My Texas Sweetheart (book one)

by Acheson, Pauliena

  Chase and I head over to the barn, saddle up Dixie and Midnight, and put our stuff in the saddle bags. I hand him one of the flashlights that I had grabbed, and we head out. My mind is cluttered with feelings and thoughts. What is going on in my head? This is so unlike me. Why am I getting so wrapped up in this? I am a one-night stand kind of guy. Is it because her brother is my best friend, or is it because she’s told me that she doesn’t like my lifestyle? I hear Chase say something. Snap out of it! Once again, Chase’s voice filters through to my ears. “…should we…?”, but the sound of hoof beats cuts him off.

  We both take off towards the sound. It looks like Storm, but the darkness is making it hard to tell. We can tell that we’re closing the distance between us and the horse. Chase is shouting back to me, “It’s Storm!” In one quick motion, I grab the reigns around Storm’s neck, looking around to see if I can see something, anything that would tell us what happened. God, please let her be okay.

  Chase interrupts my thoughts. “There’s something wrong with Storm. Take him back to the stables. I’ll go to the house and get Dad and the boys. We’ll need to grab more flashlights, water, and blankets. I’ll get Mom to wrap us up some supper. We need to form a search party and fan out. I’ll have Todd and Nate take two groups, and I’ll take the other. This has to be controlled or we might miss something. Let’s go!”

  I gallop back to the barn with Storm, who was snorting really hard. I quickly threw a blanket over him, made sure he had food and water, and closed his stall door. Running as fast as I could, I went to the house. It was beginning to lightly rain. No, not now! Everyone was preparing for the search party when I walked through the door. Chase, Adam, and I would be in the first party heading along the trail towards town. Nate, Creed, and Jade would head on the trail towards the river. Todd, Mark, and Gabe would be heading towards the forest. Lily had gathered enough food, water, and blankets for all of us. She would stay home with Brad, just in case Maggie came back. We had strict orders to check in with him every fifteen minutes. We ran back to the barn. Everyone had their horses saddled and ready to ride within minutes, and we start riding out.

  (Maggie)

  I hurt so much. Where did Storm go? I hope he’s okay. I can feel my pants being taken off, but I can’t move. Please, God, don’t let this happen. I scream at myself to get up and fight. My pants are being pulled off. I can feel hands on my underwear, pulling them down. Why can’t I move or open my eyes? Everything hurts and I feel so cold. He’s climbing on top of me and I feel him at my entrance. I try kicking, but nothing is working. He moves into me…oh, God, NO! The last thing I hear before I black out again is hoof beats coming towards me. Please, somebody, help me!

  Chapter 11 (Jase)

  Chase, Adam, and I are racing along the path. “Make sure you check in the brush, too!” Chase yells. Why didn’t we keep our mouths shut back at the house? If we did, this wouldn’t be happening right now. We see movement in the distance and hope soars in me. Please be Maggie. Chase’s bellowing scares the shit out of me. “GET AWAY FROM MY SISTER, YOU SON OF A BITCH! I’LL KILL YOU!” We see Christian scrambling to his feet. He smirks at us, taking off into the woods.

  I see Maggie lying, half-naked, on the ground. My heart is breaking into a million pieces. Chase jumps off of his horse, and runs over to her, throwing a blanket over her. Adam and I both jump down, heading towards Chase. “We need to get her to the hospital. Adam, call Dad. Tell him we found her and are heading home. Don’t give him details, but tell him to start the truck. Jase, radio the others. Tell them that we found her and are heading back to the ranch. Both of you…no details until we get back home.” I quickly radio the others, letting them know we found Maggie and to hurry back to the ranch.

  Chase gets up on his horse, and Adam and I carefully hand Maggie up to him. We jump back on our horses and gallop as fast as possible back to the ranch. Brad and Lily are waiting out by the truck, the other groups arriving at the same time. “No time to explain. We need to get her to the hospital!” Chase hollers.

  He hands Maggie down to his father and Jade, while the rest of us quickly put the horses in their stalls. When we’re done, we see that Brad, Jade, and Lily have already taken off for the hospital with Maggie. Adam, Chase, and I jump into my car and take off after them, while Creed, Gabe, Mark, Todd, and Nate get into one of the trucks and are right behind us. We make it to the hospital just in time to see the doctors rushing Maggie into the back. One of the nurses comes up to us. “We’ll do everything we can. Once the doctor knows something, he’ll come out and talk to you all.” She puts a hand on Lily’s arm, trying to give her a reassuring smile, then rushes to the back.

  “She has to be okay. I can’t lose my daughter!” Lily cries.

  Brad and I get up and start to pace. Everyone looks ready to break down. Why did this have to happen to her? I can’t lose Maggie. She’s the light of my life, the reason I get up every day and smile, the most selfless person I have ever met. She is beautiful on the outside, as well as on the inside. Please, God, take care of her and bring her back to us. We need her…I need her “Dad, Jase, please sit down. Your pacing isn’t helping,” Creed says gently.

  I know that he’s right, but I can’t just sit here. I look at them. “I’m going to call Amy and let her know what’s happening.”

  Gabe jumps up. “I should call Kara, too. She’d want to know.”

  Gabe and I make our way outside. Amy answers on the first ring, “Hey, Jase. What’s up?” I can’t say anything. Oh, god, I don’t know if I can do this. Amy and Maggie are like sisters. “Jase? What’s wrong?” Amy asks, her voice breaking.

  “It’s Maggie, Amy. I need you to get to the hospital. Can you do me a favor and call my house and let them know, please?” I can hear Amy sobbing into the phone, then the phone goes dead.

  Gabe is just finishing his call when I turn back to him. “Kara’s on her way,” he says.

  “Amy is, too,” I say, as we head back inside.

  Ten minutes later, Kara rushes into Gabe’s arms, sobbing. In the short time she’s known Maggie, she’s fallen in love with her. It’s so quiet, but you can hear Lily’s and Kara’s quiet sobs. We all keep looking at the Emergency Room doors, willing them to open and Maggie’s doctor to come out and tell us that she’s okay.

  Amy and my parents walk through the door. Lily gets up and hugs Amy. She’s like a daughter to this family. My mom walks over to me, wrapping her arms around me. “It’ll be okay,” she whispers. “Maggie is a strong girl.” It makes me want to cry. I know she is, but is she strong enough to make it through this? When she finds out she was raped, will it break her?

  Lily draws back from Amy, then looks at the rest of us. “We need to pray. Will you all join me?” We all stand up, clasp hands, and bow our heads in silent prayer.

  Just then, the doors open and a doctor walks into the room, a grim look on his face. “OH, MY GOD…MAGGIE!” her Dad cries out.

  I close my eyes, trying to hold back my tears. I lost the only girl I ever really cared about. I want to find Christian and kill him for taking her away. I open my eyes. The doctor is shaking his head. “Your daughter’s alive. She has cuts, bruises, and a broken arm. However, her brain is swelling. We put her into an induced coma to see if it’ll go down by itself. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to go in and relieve the pressure. Even with surgery, there’s a good possibility that there will be brain damage. She might even become brain dead. I need to go over that possibility with you. If that happens, she’ll need to be on life support and you will have to decide whether you want her to live that way, or whether you want to let her go. We’re hopeful that the swelling will go down. The next 24 hours will be touch-and-go. After that time, we should know what the outcome will be. It’s up to her body now. Please understand that if she does wake up, there’s a good possibility that she won’t remember any of you.

  “We also discovered that she was raped. We gave her some medication in case he wasn’t wearing a condom, did
some tests, and called the police. They should be here soon.

  “All we can do now is wait. Once she’s in her room and settled, you can see her…just for a few minutes. Right now, she needs rest.”

  He shakes Brad’s hand, puts a hand on Lily’s shoulder, and walks back through the doors. Just hearing him say all that makes me want to first, cry my eyes out and, second, beat the shit out of something. What am I going to do if she doesn’t make it? I need to get out of here. I start walking towards the door when Chase stops me. “Don’t do anything stupid. Maggie needs you.”

  I nod. “I just need some fresh air.” Walking around outside doesn’t make me feel any better.

  I turn to go back in when Adam comes out. “Hey, dude, want to go find him?” I look at him for a second, knowing he means it.

  “Believe me, I’d love to, but she needs us right now.” Resigned, he nods.

  As we start walking back inside, I notice Brad and Chase talking to the police. “They better arrest that son of a bitch before I get my hands on him,” Adam growls. We walk back into the waiting room.

  Jade and Creed walk over to us. “Did you two know she was raped?” Jade growls.

  We nod. “There was no time to tell anyone. We had to get her here,” Adam says.

  Brad and Chase come back into the room. “The police are out looking for him,” Brad says.

  Twenty minutes later, a nurse walks in to tell us that we can go see Maggie now. We all stand there, trying to figure out who gets to go first. The nurse says that we can all go into the room at once, but to remember that she needs her rest. She looks so small and pale in that bed, with wires and tubes everywhere. Her head is bandaged up and a cast is on her arm. I think everyone is scared to touch her…except for Lily. She grabs her good hand, being careful of the I.V and the wires. “Hey, baby girl. We’re all waiting for you to open your beautiful green eyes. Please come back to us. We all love you so much.” The sound of her voice breaks my heart. I look around to see there is not a dry eye in the room.

  As I stand there, looking at Maggie, it hits me…I’m in love with her. All the time I wasted on other girls thinking it was what I really wanted. Why couldn’t I just see that I was in love with her before this happened? Now I could lose her. My mom puts her arms around me. The nurse comes in. “I’m sorry. She needs her rest and visiting hours are over.”

  “Oh, please, don’t make me leave her!” Lily says, panicking. “Please, can I stay?” The nurse looks are her, gives a sad smile, and nods.

  ****

  Over the next five days, we all visit Maggie. Her brothers talk about their childhood, telling us stories of stuff Maggie did. She’s not even awake, but I’m getting to know the girl I love a lot better. Chase tells us some of the things that Adam and Maggie did when they were just six, and it makes everyone laugh, Amy tells us stuff that she and Maggie have planned for the future, which comes as a surprise to all of us.

  The doctor says that the good news is that the swelling in her brain has gone down. She should wake up, but reminded us that she might not know who we are.

  Lily and Brad have both told her about school, and that Storm is alright and waiting for her to come home. We all know how much Maggie loves that horse, and that he adores her.

  Today is day five of her drug-induced coma. It’s just Lily, Amy, and I here, but the rest should be here soon. Lily is talking to her when, all of a sudden, she jumps up. “Oh, my god! Her eyes are opening!”

  I look up and see Maggie looking around. Amy runs out of the room to get the doctor. Maggie looks confused and scared. Oh, god, please remember us. Amy and the doctor rush back in. He starts to check her out, asking her questions. Oh, my god. She doesn’t even remember her own mom! Everybody else is there by now and rushes into the room.

  The doctor motions for us to follow him into the hallway. “Okay, we said this might happen. It could be temporary; it could be permanent. Do not, under any circumstances, try and force her to remember. That could cause more damage. She’s got to remember on her own.” I close my eyes, trying to hold it together. We knew this might happen but, now that it has, it makes it scarier and there’s nothing we can do about it. When the rest of the family shows up, we fill them in. We all have the same grim expression on our faces. Will I ever get the chance to be with Maggie? Will she ever remember us? Fuck it I know….

  “What the hell do we do now?” Creed groans

  Looks like none of us has a clue what were supposed to do. We all walk back into the room, Maggie just stares at us. This has to be tearing her apart, I feel useless. There’s nothing I can do to help the girl I love. Maggie turns to the doctor and asks “why am I here”

  He smiles at her and says “You were in an accident.” She closes her eyes, by the looks of it she’s trying to remember what happened “Don’t try so hard. It’ll all come back to you in time.” He tells her. A few seconds later Maggie opens her eyes.

  “Are you sure? Who are these people? I feel like I should know them.” That hurt, but I can’t blame her. She doesn’t know who we are, I look at Adam and I swear he looks about ready to cry….

  “They’re your Family and friends” he says

  Tears start rolling down her face, I want to pull her into my arms so badly, Lily makes a move to go to her but Brad grabs and shakes his head. Maggie wouldn’t want any of us touching her right now.

  “If they are family and friends, why can’t I remember them?!” She screams. This is one of the hardest things I’ve had to watch……

  The Doctor sits down beside Maggie and says “I know you’re scared, in pain, and confused right now.” Maggie starts to get up. Don’t do that baby, I silently say. “No, you need to stay with us for a while. We need to make sure you’re okay before we release you. Just a few more days, okay?”

  Closing her eyes, she nods. All of a sudden Maggie starts pulling the wires and tubes, the Doctor puts his hand on hers “Maggie, you need to leave those alone.” She pauses when he says her name.

  I notice that Lily and Amy both have tears running down there faces now, along with Brad. Her brother look about ready to break down too, as for me I’m close.

  Chapter 12 (Maggie)

  When I open my eyes, I’m in so much pain and confused as to why. Where am I, and who are these people? One of them ran to get a doctor. I must be in a hospital, but why? What happened to me? The doctor comes in and asks me if I know where I am, who I am, who they are, and if I remember what happened to me. My answer to everything is no, but I feel like I should at least know who they are. They all have sad looks on their faces, and the one woman has tears in her eyes. The doctor takes them all out into the hallway. I can’t hear anything that’s being said, but I know it’s about me. I try really hard to remember something, but my mind is blank. Wow, this is really confusing. When they come back into the room, I look at all their sad faces, then at the doctor. “Why am I here?” I ask.

  He smiles at me. “You were in an accident.” I close my eyes, trying to remember. “Don’t try so hard. It’ll all come back to you in time.”

  I open my eyes and look at him. “Are you sure? Who are these people? I feel like I should know them.”

  He smiles and nods. “They are your family and friends.”

  Tears start to roll down my face. “If they are family and friends, why can’t I remember them?!” I scream.

  He sits down on the bed next to me. “I know you’re scared, in pain, and confused right now.” I start to get up. “No, you need to stay with us for a while. We need to make sure you’re okay before we release you. Just a few more days, okay?” He looks at me and gives me a small smile.

  I start to pull at the wires and tubes. The doctor puts his hand on mine. “Maggie, you need to leave those alone.” Hearing him say a name stops me. So my name is Maggie?

  I look back at him. “How did I get into an accident?” I say through gritted teeth. It almost looks like he isn’t sure if he wants to tell me.

  “Your hors
e got spooked and threw you,” he said.

  “What aren’t you telling me?” I ask, frowning.

  He smiles at me, then looks at the older woman. “Nothing you need to worry about right now. Okay, you need to rest. I’ll get some pain medication for you.” He gets up and walks out the door. Maybe rest is just what I need to remember things.

  I look at the people standing around me. “Umm, okay. Maybe we should start with your names.”

  “Okay. Well, I’m your mom, Lily; this is your dad, Brad; your brothers Chase, Creed, Jade, Mark, Gabe, and Adam; and your friends, Amy and Jase.” I look at each of them, not believing that I have that many brothers.

  The doctor walks back into the room with my pain pills “Okay, take these, then try and get some sleep. Maybe things will look better when you wake up.” I nod.

  I look back at the others in the room. “I’m really sorry that I don’t know who any of you are. I wish I did.” They all say that it’s not my fault and to get some sleep.

  ****

  Over the next week, my pain starts to lessen, but I still don’t remember anything. I don’t know which is harder…not knowing who I am, or hurting the people around me. They have been here every day, and Lily stays at night. Right now, it’s just her in the room with me. “I’m glad that the bandage is off your head, baby girl.” I smile at her. She really is the sweetest woman. I am one lucky girl to have her as a mom.

  The doctor walks into the room and smiles at us. “Good morning, ladies! So, Maggie, good news. You get to go home today, but you have to promise that you’ll take it easy.” I would promise him anything to get to go home.

  “I promise to do whatever you say. Where’s home, though?”

  He looks at my mom. She says, “We live on a ranch outside of the town of Bumble Bee.” I smile and nod. Lily excuses herself to go make phone calls. After a few minutes, she returns.

  The doctor goes through my release instructions, the meds I need to take, and that I’ll need to come back for a checkup after a while. As soon as he leaves, Lily smiles and says, “I called Dad to let him know what was going on. He’ll be here in a little bit to pick us up. So…let’s get you up. Do you feel up to taking a shower?”