A police cruiser whizzed by blaring a warning, making way to the other fiasco. The one I had already forgotten about. I watched a pretty medic who looked about Lane’s age, pull Josh aside. I sighed as he grinned and cooperated a little too easily. My attention drew back to Gabe chatting with Caleb. I didn’t want to bother him. Another medic was perched awkwardly inside the sideways cab, evaluating Caleb and his injuries. Lane slithered down the grassy knoll and stretched out to mimic Gabe’s pose over the horribly mangled hood.
I stared at the popped windshield and the totaled pickup.
“C’mere, Av’ry. He wants to see you,” Gabe called over his shoulder. His voice sounded calm. “He’s asking for ya, legs.”
“Hey,” I said and slouched on the grass beside Gabe. He locked one of his legs over mine so I wouldn’t roll down the slope. My eyes fixed on Caleb’s pale profile. “Are you in pain?”
“Howdy, legs. You made it to my party.” Caleb’s voice sounded strangled, not his usual loud boasting self. The steering wheel, forced against his chest, looked terribly painful. His arms were free to move. I extended my hand. He took it and held me with unremarkable strength. “Why don’t you climb on in and keep me company.”
“Watch it, bro,” scolded Gabe. He rubbed Caleb’s shoulder. The one he could reach.
I blanched when I realized someone had taken scissors to Caleb’s T-shirt and practically cut it off him in sections. Propped under his head, was a rolled emergency blanket. The air in the truck was stifling. The sun was not being kind. The smell of chemical smoke from the distant explosion passed over as hot gales blew through the prairies. It was an all-around, awful mess.
I kept my hand in Caleb’s, but swung a concerned gaze to Gabe. The writing was on his forehead this time.
“So what’s this about...a garage and steamed up windows? You surprise me, legs,” Caleb wheezed as the medic woman rolled a cuff on his arm.
I released his hand and flushed at his question. Word traveled fast in these parts, especially when salacious.
“Just you stay calm there,” Gabe told him. “No more of this, okay? You’ll be outta here soon enough and you and blondie can have all the no-tell-motel fun you want.”
The medic woman placed her stethoscope over Caleb’s heart and a finger over her lips to shut us up.
“Does Molly know?” I asked quietly. “Should I call her?”
“Yeah. She knows...I’m pinned in my pickup...on the highway...sweating my ass off,” he whispered as his features grew limp and pale. “Lane...called her.”
As the medic instructed, Caleb took a deep breath—and turned lifeless.
“Okay kids! Everybody needs to give me some space,” the woman ordered in an alarmed tone. “Over here!”
Her colleagues scampered down the hill and joined her. An ambulance sounded in the distance. I got to my feet, my heart pounding viciously. The awfulness of the accident had become real. I stumbled, knocking pebbles and dirt into the truck bed with my flip-flops. Gabe scrambled behind me. I read his face again. It screamed of panic. His hazel eyes fixed on Lane who didn’t budge when instructed to leave the truck.
Nine
The hours following Caleb’s accident meshed together into a blur of anguish and frustration. Gabe was unresponsive to my comforting and turned his shoulder to any attention I offered. Avoiding conversation, he coiled into a chair with a book in the hospital lounge. I realized how much I cared for Caleb’s well-being, even after he’d made me feel so darn uncomfortable. I forgave his faults, his slip-ups.
Lane was the only person permitted to see Caleb until Meggie arrived and claimed she was his aunt, even though she wasn’t. She sent Josh home after insisting he see a doctor for his facial gash. He didn’t require stitches.
The afternoon passed slowly. The hospital morphed into a modern-day scene from West Side Story. The Haldens and some of Meggie’s boarders waited inside while Barrett’s gang waited outside. Thankfully, Hunt’s posse congregated in the small parking lot. They hung out amidst their flashy vehicles and relaxed on the employee picnic tables like they owned the place. We all waited for a glimpse of Caleb, while they waited for news on two of Hunt’s hoodlums. By chance, we heard one was in intensive care waiting for surgery.
“Aunt Meggie!” I exclaimed when I observed her slight waddle coming down the hall. “How is he? What do you know?”
Gabe launched off his chair. “How is he? How’s my brother? Can I see him? Can I go in?”
“When Lane comes out, you can go in. He’s gonna be okay. Not right away, but soon.” Her eyes warmed and she seized Gabe’s arm. Then her hands floated up to touch his handsome face. “Hang in there, kiddo. He’s good. They did everything they can for now. He’s gotta do the healing.”
“My dad’s coming. Did Lane tell you?” Gabe asked Meggie. He folded his paperback nearly in half.
She sighed heavily with a hitch at the bottom of her breath.
“No, but I had a feeling. Actually, I’m surprised he isn’t here already with that fleet of wings he’s got down there. I don’t mean the ones on his back.” She chuckled.
A deep frown registered on Gabe’s face. “There ain’t none on his back, ma’am.”
He watched for her reaction. She made none.
Even I knew that Lieutenant Colonel Halden would be less than pleased when he learned about the accident.
“Where’s Molly?” asked Meggie. “I thought she’d be here.”
Gabe shrugged. He shot his eyes at me like I should know. “She was. She’s probably outside getting some air.” He hugged himself, jamming his thumbs in his armpits. “When’s Lane coming out?”
Lane’s ears must have been ringing as he rounded the corner. His eyes were dragging on the ground. He yanked his cap to shield his face.
“Go on. He wants to see you,” he told his younger brother.
Gabe tore off with the raw quickness of a cheetah.
I observed Lane as his pained expression slowly evened out. “I’ll go look for Molly,” I offered.
Meggie and Lane headed to the hospital cafeteria to grab a bite with some of the guys from the coop. Outside the hospital door, Barrett’s gang huddled around a monster-size pickup, smoking and loitering. I didn’t recognize any of the goons. I danced my gaze around the lot. Molly was nowhere. A girl in a hot pink halter top sat alone on a bench, frantically searching in her purse. I approached and planned to ask if she had seen a small blonde the size of a child. She tipped her chin and looked up.
We both startled.
It was Jordan Halverson—with half her face swollen.
“Oh hi,” I said as I filtered my snappy judgments. It was too late to backtrack.
“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have any cover-up on you?” Jordan asked out of the side of her mouth.
The skin around her eyes was puffy and red and blotchy. In her hand she held a compact mirror. She scrunched her nose and twisted her lips from side to side to check her makeup.
“No. Sorry. What, uh, happened?”
Did she recognize me? Did she know I was with Gabe or that he was mine? I held in my loud thoughts.
“I fell. It’s nothing,” she covered and rolled her baby blues.
I knew she was telling a lie.
“Oh.” Somebody hit her good. “Really?”
“It’s nothing a little makeup can’t cover.” She had a voice full of false confidence. “I’m Jordan. I’ve seen you around with the boys. Is Caleb gonna be okay?”
“I don’t know how he is,” I told her nicely, although it pained me to think about Gabe doing heaven knows what with the girl. “I’m Avery.”
She was beautiful in spite of her semi-veiled bruises. Her other features were delicate, her voice singsong. She had the kind of hair I only ever saw in shampoo commercials. It was bouncy and shiny and maddening. Her ears were dressed with single diamond studs the size of M&Ms. Jordan was everything I could never be. We had nothing in common except the fact that somebody felt the need
to mess up both of our faces.
“You’re with Gabe,” she stated under her breath. It wasn’t really a question. “Caleb told me.”
Why was Caleb talking to the enemy? Was he that much of a Lothario? I groaned and my stomach mimicked my voice. He was all over the place chasing skirt. If Gabe knew, he would probably break the rest of Caleb’s ribs.
“Jordy, get over here,” a male voice rumbled across the lot. She stood up tall and smoothed her skirt.
“I gotta go,” she told me.
I forced a compassionate smile at my newest frenemy.
“There’s a party at the lake next weekend. Boating. A bonfire. We have it every year.”
Was she seriously inviting me to a party?
“Get on over here,” the voice barked.
I was certain he was one of Hunt’s thugs. I gazed curiously as she scuffed her feet, crossed the parking lot, and disappeared.
Inside the lobby, I kept my brief encounter with the other side and my discovery of Jordan’s roughed up face to myself. Molly showed up while I was out looking for her. When she returned from visiting Caleb, I grabbed a chance to sneak in. I entered the room and noted an unnerving monitor on the back wall as it beeped and moaned steadily. My gaze fluttered from the window to the bed and then narrowed in on Caleb’s shut eyes.
Gabe hovered protectively over his nearly identical brother. He perked up a notch and offered a bland smile. “He’s a little doped. Six fractured ribs and his collarbone. They said it’s a clavicle fracture. It’s common with blunt trauma. They can’t really do anything here. He can’t have too much drugs in him either in case he has trouble breathing. That’s why they’re keeping him overnight.” He held his voice down, eyes crinkling on the sides.
“How bad is his pain?”
Gabe’s lip curled. “Zilch right now. He was calling me Eli and talking about laser tag and G.I. Joes.”
I laughed and folded my arms over my stomach. “You okay?”
Gabe nodded.
“Hiya, ponygirl,” Caleb said cheerfully. His hazel eyes popped open, jaw slack.
I stared at the white tape wrapped around his chest. It looked uncomfortable. His upper chest was dark red and irritated. A stretchy mesh sling wrapped around his shoulder.
“Ponygirl,” he repeated.
I’m positive he was hinting at my hairstyle.
“Hi,” I said, feeling a tad standoffish. Caleb had a way of turning me off and charming me at the very same time.
“C’mere, you,” he slurred as he held out his arm, the one with the IV. He jiggled the tubes and chuckled. “Closer.”
Gabe released a grunt of approval and leaned back in a metal chair. It squealed across the linoleum, before it hit the wall.
I drew my focus back to Caleb.
“Yeah?” I asked as I stooped over him.
His hand slid behind me and grazed the skin on the back of my leg. Before I could stop him, he slapped his hand on my rear.
“Caleb Halden!” I scolded and retreated.
Gabe hauled up at my outburst and shook his head.
Caleb dropped his lids. “My ponytail. My legs. You’re mine.”
He wasn’t all there. Even so, it wasn’t just the medication. Caleb was unscrupulous.
* * *
Lane insisted on staying overnight with Caleb even though he was coming off an all-nighter and complained he was dead on his feet. Meggie offered to keep him company until visiting hours ended. So Gabe drove me home and told her to call him if she wanted a ride later.
“Caleb’s gonna stay in the house while he recuperates. The sofa converts to a bed. If you could, Avery, pull out some blankets and sheets and make up a nice area for him. Gabe, you can bring some of his personal items in from the coop,” Meggie said as she stood silhouetted in the hospital hallway. “No funny business now. You got me?”
Gabe was halfway down the hall.
“Yes,” I said puzzled. There was no way she knew what I was planning. Had she spied me talking with Jordan? Could she see the jealous nerve that Jordan plucked deep in my belly? Regardless of the horrific day, recreating Gabe’s kidnapping stunt was foremost in my mind.
“Josh is home,” she threw in for measure.
I laughed silently. Josh was on my side when it came to breaking Meggie’s law.
When we got to the truck, Gabe slid in after me and tapped his forehead rhythmically onto the steering wheel. He tossed his book on the floor and turned the key. I stayed in the middle of the seat, linked my arm through his and rested my head on his shoulder. I inhaled at his sleeve, an intoxicating sensation gripped me.
Neither of us spoke until we pulled in the driveway at Meggie’s.
“We forgot Josh’s truck,” I said as I remembered that I left it parked at Albertsons.
He swung his gaze around. “Tomorrow,” he told me. “I’ll get my brother’s things.”
I fixed my gaze on his back as he sulked along the path at an unusually slow pace for his long and efficient legs. I noted Meggie’s truck was missing.
“Thank you,” I murmured to myself. I owed Josh a big one.
During the course of an hour, I spent way too much time trying to heat up a serving of lasagna in the microwave, before I realized I had to pull the film off for it to heat evenly. Then I fumbled around in closets and cabinets looking for a set of matching sheets. I worked fast to get back downstairs before Gabe returned. When my ears opened to the slamming of the back door, I collected what I found and hauled it down the stairs, struggling to look under my arms so I didn’t trip. The blinds were drawn. The sun was melting into the wheat fields. Without a clear trajectory, I threw the blankets and sheets into the living room.
“Score,” Gabe announced from the shadows. “Nice aim.” His voice was light and more relaxed.
“I didn’t see you.” I flashed my gaze to his lazy pose in a chair, the same chair Meggie scolded him in.
“Not surprised. The light’s not on.” His dark eyes explored me.
I stepped closer. I didn’t dare breathe.
“We’ve got something we need to finish,” he said in a low drawl that made me shudder.
I took another step, but I didn’t want to seem too eager even though I was. His arm reached out and grabbed my leg, just as Caleb had in the hospital. But I didn’t dare protest.
“Sit.” He pulled me down.
Sideways, I fell into his lap and let my ear rest against his chest. I listened.
“Do you want something to eat? There’s a freezer full of frozen dinners. Meggie won’t mind.”
Gabe was soundless for a time. His pause was worrisome. Then he said, “Let’s go to the coop. We won’t get disturbed.”
I got chills thinking about him thinking about us not getting disturbed. I guessed he wasn’t hungry for dinner.
“Nah,” I said. “Let’s just stay here with a full view of who comes home. Soon as you see the truck, run for your life.”
I knew if I got caught alone with Gabe in the coop, I’d be stepping on New York soil before I could blink. Just going a single day without seeing him had become torturous.
He grunted in agreement. The sound resonated in my ear. I lifted my head off his shirt. We gazed at one another, our own private staring contest. In a faint glint of light from the hall, his green irises twinkled like cat’s eyes. They disappeared and then shone again as he moved his head a fraction. I traced his prominent eyebrow with my finger. He let his sleepy lids drop. Then my hand caressed the side of his face.
He was beautiful, though I was not satisfied with just looking at him.
“He’ll be okay. He’ll be driving us nuts, climbing those stairs up to the top floor in no time,” I said of Caleb and offered a sly grin.
Gabe opened his eyes wide. He frowned. “He’s gonna drive you plumb crazy. I get to live out there.”
I tapped at his shoulder. “I’m just kidding, you know. I’ll make Josh rub his back, feed him, sponge bathe him. All the stuff he’s going to
beg me to do.”
Gabe’s frown deepened. He leaned back.
I searched his shadowed face. I thought I saw a lone tear settle in his lashes. I wasn’t surprised after the day he had stomached. My fingers spread behind his neck and caught some of the short hairs at his nape. I tugged his face into mine. His shoulders went limp, his lungs deflated.
Touching Gabe was an out of body experience.
I pressed a gentle kiss on his fluttering lashes. My lips tasted his salty tear before it dipped to the side of his nose. I caught his parted lips just as he was about to speak.
I kissed him delicately, tenderly, unhurried. It was nothing like our previous encounter.
He circled his hands around my waist and drew me closer.
Into my mouth, he mumbled, “That all ya got?”
I pulled back. “What does that mean?” I asked smirking. “I liked that.”
Gabe slid his hand up my back and made a circular motion. “I like that too. But I like other things. If I were Caleb sitting here like this...well, let’s just say you wouldn’t be sitting this long.”
* * *
“I don’t want Caleb or anybody who acts like him. I like how you are,” I said, slightly confused.
Was he questioning my intentions? Did he think I wanted him to be aggressive like his brother?
“I want you, Gabe. Don’t you know? Seriously?” How could he doubt what I felt for him? I never gave him any reason. The few seconds I gave to relishing Caleb’s stolen kiss in the kitchen didn’t compare to kissing Gabe and recreating it over and over in my dreams each night. They were brothers from different planets. Physical duplicates at the same time. Caleb had a fierce need to talk about my looks and always made sure I knew how hard he was looking.
Gabe was the complete opposite.
“Never mind,” he said and seemed to give up, even though he was the one who started it.
I told myself he was just tired. I pushed off his chest, using the armrest to brace myself, and prepared my thoughts. When my words were fully processed and ready to be said, I angled into his face and told him.
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