by Amy Brent
Luckily, the bloody spot on the bandage had not gotten bigger.
I sat down on the side of the bed and tugged at the corners of the tape holding the bandage to Luke’s skin.
“Your hands are cold,” he said, opening one eye to smile at me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, cupping my hands and blowing into them.
He chuckled, winced. “I’m just messing with you.” He set his hand on my thigh and scratched his dirty nails to my jeans. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Don’t thank me until you see what kind of nurse I am,” I said. I sucked in a breath and held it as I slowly stripped the tape from his skin. Luke closed his eyes and breathed deeply in and out.
I peeled the damp bandage from the wound. I swallowed hard when I saw the gash in his side. I’d never been good at this sort of thing. The sight of blood usually made me sick. True to form, I felt nauseous and sweaty, like I was gonna throw up all over his beautiful chest.
“You okay?” he asked.
I took a deep breath and gave him a little nod, and swallowed back the taste of vomit that was burning at my throat. “Yep, I’m fine. Just hold still.”
He had a line of stitches holding together an incision six inches long that ran down his left side and across the left side of his stomach. The stitches were caked with dried blood and the incision was fiery red. The blood had seeped through the gash at the center.
“Does it hurt?” I asked, knowing it was a stupid question.
“Only when I breathe,” he said, forcing a smile for my benefit. He closed his eyes and blew out a long breath. “Just do what you gotta do and get it over with.”
I opened the bottle of Peroxide and soaked a cotton ball, then dabbed the cotton ball to the stitches and gash to wash away the blood. I tried to be careful because each time Luke winced or sucked in a quick breath it made me jerk my hand back.
“Don’t be such a baby,” I said as I doused a clean cotton ball with Peroxide and finished cleaning off the blood. I leaned in and squinted at the stitches. “The bleeding’s stopped, but you still need to take it easy.”
“Does that mean no more hanky-panky for a while?” he asked, his fingers scratching their way toward my crotch, which was so warm I thought my panties had caught fire. I slapped his hand away.
“That’s exactly what it means,” I said. I playfully put my hand on the sheet covering his cock, which was draped lazily across his thigh like a snake sleeping on a rock. It jumped at my touch.
“You’re going to have to keep the monster in his cage, at least for a few days.”
He leaned back and sighed. “Shit. Okay. You’re the boss.”
“Yes, I am,” I said, scraping a fingernail down his cheek. “After you rest for a while maybe you can take a shower and get a shave.”
“You ever shave a man before?” he asked.
I glanced toward the door to make sure we were alone, then leaned in to give him a kiss. “No, but I’ve done a lot of firsts with you. I’m sure I can figure out how to shave you without cutting your throat.”
I redressed the wound, gave him four Tylenol and a bottle of water, and told him to go to sleep.
By the time I had gathered up the old bandages, his eyes were closed and he was snoring like a baby.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Shelby
Cody was sitting at the kitchen table when I came back downstairs. He was finishing off one of his famous bologna, cheese, dill pickle, mustard, and potato chip sandwiches, and drinking a tall glass of iced tea.
“He okay?” he asked as I stuffed the bloody bandages into the trash can and went to the sink to wash my hands.
“I think he will be if we can keep him off the back of a damn bull,” I said, shaking my head. “I swear, I will never see the attraction in bull riding. It’s just insanely dangerous. I hope this convinces him to give it up for good.”
“It’s what he does, Shelby,” Cody said, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “It’s who he is. I guarantee you that soon as he’s healed, he’ll be out there in the corral looking for something to ride.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I said. I opened the fridge and took down a glass from the cupboard. I dropped in a few ice cubes, then filled the glass with sweet tea and moved to sit down across the table from Cody.
“If you have anything to say about it?” Cody probed his back teeth with his tongue and gave me a hard look. “Since when do you have any say in what Luke does or does not do? You haven’t seen him in six years.”
I took a sip of tea and shrugged my eyebrows. “I don’t have a say, necessarily. But he almost died and I intend to remind him of that until he gets it through his thick head that riding bulls is gonna be the death of him.” I glanced out the open kitchen door. “Where’s Daddy?”
“Daddy’s already gone back to work,” Cody said, leaning into the table and cocking his head at me. He stared at me for a moment, like he was trying to see through me.
“What?” I asked.
“What did you do, Shelby?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
He lifted his chin to look me in the eye. “What happened last night?”
I tried to feign ignorance, but it was no use. Cody had always been able to work the truth out of me.
I said, “We were in a motel, all right. Is that okay with you? We are consenting adults, you know. What we do is none of your business.”
Cody spread out his big hands like he was releasing a pair of doves into the air. “I don’t give a good goddamn that you two are fucking again, Shelby,” he growled. “What I care about is the fact that Luke hasn’t been home ten minutes and you’re already back trying to control his life.”
“That’s bullshit,” I snapped, giving him a hard frown. “I’m just trying to keep him safe.”
“No, Shelby, you’re not. You’re doing exactly what you did six years ago, and if you’re not careful, things are gonna end up the same way and you won’t see him for another six years. Maybe more this time.”
I blinked at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You wanted to go to A&M and Luke wanted to ride the rodeo circuit,” Cody said, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest. “You pestered the living hell out of him. You wanted him to move to College Station and enroll in classes and play house with you.”
“I did not.” Yes, I did, but I didn’t want to admit it to him.
“You harped on the boy until he was almost ready to do it, too,” Cody said, head bobbing. “He came to me and said he was gonna give it a try just to make you happy. Fuck, Shelby, the boy barely graduated high school and you wanted him to apply to A&M? He wasn’t gonna get into A&M. And if he had, he would have been miserable because he put his dreams on hold for you.”
“He could have gone to the community college there,” I said. “Or the tech school. He could have made something of himself and be earning a good living now.”
“Doing what? Working as a mechanic at the Ford dealership? Or crawling under houses running fucking sewer pipes? Do you seriously think that would have made him happy?”
“I would have made him happy,” I said, though it didn’t come out as convincing as I’d hoped. “Besides, if he had come away with me he wouldn’t be upstairs right now with a big gash in his side.”
“No, he’d probably be somewhere working his ass off at some shit job he hated just to pay you child support.”
“You’re such an asshole,” I said, gritting my teeth, trying not to cry.
“And you’re such a selfish little girl.”
“Fuck you, Cody.”
“Fuck you, Shelby.”
I clenched my jaws and looked away from him. I wiped my eyes with the tips of my fingers and shook my head. “I can’t believe you’re acting like this. Such an asshole.”
Cody huffed a heavy sigh and flattened his palms on the t
able like he was bracing himself against a stiff wind. He said, “I’m gonna tell you something, Shelby, and I know you’re gonna be pissed, but you need to know the truth.”
“What truth?” I asked, dreading his answer, though I didn’t know why.
“He was gonna go with you,” Cody said quietly. “He came to me and said he was gonna forget about riding bulls so he could go to College Station with you.”
I blinked at him through the tears. “He was?”
“Yes, he was.”
I took a deep breath. I didn’t know why, but my hands were starting to shake. I wrapped my fingers around the tea glass to keep them still. “What did you tell him?”
Cody looked me in the eye. “I told him he was a goddamn fool if he was gonna put his dreams on hold to help you chase yours.”
My jaw fell open. “You what?”
“I told him that if he went with you to College Station, he would be miserable. And he would have made you miserable. I told him the best thing he could do was to pack up his shit and hit the circuit and let you go to college.”
“What… how dare you…”
“I knew y’all loved each other, but your dreams were set too far apart. You were chasing different stars, Shelby, in different parts of the sky. And it wasn’t fair for you to expect him to put his dreams on hold just because you didn’t want to be alone.”
“Oh my god…” I said, putting my hands to my cheeks. “What gave you the right? How dare you interfere in my life?”
“I told you that you were gonna be pissed,” Cody said with a shrug. He popped the last bite of sandwich into his mouth and chewed for a moment, then drained the tea glass to wash it down. He got up from the table to set his dishes in the sink.
“Don’t you leave,” I said, seething at him. My face must have been red as a beet because I could feel the blood pumping through my brain. “I’m not done talking to you yet.”
“Well, I’m done talking to you,” Cody said. He dug two fingers into the pocket of his shirt and brought out a slip of paper and handed it to me.
“What is this?” I asked, opening the paper which had a name and phone number on it.
“That guy called yesterday,” Cody said. “About a job you applied for before you came home.”
“Oh my god,” I muttered, recognizing the name as the corporate recruiter from Monsanto I’d met with a few months before. Monsanto was the largest producer of seeds in the country. Working in their research lab was my dream job. The job was in Houston, three hours away.
“Don’t do it again, Shelby,” Cody said as he plucked his dusty hat off the rack by the back door and set it on his head. “Don’t try to make him choose your dream over his. This time, you might not get him back.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Shelby
I waited until Cody was out the door and headed toward the barn before getting up to find my cell phone. I was so mad at him I could have chewed nails, but I’d have to deal with him later. Right now, my attention was on the slip of paper in my hand.
I found my cell phone in my purse by the front door and took into Daddy’s study, which was what he called the small room off the foyer that held a worn red leather chair older than me, a side table with his pipe, tobacco pouch, and silver lighter in the shape of a western pistol, and a big glass ashtray that always seemed to need emptying.
There was a brass floor lamp with a dusty shade and a wall of shelves that held a couple thousand western novels by Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Larry McMurtry, and other authors I’d never heard of.
I closed the door, sat on the edge of the chair, and punched in the number. I cleared my throat a dozen times as the phone rang. A receptionist answered and I asked for Ted Pruitt.
“Hi, Mr. Pruitt, this is Shelby Cates. I had a message that you had called yesterday.” I listened for a moment, almost hoping that he was just calling to tell me that there was no place for me at Monsanto. I’d just gotten Luke back in my life. It was too soon to let life tear us apart again.
“Yes, sir, that’s wonderful news, of course I accept. Yes, please email me the offer letter and I’ll sign it and send it back immediately. Yes, sir, a week from Monday sounds fine. Thank you, sir. Thank you.”
I hung up the phone and put a hand over my heart.
It felt like it was gonna beat right out of my chest.
Shit. I mean, yay!
My dream job had just become a reality.
Today was Friday.
A week from Monday I’d start my career as a research scientist at Monsanto’s Houston labs, doing research and development on new seed hybrids.
I couldn’t wait to tell Luke.
Surely, he’d want to come with me.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: Luke
The day we got back to the ranch I slept almost fifteen hours straight. Cody said Shelby was so worried that she kept coming in to check on me to make sure I was still breathing.
When I finally managed to pry my eyes open and my ass out of bed, she wrapped plastic wrap around my waist and over my bandages so I could take a shower. I felt like a damned convenience store burrito. It was all I could do to resist pulling her into the shower with me. I would have loved to have soaped up her big titties and fucked her from behind as the hot water sprayed down on us. Sadly, that would be a fantasy we’d have to play out another day, when her Daddy and his shotgun weren’t around.
It was kind of nice showering alone, though. Taking my time, letting the hot water jets beat against my sore shoulders and neck. Fuck, just getting a week’s worth of hospital grime and sex goo off me made me feel a hundred times better.
I spent the next few days in bed most of the time, but slowly started moving around the house. Shelby refused to let me do much other than move from bed to kitchen chair to porch swing to bed. She fed me like a damn horse, insisting that I eat every bite of food she put in front of me.
Finally, I felt good enough to get out of bed for most of the day. I borrowed some of Cody’s clothes and underwear and socks. I’d lost a considerable amount of weight, so Cody’s clothes hung on me like a set of bad drapes. Shelby had to help me pull on my boots, but other than that I managed on my own.
The scar was healing well and the pain was subsiding, although I still had to be careful because sometimes the pain would hit out of nowhere and hitch me over double for a minute or two. I recalled the doc telling me that anytime they worked on your insides, it could take months, if not years, to completely heal. Screw that. I didn’t have years to lay on my ass. I wasn’t getting no younger.
I didn’t mention it to Shelby, but I planned to be back on a bull soon as the rodeo season started again in a few months.
I didn’t mention it because I knew she would go through the roof.
She kept making these little comments about how dangerous bull riding was, and how I wasn’t getting no younger, and how I ought’a be thinking about my long-term future.
I let the comments go, partially because I didn’t have the strength yet to argue with her and partially because I knew she was right.
Bull riding was dangerous and I wasn’t getting no younger.
And I rarely thought past my next ride.
But goddammit, I wasn’t ready to just roll over and die.
At least not yet.
* * *
I was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee when the screen door opened and Alvin Lee came in, wiping sweat off his face with the sleeve of his shirt. A cloud of dust followed him in. He hung his hat on the rack by the door and gave me the eye.
“How you feeling, boy?” he asked. He went to the sink and washed his hands, then opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. He twisted off the cap and took the chair next to me.
“I’m better every day,” I said with my hand on my side. “I’ll be out there riding and roping with you and Cody before you know it.”
“Don’t rush it,” he said, shaking his head with the bottle at his lips. He wiped his bushy mustache with h
is fingers. “Worse thing you can do is get back on a horse or a bull too soon and have your guts pop out in the middle of the arena.”
“Yes, sir, that’s the truth.” I smiled and gave him little a nod. I held my coffee cup between my hands and stared into it. I didn’t want to look him in the eye because I had the fear that he would see guilt all over my face. I had done nasty things to his little girl and I knew that he would see that in my eyes. I could tell he was watching me. I could feel his steel blue eyes burning into my face like a hot branding iron.
“So, Luke, what’s you plan?” he asked, sitting back with the water resting on his chest.
I glanced up and shrugged. “Reckon I’ll heal up and get back on the road.”
“No, son, I mean what’s your plan regarding Shelby?”
I glanced up again and my eyes locked on his. I tried not to blink. “Sir?
“I asked what’s your plan regarding Shelby.”
“Um, well, I’m not sure I understand the question.”
He huffed and shook his head at me. “Son, do you think I’m stupid?”
“No, sir,” I said quickly. “You’re probably the smartest man I know.”
He chucked and rubbed a knuckle under his nose. “Son, if that’s the case you need to greatly widen your social circle.” He grinned at me for a moment, then put his elbows on the table and leaned in over them. “I know about you and Shelby. I always have.”
I blinked at him. “You have?”
“I have. I also know she’s been head over heels for you since she was a teenager,” he said, cutting his eyes at me. “And I expect you’ve always had feelings for her. At least I hope you have. I’d hate to think that you were just using her.” He gave me a moment to respond. I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded and hoped it would suffice.
“I was young once, I know the things that teenagers do,” he said with a heavy sigh. “And I also know the things that grownups do.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” I said. My eyes went around the room, looking for a shotgun that might be leaning in a corner.
