More Than a Cowboy (The Carmody Brothers Book 3)

by Sarah Mayberry

  “I didn’t realize you had a medical degree,” she said, but there was no heat in her words, just bewilderment, and his arm tightened around her shoulders.

  “I’ve got a degree in hospital waiting rooms,” he said.

  She sat and he took the seat beside her, keeping his arm around her shoulders. She wanted it there—needed it there—because reality was really starting to sink in now and she was so hyped up on adrenaline it felt as though her insides were vibrating.

  Unable to keep still, she started bouncing her heel, the repetitive jitter oddly comforting. Garret dropped a kiss onto her temple.

  “He’s young, he’s fit, he’s healthy. He wrapped up the site of the bite and stayed still. He’s going to be okay, Sierra.”

  “You don’t know that,” she said. “You can’t promise that.”

  He fell silent, his gaze dropping to the floor. Her stomach dipped and she realized she’d been waiting for him to contradict her and guarantee her brother’s survival, even though they both knew he couldn’t do that.

  “Sierra.”

  She looked up and Eva and Casey were there, bringing their own sense of urgency with them.

  “Thank god you found him,” Eva said, throwing her arms around Sierra.

  “I should have gone out and checked on him when he didn’t come back on time,” Casey said, running a hand through his already tousled hair.

  “How many times have any of us been back to the house exactly when we said we would be?” Sierra said. “Ranch work is done when it’s done.”

  Casey nodded, but his mouth was still pressed into an unhappy line.

  “Jesse and CJ are coming as soon as they can. They’re six hours away in Plentywood, and they need to find someone to look after Major so they can dump the trailer,” Sierra reported.

  Casey checked his watch, then settled into the chair beside Sierra. “You okay?”

  She shrugged, unwilling to give voice to all the different ways she was afraid.

  “He’s the toughest bastard I know. And more stubborn than a mule,” Casey said.

  “I know. But you didn’t see him.”

  A few more tears escaped then and Garret passed her the handkerchief again, his arm once again a heavy, reassuring weight around her shoulders. At some point she’d have to think about the fact that they were supposed to be over, but not now. Now she needed him to keep her steady and focused and sane.

  Fifteen minutes later a dark-haired doctor came out to tell them they’d administered three vials of antivenom and Jed’s vital signs had stabilized. He said it would be a while before they knew if more antivenom was needed and how much damage had been done and that they probably wouldn’t know more until morning.

  “But he’s going to be all right?” Sierra confirmed.

  The doctor hesitated. “I can’t say that yet. Usually this antivenom is effective if it’s administered within six hours of a bite. At this stage, we have no idea how long ago that was in Jed’s case.”

  Sierra swallowed against a sudden rush of nausea. She could see plain as day what the doctor wasn’t saying. Jed could still die.

  “We’re going to transfer him to intensive care. There’s a private waiting room up there for family members. Someone can sit with him, but only one person at a time. Someone will come and let you know when he’s been transferred.”

  The doctor made a point of making eye contact with them all before disappearing back into the busy emergency department.

  Sierra felt Garret shift beside her. “We should probably clear the helipad,” he said.

  She nodded, grateful to have something to concentrate on. The Bell wasn’t really fitted out for night flights—most civilian helicopters weren’t—but it wasn’t fully dark yet and it was only a short run back to the Tate place.

  She stood. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she told her brother and Eva.

  Garret was silent as they took the elevator to the helipad. She climbed into the Bell and took her place behind the cyclic, her hands wrapping around the familiar grip. Then she took a deep breath.

  “Okay?” Garret asked.

  “Okay enough.”

  She went through her preflight check, made radio contact with Marietta airport, then lifted off. It was twilight, but there was still enough light left for her to be able to identify several landmarks along the way. Car headlights marked the freeway near the Tates’ home, then she saw the Tate house, the front light spilling onto the porch and surroundings. She flicked on the powerful spotlight beneath the belly of the Bell and the luminescent paint on the helipad sprang to life. Less than a minute later they were on the ground, the rotors slowing overhead.

  “Tell me what to do to help you put it away,” Garret said.

  He helped her place the tow cart and maneuver the Bell into the hangar, then walked her straight across to the garage, beeping open his father’s car. He called his mother during the drive in, explaining the situation, in case she was worried about his late arrival and sudden departure.

  Sierra stared at the darkened landscape outside the car window, fear once again creeping up on her now she had nothing to occupy her. Garret’s hand landed on her knee, and she realized she was bouncing her heel again. He caught her hand in his and placed his hand over it against her thigh. She glanced at him, half a dozen questions in her mind, wondering what all of this meant when he’d been so certain, so adamant last night that they were over.

  Was he simply being kind, supporting her through these dark hours, or was he ready to rethink his decision?

  She returned her gaze to the darkness outside the car, unwilling to ask for clarification right now. That probably made her a coward, but frankly she didn’t give a damn. Her beloved oldest brother might die and she couldn’t bear it. She needed Garret tonight. Tomorrow he could break her heart all over again, but not tonight.

  *

  Garret watched as Sierra did yet another circuit of the family waiting room, stopping to twitch a stack of magazines into a neater arrangement, pausing at the other end of the room to read a public health announcement about flu vaccines. She was wired with adrenaline, still edgy with shock despite the fact they’d been sitting in this too-familiar space for two hours now, and he estimated that this was at least her tenth lap of the small space.

  It was impossible to be in this gray little room and not remember the long trip home from Italy and the fear and preemptive grief he’d felt as he’d waited to find out if his father would survive his stroke. And now Sierra was enduring the same helpless cycle of dread and hope, her eyes bloodshot from too much crying, her slim body held tight, and it made his chest ache to know she was hurting and he couldn’t do anything about it.

  If he could, he’d take her pain away, take it on himself. But that wasn’t the way grief and fear worked. All he could do was wait and watch and try to do what little he could to make life easier for her for the next few hours or as long as it took for them to come out the other side of this.

  He glanced across at the other person in the room, curious about Casey’s partner. Eva sat on the couch, knees tucked under her, her focus inward. With her short, punky-blond hair and colorful tattoo she wasn’t exactly a typical Marietta local, but the way she looked at Casey and Sierra and the way she talked about Jed told him she was well and truly entrenched in the Carmody family.

  He was about to suggest doing another coffee run, figuring it would give Sierra a chance to burn off more nervous energy, when the door to the waiting room slammed open.

  “Where is he? Please tell me he’s still okay,” Mae said.

  Gone was the smooth, corporate hard-ass he’d been dealing with the past couple of weeks, and in her place was a more familiar Mae dressed in faded jeans and T-shirt, her hair wild and curly. Freckles stood out against the pallor of her skin as her gaze bounced from him to Sierra to Eva in desperate demand.

  “He’s doing okay. He’s had three doses of antivenom. Casey’s with him now,” Sierra said, coming over t
o give the other woman a hug. “It’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment to see how much damage the venom did before he got treatment. No one has any idea how long he was lying out there after he was bitten.”

  Mae ducked her head, but not before Garret caught sight of the tears trembling on the tips of her lashes.

  “Here. Sit down,” Eva said, standing and drawing Mae over to the couch, Sierra encouraging her from the other side.

  “Sorry,” Mae said. “I know you’re all probably really worried yourselves. I didn’t mean to burst in here like a drama queen.”

  “No one’s being a drama queen,” Eva said soothingly.

  Mae nodded and sniffed, then offered Eva a watery smile. “I’m Mae, by the way.”

  Eva’s smile was wry. “Yeah, I kind of guessed that. I’m Eva, Casey’s girlfriend.”

  “You’re the one who painted the mural on the old grain elevator near town,” Mae said, her eyes lighting with recognition. “My mom sent me a link to a news article. I knew your face looked familiar.”

  “Yep, that’s me,” Eva said, handing Mae the box of tissues on the table.

  “Thanks,” Mae said, grabbing a handful.

  While she was busy blowing her nose, Eva shot Sierra a “where did she spring from” look.

  “I texted Mae earlier,” Sierra explained. “I thought she might want to know.”

  Which meant Mae must have dropped everything to jump in the car and hightail it from Helena to Marietta so quickly.

  Interesting, given she was theoretically engaged to some other guy whose name was definitely not Jed Carmody. Garret couldn’t help wondering how her fiancé felt about her racing to the bedside of her ailing ex.

  Confused, he suspected, at the very least.

  The door opened again and Casey entered, stretching his back and scratching his belly. “Tag team. You’re it, Sierra.” He froze midstretch when he saw the new arrival sitting between Eva and Sierra on the couch.

  “Mae?” he said, his expression comically surprised.

  “Hey, Casey. How are you doing?” she said.

  “I’ve been better,” he said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Mae said. Standing, she came across to give him a big hug, which Casey returned with equal affection.

  “I’m going to head in and sit with Jed. Unless you’d like to see him?” Sierra asked.

  Mae went very still. Then she shook her head. “I won’t. Thank you. He doesn’t want a stranger at his bedside.”

  “You’re hardly a stranger,” Sierra objected.

  “It’s been a long time, Sierra,” Mae said, her tone more firm now. “I’ll just wait with you guys for a bit, if that’s okay.”

  “Of course it’s okay,” Casey said. He gave her a small smile. “You look exactly the same.”

  Mae lifted a hand to her hair and Garret met Sierra’s eyes over the other woman’s head. They both knew that when she was in Helena, Mae presented a very different face to the world.

  “I’ll see you soon,” Sierra said, giving Mae’s shoulder a squeeze before heading for the door.

  Garret followed her out into the corridor, wanting to check in with her, to make sure she was doing okay. “I was going to do another coffee run. Want me to grab you one and bring it in?”

  “That’d be great, thanks.” Her gaze went to the closed waiting room door. “You know, all these years, I’ve always felt so sorry for Jed because it was so obvious he wasn’t over Mae. I figured she’d probably moved on. When we heard she was engaged last year, I thought, ‘well, that’s it. It’s definitely done.’”

  “You can still love someone even though you’re not with them. Even though you’ve found a different kind of love with someone else,” he said. “The world is full of love stories that never quite made it.”

  Sierra frowned, her gaze darting to his face and then away again. She nodded, then turned toward Jed’s ward. She’d only taken a few steps when she turned back, hands clasped together at her waist.

  “Garret . . . I don’t want to be one of those stories. I don’t want to have to think about what we could have had for the rest of my life because you want to protect me from something that I’m more than tough enough to handle. Jed’s lying in there, and if he doesn’t make it . . . I don’t know how I’m going to get through it without you. Because that’s what people do when they love each other—they’re strong for the other person when they can’t be strong for themselves, and I need you to be strong for me tonight, and I need you to let me be strong for you, too, and help you face whatever’s coming down the track. I need you to let me love you. I need you so much.” Her chin wobbled and her eyes overflowed with tears, and he couldn’t get to her fast enough to pull her into his arms.

  “Don’t. I’m not going anywhere. I promise. I’m sorry about last night. I love you. I love you so much. I just freaked out, that’s all. I love you too much to ever let you go. Which probably makes me a selfish asshole, but I can live with that if it means having you in my life.”

  “Garret Tate, you are the least selfish person I know,” she said, pulling back enough to look into his face. “You’re the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, no matter what that looks like. No matter what we have to wade through. Like I said last night, you are it for me. I am done.”

  Her hair was a tangle down her back, her eyes swimming with tears, her cheeks blotchy with emotion—and she’d never looked more beautiful to him. Holding her face in his palms, he pressed a kiss to her lips, tasting the salt of her tears, feeling the way she was shaking, the depth of her response to him.

  The depth of her love for him.

  He was the luckiest man on the planet. In the universe.

  “I got you, Sierra. And I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I’ve got you, too, Garret. And you’re stuck with me.”

  He laughed a little at that, and so did she. Then she pressed her cheek to his chest, right over his heart. “Please, never push me away like that again,” she said in a small voice. “I understand why you did it, but I never want to feel like that again.”

  He closed his eyes against the knowledge he’d caused her pain. “I’m sorry. And I promise I’ll never play the noble dickhead again.”

  She huffed out a laugh. Then she tilted her head up for his kiss, and for a moment the world righted itself as they sealed their promises to one another.

  The sound of a nurse exiting one of the nearby rooms made them pull apart, and Sierra smiled self-consciously at the other woman before stepping out of his arms.

  “I don’t want Jed to be alone,” she said apologetically.

  “I know. I’ll bring your coffee in soon, okay?”

  “Thank you.” She turned away, then turned back again. “I love you.”

  “Love you too,” he said.

  She nodded and walked down the corridor to the door to Jed’s room, easing it open quietly and slipping inside. Garret waited until she was gone before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

  He’d nearly fucked it up. He’d nearly broken the heart of the woman he loved and deprived himself of the happiness he knew he could find with her.

  But he hadn’t, because Sierra hadn’t let him. He figured he was going to have a lifetime of her saving him from his worst mistakes. He hoped he could do the same for her. That was his plan, anyway—the two of them saving each other for the rest of their lives.

  He gave himself a shake before stepping back into the waiting room. Three heads came up expectantly and he smiled apologetically. “Just me, sorry. Gonna do a coffee run. Who’s in?”

  He took down their orders and made his way through the quiet of the hospital to the nearest coffee vending machine. Five minutes later he was heading back with five coffees balanced in his arms.

  “Thanks, man,” Casey said, coming forward to relieve him of a couple of cups when he returned.

  Garret delivered a cup to Sierra, then returned to the waiting room and sat opposite Eva and Mae. They were all silen
t as they sucked down coffee, absorbed in their own thoughts. His were focused on Sierra, on what might happen in the next few hours and days, on what she might need, on how determined he was that he would see her through this, no matter how it turned out.

  Because her happiness was his happiness. He understood that now.

  Leaning back into the couch, he settled in to wait.

  *

  Sierra was deep in a dark, dreamless place when a gentle touch on her arm woke her.

  “Sierra,” Garret said, and she lifted her head from where she’d been sleeping against his chest.

  Eva and Mae were also blinking back to wakefulness, unfolding themselves from the pretzel shapes they’d assumed to catch a little shut-eye through the long night at opposite ends of the couch, while CJ and Jesse stirred from where they were sitting on the floor, their backs to the wall. They’d arrived in the early hours of the night, tense and weary after the long drive and eager for good news that no one had to give.

  Now they were focused, like Sierra, on the gray-haired doctor standing in the doorway, a tired-looking Casey standing behind her. Dr. Wittin had taken over Jed’s care when he’d been transferred from the ER, but this was only the second time she’d come to give them an update.

  “Sorry to interrupt your rest. I’m sure you must all be beat. I wanted to let you know Jed’s latest tests have all come back and it’s looking good. Liver function is strong, kidneys are normal. His heart rate is still a little high, but that’s not unexpected given the situation. All things considered, I’m cautiously optimistic your brother has a good chance of making a full recovery,” she said, her mouth curving into a smile.

  Sierra sagged against Garret’s shoulder, relieved tears burning the backs of her eyes. She’d cried more in the last twenty-four hours than she had in the last ten years, but apparently she had an everlasting supply.

  “He just woke up. As in, properly woke up,” Casey reported. “Told me I should be home getting some sleep, because someone’s going to have to do all the work today.”

  Sierra’s laugh sounded a little strangled even to herself, but it was so typical of Jed that his first thought was for the ranch.