The Texan Meets His Match (Lake Howling Book 2)

by Vella, Wendy

“I bet Annabelle took a swipe or two on your behalf too?” Buster said with what constituted a smile on his face.

  Ethan snorted. “More than a few. At the rehearsal dinner she told everyone about my time in the Army and pretty soon I was shaking hands and being congratulated, much to my dad’s displeasure.” Ethan smiled, remembering the moment. She’d been amazing.

  “Your folks hadn’t told anyone?” Branna looked ready to cry, so he placed a hand over hers.

  “It’s alright, Branna, really. I’m used to it now.”

  “Well, if that don’t beat all,” Buster said. “Now I have to reevaluate my opinion of you.”

  “No, I’m still an arrogant asshole, bud, so we’re good there,” Ethan joked with his friend.

  “And you and Annabelle?” Buster said, giving Ethan a steady look.

  “I care about her, but for now that’s all I’m saying, because we have to deal with this shit with Cooper first.”

  “Fair enough,” Jake said, getting to his feet. “But you’ve got my permission, if that helps.”

  “Mine too,” both Branna and Buster said, which just about made Ethan cry, and that showed him just how tired he was.

  “And now you need sleep,” Jake said, “so go get some. Which bed you choose is up to you.”

  Ethan nodded, and thanked his friends for listening.

  “God’s truth, though, Tex, can we cut the emotion for a while? I’ve got a rash forming,” Buster said, taking the hand Ethan held out to him.

  “Deal,” Ethan said, then headed down the hallway. He looked in on Cooper, who was sleeping, but restless, then found Annabelle fast asleep in another room. He walked in, then stripped off his clothes, pulled back the covers and climbed into bed with her.

  “It’s me, baby,” he said as she stirred. Lifting her into his arms, he yawned, and in seconds he, like Annabelle, was asleep.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Ethan woke the morning after their return to find Annabelle gone. While he was sleeping the sleep of the dead, Cooper had been transferred to Dr McBride’s clinic, and he would stay there until he was stable. They would feed him intravenously, Jake told Ethan, to try to build up his strength. Belle would stay at the clinic with him, as that would also allow her to work and watch over him.

  Ethan wasn’t happy about missing all that.

  “Not much you could have done, bud,” his friend said, handing Ethan a mug of steaming coffee. “And Annabelle said it was important that you get your sleep, since you’ll be flying again soon.”

  “How was she?” Ethan asked.

  “Scared and fighting hard not to show it,” Jake said. “She’s always dealt with everything herself, which just plain pisses both Bran and me off, but it’s just the way she is.”

  Was, Ethan thought silently. He wouldn’t let her be like that again…not with him.

  “You need to come with me to see Cubby now, Jake. I have to talk to him about some stuff before I go and visit Annabelle at the clinic.”

  “Sure. Does it have to do with Cooper and the money he owes?”

  Nothing got by Jake McBride. “Yeah, but I’ll tell you when we see Cubby.”

  Ethan showered and dressed, then they drove into town in ‘Geraldine.’ Mist was rising off the lake and the air was cool and clean, and Ethan felt the last of the tension that had been riding him since he’d stepped foot in Vegas begin to ease.

  “How come your woman let you out in this?” Ethan tapped the dash of the car.

  Geraldine was a 1966 Ford Mustang 4 speed manual 289 V8 that Branna’s friend Georgie had left to her upon her death, and Jake loved the car passionately.

  “I get to drive it when I’m a good boy,” Jake said with a mile-wide smile.

  “Do I want to know what you have to do to be a good boy?”

  The smile turned wicked.

  “Never mind,” Ethan said quickly.

  When they arrived in the town of Howling, Ethan and Jake headed for The Lair, which was the local police station. The building edged the lake, so the view from the sheriff’s office was a prime piece of Howling real estate.

  “By the look on your face, Tex, I’m thinking this isn’t a social call.”

  Cubby Hawker had sharp eyes that he used to pin a person in place. Thick red hair stood off his head. He was a man who carried a uniform well, and someone you instantly trusted to do his job on your behalf if required.

  “Ethan and Annabelle brought Cooper home last night, Cubby, and he’s not good,” Jake said, sitting in one of the two chairs in front of Cubby’s desk while Ethan took the other.

  Ethan explained what had been happening with Annabelle’s brother, and then about the man he’d paid the money to that night in Vegas.

  Cubby whistled softly as he listened, his pen moving quickly over the pad on his desk.

  “And this man told you that this guy Jenson might come after Cooper?”

  “Not in so many words, but he said he was a mean son of a bitch so I thought you should know about him, just in case he does try.”

  “I’ll do some digging, see what I can find.” Cubby regained his feet, as did Ethan and Jake. “We watch over our own, so I’ll make sure the Smiths stay safe.” He stuck out a large hand. “Thanks for looking after Coop and Annabelle, Ethan. They’re important to us.”

  Ethan shook the offered hand. “She’s important to me too.”

  “Is she, now?” Cubby’s smile was slow. “I have to say I don’t mind hearing that, don’t mind at all, seeing as you’re an honorary Howler.”

  “I’ve never met a group of people so involved in each other’s business,” Ethan said. “It’s downright uncomfortable,” he added, heading back out of the office with Jake minutes later. They were heading to Dr McBride’s clinic.

  “We care about each other,” Jake said. “And now that you’re one of us, you’re subjected to the same rules.”

  “Rules?”

  “We know everything that’s happening in your life, then talk about it, and intervene if we feel it’s required.”

  “That’s weird, but kind of nice at the same time,” Ethan said.

  “Sounds about right,” Jake replied before they headed inside the clinic. “I’ll go find Annabelle and send her out to you, then I need to help Mom with some stuff.”

  Annabelle was in with Cooper, and they weren’t to be disturbed, so Ethan said he’d wait in the reception area as it was busy out back. He was reading a disturbing article on gum disease and running his tongue around his mouth when she came out to see him.

  Still pale, she had dark rings under her eyes and the worry and guilt sitting on her shoulders was in every line of her lovely body.

  “Hey.” He walked towards her. Lifting a hand, he cupped her cheek and leaned in to brush a kiss over her lips.

  “Hey.”

  “How’s Cooper?”

  “Bad.” Just the one word, and Ethan could see she’d closed her emotions off from him and was battling to show him she was all right.

  “I have to head back to Brook for a few days because I have a couple of charters I can’t cancel at this short notice.” “Sure. Hey, don’t hurry back. I’m going to be pretty tied up with Cooper now. He has to be my main focus.”

  She didn’t look at him, so he turned her chin so she was facing him.

  “I’ll be back, so don’t even think about pushing me aside. What’s between us is not going away, so when you’re ready we’ll be having a talk.”

  “Oh, but…we—”

  “No buts.” Ethan pulled her back into his arms and kissed her right there in front of the administrator and other patients waiting to be seen, letting her go only when she’d stopped resisting him. “Cooper deserves your care and love, Annabelle, but not that you shut everything else out of your life…especially me.”

  She didn’t speak again, just stepped away from him and walked back through the doors. The feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn’t a good one.

  He flew out of Howling an hour lat
er, frustrated and tense.

  Two days later he was at the point of saying to hell with the tours, he was going back to Howling. Annabelle was avoiding him; every time he called, she found a reason to cut it short. Her words were clipped and unemotional, and it was an exercise in self-control not to yell through the phone at her.

  Ethan wasn’t a total asshole; he knew what she was going through, and why she was shutting herself away from him, but it still hurt. He wanted to help her with Cooper, help with every goddamn thing, ease her pain, soothe her hurts, but she wouldn’t let him in, so in frustration he called Jake.

  “Cooper’s anxious and irritable and depressed most days, and Annabelle’s taking the brunt of everything because she’s had him moved back home with her. She’s taken two weeks’ leave and is nursing him around the clock. We’re all doing as much as we can, taking turns to help, but you know how stubborn she is, Ethan. She’s continually telling us she doesn’t need help and trying to push us away.”

  Ethan was listening to Jake on his speakerphone while he did paperwork.

  “But you’re ignoring her, right?” Ethan asked. “You’re keeping an eye on her like I told you to?”

  “For the record you, didn’t need to tell us to. We just do that shit because she’s one of ours,” Jake said.

  “Yeah, yeah, I got that,” Ethan said. “I’ve had that lecture from you, Branna and pretty much everyone else in that town.”

  “We got her covered, Ethan, don’t worry. Cubby’s keeping an eye on anyone new coming and going in case that guy Jenson shows up in town, or anyone suspicious. Buster and Newman turned up at her house last night and told her to take a drive in his car and that they’d watch over Cooper. When she refused, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her out to his car. When she still refused, he walked back inside, and then he and Newman locked all the doors and windows so she couldn’t get back in.”

  Ethan grunted his agreement with Buster’s move.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow. I just couldn’t get out of these two charters,” Ethan said, feeling guilty as hell that she was going through this without him.

  “I know, and I’ve told her that, like you said, but she keeps saying you’ve done enough and that you don’t need to come back,” Jake said, which had Ethan’s blood pressure climbing.

  “Fuck that shit!” He threw his pen across the room. “When I call her, she talks to me in that polite I don’t have time for you way, and now she doesn’t want me to come back and help. What’s up with that, McBride?”

  “Damned if I know. You want to tell me?”

  “No…maybe. Hell if I know,” Ethan sighed. “But I have to tell you, she’s a tough woman to care about.”

  There was a few seconds of silence before Jake said, “What the hell went on between you two in Texas? Because every time anyone mentions it, Annabelle just shuts down and all she’ll say is, it went well.”

  Well? It went fucking incredible, Ethan thought, but he kept that to himself. “I told you the part about my family. The rest is personal.”

  “I got me a beer and a pizza with shitloads of cheese and peppers, boy. Wife’s off with those crazy book club women, so my ears are all yours, if you need to elaborate.”

  “Is that crust crispy?” Ethan could feel his mouth watering.

  “Damn near cooked to perfection, wouldn’t you say, Buster?”

  “I’m having this conversation with you, and the domestic goddess has been there the entire time?” Ethan pinched his nose as he tried to remember what he’d said.

  “You sweating there, Number Five?”

  “Fuck you, baker boy,” Ethan said, smiling. If anyone could make him laugh, it was Buster Griffin.

  “Now, now, no need to get the brim of your Stetson curled, Tex. We’re all friends here.”

  “So Cooper’s giving her a hard time?” Ethan said, ignoring Buster in favor of asking the questions that he needed to have answered.

  “Yeah, but heroin withdrawal is hard. I’ve seen a few people going through it, and a lot of it depends on the person and how long they’ve been using,” Jake said.

  “Never seen a man sweat that much,” Buster said. “Tears me up to see what’s become of the healthy young man who left here. On one hand I want to hug him and on the other, plant my fist in his face for what he’s done to himself and his sister.”

  Ethan nodded even though they couldn’t see him. He understood that feeling; he’d been angry too, especially knowing what Annabelle had done for her brother.

  “She said something about the money again, Ethan, and how she’d have to work for the rest of her life and then some to pay you back.”

  Ethan felt his anger rise again at Jake’s words. “I told her she doesn’t need to worry about it.”

  “She has this little thing called pride, you know.” Buster was eating; Ethan could hear him, and he wanted to reach through the phone and take a slice of the pizza for himself. “It makes her irrational… Well, that and the whole woman thing.”

  The three men all grunted in acknowledgement of those words.

  “It may not even put a dent in your net worth, Tex, but that girl will not settle until the money matter is dealt with, I’m telling you,” Buster said.

  “I’ll talk to her when I get back tomorrow, but she’s not selling her house to pay me, and what’s more that debt is not hers, it’s her brother’s.”

  “Yeah, I guess you could be right on that front. Maybe you need to point that out to Cooper when you get a chance,” Jake said.

  “Maybe I will.”

  “Strangely, when I brought up your name with Cooper, he wasn’t happy, so I’m thinking the boy may see you as a threat of some kind. You figure he’s got grounds?” Buster asked.

  “You asking about my intentions towards her, Griffin?”

  “Yup.” That came from both the men at the other end of the line.

  “But before you spill your guts and make us all tear up, remember one thing, Ethan.” Jake’s tone was serious. “You’re our friend too, so this whatever it is between you and Annabelle Smith is not just about her getting hurt, it’s about you both, and ensuring neither of you do.”

  “Well, damn, McBride, you should be writing poetry.”

  Ethan chuckled as he heard Buster’s words. “I care about her very much,” Ethan said. “So much so that I just took all my little black books out and started a fire with them.”

  “Well, fuck me,” Buster whistled. “That just plain hurts that you didn’t think to give them to your friend.”

  “There is no way in hell those women would settle for you after a stud like me.”

  That was followed by several imaginative curses from Buster and hoots of laughter from Jake.

  “Can’t get more serious than that,” Jake said when he stopped laughing. “I know how important those books were to you, Gelderman.”

  “She got hold of Zach finally. He’s coming home as soon as he can arrange leave,” Jake said.

  “She’d be happy about that,” Ethan said, remembering Annabelle’s concerns about her other brother not knowing what was happening with Cooper.

  They talked a while longer, then Ethan went out and got himself pizza and beer, because the thought was now firmly lodged in his head and nothing else would do. He then canceled any further charters. After a shower, he called Annabelle, but she didn’t pick up, which seriously pissed him off, so much so that he didn’t leave a message.

  Falling into bed, he set his alarm. He’d rise early and head to Howling, and then she’d acknowledge him, even if he had to camp in her damned living room until she did.

  Ethan had known he loved her, but even if he hadn’t worked that out yet, then the pain in his chest that had started as soon as he flew away from her confirmed it. She was inside him now, in his heart and his head, and he knew there was no way of dislodging her. He just had to make her feel the same way.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Annabelle had been tired before, but thi
s bone-deep weariness was something else entirely.

  “Annabelle!”

  She looked at the doorway the voice had come through. Cooper had lain in that bed constantly for four days with her at his side, and she was beginning to hate that room, and if she was honest, dislike her brother, which she knew wasn’t fair. He was suffering, as she had known he would be, but he was making her life hell because of it, which again she had known he would.

  “Just a minute, Cooper. I need to get the wash off the line,” she said, walking out the back door. The breeze was cold and the feel of approaching winter didn’t lighten her spirits as it once would have. She might moan and bitch with the rest of Howling’s residents about the frozen roads and the snow that would dump in huge amounts on their doorsteps, but the reality was that she loved seeing the white-topped mountains and frozen waters. This was their time. Not many visitors drove here over the steep, slippery roads, so Howling was a quiet, sleepy little town during the cold months of winter, just the way she liked it.

  This year she wasn’t sure she’d have the energy to cope with it; shoveling snow and frozen pipes just seemed way too hard to deal with at the moment. Her normal energy seemed to have deserted her, and right at this moment, she wasn’t entirely sure it would ever come back.

  She’d taken two weeks off work because that was all she could manage, and even that was stretching her budget tighter, but her brother needed her, and for longer than ten days. By then she hoped at least to have him stable, plus she hoped Zach would be home to help out.

  She began to take down the clothes and drop them in the basket, enjoying the chore because it took her out of the house for a few minutes. What kind of sister wanted to get away from a brother who was suffering? She was a bad person for even having the thoughts she did, the ones that had her giving Cooper a piece of her mind. She had tried more than once to get him out of bed, tried to get him to go for a short walk, anything to move him from the bed, but he just glared at her and hissed something foul, and she’d had to walk away or slap the look from his face. She knew time was what was needed, but patience and Annabelle had never been buddies.