“How’s he doing?” she asked them.
“We keep getting texts from him about the apocalypse coming.” Rollo blew on his coffee. “So I think he’s doing well, considering.”
“Are his parents here yet?”
“On their way. It’s a good thing you’re here, because we have to get back to Jupiter Point. We got called off the Yellowstone fire. They want us to gear up for a trip to Alaska.”
“But what about Josh?”
“He’ll be here for a couple more days, then we’ll see. It might depend on how much rehab he needs. The best thing might be for him to go back to Texas.”
Suzanne couldn’t imagine that being the best thing, based on Josh’s reaction to his parents’ arrival at the hospital. “Isn’t there somewhere he can go in Jupiter Point? I know he’d rather be near you guys.”
Sean and Rollo exchanged a glance. “It’s possible,” Sean finally said. “We’re working on a few ideas. The base might work out, if we can make it a little more comfortable. Hey,” he gave her a quick, hard hug, “thanks for coming here. I know it means a lot to him.”
“But we’re not actually—”
“No need to explain.” Sean squeezed her shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re here.”
Rollo gave her a little salute as they headed for the front door. “See you back in Jupiter Point.”
She waved goodbye with the sinking feeling of being abandoned. It was all on her now. Josh’s “parent-apocalypse” was coming, and she was his only lifeline.
Hey, if Josh could handle Mrs. Chu, maybe she could return the favor with his loving but difficult parents.
Ten minutes later, perched on a chair next to Josh’s bed, watching the parental Ping-Pong match, she revised her assessment of his parents. “Loving but bonkers” was more like it. Josh’s father had the smiling, friendly air of a car salesman, while his mother could have been a spokesmodel at the same car lot. She was slim and polished as a painted figurine. They both liked to talk—a lot. Suzanne had barely said hello to Josh when the two of them burst through the door in a whirlwind of words. As if they were racing to see who would get the first word in.
“Josh, sweetheart.” His mother won the race by ducking down to kiss him on the cheek. “Haven’t I told you a million times you should quit that silly job? It’s just too dangerous.”
“Ignore her, for your own sanity.” His father strode to the other side of the bed, next to Suzanne. “No man needs his mother telling him what to do.”
“He has no sympathy for a mother’s feelings.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Never has had. Not from day one.”
“Mom.” Josh groaned and cut Suzanne a desperate look. “Don’t cry. I beg you. I haven’t had enough painkillers for that. I want both of you to meet Suzanne Finnegan. Suzanne, meet my mother and father. You can call them Anne and Rock. Or Devil and Deep Blue Sea. Either way.”
Rock glanced down at Suzanne. “Well, aren’t you a treat. Candy striper?”
“No, I’m here from Jupiter Point. I’m a…” Where should she start? “Friend.”
“Well, it’s nice of you to be here, but now I’m here and happy to take over.”
Josh mouthed “don’t go,” to Suzanne as Anne opened her tote bag and pulled out a big, fluffy stuffed lion.
“I know what my boy needs. See, honey? I brought Mohimbe for you. He always makes everything all better, doesn’t he?” She tucked the lion next to Josh’s face and smiled triumphantly at Rock. “It’s a good thing someone’s thinking about someone other than himself.”
The side-eye Josh gave the stuffed lion nearly made Suzanne laugh out loud. “That’s…a really sweet gesture, Anne,” she told the older woman.
Not to be outdone, Rock pulled a money clip from his pocket. “Why is it that women think a ratty old hunk of cloth is the answer to anything? I brought the green, son. Just point me to the person in charge and I’ll make sure they treat you right.”
“Dad, this isn’t prison. You don’t have to grease any palms so I get a better cell block.” He lowered his voice to a mutter. “On the other hand, maybe it is.”
“Don’t be stupid. Everything always comes down to the bottom line. If you don’t believe me, try getting divorced.”
He shot a bitter glance across the hospital bed at his ex-wife, who folded her arms across her chest. “Why’d you even come here, Rock? A child needs his mother at a time like this. Not some big lecturing jerk throwing his ill-gotten gains around.”
“Ill-gotten? What do you care where it’s gotten from when all you do is spend it?”
“I deserve every measly penny after what you put me through.”
“Hey, did you hear I got a dog?” Josh broke in with a tone of flat-out desperation.
“Oh honey. You don’t have to talk. Just lie back and relax, your mama’s got this.” She pulled something else out of her bag of tricks—a small atomizer, which she used to spritz the air around Josh’s bed. A light sent of rose petal filled the room. “Very healing,” she told them all.
Rock coughed deep in his chest. “Is that rose water? You know I’m allergic to roses,” he yelled at Anne. “What the devil is wrong with you?”
“Oh dear, really?” She batted her eyes at him. “That’s such awful news. Maybe you should step out of the room.”
“The hell I will.” Rock plucked his handkerchief from the chest pocket of his pin-striped suit. He tied it over his nose and mouth and glared fiercely at his ex-wife.
“Pop, you look like you could fight a fire,” Josh piped up from the bed. “Just add some Nomex and steel-toed boots, and you’d be good to go.”
His little joke—Suzanne admitted it wasn’t one of his best—brought him only a brief glance from his parents, who were still locked into their glaredown. But it created enough of a pause that he was able to jump in and try to change the subject. “How are Chad and Andy? My brothers,” he explained to Suzanne. “Neither of them has yet been able to leave the Marshall Vortex—aka Ranch.”
“I’m so glad you asked,” Anne said brightly. “They’re both very excited that you’re coming back.”
“Coming—what?” His monitor began beeping ominously. Anne frantically sprayed some more rose petal fragrance above him. “I’m not coming back.”
“Of course you are. You’re injured, sweetheart. You need someone to take care of you while you heal. Who better than your own family?”
Rock spoke through his handkerchief, which kept adhering to his mouth. “On this one thing, we agree, son. I made space in my shop for you. You can recover in peace there, without any hovering females.” He waved the wafting room fragrance away from his face.
“No, I have a much better plan.” Anne patted Josh’s shoulder. “You can have the entire side porch all to yourself. Remember how you used to like to sleep out there? It’ll be just like the old days. But even better, because…” She cast a meaningful look at the fuming Rock. “Well, you know. It will be a lot more peaceful than it used to be.”
“There’s been some kind of enormous misunderstanding here.” Josh’s voice was laced with something close to flat-out terror. “I’m not going back to the ranch. It’s too far. Look at me. I have a broken fibia. Tibula. One of those leg bones.”
“I got a private plane all set to go,” boomed Rock. “Only the best for my boy.”
“Your father is good for some things,” Anne said with a sniff. “As long as he understands that once you land, you’re coming right up to the main house, not to his dirty old shop.”
“I’m chartering the plane, I get to decide where it lands.” Rock yanked the handkerchief away from his mouth and right away started coughing. “Damn you, woman.”
“Listen to you, swearing in a hospital. With your son on his deathbed.”
“Snowball,” blurted Josh.
“Excuse me?”
“Snowball. You know, those disgusting pink snacks? I could really go for one of those. Right, Suzanne?”
Suzanne shook her
self out of the paralysis caused by the nonstop interplay between Josh’s parents. It was hard to believe it was real, but the evidence was right in front of her. She stood up, using her height to force their attention her direction. “Actually, I don’t know why Josh hasn’t mentioned this to you yet, but he’s going to be staying with me in Jupiter Point while he recovers from his surgery.”
She didn’t dare to glance at Josh while she made her announcement. What if he didn’t want to stay at her place? The idea had just occurred to her, and there was no chance to discuss it with him. But he’d said Snowball—in the most desperate tone she’d ever heard come out of his mouth. The next move was his.
Anne gasped and put her hand over her heart. “What can you possibly be talking about? You would take him away from his family?”
“Not an option,” rumbled Rock. “Absolutely not an option. His brothers are counting on him. He can help out around the ranch once he’s feeling more like himself. I’ve gone out of my way to—”
“It’s always about you, isn’t it?” Anne interrupted. “You think only of your—”
Josh cut them both off. “Suzanne’s right. It’ll be better for me if I can stay in Jupiter Point. That way I can help out at the base when I get mobile again. Sorry, I would have told you earlier, but you haven’t let me speak two words since you showed up.”
“See that? I told you he didn’t need his mother hovering over him.” Rock pointed an accusing finger at Anne.
She spritzed rose oil directly in front of his face.
“You know,” Suzanne reached across the bed and snatched the atomizer from her hand, “I’m pretty sure this is against hospital policy. It wouldn’t be a hospital without that classic antiseptic smell, you know?”
“Why, you—” Anne looked outraged by Suzanne’s intervention.
“Don’t say it,” Josh warned, struggling to sit up. “Say anything you want to me, but don’t go after my friends.”
“I’m betting she’s more than a friend. Young love, eh?” Rock wriggled his eyebrows toward Anne. Now that she was no longer armed with room fragrance, he stood taller. “I remember those days. Best time of life. What kind of work do you do, Suzanne?”
“I work at an agency in Jupiter Point called Stars in Your Eyes. I…uh…help newlyweds plan their honeymoons.”
In the biting atmosphere created by the Marshalls, her job sounded absolutely absurd, like something only a naive romantic would bother with.
“We went to Cabo on our honeymoon.” Anne snapped her tote bag shut. “My only mistake was not leaving my husband there.”
“Oh, for Chrissake—”
“There he goes again, did you hear that?”
“Snowball,” said Josh.
Suzanne cast desperately around for something, anything to get the Marshalls out of Josh’s hospital room. She turned to Rock and batted her eyelashes. “Rock, do you know what Josh was telling me right before you came in? He was saying that what he’d really like is a taste of home. Some real Texas barbecue maybe, or some…” What did people eat in Texas? She couldn’t come up with anything. “Other Texas stuff.”
“Tequila,” muttered Josh. “A six-pack of Lone Star. Or maybe a twelve-pack.”
Suzanne ignored that as being unhelpful. “Even a hunk of Texas beef,” she continued. “But I’ve never even been to Texas, and if anyone knows what Josh likes to eat, it’s you and Anne, right? I bet one of you can come up with the perfect taste of home for our poor invalid here.”
She patted him on the shoulder while he did his best to look pathetic. Even though he had that morphine-induced haziness around the eyes, Josh still exuded that sun-browned, sun-streaked, healthy male look. He made post-surgery look good.
“You shouldn’t be asking him,” Anne sniffed. “I’m the one who knows her way around the kitchen.” As the parent standing closest to the door, she was in prime position to get a head-start on the barbecue hunt. She took a half-step in that direction.
“Since the grill is my domain, you came to the right guy, Suzanne.” Rock edged toward the door, almost as if he thought no one would notice.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Anne asked as she placed her body firmly in front of the exit.
“Can’t a man get barbecue sauce for his son? What’s wrong with you, woman?”
“Name-calling, again!”
“Since when is the word ‘woman’ an insult?”
“I can read behind the lines.”
“Between the lines, woman.”
And they were off down the corridor, the sound of their bickering voices trailing behind them. Suzanne ran to the door and closed it, then leaned against it. She heaved in a long breath of air, smelling the leftover traces of rose petal. “Oh. My. God.”
“You thought I was exaggerating, didn’t you?” Josh beckoned to her with a wave of his hand. “Come here.”
She came to his side so he could take her hand. He raised it to his lips and pressed a kiss on her fingers. “You are a goddess. How did you do that?”
“You said they turn everything into a contest, right?” She shrugged. “It was disturbingly easy, to tell you the truth. If my kid was in the hospital, you couldn’t tear me away.”
“They know I’m not dying. I think if I was in dire shape, they’d put the battle on pause. Maybe.”
“They like fighting, don’t they?”
“Yeah. They fought nonstop the last few years they were married. They fought after the divorce process started. My brothers and I kind of hoped they’d stop once they weren’t living together anymore, but nothing really changed. What you see is what you get with my parents.”
“Wow.” She whooshed out another long breath of air. “It’s enough to convince you never to get married.”
“You think?” He grinned at her ruefully. “Now you see where I’m coming from. I figure it’s probably genetic, so I’m sparing the world from any more Fucked-Up Fighting Marshalls.”
“I can see what you mean, for sure.” It was all falling into place now. Of course Josh avoided commitments and relationships, if that was the example he’d grown up with. “You know, I meet a lot of newlyweds in my line of work. I see a lot of relationships. And I can tell you one thing for sure.”
“They’re all doomed?”
“Funny. No. I can tell you that they’re all different. I guess your parents like their relationship the way it is, divorced or not.” She shook her head in wonder. “To each their own. Anyway, the barbecue sauce ploy is only going to work for so long. What’s our next move?”
“What do you mean?” The look of desperate hope on Josh’s face made her laugh—he looked as if she was offering him a double scoop of ice cream after a month of dieting. “Are you going to get me out of here?”
“You certainly can’t stay here. It’s inhumane.”
“I think I love you, woman.”
Even though he said it lightly, the words skipped through her heart like sprinkles of fairy dust. “Did you just call me a name?”
“If the word ‘woman’ is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Now what’s the plan?”
“Let me talk to the doctor. If I explain that you’re coming home with me, and that you don’t need the morphine drip now that your parents are gone, and that I’ll make sure you do all your PT and whatever else—”
She broke off when he took her hand again, using the other one to hoist himself into a sitting position. “Why are you doing this? It’s a lot to take on. You have your own life.”
“I’m your fiancée,” she said lightly. “Please don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”
“I haven’t forgotten.” The odd intense look in his eyes gave her a quick thrill. “I also haven’t forgotten that it’s not—”
“If it were real, this is what I’d be doing,” she said firmly. “So this is what I’m going to do. There’s no argument, unless you really don’t want to stay with me. If you’d rather go to the base, that’s fine. I’ll drive you there.”
“No.” He was still watching her steadily. “If you’re willing, I’d be grateful. You know the best part?”
“What?”
“They can find the hotshots base pretty easy. I think I’ll be safer at your condo. It’s got that security system.” He laughed, looking revived and invigorated. “Go find the doctor. Tell him I’m going to break their morphine budget if I stay here any longer.”
“On it.”
An hour later, she was wheeling him out of the hospital into the baking-hot parking lot. She had a thick sheaf of aftercare instructions tucked into her tote bag and a prescription for serious painkillers. Not that he’d need them—he seemed like his old self now that they were heading toward freedom.
“How did you do that?” he marveled. “That doctor didn’t listen to a thing I said, and I’m the patient!”
“Well, Josh, I might not have a lot of good qualities. I’m stubborn and willful and can definitely be a little selfish. Evie will tell you. But I am really, really good at planning things and talking people into following the plan. Besides, I found out the doctor’s a little crabby because his wife’s been bugging him about their anniversary. I set him up with a Stars in Your Eyes sunset cruise—on the house.”
He twisted his head around to meet her eyes. “Don’t downplay yourself, Suzanne. You’re an amazing person. Not even Sean could convince them to spring me, and he’s used to telling people what to do.”
“Maybe he should dye his hair blond and smile more.” She batted her eyelashes at him.
He squinted at her. “Nah. Not buying it. You’re a fighter, is what you are. You’re loyal as fuck. You didn’t even have to come out here, let alone rescue me from a fate worse than death.”
She slowed the wheelchair as they reached her Miata. “Speaking of which…you promised.”
“Right. Hand me my phone.”
As irritating as his parents were, she still didn’t feel right about kidnapping Josh away from them. She’d refused to take him anywhere until he called them.
He dialed a number and spoke quickly into the phone. “It’s Josh. I checked out of the hospital and they said I’m good to go. Yeah, I’m going back to Jupiter Point. I appreciate you coming out. Really. … Well yeah, it is hard when you and Dad…I’m sorry, about that… What do you want me to say? I can’t be around it. Especially now. It doesn’t mean I don’t love you both. … Of course I do, you’re my parents. Yes, I love him too. He is my father…I gotta go. My ride’s leaving. Bye, Mom. I’ll call you soon. Yes, I’m in good hands.”
Burn So Bright Page 14
