by Amy Brent
“You sure you want to leave?” she asked, sounding a little like she didn’t want me to go. “The doc’s not happy about this.”
“The doc just wants to pad his bill,” I said, giving her a smile. I nodded at Shelby. “I’ll be in good hands.”
“I’m not going to be your nurse,” Shelby shot back. Her words slapped my face like a horse’s tail swatting a fly. She frowned at Nurse Old Bat. “Tell me the extent of his injuries and what needs to be done. I’m sure my Daddy will hire a nurse to look after him.”
Nurse Old Bat leaned on the wheelchair and let her eyes go between us. It was easy to tell that one of us was pissed at the other, and the other had no idea why.
She said, “When he was gored by the bull there was extensive damage done to his stomach and spleen, which had to be removed. The doctors were able to repair the damage and stitch him up, however…” She shook her head at me. “Mr. Daniels managed to rip his stitches open a few days ago and that had to be repaired, so he’s still healing.”
“How did he rip his stitches open?” Shelby asked. When Nurse Old Bat looked at me, so did Shelby. “How did you rip the stitches open?”
“He tried to go to the bathroom by himself,” the nurse answered for me. “He got dizzy and fell and busted the stitches.”
Shelby’s pretty face took on a mask of concern that had not been there before. “Is that still a possibility? Him passing out when he tries to go to the bathroom?”
Nurse Old Bat shook her head. “It wasn’t that he was using the bathroom, dear,” she said, glancing at me again. “It was the fact that he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. He wasn’t supposed to get out of bed without help. He has a hard head, this one.”
Shelby nodded slowly. I could tell by her face that she knew she wasn’t getting the full story. She said, “I’ll make sure he has someone to help him until he’s strong enough to get around by himself.”
“I don’t need a goddamn babysitter,” I said, feeling a little bit like a fly on the wall with them talking about me like I wasn’t even there. “I just got dizzy is all. I’m fine now.”
“Are there any medications that he needs?” Shelby asked, ignoring me. “Prescriptions to be filled?”
“He’ll be on antibiotics for another week,” Nurse Old Bat said. “He has refused painkillers.”
Shelby frowned at me. I could almost detect a hint of giving a shit in her pretty eyes. “Why don’t you want pain killers?” she asked.
I set my jaw and shook my head. “I’ve seen a lot of cowboys get hooked on pain killers,” I said. “I won’t go down that road.” I tried smiling at her again, still with no effect. “Besides, they’d interfere with my whiskey drinking.”
“You’re hopeless,” Nurse Old Bat said, a rare smile on her face. She nodded at Shelby. “He just needs lots of bed rest. And don’t let him do anything strenuous that puts pressure on his stitches.”
“I understand,” Shelby said.
I couldn’t resist giving the nurse a wink. “Can you define strenuous?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” she said, smiling at me. She wasn’t half bad looking when she smiled. She was probably a looker twenty or thirty years ago. She nodded down at the wheelchair.
“Okay, cowboy, come on, I have real patients to tend to. Climb on and let’s get you out of here before you get somebody else in trouble.”
Shelby
I got the strange feeling that there was something going on between Luke and the nurse that they didn’t want me to know about. And there was more to the story than she was willing to tell about him busting his stitches.
I stared at her while she was talking to him. Her eyes kind of went dreamy when she looked at him and Luke blushed like a boy who’d been boning his teacher after class. I would not have been surprised in the least if you had told me Luke had laid pipe to half the nurses in the place, but to this one? No freakin’ way.
Her name tag just read: Dottie. She was thick and dumpy, probably in her mid to late forties, with chopped off reddish hair and a face that I doubted put too many patients at ease. Surely Luke had not done anything with this one. I mean, no offense, but… ewe.
Dottie helped Luke get into the wheelchair. There was a thick leather belt with a large silver buckle on the night stand. He asked me to hand it to him.
When I picked it up I noticed the dark brown stain of old blood on the buckle and the belt. I felt my stomach churn. That was Luke’s blood all over that old belt. I glanced at his face. He was still kidding around with the nurse, but I could tell that he was in pain. He was hurt far worse that he was letting on. Cody said that he almost died. I didn’t believe it at first. I figured it was just Luke looking for attention. But I had been wrong. He was seriously hurt.
“Hey.” I heard Luke’s voice and the sound of fingers snapping.
I blinked a couple times. Luke was holding out his hand and wiggling his fingers. “Hand over my championship belt, Lil Sis,” he said with a smile. I felt like I was in shock as I handed him the belt and followed them out of the room.
* * *
I went to get Cody’s truck while the nurse wheeled Luke to the sidewalk to wait for me. As I pulled to the curb, I saw several other nurses gathered around his chair telling him goodbye; younger, hotter ones, all smiles and hugs.
The older nurse shooed them away and helped Luke get to his feet and into the truck. She leaned in to buckle his seatbelt, then gave him a kiss on the cheek and told him to take care of himself.
“What was that all about?” I asked, frowning at him as he waved her away. “Please tell me that you didn’t – “
“Jesus, Shelby, she’s a nurse,” Luke said, shooting me a scolding look. “It’s her job to be nice to sick people. Maybe you should try it sometimes.”
“If you say so,” I said, giving him the once over before putting the truck into gear. “You all set? Need anything?”
“I just need to get the hell away from this place,” he said with a sigh. He leaned his head back on closed his eyes. “Goddamn hospital was gonna be the death of me.”
It occurred to me that he was leaving the hospital with nothing more than the borrowed clothes on his back. I asked, “Where’s all your stuff?”
“In my truck at the rodeo arena,” he said, his voice strained. He wiped sweat from his forehead on the back of his hand. I could tell he was in pain, though I knew he wouldn’t admit it. “I’m not too worried about it. There ain’t much there to steal. Let’s just go home. I’ll worry about it later.”
“Okay,” I said, sliding the gear into Drive and pulling slowly out of the lot. “Sit back and relax. We’ll be home in four or five hours.”
We were barely a mile down the road when I heard him begin to snore. I glanced over at him. His head was back on the headrest, his eyes were closed. He was breathing softly through his cracked lips. His left arm was resting on the console between us. I resisted the urge to touch his hand.
I was glad he had fallen asleep. I still wasn’t sure what to say to him. Maybe this would give me a little more time to figure it out.
Shelby
We’d only been on the road for an hour or so before it started getting dark. The highway going north out of Houston toward Calloway County was an old four-lane with no street lights and very few places to stop. I’d gassed up the truck before I picked Luke up, but my stomach was starting to growl at me. I decided I’d stop at the next burger joint or convenience store we came to so we could get us something to eat. We were still a good three or four hours from home.
Luke was still passed out dead to the world in the passenger seat. He smacked his lips and mumbled a few times, making me glance over at him. When I looked at him I still saw the handsome boy I grew up with. The boy I had willingly given myself to. The boy I thought I loved. The boy who still haunts my dreams.
I noticed he slept with a hand covering the wound on his left side. Every now and then he’d wince and jerk in t
he seat. He tried to make light of it, but I knew his wound was serious. The bull that had gored him, a sixteen-hundred-pound monster named El Diablo, had killed another rider the year before. Luke was lucky to be alive. And even though I was still pissed at him, I felt lucky to at least have him back in my life for however long I could convince him to stay.
The hypnotic drone of the tires on pavement and Luke’s soft snoring were making me sleepy. I turned on the radio just loud enough to hear it. I searched through the dial until I heard an old familiar song: Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. It was playing the last night I was with Luke. It had always reminded me of him. And it always would.
* * *
I was just eighteen the last time I saw Luke, but I thought I was ready to take on the world. I had spent my entire life on a dusty Texas cattle ranch and now it was time to spread my wings and fly out into the great big world to see what my future might bring.
Luke was feeling the same, although our paths would take us in completely different directions.
He was just twenty and so full of life people would have paid to be around him. All the boys wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to fuck him. He was always happy and smiling and carrying on some kind of mess, but he was never happier than when he was hanging onto the back of a mad bull or a bucking bronco.
I loved watching him back then, the way the muscles in his right arm flexed as he held on to the latigo, hoping to hang on for eight seconds, the minimum time required to earn points.
He’d dig in the heels of his dirty boots into the side of the bull and let his left arm flail in the air as his whole body came up off the bull’s back and slammed back down. He always lost his hat right out of the gate. His long blond hair whipped as the bull’s hooves beat into the ground and it bucked its curved back, doing its best to throw him off.
All Luke could talk about was getting on the circuit so he could travel from town to town riding bulls and collecting trophies and silver belt buckles. His ambition only went as far as the next town and the next bull. That was one thing we argued about sometimes. I was hell bent on making something of myself and Luke has hell-bent on being the next Ty Murray.
Even though we knew we’d be apart for some time, I thought we had an understanding that one day we’d meet back in Calloway and start a life together. I reckon it’s like my daddy always said: you can plan out your life, but eventually life will get in the way of your plans.
The last time we made love was in the early fall when the air in Texas gets just slightly less humid and the days don’t last as long. I had already enrolled in Texas A&M and was set to leave at the end of the week for College Station. Luke had entered a rodeo in Brownsville and was set to leave first thing in the morning. This was not supposed to be our last night together. It was just supposed to be our last night together for a while.
Luke had an old pickup truck that was held together by rust and duct tape. We used to sneak off it in and drive out to Myers Lake and park on the river back and make love in the bench seat. Or it the back. Or in it lake. Or on the hood. Heck, we were like horny little rabbits back then. We’d do it anywhere, anytime, any way we could.
Luke pulled up to the end of the lake and put the truck in park. He set the parking brake because the old truck had a tendency to roll. He shut off the clunky engine, but left the radio on. Wonderful Tonight came on and Luke started singing to me. The boy had lots of talents, but singing wasn’t one of them. I told him to quit singing and kiss me.
It was after nine o’clock, but the full moon shining on the lake gave the cab of the truck a warm, bluish glow. We had the windows down. A cool breeze was wafting in. It made my nipples stand on end as Luke pulled my t-shirt over my head. I wasn’t wearing a bra. I never wore a bra when I was with Luke. It only slowed him down.
I shimmied out of my cutoff jeans and panties while he stripped off his clothes. I leaned back against the door and brought my legs up in the seat. Luke moved in on me with a grin on his face. He pressed his moist lips to mine as his hands kneaded my tits. He rolled my nipples between his fingers. I moaned and sucked on his tongue. I could feel my hot juices pooling in my young cunt, sluicing down my taint and asshole, filling the truck with the scent of my sex.
I reached for Luke’s cock, finding it hard and ready, like always. The boy was hung like a horse and it took two hands to hold it all. I slowly worked my hands back and forth, sliding the skin over the hard muscle. I cupped his balls. They were tight and warm. I gently rolled the sack between my fingers as my other hand milked his long cock.
“I want your cock inside me,” I sighed in his ear. My tongue slid inside his ear. He giggled and pulled back so he could look at me. His left hand remained on my breast as his right hand slid down my stomach toward my pussy. I didn’t trim my pubes back then, so I had a pretty good crop of strawberry-blond curls. Luke playfully scratched at the hair for a moment, then slid his long finger over my clit and into my pussy, finding me soaking and hot for him.
I closed my eyes and put replaced his hands on my tits with my own. I squeezed my milky globes until it hurt. My nipples were long and thick. I took them between my thumbs and forefingers and gave them a squeeze.
Luke pushed himself up and took his cock in his right hand and stroked it as he watched me play with my tits. Our eyes met and he smiled. I was too young to know what love was back then, but I was sure he loved me just by the way he looked at me.
“You want some of this?” Luke asked, squeezing his cock to make the head mushroom. A little drop of juice came out of the slit. I wiped it off with the tip of my finger, then put the finger in my mouth.
“Yes,” I moaned, pushing my hips off the seat. “I want your big cock inside me. Now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Luke said with a grin. He gripped my hips and pulled me toward him. He pressed the bulbous head of his cock to my hole and slid it around for a moment, lubing it up. I was young and tight and he we big and girthy. We had to be careful because his cock could have literally ripped me in two.
The breath caught in my throat when he slid in the head. I felt my pussy opening for him, spreading, waiting to take him inside. I put my hands on his arms and held my breath as he slid in another inch, and then another. When he got half way in, he hit my cervix. It always made him smile when that happened. He began to slowly draw his cock out, then slide it slowly back in.
My body caught fire as my pussy stretched and squeezed his massive cock. He closed his eyes and moaned. “Goddamn girl, that has to be the tightest pussy in Texas.”
“You complaining?” I asked, giving him a sly smile.
“No, ma’am,” he said, the words coming on gusts of breath. “I’m just happy to be invited to the party.”
“Then shut up and fuck me, cowboy,” I said, hands squeezing my tits again.
Luke started hammering it to me, pushing me against the door with each thrust. I swear, that old truck felt like it was rocking back and forth. He thrust into me as far as he could do, then quickly pulled back and thrust in again. I could feel his cock filling up my entire body. I could feel him in my chest and in my head. I imagined that I taste his cum in the back of my throat.
“Fuck… Luke… fuck… yes… oh shit… yes…”
“I’m cummin’,” he moaned, his body tensing up. I opened my eyes to watch him. Every muscle along his shoulders and neck were thick and pumped, with veins pulsing the blood toward his cock. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He was cumming, long and hard, filling me with hot seed. I could feel it pumping into me, hot, thick, wonderful.
I curled my toes and came with him. The orgasm hit with a shudder that made my whole body jump. My pussy ignited, sending shockwaves to every nerve. I squirted my juices all over his cock, all the way back to his dark pubes and balls.
He thrust into me a few more times, then blew out a long sigh that seemed to deflate his entire body. With his fingers still dug into my hips and his cock still inside me, Luke gave me a sad smile and shoo
k his head.
“I’m gonna miss you, Lil Sis,” he said.
I smiled back at him with tears in my eyes. “I’m gonna miss you, too.”
The next morning I stood in the front yard with Cody and Daddy, watching Luke drive away in his old truck. I waved along with them with tears in my eyes.
I had no idea at that moment that it would be six years before I saw Luke again. If I had known, maybe I would not have let him drive away on his own.
Shelby
“Hey, Shelby, did you hear me?”
I thought I was still lost in my memories when I heard Luke call my name. I shook my head to clear it, then glanced over at him. “I’m sorry. What?”
“I asked where we were?” he said, sliding up in the seat. He held on to his side and winced as he looked out the windows. “Damn, it’s dark already.”
“It’s been dark for a while,” I said. “We’re still a couple of hours out. There was a wreck on I-9 coming out of Houston, so we’re running behind.”
“Okay,” he said with a long sigh. He glanced around the cab of the truck. “Do you have anything to drink? My mouth is dry as a Texas mudhole.”
There was half a bottle of water in the cup holder. I took it out and handed it to him. “It’s probably not cold,” I said. I narrowed my eyes at the road ahead. Other than occasional car lights coming from the other direction, the road was dark as pitch as it wound through the Texas countryside.