“She should be out of here by this afternoon.”
“That soon?” Gage forced his voice lower so he wouldn’t wake her up.
“It’s typically outpatient, but we want to keep an eye on her, get some fluids and antibiotics into her system, especially since she doesn’t have anyone at home to really take care of her.” Jesse gave him a pointed look.
“Yeah, I get it.” Gage shot his brother a look that he hoped stopped any speculation as to who would be taking care of Layla.
He would have said more, but he heard more footsteps in the hall, the soft whisper of a nurse and then his grandmother. She walked through the door a minute later, quiet, but observant.
“How is she?” Granny Myrna walked up to the bed, looked the patient over and turned to Jesse. “She’s okay?”
“Of course she is,” Jesse answered.
When had Layla Silver become the newest adopted Cooper? The Coopers had always tried to help her out. But in the weeks since Thanksgiving, things had changed. Gage guessed it was because he’d charged into her life, thinking he could fix his own mess of a life by focusing on hers.
And the whole family had gotten on board with the plan. Unfortunately they all seemed to have a different idea of things. He’d already talked to his matchmaking grandmother about that pearl-and-diamond ring she’d mentioned to Layla. He knew exactly which ring it was. She’d shown it to him about a year ago.
As beautiful as it was, he didn’t plan on putting that ring on anyone’s finger anytime soon.
“Get up and let an old lady sit down.” His grandmother swatted his arm. He moved out of the chair.
“I needed to stretch anyway.”
“You’re such a gentleman.” She sighed as she sat down. “Go buy your brother breakfast. I’ll sit with Layla.”
Jesse chuckled a little and headed for the door. “This all seems very familiar, Gage. If I was you, I wouldn’t leave her alone with Layla. You’ll be engaged by sunset.”
Gage shook his head at the warning. He wasn’t going to be the next Cooper to fall victim to her matchmaking schemes. “Gran, try to stay out of my business.”
“I’m not even sure what you mean by that. But make sure you bring me a doughnut and coffee. Not a filled doughnut. I don’t want pudding inside my cake.”
“Yes, ma’am. And make sure you don’t do anything crazy.”
She grinned big. “Oh, Gage, you should trust me.”
“Not even for a second.” He leaned to kiss her cheek. “But I love you.”
She patted his cheek. “I love you. And you need to shave.”
“I’ll do that later.”
He walked out the door, and Jesse was waiting for him in the hall. “You know she’s already planning your wedding to Layla Silver.”
“I think she might want to scrap her plans. I’m not marrying anyone anytime soon.”
“We’ll see about that.” Jesse pounded him on the back. “You’re living in another world if you think our grandmother isn’t already having invitations printed up.”
They headed down the hall in the direction of the cafeteria. The hospital was still quiet, the halls still mostly empty.
“Gage, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,” Jesse offered as they got close to the cafeteria’s double doors.
“Maybe not, but I’m not ready. I still have a lot I want to do, places I want to go.”
“I was heading for South America when Laura showed up in my life.”
“I get that, but I’m not you.” He sighed. “This is why I don’t date in Dawson.”
“Why’s that?” Jesse pointed toward the buffet line.
“Because if you buy a woman a cup of coffee, this whole town has you married off.”
“Yeah, I guess that does happen sometimes. But don’t run from what you want just because the people in Dawson see it before you do.”
“You’re no help at all.” Gage ordered an omelet and walked away from his brother.
He even tried to sit at a different table. Jesse laughed and sat down across from him. “Back to your old tricks of leaving when things get a little tough?”
Gage took a bite of omelet and ignored Jesse.
“You didn’t used to be a chicken.” Jesse grinned, flashing white teeth that Gage thought he shouldn’t be so quick to flash.
“I’m not a chicken.”
“Really? Because from my side of the table, that’s how it looks. Something gets under your skin, makes you a little mad, or gets uncomfortable, you run.”
“Stop.” Gage kept his gaze leveled on Jesse, almost nine years his senior and probably in a lot better shape physically.
But Gage was pretty sure he could still take him.
Jesse wasn’t intimidated. He laughed and leaned forward. “Or you’ll do what?”
“I’ll drag you outside and make you wish you had a doctor on call.”
“I don’t think you can.”
Jesse pushed his empty plate aside. “I think I can.”
The voice of authority boomed near them. “If you boys are through acting like kids, your mom is in Layla’s room, and Layla is awake.”
Gage looked up at his dad. “We weren’t really going to fight.”
“I figured that, but I thought I would warn you that your mother doesn’t like getting bloodstains out of clothes.”
Gage laughed, grabbing his tray as he stood.
Tim Cooper, best dad in the world, put an arm around his shoulder. It made him think about Brandon and what the kid had missed out on. What Layla had missed out on.
“You did good last night.” His dad walked next to him.
“I did the right thing.”
“Right, but people don’t always choose the right thing.”
Jesse took their trays to the dishwasher window. He fell in next to them and didn’t comment.
Gage would have preferred the previous conversation, the one bordering on a fight, to this one. The one that felt like his dad was about to tell him the facts of life, and those facts had something to do with Layla.
Everyone wanted to give him some advice. Maybe someone could advise him how his life had gotten taken over by a pint-size female and her rebellious brother in just a few short weeks.
Chapter Fourteen
Layla didn’t enjoy being told to lie down on her couch and stay there. But that’s exactly what Gage had done when he drove her home from the hospital that afternoon. He’d carried her into the house, placed her on the sofa with an afghan and a pillow, then he’d taken off to feed animals. She’d used the time alone to do what needed doing. She placed an ad on the internet with a photograph of her mare. And then she’d cried.
She would have to pay the hospital bill and her loan payment. And she didn’t know when she’d be able to work. Jesse had told her not to get in a hurry to go back to work, that her body had been through a lot and she needed time to recuperate.
What Jesse Cooper didn’t understand was that she didn’t have the luxury of staying at home for a couple of weeks. She had to get back to work. Now.
It wouldn’t do any good to worry. She knew that. She knew it as she listed her house for sale, too. She knew it as she wrote down all of her bills coming due, and the amount of money she wouldn’t make if she was off work for even one week. But Jesse had said to count on two. He’d prefer more.
The list of numbers on the paper brought a wave of fear. She crumpled it and tossed it on the table next to her.
“Lord, I can’t do this alone.” She closed her eyes and prayed.
She must have dozed because she woke up to the sound of soft snoring. She glanced over at the leather recliner she’d hauled home from a yard sale last fall. Gage was sprawled out, his feet up on the footstool and her dog slee
ping next to him.
“Daisy,” she whispered to the black-and-white border collie. “Down.”
Daisy’s tail thumped on the arm of the chair, and she rested her head on Gage’s leg. Layla tried patting the sofa she slept on. The dog whined softly and curled her tail in close to her legs. Obviously she’d made a decision.
“Stop trying to take my dog,” Gage grumbled, and opened his eyes.
He looked scruffy, and his green plaid shirt was untucked and wrinkled. Layla watched as he yawned and rubbed a hand over his face. Even scruffy, he was deliciously cute.
“She was my dog first,” she said.
He grinned, sitting up a little straighter in her chair.
“Your dog likes me because it’s cold out and she realized it’s a lot warmer in here.”
“Where’s Brandon?”
“With my folks. They were putting up more Christmas lights, maybe cleaning out the garage. I don’t know. He’s fine.”
“He has school.”
“He came home, packed a bag and he got his books.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say. Gage couldn’t stay here, at her house. Brandon couldn’t move in with the Coopers. She couldn’t continue to lose herself this way, to him.
“Are you hungry?”
“Not at all.”
He lowered the footstool, and Daisy hopped down, shook and walked to the front door. Gage grinned at Layla, as if to say he had been right. She watched as he hobbled to the front door and let the dog out.
“My mom brought over some soup.” He eased himself down on the end of the couch. “Jesse said you have to eat something. Chicken soup. I’ve heard it’s good for the soul. I thought I might eat some and see if there’s a change in mine.”
Layla reached for his big, calloused hand. “Your soul is just fine.”
“Is it, Layla?”
“Yes, I think it is. I think you expect a lot from yourself, and you expect a lot from God.”
“I think I should go fix us a bowl of soup.”
“I think I should get cleaned up and change clothes.”
Gage reached for her hand and helped her to her feet. “I’ll walk with you.”
“I can make it.”
“I’m sure you can, but I’m not going to let you.” He wrapped an arm around her. “Lean on me.”
“Thank you.” It felt good to lean on him. Too good.
He left her in the hall. “I’ll be back to help you. Do not go anywhere without me.”
“You know you have to go home later.”
He leaned in close. “I know. Mom is going to spend the night.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Gage touched the back of her head, guiding her to his shoulder. She leaned in close and cried. She cried because she’d been lonely for a long time. She cried because people were good and kind to her. She didn’t have to be alone.
Gage brushed his hand down the back of her head, stroking her hair. His lips grazed her forehead.
“I’ll heat the soup and be back in a minute.”
She nodded and walked into her bedroom.
When she came out of the bathroom a few minutes later Gage was waiting, leaning against the wall. He reached to slip an arm around her. She eased into his embrace. A long time ago she had told herself she wouldn’t do this. Wouldn’t let herself fall for the guy most likely to take off and leave a girl heartbroken.
But today he felt like the guy most likely to always be there. His arm around her was strong, and his shoulder was easy to lean on. At the sofa she turned to sit down but his arm was still around her. He pulled her close and ducked his head to kiss her. She wanted to tell him they couldn’t, but her heart didn’t agree. She very much wanted to be in his arms, kissed by him.
Loved by him. The thought shook her. His kiss shook her.
He cupped the back of her head and moved the kiss beyond a quiet moment. Layla grasped his arms and held on, needing this.
She didn’t want to love him. But maybe she did. She knew the heartache in loving someone like Gage. She’d watched her mom, trying to hold on to a man who couldn’t be held. She remembered her own heartache when Gage had used her to get to Cheryl.
She looked up, meeting the tenderness in hazel eyes that would be her undoing. Gage wasn’t her father. She didn’t think he was still the thoughtless boy she’d known in school. Time changed people.
“Stop thinking,” he whispered close to her ear as he nuzzled her cheek.
“I have to, Gage. I don’t get to not think.”
“You think too much.” He trailed kisses from her cheek, back to her mouth.
She had to be responsible. She had Brandon. She knew how the wrong choices could tear a person’s life apart.
She leaned in to his shoulder and then slowly drew back, pulling out of his arms. “I have to think.”
“I know.” He brushed strands of hair, tucking them behind her ear.
She sat hard on the sofa and reached for the afghan that she’d left on the back of the couch. She needed to think, but she couldn’t.
Gage smiled down at her. “I’m going to get you that bowl of soup.”
“Thank you.” Maybe if he left the room she could put two thoughts together and make sense of what seemed to be happening.
Car headlights flashed through the window. Layla looked at Gage and he shrugged. “I’d say that’s my mom or Granny Myrna. Either way, we’re busted.”
“Busted? For what?”
He winked at her. “For that kiss.”
“They didn’t see.”
“No, but they have mom radar. I bet they know. Don’t worry, though—I don’t kiss and tell.”
“You’re horrible.”
He tipped his hat. “Now you’re catching on. I’m nobody’s hero, Layla.”
“I didn’t think you were.”
He laughed as he walked into the kitchen. And she smiled, because as much as he twisted her inside out and made her question everything, he also made smiling easier than it had been in a long time.
* * *
His mother found him in the kitchen. She filled a cup with water and placed it in the microwave, then turned to look at him. He squirmed a little. It was the same look she’d used on him and his brothers when they were kids.
“I didn’t do anything.” He found a spoon and placed it in the soup that he’d fixed for Layla.
“I didn’t say you did. My word, you have a guilty conscience. I was actually thinking how proud I am of you. How glad I am that Layla finally decided to let someone help her out and that the person was you.”
“Are you staying here tonight?”
“Yes. Brandon is here. He’s getting a few things he forgot, but he’ll go back to the house with you. He’s pretty happy over there, but he’s worried about Layla.”
“I’m sure he is. They only have each other.”
“It was quite a scare for him. We talked a long time after you left to take her to the hospital. He has a lot on his mind for a young man.”
“I think they both do, and they’re trying to protect each other by not discussing it.” Gage picked up the bowl of soup. “I told her she has to eat something.”
“Oh, I see.”
He didn’t need his mom reading too much into this. He was bringing a woman a bowl of soup. Soup. Not flowers, a ring or a lifetime commitment.
He shook his head at her, which only made her smile more. He walked out of the kitchen with the bowl of steaming hot soup.
“Here’s your soup.” He forced an easy smile as he walked into the living room.
Layla was sitting up on the couch. She smiled at him, then at his mother. But the smile was strained, probably a lot like his. He knew Layla was probably wondering how she coul
d get rid of the people invading her home, her life.
“Eat your soup and don’t argue. You’re not going to convince us you don’t need us here.”
“I didn’t say anything.” She wrinkled her nose at him and took the soup. And then she smiled a real smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I’m going to head back to the house but Mom is staying with you.”
“Thank you, Gage. Thank you for everything.”
She looked sweet and soft, curled up in an afghan, the bowl of soup in her hands. He wanted to kiss her again but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t.
He cleared his throat. “You’re welcome. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Brandon walked into the room, and Gage couldn’t have been happier to see him. The kid was a great distraction.
“I’m ready to go.” Brandon glanced at his sister and then at the door.
“Tell your sister goodbye.” Gage reached for his jacket and gave Brandon a shove in the right direction.
Brandon looked at the ground and then at Layla. And then he hurried forward, gave her a quick hug and out the door he went.
Layla smiled a weepy smile that sent Gage out the door as quickly as her brother. He met up with Brandon out by his truck. The kid looked red in the face, like he might make a run for it.
“She’s going to be okay, you know,” Gage offered as he pulled his keys out of the truck.
“She shouldn’t have to worry all the time.” Brandon got into the truck. They were heading down the road before he continued. “It’s because of me. I’ve messed up. Last year I broke my arm and she had to take out a loan. And the roof needed fixing and she didn’t have the money for that, either. Now she won’t be able to work. I need to get a job, Gage.”
“You need to calm down and remember that you’re only fifteen and still in school.”
“I’ve checked into it. I could quit and get some special permission to work. I could still go to night classes or something.”
“You’re not going to quit school. End of story.”
“You’re not my boss. You’re just the guy who feels bad because you broke her heart years ago.” Brandon glared at him in the dimly lit truck. “If you hurt her again, this time I’ll hurt you.”
The Cowboy's Christmas Courtship Page 14