by Lexi Blake
He heard Sam, but his words didn’t really register. His attention was wholly on the woman in front of him. The rest of the world fell away the minute he caught sight of her.
Abigail sat on a bench outside the office. She was talking to Christa and her mother. Mike stood in his best Sunday suit. He murmured something to the women, who looked up. Abby stood and smiled.
She wore a form-fitting, cream-colored suit with black heels. Her glorious hair was in an elegant bun tied at the nape of her neck. A small hat sat dashingly on her head. She looked every inch the gracious lady, and he had no idea why a woman as beautiful as Abigail wanted to marry the two of them.
“You still nervous?” Sam’s voice was full of emotion.
“I was never nervous, Sam,” he replied, his own voice thick. “I’m anxious. We need to get her to sign those papers before she comes to her senses.”
She walked toward them, glowing with happiness.
“She’s never coming to her senses,” Sam vowed. “She’s going to love us forever.”
“Thank god,” Jack breathed.
“I was beginning to wonder if I was getting stood up,” Abigail complained good-naturedly.
“Never,” the men managed to say in complete synchronicity. They each took a hand and led her into the office.
* * * *
The justice of the peace had never actually married a couple where the woman held hands with two men. He supposed sometimes the bride held hands with her father before he gave the bride away, but Fred Johnson didn’t think the other man in this scenario had any intentions of giving the bride away on a permanent basis.
All in all, it was one for the record books.
Abigail Moore said her vows with a steady voice, but the judge saw her squeezing Sam Fleetwood’s hand, though she was legally becoming Jack Barnes’s wife. It was an odd but emotional ceremony. Barnes didn’t seem to have a problem with Fleetwood kissing the bride after the ceremony. It wasn’t a friendly peck, either. It was quite the passionate kiss, but the new groom merely smiled indulgently before taking another kiss for himself. The small wedding party congratulated the bride, the groom, and Sam Fleetwood.
And there had been a nice tip for him. Yes, it was clear that things were changing around Willow Fork.
With a simple signature, the former outcast of Willow Fork became its queen. One simple “I do” and Abigail Barnes became the richest woman in the county, so the judge wasn’t about to say a thing about the odd, apparently true rumors about the ranchers’ habits. Money turned perversity into eccentricity, and the judge was smart enough to know it. He simply signed all the paperwork and wished the happy couple a good marriage.
Or should he say threesome? He wasn’t sure, but as long as everyone was happy, it was all in a good day’s work.
* * * *
Abby held her new husbands’ hands as they walked out of the judge’s office and toward the exit of the courthouse. A sense of satisfaction flowed through her. It was going to be all right. It would be more than all right. It was going to be good. She would build a life with Jack and Sam, a life filled with love and joy.
Sam dropped her hand and hurried ahead to open the door for her.
“I know that the three of you are anxious to get on with the honeymoon,” Christa announced as the small party began to march out of the courthouse. “Still, I put together a lunch reception at the café. Some of your friends and neighbors would like to celebrate. You aren’t flying out until tomorrow, so come by and do your duty.”
Jack frowned as they walked into the brilliant fall day. “Are there going to be any high school boys there?”
Christa’s laughter had more than one head turning. She’d hoped Jack hadn’t noticed the mob of high school boys plaguing their door.
“No, Jack. They’re all in school. Abby is safe,” Christa assured him.
“Then let’s go have lunch,” Jack offered magnanimously. “Now that I have a wife, I should get used to doing more social things.”
Abby grinned. He didn’t sound like he was looking forward to it.
He would get used to being social because she intended to fit in, even if it killed her. It had occurred to her that this town needed a few things. Willow Fork lacked a free healthcare clinic. Young girls, like she’d been, had nowhere to go for healthcare. Abby felt a crusade beginning and knew Jack and Sam would have to put in face time with the county politicians if she wanted to turn her clinic idea into something real.
Jack offered to bring the truck around when she caught sight of trouble.
“Damn that woman,” Diane Moore cursed.
Ruby Echols strode toward them, dressed in a pale blue suit and elegant pumps. She’d had her hair done and carried a large designer bag. It looked far too big for such a small woman to carry, but Ruby managed with her usual flair. The older woman looked all around with great disdain for the ordinary men and women walking in and out of the courthouse. Her steely-eyed gaze moved around the park in front of the courthouse, and Abby had no doubt who she was looking for. Abby sighed. She wasn’t about to let that old biddy ruin her wedding day.
“I’ll call Walter,” Mike offered, pulling his cell phone out.
Sam tugged on her hand, but she resisted. Ruby had backed her down a couple of days ago. It wasn’t going to happen again. That woman needed to understand that Abigail Moore…Barnes wasn’t going anywhere.
“No, Sam. It’s long past time for me to stand up to that bat. I’m not letting her push me around anymore.”
“Mrs. Echols.” Jack greeted her with a low warning as she stepped tentatively onto the courthouse stairs.
Ruby had the strangest expression on her face as she walked up to the group. There was an odd affection in her gaze as she looked at Jack. Her eyes went slightly watery, and her hand disappeared into her bag, searching for something.
“Hello, dear,” Ruby said, her voice warmer than Abby could ever remember it. “You look so manly in a suit. I always knew you would be a handsome man.”
Jack and Sam exchanged a nervous look. Mike seemed to have gotten in touch with Walter. He was explaining the situation in low tones.
There was something wrong with Ruby Echols and her son needed to take care of it.
“Mrs. Echols,” Mike said gently as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. “Your son is on his way. Why don’t we go sit down and wait for him?”
Ruby’s silver head shook. “Silly boy, my son is right here.” She looked at Jack with a maternal smile. “He’s here making the biggest mistake of his life. Luckily, he has his mama to correct it.”
Abby gasped as Ruby pulled a revolver out of her bag.
The world seemed to shift into slow motion, the moment elongating, horror drawing out. Her heart threatened to stop as Ruby held the gun up with surprising strength. It would hit her in the head. She was going to die. The sound of the gun firing split the air around her. She felt Sam jerk on her hand, but it didn’t do any good.
And then she was on the ground, covered completely by Jack’s big body. She hit the concrete steps with a resounding thud and felt the wind knocked out of her body.
She couldn’t breathe. Where was she hit? Pain wracked her body, but she didn’t think it was from a bullet. Her body ached from being thrown to the concrete. Had Ruby missed?
The keening sound of someone wailing cut through the pain of slamming into the ground.
“Jack?”
Everything around her was chaos. Mike was rushing forward to do something. Someone was crying and screaming about her baby. Was that Ruby? Christa was down on her knees beside Abby, tears streaking down her face.
Through it all she heard her mother talking on a cell phone.
“Yes, there’s been a shooting,” her mother was saying.
But she was okay. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the air in her lungs.
“Yes, we have a man down,” her mother said.
Oh, god. Something worse than pain struck her
. If she wasn’t hit…
Sam was suddenly staring down at her, his face a ghostly white. “I’m going to move Jack. I’ll get you out in a second.”
Panic welled inside her. “He’s been shot?”
“Yeah,” Sam replied, his voice grim.
“You can’t move him. Moving him could cause more damage,” she insisted.
But Sam had already shifted Jack’s heavy body. “I don’t think I can do any more damage.”
How bad was it? This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not today. She’d just found them. She couldn’t lose one of them. Abby looked down at him, at the man she’d married. Ten minutes before her world had been open and full of hope.
Jack had promised to protect her, and Jack never went back on his word. He’d leapt in front of the bullet meant to end her life. His dress shirt was covered with blood. He’d been shot in the chest.
Shot in the chest. Calm down. He was breathing. It was shallow but he wasn’t gone yet. She could panic or she could use decades of training and experience to do everything she could to pull him through this.
It had been worth it. All the pain had been worth it if she could do this one thing. One thing was going to go right. She hadn’t fought, sacrificed, raised a child while going to school, worked her way to the top of her trauma unit to let the love of her life die in front of her eyes.
She glanced up because the first thing she needed to do was take control of the scene. Sam looked like he was going to be sick. Christa was weeping. Mike had Ruby’s gun in his hand and was holding her back. She could do what she needed to.
Abby got to her knees, slapping at Sam’s hands when he tried to pull her to her feet.
“He isn’t dead,” she barked in a voice that would have let any intern know to back off. “Don’t move him any more than we have to.”
She quickly took the phone out of her mother’s hand. “My name is Abigail Barnes. I am a trauma nurse. We have one man down with a GSW to what looks like his left lung.” She listened to the 911 operator as she felt for a pulse. “It missed the heart, but the victim is unconscious and…I’ve got air bubbles in the blood. I’m passing you off to someone else, but we need a care flight. He needs surgery and possibly life support. He needs to get to Tyler as soon as possible.”
She handed the phone back to her mom. Suddenly, Jack’s green eyes opened. She felt a flood of relief that she didn’t allow to slow her down one bit.
“You okay?” He struggled to get the question out.
She looked around for something suitable to use. Jack’s lung was punctured, and he was losing air out of the hole in his chest. It was what they called a “sucking chest wound” in her field. She had to get it covered. The big bouquet of lilies caught her eye. “Sam, tear the cellophane off those flowers.”
While Sam went to do her bidding, she stared down at her patient. “I’m fine, Jack. And so are you.”
He looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t. The pain was evident on his face. It was pinched and stark white.
“I bet it hurts like hell, baby,” she said sternly. “That’s what you get for jumping in front of a bullet, Jack Barnes. Listen here, husband of mine, there’s no eternal rest for you today, got that?”
Sam handed her the piece of plastic, and she gingerly covered the wound. Jack groaned when she pressed down, but his breathing eased immediately.
“Better,” he managed. “I’m not allowed to see a white light?”
She let a small smile tug on her lips. He still had a sense of humor, and as a nurse, she knew the value of that. “You can see it all you like, but don’t you dare walk into it.”
Abby felt Sam at her side. His hands were shaking.
“I love you,” Jack said, a weariness taking over. His body went slack.
In the distance, she heard the thud of a helicopter coming to take Jack. Abby held her hand against his chest and prayed they would make it in time.
Chapter Eighteen
Six Weeks Later
Abby stood beside her daughter, looking out over the expanse of land that made up her new home.
“Should he even be on a horse six weeks after chest surgery?” Lexi stared out the window.
She followed her daughter’s line of sight. Jack was by the barn. He carefully dismounted his horse.
Abby was more than happy to have her daughter in Willow Fork. Having Lexi in the house she shared with Jack and Sam made it seem more like home than ever.
“He’s made a remarkable recovery,” she murmured with a grin.
“You know your mama’s taking excellent care of him.” Abby’s mother joined them at the family room window. She hugged her granddaughter.
“I hear she’s the reason he’s alive,” Lexi said with a proud glance at her mother.
Lexi had the Echols’s coloring. Her black hair and dark eyes gave her a slightly exotic look. Her hair was up in a high ponytail. To Abby, she looked younger than her twenty years.
She would always be her mama’s baby.
“The way Jack and Sam tell it, Mama was practically a superhero,” Lexi continued. “She managed to bandage up Jack so well the paramedics didn’t have to do anything but load him onto the helicopter when they got there.”
“The doctors said she made the difference,” Abby’s mom commented. “Then, when Ruby collapsed, Abigail gave her CPR.”
“That didn’t make a difference,” she said briskly.
She didn’t like to think about that day at all. It only led to her thinking about the interminable hours she and Sam had spent huddled together in the waiting room praying that Jack would make it through. It was so much nicer to look forward, but Lexi deserved to know.
Lexi turned and enveloped her in a hug. “You did everything you could, Mom. You did way more than anyone could have asked. She shot your husband and you still tried to save her life.”
“Well, I was hoping she’d spend the rest of it in jail,” Abby allowed.
There were tears in Lexi’s dark eyes as she ignored the joke. “Uncle Walter really appreciated it. He and Aunt Jan think the world of you.”
Lexi had been visiting with Adam’s brother and his family quite a bit while she spent time in her father’s hometown. Walter had shown her around and told her all kinds of stories about Adam. Abby had been worried, but Lexi seemed to be enjoying learning about the dad she’d never met and getting to know her little cousins.
“Oh, there’s Sam,” Lexi pointed out, shaking her head. “I’m going to have to get used to that.”
“Used to what?” She stared out the window, trying to see what her daughter was talking about.
Sam dismounted and went to help Jack, who slapped him across the chest. They bickered back and forth for a moment and then smiled as they walked into the barn to put up the horses.
“How hot my dads are,” Lexi admitted with a groan. “I’ll never be able to bring friends here. They’ll drool over my dads.”
Abby slanted her daughter a cautious glance. She had been pleased with how well Lexi had taken everything up to this point. Abby had to suffer through a few “Moms Gone Wild” jokes, but her daughter had seemed thrilled with the arrangement. “It’s all right to be embarrassed. I know that this new marriage of mine is…odd.”
Lexi grinned at her. “I believe the word you’re searching for is bigamy, Mom. Polyandry is a good one, too. Don’t worry. I’m going to be a writer so it doesn’t bug me at all. My friends will think it’s eccentric and cool. Besides, threesomes are all the rage on campus.”
“I don’t think I wanted to hear that,” Jack said as he walked in. He took his new stepfather role seriously. He’d groaned when he heard his daughter was dating a musician.
“It sounds perfectly normal to me.” Sam followed Jack. Abby had noted how carefully Sam watched Jack since he left the hospital. He was always close, waiting to lend a hand if he needed it. “Now, when we start getting into foursomes or fivesomes, one has to start questioning the morality of the
woman involved.”
Abby rolled her eyes. He was still on her about that one little book.
Sam had purchased a bookcase and placed it in their bedroom. He’d lovingly stored her entire collection of erotica, even the really filthy stuff.
Benita walked in and, with a huge smile, announced that lunch was ready. Jack winked at Abby as he turned and started for the dining room. Sam was talking to Lexi and Diane about the renovations they were doing to the house, and Abby hung back for a moment, watching her family walking in for a meal together.
She felt love surge through her heart as Sam said something that made Jack’s laugh boom through the house. He’d proven to be a perfect patient. He’d followed her every order. He seemed to bask in her attention and genuinely appreciated the love she lavished on him. Sam had stepped up and kept the ranch running in perfect order. Any worries he’d had about taking care of things were a distant memory now. Sam seemed surer of himself than ever before, and Jack was more peaceful. Her daughter and her mother loved her new husbands and had accepted them without a qualm.
“Are you coming, sweetheart?” Jack asked, looking back into the living room.
“The roast is going to get cold,” Sam pointed out.
“I’m coming.” Abby brushed away the happy tears in her eyes.
She couldn’t help but cry when she thought of it. It had taken twenty years.
No, it had taken a lifetime, but she was home. She was finally and forever home.
* * * *
Jack, Sam, and Abby will return in Siren in the City, coming January 23, 2017. Click here to purchase.
Author’s Note
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