by Talty, Jen
* * *
JD kicked Jax a little too hard. He’d apologize to the horse later, but he needed to get to Annette, Tony, and his sister before the old manager’s house went up in flames. “Come on, old man.” He leaned forward, forcing Jax into a full gallop. He glanced over his shoulder. Luke was only five paces behind.
Flames blew out the front windows from the master bedroom. He could see a silhouette running down the front steps.
Georgia Moon.
But where are Annette and Tony?
His heart pounded so fast he couldn’t tell when one beat ended and another one started.
“Whoa, boy.” He pulled back on the reins and jumped. “Where’s Annette?” He gripped Georgia Moon by the shoulders.
She stared at him with wide eyes and pointed. “She went upstairs. I couldn’t stop her. Tony’s up there too. The fire is burning hot and fast.”
Sirens rang out loud as the first fire truck pulled in down the long driveway.
“Tony’s in the back bedroom?”
Georgia Moon nodded. “That’s where she started crawling to just five minutes ago.”
“You stay here with Luke. Tell the firemen to get a ladder to that window because I don’t really want to have to shimmy down that damn lattice again.” JD didn’t waste any more time. He raced into the house and up the stairs, only stopping to grab a blanket to wrap himself in when he reached the top. Only, it didn’t help; the flames were too hot. He pulled his shirt over his head and covered his mouth. “Annette,” he called.
Nothing.
He made his way into Tony’s room. The smoke was so thick he couldn’t see but an inch in front of his face. His skin burned. He smacked at his shoulders, putting out the sparks on his T-shirt.
“Ma Ma! Ma Ma!” Tony cried.
“Hey there, buddy,” JD said through a couple of coughs. He managed to get to the window. He punched through the glass and stuck his head out, gasping for air. He glanced down at the firemen. “Up here,” he yelled.
“Who all is up there?” a fireman called.
“Me, a baby, and a young woman, but I haven’t found her yet.”
“Can you get the baby? We’re maneuvering the ladder now.”
“I can.” JD lifted Tony from the crib. “You’re going to be okay.” JD brought him to the window, all the while scanning the room for his mother. He caught a glimpse of her lying on the floor on the far side of the crib, facedown in the carpet. “Hurry,” he yelled to the fireman.
The truck below inched forward, lifting a fireman in a basket toward the window.
“I’ll take him from here,” the fireman said. “And you as well.”
“I need to get my girlfriend.” JD pried Tony’s fingers from his neck. “It’s okay, Tony. Go with the fireman. He’s a good guy. He’s going to help you while I go get Mommy.”
“Sir. Let me go get her.”
“No.” JD pushed Tony into the fireman’s arms and then dropped to the floor and crawled to Annette’s side. He didn’t bother to call her name or do anything other than lift her over his shoulder. On shaky legs, he stood and made his way to the window.
“That was a dangerous stunt,” the fireman said as he helped JD into the basket.
“Dangerous, but necessary.” JD cradled Annette in his arms.
“JD!” Tony called, reaching for him.
JD took the little boy into his lap as well. He leaned against the cold metal as the truck lowered the basket. Looking down, he saw Luke and Georgia Moon standing under the big tree, holding each other, staring up at him. JD closed his eyes, holding the two people who meant more to him than anything else in this world.
“I love you both,” he whispered.
* * *
JD paced in the waiting room, gnawing on a toothpick. The florescent lighting beat down on the tile floor, showing off every dirty stain, reminding JD that the tile was, at one point, white.
“Either stop pacing or stop chewing on that damn thing,” Georgia Moon said.
“How about you stop both.” Luke stepped in his path. “You’re making everyone in this room absolutely fucking nuts.”
“I really don't fucking care.”
“She’s my sister, and he’s my nephew, and I’m not acting like a lunatic.”
“Well, maybe you should be,” JD said, letting out a large puff of air.
“Maybe you should go home,” Luke said.
“Maybe you should fuck off.”
“Okay. That’s enough.” Georgia Moon stepped between the two men. “Chest pounding among friends in high stress situations is never a good idea. We know they are both alive and JD’s burns were worse Annette’s. It’s just a matter of understanding the smoke inhalation in both Annette and Tony.”
“Thanks for the play-by-play that we don’t need.” JD turned on his heels and stomped to the nurses’ station. “Can you please check on Annette and—”
“Mr. Whiskey. When we know something, you will be the first we inform,” the nurse said.
That answer wasn’t good enough, but what choice did JD have.
The emergency room doors swished open, and Detective Miller strolled in. “I’m glad I caught you all.”
“What have you found out?” Luke asked.
JD stayed huddled by the nurses’ station. He decided he’d let Luke handle this, hoping that the nurse would secretly let him in through the side doors if he continued to give her the stink eye.
“Ron has confessed to it all, except the fire. That was Ellie, Veronica, and Bella with the help of Bull. They have all been arrested. Of course, they all have lawyers, and you all know how that goes.”
“But what about the accusations about my sister?” Luke asked. “And the pictures? We know they were doctored.”
“Those are still at our forensics lab, but as far as your sister is considered, she’s not on our radar for anything.”
JD let out a small sigh of relief. “Has Ellie, Veronica, or Bella admitted to anything?”
“Just Ellie and Veronica. Bella isn’t cooperating at all.”
“Not surprising,” Luke said.
“Excuse me, Mr. Whiskey. Miss Hannah and her son were just moved into a private room. The doctors have said she’s asking for you, and they have given a green light for you to go see her.”
Without saying a single thing to Luke or his sister, he slipped through the doors and strolled down the hallway. His mind filled with a million words he wanted to say, and his heart swelled with the kind of love he never thought he’d feel again.
* * *
“Are you sure?” Annette asked the doctor for the hundredth time.
“Yes. All the tests on both you and your son have come back looking really good. We’re going to keep you both here overnight and continue to give antibiotics and oxygen, but we don’t see any damage to the lungs. You’re both very lucky that Mr. Whiskey got to you when he did.”
Annette blinked. “JD Whiskey?” She’d woken up in the ambulance, disoriented and scared. Since then, the only people she’d seen had been nurses, doctors, and her son. They’d cleaned and wrapped her burns. Thank God, Tony had very few and seemed to be in very little pain. But she hadn’t heard, nor had she asked too many questions about what happened.
The nurse nodded. “My husband was one of the firemen who were called to your home. He was not happy when he arrived to find out JD had raced into a burning building.” The nurse rested her hand on Annette’s calf.
“I remember the upstairs was filled with thick, black smoke.”
“My husband said the fire burned fast and that three of you were trapped in a bedroom. There was no way you were getting out except for by ladder. JD literally had to walk through flames to get to you and then pass you and that precious little boy of yours out the window.”
Annette reached into the crib next to her bed and placed her hand gently on Tony’s side. His chest rose and fell rhythmically as he slept peacefully.
“JD is pacing a hole in the waiting
room floor waiting to see you,” the nurse continued. “He barely let us take care of his burns.”
“He was injured?”
“He has some surface burns on his legs and arms. They aren’t bad, but they are painful and could cause infection if he’s not careful. They might scar, but he’ll be okay.”
“Can he come back?”
“Sure,” the nurse said. “Your brother and his girlfriend are here too. We’re not supposed to have that many people in the room, but I can make a special—”
“I want to see JD alone, first. Luke and Georgia Moon can come back shortly after, if that’s okay.”
The nurse patted her leg. “Of course. I’ll go get him.”
For the first time in a long time, Annette wished she had a makeup mirror so she could see what she looked like, though it was probably for the best. She imagined she looked like death. She continued to stare at her baby boy. The love of her life. Her shining star. She would lay down her life for her son, but she would never expect anyone else to risk their own.
Not in the way JD did.
The crib was on the opposite side of the room, so Annette’s back was to the door, but she could feel JD standing in the doorway. She rolled her head. “Hey you.”
“Hey yourself.” He inched forward, holding his Stetson between his fingers, fiddling with the brim.
It was better than that damn toothpick.
“The doctor said you and Tony pretty much have a clean bill of health,” JD said.
“Put your hat on the chair,” she said in a commanding voice. She scooted to the edge of the hospital bed and pulled back the sheet. “Join me.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Tears stung at her eyes. She couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if she’d lost Tony. Her heart and brain couldn’t go there.
But they couldn’t fathom what life would be like without JD either, and he very well could have died saving her and Tony.
JD kicked off his boots and slipped between the sheets. She rolled and rested her head and hand on the center of his chest.
“What—”
“Shhhhh.” Squeezing her eyes closed, she focused on the sounds of his breath and the beating of his heart.
His warm lips pressed against her forehead. “What’s going on?”
She kept one hand on his chest and reached out and touched Tony with her other hand. “I just want to feel both your hearts beating for a little while.”
JD chuckled.
“It’s not funny,” Annette whispered. “I just found out you could have died.”
He cleared his throat. “You’re mad at me because I went into the house?”
She slapped his chest.
He groaned.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, realizing she must have hit where he’d been burned. “But you ran into a burning building. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Are you kidding me? You ran in first, and I know what you were thinking.”
“Yeah. My son was upstairs sleeping. Besides, I didn’t run in; I was already inside, and the place wasn’t engulfed in flames.”
“How do you know how bad it was when I went inside? You were passed out on the floor because of all the smoke you inhaled,” he said with a tight voice. “Besides, what did you think I was going to do? Stand there and watch the house burn while the woman I love and her son were inside?”
She gasped.
He did not just say the word love. Nope. The pain meds had affected her hearing. Or maybe she was hallucinating. JD might have taken a brick or two off his wall, but he hadn’t knocked it over, allowing himself to fall in love with anyone, much less her.
Oh God.
“Are you okay?” JD asked, tilting her head back with his thumb and index finger. He stared at her with an arched brow and a half-grin.
“No. Yes. I don’t know. You make me crazy.”
“I hope in a good way. I mean, you’re the one who demanded I climb in this bed, which I’m sure is against hospital policy.”
“It might be, but you’re staying right here with me until they let me go home.” She let out a long sigh. “I don’t have a home, do I?”
“You will always have a home at Whiskey Ranch.” He kissed her nose. “But the manager’s quarters are gone. We’ll rebuild, but it will take time. Until then, you and Tony can move in with me.”
“Are you sure you didn’t get hit in the head and got a concussion or something?”
He leaned in and kissed her tenderly, but with purpose and a sense of hunger. “I’m thinking clearly for the first time in years. I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I want to give you and me a real shot. I meant it when I said I love you. And I love Tony. I might occasionally freak out and get scared. I’m scared right now. But when I saw the fire, all I could think about was how you were right and that I’d been letting life pass me by. It was as if I was just waiting for life to end. But I don’t want to live like that anymore. I know that I could get hurt again, but what I feel right now, here with you, it’s worth losing half my chest hair.”
She buried her face in his neck and laughed.
“It’s not funny. It’s really mostly gone.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.”
Chapter 11
Two Weeks Later
JD nursed his beer and stared at his sister and Luke taking their first dance as husband and wife in the center of the gazebo. Georgia Moon glanced in his direction and gave him the thumbs-up.
“Only your sister could carry off a strapless white wedding dress with cowboy boots,” Annette said, twirling Tony around to the music.
The only people in attendance were immediate family members, and JB’s date. He always had a date. Currently, JB and his latest conquest were sucking face under a tree while JW and Kitty shared a private moment on the steps of the gazebo.
JD set his beer on the table. “Come here, little man.”
Tony skipped over. “Is wit time?”
“Almost.” JD was shocked that this kid hadn’t blown the secret, even though he’d only known for the last ten minutes. He took Tony in one hand and Annette by the other, leading them toward the golf cart. “Climb in.”
“I’m not ready to go home,” Annette said with sad puppy eyes.
“I’ve got a surprise for you,” he said. “We’ll come back here in about a half hour.”
“Shouldn’t we tell them? I don’t want them to leave without us saying goodbye. Georgia Moon and Luke have an early flight for their honeymoon.”
JD got himself settled behind the steering wheel. “They all know about my little surprise.” He’d broken out in a cold sweat a few times in the last five days. Things were moving fast, but he’d let the last ten years of his life fade away into the abyss without even really experiencing them.
He wouldn’t do that with the rest of his life.
Not when he had the most amazing woman and child to love, and he was lucky enough to have them love him back.
“You know I’m not the biggest fan of surprises,” she said.
“I’m hoping you’ll like this one.” He flicked on the headlights and headed up the service road and toward the wooded area and up the hill to the overpass where he took her that very first day. As he pulled into the clearing, they saw the lights he’d put up on one of the trees. Under the branches, he’d set a table covered with rose petals with a bottle of champagne and two glasses and a sippy cup of apple juice.
“JD, what is all this?”
Tony jumped off Annette’s lap. “Uprise, Mama!” He danced around in circles, digging into his pockets with his chubby little hands.
It took all of JD’s energy not to burst out laughing. The kid was going a little off script, but why not let him go with it. This was just as much about him as it was about Annette.
This was about making them a family unit and giving each of them everything they could ever want or need.
“
He knows about this?” Annette wrapped her arm around JD’s waist and glanced up at him with a loving smile.
JD nodded.
“And what is he doing?” she asked.
Tony fiddled with his pants and pursed his lips, making his face turn red.
“Let me help.” JD knelt and stuck his fingers into the front pocket of Tony’s suit pants. Careful to keep the ring covered, he placed it in Tony’s palm. “Okay. Go ahead.” JD stood and took Annette’s hands.
“He wants to vmery us!” Tony exclaimed, holding out the ring and prancing about as if he had to go to the bathroom so bad he was going to do it right there.
“He wants to what?” Annette took the ring in her shaking hand. She glanced between Tony and JD with shock etched in her bright-blue eyes. “You want to what? This is what?” She waved the ring under JD’s nose.
This wasn’t the response JD had been hoping for. He took the diamond. “I want to marry you. I want to make us a family. And this is an engagement ring.”
“Say yes, Mama! Say yes.” Tony tugged at the hem of her dress.
Annette’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits before growing wide. Her jaw slacked open.
The sound of horses galloping up the trail caught his attention.
Fuck. Their timing was off. Way off.
“Annette. I love you. I thought you loved me.”
“Oh, God. I do. I love you so much.”
“I know we haven’t talked too much about this, but I thought we both wanted to get married.”
“Oh shit. Yes. Yes. One hundred times yes.” She threw her arms around him, jumping on him.
He lost his footing and stumbled backward. His back slammed into a tree. He groaned. “That hurt.”
“Sorry,” she said, kissing his neck over and over again. “Why do I hear people in the background?”
