High Country Cowgirl

by Joanna Sims

  His hands on her breasts and his mouth on her sensitive core, Bonita’s thighs tightened on his shoulders and he heard her gasp and begin to shudder and he knew that she had reached a peak. She reached for him, holding on to his hands and arching her back.

  “Gabe!” she cried out.

  He kept right on kissing her until she was limp and spent and pulling him toward her.

  Bonita’s eyes had a surprised look in them and she whispered huskily, “What was that?”

  He smiled at her. “Me loving you.”

  For the next part, he wanted Bonita to be warm and comfortable and safe. He pulled back the blanket and sheets. “Get under the covers.”

  His love obliged him, willing to follow his lead after the pleasure he had just given her. Gabe stripped off his underwear. His erection still hard, sprang free. Bonita’s eyes moved down to look at him and he was pleased that she didn’t appear to be disappointed with the view. He joined her in his bed and pulled her into his arms.

  They were body to body, skin to skin, and they kissed each other breathless. Impatient for more, Bonita tugged him toward her, wanting him on top of her. Gabe rolled away for a moment, opened his drawer and pulled out a condom. Bonita had told him that she couldn’t get pregnant, but it was his habit to wear one. She didn’t object when he came back to her after he rolled on the condom. She opened her arms to him and made room for him between her thighs.

  On top of her, careful not to put too much weight on her, Gabe looked down at her lovely face, inhaled that wonderful lavender scent of her skin and couldn’t believe that the dream had become a reality.

  “You are so beautiful, Bonita.”

  She reached up and put her hands on his chest. “You are so handsome, Gabe.”

  And then he was inside of her. He watched her face as he slid into her, wanting to see her and smell her and feel her all at once. Her eyes drifted closed and she bent her knees to bring him deeper inside. She was so tight and warm and slick that he had to stop, even when he could tell that she wanted him to move, so he could get himself back under control.

  He dropped his head down and closed his eyes, concentrating on the feel of her body. He set the pace, slipping in and out of her in long, deep strokes, refusing to give in to her demands to go faster. Gabe wanted to drive her wild—wanted her to want more and more from him. He wanted to prove to Bonita that he was the right man for her, in every way.

  When she began to beg him, moaning his name and writhing beneath him, Gabe gave her what she wanted. He pushed deep within her and hit the spot again and again that drove her over the edge. She didn’t scream—her face froze in a mask of pleasure and her fingernails dug into his biceps as she trembled in his arms. Just as her peak was ending, Gabe set his own pace, driving into her hard and fast until he found his own powerful release.

  Chapter Twelve

  Bonita had only made love to two men prior to Gabe. She had lost her virginity to her high school boyfriend and it had been in the most clichéd of ways: on prom night. It hadn’t been an experience that equaled all the hype but it hadn’t been horrible. Her next lover came during her sophomore year of college, a lover who became her longtime boyfriend and eventual fiancé. Bonita had always thought that the sex with her ex-fiancé was very good. She only had the prom debacle to compare it to, but still she’d always believed that they were above average in that department.

  They hadn’t been. Lovemaking with Gabe was next generation. She had never experienced an orgasm from oral sex before—her ex wasn’t such a fan of that sort of foreplay. It had been incredible, sexy beyond her imagination, and she certainly hoped to experience it again.

  “What time is it?” Bonita had fallen asleep in Gabe’s arms after they’d made love for a second time. It was dark now, so she had been asleep for several hours, at least.

  “I’m not sure,” he said groggily.

  Bonita slipped out of bed, felt around on the ground for her jeans and pulled her phone out of the back pocket. She winced when the light on her phone came on, temporarily blinding her. Slowly, she opened her eyes and squinted at the screen.

  “It’s eight thirty!”

  Shocked at the time, Bonita noticed that she’d missed ten calls. She sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “Oh, no! Why didn’t I hear the phone ring?”

  And then it hit her—she forgot to turn the volume back up after they’d left her mom’s morning doctor appointment.

  “Oh, no.” Her heart started pounding as she pushed the play button on the first message from her mother’s nurse.

  “Everything okay?”

  Bonita didn’t answer Gabe—she was too focused on the message. She didn’t listen to the entire message—she didn’t need to.

  “Please turn on the light! I need to get dressed!”

  He switched on a lamp next to the bed, sat up and watched her scramble to get dressed. “What’s going on?”

  “I forgot to turn the stupid volume up on my phone! My mom is in the hospital.”

  Gabe threw off the covers and started to get dressed. He was finished before she was and she heard him take Tater outside.

  She yanked on her socks and then her boots, and then she ran into the living room to find her purse. She was searching for her keys when Gabe brought Tater back inside.

  “I’ll drive you,” he said as he put some food down for the dog.

  “No.” Bonita found her keys and slung her purse over her shoulder. “I can do it.”

  Gabe put steadying hands on her shoulders. “It’s dark. I know the roads.”

  He made sense, so she agreed. She felt shaky and her adrenaline was pumping, so perhaps getting behind the wheel wasn’t the best idea anyway. While Gabe drove, she made phone calls. She got in touch with the nurse, who confirmed that her mother had been admitted to the emergency room with pneumonia, something she had been battling off and on for months. Then she called her father, who was already on his way back to Montana on his private jet. She was about to dial her aunt Betty’s number when her aunt called her.

  “Hi, Aunt Betty.”

  “She’s back in the hospital?” Betty asked anxiously.

  Aunt Betty was Evelyn’s only sibling and they were extremely close. Betty had planned to visit Evelyn the following month, but Bonita had a strong feeling that the visit was going to have to be moved up.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “I’m almost there.”

  “Oh, Bonita. She’s told me that she did not want to go back to the hospital again.”

  “I know, but what is the alternative? She has pneumonia and the antibiotics we have at home aren’t strong enough.”

  “If they put her in intensive care again, they are going to want to put her on a ventilator. Evelyn does not want that.”

  “Okay. Aunt Betty—I’m just arriving. As soon as I have an update, I’ll call you.”

  Gabe stopped his truck in front of the emergency room entrance. She jumped out of the truck. “Thank you, Gabe. I’ll have someone take me back to your place to get my car. I’ll text you later!”

  Bonita raced into the emergency room and was escorted back to her mother’s room. Evelyn had a breathing mask on, she was already receiving several intravenous liquids, and she looked so shrunken and frail in the hospital bed that it made Bonita suck in her breath.

  Kim saw her and gestured for her to go back out into the hall. Once outside, the nurse closed the door to the room. “She has a kidney infection, a liver infection and pneumonia.”

  Bonita put her hand over her mouth while she listened.

  “They have her on the strongest antibiotics available but she can’t have her pain medication or her anxiety medication while she’s on it.”

  “That’s not going to work.” The anxiety medication was one of the tools Evelyn was using to keep her calm in the face of her declining co
ndition and impeding death. She had to have it.

  “Her oxygen levels are very low,” Kim continued. “They want to put her in ICU and ventilate her.”

  “She won’t allow that.”

  “If she doesn’t, it’s time to get hospice involved.”

  The nurse was only speaking aloud Bonita’s own thoughts.

  “Is she conscious?”

  “On and off. The pneumonia and lack of oxygen are making her foggy, but she knows she’s in the hospital and she’s not happy about it. I didn’t have a choice. She was in medical distress and I had to act.”

  Bonita put her hand on the nurse’s shoulder. “You did the right thing. I’m going to go in and see her.”

  She went to her mother’s side and took her mother’s limp hand in hers. “Mom. It’s Bonita. I’m here.”

  She kept rubbing her mom’s hand and arm, trying to elicit a response. Finally, Evelyn opened her eyes and looked up at her. Bonita could see that her mother was trying to say something behind the mask.

  Bonita removed it and leaned down to hear what her mom was trying to say. In a slurred whisper, she was able to understand what her mother said.

  “Take me home.”

  Tears finally formed in Bonita’s eyes. Up to that point, she had been in crisis mode. “Mom. If I take you home, you will die.”

  Her mom stared at her.

  “Take me home.”

  * * *

  Bonita had stepped out of her mother’s room only long enough to call her father. She was hoping that George would get on the phone and convince Evelyn to stay in the hospital, but when her father had to remind her that it was her mother’s life and her decision to make, Bonita knew that she had lost this battle. After a quick trip to a nearby restroom to wipe the tears from her face, Bonita sat by her mother’s side until the doctor returned and the discharge procedures could be started.

  “I need to get some fresh air,” she told Kim. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Arms crossed in front of her body, Bonita walked down the corridor to the exit door that led to the waiting area. She pushed the button on the wall to open the door and then walked through, her mind whirling with thoughts.

  “Bonita.”

  Not expecting to hear her name called, her head popped up and she looked around. Gabe was sitting on the other side of the waiting area. He stood up and walked toward her.

  “What are you still doing here? Have you been here the whole time?”

  He nodded.

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  He fell in beside her and they walked outside. She took in a deep breath of cool Montana air. One thing she liked about big sky country was the air—it was so clean and fresh, nothing like the stale air in the city.

  She walked along a sidewalk, wanting to clear her mind a bit while they awaited discharge and transport to the ambulance. Under a lamp, Bonita stopped and stared out at the parking lot. Gabe stood beside her, not touching her and not speaking.

  “I’m taking my mom home to die.”

  Wordlessly, Gabe folded her into his arms and she didn’t resist. She needed the comfort. She needed the shoulder to lean on. She wrapped her arms around his waist tightly while tears streamed from her eyes onto his shirt. He swayed with her, side to side, and kissed the top of her head. It was the exact moment she needed to dump the emotion before going back to her mother’s room. Her mother didn’t need her tears right now—she needed her strength.

  “You shouldn’t have stayed.” Bonita wiped the tears out of her eyes and off her cheeks. “But I’m glad you did.”

  They parted ways at the emergency room entrance. She wanted Gabe to go home and get something to eat. They had forgone food for lovemaking; now they were both starving.

  “I’ll get someone to bring me over to your place to pick up my car.”

  “I’m booked all day tomorrow. But if you wait, I’ll pick you up on my way home and take you there myself.”

  She nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Gabe leaned down and pressed the softest of kisses on her lips. “If you need me, for anything, I’m only a phone call away.”

  * * *

  An odd calm came over Bonita when they had her mother settled back into her own bed at the ranch. Evelyn agreed to have oxygen at home, which would make her more comfortable. Kim worked late to help get her situated and then Bonita insisted that she go home. Her mother fell asleep quickly, an odd occurrence.

  “I’m going to the kitchen. I’ll be back soon,” she told the night nurse. “Call me if there’s any change.”

  Feeling like she was sleepwalking, Bonita made her way down to the kitchen and rummaged through the refrigerator. She managed to find some leftover pasta with marinara sauce and didn’t even bother to heat it in the microwave. She took the container, a fork and a peach wine cooler over to the table in the breakfast nook, not bothering to turn on the light over the table. She wanted the light to be dim—it matched her mood.

  Just as she was finishing the pasta, car lights shone in the driveway. Bonita swallowed down the last couple drops of the wine cooler, dropped the empty container and dirty fork in the sink and then went to the front door. Her arms crossed loosely in front of her, she walked down the steps of the front stoop toward her father’s car. George was taking his travel suitcase out of the trunk.

  “Hi, Dad.”

  George shut the trunk, put his burly arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the top of her head.

  “Lo siento, mija.” He told her he was sorry. “I should have been here.”

  She was too tired and too drained to agree with him. He should have been here. She disagreed with her parents’ “end of life” plan for their marriage. Bonita needed to escape, too, but she didn’t go back to DC to do it.

  “I’ve canceled my trips,” George told her as they walked toward the house. “Indefinitely.”

  “That’s good, Dad.”

  It was the right thing to do.

  “How’s Mom?”

  Bonita had to swallow several times just to get the words out of her mouth. “We’ll call hospice tomorrow.”

  George didn’t respond.

  “I think we should send your plane to go pick up Aunt Betty,” Bonita went on. “If she waits until next month, it might be too late.”

  “I’ll make the arrangements.” Inside the house, her father paused and put his hand on her shoulder. “Bonita—I’m very proud of you. You have always been a blessing to me and your mother.”

  She hugged her father, momentarily transported to a time when her father was the strongest man in the world and nothing could ever harm her. “I’m glad you’re home, Dad. Mom misses you. I know this whole ‘give George something to do’ was her idea. But it hasn’t been working for her. Not really.”

  “It hasn’t been working for me either,” her father admitted. “No matter how hard I try to forget, what is happening to my sweet Evelyn is always with me.”

  Much of the anger and resentment she had been harboring for her father slipped away in that moment. They were all just trying to handle a horrible situation the best way they could.

  “I’m going to sleep in Mom’s room tonight. I had them set up a cot for me.”

  “No, mija,” George said. “I’ll stay with my wife tonight. Go get some rest.”

  The bricks she had been lugging around with her all day were lifted off her shoulder, and the relief couldn’t have come quick enough. Bonita climbed the stairs up to her bedroom, each foot feeling as if it weighed one hundred pounds. She didn’t brush her teeth or wash her face. She locked the door to her bedroom, stripped off her clothing and climbed under her sheets. In the dark, with the sound of an owl hooting somewhere outside of her window, Bonita cried into her pillow until she fel
l into a restless sleep.

  * * *

  It had been a long day and Bonita was glad to see Gabe at the end of it. He had picked her up on his way home from a day of training, and he took her back to Little Sugar Creek.

  She didn’t want to talk about her day—about the meeting with hospice or the decisions that were made. Instead, she wanted to spend time with Val, grooming him and working with him in the round pen. She had learned so much from Gabe about horsemanship and about riding a horse from the ground that she felt she would never approach horse ownership the same way ever again. After she spent an hour with Val, she felt better. Horses were therapeutic; Val had buoyed her spirits.

  “We still have the salad from yesterday.” Gabe had offered to scrounge up some food for them to eat.

  “I’m not all that hungry. But you go ahead.”

  He threw a sandwich together and joined her on the couch. “You sure you don’t want anything?”

  She nodded, enjoying the time she was spending with Tater. What she really liked about Little Sugar Creek was the simplicity of the life Gabe had built for himself. It was stripped back and easy, so different from her family’s ranch. Even under the best of circumstances, the upkeep and maintenance of the thousands of acres and five thousand square feet of living space in the main house would be a full-time job to coordinate. The ranch had been her mother’s dream—what would happen to it when she was gone?

  Bonita yawned loudly, covering her mouth with her hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

  “I’m surprised you got any sleep at all.”

  Another nod.

  “Why don’t you lie down for a while? It’s quiet here. I’ll wake you in an hour or two.”

  One of the things her mom had taught her over the last few months was to invest in herself, to take care of herself. Before, in her old life, she would have pushed through, acting like superwoman and running her body down until she got sick. Now she understood that she had to matter.