by Tina Leonard
He catapulted to his feet, pacing the glassed-in office. It was possible she could make her taxes in time. Farming wasn’t something he knew a lot about, but Annie had been enormously proud of the acres of corn she’d shown him. She was banking on the corn to be a major staple in the world food market. Zach felt her theory was as good as any, maybe even sounder than most. Annie was forthright and shrewd about her decisions. If blight didn’t get her, or birds, or whatever other dilemmas farmers faced, she had as good a chance as any to hang on to the world she loved.
Perhaps he was in a position to tip the scales just a bit in her favor, though. Zach left a message on LouAnn’s answering machine before grabbing up his car keys. He’d wound down most of the business he’d come in to take care of, especially since he wasn’t fielding new calls. Retiring from the big business arena was something Zach looked forward to greatly, hungrily even. His responsibility to Ritter would be a thing of the past, even was nearly so now. He didn’t owe them part of his future, though Ritter had been his brainchild in the beginning. Too many things had changed in the growth process, with boards and stockholders and slimy sales deals. It wasn’t the baby he’d birthed, and Zach didn’t think a thing about turning himself to a new project.
Of course, he didn’t owe Annie anything either, but after all the people whose land he’d bought, it would make him feel good to help one woman hang on to what she loved.
And Desperado was but a road trip away. Maybe a drive would clear the web of incessant wedding preparations from his head.
“I tell you, he’s acting different.”
Carter narrowed his eyes at the stunning woman. LouAnn was in a royal snit over her silly preoccupation with Zach Rayez. He nearly sighed with boredom. “I’m sure you’re just imagining things, LouAnn.”
“I’m not, Carter. Damn it, will you listen to me? Something’s going on, and I’m worried.”
“What’s going on? What’s different? I can’t help you if you don’t give me more concrete examples than that.”
“Damn you, Carter Haskins, don’t talk down to me. If I knew what the frigging problem was, I could fix it myself.”
She flicked a pointed fingernail in his direction. Carter held up a hand, shaking his head. “Calm down, LouAnn. Let’s be rational about this. Zach’s probably suffering from wedding overload. Didn’t you just say you couldn’t wait for this silly circus to be over? What makes you think he feels any differently? Most likely, he’s anxious to get on the honeymoon with his beautiful bride.”
“Yes, I said that, but only because I’m getting scared, Carter. I want this thing to be over so I’ve got Zach’s ring on my finger.”
He smiled lazily. “Ah, yes, the noose around his neck, so to speak. What happened, LouAnn? Did you let yourself fall in love with our ride to the top? Does that Tex-Mex give you a thrill when he lifts your skirt?”
She frowned and crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t know, lately.”
Carter leaned forward in the chair, examining her closely. The woman was stupid, but in her own idiotic way, he realized she was doing her best to tell him something. “What do you mean, you wouldn’t know—lately?”
She bowed her head, appearing supremely ashamed and uncomfortable to be having this discussion with him. Carter frowned, sensing real trouble.
“Zach and I haven’t made love since he went to Desperado.”
Carter leaned back, clenching his teeth. Damn that woman! Was it even conceivable that Zach would be remotely attracted to her, when he had the wondrously pink and blonde LouAnn waiting back home? Carter held back a curse, wondering if he’d miscalculated the situation. Surely LouAnn was wrong about Zach. The man probably wasn’t losing interest in her—and yet Zach had been plenty interested in her sexually since the day he’d met her. If he was passing up golden chances to slide into a woman made like a soft, welcoming loaf of warm white bread, then indeed there was a huge problem.
He cleared his throat. “I assume you’ve done what you can to get him into your bed.”
She nodded, spreading her hands in confusion. “At first I thought Zach was simply tired. But when sexy lingerie didn’t do the trick, either, then…”
Her voice drifted into silence. Damn the silly bitch. She was the perfect vehicle for Carter’s ride to prominence and power. Paired with the lethally handsome and likable Zach Rayez, they’d be a socially elite and powerful duo to be reckoned with, and, as Zach’s good colleague and friend, Carter would be positioned for a plum appointment in the next round of corporate musical chairs. If Zach was shedding Ritter International, it just meant that something else was lurking in the ambitious Hispanic man’s brain. Carter would continue to ride Zach’s coattails whenever it was beneficial to do so.
But at the moment Zach was suffering from some kind of sexual inertia, and tight, cold apprehension swept Carter.
He picked up his phone, jabbing in some numbers.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m calling Zach,” he replied tersely. “Maybe I can figure out if anything’s up by having a brotherly one-on-one with him. Could be you’re just imagining things. Bridal nerves, or something like that.”
“I don’t think so,” she murmured softly.
The phone rang until it kicked over into the phone-mail system. Carter listened intently, then hung up, swearing viciously. LouAnn jumped, but he barely gave her a glance.
“What is it, Carter?” she asked.
He stared at her, seeing eyelashes glued together and lipstick smeared from crying. LouAnn’s hair was mussed from her picking at it. The woman was a mess. Could it be she’d actually fallen for their brown-skinned pretty boy? The man she was marrying for financial security—a necessity when one spent more than their trust fund held—and continued entrée to important social circles?
Even more inconceivable, could Zach have fallen out of love with a trophy woman men far wealthier than he had pursued?
At the moment, Carter found he didn’t harbor much desire for LouAnn, either. He bit the inside of his mouth, resisting the urge to smack some sense into her. “Better get used to sleeping in your own bed, honey. The chicken’s flown the coop.”
Chapter Nine
“Try to put it out of your mind, Annie,” Cody said, indicating the tax notice she held between trembling fingers. “The bank’s sent you those before, and you’ve always paid up on time.”
That was true. But there were so many things in her life sliding out of whack that Annie felt like she was struggling just to hang on to normalcy. In the back seat, Mary murmured to her stuffed animals, her conversation pitched in the soothing sounds of a mommy voice. Annie closed her eyes, feeling sick. Something had to get better. Somewhere, somehow, there had to be a piece of good news with her name on it.
Cody patted her hand. “The corn crop’s going to be a big one, Annie. It looks like rows and rows of profit to me. There should be plenty to pay off the bank, with some to spare. And you know you can count on me to help bring it in.”
Annie nodded, dutifully fixing a smile to her face. “You’re right. I shouldn’t let myself get so thrown off balance.”
“That’s my girl. We wouldn’t be farmers if we weren’t tough.”
“I’m tough too,” Mary called from the back seat.
Annie glanced around to give her daughter a reassuring smile. She looked so pretty, all done up in a new red-stripe dress and matching hair bow her granny had made. Annie’s mouth went dry. For the slightest second, the old nightmare froze her brain: Mary begging in the streets of Desperado, a bedraggled orphan with no one to care about her.
Annie pressed her lips together. That menacing nightmare was impossible. Mary had family who would take her in, should something ever happen to Annie and Travis. Mary had family, true—yet why couldn’t Annie provide a more reassuring future for her only child?
“I am tough too, right, Mama?”
Annie managed a nod and a smile for her daughter, seeing only the delicate bones in the
child’s face and the innocence in the wide, questioning blue eyes. “Yes, sugar. You’re as tough as a corncob.”
“Ooh, gross.” Mary giggled.
“Well, you could be as tough as Grandpa Travis’s toenails, and that’d be grosser,” Cody commented with a grin.
Mary squealed and Annie managed a slight smile. Cody pulled up in front of the hospital. “You two go ahead and get out. I’ll park the car.”
Annie slid out, helping Mary onto the sidewalk. They clasped hands together and walked into the hospital, Annie barely aware of Mary’s questions about how the sliding doors worked and why couldn’t she bring her toys inside with her. The child became quiet as they walked into Travis’s room.
Mary ran straight into the outstretched arms that were waiting for her. “Gosh, Grandpa, this place doesn’t look like much fun.”
“It ain’t Disneyland, that’s for sure. When am I getting out of this jail, Annie?” he demanded.
“I need to reconfirm with the doctor, but I think tomorrow, Papa.” She walked toward the bed, fluffing the pillow behind his head and trying to straighten the thin blanket covering his body.
He waved her away impatiently. “Don’t start fussing after me like I’m a corpse, girl. I can do for myself. I’m right as rain and ready to get home. If I stay here any longer, all these ignorant nurses and doctors are going to kill me.”
It was plain to see Travis was chafing to resume his independent lifestyle. Annie sighed, knowing he had every right to complain. She patted his arm before sitting on the foot of the bed. “I know it hasn’t been pleasant for you. Maybe we should take you home today, if we have to sneak you out in the night.”
“Who’s sneaking out of here?” Cody asked, coming into the room.
“We may need to borrow your car, Cody,” Annie said. “Papa can’t take another minute of all this peace and relaxation, or he’s going to explode. I guess we could pretend you’ve come from the mortuary and need to pick him up—”
“Hell, no,” Travis cursed, interrupting her attempt at black humor. “I ain’t sneaking out of here like some dog that got caught in the chicken coop. I’m walking out of here like a man, and anybody doesn’t like it, can kiss my—”
“Good afternoon, everyone,” a plump, wiry-haired nurse said, stoically entering the room and pinning Travis with a no-nonsense stare. Her demeanor was stern, but her eyes lit with playful affection as she looked at her patient.
“Hi, Gert,” Travis grumbled.
“I hear you’re ready to go home.”
“How’d you guess?” he asked, his expression surly.
“I could hear you bellowing about it down the hall. So could every other patient in the hospital. Did you know that getting upset like that isn’t recommended for a man who’s just had bypass surgery?”
“Mind your own business. You ain’t giving me any more lip after today, Gert.”
“Since you’ve been reading your chart, you know it doesn’t say the doctor’s releasing you.”
“I’m releasing myself,” Travis growled. “The doctor can bill some other fool for his services. The hospital’s going to be the death of me.”
The nurse shrugged, throwing Annie an I’ve-done-my-best look. “Well, it happens to be your lucky day, anyway, you mule-headed patient of mine. I just saw the doctor in the hall, and he says it ain’t doing you any good to stay around here when you’re so all fired up to leave.” She shot him a playful grin. “So, do you think you can get dressed in civilian clothes by yourself, Mr. Cade?” she asked.
“Keep your claws away from me, Gert. I’m more than capable.”
Ignoring his outburst, Gert stepped away from the bed. “Fine. I’ll go get a wheelchair for you.”
Indignation furrowed his forehead. “I ain’t going out of here in a wheelchair.” He jabbed a finger at the nurse. “Don’t you even think about it.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cade. All patients leave the hospital in a wheelchair.” She turned her back on him, directing her attention to Annie. “Could I see you in the hall for a moment, please?”
“Cody, will you keep an eye on Mary?” Annie asked, knowing he would have anyway. It wasn’t a question that needed to be voiced. Yet she felt like nothing could be taken for granted; the day would come when she no longer had to ask favors of anyone, she swore.
She followed the nurse into the hall. Then the nurse gestured toward the waiting room. Annie followed her inside, relieved to see that the room was empty for once.
“Ms. Aguillar, there are a few things I want to go over with you about the care your father will need.” At Annie’s nod, she pulled a list from her pocket. “It’s important that these precautions are followed to allow for proper healing, since the veins that were used for the bypass were taken from Travis’s—I mean, Mr. Cade’s legs.”
Annie took the paper, scanning it carefully. “This all seems pretty simple,” she said.
“You’ll also note that he’ll need some therapy. It’s important for him to try to walk a little every day. Not too much at first, of course, but building gradually as he gets stronger.”
At Annie’s silent nod, the nurse leaned forward, her gaze penetrating. “I want you to be aware of one other thing. Don’t be surprised if Travis’s recovery is difficult. He thinks he’s stronger than he actually is, and unfortunately, the surgery isn’t the hardest part of solving the problem. The patient’s recovery is almost always the most difficult link in the process.”
“I see,” Annie murmured. “Thank you for your advice.”
The nurse stood, her no-nonsense expression back in place. “The healing process can be emotionally traumatic for the patient, and in this case, you’re dealing with a very stubborn, independent man.”
The nurse’s candor made Annie smile. “Yes, I am. Papa isn’t going to be an easy case, I know. I don’t expect any less of him.”
After a moment, the nurse nodded, her smile understanding. “I’ll go get that wheelchair now.”
Annie walked back into Travis’s room, not a bit surprised to see her father sitting on the edge of the bed, dressed in street clothes. Mary was sitting beside him, contentedly swinging her legs, while Cody lounged against the door frame.
“We’ll have you home within the hour, Papa,” Annie said.
“It’s about time. I’m beginning to molder around here. I want a hot meal that has some substance to it, no more of this disgusting baby food crap. I hope you’ve got some of your salsa made up, Annie. My taste buds are like to die of disuse.”
She nodded, walking around the room, opening drawers to make certain nothing was left behind. “There’s some salsa I made a few weeks ago on the pantry shelf.” She turned around, pinning him with a worried stare. “Is salsa okay for you to eat? Aren’t you supposed to be on a special diet, or something?” Worriedly, she dug the list out of her pocket, scanning it. “This is about therapy, but I don’t see anything about food you’re supposed to avoid. I should ask the nurse.”
“Don’t do that!” Travis bellowed. “I had a heart attack, dammit, not an ulcer or something. Besides, if you ask that ornery woman, she’ll say, ‘No spicy food, no fatty food’”—he mimicked the nurse’s voice—“just to irritate me. I’ve been complaining for days about the food around here. I swear they send it over from the nursing home when the old folks turn it down.”
He crossed his arms and glared. Annie sighed. Although she suspected her father’s diet was important, he was a grown man. If she fixed him the kind of meal he enjoyed tonight, it was one less thing to argue about, thereby keeping his blood pressure down.
“Okay,” she said. “For dinner, I’ll fix something you’ll be able to taste.”
“Good. I want some more of that cow Cody butchered. I feel like having fajitas for my coming-home dinner.”
Cody grinned. “I can get you some of that real easy if you’ve run out.”
“Just make sure there’s enough for Cody to eat dinner with us, Annie,” Travis commanded.
>
Cody looked to Annie with a raised eyebrow. Hurriedly, she seconded her father’s gruff invitation. “By all means, have dinner with us, Cody. It’ll seem like a celebration for Papa.”
“I’d like that a lot.”
Mary slid off the bed, clapping her little hands. “Hurray! A party!”
Annie laughed and Cody joined her. Travis nodded his pleasure. In her mind, Annie began ticking off the ingredients she had at the house that hadn’t been ruined when the electricity had been turned off. The doubt that her father should have so much excitement on his first night home from the hospital began to wear off. He could sit in his easy chair and watch television, after all, and being pent up in the hospital had been far more stressful to him than having a hot meal for dinner would be. I’m getting to be like one of those women who worry about everything, Annie thought. When did I turn into such a gray cloud, anyway?
“Okay, a homecoming party it is,” Annie said, “but just dinner, and no excitement. Understood?”
She threw her father a daunting glance, but he shrugged it off. “A real meal is excitement enough for me,” he answered. “A quiet, cozy family event and an early bedtime sound like heaven.”
“You’re sure you don’t mind me horning in?” Cody asked. “We could do this another time.”
“Hell, no,” Travis replied. “You’re not horning in, Cody, you’re family. If I didn’t feel like a mile of torn-up track, I’d be up to more company and your mom could come over too. We certainly owe her a month of paybacks. But I believe even if Archangel Gabriel showed up at my door for dinner tonight, I’d have to ask him to come back another time.” He sighed and rubbed his wrists in a tired motion that concerned Annie. “Heck,” he said quietly, “I’m actually starting to feel like Father Time’s ticking down on me.”