“More like Ed volunteered me,” he told her honestly, getting out of the truck’s cab. “Said it was part of why I got elected. Because everybody in town felt I always came through for them, ‘going that extra mile.’ After that, it was kind of hard saying no to the man. So I didn’t.”
She thought of several incidents out of their shared past. “Does he still have that hangdog expression when he’s playing on your sympathy?”
Cole laughed shortly, nodding. “Hell, it’s even worse.”
Amused, Ronnie laughed. “That man would have gone far if he had ever decided to go into politics.” The laughter faded and she realized that she was standing much too close to Cole. She took a couple steps back. “I’ll get Rowdy to unload your truck,” she said, referring to her father’s foreman. “Just back the truck up to the barn,” she requested.
Cole gave her a slight two fingered salute. “Yes, ma’am.”
She flushed. She knew she could get overbearing without being aware of it. Either way, Cole didn’t deserve to be ordered around. He was doing her a favor. And he was the last man she’d ever thought would actually be willing to do her one.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “Did that sound as if I was ordering you around?”
“Little bit, yeah,” he allowed.
He wasn’t scowling or smiling. That left her with no clue how he actually felt. “Didn’t mean to,” she told him.
Leaving the sedan where it was, Ronnie hurried off toward the corral, where she knew that Rowdy was working with some of the newest crop of quarter horses.
Standing beside his truck, Cole watched her go, ap preciating the rhythmic sway of her hips as she quickly made her way over to the corral.
There was no use denying it, he thought, resigned. Ronnie still had an effect on him. And most likely always would.
“YOU JUST CAUGHT ME IN TIME,” Ronnie told him as Rowdy and another hand unloaded the bags of feed she’d purchased this morning from the back of Cole’s truck. “I was just about to leave for the hospital.”
He recalled she’d said something about not having been to see her brother yet. “First time?” he asked just to be sure.
“To see Wayne? Yes.” She thought she’d already told him that earlier, but to be honest, that entire encounter was blurry to her. She’d been acutely aware of her racing pulse and her desire to be anywhere else.
He nodded. Another moment passed before he asked, “Anybody going with you?”
Given that he knew how independent she was, had often commented on it when they were growing up, sometimes in a flattering sense, sometimes with exasperated adjectives surrounding the word, it struck her as a rather odd question for him to ask.
“Dad’s kind of tired. I want him to rest and get his strength back. Why do you want to know?” she asked him.
“Just thought you might need some emotional support, that’s all, what with seeing Wayne for the first time and all.”
Ronnie deliberately ignored the implication behind his statement. He was telling her that Wayne was so bad that it would be a complete shock to her system to see him that way. Instead, she focused on something else. On the way he’d just phrased his answer. “I guess you have changed a little after all.”
“What makes you say that?”
She laughed softly. “The Cole James I knew didn’t even know there was such a thing as emotional support, much less was concerned about it being given.”
“I knew,” he protested. “Just didn’t think it was necessary to slap a label on everything back then, that’s all.”
“We’re done, Miss Ronnie,” Rowdy announced, his voice rising from the rear of the truck. Cole turned in their direction as the foreman added, “You can have your truck back now, Sheriff.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Cole saw Ronnie covering her mouth as if to stifle a laugh. He didn’t see anything particularly funny about what Rowdy had just said.
“What?” he asked her.
“Nothing.” She dropped her hands, but there was a trace of amusement still in her eyes. “It’s just hard getting used to everyone calling you ‘Sheriff,’ that’s all.” The title belonged to someone in authority—or to a little kid pretending to be all grown up. “Reminds me of the game we used to play as kids.”
He nodded. “Cowboys and Indians. And you were always the Indian.”
The proud toss of her head was automatic. Cole watched the sun filter through her hair, highlighting the golden strands. “That’s because I was always better at riding bareback than you were.”
“Matter of opinion.” Besides, as he recalled, that wasn’t the reason for the division of roles. “Way I remember it, I always liked the order behind pretending to be a sheriff and you were always wild.”
The next words came out of his mouth before he had a chance to talk himself out of them. He seemed to forget that more time with Ronnie was a very bad idea.
“I can go with you to the hospital if you want. To see Wayne,” he added needlessly when Ronnie made no response.
She made no response because she was dumbfounded. But when that passed and she regained the use of her mind and her vocal chords, she was about to tell him “Thank you but no thank you”—until she saw the back door to the main house opening.
Christopher was coming out with her father.
Mercifully, Cole’s back was to the house and he didn’t see her father or Christopher. But he would. Any second now, she knew her exuberant son would call out to her and Cole would turn around to receive what could amount to the shock of his life if he put two and two together.
She definitely wasn’t up to dealing with that situation, with introductions and partial explanations even if for some reason she lucked out and Cole didn’t make the connection. It was all she could do to pull herself together in order to see Wayne for the first time, see how badly her beloved brother had been hurt.
It was an act of sheer self-preservation that caused her to grab Cole’s hand and pull him over toward his truck, making sure that his back remained toward the house.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Ronnie asked.
Taking a calculated risk, she released his hand and hurried around the hood of the truck rather than the back of it so that Cole would remain facing the way he was. She lucked out and he did.
Yanking the passenger-side door open, she deposited herself in the front passenger seat. He was still standing where she’d left him, staring at her.
“Let’s go,” she urged impatiently.
He hid his surprise well, appearing to take her sudden change in stride.
That hadn’t changed any, either, Cole thought. Ronnie still acted impulsively, blowing hot and, just when he’d gotten used to it, cold. Back then, it had kept him on his toes, second-guessing her—and getting it right only half the time.
“Sure thing,” he murmured. And with that, he got into the truck’s cab.
Putting his key into the ignition, Cole started up his truck. It rumbled to life.
Over the last ten years, the vehicle had acquired its own set of sounds and noises, loud enough to mask any outside sounds that were not at a louder pitch.
Which was why he pulled away from the barn without hearing the little boy call out to them. And he missed seeing that same little boy break into a run, heading toward the barn.
But, glancing into the rearview mirror, Ronnie did and felt a pang.
Sorry, baby. Mama’ll make it up to you. But right now, I can’t let you meet your dad. I’m not ready for that and neither are you.
And probably, she added silently, neither was Cole.
Chapter Five
Despite the various noises of the truck, the silence seemed to grow larger, more pronounced and uncomfortable with every mile. Cole thought of simply turning on the radio. They used to like the same kind of music, although that had probably changed, too.
But he hadn’t offered to come with her to the hospital in Helena so that the two of them could ride there in prick
ly, awkward silence like this. Granted, no one had ever accused him of being gregarious, but one of the best things he recalled about their relationship was that they could always talk to each other. About anything. She’d been his best friend and he hers.
He missed that. There had been no one to fill the void these last six years. Not for either position she’d left vacant.
Cole drew in a subtle deep breath and then plunged in. “So, what have you been doing with yourself these last six years?”
The question—and his voice slicing into the silence—really caught her off guard. It took Ronnie a second to gather her wits about her. Where did she start? What was there to say? “I went to college, got my MBA and went to work for Peerless Advertising in Seattle.”
He’d never heard of the company. Probably some company that advertised things people could do without.
“And that’s it?” he asked. He’d been expecting something more than just a single sentence in response from her. At least a short paragraph. After all, it had been six years.
Oh, yes, and I had your son. What do you say to that, Cole James? “That’s it,” Ronnie replied out loud with a forced smile gracing her lips as she glanced toward him.
“Doesn’t seem like enough to fill up six years,” he commented. Was there someone in her life? Was she serious about him? Engaged? Married? But her hand was bare, he reminded himself. So she wasn’t committed to someone, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been, or didn’t intend to be, maybe even any day now.
The thought chewed a hole in his insides.
“You’d be surprised,” she commented. And it was true. Every moment of her day was spoken for in one way or another. And she felt as if she never managed to get everything done. “I barely have enough time to sleep.” Afraid of where his question might lead, Ronnie deliberately shifted the conversation away from herself. “What about you? What have you been doing?”
He shrugged. He never liked talking about his life, never cared for diverting attention to himself. “Worked on my folks’ ranch and then got voted in sheriff when the old sheriff had to leave.”
And I missed you like crazy every day the first couple of years or so.
Cole kept his eyes on the road, afraid that they might give him away if she looked at them. “Guess we’re all caught up, then.”
“Guess so.” Silence rose up and began to penetrate the cab of the truck again, nudging them each into their respective corners.
This is ridiculous, Ronnie thought. This was still Cole, the guy who had been her best friend since they were toddlers together. She should be able to talk to him without having to chew every word twelve times before spitting it out.
And now that she thought about it, there was something he could tell her.
“Tell me everything,” she said, suddenly turning toward him. There was an urgency in her voice that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Well, this had certainly come out of the blue, he thought. “How’s that again?”
“Tell me everything,” Ronnie repeated. “About the accident,” she added when he looked at her again, puzzled. “You were the one who got there first, so tell me. Tell me everything that happened. I don’t want you to leave anything out.”
He’d seen what her brother looked like when he pulled Wayne out of the wreckage. She suspected that her brother’s condition was a great deal worse than she was allowing herself to believe. Positive thoughts notwithstanding, she needed to know what to expect when she walked into the hospital’s intensive care unit.
“You didn’t ask your dad?” Cole asked, surprised. To him that would seem to be the most logical way to start.
She had, but the answer she’d received from Amos McCloud was more disheartening than informative. “My dad can’t seem to remember anything from the time the truck collided with the cross-country van until he woke up lying in the hospital emergency room.”
Cole could see that her father’s temporary amnesia just added to Ronnie’s worries. “That’s not uncommon from what I hear. Mind can just shut down when it doesn’t want to process something.”
Unfortunately, her father had processed just enough to blame himself. But the older man had no reason to be so hard on himself, Cole thought.
“He might’ve been the one behind the wheel, but it wasn’t his fault from the information I’ve put together. That trucker was operating on four hours’ sleep three days running. He fell asleep behind the wheel without even realizing it. It was just your dad’s bad luck to be out there when it happened. Any other time, the only one that trucker would have wound up hurting—maybe—was himself.”
Which brought her to another point. According to her father’s reluctant admission, the ranch—whose main focus was to raise and train quarter horses—was already having financial difficulties. If for some reason the trucker took it into his head to sue her father, that was a whole shelf-load of problems she just wasn’t up to sorting through right now.
But she might as well know the worst of it, she decided stoically. “How badly was the trucker hurt?”
“Not as bad as your dad,” Cole could readily attest. “Some cuts and scratches on his arms and face, and he bumped his head against the dashboard. He was okay, but the truck was a loss. As was your dad’s,” he said in case she hadn’t realized that yet.
“And Dad and Wayne were both pinned inside the truck?” She already knew the answer to that, but it seemed incredible to her that they had been and were still alive now, considering what happened next.
As if reciting a story to a child for the umpteenth time because hearing it repeated gave them comfort, Cole nodded and said, “Your dad’s truck rolled two, three times and landed upside down on the road. Both your dad and Wayne were strapped in.” He’d just been coming down the ridge when he saw the whole thing from his vantage point. He drove down as fast as he could. “I had to cut their seat belts to get them free because the locks wouldn’t work. I got your father out first—he was easier to get loose even though he fought me.”
Her eyes widened. That didn’t make any sense. “He fought you?”
To him it made perfect sense. A parent’s desire to save their child at all costs took precedence over everything else, even their own safety. That didn’t change just because the “child” was six foot four. “He wanted me to get Wayne out first, but Wayne was really pinned down. The door on his side had caved completely in, pressing his torso up against the dashboard.” Cole shook his head, reliving the incident. “To tell the truth, I really don’t know how I got him out. But I did and a lucky thing, too, because the whole damn truck blew up not thirty seconds after I got Wayne clear of it.”
She was hanging on Cole’s every word. “Was he conscious?”
“No. And his pulse kept cutting in and out, but the emergency med-evac attendant I called in managed to stabilize it and took him to the trauma center at the hospital in Helena. The chopper took your dad there, too, just to check him out to make sure there wasn’t any internal bleeding even though he kept protesting that he was okay.”
That sounded just like her father. Ronnie’s mouth curved in a fond smile. “He’s a stubborn old man.”
He spared her a glance. “Runs in the family.” His meaning was clear.
She had that coming, Ronnie thought, so she didn’t contest his comment. Instead, she expressed her gratitude. “Thanks for saving them.”
Cole heard the emotion brimming in her voice like unshed tears and it stirred up old memories, memories he’d forced himself to lock away. Memories that he’d hoped would eventually fade away, given enough time.
He should have known better.
Deflecting her thanks with a careless shrug of his shoulders, he said, “I didn’t do anything someone else wouldn’t have done in my place.”
Not everyone, she’d come to learn, could rise to an occasion. The men she’d encountered these last few years weren’t good enough to walk in Cole’s shadow. But that was something she had to learn on her o
wn.
Education had its price. She had paid for hers by losing Cole. Because even if he forgave her for leaving like that, he’d never forgive her for shutting him out of his son’s life. Even though she still believed that all the reasons she’d had for not telling him were right, it didn’t really help the situation.
“I don’t know about that,” she replied honestly. She gave credit where it was due. “There was always something heroic about you.”
Damn it, he wasn’t supposed to want to pull over to the side of the road so that he could take her in his arms and kiss her. He was supposed to be angry at her, so angry that he was immune to her. Immune to the sound of her, the scent of her. He was supposed to want to wash his hands of her, not take those hands and hold them.
What the hell was wrong with him? Where was his pride?
Cole shrugged in response to her comment and muttered, “If you say so.” The next moment, he reached over and turned on the radio.
He decided it was better that way.
RONNIE HAD THOUGHT HERSELF FULLY prepared. Hadn’t she just spent the last fifty miles bracing herself? The last two days, actually. Ever since her father had called, she’d been preparing herself for what she’d see when she walked into Wayne’s intensive care cubicle.
The moment she saw Wayne, her heart constricted in her chest.
She wasn’t ready at all.
Tears were in her eyes before she had taken more than two steps into the tiny space that was crammed with machines and monitors buffering both sides of Wayne’s bed.
Ronnie could feel her throat tightening even as it, too, filled with tears.
She wasn’t even aware that Cole came into the cubicle behind her, or that he remained standing there. She wasn’t aware of anything except for the man in the hospital bed, the man whose face was battered and swollen almost beyond recognition. The man with a highway of IVs crisscrossing along both arms.
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