Lost & Found Love

by Laura Browning

  He hadn’t seen her again in years, not until he had caught that scum Owens with his still on Richardson property. He had threatened to turn him in. He was as self-righteous as Evan back then, as idealistic. God had Owens opened his eyes!

  Stoner swallowed thickly. He didn’t want to think about this now. He knew he would have to explain it all eventually, but not now. Tabby was who mattered. Tabitha…his daughter. There was a wonder in those three words that he wanted to see fulfilled. He had failed more often than not with both Evan and Erin, but now he realized how quickly he’d connected with Tabby right from the beginning. He wanted to be able to make it Tabitha Richardson before she and the preacher made it Tabitha Taylor. If she would let him. If she lived.

  “Dad…” Evan’s tone lacked heat now.

  “Don’t. Not now, Evan.” Stoner’s voice was choked.

  * * * *

  Evan’s brow knitted as he stared at his father’s profile. He still reeled in disbelief, but the transfusions were real enough. Perfect matches. Evan knew how rare their blood type was. It was all tied to some antigens that made transfusions tricky. That was why they wore the medical alert bracelets. They could only receive O negative blood, and not all of that was compatible.

  Tabby. He thought of her this time from a different perspective, not from Jenny’s tawny eyes, but from the other and far more numerous things they all should have seen. Her straight black hair. Her winging brows and distinctive nose. Her height. She had to be around five-ten. Jenny’s sister. His sister. She was a tie that bound them all back to the man lying beside him. The man Mary Owens had confessed in her letter to loving. The man she had refused to identify even then in order to protect him.

  Evan tried again. “Dad…”

  Stoner shook his head, and his jaw muscles worked. He turned away, but not before Evan saw the tears. His father never cried. The senator had never been anything other than a cold, callous, hard-nosed son of a bitch. Evan always felt his father loved no one. Not his mother, not his children, and often not even himself. He had to strain now to hear his whisper.

  “How did I fuck it all up so badly? Oh, God. Please, don’t take her away when I’ve just found her.” For a change, Evan realized it was a prayer rather than an imprecation on his father’s lips. “Don’t let me lose this last part of Mary. I should have looked harder. I shouldn’t have given up. I should never have believed that scum Owens and what he said about her.” His father sobbed harshly, his broad shoulders shaking and his breath catching in hoarse rasps. “Instead I let her go, let her end up with a man who beat her, beat my daughter….”

  When Evan saw his father wipe his eyes and his nose with his free hand, he reached into his pants pocket and brought out his handkerchief.

  “Here, take my handkerchief.” He swallowed as Stoner took the folded linen and scrubbed his eyes. “She’ll make it, Dad. She’s one of us. Look what she’s already faced. She’s a survivor.”

  The techs unhooked the second bags from each of them, and while one tech headed toward the operating room with the last of the blood, the other removed needles, put pressure on arms, and cautioned both men to remain lying down. She looked at them severely. “Both of you listen up. I know how all you damn Richardsons are. You’re stubborn, arrogant, and pig-headed. But you have both just donated double the amount of blood we normally allow. Your bodies have been reduced to about eighty percent capacity. If you try to move before I tell you, you’ll faint, and we’re all too busy and too tired to pick up stupid, hulking giants who won’t listen to reason.”

  “You have such a charming bedside manner,” Evan drawled. He glanced at her name tag. “You wouldn’t by any chance be related to Sam Barnes, would you?”

  “Second cousin.”

  Stoner smiled at her. “You’re much nicer than him. He’s a prick.”

  She narrowed eyes on him. “Flattery will get you a bedpan on your head.” And the door snapped shut behind her.

  Evan glanced at his father. “Now, that’s the Stoner Richardson I know.”

  Stoner looked at him and sighed. “You don’t know me at all, Son. That little girl on the operating table knows me better than you, your sister, or sometimes even your mother.”

  He turned his face away.

  “You never let us know you,” Evan protested. “You shut yourself away from us.”

  “I was there for your basketball games. I taught you how to hunt. What do you mean I shut myself away?”

  “Senator Richardson was there because that was what he was supposed to do,” Evan said, unable to keep some of the bitterness out of his voice. “But Stoner? The Stoner Richardson Tabby knows was never there.”

  * * * *

  “Her blood pressure’s dropping, Jen,” Razawi interjected quietly.

  “Check on the blood. We need to get those other two pints in her. I’m estimating she’s lost about twenty-five to thirty percent. We’re praying for a miracle here. Let’s get the rest of it in her while I fix these smaller vessels. Five more minutes and I should have it. Once we get circulation going again through this leg, we can slow down, give her a chance to stabilize more before—”

  She was interrupted by alarms blaring. Jenny looked up. Her blood ran cold. “She’s crashing!”

  Razawi barked orders. A nurse rolled the defibrillator over. Jenny kept working on the leg while he pulled the sheet off Tabby’s chest and prepped her. He took the paddles from a nurse and glanced at Jenny. “Clear, Doc.”

  “Clear.” Jenny held up blood-coated gloves and turned to a nurse. “Change these.” She needed new gloves to keep working effectively, but she also couldn’t bear to see Tabby’s body jerk from the shock. There was silence for a moment. Jenny’s mind, heart, and breathing had stopped along with everything and everyone else, tensed and waiting. Beep, beep—the regular beep of the heart monitor unfroze every man and woman in the operating room. Jenny sighed and turned back to work.

  “Don’t you die on me, Tabby!” she growled. “Between our mama and your son of a bitch of a daddy, you’ve gotta be way tougher than Evan or me put together.”

  Chapter 11

  Joe paced nervously around the surgical waiting room. He had yet to hear anything about Tabby. He’d already sent so many petitions to God, he was afraid it might be construed as nagging or begging, but he was more than ready to do that too. He glanced at the clock again. Over an hour gone. The door from the hallway opened. Catherine and Joe immediately looked up. Evan entered the room, nodded to Joe, and crossed over to Catherine. He held out his arms for his sleeping son. Catherine looked from Evan to the door.

  “Where’s your father?”

  “He’ll be here in a minute. He was washing up while someone found him a shirt to wear.”

  “Evan…”

  He looked at his mother coolly. “You weren’t surprised to hear Dad say Tabby is his daughter. Why?”

  Catherine shifted uncomfortably. “You just have to see them together, Evan. Their looks, their mannerisms. From the moment they first met, they communicated at a level I’ve never been able to achieve with your father.”

  Evan’s gray eyes assessed her. “Okay. I’ll accept that for now. But there’s more you aren’t telling, Mother.”

  No matter how much Joe might have liked to give them privacy, there was none to be had in the small waiting room. He rested his hand on Catherine’s shoulder. The time to discuss Tabby’s ever growing family was later. He couldn’t wait any longer. Directing his question to Evan, he asked, “Have you heard anything?”

  Evan shook his head. “They took a total of four pints of blood from Dad and me. I don’t know, Joe. I’m sorry.”

  Four pints? Joe closed his eyes. From his own experience, he knew that was an enormous amount—especially if they needed all of it. Joe’s gaze shifted again as Stoner entered the room. His khaki slacks were still covered in Tabby’s blood, and the white polo shirt someone had found him with Castle County Regional Hospi
tal emblazoned on the left breast only served to accentuate his pallor. He looked… God, he looked old and frightened. The man who had maintained an icy façade during his entire arrest and trial proceedings earlier in the year had now cracked wide open.

  Evan cradled Peter in his arms and stared at his father. Stoner’s hooded gaze gave away nothing. Evan sighed. He started to turn away. Joseph watched the byplay, allowing it to distract him for a moment from the worry that threatened to overwhelm him.

  “Please,” Stoner murmured, with a gesture toward his grandson. “May I hold him?”

  Evan’s eyes narrowed as he watched his father. A faint flush stained the older man’s cheeks. Evan stepped closer and gently transferred the baby into Stoner’s arms. As Joe looked on, Stoner touched Peter’s dark curls with a trembling hand. “He’s beautiful, Son.”

  Stoner’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swayed back and forth with the baby cradled in the crook of his arm. “My grandson.”

  He blinked several times. Joe’s throat ached as he watched the older man battle the emotions building to a crescendo until, with a flush on his cheeks, he held the baby back out to his son.

  “Take him, Evan. Here.”

  As soon as the baby was safely back in Evan’s arms, Stoner knelt down in front of Catherine. Evan and Joseph eased away from the older couple to give them some privacy, even if it was only an illusion in such a confined area.

  Stoner took Catherine’s hands in his. “I’m sorry, Catherine. It was a long time ago. I never knew. Mary just disappeared.”

  She studied her husband unblinkingly. Joe didn’t know much of their history, but he knew enough from what had come out during Stoner’s conspiracy trial to know the man couldn’t have been easy to live with. And yet, Evan’s presence was proof she’d managed it for more than three decades. She gently touched his cheek.

  “We’ve both made some big mistakes, Stoner, things that go back almost to the start. But this isn’t the time or the place to take them out and talk about them. Tabby is who matters right now. Everything else we can deal with later.”

  “You won’t hold my weakness against her?”

  Catherine smiled. “Never. She’s made you happier than I’ve seen you in years. How could I object to someone who can do that?”

  He pulled her hands to his face and bowed his head. Joe saw the moisture on his cheeks as Stoner groaned, “Oh God, Katie.”

  “Damn it, Dad!” Evan barked, snapping everyone back to the present. “You’re turning into a fountain.”

  “Fuck you, Evan,” Stoner snarled.

  “That’s more like it. What was it you always said…?”

  Stoner jumped to his feet. “Don’t cry. Take action. And right now, if you weren’t holding my grandson, I’d flatten you.”

  Evan handed Peter to Catherine. “I’m ready. Go ahead, old man.”

  Both men glared at each other, standing toe-to-toe. Joe stepped between them. Someone had to. “Gentlemen. Aren’t you forgetting why we’re here?”

  Joe had caught their attention. If he looked as frightened as he felt, no wonder they stared at him.

  “Come on, Evan,” Joe pleaded, not sure how much longer he could wait with no news. “Can’t you find out something about Tabby? Please?”

  * * * *

  Jenny blew out an exhausted breath and looked at Razawi. “Okay, remove the clamps. Let’s see if this will hold.”

  She had repaired both the femoral vein and the femoral artery. Around the operating table, everyone held their breath as blood moved through the repaired artery. Jenny noted some bleeding from the capillaries and actually smiled. “Looks like it’s getting to the right spots. Okay. Go ahead and slowly raise the temperature in her leg to encourage circulation while we wait on our orthopedic surgeon.”

  An intercom buzzed in the operating room. “Yes?” Razawi responded.

  “Call came in from the deputy. The plane’s landing now. They should be here in twenty minutes.”

  Jenny looked at Razawi. “I’m going to step out, talk to my family and nurse the baby, then I’ll be back to scrub in again. How you holding up?”

  “I’ll be fine to hold things down in here. If you can assist our orthopedist, then I can crash for a while.”

  Jenny nodded. Once she was in the scrub room, she stripped off her gloves, gown and booties, pulled the cap off her head, and shook out her hair. After closing her eyes for a moment, Jenny took a deep breath to steady herself and hurried to the waiting room. She peeked inside to see what awaited her before she stepped through the door. Stoner and Catherine sat together. Jenny’s eyes widened when she noted their clasped hands. As much as she hated Stoner, Jenny admitted there was a vulnerable look to him she had never seen before.

  Joe sat near the window, his mouth moving silently, probably in prayer. She admired him for a faith so steadfast he could look peaceful even now. Then she caught sight of Evan and felt some of her tension ease. He rocked and bounced Peter who had obviously decided he’d reached the point where only mommy would do. Jenny instantly felt her milk let down as she pushed the door open.

  She went straight for her son and took him into her arms. “I don’t have a lot of time, so let me nurse the baby while I bring you up to date.”

  Stoner and Evan looked like they wanted to protest, but Joseph smiled peacefully. As Jenny turned sideways and lifted her shirt, she heard Evan snap, “How can you look so damn peaceful, Preacher?”

  “If we were going to hear bad news, do you think Jenny would nurse the baby first?”

  Jenny turned to look at Joe. He wasn’t her type, but she could see he would be perfect for Tabby. His steadiness would balance her volatility. He watched her from his angelic blue eyes and smiled. “You almost lost her, didn’t you?”

  Jenny’s eyes widened. “Yes. How did you know?”

  His eyes filled and overflowed. So the calm was just iron control that had finally broken.

  “Sorry. I guess everything’s finally hitting me.” He scrubbed the heel of his hand across both eyes. “I felt her, almost as if she was here with us. I asked God to send her back.”

  Stoner cleared his throat. “Jenny? Is she…?”

  It was difficult to meet the older man’s eyes, even harder to be polite, so she looked at Evan and Joe instead. “She’s through the repairs to the vein and the artery, and circulation in her leg looks good. Her vitals have stabilized. While we’re waiting on the orthopedic surgeon, they’ll take a couple of X-rays to check for any fractures to the femur, hip, and pelvic area. I’m sorry, Joe, but I have to ask—is there any chance she’s pregnant?”

  Joseph Taylor blushed scarlet, and Evan laughed. “I think you can take that as a no. Good thing, too, because now she’s my little sister, I’d have to strangle you.”

  Joe coughed a couple times, and suddenly Jenny saw every eye in the room zero in on him with expressions that ranged from understanding to the desire to hang him by his toenails. “We—uhh…” Joe stopped awkwardly.

  Jenny tapped her cell phone and called down the hall. “Pregnancy test my OR patient before you X-ray.”

  Joe swallowed, shoving his hands into his pockets.

  “It’s okay,” Jenny tried to soothe him.

  Simultaneous growls erupted from Stoner and Evan. Jenny smiled at them, and both men calmed down, though Stoner continued to frown at Joe.

  Evan sat next to Jenny and stroked her hair off her face. “How are you?”

  She bit her lip and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Better now. Better with you and Peter here.”

  Stoner walked away, out of the room. He returned a couple of minutes later with some orange juice and handed it to Jenny. Her initial instinct was to refuse it, but seeing the anguish and fatigue—the humanness—in his expression, made her pause.

  “I thought you might need this,” he explained stiffly. “Surgery takes a lot out of you. So does nursing a baby.”

  Jenny focused on th
e juice, removing it from his hand without meeting his gaze.

  “Thanks, Dad,” Evan said as Jenny drank it.

  Sam Barnes stuck his head in the door, his eyes searching for Stoner. “I need to get you back, Senator. The state folks are giving me hell.”

  Before Stoner could say anything, Evan snapped. “I’ll take responsibility.”

  Sam looked around at everyone, then back to Stoner before his enigmatic gaze eventually settled on Evan. “You call ’em then and let ’em know what you’re doing. If you take responsibility, he has to be in your custody until he returns home.”

  Evan glared. “I know the law, Sam.”

  “Just sayin’, buddy.” Sam saluted him and disappeared back through the door.

  “Prick,” Evan and Stoner said together. Then they amazed Jenny by smiling ever so slightly. It served to cut at least some of the tension in the room.

  * * * *

  Tabby floated in and out of awareness. She’d heard Joseph while she still lay on the road and would swear she’d heard him again later, but that didn’t make sense. She remembered Jenny’s voice and a confusion of images. Joseph, people at a party. A big house. The operating room. Always the operating room and that horrible buzzing in her ears as she faded in and out of consciousness.

  There was a different doctor in the surgery now with Jenny. He was tall and abrupt with quick, clever hands that found delicate muscles, ligaments, and tendons while he barked orders to the nurse assisting. He straightened and looked at Jenny. “If you’ll close her thigh, Doctor Richardson, I’ll take care of the shoulder. Any other injuries?”

  “No. She was lucky.”

  Tabitha fought the drugs trying to pull her back into that pain-free haven of sleep.

  The tall surgeon looked at Jenny. “Damn lucky that Senator Richardson had the God given good sense to find that artery and pinch it. Otherwise, she would have bled out before the ambulance could get to her. She looks like him.”