by Diana Palmer
Caleb knew they didn’t. He looked at John and, despite the older man’s foreboding expression, he smiled at him. He was quick enough to realize that John had intervened for Sassy’s mother and didn’t want anybody to know. “Yes, they do have grants, don’t they? Nice of you to do that for them,” he added, his dark eyes saying things to John that Sassy didn’t see.
John relaxed a little. The boy might be competition, but his heart was in the right place. Sassy had said he was a friend, but Caleb here must care about her, to come right to the hospital when he knew about her mother. “They’re a great bunch of people,” he said simply.
“Yes, they are,” Caleb agreed. He turned to smile down at Sassy while John fumed silently.
“Thank you for coming to see us,” Sassy told the younger man.
“I wish I could stay,” he told her, “but I’m on my way to the rimrocks right now. I’m due back at my assignment.”
“The rimrocks?” Sassy asked, frowning.
“It’s where the airport is,” Caleb told her, grinning. “That’s what we call it locally.”
“I hope you have a safe flight back,” she told him. “And a safe tour of duty.”
“Now, that makes two of us,” he agreed. “Don’t forget to send me that photograph.”
“I won’t. So long, Caleb.”
“So long.” He bent and kissed her cheek, smiled ruefully at John, and walked back down the hall.
“What photograph?” John asked belligerently.
“It’s not for him,” she said, delighted that he looked jealous. “It’s to throw his best friend off the track.”
John was unconvinced. But just as he started to argue, the surgeon came into the waiting room, smiling wearily.
He shook hands with John and turned to Sassy. “Your mother is doing very well. She’s in recovery right now, and then she’ll go to the intensive care unit. Just for a couple of days,” he added quickly when Sassy went pale and looked faint. “It’s normal procedure. We want her watched day and night until she’s stabilized.”
“Can Selene and I see her?” Sassy asked. “And John?” she added, nodding to the man at her side.
The surgeon hesitated. “Have you ever seen anyone just out of surgery, young woman?” he asked gently.
“Well, there was Great-Uncle Jack, but I only got a glimpse of him…why?”
The surgeon looked apprehensive. “Post surgical patients are flour-white. They have tubes running out of them, they’re connected to machines…it can be alarming if you aren’t prepared for it.”
“Mama’s going to live, thanks to you,” Sassy said, smiling. “She’ll look beautiful. I don’t mind the machines. They’re helping her live. Right?”
The surgeon smiled back. Her optimism was contagious. “Right. I’ll let you in to see her for five minutes, no longer,” he said, “as soon as we move her into intensive care. It will be a little while,” he added.
“We’re not going anywhere,” she replied easily.
He chuckled. “I’ll send a nurse for you, when it’s time.”
“Thank you,” Sassy said. “From the bottom of my heart.”
The surgeon shifted. “It’s what I do,” he replied. “The most rewarding job in the world.”
“I’ve never saved anybody’s life, but I expect it would be a great job,” she told him.
After he left, John gave her a wry look.
“I saved a man’s life, once,” he told her.
“You did? How?” she asked, waiting.
“I threw a baseball bat at him, and missed.”
“Oh, you,” she teased. She went close to him, wrapped her arms around him, and laid her head on his broad chest. “You’re just wonderful.”
His hand smoothed over her dark hair. Over her head, Selene was smiling at him with the same kind of happy, affectionate expression that he imagined was on Sassy’s face. Despite the fear and apprehension of the ordeal, it was one of the best days of his life. He’d never felt so necessary.
Sassy was allowed into the intensive care unit just long enough to look at her mother and stand beside her. John was with her, the surgeon’s whispered request getting him past the fiercely protective nurse in charge of the unit. Sassy was uneasy, despite her assurances, and she clung to John’s hand as if she were afraid of falling without its warm support.
She stared at the still, white form in the hospital bed. Machines beeped. A breathing machine made odd noises as it pumped oxygen into Mrs. Peale’s unconscious body. The shapeless, faded hospital gown was unfamiliar, like all the monitors and tubes that seemed to extrude from every inch of her mother’s flesh. Mrs. Peale was white as a sheet. Her chest rose and fell very slowly. Her heartbeat was visible as the gown fluttered over her ample bosom.
“She’s alive,” John whispered. “She’s going to get well and go home and be a different woman. You have to see the future, through the present.”
Sassy looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “It’s just…I love her so much.”
He smiled tenderly and bent to kiss her forehead. “She loves you, too, honey. She’s going to get well.”
She drew in a shaky breath and got control of her emotions. She wiped at the tears. “Yes.” She moved closer to the bed, bending over her mother. She remembered that when she was a little girl she’d had a debilitating virus that had almost dehydrated her. Mrs. Peale had perched on her bed, feeding her ice chips around the clock to keep fluids in her. She’d fetched wet cloths and whispered that she loved Sassy, that everything was going to be all right. That loving touch had chased the fear and misery and sickness right out of the room. Mrs. Peale seemed to glow with it.
“It’s going to be all right, Mama,” she whispered, kissing the pale, cool brow. “We love you very much. We’re going home, very soon.”
Mrs. Peale didn’t answer her, but her hand on its confining board jumped, almost imperceptibly.
John squeezed Sassy’s hand. “Did you see that?” he asked, smiling. “She heard you.”
Sassy squeezed back. “Of course she did.”
Three days later, Mrs. Peale was propped up in bed eating Jell-O. She was weak and sore and still in a lot of pain, but she was smiling gamely.
“Didn’t I tell you?” John chided Sassy. “She’s too tough to let a little thing like major surgery get her down.”
Mrs. Peale smiled at him. “You’ve been so kind to us, John,” she said. Her voice was still a little hoarse from the breathing tubes, but she sounded cheerful just the same. “Sassy told me all about the palace you’re keeping her and Selene in.”
“Some palace,” he chuckled. “It’s just a place to sleep.” He stuck his hands into his jeans and his eyes twinkled. “But being kind goes with the job. I’m part of the family. She—” he pointed at Sassy “—said so.”
“I did,” Sassy confessed.
Mrs. Peale gave him a wry look. “But not too close a member…?”
“Definitely not,” he agreed at once, chuckling. He looked at Sassy in a way that made her blush. Then he compounded the embarrassment by laughing.
In the weeks that followed, John divided his time between Mrs. Peale’s treatments in Billings and the growing responsibility for the new ranch that was just beginning to shape up. The barn was up, shiny and attractive with bricked aisles and spotless stalls with metal gates. The corral had white fences interlaced with hidden electrical fencing that complemented the cosmetic look of the wood. The pastures had been sowed with old prairie grasses, with which John was experimenting. The price of corn had gone through the roof, with the biofuel revolution. Ranchers were scrambling for new means of sustaining their herds, so native grasses were being utilized, along with concentrated pelleted feeds and vitamin supplements. John had also hired a nearby farmer to plant grains for him and keep them during the growing season. His contractor was building a huge new concrete feed silo to house the grains when they were harvested at the end of summer. It was a monumental job, getting the place renova
ted. John had delegated as much authority as he could, but there were still management decisions that had to be made by him.
Meanwhile, Bill Tarleton’s trial went on the docket and pretrial investigations were going on by both the county district attorney and the public defender’s office for the judicial circuit where Hollister was located. Sassy was interviewed by both sides. The questions made her very nervous and uneasy. The public defender seemed to think she’d enticed Mr. Tarleton to approach her in a sexual manner. It hurt her feelings.
She told John about it when he stopped by after supper one Friday evening to check on Mrs. Peale. He hadn’t been into the feed store the entire week because of obligations out at the ranch.
“He’ll make me sound like some cheap tart in court,” she moaned. “It will make my mother and Selene look bad, too.”
“Telling the truth won’t make anyone look bad, dear,” Mrs. Peale protested. She was sitting up in the living room knitting. A knitted cap covered her head. Her hair had already started to fall out from the radiation therapy she was receiving, but she hadn’t let it get her down. She’d made a dozen caps in different colors and styles and seemed to be enjoying the project.
“You should listen to your mother,” John agreed, smiling. “You don’t want him to get away with it, Sassy. It wasn’t your fault.”
“That lawyer made it sound like it was. The assistant district attorney who questioned me asked what sort of clothes I wore to work, and I told him jeans and T-shirts, and not any low-cut ones, either. He smiled and said that it shouldn’t have mattered if I’d worn a bikini. He said Mr. Tarleton had no business making me uncomfortable in my workplace, regardless of my clothing.”
“I like that assistant district attorney,” John said. “He’s a firecracker. One day he’ll end up in the state attorney general’s office. They say he’s got a perfect record of convictions in the two years he’s prosecuted cases for this judicial circuit.”
“I hope he makes Mr. Tarleton as uncomfortable as that public defender made me,” Sassy said with feeling. She rubbed her bare arms, as if it chilled her, thinking about the trial. “I don’t know how I’ll manage, sitting in front of a jury and telling what happened.”
“You just remember that the people in that jury will most likely be people who’ve known you all your life,” Mrs. Peale interrupted.
“That’s the other thing,” Sassy sighed. “The D.A.’s victim assistance person said the defending attorney is trying to get the trial moved to Billings, on account of Mr. Tarleton can’t get a fair trial here.”
John frowned. That did put another face on things. But he’d testify, as would Sassy. Hopefully Tarleton would get what he deserved. John knew for a fact that if he hadn’t intervened, it would have been much more than a minor assault. Sassy knew it, too.
“It was a bad day for Hollister when that man came to town,” Mrs. Peale said curtly. “Sassy came home every day upset and miserable.”
“You should have called the owner and complained,” John told Sassy.
She grimaced. “I didn’t dare. He didn’t know me that well. I was afraid he’d think I was telling tales on Mr. Tarleton because I wanted his job.”
“It’s been done,” John had to admit. “But you’re not like that, Sassy. He’d have investigated and found that out.”
She sighed. “It’s water under the bridge now,” she replied sadly. “I know it’s the right thing to do, taking him to court. But what if he gets off and comes after me, or Mama or Selene for revenge?” she added, worried.
“If he does,” John said, and his blue eyes glittered dangerously, “it will be the worst decision of his life. I promise you. As for getting off, if by some miracle he does, you’ll file a civil suit against him for damages and I’ll bankroll you.”
“I knew you were a nice man from the first time I laid eyes on you,” Mrs. Peale chuckled.
Sassy was smiling at him with her whole face. She felt warm and protected and secure. She blushed when he looked back, with such an intent, piercing expression that her heart turned over.
“Why does life have to be so complicated?” Sassy asked after a minute.
John shrugged. “Beats me, honey,” he said, getting to his feet and obviously unaware of the endearment that brought another soft blush to Sassy’s face. “But it does seem to get more that way by the day.” He checked his watch and grimaced. “I have to get back to the ranch. I’ve got an important call coming through. But I’ll stop by tomorrow. We might take in a movie, if you’re game.”
Sassy grinned. “I’d love to.” She looked at her mother and hesitated.
“I have a phone,” her mother pointed out. “And Selene’s here.”
“You went out with the Army guy and didn’t make a fuss,” John muttered.
Mrs. Peale beamed. That was jealousy. Sassy seemed to realize it, too, because her eyes lit up.
“I’m not making a fuss,” Sassy assured him. “And I love going to the movies.”
John relented a little and grinned self-consciously. “Okay. I’ll be along about six. That Chinese restaurant that just opened has good food—suppose I bring some along and we’ll have supper before we go?”
They hesitated to accept. He’d done so much for them already…
“It’s Chinese food, not precious jewels,” he said. “Would you like to go out and look at my truck again? I make a handsome salary and I don’t drink, smoke, gamble or run around with predatory women!”
Now Mrs. Peale and Sassy both looked sheepish and grinned.
“Okay,” Sassy said. “But when I get rich and famous one day for my stock-clerking abilities, I’m paying you back for all of it.”
He laughed. “That’s a deal.”
The Chinese food was a huge assortment of dishes, many of which could be stored in the refrigerator and provide meals for the weekend for the women and the child. They knew what he’d done, but they didn’t complain again. He was bighearted and he wanted to help them. It seemed petty to argue.
After they ate, he helped Sassy up into the cab of the big pickup truck, got in himself, and drove off down the road. It was still light outside, but the sun was setting in brilliant colors. It was like a symphony of reds and oranges and yellows, against the silhouetted mountains in the distance.
“It’s so beautiful here,” Sassy said, watching the sunset. “I’d never want to live anyplace else.”
He glanced at her. He was homesick for Medicine Ridge from time to time, but he liked Hollister, too. It was a small, homey place with nice people and plenty of wide-open country. The elbow room was delightful. You could drive for miles and not meet another car or even see a house.
“Are we going to the theater in town?” she asked John.
He grinned like a boy. “We are not,” he told her. “I found a drive-in theater just outside the city limits. The owner started it up about a month ago. He said he’d gone to them when he was young and thought it was time to bring them back. I don’t know that he’ll be able to stay open long, but I thought we’d check it out, anyway.”
“Wow,” she exclaimed. “I’ve read about them in novels.”
“Me, too, but I’ve never been to one. Our uncle used to talk about them.”
“Is it in a town?” she asked.
“No. It’s in the middle of a cowpasture. Cattle graze nearby.”
She laughed delightedly. “You’re watching a movie with the windows open and a cow sticks its head into the car with you,” she guessed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“I like cows,” she sighed. “I wouldn’t mind.”
“He runs beef cattle. Steers.”
She looked at him. “Steers?”
“It’s a bull with missing equipment,” he told her, tongue-in-cheek.
“Then what’s a cow?”
“It’s a cow, if it’s had calves. If it hasn’t, it’s a heifer.”
“You know a lot about cattle.”
“I’ve worked a
round them all my life,” he said comfortably. “I love animals. We’re going to have horses out at the ranch, too. You can come riding and bring Selene, any time you want.”
“You’d have to teach Selene,” she said. “She’s never been on a horse and you’d have to coach me. It’s been a long time since I’ve been riding.”
He glanced at her with warm eyes. “I’d love that.”
She laughed. “Me, too.”
The drive-in was in a cleared pasture about a quarter of a mile off the main highway. There was a marquee, which listed the movie playing, this time a science-fiction one about a space freighter and its courageous crew which was fighting a technological empire that ran the inner planets of the solar system where it operated. They drove through a tree-lined dirt road down to the cleared pasture. There was room for about twenty cars, and six were already occupying one of three slight inclines that faced a huge blank screen. Each space had a pole, which contained two speakers, one for cars on either side of it. At the ticket stand, which was a drive-through affair manned by a teenager who looked like the owner John had already met, most likely his son, John paid for their tickets.
He pulled the truck up into an unoccupied space and cut off the engine, looking around amusedly. “The only thing missing is a concession stand with drinks and pizza and a rest room,” he mused. “Maybe he’ll add that, later, if the drive-in catches on.”
“It’s nice out here, without all that,” she mused, looking around.
“Yes, it is.” He powered down both windows and brought the speaker in on his side of the truck. He turned up the volume just as the screen lit up with welcome messages and previews of coming attractions.
“This is great!” Sassy laughed.
“It is, isn’t it?”
He tossed his hat into the small back seat of the double-cabbed truck, unfastened his seat belt, and stretched out. As an afterthought, he unfastened Sassy’s belt and drew her into the space beside him, with his long arm behind her back and his cheek resting on her soft hair.
“Isn’t that better?” he murmured, smiling.