His eyes were on his daughter’s face as she slowly opened her beautiful green eyes to blink up at him as he hung the phone up. “Hey Princess,” he soothed as happy tears ran down his face. “Have a nice nap?”
Alexis tried to sit up and he held her down with his massive hand. “Nope… You’ve got a big boo-boo that needs time to heal. You need to stay lying down for now like a good little girl, okay?”
She started to fuss and reach for her oxygen mask, calling for her Mommy and Jeff lowered his face to her tiny chest, allowing himself to sob. “Mommy’s hurt real bad, baby girl. Daddy needs you to be a brave girl and try real hard to get better.”
Her breathing became even again and he looked up at her face, realizing she’d fallen back asleep. The medication she was on must be making her drowsy. He stood on shaky legs and quietly left her room. Now that he’d seen her, he needed to see Dana and if the woman at the desk tried to stop him, he’d run her over like a steamroller. One way or another, he was getting into Dana’s room.
Thankfully, a different woman was at the desk when he went back to ask what room Dana was in. “I just finished visiting my daughter Alexis Miller, who was just awake for a minute or two by the way… Now, if you could point me in the direction of her mother… I really need to see that she’s alright with own two eyes.”
The oriental woman nodded her head and looked at the white board behind her that listed what rooms everyone in the ER was being kept in. She turned back to Jeff and spoke in a whisper. “She’s down the hall to the right…. First cubical on the left. She’s still unconscious at this point, but I don’t think having her husband in the room will hurt anything.” The words were said kindly and Jeff wasn’t about to correct everyone’s assumption that he and Dana were married when he’d just been given the permission he so badly needed to look at the woman he loved in person to see that she was still breathing with his own two eyes.
“Thank you,” he rushed to say before hurrying down the hall before the other woman came back and made him stop before he got a good long look at Dana. He entered the room quietly and gasped, forcing back the tears at the sight she made laying in the bed. She looked so fragile… There were bloody bandages all over her body. Her head had also been shaved and wrapped in bloody gauze, but her arms and legs were also covered in cuts and gashes. There was a large bruise on her chest in the shape of the steering wheel and Jeff felt himself become nauseous as he realized how hard she had to have hit it to leave that perfect imprint on her delicate skin.
Swallowing hard, he fell into the chair beside her bed and took her hand in his, trying hard not to disrupt the IV as he did. He rested his forehead on the bed beside her arm and prayed harder than he’d ever prayed before; making promises to God that if He allowed Dana to pull through this that he’d be a better man… the kind of man that she deserved as a husband and father of her children.
“I’m here, baby,” he said, his voice breaking when he finished praying. “I’m right here and I’m never leaving you again,” he promised solemnly. “Just come back to me,” he begged.
The door opened and the first nurse came in. The look on her face said it all as she stood there pointing out into the hall way. Jeff placed a shaky kiss on Dana’s still lips, whispered the words “I love you…” and then walked reluctantly out of the room, glancing back at her one last time before he went out into the waiting room and sat between Eric and Laurie who’d arrived sometime while he’d been in with Alexis and Dana.
He lowered his face into his hands and sobbed and they both wrapped their arms around his shoulders in support; both speaking at once. “What can I do? I want to help…”
Jeff looked up at Laurie first. “I could use a job, since I just quit the rodeo for good… What do you say? Got room in that garage of yours for a half way decent mechanic while you take a much needed maternity leave? Just long enough for me to get my shingle hung as a trainer and get things rocking in that direction?”
She stared at him as if she’d never seen him b efore for a few minutes before she finally found her voice. “Are you serious? Just like that? You just QUIT?”
“Just like that. My family needs me,” he said, looking first down one hall towards where Alexis was healing and then down the other. Eric cleared his throat as emotion clogged it. “No doubt, they do need you… what can I do?”
Jeff turned towards his brother and caught his big hand in his own. “Besides continue to pray and be there for me the way you always have? You could go get your razor and shave my head…”
When both of his siblings looked at him as if he’d lost his mind he explained. “Both Alexis and Dana had theirs shaved… I want to show my support to both of them so they don’t feel bad when we go out in public together. We’ll all be bald when I convince that woman to marry me and put me out of my misery.”
Eric let out a brittle laugh and patted his brother on the back. “You’ve got it little brother. Anything for the cause. Hell, I’ll shave my head too. We’ll make it a family affair.”
Laurie lau ghed. “Don’t look at me… Travis would have a shit fit if I shaved off the hair he loves to much. Is it enough that little Travis Junior was born bald?” she asked hopefully, looking from one brother to the other. Jeff let out a much needed whoop of laughter and sighed when it came to an end. “Yeah, sis… that’ll be enough. You give me that job, and I’ll count that as more than enough support to my family.”
“You know, before Travis Junior was born, I would have rather gouged out both my eyeballs with a plastic spoon than admit I needed help at the garage… but knowing that in hiring you, I’ll be the one providing the help, I’ll admit I could use the time off to be a new Mommy. It’s more exhausting than I had imagined it would be.”
Eric laughed heartily. “I could have told you that. Being a new Dad was rough on me, but it was nothing compared to what it did to Madeline.”
Jeff paled again. “I’m so damn ashamed of myself for making Dana go through that alone with Alexis. But damn it, not this time.” It took him a moment of being stared at blankly by both of his siblings before Jeff realized he’d just given away a secret that even Dana didn’t know yet. “The doctors found a little something when they brought her in… She doesn’t even know yet. They said it might be too early on, given her injuries… But I put in a good word to the Big Guy,” he said, looking up at the ceiling as if he could see straight through to Heaven. “I have to believe Ma and Pa are up there, egging Him on, backing up my plea for His mercy and grace for my family.”
A doctor came out into the waiting room and started heading straight for Jeff. He stood on wobbly legs, unsure if he was strong enough to hear whatever the man had to say or not. It wasn’t until the older man smiled and offered a handshake and a positive nod that he finally relaxed a little bit. “Your wife is awake now,” he said gently. “You can go on back and see her. She’s a little groggy and isn’t sure what happened, so try not to upset her too much.”
Jeff swallowed hard. “And the baby?” T he doctor smiled wider. “So far, so good. Seems the pillow of protection in there is keeping the embryo padded well.”
“Does Dana know yet?” he asked, nervously. “No… I thought I’d let you give her the good news,” the doctor answered, turning around and walking away. Jeff took a stabilizing breath and rubbed his hands together. “Wish me luck… I’m about to go beg on bended knee that the love of my life takes mercy on me and agrees to marry this old worn out, retired rodeo cowboy. I have a feeling, after I tell her I managed to get her pregnant yet again without a wedding ring on her finger… I’m going to need all the well wishes and good luck I can get my hands on. She’s gonna be fit to be tied.”
Dana was sitting up with her back propped up on a stack of pillows when Jeff walked in. She looked a little better than she had when he’d snuck into her room just a few minutes ago. Her eyes looked more beautiful than ever before as she looked up at him with love shining there in their depths. He had to look hard to se
e past the pain and concern for their daughter, but he could see it none the less and it gave him the courage to do what he wanted and needed so badly to do.
He walked over to her and took her hand in his. “You scared the bejesus out of me,” he said softly scolding her as he sat down beside her on the edge of her bed. “Promise me you’ll never try another stunt like that as long as you live. Then when you’re done doing that, tell me you’ll forgive me for my stupidity and stubbornness and agree to marry me as soon as possible.”
She couldn’t speak because of the tube that was down her throat so she nodded happily with tears rolling down her face. Jeff reached up and wiped them away with the pad of his thumb. “I quit the rodeo business… I’ll be working down at Laurie’s garage until I get my training business up and running.” She looked frantically around and Jeff knew what she was worried about. “Alexis is hurt pretty bad, but the doctors say her prognosis is good. Her injuries are nowhere near the severity as yours… You took a terrible risk, Dana… I almost lost you… All three of you,” he said meaningfully, placing his large open palm over her still flat belly and looking deeply into her eyes.
“I would be lost without you, Dana,” he told her honestly. “I love you so damn much, it hurts…” Tears rolled openly down her face and she reached up to touch his cheek in awe. Jeff knew she was trying to echo the words he’d just said in the only way she could and he loved her that much more for it. “I know baby… I know. We’re going to be fine… the four of us. We’ll be happy together, you’ll see.”
Dana nodded her head in agreement, squeezed his hand and closed her eyes. She needed to get better as fast as possible so they could get started on their very own happily ever after. It was beyond her wildest hopes, and she wasn’t altogether sure she wasn’t dreaming even now, but if she was, she didn’t want to be woken up. It was all just a little too good to be true and she meant to enjoy it for as long as it would last.
Epilogue
A year later, Jeff was sitting in the stands watching the rodeo with Dana sitting at his side. On his other side, Alexis was bouncing excitedly up and down, yelling and screaming for the man trying to ride out his eight seconds on one of Jeff’s bulls. In his arms, he held his tiny son; only three months old. He was sleeping through the whole thing, missing out on his first rodeo event.
Dana nudged him, sipping her soda. “You’re so busy looking at the baby, you’re missing the show. I thought you wanted to see how Slayer did in his first competition. You’ve spent so many hours training that angry beast to buck anything that tries to climb onto his back; one would think you’d want to see how he did in the arena.”
Jeff grinned crookedly at her, loving her even more than he had before. “I can’t help it… I’m so damn crazy about the little guy; I can’t take my eyes off him unless I’m looking at his even lovelier big sister or stunningly gorgeous mother.”
“Nice save, Schmidt,” Dana said teasingly. “I try,’ he said, teasing right back. “What do you say, Mrs. Schmidt? Shall we see if Eric and his clan want to take our little ones for a few hours and see if there’s an available trailer we can slip into for old time sake? Your husband is feeling a bit randy, hanging out with you out here on the rodeo sidelines.”
“I don’t know,” she said playfully, knowing that she would never be able to say no to her husband anymore now than she had that first day she’d seen him entering the arena. “Let’s see how that beast you’ve been training does first. If he bucks his ride off before the bell rings, you’ve got yourself a deal. If not, we wait to see how Killer does when it’s his turn. With a little luck, one of your priceless bulls will take a rider down before his eight seconds are up.”
“What if they both do?” Jeff asked, feeling his pants suddenly tighten around his growing erection. “Then I guess we’ll just have to do it twice,” Dana answered laughing. “You know me… when it comes to my sexy rodeo cowboy, I can never seem to be able to get enough. I’m always up for a rousing round of lovemaking. If it’s fresh off a win on your part, my panties seem to fall off that much faster. Your bull’s win is no different than your win in my book.
T he look on Jeff’s face was priceless. His eyes heated with desire and he was already looking through the crowd for his brother. He had worked hard with both of those bulls and he had no doubt that neither one of them were going to be successfully ridden for more than three or four seconds tops. He was going to get to make love to his heart’s truest desire… the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. His wife and mother of his children. The only thing his poor lust addled brain could think when he spotted Eric and his family was ‘Hot damn… this cowboy’s about to get lucky. With a little of God’s grace on my side, in nine months time I’ll be a rodeo daddy once again!’
He could hardly wait.
Rodeo Daddy: Book 3 in the Stubborn Texas Siblings Trilogy Page 9
