Penny blinked, glanced at Ben, then focused on Doc again. “What is it?”
Doc licked his lips. “You have no symptoms of Hillman-Waite Syndrome,” Doc said. “None. Now, the blood tests will tell us for certain. And we will have those results tomorrow, I promise you. But chicacita, I have seen HWS cells in the blood before, and I do not see any in yours. These blood cells I’ve just examined, they appear to be perfectly normal.”
She just stared at him. Ben felt as if he couldn’t breathe.
“Beyond that,” he said with a wave of his hand, “if the syndrome were still in your body—quite frankly, Penny, you would be dead by now.”
Ben blinked, almost afraid to believe what he was hearing. Penny seemed frozen in place.
Doc looked from one of them to the other, pursing his lips at their silence. “The HWS gets progressively worse, the coma signaling the final stages. You were there. You were at the end, and now you are back.” Doc shook his head. “I have never seen anything like this before.”
Penny tried to speak, but her voice was like dried straw. “Are you telling me I’m not sick anymore? That I’m not going to die?”
Doc smiled so hard Ben thought his lips would split. “The blood tests will confirm it, Penny. But I think the results will show exactly what I expect. I am not a young man. I have been a doctor for a long time, and so, you see, I am good at this. I see no trace of HWS. No, Penny, you are not going to die.”
“Oh, my God,” she whispered. She turned slowly to Ben, stunned and blinking and shaking her head.
He closed his eyes tight and wrapped her up in his arms. He couldn’t believe this. It was like a dream. Maybe he was dreaming. Maybe he’d wake up, and none of this would be true. Maybe…
“I’m not going to die,” Penny said, full volume now, and she leaped off the table, clinging to him. Ben spun her around in a circle, and let his wary heart accept this gift. And the grief seemed to chip away like plaster, until his heart was free and beating again.
He held her, kissed her. “Thank you,” he kept saying over and over. “God, thank you.”
Finally Doc cleared his throat loudly enough so that Ben was reminded of where he was. Gently he set Penny down on the table again, but he couldn’t take his eyes from her face. Tears gleaming on her cheeks. Rosy cheeks. Rosy with the blush of health.
“All right,” Doc said. “Now we talk about this amnesia, yes?”
Ben looked at Doc, but he stood close enough so he was touching Penny, one arm around her. Almost afraid to let go.
“This Barlow, you say he told you your memory would not return, is this true?” Doc asked.
“Yes. He said he was certain. There was no chance of me regaining my memory.”
Doc nodded. “But you know he was lying, don’t you, Penny?”
Penny blinked, said nothing.
“He would have no way of knowing this if your amnesia was due to the coma. Coma patients sometimes recover their memory, sometimes… not so much. But only time tells us which will be the case. So…why would this Barlow tell you such a lie?”
Penny studied Doc’s face, and Ben could see her trying to decide how much to tell him about her suspicions of Dr. Barlow. But before she could speak, he went on. “My guess is you have remembered something already, have you not? A tiny flash in the mind? A dream too vivid to be just a dream? A feeling of recognition about something? Any of that?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding emphatically. “And the headaches…every time I remember something, my head just throbs.”
This made Doc pause. He tilted his head to one side, searching Penny’s face. “Tell me, Penny, while at this hospice under this man’s care, was he giving you any medication?”
She nodded. “Pills to help me sleep, and a shot every day—”
“And…did you ever wake up with a bitter taste in your mouth?”
She frowned. “How did you…?”
“Would this doctor—if he is a doctor—have had any reason to hope your memory would not return?”
Penny glanced at Ben. Ben nodded at her.
“Maybe,” she said. “Why?”
Doc shrugged and made a note on the chart. “Could be nothing. But I will have one more test run for you. I think we took enough blood for both.”
“Do you think there’s a chance she might remember after all?” Ben asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Your Penny, she has beaten a fatal disease, by all appearances,” Doc said, smiling. “And that she is already remembering, this is a good sign. I would say where this wife of yours is concerned, anything is possible.” He turned to Penny. “Now, you can get dressed. I’m going to write you a prescription, Penny—a very mild drug for these headaches. But you take it only when the head is aching, okay?”
Penny nodded. “Okay.”
“Good.” Doc grinned as he finished scribbling, tore the illegibly written sheet from his prescription pad and handed it to her. Then he leaned close. “We share an interest, you and I.”
“Do we?”
Doc nodded, grinning. “We both like solving puzzles. I’m going to help you solve this one, I promise you that.” He squeezed her hand, then turned and left them alone again.
Ben looked at Penny for a long time. “Come here,” he said softly, and then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her like he hadn’t kissed her in years, without a single hint of sorrow detracting from the passion.
Penny didn’t know when Ben had slipped away to call his family with the news, but he’d managed it. Maybe sometime during their stop at the grocery store in town or at Mr. Henry’s drugstore while they waited for her prescription to be filled. At any rate she’d been looking forward to sharing her good news with the rest of the Brands.
It was an odd feeling, this knowing that her own happiness meant so much to other people. People who’d been strangers to her only days ago, but who were slowly somehow becoming her family. She had no doubt they’d all be overjoyed for her. And the fact that she’d initially suspected any one of them of being involved in her disappearance seemed ludicrous now.
When she walked through the front door that afternoon, a sudden chorus of shouts had taken her by surprise. She looked around, blinking. The entire living room was filled with people. Streamers and confetti littered the place, music bawled from unseen speakers, and Ollie barked a greeting as if joining in the happy celebration.
Chelsea grabbed Penny and hugged her hard. “You weren’t here for your birthday, Penny. But this is even better, don’t you think?”
“My birthday….” Penny blinked and turned to Ben. “God, I don’t even know when I was born.”
Ben smiled. “Thirty years ago last Sunday, hon. Same day as Nancy Drew.” He smiled at her, and she felt warm inside. “We’ll call today your rebirth day. The day you got a new lease on life.”
“And a chance to start over,” she whispered.
Ben nodded, and ushered her into the midst of her re-birthday party. Chelsea walked close to her other side, and urged her toward a table full of gaily wrapped presents. Penny blinked tears from her eyes. “All this…for me?”
“Who else?” Chelsea asked, smiling. “We had to scramble to shop while Ben kept you busy in town. Here, open mine first!” And she pressed a small box into Penny’s hand. “And hurry up, I want to show you the cake. It’s gorgeous!”
Penny couldn’t speak for the lump in her throat. But she leaned forward and gently kissed Chelsea’s cheek, and hoped that one gesture could somehow convey the depth of what she was feeling.
Ben thought he probably had the best family in the world. They made Penny feel she belonged—and she did, though she didn’t remember how much a part of his family she had been. But he could see her relaxing, enjoying the celebration. He thought he was happier right now than he’d ever been in his life.
And then he saw Penny’s eyes cloud over, and he followed her gaze. Kirsten stood in a corner, talking to Adam. It troubled Ben to see her here, set off that sense of forebodi
ng in his gut—the one he’d been deliberately ignoring up to now. He hated that Penny didn’t seem glad to see her onetime best friend. God, they’d been so close. And he’d been close to Kirsten, as well, as close as he was to his own sister. They’d been a foursome, he and Penny, Adam and Kirsten. If only Penny had her memories, she’d understand about this intimacy she seemed to sense between Kirsten and him. He’d picked up on that the last time he’d brought Kirsten’s name up. It bothered him. Maybe in time….
He knew all too well there was another reason for that twist in his belly upon seeing Kirsten here. And likely another reason for the look on Penny’s face when she glimpsed her. Kirsten had the answers. She knew how and why Penny had ended up in that clinic, and why he’d ended up grieving over the grave of a stranger. And he told himself he wanted those answers, and that Penny needed them. But that didn’t alter the queasiness in his stomach when he thought about actually getting them.
He was curious now, though, to see Adam apparently having a civil conversation with the woman he claimed to hate. Penny was distracted for the moment. Jessi had drawn her into the dining room to show her that huge, beautiful sheet cake she’d had decorated for the occasion. So he sidled closer to where Adam and Kirsten stood, off by themselves.
“I was surprised you even wanted me here,” Kirsten was saying.
“I invited you for Penny’s sake,” Adam told her. “Not for mine.”
“And Penny’s the only reason I came,” she said. “Still….” She met Adam’s eyes briefly, then looked at her feet. “It was good of you to call.”
“I know you love her, Kirsten. Whatever you did, you did it for Penny. I know that—and I think deep down, Ben does, too. Inviting you was the right thing to do.” Adam kept averting his eyes, whenever she looked directly at him. But when she wasn’t, he seemed unable to keep his gaze away from her face. “But no matter what your motives were, you did this family wrong.”
“Adam, can’t we put the past behind us? This hostility is just…just so useless. I can’t change what I did. Not what I did for Penny—not what I did on our wedding day.”
He lowered his head. “And I can’t change the way I feel, Kirsten.”
“I think you could…if you wanted to. Does hating me really give you such pleasure?”
“Yeah,” he told her, his voice dripping sarcasm. “Thrills me to no end. Hell, I’m just getting good at it, I’d hate to quit now.”
“You’re a bastard, Adam Brand.”
He shrugged. “My brother Garrett raised me too well to say what you are, Kirsten Armstrong.”
“Cowan,” she reminded him. “I’m married now, remember?”
Her barb hit home and drove deep. Ben saw his brother flinch with the impact. “I’m not likely to forget that.”
Shaking her head in disgust, she turned, heading away from him. Ben caught her hand in his, and she stopped. She blinked as she looked up at him, and he thought maybe her eyes were a little bit damp.
“He’s still hurting,” Ben said softly. “Cut him some slack, okay?”
She turned her hand in Ben’s, linking fingers with him, and managed a weak smile. “It’s not like it matters.”
“It does. Trust me, Kirsten, it does.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Time’s the only thing that’s gonna help. You be patient, and he’ll come around. You two obviously weren’t meant to be together. You did what your heart told you, and he can’t hate you for that forever.”
“I did what I had to do,” she muttered. But then she gave her head a shake. “But this is no time for the pile of garbage between Adam and me. It’s a celebration. Ben, I’m so happy for you and Penny.”
“I know you are, hon.”
Kirsten leaned up and kissed Ben’s cheek. When she stepped away, Penny was standing beside her, holding two small plates with a piece of cake on each one. Her eyes, when Ben met them, were cool, and maybe a little confused.
“Penny,” Kirsten said, and she turned to plant a similar kiss on Penny’s cheek, apparently unaware of any tension in the air. “You have no idea how often I’ve prayed for this. It’s a miracle.”
Penny only nodded, and her smile seemed to be made of glass. Fragile, and on the verge of shattering. “Thank you, Kirsten. I…I hope you can stay for a while. I think it’s time we had that talk.”
Kirsten sent Ben a look, and he thought there might have been a hint of panic in her eyes. But she drew a breath, faced Penny again and nodded firmly. “Yes, it is. I’ll stay, Penny. There’s a lot you need to know.”
“I can see that.” Penny handed Ben one of the pieces of cake, and gave Kirsten the other. Then, she turned to go back to the dining room.
Chapter 10
The party lasted for hours, but at last, well after nightfall, the crowd started thinning out. Wes and Taylor had their horses to tend to at their place, Sky Dancer Ranch. Jessi and Lash had to take little Maria home and tuck her in for the night. And Chelsea managed to talk her own toddler into heading upstairs for his bath and bedtime story, though Bubba argued all the way to his room.
Eventually all that remained were Adam and Kirsten, Penny and Ben. And Ben knew the time had come for revelations, for truth. He was as afraid of hearing it as Kirsten seemed to be of telling it. And he didn’t even know why. It was something in his gut that defied logic.
Adam brought freshly brewed coffee into the living room, while Ben knelt to build a fire in the fireplace, working around the two dogs who’d apparently collapsed in exhaustion. Too much running from guest to guest for attention and an occasional crumb of cake, he figured. Their swollen bellies were further evidence of that guess.
Blue lay in his usual position, head resting atop his forelegs, ears folded on the floor. Olive was not quite as conservative, though. She lay on her back, legs up. Gravity made her jowls pull backward, so her teeth were bared, and she was snoring like a chainsaw. Her chest rose from her body like a roasted turkey’s. The sight of her would have made him smile under any other circumstances.
But not tonight.
He got the fire started, but doubted it would warm him. He thought maybe the chill in his bones had nothing to do with the temperature. He kept telling himself this was the happiest day of his life, and that he was a fool to be so apprehensive. The churning in his belly told him otherwise, no matter how little sense that made.
Penny sat in the rocking chair and took the steaming mug from Adam when he offered it. Kirsten paced like a caged lioness.
“It’s time,” Penny said softly. “Tell me what you know about what happened to me, Kirsten.”
She stopped pacing, and her eyes widened just a little. “I thought we were going to talk alone.”
Penny frowned at her, shaking her head. “No, of course not. Ben has as much right to know what really happened as I do. I want him to know.”
“No, Penny, you don’t.” Kirsten’s eyes held a warning as she stared hard at Penny. “Believe me, you really don’t. We should talk alone.”
Penny shot a startled glance from Kirsten to Ben, and back again. “What is that supposed to mean? Look, Kirsten, I have nothing to hide from my husband.”
Drawing a deep sigh and shaking her head slowly, Kirsten said, “I guess it’s your choice. But I think you should hear what I have to say first—then make up your mind, once you know what I have to tell you.”
“It doesn’t matter what you have to say,” Penny told her. And then she got a funny look, a dark one Ben didn’t recognize. “Nothing matters, Kirsten, except that I am back now. I’m back reclaim my life, and knowing the truth is the only way I can do it. So will you just stop with the arguments and the innuendo and simply tell us what happened?”
Kirsten searched Penny’s face for a moment, as if she was slightly confused, and maybe not quite sure what Penny was trying to say. But her words had definitely had the tone of a warning. She couldn’t have missed that.
Finally Kirsten nodded, glancing nervously around the room as she took a seat
in the overstuffed armchair closest to Penny’s rocker. “Where’s Garrett?”
“Playing taxi,” Ben said. He leaned back against the mantel, crossing his arms over his chest. “A few of the guys got into the beer more than they should have during the party. He’s driving them home.”
“Why?” Adam cut in. “What’s Garrett got to do with any of this?”
Kirsten met his eyes, and hers turned stony. “Because I’m not telling you a thing until your brother the sheriff gives me his word that I won’t be arrested or charged with anything when I’m finished.”
Adam’s brows creased. “So you not only know about all this, but you were involved in it as well.” He said it as if he was not the least bit surprised. “Rest assured, sweetheart, if there are grounds to arrest you, I’ll do the honors myself. And I’m going to find out whether you tell me or not, so—”
“Shut the hell up, Adam,” Ben said, straightening his stance and glaring at his brother. Fear had shone like glittering ice crystals in Kirsten’s eyes before she’d hidden it. If she decided not to talk….
Ben went to where she was sitting, knelt down and took her hands in his. “You love her,” he said gently. “Kirsten, please. I’m not gonna let anybody arrest you, I swear it. Just tell us. Penny needs to know—I need to know. What really happened that night?” He could feel Penny’s eyes on him. But he didn’t glance her way. His entire focus right now was on Kirsten, on convincing her to tell him what she knew.
Sniffling, brushing newborn tears from her cheeks with the backs of her hands, she finally nodded. “It was only because she loved you so much, Ben. You have to believe that. No matter what she did, it was—”
“What she did?” That knot in Ben’s stomach drew painfully tighter.
“I had to help her. I had to. I was her best friend. I’d have cut off my arm for her, you know that, don’t you?” She drew one hand away to drag it across her face. The tears left a red streak.
Ben nodded. His throat had gone bone dry. Penny leaned forward in the rocking chair. Adam remained standing, glowering at his onetime lover.
Long Gone Lonesome Blues Page 15
