“Don’t look so worried, Abby, I’m fine. This will pass. The doctor says I’ll live. Now, sit down here.” She patted the bed and Abby eased down beside her.
“You scared us terribly.”
“Well, the Lord kept me safe and sent your handsome hero to rescue me.”
“Oh, he’s not my—”
Pebble winked. “I’m just going to call him that then. I like the thought of it.”
“I hope all that smoke didn’t suddenly make you a matchmaker.”
“Maybe.”
Abby decided not pressing the issue was the best plan of action. “Speaking of heroes, I should mention that I drove a very worried newspaper reporter to the motel last night. If one of the firemen hadn’t blocked his way, I’m pretty sure he would have plunged into that building to get to you.”
Pebble looked troubled as she let her gaze shift to the window. Abby wondered again how deep her feelings really went for Rand.
“I just thought I should tell you that,” she said. “I mean, I told you the other so I should tell this, too, right?”
Pebble patted her hand. “Thank you for being honest with me. Rand is a good man. He’s not perfect. But he’s a good man. Our friendship goes back a long way, and it’s complicated.”
Abby squeezed Pebble’s hand, feeling close to the innkeeper. “I hope I haven’t complicated it more. I never meant anything bad. I was just worried about you.”
“I understand. I needed to know. My Cecil was a good man. He was very uncomplicated.” She took a sip of her water and laid her head back on her pillow. “It was the kind of life I wanted—easy, risk free.”
Abby remembered someone saying that Rand had loved Pebble when they were young. She suddenly wondered if Pebble had loved him. Had she chosen between complicated and uncomplicated?
It was none of her business. She’d already done enough. “I better go check on Bo. He’s being released today and I’m driving him home. If you need anything, please let me know. I’m sure you’re going to have a lot of offers of that though.”
“Yes, they’ve already started.”
Abby gave her a quick hug and headed toward the door.
“Abby—”
She paused at the door and turned back. “Yes.”
“Why did you drive Rand to the fire?”
Abby cocked her head to the side. “Because it was so important to him . . . and he asked me instead of getting behind the wheel and driving himself despite how desperate he was to get to you.”
Bo sank into Abby’s car trying not to jar his shoulder too much. He figured that if he did things exactly as the doc had said, then he would have no complications and he’d be back to his normal routine quicker than if he pushed it. With the way his luck was going, if he pushed it, he’d end up having surgery like the doc had warned him before he left. He didn’t want that. He had a baby counting on him and a business to run and Pops to look out for and no time to be gambling with this injury. And right now he had to figure out how he was going to deal with this while his brothers were off doing their jobs.
Once again it came down to him imposing on Abby.
And he wasn’t happy about it. But on short notice what else did he have? If she said no, then he’d just have to deal with it and figure something else out. Still, he didn’t mention it. He stared out the window and watched the town of Kerrville fade away and the familiar landscape of rolling hills and scrub dot the landscape. And his thoughts kept going to Abby.
When he’d been trapped under that beam, and Jarrod had to leave him there in order to get Pebble out, he had thought of nothing but Levi and Abby as the fire closed in around him.
“You sure are quiet,” Abby said finally.
She was probably wondering if he was mad at her. If she knew what he was thinking, she’d be the one mad at him. Bo looked over at her and wondered if she had worried about him.
She’d said twice that she only wanted to be friends. And up until now he’d backed off, but now, he knew what he wanted.
He just had to figure out how to get it. And maybe his brothers suddenly running off like this was just what he needed to get it.
It felt awkward being the one to pick Bo up at the hospital and once they were in the car driving it was even more awkward. But what was she supposed to do when Maggie asked her to do it? It seemed odd to Abby and she wondered if Bo thought so too.
Then again, the situation at the Four of Hearts Ranch wasn’t a truly normal situation. There were so many variables that made it complicated. His broken collar bone only being part of the equation. The other was the still unwanted complete awareness of the man beside her. It radiated throughout her like a jackhammer on steroids. And it only grew worse when he turned those devastating blue eyes on her. Those eyes instantly had her thinking about a walk on the beach, holding hands and kissing in the moonlight all at the same time. And . . . she pushed the “and” away. She’d stopped thinking about that after Landon died.
But those eyes, drat them, they were like a lighthouse beacon and this ship was caught in the powerful beam. “So, I was thinking you’re going to be in trouble when Maggie leaves. I mean, we talked about her leaving and me watching Levi full time when that happened. But now, with your shoulder, what are you going to do?”
He looked troubled. “I’ve been sitting here thinking about the very same thing. I can manage with Pops, but Levi could pose a problem with me only having the use of one arm. I think maybe I’ll need to go ahead and find some nighttime help too. Just in case something were to happen while I’m the only one with both Pops and Levi. I mean, I’m capable but for the baby’s safety I wouldn’t want to take chances.”
Abby understood his concern and admired him for realizing that there could be a safety issue. “I agree.” She bit her lip, her mind whirling. “Lifting Levi is going to be a problem for you.” She started thinking about everything that could happen changing a diaper with one hand, and as if he were reading her mind, he frowned.
“If he gets to squirming while I’m trying to change his diaper, it might not be pretty—it might be doggone awful now that I think about it.”
If he wasn’t so obviously stressed about it, Abby would have laughed, but she didn’t.
“I gotta find help. I’m not willing to take that chance, for his sake. It’s not fair to him. Maybe one of Sergio’s sisters could help. Or a niece.”
He was rambling and Abby found his nerves reassuring. He was as much out of his element here as she was out of hers. And the truth was, what else did he have? Demand that his brothers stay? From what she had gleaned from their conversations about his dad’s gambling, they still had some debt hanging over their heads and it took all of them to make the payments. And Maggie had confided that part of this trip was for a column promotion.
Abby knew that they couldn’t afford to have any individual piece drop out of that structure.
And Bo had had a lot dumped in his lap suddenly and he was trying so hard to do the right thing. “I can do it,” she blurted. Instantly, she tensed and wanted to take the words back. But she’d said them now. The thought of Levi being around people he wasn’t used to drove her crazy. The baby had been moved and shifted who knew how much in the last few weeks, months. Everything they could find out about his life seemed rooted in his mother being ill and him being shuffled around while she tried to survive.
“No, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking. I volunteered,” she said with more conviction than she felt. He had no idea what this was going to do to her emotionally but she had to do it.
“Look, you have an extra bedroom. I can come stay for a few days. No big deal. I’d take him home at night with me, but the poor kid has been moved around so much I think keeping him in his own room and getting him a routine is the best thing. I’ll come stay, and when you’re better, I’ll head back to my place.” She wanted to slap her forehead in dismay, hearing what she was saying—disbelief stung as if she’d d
one just that.
She knew saying nothing would have been the best policy. Especially where Bo was concerned. But Levi deserved better than the cards he’d been dealt. And there was just nothing she could do but offer to help.
Levi needed her.
“I don’t mind, really.” The words came out sounding as strained as she felt. And looking at Bo, she figured that was only going to grow worse with every passing moment she was in his presence.
“Seriously? No, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“No, Bo, listen to me. That baby has been through a lot. Right now he needs people around him he’s comfortable with and he needs the security of his own bed. His own room. I’d cart him to my house every night but that would be selfish on my part. This will be best.”
He studied her for the longest moment and she thought he might turn her down. Finally, he slowly nodded. “You’re right. This is what’s best for Levi.”
Butterflies and bees tangled together inside her chest. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
She just wished she felt as confident as she sounded.
26
They didn’t waste any more time rethinking the situation. Bo had help from the ranch hands with the cattle, and truthfully he could find someone to step in to help him with Levi. But the baby was comfortable with Abby and she had grown so attached to him she hated the thought of not being the one caring for him. And though she was terrified in many ways, she couldn’t help but wonder if God had placed this challenge in her path. This was one more step forward and she was doing it. Still, Abby got the feeling that Bo was as uncomfortable with the situation as she was but he was considering Levi too. It could potentially be unsafe for Levi if Bo had any trouble during the night. Not to mention that he also had to take care of Pops. She wouldn’t sleep well knowing she’d refused to help. Especially just because she was afraid that being around him twenty-four hours a day might make her start feeling emotions that she didn’t want to feel.
Selfish.
So she found herself in her room packing an overnight bag with enough clothing for several nights. By her calculation she would be there for at least a week. Maybe two since Bo explained that Jarrod was on his way to the Houston Livestock show with a load of their best show cattle. She’d thought for a moment that she’d been set up when they’d all suddenly had to leave after Bo got hurt. But she knew the brothers and they’d hardly act that way, she chided her overactive imagination.
She chose a few makeup items and her shampoo and hairspray from the counter in the bathroom and then her toothbrush and caught the worried expression on her face in the mirror.
“Why are you so nervous?” she whispered, shooting herself a glare. “You’ll be taking care of Levi. And you’ll enjoy that. You know you will.” Automatically her hand went to her lower belly where her baby had once lived so briefly. She’d believed that being around Levi would make the pain of losing her baby worse. And she’d been right initially. But now, the very thought of Levi brought a smile to her lips. She could do this. She would do it. And she’d deal with the awakening that seemed to be going on inside of her with every glance Bo sent her way.
But on this she was clear. She would never change her mind about risking her heart again. Pebble talked about her relationship with Rand being complicated. Well, Abby knew all about complicated.
Grabbing her bag from the bed, she walked into the living room where Bo stood among her things. He seemed to dwarf the room with the sheer magnitude of his presence. And Abby was hit all anew that she’d be saying both good-night and good morning to him. Complicated—her rioting insides would agree wholeheartedly that she knew more than she wanted to know about complicated.
Because there was that part of her that no amount of talking could coax from the ledge and the overwhelming temptation of taking a dive straight into trouble.
Bo’s entire shoulder was radiating with pain by the time he led the way into the house. The small break did hurt but the stress of realizing he was going to be sleeping down the hallway from Abby for probably two weeks had him tensed up like a barbed wire fence.
It did help realizing that he wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure. Abby was about as keyed up as he’d ever seen her. Every time their eyes met her cheeks flushed the becoming pink blush of a fresh field of Texas buttercups. And that only made his situation much more tense.
“This is your room,” he said, standing in the doorway. “It was my grandmother’s sewing room. A lot of pretty things were created here, like that quilt on the bed.” His grandmother was a safe subject.
Abby had paused just outside the doorway in the hall and he could see the vein at the base of her jaw ramp up. At the mention of his grandmother, she smiled, relieved, he figured, to have something to focus on other than that pounding that was apparently going on inside her.
He had his own drumbeat going and nothing was easing up about it.
Abby swept past him in a flurry of sweet spring flower mix.
“This is gorgeous, Bo,” she said, bending forward to run her hand over the intricate pattern of colorful patches of material.
He set Abby’s bag just inside the door, but didn’t go in. “Yeah, Gram loved to sit for hours and create quilts. She finished them in here, but while she was on the road with Pops at shows is where she did a lot of cutting and piecing. I don’t recall a lot of memories of my Gram where she didn’t have a pretty square or triangle of material in her hand.”
“I bet she was a lovely, contented woman.”
He smiled, and he felt the dimple that he’d inherited from his Gram crease his cheek. “I was a kid, pretty young when she died. But from everything I remember and from everything I’ve heard, I’d say so. She loved her family. That chest there—the one at the foot of that bed, it used to be over there under the window. It was used as a window seat back then when there was no bed in here. But it was also where she stored her treasure.”
Abby tilted her head and she beamed an intrigued tell-me-more expression his way. She was about the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen and it had more to do with the spirit that illuminated those amazing eyes of hers. He wondered what it would take to make her a contented woman. Because he knew she wasn’t and he understood why, knowing she’d lost her husband and her child. How could he begin to think that he could ever take that pain and bring her heart, her soul, contentment? Especially him, the cowboy who had always had a problem with commitment.
Abby didn’t need to be hurt again, a man like him was not what she needed—did he even trust himself and the strength of his feelings when he was around her?
He pushed the sudden thoughts away and focused on his Gram’s treasure. “She’d sewn each of us a quilt and a wedding present. Even though she didn’t live to see any of us graduate from junior high school she’d created each of us a special quilt.”
“And she called them her treasure?”
“Yeah, when I’d come in here as a boy and climb up there to sit and watch her work she’d tell me I was sitting on treasure.”
“I’d love to see your quilt someday. You’ve got my curiosity up.”
“I’ll show you. I keep it at my place, but maybe while you’re here we’ll go see it.”
“You don’t live here full time?”
“Nope, I do own a home. It’s not snugged up right here in the middle of the mix, but over on the ranch’s south side. It was just too far away for when Pops needed me and so I closed it up and moved over here. My shop’s here, too, so it made sense.”
She considered that statement for a long moment and he wondered what she was thinking.
She walked over and looked up at him, her eyes as serious, as intense as he’d ever seen them.
“You’re a good man, Bo Monahan.”
He wasn’t so sure of that—not with how he’d hurt Darla. Before he could react or say anything, she’d walked past him and headed down the hall toward the living room.
And despite the swift kick of
doubt, he couldn’t help the silly grin that plastered itself on his face at her compliment. Abby thought he was a good man.
And that gave him hope.
“You’re a lifesaver. I feel so much better knowing you’ll be here.”
Abby hugged Maggie and took Levi from her arms as Maggie gave the little tyke one last kiss.
She juggled Levi in her arms, loving the feel of him against her and the weight of his little body. “We’re going to have a great time. You go and do what you have to do. This media tour your paper has set up for you sounds wonderful. Maybe more of the people you’ve touched will follow you home and settle in town,” she teased.
“I’m sure Bo would love that.” Maggie chuckled.
Abby caught Bo rolling his eyes. “Yup, just what I’d like to see.”
“You better watch what you say, brother-in-law. Abby there decides to walk, you’ll be stranded up a creek without a paddle as Doobie and Doonie say.”
“Okay, looks like everything’s loaded and we’re ready to hit the road. You ready?” Tru asked, striding up from the back of the trailer where he’d been doing some last-minute loading.
“I am.” Maggie kissed him then turned back to Abby. “Call if you need anything. You, too, Bo. We really are sorry about this.”
“It’s okay, we’ll be fine,” Abby assured her, shooing her toward the truck. “Really.”
Abby had to chuckle as Tru opened the passenger door and had to practically pick Maggie up and stuff her into the cab. Maggie immediately rolled the window down as the screen door slammed and they all turned to see Pops striding from the house carrying a duffle bag of his own. And a saddle.
He’d been outside with them a few minutes ago and then he’d turned and headed inside, not an uncommon thing for him to do, but now, it was clear that he’d gone inside for a reason. He now wore a crisply starched shirt that had been buttoned crooked and he had on a pair of gleaming boots and a buckle practically the size of a hubcap taken off his trophy shelf. The saddle was also one of the championship saddles that sat in a corner on a saddle rack.
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