or bitchy.”
“You could never be bitchy,” he chimed in. “Why would you want to be?”
“Because that’s the type of woman who gets what she wants,”
I softly said, looking up at him. There’d only been one thing I’d wanted and I didn’t get it. I wasn’t married to Daniel.
He suddenly was right in front of me, peeling the pillow out of my fingers and cupping the back of my neck with one of his hands. He stepped so close I could feel the warmth from his body.
“Do you wantme?” he tenderly asked, leaning his head down so that our faces were a couple of inches apart.
He probably sensed my confusion because he opened his eyes a little wider and leaned back an inch or two. He smelled so good that I became a little confused. Was he…coming on to me? No. But was he? Did I want him? Hell yes. Why would he want someone like me, though? He was a cowboy god.
“More proof you’re a little sweetheart,” he said, barely above a whisper. “You look like an angel when you look up at me like that. Confused, but trusting. Inquisitive and daring. I mean, here you are, half naked, trying to argue with me when it’s taking everything inside of me to not kiss the breath out of you.”
My mouth dropped open and I was about to mutter something incomprehensible, I’m sure, but he took my hesitation as an opportunity to lean in and press his lips against mine. He was warm and soft. His stubble rubbed my chin as he pressed into me and ran his tongue along my lips. I gladly opened my mouth and thrust my tongue into his, totally like a lady would, and grabbed his stiff shirt collar so he couldn’t escape.
He moaned and pressed his hand into my lower back, pushing his hips into me and running his other hand up into my hair. On a scale of hot kisses this was pretty caliente, I’d have to say, around a 9.5.
“So sweet,” he mumbled, mouth still pressed against mine. “And I love your green eyes. I’ve never seen eyes just that color.” He began kissing the edge of my mouth and down my neck when I felt whatever the fuck was going on in his pants pressing against me. Good God, was thatall him? Wait, what was I doing? Did I want a quick lay? Yes and no. I wanted a fresh start, that was for sure.
“I should go,” I breathlessly said in a weak voice, pushing away from him and taking a few steps back. He thought I was sweet? He liked my eyes? What was I getting into?