Texas-Sized Trouble

by Delores Fossen

  Mercy. What a decision. If she didn’t ask, she might not learn something important, but if she did ask, Tessie would have even more fodder not to trust her. She looked at Lawson to see if he had a take on this. It wasn’t fair to place any of this on his shoulders, but Eve was walking on eggshells with him, too.

  “Tell us what Tessie said it was okay to share,” Eve finally answered, and she prayed that was the right thing to do.

  The doctor nodded. “Several hours ago, Tessie came here saying that she needed help, and she voluntarily checked herself in. This is a privately funded free rehab facility, so there was no need to get her medical insurance information from you.” She paused. “Were you aware that she’s been drinking?”

  “I just learned about it.” Eve tried not to blame Lawson for not telling her sooner, but she wished that was something he’d done. That way, she could have forced Tessie to talk to her about the night Tessie and he had met face-to-face.

  Maybe.

  Tessie hadn’t exactly been a font of two-way communication since this adoption-reveal had happened.

  “Had Tessie been drinking when she got here?” Lawson asked.

  “She didn’t appear to have been, but I don’t have the results of her blood test yet.”

  Eve thought there was a good chance that Tessie hadn’t had a drop of alcohol today. “I think Tessie came here because she found out that I’d learned about her drinking. This could be her way of avoiding me.”

  The doctor made such a quick sound of agreement that it meant she’d already given that some thought and had come to the same conclusion. “Tessie’s angry at something that happened between you and her, but she accepted responsibility for her drinking.”

  Eve still wasn’t convinced. “If she’s here just to avoid me, then being here won’t help her. I’m thinking we should have family therapy sessions.”

  “I agree about the family sessions. I’m hoping Tessie will let me set up something like that in the near future. For now though, being here might indeed help her. She needs to sort through her feelings and get her life back on track, and here at Hope Sanctuary, we can assist her in making that happen.”

  Eve couldn’t argue with anything Dr. Patel was saying. Tessie did need to get her life back on track. But eventually Tessie was going to have to face her.

  “How long will she be here?” Lawson asked.

  The doctor lifted her hands, palms up. “That depends on Tessie and how fast she works through the steps in the program. It could be days or weeks.” She took out some brochures and handed a copy to each of them. “Read through those, and I’ll be contacting you about when you can visit Tessie. Remember though, she’s free to decline seeing you. And also free to check herself out of here at any time.”

  Lawson’s phone buzzed again just as he opened the brochure. It wasn’t a call but rather a text from Dylan. Eve wasn’t about to see what it said, but it caused Lawson to get to his feet.

  “Excuse me for a second,” he said. “I need to make a call.” He stepped out into the hall.

  That got Eve’s attention because she doubted Lawson would hit the pause button on the meeting unless there was some kind of emergency. It was true that he didn’t really know Tessie, but the fact that he was here with her told Eve that he intended to be part of Tessie’s life. Or rather as much of a part as Tessie would let either of them be.

  Eve had questions for the doctor. She wanted to know if she could press Tessie to see her. One minute she wanted to coddle her baby girl, and the next minute she wanted to ground her and demand that she move back home. But Eve decided to postpone the questions a few seconds and find out what was going on with Lawson.

  “I’ll be right back,” she told the doctor, and Eve went into the hall with him.

  One look at Lawson’s face, and she knew something was indeed wrong. This time, she didn’t think it was anger that had caused his forehead to bunch up like that.

  “It’s my mother,” he told her after several snail-crawling moments. “She’s in the hospital, and Dylan said I should come right away.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ONCE AGAIN LAWSON found himself pacing in yet another room. This time, though, it was at the Wrangler’s Creek Hospital, where he’d had the taxi drop him off.

  Lawson hadn’t had his truck in Austin because he’d ridden up there with Eve, and he hadn’t wanted to wait for someone from the ranch to send a vehicle. Since he couldn’t teleport, the taxi had been his best option to meet Dylan’s come right now request. Judging from the bits and pieces he’d learned, Dylan’s urgency was spot-on since his mom was still being worked on by the doctors.

  Exactly what she was being worked on for, Lawson didn’t know. But there’d better be some answers soon.

  At least Lawson wasn’t alone. His sister, Lily Rose, was pacing right along with him and nibbling her bottom lip. Dylan had apparently paced himself out because he was seated, his legs stretched out in front of him, his head resting on the back of the chair. To a casual observer, it might look as if Dylan was about to nod off, but Lawson knew his brother was just as concerned as Lily Rose and he were.

  None of them were especially close to Regina. Hard to be close to someone who was never around. But blood was blood.

  That thought stopped him for a couple of steps. Yes, blood was indeed blood, and that’s why he was torn between being here and being with Tessie. The difference was that Regina would want him to be there. And she knew that Lawson was her son. To Tessie, he was practically a stranger. One who had tattled on her for drinking. He was betting that was going to cause a rift between them for a long time to come.

  A rift on Tessie’s part, anyway.

  No way was Lawson going to let her shut him out of her life. Especially since Eve had shut him out all these years.

  “Why aren’t they telling us anything?” his sister snapped. “And where the heck is Lucian? He should be here by now.”

  Lawson didn’t have an answer for either question, but yeah, Lucian should have made it from his office in San Antonio by now. They’d let their other brother, Reed, know, as well. Or rather they’d tried, but Reed was a cop on an undercover assignment. His handler, boss or whatever the heck his job title was had told Dylan that he would try to get a message to Reed.

  His phone buzzed again, something it’d been doing for the past half hour since he’d arrived at the hospital. His cousins and some of the hands had texted to find out if there was anything they could do. And Eve had sent a text, too, to give him an update about Tessie and ask about his mom. Neither Lawson nor she had had good news. Eve hadn’t been able to see Tessie and was on her way back home, and Lawson still had no word on why his mom had collapsed while Dylan and she were at the diner having coffee.

  “I knew something was wrong,” Lily Rose went on. “When I saw Mom yesterday, she looked pale. Didn’t you notice that?” she asked Lawson.

  He had to shrug. He hadn’t really noticed because that’d been the day Regina had interrupted Eve and him kissing. Lawson probably wouldn’t have noticed if Regina had walked in with a chicken on her head. And that made him only curse himself more. His head was a tangled mess right now at a time when he needed to focus.

  “Should one of us try to get in touch with Dad?” Lily Rose asked.

  Lawson’s first reaction was to say no. Truth was, his folks had never gotten along, and his dad had remarried. Multiple times. Lawson thought he was on wife number four now. His dad had clearly moved on. And on. And on. But there was a slim chance that he would want to know that the mother of his children was in the hospital.

  “I’ll call him later,” Lawson answered. Once they knew what the heck was going on.

  Since the pacing was wearing thin, Lawson went to the chairs and sank down in the one next to Dylan. His brother was texting, and before Dylan put his phone away, Lawson saw Eve’s name on the
screen.

  “She’s just worried about you,” Dylan said when Lawson tried to get a better look at the message, and he put his phone away. “Really, that’s all,” his brother added when he continued to stare at him. Actually, Lawson had to admit that he was probably glaring. “Sheesh. Jealous much?”

  “I’m not jealous,” Lawson snapped. The rest of him nearly snapped, too, and that’s when he realized he needed to rein in everything that was bubbling up inside him.

  “Any idea what you’ll do about Tessie?” Dylan asked.

  That put a stop to the reining in, and the question caused Lawson to stare at him again. “Eve told you what was going on with Tessie?”

  “No. But I’ve got eyes. When I saw Tessie the other night at the Longhorn, I figured she was yours.”

  “Shit,” Lawson spit out. That was almost identical to what Roman had said. “Am I the only one who didn’t know?”

  “Appears that way. You never were very bright about that sort of thing.”

  Under normal circumstances, those would have been fighting words between brothers, but Lawson was beginning to think Dylan might have a point. He hadn’t noticed the resemblance between him and Tessie, and he hadn’t a clue that his mom had looked weak.

  “Things with Tessie are screwed up,” Lawson told him. “Things with Eve and me, too.”

  Lawson figured that would prompt Dylan to give another of those brotherly jabs. Something like You’re just spreading sunshine wherever you go. But Dylan didn’t head in that direction.

  “Anything I can do to help?” Dylan asked. “I’ve talked to Tessie a couple of times on the phone, and I don’t think things are screwed up between me and her. I can try to have another chat with her.”

  “You talked to Tessie? When?”

  Dylan shrugged. “I called her a time or two after Eve moved back. Mom asked me to try to smooth things over between Eve and her.”

  “And Tessie actually took your calls?”

  “Yeah. I guess I’m sort of like Switzerland for her. Neutral ground.” Dylan paused. “What’s going on with Tessie, anyway? And don’t lie and say that nothing’s wrong because if someone painted a picture of a giant pulsing nerve, it’d have the expression you have right now.”

  Yeah, he was right, and Lawson took a deep breath, ready to tell Dylan, but then he saw Darby making her way toward him.

  Hell.

  He hoped this wasn’t personal, and thankfully, it wasn’t.

  “Your mom wants to see you. All of you,” Darby added to Lily Rose and Dylan. “But the doctor left orders for her to have only one visitor at a time. She asked to see you first.”

  The you in this case was Lawson. A shocker. Lily Rose was her baby, and Dylan was the one who got along with everybody. Lucian was the one in charge, the boss, and Reed was the semiprodigal son who she would have welcomed back with open arms. If Reed were to ever come back, that is.

  And then there was Lawson.

  Smack in the middle of the five kids. A hell-raising teenager who cut school, drank and was so wrapped up in Eve that he hadn’t noticed his family for three or four years.

  The last thing he’d expected to be was first in the visiting pecking order, but Lawson didn’t hesitate. When Darby motioned for him to follow her, he got right to his feet.

  “What happened to my mother? Why did she collapse?” Lawson asked.

  She opened her mouth, maybe some kind of rote reaction left over from when they’d been lovers. In those days, she wouldn’t have hidden anything from him.

  Unlike what seemingly the rest of the world had done.

  But Darby shook her head when she no doubt remembered that ex-lover status wouldn’t get you squat.

  “I’m sure Regina will tell you everything she wants you to know,” Darby finally said. She stopped outside the ICU. “Just don’t upset her, and keep your visit short. I’ll be back in five minutes to bring in Lily Rose.”

  Lawson nodded, stepped into the room and didn’t like anything he saw. His mom was hooked up to monitors and had an IV. And she was practically bald. He knew she wore wigs, of course, but he hadn’t known that beneath them were just sprigs and tufts of cottony white hair.

  Speaking of white, now he saw the paleness that Lily Rose had mentioned. There was no color in his mom’s face, but she managed a smile when she saw him, and she waggled her fingers for him to come closer. He tried to steel himself for whatever she might say, and he prayed she hadn’t brought him there to say goodbye.

  “You’re grounded,” she said, her voice surprisingly strong since she didn’t look as if she could have fought off a wet piece of paper.

  “For what?” he snapped, and then he remembered he was no longer thirteen and acting out.

  Since he was pretty sure it was a joke, he managed to lighten up his expression some, and he maneuvered around the machines so he could brush a kiss on her cheek.

  “What’s wrong with you, Mom?” he asked.

  Her breath was a little ragged. “I had an allergic reaction to my cancer meds. You know, the pharmacists read out all those possible scary symptoms, but apparently they weren’t kidding about the chance of sudden death. My heart stopped, but it’s nothing to worry about because I’m stable now.”

  Lawson wanted to look around and make sure a Mack truck hadn’t just slammed into him. Considering he’d already been hit with stunner news, he wondered for a moment if his own heart might give out.

  “Cancer,” he repeated. “Sudden death. What the heck are you talking about?” He thankfully remembered to omit any of the curse words that nearly got mixed into that.

  “Breast cancer.” She patted his hand, which told him just how bad he must look right now for her to be comforting him. “I had the surgery about two months ago and went through chemo, but the latest meds they put me on really didn’t agree with my system.”

  Obviously not, if a phrase like sudden death was getting bandied around. “You should have told me. You shouldn’t have kept something like that to yourself.”

  Her right eyebrow winged up. “I’m not the only one keeping a secret. You didn’t tell me about Tessie.”

  Lawson felt another slam of his heart but wondered why he was even surprised that she knew. Everyone else did.

  “How long have you known?” he asked.

  “For about four months. I was in California and ran into Eve.” She stopped a moment and dragged in a shallow breath. “I could see she was pregnant and having a hard time. We had coffee so we could catch up, and that’s when she showed me a picture of Tessie that she had on her phone. One look at her, and I knew she was my granddaughter.”

  The events of the last three months suddenly became very clear. “And you talked Eve into moving here.”

  “I didn’t have to do much talking. She was looking to make a change, and by then Tessie had already moved to Austin to go to school. Eve wanted to be close to her without being right on her doorstep.” She patted his hand again. “Don’t be cross with Eve about all of this. She was young and made a mistake.”

  No, it was more than just a mistake, but he wasn’t going to upset his mom by verbally blasting Eve. He could do that later. But he could get something clarified right now.

  “If you knew Tessie was my daughter, then why did you try to set Eve up with Dylan?” he asked. “And why’d you tell me that it wasn’t wise to get involved with Eve again?”

  Darby came to the door and tapped her watch, indicating his time was up, but Lawson held up his finger in a “wait a sec” gesture.

  “I didn’t try to set them up,” Regina insisted. “Not really. I mean, I knew Eve wouldn’t go for Dylan, not when she only has eyes for you. I was just hoping it would spur you into action.”

  Lawson had already been spurred by kissing Eve, and his mom and Dylan had interrupted what might have turned into sex against the fami
ly room wall. Best not to mention that to his mom, either.

  “I said all that about it not being wise,” she went on, “because you like to disagree with me.”

  He nearly said I do not, which would have only proved her point. “Reverse psychology,” he muttered. He wasn’t a fan of it, but it had indeed gotten him to consider if he should try to make another go of it with Eve.

  Or at least have sex with her.

  But then Eve’s secret had come to light and blown that idea to smithereens. He still wanted to have sex with her, but at this point, it would be angry sex.

  Darby motioned to him again, so Lawson brushed another kiss on his mom’s cheek. “Get some rest. And get better.”

  Regina caught onto his hand as he was leaving. “Will you bring Tessie to see me?” she whispered. “Please.”

  Until she added that please, Lawson had been about to say that it might not be possible. But somehow, he would make it happen.

  “You’re my favorite child, you know that?” his mom added in a weak whisper.

  He looked at her with what he was sure was plenty of skepticism. “You’re going to tell all the others that, too, aren’t you?”

  She smiled. And while the smile was just as weak as she looked, it was probably about the best send-off he was going to get, considering the condition she was in.

  “Are you okay?” Darby asked when he came out of the room. She walked back with him toward the waiting room, probably so she could escort another one of his siblings in for a visit.

  Lawson wasn’t sure if he was fine or not, but he did think it was civil of Darby to ask. “How about you? Are you all right?” No need for him to clarify what he meant. The last time they’d spoken was the day of the raincoat incident. When he’d turned her down flat, Darby had probably been hurt and humiliated.

  “I’ll live.” There wasn’t any sarcasm in her voice. “Why does Regina want to see Eve’s daughter?”

  He groaned. He definitely hadn’t known that Darby had heard that. “She just wants to meet her.”