Lone Star Christmas

by Delores Fossen

  Oh. Well, that put a ball of heat in Shelby’s belly and thinned her breath some. Of course, she’d known that Lucy had been abused, but knowing she was about to see the proof of it made her feel a little ill. And angry. She made sure there was no anger in her voice when she spoke.

  “Lucy and I are going in the powder room,” Shelby told Rosy and Alice. “The zipper’s stuck, and I’m going to put a little soap on it to get it working.”

  Shelby didn’t wait for Alice to volunteer to fix it and not with soap but some seamstress skill that would get it done faster. She took Lucy’s hand, moving her off the bottom step, and then Shelby got behind her when they went into the powder room.

  “Thank you,” Lucy repeated, still whispering.

  Despite her thin breath, Shelby gathered as much air into her lungs as she could, and she looked at the girl’s back. Yes, scars. Some new. Some old. And too many to count.

  “It’s okay,” Lucy said when Shelby’s hand hesitated on the zipper. “They don’t hurt anymore.”

  Yes, they did. They would always hurt, and Shelby had to blink back tears as she covered the ugly marks by closing the zipper. Now the only thing visible was the beautiful red fabric.

  Lucy stood on her toes, looking in the mirror, and she met Shelby’s eyes in the reflection. Shelby managed to blink back the tears, but she couldn’t stop herself from hugging the girl. She expected Lucy to go stiff or jerk back, but she just stood there, not actually participating in what was an overly emotional hug on Shelby’s part. But she didn’t stop it, either.

  “I like you,” Lucy whispered. “You’re nice and you care.”

  “I like you, too. And I do care. Not so sure about the nice part, though.”

  “You’re nice,” Lucy repeated, and she lifted one hand to lay on Shelby’s back. “I need to tell you something, and I think it’s going to be hard for you to hear.”

  Shelby squeezed her eyes, trying to steel herself up to hear details of those scars. Details that were going to break her heart. Still, she’d hear them. “I’m listening,” Shelby assured her.

  Lucy took her time. “It’s about Mr. Buck. He’s sick. He doesn’t want you to know, but he passed out in the barn and hit his head. Mateo found him. Mr. Buck wants everybody to believe he’s okay, that he’s just a little under the weather, but he’s not. It’s a big kind of under the weather.”

  Because Shelby had been waiting and bracing for more about Lucy’s abuse, it took her several long moments for the words to sink in. Now it was Shelby who jerked back from the girl so she could see if Lucy was serious.

  She was.

  Oh God. Her dad was sick?

  Shelby suddenly felt sick, too, and she had to lean against the sink. She’d known about the anemia and had felt that something else was wrong. But her father had assured her everything was okay.

  “Mr. Buck was bleeding after he fell,” Lucy went on. “And he made us all promise not to say anything about it to you or Miss Rosy. He made us all promise. All three of us.”

  Shelby’s head whipped up. “Three?” she asked.

  Lucy nodded. “Me, Mateo and Mr. Callen, of course. Mr. Callen knows how sick Mr. Buck is.”

  * * *

  CALLEN FIGURED THIS was his lucky day. When he rode Sweet Caroline back to Buck’s, he’d expected to face somewhat of a firing squad. Or at least some questions from Buck and/or Rosy. But no one was around, not even Mateo, when he led the horse into the barn and unsaddled her.

  As parting shots to confirm her crotchety temperament, the mare flicked her long tail at him, aiming at his face, following it with an attempted head butt. But Callen had more luck when he managed to avoid both.

  Callen continued to dodge and avoid as he brushed her down and made sure she had feed and water. Next time he got a wild hair to go visit Shelby, he’d drive there. Of course, he should be talking himself out of other visits. And buying condoms. But that wasn’t going to happen. That siren grin she’d given him that morning sealed the deal.

  Yeah, he’d go back.

  Callen found himself whistling as he walked out of the barn. Still no signs of anyone, which meant all he had to do was get in his truck and drive to the inn. Havana might question him about why he hadn’t come back to his room, but it was just as likely that she hadn’t been in her room, either. Callen hadn’t missed the heat stirring between her and Nico, and there was no way that Nico would pass that up.

  He’d just made it to the back of the house when the door flew open. Shelby flew out right afterward, and her gaze shot around the yard before her attention settled on him.

  There was fire in her eyes.

  “You knew,” she said, marching down the steps toward him.

  This definitely wasn’t sexy siren mode. She was pissed, maybe because she’d just had to go through a grand inquisition with whoever was inside.

  She stormed toward him. “You knew about my dad. You knew he was sick, and you didn’t tell me.”

  Oh, that. Well, Callen wasn’t whistling now. However, he did groan because he’d known that this would come back to bite him in the ass.

  “That’s why you came back. That’s why you stayed,” she went on. Shelby didn’t remain still. She started to pace, several angry steps one direction before cutting back with even more angry steps.

  “Buck made me promise not to tell anyone.” Callen groaned at his own words. They were the truth, but man, it sounded wussy saying them aloud.

  “And you agreed to that?” she snapped.

  He nodded, figuring that anything he said right now would sound bad except for “I’m sorry.” He said it, but she certainly didn’t seem to embrace the apology with heartfelt forgiveness.

  “Shelby, are you all right?” Rosy called out. She was at the back door, and her entire body was surrounded by massive amounts of pink fabric.

  “I’m fine,” Shelby answered, not snapping, and she kept her face turned away from Rosy. That meant however or whatever Shelby had found out, Rosy didn’t know. “Just finish the fitting. I just need to talk to Callen.”

  “All right, but bring him in for cocoa when you’re done,” Rosy insisted.

  Callen didn’t need to guess that there wouldn’t be cocoa in his immediate future. Nope. He’d be looking at plenty of groveling, and then kicking himself for agreeing to keep this a secret in the first place.

  Shelby stopped pacing, glared at him, but then her glare morphed into a hard sigh and a very distressed expression. “What’s wrong with him? How bad is it?”

  Despite his promise to Buck, the secrecy was going to end right now. “It’s a tumor on his lung.”

  “Tumor,” she repeated. “Cancer?”

  “Maybe. Buck doesn’t know, but he’s aware that’s a possibility.”

  Shelby groaned, shoved her fingers through her hair. “And he wanted to keep it a secret until after the wedding. He wanted to give Rosy her big day.”

  Callen nodded, and when he saw the tears shimmering in her eyes, he tried to pull her into his arms. She only batted away his hands.

  “Buck promised me as soon as the wedding was over, he’d tell everyone and that he’d go in for the surgery.” Callen followed her when Shelby started pacing again. “And, yeah, I told him that idea sucked, that he needed the surgery and the treatment ASAP, but he wouldn’t listen.”

  “Why did he want you here?” she snapped.

  Callen forced his chest to ease up so he could draw in a long breath. “To find a good family for Mateo and Lucy. He also wanted me to help out on the ranch.”

  The look she gave him let him know that she wasn’t just going to buy that. Because she no longer trusted him. Callen couldn’t blame her for that.

  “He didn’t ask Kace or Judd to keep a secret like this because they would have told him no,” Shelby spelled out.

  Callen was certain that p
layed into it. His brothers were part of Buck and Rosy’s daily lives. Part of Shelby’s, too. Plus, they were cops. Not exactly the best candidates to ask for what was essentially a lie. A lie because it was withholding the truth.

  She paced some more. Cursed. Groaned. And lost the battle with a couple of those tears that slid down her cheeks. “Where is he?” she asked. “Is he actually at the diner like Rosy said?”

  Callen had to hold up his hands. “I don’t know.”

  Shelby did some deep breathing, too, and she whirled around and headed for her truck. No doubt she was on her way to the diner to have it out with Buck. He didn’t blame her for that, but Callen didn’t want her to have to do this alone. Nor did he want her behind the wheel right now.

  “I’ll drive,” he insisted.

  He figured she would argue about that or maybe spew some of that profanity at him. She didn’t. Shelby was beyond upset and furious, but somewhere underneath all that fury, she must have realized she wasn’t steady enough to make the drive into town. She jumped into the passenger’s seat, and Callen got them moving.

  Almost immediately, Shelby’s phone rang, and she yanked it from her pocket. “It’s Rosy,” she said. “She’ll know something is wrong, but I can’t talk to her right now.”

  “Do you want me to do it?” he asked, already dreading it if she said yes.

  But Shelby shook her head. “She doesn’t need to hear this over the phone. Once we get to the diner, we’ll bring Dad back here and have it out. I want him to look Rosy and me straight in the eyes and try to justify why he would keep this from us. And, no, he’s not going to use the wedding as an excuse.”

  Despite the thick emotion, Callen welcomed the air clearing. Once Rosy knew the truth, she would demand that Buck get the treatment he needed. Of course, she’d almost certainly be furious not just with Buck. Callen knew there’d be plenty enough anger to go around for him, too.

  Anger that he damn well deserved.

  When they reached the diner, Callen spotted Buck’s truck, but he instantly knew something was wrong. Both of the truck doors were open, and several people had huddled around and were looking inside.

  What the hell was going on?

  Shelby must have picked up on the bad vibe, too, because as soon as he’d come to a stop, she barreled out and rushed toward Buck’s truck. Callen was right behind her.

  “What happened?” Shelby shouted as she ran.

  Will Myers, who owned the grocery store, was one of the people by the driver’s side, and he looked up at Shelby. And even though Callen didn’t know Will that well, he could tell from the man’s face that something had indeed happened.

  “I’m not sure,” Will said, his face pale and his eyes wide with concern. “Buck had some kind of dizzy spell or something.”

  With Callen right next to her, Shelby pushed by Will and two others, and she made a sharp gasp when she saw the problem.

  Buck was unconscious.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “I WANT TO kick or punch something,” Shelby snarled, and she knew no one in the hospital waiting room would accuse her of sounding like a cranky toddler.

  Well, no one who didn’t want to risk her yelling at them—which would be her version of actually kicking and punching, but she was looking at a couple of chair legs that might catch the brunt of a kick or two.

  And Callen was looking at her as if he might offer himself up as a punching bag.

  He felt bad about keeping her dad’s secret. She knew that. He was pacing across the waiting room just as she was, and his expression was worried with a spattering of “I’m screwed.”

  But mostly it was worried.

  It not only mirrored what she was feeling, but Shelby also knew it wasn’t going to ease up anytime soon—not until they heard from the doctor and nurses who’d whisked her father into an examining room. Whenever that would be. Even though it seemed like a millennium or two, it had only been about ten minutes since they’d done that whisking away.

  “He was too pale,” she muttered when the urge for her to kick or punch lessened some.

  Callen didn’t go for sugarcoating, something that only would have riled her more. He made a sound of agreement, groaned and scrubbed his hand over his face. Maybe he was getting the kicking and punching urge. Of course, he’d likely want to aim that at himself. No way could he be pleased with himself for agreeing to her dad’s dumb-head plan of keeping something like this quiet.

  The ER doors swished open, and she immediately heard the sounds of hurried footsteps and distress. Lots of “oh dears” and what appeared to be a whimper. A few seconds later, Rosy came rushing in. She was swishing, too, because she was still in her wedding dress that swept through like a big pink plow, leaving a trail of sequins and seamstress pins in its wake.

  Judd was right behind Rosy, and behind him were Lucy, Mateo and Alice, who still had pins clamped in her mouth. Obviously, they’d been in alteration mode, though Lucy had changed out of the bridesmaid dress and was back to her usual jeans.

  “Oh dear,” Rosy repeated.

  Judd wasn’t oh dearing, though. His gaze zoomed straight to Shelby. She suspected Judd was plenty worried, too, but he had a slightly different way of showing it. Intensity that was well past the kicking and punching mode.

  “Where’s Buck, and what the hell happened?” Judd demanded.

  To answer the first part of the question, Shelby motioned toward the corridor with the examining rooms. The second part wasn’t quite so easy to answer. It probably would have helped had her throat not clamped as tight as a miser’s fist, and she found herself motioning to Callen to do the explaining.

  “Buck passed out at the diner,” Callen said. “He regained consciousness and wanted to go home, but Shelby and I brought him here.”

  “Oh dear,” Rosy said. There was a whole lot of shakiness in those two muttered words.

  Shakiness that Shelby saw in Lucy and Mateo. They were holding hands and generally looking terrified. Lucy won the prize on that, though, maybe because she’d been the one who’d spilled a secret that never should have been a secret in the first place. Shelby didn’t blame the girl, though. If her father could convince Callen to do this, convincing Lucy would have been a snap.

  “Oh dear,” Rosy said again. It had all four adults and Mateo reaching out for her. Judd was closest, and he gathered her into his arms while keeping his attention on his brother.

  Clearly, Judd was going to want a whole lot more info than Callen had just given him, and it seemed to Shelby that Judd’s cop instincts had zoomed in on Callen as being the primary source of that whole lot more.

  Callen looked at her, silently asking if she wanted to be the one who spilled all of this, but Shelby gave him the go-ahead gesture with the lift of her hand. She knew the basics—well, now she did—but she suspected Callen knew more. And besides, no way was she going to attempt to justify to Rosy and Judd why her father had kept this to himself or why Callen had agreed to keep quiet right along with Buck.

  However, before Callen could speak, Shelby heard yet another swish of the ER doors and more hurried footsteps. This time it was Kace, Nico and Havana. Shelby had texted Kace right after she’d called Judd to bring Rosy to the hospital, but she hadn’t noticed Callen texting Havana. However, since the inn was just up the street from both the diner and the hospital, it was likely Havana had got the news from someone who had seen or heard what was going on.

  “What happened?” Kace asked, and he hurried to Rosy’s other side.

  Shelby gave Callen another hand motion to let him know he was going to be the mouthpiece here, and she went to Lucy. She slid her arm around the girl, drawing her close.

  Callen gave each of them a glance, then nodded the way a person would when mustering up whatever courage was needed to face a firing squad or a pack of rabid wolves. “Buck has a tumor on one of h
is lungs. He found out a couple of weeks ago.”

  He paused, no doubt giving them a chance to absorb that. Shelby saw the shock first. Easy to recognize because she’d experienced the same thing when Callen had told her. She wondered if they would also experience the need to kick or punch something when Callen spelled out the rest.

  “Weeks?” Rosy questioned.

  Callen nodded. “Buck told me, but he asked me to keep it to myself. He didn’t want anyone to know until after the wedding.” Again, Callen paused for some absorption, followed by reaction.

  And he got it.

  “What?” Pretty much all of them except Mateo and Lucy said that. They stayed quiet, but the others sure didn’t.

  “Dumbass,” Judd ground out, and she thought he meant that for both Buck and Callen.

  Judd likely would have added a lot more profanity if Rosy hadn’t given him a parental whack on the arm. Rosy was visibly upset, but apparently that hadn’t stopped her from remembering that there were kids in earshot.

  “Idiot,” Kace contributed, obviously going for nonprofanity.

  “Good grief.” From Nico.

  “Have you lost your flippin’ mind?” That from Havana, and it was aimed at Callen.

  Alice mumbled something, finally took out the pins and said, “You don’t put off something like a tumor.” Which was the most logical of the scoldings.

  Scoldings that continued when the blame shifted from Callen to her father.

  “What the heck was Buck thinking?” That from Nico, and Kace grumbled something similar.

  “Did you both lose your flippin’ minds?” Havana again.

  “Sweet baby Jesus,” Nico contributed.

  “Dumbass,” Judd said, even though he knew it’d get him another swat from Rosy—which it did.

  They groaned, threw up hands, and a few glanced up as if seeking some kind of divine answer. Shelby was reasonably sure the only one who was going to give them answers about this was Buck, and it wasn’t an answer that any of them were going to accept. Well, other than Callen, and he’d already accepted.