Lois Greiman - [Hope Springs 02]

by Home Fires

  “I need you to talk to Em,” Casie said. It had taken all of her nerve to force herself out of the house when she saw his truck in the yard. But just because she had finally admitted there would never be anything between the two of them didn’t mean he should abandon Emily.

  Colt settled a roll of twisted wire into the back of his pickup truck and straightened. Turning his head, he glanced over his shoulder at her. Dark, too-long hair brushed the collar of his flannel shirt. “What’s up?” he asked. There was no inflection in his tone and his expression was guarded. But that was fine. For the best, really.

  Casie exhaled carefully, steadied her palms against her thighs, and silently assured herself that everything would be okay. Though God knew she was probably lying. “She’s planning to give the baby up for adoption.”

  “What!” He turned fully toward her. His dark brows were low beneath his ubiquitous Stetson.

  “She says she already signed the papers.”

  He swore in near silence and she nodded.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice was low and quiet, as steady as the earth, as deep as the river. It sucked her in, but she forced herself to stay back, to stay away.

  He glanced off toward the windmill. A muscle jumped in his cheek. “Did you tell her she’s making a mistake?”

  He shifted his dark gaze to hers, causing her to turn away in self-defense.

  “It’s not really my place to tell her what to do.”

  “You think it’s mine?” His tone was atypically rough.

  “I think … I think she needs a friend. You’re her friend.”

  For a moment she thought he would remind her that she’d asked him to stay away from the girl, but maybe he wasn’t as petty as she was. He nodded. “Okay. So you want me to …” He shook his head, seeming at a loss. When was Richard Colton Dickenson ever at a loss? “What do you want me to say exactly?”

  “Tell her not to—” She stopped abruptly, reminding herself that she couldn’t live someone else’s life. Hell, she could barely manage her own. “I don’t know what to tell her.”

  He nodded slowly and glanced toward the cattle pasture. Worry was etched on his face, but there was more than that. There was pain, too. An inordinate amount of honest agony. Making her wonder what would have happened if his daughter had been born. She pictured a child with his dark good looks. His mischievous smile. The idea made her stomach clench.

  “Well …” She made her voice brisk, straightened her spine. “I’d better get back to work.”

  “Where is she?” he asked.

  “She’s still napping,” Casie said. “I waited until you were done with Linette’s lesson to talk to you. She should be up soon.”

  He scowled. “Lin doesn’t have a lesson until later.”

  “She said …” Casie began, then remembered the agony on the other woman’s face during their talk about giving up babies. “I guess she was just making excuses to get out of the house.”

  “Tormenting your guests again, are you?” he asked, and for a second the old Colt shone through. It was like seeing light at the end of the tunnel, but she didn’t need that light. She could make it on her own. Hell, she was making it on her own.

  “Well …” He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets and glanced away. “I guess I’ll go find Lin. She probably wants to learn to wrestle steers or something.”

  Casie nodded. Colt shuffled his feet. They both cleared their throats.

  “Well … thanks,” she said and turned, pulling herself toward the house as he headed in the opposite direction.

  “Case …” She turned at the sound of her name, breathless, hoping for something she dared not try to define.

  “Yes?” Her tone was too breathless, too hopeful, but he was still facing away from her, body suddenly tense.

  “Why’s Maddy in the arena?”

  “What?” Something jangled in her soul … premonition or worry or a horrific mixture of the two.

  “Why’s …” He took two more strides and stopped short. “Call an ambulance,” he ordered.

  “What? Why—”

  “Now!” he snapped and disappeared around the corner of the barn.

  Casie pivoted away and raced toward the house, breath coming like a windstorm. “Soph!” she yelled as she burst into the kitchen. “Sophie!”

  The girl’s footfalls tapped down the stairs. She appeared before Casie had lifted the receiver from its cradle. “Take a blanket out to the arena,” she ordered, and dialed 911.

  “What?”

  “For Linette,” she said, but just then someone spoke through the receiver.

  “This is Casie Carmichael!” Holding the phone in a death grip, she rasped the words into the ancient receiver. “There’s been an accident at the Lazy Windmill!” she added and rattled off the address.

  Sophie swung around and galloped up the stairs. She was back in a matter of seconds, racing past Casie and out the door.

  The woman on the other end of the line asked something, drawing Casie back to the conversation. “I don’t know how long it’s been. Twenty minutes? Maybe more. A helmet? I don’t know. Just … please … send an ambulance quick,” she said and hung up.

  By the time she reached the arena, Colt and Sophie were both squatting in the dirt. Linette lay perfectly still between them. Casie’s limbs felt wooden as she ducked between the planks and straightened. The world seemed hazy, rotating in slow motion.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  Colt rose to his feet and moved toward her with long strides.

  Casie stopped in her tracks, momentarily forgetting to breathe. “What—” she began again, but he spoke before she could complete the question.

  “It’s probably not as bad as it looks.”

  “What are you talking about?” she rasped and jerked past him.

  He didn’t try to stop her.

  Linette looked inordinately peaceful. They’d covered her with a red-striped blanket. Her eyes were open. She smiled a little, but the expression was somehow off, tilted a little.

  “Linette,” Casie crooned, and squatting beside her, reached for her hand. “What happened?”

  The elderly woman shifted her eyes sideways and said nothing.

  “Linette?” Casie said and wiped a smudge from the other woman’s creased cheek. “Where does it hurt?”

  “She injured her leg.” Colt spoke softly from behind her.

  Casie turned slightly, snapping her gaze frantically to his. “What?”

  “Her leg …” He paused and glanced at Linette’s face, but when there was no reaction, he continued on. “It’s not good.”

  “Oh.” It was strange that her first inclination was to move away. Even though her eyes traced along the outline of Linette’s body to her leg, she didn’t really want to see. She didn’t want to be there. She simply wanted to distance herself from this woman on the ground. This new disaster. But she remained where she was, maybe held there by fear. “Is it … Is she going to be okay?”

  He didn’t answer. Beside her, Linette shifted as if trying to sit up.

  “No!” They all spoke at once, urging her back onto the ground.

  “Just …” Casie swallowed. “Just lie still. Everything’s going to be all right.” She wrapped both hands around Linette’s cool fingers, encasing them in her palms.

  “What—” Linette’s face scrunched slightly beneath the helmet that remained askew on her silvery hair. She looked disoriented, only slightly concerned. “What happened?”

  Casie swallowed her fear as best she could. “You fell off Maddy.”

  The scowl intensified. “Maddy?”

  Casie stopped a wince, smoothed her expression. “Colt’s horse.”

  “I was on a horse?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  Linette moved her head from side to side the slightest degree. “Well …” Her voice was a little hollow, a little empty. “At least I was on a horse.”

>   Casie smiled woodenly. “How are you feeling?”

  Linette blinked and half shrugged but didn’t answer. Her eyes drifted closed.

  “Keep her awake,” Colt ordered quietly.

  “Linette!” The name sounded panicked to Casie’s own ears.

  She opened her eyes slowly. “How’d it go?”

  Casie glanced toward Colt. He shook his head, obviously as uncertain as she. She hurried her gaze back to Linette. “What?”

  “The transplant. How’d …” She scowled, lifted her left hand vaguely. “What happened?”

  Casie swallowed, fear turning to terror at the repeated question. “You fell off a horse.”

  “I was riding a horse?”

  Dear God.

  Her eyes went dreamy. “I’ve always wanted a horse.” Her face seemed strangely slack, her skin gray.

  “Linette!”

  She shifted her gaze groggily back to Casie. “But Mommy says we can’t afford one. Not until Daddy comes home.”

  “An ambulance is on its way,” Casie said. “Just hold on. Okay?”

  “He’s coming back. I know he is,” she said and let her eyes fall closed.

  “Colt!” Casie rasped.

  He was beside her in an instant, shoulder brushing against hers, body warm and solid. “Linny, honey, come on.” He squeezed her arm. “Wake up.”

  She did so, remained expressionless for a moment, then focused with seeming difficulty on his face. Her lips twitched up at one corner. “You’re a good-looking devil,” she said, then shifted her gaze to Casie. “The handsome ones are always trouble, aren’t they? What are the charges?”

  Casie scowled at her nonsensical words. “I’m sorry,” she said. “So sorry. But it’s going to be okay. Hold on.”

  Linette shifted her gaze, face becoming vacant again. “Daddy’s handsome, too.”

  Casie felt sick to her stomach.

  “And he’ll come back.”

  “I’m sure he will,” Colt said and stroked the hair away from her face “No one could leave a pretty girl like you.”

  “I’m not pretty.” She scowled as if confused by his compliment. “But I’m smart. And Daddy says if I work really hard I can be whatever I want to be.”

  “Where’s that ambulance?” Casie wasn’t even sure who asked the question. It might have been her.

  “And I’m tough. Daddy told me I had to be. Not like Mother.” She shook her head. The movement was disjointed. “She cries all the time. She thinks I can’t hear her, but I can.” She shifted her gaze upward. “When I grow up I’m never going to cry.”

  “Where’s that stupid—”

  “There it is!” Sophie cried, and jerking to her feet, waved her arms before striding to the far side of the arena to catch up Maddy’s dangling reins. In a moment she had disappeared with the mare and the ambulance was inside the corral. No lights flashed. No siren sounded. The vehicle sat there like a bulky bug waiting to swallow them up. It regurgitated two men in button-down shirts and blue jeans.

  “My name’s Michael. I’m an EMT for Fall River County,” said the taller of the two. “Can you tell me what happened?”

  Colt spoke first, voice low as he moved away from them. “We think she fell off a horse.”

  “You weren’t here?”

  “No.”

  The EMT moved toward them. Casie set Linette’s hand carefully atop the blanket and scooted back, out of the way. Michael pulled a tiny flashlight from his shirt pocket and shone it in each eye. “How long ago did this happen?”

  Colt shifted his gaze to Casie’s. She shook her head, uncertain of everything as she rose to her feet. Her legs felt shaky. “We’re not sure.” Colt spoke again. “We called you as soon as we found her.”

  “Was she unconscious?”

  “No.”

  Michael nodded. “Hi there,” he said, addressing Linette for the first time. “Can you tell me your name?”

  She blinked. “Linny Sue,” she said.

  “Do you know this gentleman beside me, Linny Sue?” he asked and felt along her arms as he spoke.

  “I—” She paused, glanced toward Casie, and scowled. Her eyes filled with tears. “Heidi … I’m sorry, honey. I’m so sorry.”

  The EMT glanced at Casie. “What’s she talking about?”

  Casie gripped her hands together, gaze never leaving Linette. “My name’s not Heidi.”

  “Then—”

  “Check her legs,” Colt said.

  Their gazes met. Linette was weeping softly as Michael lifted the blanket and glanced down. Casie couldn’t see past his body, but she knew the moment he identified the problem.

  His body jerked involuntarily, then he settled the blanket back over Linette and rose quickly to his feet. “Let’s get her on the board,” he said.

  The other EMT spoke for the first time. “But if there’s spinal damage—”

  “On the board,” he snapped. “Now!”

  CHAPTER 28

  “Emily! Em!” Casie shouted, and started up the stairs, but suddenly the girl was there, eyes wide, expression worried.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Linette.” She felt breathless and terrified, but she forced her voice to be steady, her body to move slowly. “I think she’s broken her leg. Colt’s riding in the ambulance with her. I’m driving separate.”

  Emily shook her head, taking a second to orient herself. “I’ll go with you.”

  “You don’t have to,” Casie argued, but Emily stared at her for a second, then yanked her backpack from the floor.

  “I think you’re wrong. Do you want me to drive?”

  “You don’t have a license.”

  “But I’m not in danger of passing out.” Emily moved toward the door, movements ponderous. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course. I’m fine,” Casie said, but her head felt light.

  The drive to the hospital took forever.

  “Why are they going so slow?” Casie asked. Ahead of them, the ambulance bumped along at what seemed like a ridiculously leisurely pace. She loosened her grip on the steering wheel, trying to ease the ache in her fingers.

  Emily leaned back against her seat and exhaled as if enjoying a day at the beach. “They can’t legally exceed the speed limit, but they sometimes modify that rule if they have extraordinary circumstances.”

  “Well, I think this qualifies.” Casie glanced sideways, remembering her passenger’s current state. “What about you? Are you okay?”

  “Better than Linette. Do you know what happened?”

  “Not really.” She shook her head and held herself carefully together. “I thought she was taking a lesson from Colt. But I guess I was wrong. We found her on the ground in the arena. Maddy was saddled.”

  “How badly is she hurt?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said and didn’t mention how the EMT’s face had paled when he’d seen Linette’s leg.

  It felt like déjà vu as she parked illegally beside the hospital and jumped out of the truck. In a matter of moments the paramedics were lowering the legs of the stretcher.

  Casie wanted to rush to Linette’s side almost as much as she wanted to stay away, but her desires were a moot point. The patient was already surrounded. Hospital personnel buzzed around her like anxious bees.

  “You okay?” Colt asked.

  Casie turned jerkily toward him, noticing him for the first time since their arrival. “Yeah, sure.” She glanced around, disoriented and jumpy. “Where’s Emily?”

  He shook his head, but didn’t shift his gaze from hers. “Maybe you should sit down for a while,” he suggested and took her elbow in one hand. His palm felt large and strong against her arm, but she pulled from his grip and turned a full circle, oddly panicked.

  “I’m fine. Where’s Emily?”

  “Listen,” he said, and slipping a hand carefully behind her back, guided her inside. “I’ll find her. You’ll have to fill out the paperwork.”

  “Miss …” He turned to
a fortyish woman who was rushing by. Overweight and harried, she came to an abrupt halt, already scowling. Colt smiled. “Where can my friend here sit down to fill out the necessary forms?”

  Her scowl deepened. “You’ll have to go to the front desk.”

  “There’s been an accident,” he said, gaze steady. “You’re probably used to that sort of thing, but we’re pretty skittish. I’d really appreciate it if you could help us out.”

  Casie scowled down the nearest corridor. It was empty but for a pair of young men in scrubs.

  The nurse glanced at her. “Around the corner to the right there’s a visiting room,” she said. Her voice had softened grudgingly. “Grab a seat there.”

  “You’re why nurses should run the world,” Colt said.

  She chuckled quietly. “I’ll send someone with the necessary forms,” she said and shook her head, but when she strode away, her steps were a little jauntier.

  Casie scowled after her, anxious and out of sorts. “Don’t feel you have to charm anyone on my account.”

  “Not everything’s about you, Head Case,” he said and steered her around a corner. “Sit down.”

  “I’m—”

  “Listen, you can pass out later if you want to, but right now it’d be kind of nice if you’d remain conscious for Linette.”

  “I’m not going to pass out.”

  “Excellent. Then sit down,” he said and motioned toward a couch anchored between two chairs. It looked hard and nondescript.

  She sat down. Maybe because she’d never heard him sound so angry. Maybe because she was exhausted. And maybe, just maybe, because she was in danger of passing out.

  “Thank you,” he said, and giving her one last glance, turned and walked away.

  She was found by a barrage of hospital employees in just a matter of minutes. It seemed that everyone in the world asked her the same questions. She answered them as best she could until the tide of staff finally ran out and she was left alone.