by Laurel Kerr
“I hate rest,” Katie grumbled. She sounded so much like a child that Bowie couldn’t help but smile.
“You know”—Mike stood on her other side—“you’re going to need to tell Mom and Dad now. The doctor said you shouldn’t be alone tonight.”
Katie frowned, and her eyes looked a little glassy. When she spoke, she did so slowly, as if she had to concentrate on each word. “I told you that I don’t want them knowing until tomorrow. Mom will panic, and Dad still needs his rest even if he is doing better. And I don’t want you going into detail about how you found me with Bowie. Mom is looking for any excuse to convince herself I’m not moving away again.”
Bowie tried not to take it personally, but it sliced at him that Katie still wanted to keep their relationship a secret. He understood a general need for privacy, but surely she didn’t hide all her boyfriends from her parents with such unyielding diligence. Was she embarrassed by him, or did she just care so little that she didn’t want the aggravation of introducing him to her parents?
“Katie, you need to be woken up every two hours. I’ve got to take the next shift when I get back, so someone else in the family needs to know tonight.”
“She can stay at my house,” Bowie said.
Katie started to shake her head but then winced painfully. “No need. I’m fine. You don’t need to fuss.”
Bowie’s temper snapped. He was tired of her shoving him away, tired of her telling him he shouldn’t care. He did. He cared that she’d almost been abducted. He cared that a deranged man had knocked her out and had planned to kill her. He cared that she lay pale and dizzy in a hospital.
“You’re coming home with me.”
* * *
Katie’s head still ached and swam, and her stomach hadn’t stopped sloshing. The bright hospital lights hurt. A lot. She couldn’t think, at least not easily. She wanted to curl up in her own bed in a dark, dark room. She did not want to deal with Mike, her parents, or any of her siblings. She just wanted to go home.
Bowie sounded angry, but she didn’t understand why. He’d been shot. He needed to sleep too. Otherwise, she would ask him to hold her. Right now, she craved his touch.
“Your arm,” she said weakly.
“What about it?” he asked tersely.
Katie glanced at Mike for assistance. “He was shot.”
Mike looked over her at Bowie. “I think she’s worried about you. She’s probably right. You need to heal as much as she does.”
Bowie’s hard expression softened slightly. He brushed his hand over the uninjured side of her face, and she reveled in the sensation. “Lou and Abby can make sure you wake up every couple of hours. I doubt either of them are sleeping after all this excitement.”
“The animals,” Katie said as the thought crept into her muddled mind. “Who will take care of them?”
“I’ll manage.”
Katie might have trouble processing, but she knew that Bowie shouldn’t be hauling feed. Most of his volunteers and staff were female, and he always performed the bulk of the physically demanding tasks. Once again, Katie looked to her brother for help. “Mike, he can’t take care of the zoo. Not with his arm in a sling.”
“I’ll call Matt tomorrow,” Mike said. “It’s his day off, and by then, we’ll have to tell Mom and Dad anyway. This is going to be all over the news.”
“I’ll be fine, really,” Bowie protested.
Mike fixed him with a hard look. “You may have just saved our sister’s life. The least Matt and I can do is help out. We’ll both pitch in until your arm is healed.”
* * *
Katie didn’t pad down to Bowie’s kitchen until six o’clock in the evening. They hadn’t arrived back at his house until around four in the morning. Luckily, Lou had convinced Bowie to let him check on Katie every few hours while Bowie slept. As soon as Bowie relented, she had climbed the stairs to the guest bedroom and promptly fallen asleep. Aside from Lou waking her periodically, she’d slept solidly.
It wasn’t until Katie heard Matt’s and Mike’s voices and smelled McDonald’s food that she’d risen. Yawning, she found Bowie’s kitchen full of men. Matt, fresh from the shower, was digging into one of the bags of food. Mike, who’d probably just finished his shift, wore his uniform. Lou sat in one of the chairs, while Bowie was pulling dishes out of the cabinets.
Abby spotted Katie first and immediately ran over to her. “Are you okay? I wanted to see you today, but Dad and Lou said you needed to rest. Does your head feel okay? Were you scared last night? Wasn’t Dad brave?”
Although Katie felt marginally better than she had last night, her head still whirled uncomfortably at Abby’s barrage of high-pitched questions. Luckily, Bowie noticed and appeared at her side.
“Let’s give Katie a second to sit down,” he said. “She was hit in the head pretty hard.”
Grateful for the interruption, Katie allowed Bowie to guide her to a stool. She ran her eyes over him. He looked drawn, and his mouth was pinched slightly.
“How’s your arm?” she asked in concern.
Bowie shrugged. It was telling that he only lifted his right shoulder. Katie still couldn’t believe that he’d literally taken a bullet for her. She knew the reality of that hadn’t fully hit her. It felt too surreal…and maybe a little intimidating. Bowie had risked his life to save hers, and she hadn’t completely come to terms with what that meant.
She had just taken a bite of hamburger when her phone buzzed. Glancing down at it, she frowned at the text message from June that Josh had arrived early. Her sluggish brain slowly resolved the mystery. Her thirtieth birthday party was tomorrow. With the attempted kidnapping, the event had completely slipped her mind. Her mother had planned it, despite Katie’s repeated protests. In addition to the immediate family, her mother had invited Josh and June.
Katie stole a look at Bowie. She hadn’t told him about the party or the fact that her thirtieth was looming. Bringing him to an Underwood function would cause all sorts of complications with her mother. And although it sounded silly, Katie wasn’t ready to open up like that. Meeting the family was a big step, and she and Bowie weren’t even officially dating. And with the chaos of planning the festival, she hadn’t given much thought to her birthday.
Now, with her head simultaneously throbbing and swimming, it was hard to process anything. Her brain still felt scrambled. She knew one thing, though. She didn’t want to flaunt the fact that she hadn’t invited Bowie to her party. She hadn’t meant to slight him, but he might feel that way. She wouldn’t have thought so before, but something had changed last night. Something she hadn’t fully deciphered yet. He’d gambled with his life to save hers. That meant something.
“Who’s that?” Matt asked.
“It’s just June.”
Mike grabbed a fry from her container, since he’d already finished his. Her brothers inhaled rather than ate food. “Is she checking up on you, or has Josh arrived already for your birthday party tomorrow?”
Well, so much for keeping that under wraps.
“The latter,” Katie said as she texted June that she was still at Bowie’s house. She’d already talked to June on the way back from the hospital. She’d wanted her friend to break the news to her parents before they heard about the attack on the radio or from one of her brothers, who’d make a mess out of the delivery and cause their mom to panic even more.
She was just typing to June that Mike and Matt were with her as well when Bowie asked in a decidedly neutral tone, “Your birthday’s tomorrow?”
Katie glanced up at him and saw that his expression was carefully blank. She tried for equal nonchalance. “Yeah. My thirtieth. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, but my mother had other plans.”
“I see,” Bowie said slowly.
An awkward silence descended. Even Abby remained quiet as she glanced from one adult to another.
Katie’s brothers exchanged a look—one of those annoying, silent twin-speaks. Lou looked disappointed in her.
A horn sounded in the driveway. Grateful for the interruption, Katie placed her napkin on the counter and announced brightly, “That must be June and Josh. I’ll go greet them.”
* * *
Bowie forced himself to remain calm. So, Katie hadn’t told him about her birthday. No big deal, right? She wasn’t under any obligation. She’d made it clear that their relationship was just about sex. Who was he to think that he merited enough to know about her thirtieth birthday?
Heaven forbid if he did something like buy her a damn gift.
Katie bounced up from the table, all smiles. He noticed that she swayed slightly at the sudden motion. Part of him wanted to get up and help her as he had when Abby’s stream of questions overwhelmed her. He didn’t. He remained rooted to his chair.
She left the kitchen, and Bowie concentrated on his food. He didn’t want to see any of the expressions in the room again. He’d seen her brothers’ looks of consternation and then dawning understanding, but it was Lou’s crestfallen face that had torn at Bowie. Luckily, Abby hadn’t seemed to pick up on anything except the sudden tension.
“Oh my gosh!” Katie’s excited voice drifted in from the hallway. “Josh, you didn’t!”
June’s voice followed hers. “Guys, you have to come out and see what Josh bought Katie.”
The twins exchanged another glance and then simultaneously sprang to their feet and headed to the door. Abby jumped up excitedly. “Can I go see?”
Bowie nodded, and she scampered away. He rose slowly and looked over at Lou. “I guess I might as well go see what it is.”
Lou gave him an encouraging smile that only made Bowie feel worse. “Katie probably meant nothing by it, Bowie. You know how women can get about their birthdays, especially their thirtieth.”
The sad part was that Lou was likely right. Katie had meant nothing by it. And that’s what killed him. Bowie had been fooling himself into thinking that he’d manage to convince her to have a real relationship with him. He should have known better. He was just a small-town guy she’d had the hots for in high school. He was good for a fantasy-fulfilling fuck but nothing more.
Bowie headed out to his back porch to find Josh smiling from ear to ear. The fact that the jackass was standing in Bowie’s yard and that Bowie had to play nice only fueled his growing irritation. He wanted to punch that self-satisfied grin from the douche’s mouth.
That’s when Bowie spotted it. The expensive camera. With a big bow on it. The perfect gift for a woman like Katie. It was her hobby and her career wrapped into one. And Bowie had a feeling that Josh had bought a professional camera that probably cost at least four thousand bucks. Bowie would be lucky to scrape together enough money for a small piece of jewelry. Hell, he didn’t know what he would have bought Katie if she’d given him the chance, but it wouldn’t have been a professional camera. Not on his budget.
“Bowie?” Katie’s voice was soft, tentative.
He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He needed to rein in his emotions. “Not now, Katie,” he answered quietly, his voice sounding gravelly even to his own ears. “Not here.”
Josh sauntered up to Bowie. The smile had morphed into an even smugger grin. Bowie’s temper spiked. He tried to turn and head into the house to avoid the confrontation, but Josh was faster.
“Nice house. It reminds me a little of mine that overlooks the Pacific,” Josh said, sounding friendly.
Bowie only grunted. He wouldn’t let Josh lull him into a trap this time.
“Sorry June and I descended on you, but I couldn’t wait to show Katie the camera. She’s had her eye on one of these for years. Did you know that?”
“No,” Bowie said stiffly.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what you give her tomorrow,” Josh said congenially, but Bowie recognized the underlying challenge. Unfortunately, so did everyone else, except for Abby.
Bowie’s last shred of patience disintegrated. He was fed up with trying to prove to Katie and Josh that he’d changed. Sure, he’d treated her horribly in high school, but he’d tried to apologize, tried to make amends. He couldn’t go back and change the past, and he was tired of waiting for Katie to trust him. She never would, and he deserved better.
Bowie stared Josh down and said in a matter-of-fact tone, “I wasn’t invited to the party, so I guess you’re going to miss seeing what gift I would have given her.”
Josh’s face was a picture of innocence. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you’d be there, with how close you and Katie are.”
The man’s nonchalant tone burned through Bowie’s restraint. He lurched forward, clenching his hand into a fist. At the enraged advance, Josh moved back and stumbled down the front porch steps. The guy didn’t fall on his ass, but it was close. Bowie almost took a swing at him, but he stopped. He wasn’t about to let this douche bag or Katie turn him back into the angry, bitter kid he’d been. But he couldn’t stop his next words from exploding from him without any regard for their audience.
“Why act so surprised, Josh?” Bowie said before turning his hot gaze on Katie. “We all know the villain doesn’t get invited to the celebration.”
With that, he stalked into the house. Behind him, he heard a chorus of voices, but he didn’t care.
“Josh!” both Katie and June said in unison.
Then there was Matt’s voice: “What the hell is wrong with you, man? You’re rich, we all get that, but you don’t need to be an asshole.”
Mike added, “You know that he just took a bullet for her, right?”
Then Bowie heard Abby’s voice. “Why did Dad call himself a villain? Why didn’t you invite him to your party, Katie? I think you hurt him.”
He squeezed his eyes shut at the last statement. He opened them to see Lou watching him in concern. “Bowie…”
He shook his head and just kept walking. He passed through the house and headed straight for the indoor llama pen. It was due for a cleaning, and he needed to work off his anger before it exploded. He hadn’t felt this out of control since the night Sawyer had told him about the pregnancy.
As he marched by the llamas and the camels in their outdoor enclosure, the entire herd came to attention. The llamas had accepted the addition of Hank with relatively little spitting. Being one of two camels had improved Lulubelle’s social standing. Between that and Hank’s presence, her glumness had vanished. At the sight of Bowie, Lulubelle gave a rumbling greeting and ambled in his direction, followed closely by Hank, who’d become her shadow. Bowie ignored the two lovebirds and stomped into the barnlike shelter. Ripping off his sling in frustration, he grabbed a shovel.
When he heard the fall of footsteps behind him, he didn’t need to turn to know the identity of their owner.
“Not now,” Bowie told Katie.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
White-hot rage coursed through him as he whirled to face her. “Like hell you didn’t.”
Then he turned. Ready to walk away. Not just for the moment. But forever.
Chapter 12
Fluffy needed to act quickly. All his carefully laid plans were about to die like a beehive sprayed with poison. If this human courtship ended without wee ones, Fluffy suspected it would be years before more tiny humans ran through the zoo to distribute treats.
Biting the Black-Haired One would not work. He did not want to chase the biped away, but to keep him in the llama shed.
Fluffy grinned his toothy grin as he spied a pile of feed sitting on a dolly right outside the door to the stall where the bipeds were arguing. Knocking over the wheeled cart would be child’s play.
* * *
Katie watched with growing concern as Bowie started to stalk away from her. Just when she thought he’d leave without ever looking back, there was a huge
crash. A dolly and a large bag of llama food pitched forward, blocking the stall door. Bowie swore and tried to shove it open with one hand. The door budged, but only a scant inch. He cussed again and started to push with both hands. Worried that he would reinjure his wounded arm, Katie laid her hand on his shoulder.
Bowie whirled around, his face a mask of pent-up rage. She almost stepped backward from the force of his anger. She had upset him. Even with her dulled senses, she registered his raw pain.
She’d meant her words, though. She hadn’t wanted to wound him. She honestly hadn’t thought herself capable of doing so. Bowie had always seemed indomitable. Even now that she knew him better, he remained a partial fantasy. The hot bad boy to her nerdy, geeky self.
“Bowie—” she started to say, but he cut her off.
“Katie, you won, okay? Don’t try to justify it. Be happy with your victory, and leave me the hell alone.”
“I won what?” she asked, hopelessly confused.
Bowie’s face twisted into a grimace. “You paid me back for what I did to you in high school. You made me fall for you when clearly you couldn’t care less about me. I guess I can understand why you wanted payback. Rejection feels like shit.”
Katie’s heart squeezed painfully. She truly hadn’t meant to hurt him. Had she?
Maybe a little, she supposed. There was poetic justice in reversing the scales of unrequited love, especially given how Bowie had misused her affection.
But once she had gotten to know him, she’d let go of the anger. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have stopped blackmailing him into performing embarrassing stunts. She didn’t want to punish the man he’d become—the man who’d become such an integral part of her.
What she hadn’t done, though, was let go of the old pain.
She’d been holding herself apart, using all kinds of excuses. It hadn’t been just her mother who Katie had been worried about protecting if she’d started a serious relationship in Sagebrush. It had been herself.
