by Elle James
Emily laughed. It would probably take her a week to complete the marathon, whereas it had only taken a few hours for Cage to successfully summit and return.
As she returned to the kitchen to help Jake prepare the food, she reminded herself firmly that she was alive, and she had an important purpose in life. She helped veterans assimilate into civilian society and guided them through overcoming traumatic events that kept them from resuming a full and satisfying life. Gunny had told her on more than one occasion that she’d been spared from that automobile wreck that had killed her parents and her brother for a reason. She was fulfilling that reason through her work.
When the rush for food dwindled to a trickle, Jake tipped his head toward the swinging door. “Go on, Emily. Take a load off.”
“I will, after I clean up these dishes.” She quickly loaded plates and glasses into the commercial-sized dishwasher and turned it on.
“Okay,” Jake said as he slipped a sizzling hamburger onto a bun. “No excuses now, go.”
“At least let me take that plate out to the customer who’s waiting for it.”
He dropped a batch of French fries onto the plate next to the burger, laid it on a small tray and handed it to her.
“What about you?” she asked. “You could use a break as well.”
He gave her a crooked grin. “I’m going to clean the grill. Then I’m going to be out there in the bar drinking an ice-cold beer.”
She nodded. “That sounds good.” She carried the platter out.
RJ met her at the door, took the hamburger plate and quickly handed it to the customer and set him up with salt, pepper and ketchup. She glanced around at the other patrons. “Anybody else need anything before I take a seat?” A couple of the ranch hands raised their empty beer mugs.
Gunny quickly slapped a couple full mugs on the bar.
Cage snagged them and delivered them to the thirsty customers.
RJ gave him a grateful smile. “Thank you.” Finally able to breathe, she turned a frown toward Emily. “Sit.”
“I’m fine,” Emily said.
“You might be,” her friend said and tipped her head toward Emily’s bodyguard, “but Cage appears to be in pain.”
Emily frowned in his direction. “What’s wrong?”
Cage stopped beside her and bent to massage the back of his thigh. “Charley horse.”
“Why don’t you go back to the lodge and put your feet up?” Emily said.
“Not until you do,” he said. “If you recall, you’re my first assignment and from what little I know about being a bodyguard, I need to stick to the body I’m guarding. Where you go, I go.”
Emily glanced around at the patrons of the bar. “There’s still too many people here to leave RJ and Gunny on their own.”
“Don’t worry about us,” RJ said. “We’ve got this. Jake’s finishing up in the kitchen, and he’ll be out here soon.”
Emily opened her mouth about to remind RJ that Gunny had promised to hire additional staff.
RJ held up a hand before Emily could utter a word. “Don’t worry. I’m working on Gunny to hire additional staff. But you know my father. He’s a stubborn old man.”
“I heard that,” Gunny called out from behind the bar.
“That’s right,” RJ said. “You’re a stubborn old man.”
“I’ll agree with the stubborn, but I’m not going along with the old. Age is just a number.”
“And your number is getting higher every day,” RJ reminded him.
“You’re never too old to take over my knee and give you a good paddling,” he warned.
RJ laughed and shook her head. “As if you ever did.”
He smiled. “I thought about it a couple of times, but you and your pigtails had me wrapped around your little finger.”
“Right where I wanted you,” she said with a smug grin.
Emily enjoyed their banter. After RJ’s mother had passed away, Gunny had taken over the reins of raising his daughter the best way he knew how, military style with a big dollop of love mixed in.
When Emily’s own parents had passed away in the car wreck, they’d invited her into their little family. She knew she wasn’t a blood relative, but she’d always felt loved. That fact alone had helped her overcome her grief and her loneliness. They’d helped her through physical therapy to get back on her feet and had fixed up a room on the first floor until she could climb the stairs again. RJ and Gunny had been as warm and welcoming with JoJo as well around the same time. JoJo and RJ had been best friends in high school. They’d opened their arms and their hearts to Emily, becoming the sisters she’d never had.
JoJo and Max entered through the swinging door.
“Has everyone got everything under control?” JoJo asked.
RJ nodded. “Handling it. I could use a beer.”
Jake came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a dish towel. “Grill’s clean and dishes are stacked. Where’s my beer, woman?” he said to RJ.
RJ shook her head. “I’m not your waitress.”
“No,” he said with a grin, “but you sure are a cute one.”
RJ crossed the floor, leaned up on her toes and kissed Jake. “You’re lucky I like you.”
He nodded with a serious look on his face. “Yes, I am. The luckiest man in this joint.” He wrapped an arm around her middle and pulled her to him, kissing her long and hard.
Emily’s heart swelled for RJ. She’d finally found the man for her. Raised by her marine gunnery sergeant of a father, she tended toward being a tomboy who’d rather ride horses and shoot guns than wear a dress and makeup. Not too many men appreciated a strong woman, and RJ was that. She was strong, more than just physically, and her family meant everything to her. She’d do anything for Gunny, JoJo and even Emily.
Emily always felt like she fell short of RJ and JoJo’s strength. RJ and JoJo constantly reminded her that she was the smarter one of the three. Her strength was in her knowledge, they said.
Emily had always wished that it was in her muscles.
JoJo and RJ were fully capable of defending themselves.
Emily had taken self-defense lessons but wasn’t completely confident that what she’d learned would work for her. She wasn’t as strong as JoJo, who’d come back from the dead on her last deployment when she’d been sexually assaulted and left to die in the desert. Though she was the smallest in stature, Emily considered JoJo the strongest of all of them.
She’d had JoJo in a number of therapy sessions, helping her to overcome Military Sexual Trauma or MST. Emily smiled at the dark-haired beauty. JoJo had come a long way. The fact that JoJo trusted a man again said it all. Max was perfect for her—incredibly gentle and fiercely protective. Emily could tell that he loved her.
Her gaze crossed to Jake.
Jake had started out as a bodyguard to RJ. Max had started out as a bodyguard to JoJo. She tried to imagine the outcome of Cage being her own bodyguard, and she circled back to her own weaknesses. She wasn’t a strong woman. Cage needed someone who could be his partner, someone who could stand up to him and with him. Emily wasn’t that person.
At that moment, Cage’s gaze caught hers.
Heat filled Emily’s cheeks. Thank goodness people didn’t have the ability to read minds.
“Come on,” he said. “Have a seat.”
“You, too,” she said, her voice a bit on the breathless side.
Emily sat on one of the stools at the bar.
Cage dropped onto the one beside her, winced and groaned.
“Are the marathon aftereffects catching up with you?” Emily asked.
He nodded. “I’m afraid if I sit too long, everything’s going to seize up. I’m hoping a beer will help loosen me up.”
“A muscle relaxer would do a better job,” Emily said.
“Maybe so,” he said with a grin, “but I wouldn’t enjoy it as much.”
“You make a good point,” she said.
Gunny wiped the counter in front of them. “W
hat can I get you two? The drinks are on the house for my best pinch hitters.”
Emily smiled at Gunny. “You know what I like.”
He nodded and filled a mug with a draft light beer, placing it on the counter in front of her.
“I’ll have the same,” Cage said.
Gunny filled another mug and set it in front of him. “Thank you both for helping out tonight. And yes, Emily, I am going to hire some staff. Now that I have fulltime tenants with the Brotherhood Protectors, I can afford to hire help.”
“Good,” Emily said. “You work too hard.”
“Maybe so,” he said. “It helps when you love what you do.”
Emily lifted her chin. “Yeah, but when was the last time you and RJ had a real vacation?”
He grinned. “What are you talking about? Here at the ranch, every day is a vacation.”
Emily snorted. “You’re full of it, Gunny. You and RJ are the first ones up at O-dark-thirty in the morning and the last ones to bed at night, which can also be O-dark-thirty in the morning. Do you ever sleep?” She knew the answer without him having to tell her.
He shrugged. “Sleep is overrated. Any more than six hours of sleep a night is a waste of time.”
“When do you actually get six hours of sleep in a night?” Emily demanded.
Gunny’s brow furrowed. “I am going to hire somebody to cover the bar at night. I’m interviewing tomorrow.”
“You said that last year, and you didn’t hire any of the guys you interviewed. Maybe I need to give up my job at the VA hospital and come back to work here.”
Gunny shook his head. “No way. I can’t afford you. Besides, you’re a good therapist. The veterans need you more.”
Emily glared at the man she loved like a father. “Then get on it and hire some people to help run this place.”
“Yeah, Gunny,” RJ said as she set her tray on the counter along with a drink order.
“I’m surrounded by pushy females,” Gunny grumbled as he filled her order and pushed the tray toward his daughter.
RJ chuckled, grabbed the tray and headed back out to the floor.
“How long have you been at the VA hospital?” Cage asked.
Emily sipped her beer before she answered. “Going on three years now.”
Cage smiled. “It’s nice to know we have people who want to work with the veterans to help them get back on their feet.” His eyes narrowed. “As young and as cute as you are, do you ever have problems with your patients falling in love with you?”
Emily’s cheeks heated. “I don’t,” she said. “I do my very best to maintain a professional only relationship with them.”
“Yeah, but some of those guys are young and easily impressionable. If a pretty girl smiles their direction, they might see that as encouragement.”
Emily nodded. “I understand. Again, I try to keep my dealings with them on a very professional basis. We only talk during therapy sessions, and I never talk about myself. The less they know about me, the better. The idea is for them to focus on themselves. Besides, I’m not all that cute. They can do a whole lot better.”
Gunny snorted loudly. “Cage, you hear that horseshit she’s trying to feed you?”
Cage chuckled. “I don’t know, which horseshit are you talking about?”
“Emily has a self-image issue. She doesn’t realize just how attractive she is, and how easy it would be for her patients to fall in love with her.” Gunny waved a hand toward Emily whose face burned with embarrassment. “Don’t you agree?”
Cage’s gaze swept over Emily’s face. “I completely agree. She’s very attractive.”
“You two are just being nice.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I have crazy red hair, olive drab green eyes, and I walk with a limp. Now, who can find that attractive? Our veterans are used to strong, vibrant women who can easily pass a PT test, and maybe even take them down in a barroom fight.”
Cage laughed. “I have known a few females like that.”
“I think you’re talking about RJ and JoJo,” Gunny said. “But not all men want women who can kick their asses. Some guys like to be needed and prefer women who will listen to them. Someone who is smart, well-read and can carry on an intelligent conversation, like you.”
If only that were true. Emily smiled at the older man. “Thank you, Gunny, you’re sweet, and you’re being nice, too.”
“I’m not nice,” he insisted. “Seriously. If I met a woman as nice and pretty as you, I’d ask her out on a date in a heartbeat.”
“And when would you have time to go out on a date?” Emily asked.
“Well, there is that,” he grumbled.
Emily drew in a deep breath and sighed. “Could we not talk about me?”
Gunny leaned closer to Cage, as if sharing a secret. “And she’s shy, which makes her job as a therapist even harder.”
Emily pasted a smile on her face and proceeded to prove Gunny wrong, that she wasn’t shy. “So, Cage, what made you decide to do the Pikes Peak marathon? Is this a one-time thing or are you normally a marathon runner?”
Cage smiled as if recognizing that she had just switched the conversation from herself to him. It was one of those techniques she used when her patients asked her personal questions. Not that Cage was a patient, but it did help deflect the conversation from her.
“I’m not normally a marathon runner. My buddy Ryan had always dreamed of doing the Pikes Peak marathon. On our last deployment, he signed us both up for this marathon, knowing we’d be back in time to compete. So, when we weren’t out fighting bad guys, we must have logged a thousand running miles inside the wire of the forward operating bases where we were stationed.”
“So, it was his dream?” Emily said.
Cage nodded. “It was.”
Emily tilted her head. “So, who came in first?”
His smile faded. “It was a tie, but the point was we both made it.”
“Will your friend go on to do other marathons?” Emily asked.
Cage looked away, shaking his head. “No, his marathon days are over.”
She frowned. “Why? Did he come out of it hurting as badly as you are and decided it wasn’t worth it?”
Cage shook his head. “He’s not hurting at all. He just won’t be doing any more marathons. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to walk.” Cage left half his beer sitting on the counter and stood. As soon as he straightened, he doubled over and cursed.
Emily got up. “What’s wrong?”
“Charley horse in my thigh,” he gritted out between his teeth.
“Let me help.” She draped his arm over her shoulder. “Straighten your leg and pull your toe up.”
He tried to straighten his leg and winced in pain. “I…can’t.”
“Come with me.” Emily walked him toward the nearest wall. “Let’s stand you up against a wall. You can press your toe up against it.”
He leaned heavily on her as they both limped toward the wall.
“Now put your toe against the wall and lean into it.”
He did as she said and slowly the grimace on his face eased.
RJ came up behind them and laid a hand on Cage’s back. “You two should call it a night.”
Emily turned to Cage. “You think you can make it to the lodge?”
He nodded.
“Go out the front door,” RJ said. “The step isn’t as big.”
“I can handle a step,” Cage said.
“Oh yeah, Ranger?” Emily asked. “Let’s see you walk across the floor.”
He turned, balancing all his weight on the leg that wasn’t bothering him. As soon as he stepped out on the one with the charley horse, pain shot through that leg. He teetered and almost fell to the floor.
“Uh huh,” Emily said, “We’re going out the front door. In fact, I think we might need help from someone a little bit stronger than I am.”
RJ was already on it, leading Jake back across the barroom floor by the arm. Max and JoJo had taken on the gauntl
et of serving drinks to the other bar patrons.
Jake grinned. “I see that marathon just caught up with you.”
“I can make it back to the lodge on my own,” Cage insisted.
“Yeah, but we can’t have the new guy pass out and break his pretty nose. We need you looking good for when Hank shows up for the grand opening. Come on, big guy. Suck it up and let somebody help you.”
Emily chuckled. “I don’t feel so bad now.”
“How so?” Cage said.
“I know you’ll be back up and running by tomorrow and protecting me and taking care of me. At least I can do my part now and help you today.”
“This is so wrong,” he said. “What good is a bodyguard who can’t even stand up straight?”
“This is only temporary,” she said. “Your muscles are just telling you that you over-worked them.”
“You think?” he laced his words with sarcasm. It beat crying. The pain was that bad. “Fine, get me to the lodge. I’ll take it from there.” When he started to move his arm from around her shoulders, she held onto his hand.
“You can balance better if you have two of us.”
“And I’ll take the majority of the weight,” Jake said.
Cage frowned. “Emily, you don’t need to take any of the weight. Let Jake do the heavy lifting.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Why? Because I limp?”
“Well, yeah,” Cage said, his brain too overwhelmed with pain receptors to think clearly about what he was saying.
“I’m stronger than you think,” Emily said, her chin tilting upward. “So, quit belly-aching, soldier. Let’s get you to your room.” As they moved toward the door, Cage clamped his lips shut to keep from crying out. He leaned heavily on Jake but balanced on Emily through the door and out into the parking lot.
Emily smiled up at him. “See? You’re not doing so badly. Maybe by the time we get to the lodge you’ll have worked that charley horse out.”
“The sooner, the better,” he grumbled.
A car turned on its headlights, blinding Emily.
She raised her free hand to block the glare. “Good grief, he could turn off his brights.” The driver of the car revved his engine. Thankfully, they were able to move out of the parking lot onto the path leading to the lodge.
