Fortunately, the same thud that had knocked him unconscious also jarred his foot free of the stirrup. He was left lying in the dust, alone in a pitch-black night.
He had no idea how long it was before he began to come to. He knew only that the sky was filled with stars and his head ached worse than the worst hangover he’d ever had. He tried to move, then moaned at the pain that shot through him. Bad idea, he concluded and lay still.
The air began to cool as the night deepened. Hank shivered and tried to keep himself awake. Wasn’t that the right thing to do with a concussion? If only Lizzy were here, he thought. She would know. She would make the blinding pain go away.
“Supposed to talk to her,” he murmured, trying to struggle to his feet once again, only to fall back to the ground with a moan.
He fought sleep, fought to cling to consciousness, only to lose the battle. When he came to again, it was to the sound of hoofbeats and shouts.
“Over here,” Cody called out to someone. “He’s on the ground over here.”
Hank forced his eyes open, only to snap them shut again as the glare of Cody’s flashlight fixed on his face.
“Turn that damned thing off,” he grumbled.
“Can’t be hurt too bad if you’re complaining about the rescue,” Cody noted.
“How’d you know to come looking for me?” Hank asked.
“You can thank Lizzy for that,” Cody said. “When you hadn’t called her by midnight, she called me, fussing up a storm with some tale about you being near death.”
“Where’d she come up with that?”
“I wondered the same thing. She claimed the only way you wouldn’t have called her was if you were half-dead. She insisted I come over to check on you.”
Cody grinned. “I tried to explain that a grown man might resent another man checking on him in the middle of the night.” He shrugged. “You know Lizzy. She threatened to call Daddy if I wouldn’t agree to do it. I couldn’t very well let her send him out into the night on a wild-goose chase.”
“How’d you know to look out here?”
“A little guesswork and an understanding of your compulsive nature. Your horse was outside the barn with its saddle still on and covered with dust, looking like he’d been ridden hard. I roused Pete, and he told me about the fence. We added up two and two and here we are.”
He probed Hank’s leg, checking for broken bones. Hank winced but didn’t cry out. Cody gave a nod of satisfaction. “Bruised but not broke, I’d say.”
“I’d prefer that guess had come from your sister.”
“You mean you’d prefer it was Lizzy’s hands doing the poking and prodding, more than likely. She’s got a gentler touch than I have, no doubt.”
“No doubt,” Hank agreed with heartfelt sincerity. “Can we get out of here now? I would really like to spend what’s left of the night in my own bed.”
“Afraid that’s out of the question,” Cody said. “Lizzy insisted we take you to the hospital to get you checked out. We can go to the one in Garden City. It can’t handle major trauma, but something tells me you just need an X-ray and maybe a patch or two on a couple of cuts.”
“I’m not going to the damned hospital,” Hank protested.
“Are you going to be the one to tell Lizzy you refused?” Cody asked. “Because I’m sure as hell not. She’ll be on the next plane back from Miami. It’ll disrupt her studies and she’ll have to take this last quarter over, prolonging her med-school career. I was under the impression you wanted her to finish sooner rather than later.”
Hank groaned. “All right, all right. I’ll go to the hospital, but I am not checking in. Is that understood?”
“Understood,” Cody agreed, then amended, “unless the doc says it’s vital to your well-being.”
“You are nothing but a damned bully, Cody Adams.”
“And I’m a saint, compared to my baby sister. Be glad she’s in Miami.”
Hank tried to be glad about that. He really did, but a part of him longed to have her there making a fuss over him. It would have irritated the daylights out of him—no doubt about that—but he still wished she were the one doing the fussing.
By the time he’d been X-rayed and bandaged and poked and prodded by the medical experts in Garden City, it was past daybreak. Cody brought him home, filled Mrs. Wyndham in on the doc’s instructions and left Hank to grumble about being confined to bed.
Fortunately, when his temper was about to flare into full-fledged rebellion, the phone rang.
“Yes,” he barked.
“Ah, I gather the patient is awake and chipper,” Lizzy taunted.
Hank’s temper cooled at once. “Hey, darlin’.”
“Cody told me what happened. Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine. I gather I owe you for calling out the troops last night.”
“I knew something was wrong when you didn’t call.”
“And it never once occurred to you to think I might have forgotten?”
She was silent for a full minute. “Actually, at first that is exactly what I thought. I was ticked about it, too. Then I decided you’d just decided not to call and that made me even madder, so I called you to give you a piece of my mind. I kept calling for an hour. When you didn’t answer, I called Cody.”
“I could have been in Garden City, you know.”
“Not a chance,” she insisted.
“Why are you so sure of that?”
“Because I know you. You do not have a death wish.”
Hank would have laughed, but it hurt too much. He smiled instead, glad that she couldn’t see it.
“You are really okay, aren’t you?” she asked, sounding plaintive.
“Bumps and bruises, nothing serious.”
“And a concussion,” Lizzy corrected. “Cody told me that.”
“Cody has a big mouth.”
“I wish I were there. I’ll bet I could keep you from falling asleep.”
“I’ll bet you could, too,” he agreed.
“Maybe I should come home,” she suggested.
“No way. You stay right where you are and finish the school year. I don’t want to see you lose time because of me.”
“I won’t be able to concentrate anyway.”
“Who are you kidding? I heard you finished an English exam once with a tornado bearing down on the building,” Hank teased.
“I did not. It was a little old thunderstorm. I was twelve, anyway. I thought I was invincible.”
“But all the other kids were cowering under their desks,” he reminded her. He had always loved that story about Lizzy. To him it epitomized her grit and daring. He glanced at the clock beside his bed. “Shouldn’t you be on your way to class now?”
“It’s only a ten-minute walk. I’ll run,” she said. “Tell me about the fence you went out to check on. Cody says it looks like it was deliberately downed.”
“Could be,” Hank agreed.
“Why?”
“Somebody after cattle, I imagine. Or just up to no good.”
“The same somebody who let that bull loose that gored Billy-Clyde?”
Hank hadn’t made the connection before, but he should have. He muttered a harsh oath under his breath.
“Hank? Do you think it’s possible the two incidents are linked?”
“It’s possible,” he said grimly. “I don’t know why the thought didn’t occur to me before. There was no reason for that bull to be on the loose that day.”
“You never said what spooked Uncle Sid last night.”
“I’m not sure, to tell the truth.” He remembered the whizzing sound just before the horse bolted. It could have been a gunshot with the bullet coming close enough to terrify the horse or even nick him. “I’ve got to go, darlin’, and you need to get to your class. We’ll talk later, okay?�
�
“Hank,” Lizzy protested, but he already had the receiver halfway to the cradle.
He hobbled out of bed and yanked on his jeans. The movements were painful, and his head throbbed like a son of a gun, but by heaven he was going to the barn. If that had been a bullet flying last night, it very well could have nicked Uncle Sid and the evidence would be unmistakable. If he found so much as a scratch on that horse’s hide, there was going to be hell to pay.
10
Two weeks after Hank’s accident, Lizzy stared at the positive home-pregnancy test she was holding in her hand. For a week, she had blamed her low energy level and queasiness on stress, but the missed period had been a symptom she couldn’t ignore. It had taken an act of courage to walk into a pharmacy and buy the pregnancy test. Now she could only stare at the results in dismay.
It couldn’t be, she told herself even as she held the clear evidence right in front of her eyes. She couldn’t be pregnant.
Well, of course she could be, she corrected. No birth-control method was one hundred percent foolproof. They’d used two, which should have improved the odds, but even then...
Had there been once when Hank had failed to reach for a condom or even once when she’d failed to take her birth-control pill? Or were they just two of the unlucky few whose birth control simply failed?
She wanted desperately to blame that little blue dot on Hank, but there had been two of them in his bed and they’d both been responsible, at least every single time she could recall.
But all it took was once, she reminded herself, one tiny slip. She didn’t need a medical textbook to tell her that.
At least she finally knew why she’d been feeling so lousy for the past few days. She hadn’t really needed a textbook for that, either. She’d guessed what the nausea, light-headedness and exhaustion added up to. She just hadn’t wanted to believe it, because it had the potential to change everything.
She grasped the edge of the sink as a wave of dizziness washed over her. Pregnant. She repeated the word several times in her head, trying to force acceptance. Instead, there was only shock.
A baby. Hank’s baby. At any other time, she would have been thrilled beyond belief to be carrying his child. A few years from now, this would be the happiest news she could receive, but now? Now it had her reeling, cursing the impossible timing that threatened years of dreams and planning. This forced their hand in a way she’d never imagined.
How was Hank going to react? she wondered. Would he be stunned? As dismayed as she was? She doubted the latter. Her own father had said that Hank was ready to marry and settle down. Hank himself had broken off with her when he’d finally accepted how long their separation was destined to be. That silly party and the game played with Brian Lane to make him jealous were the only reasons they were still together at all.
Still, even though he was all too determined not to stand in the way of her career, he would be ecstatic at this turn of events. He would book the church and invite the guests before she could blink.
Hank would want her back in Texas permanently. She could just hear him railing on and on until she gave in. He would demand they get married at once and her medical career be damned. Even though he understood her passion for medicine, even though he knew that this was something she had to do, he would fight her for the sake of their child. And as strong as she was under normal conditions, she might not have the strength for this particular battle.
She walked back into her room in a daze and sank onto the bed, huddled against the pillows. When the phone rang, she ignored it. It would be Hank, and she couldn’t talk to him right now. He would guess something was wrong and pester her until she told him. Then it would be all too easy to get swept up in the plans he was bound to make.
She listened to the beep on the answering machine, then heard his voice.
“Hey, darlin’, just wanted to say hi. I thought you’d be back from class by now, but I guess you’re running late. You’d better not be off on a hot date. Call me when you get in.”
The machine chirped another beep, then went silent. Tears tracked down Lizzy’s cheeks. She knew she had to tell Hank about the baby. It was not the kind of news she would ever consider keeping from him. But she wasn’t ready just yet.
She wasn’t ready to make the choices that would have to be made. She wasn’t ready to deal with all the pressure, from Hank and everyone else, to come home, get married and settle down as a rancher’s wife. She’d been a cowgirl all her life and she’d loved it, but she’d wanted more. So much more.
The only thing she was prepared to admit was that she loved the baby’s father and that she would love this baby they’d conceived, no matter how it turned her life upside down.
Kelsey rapped on her door then and called out. “Lizzy, I know you’re in there. Is something wrong?”
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
“You don’t sound fine. Can I come in?”
“Not now,” she said, even as the door pushed opened and Kelsey entered anyway, her brow knit with concern.
“You didn’t pick up the phone when Hank called.”
“How did you know it was Hank?” Lizzy grumbled. “Listening at the keyhole?”
“Ever since he got hurt, he calls at the exact same time every night so you won’t worry.”
“Oh.”
“Why didn’t you talk to him? Did you two have a fight?”
“No.”
Kelsey clearly wasn’t about to let it go. When it came to persistence, she could be an honorary Adams. She plunked herself down beside Lizzy and studied her intently. “Tears, too, I see. Come on, Lizzy, if something’s wrong, maybe I can help.”
“You can’t help,” Lizzy told her. “No one can.”
With no answers forthcoming from the source, Kelsey glanced around the room. Almost at once her gaze fell on the box the pregnancy test had come in.
“Oh, dear,” she murmured, glancing into Lizzy’s eyes. “That’s it, isn’t it? You’re pregnant?”
Lizzy nodded miserably.
“The baby’s Hank’s, isn’t it?”
“Of course it’s Hank’s,” Lizzy said indignantly.
“Then that’s a good thing, yes?”
“Normally, yes, but now?” she asked plaintively.
“Will he be upset?”
“Never.”
“Then this is about you and school and your career,” Kelsey guessed.
“Of course.”
“Then I don’t see the problem. Your family’s rich as sin, you can hire a zillion nannies if you have to. You can make it work.”
Lizzy regarded her friend ruefully. “I don’t think Hank’s going to go for nannies raising our baby.”
“Well, he’ll just have to change his way of thinking. You bend a little, he bends a little and it works. That’s all there is to it.”
“Thank you, Ann Landers.” She sighed. “Hank is not the kind of man who’s inclined to bend, even a little.”
Kelsey regarded her with a steady look. “What’s the alternative? Would you end the pregnancy?”
“Never,” Lizzy said, a protective hand on her stomach. “Not in a million years.”
“Will you keep the baby a secret?”
That wasn’t even a consideration. Even if she didn’t believe fiercely in Hank’s right to know, she had too many family members who could spill the beans...and would, if they thought it in her best interests. There would be no secrets kept for long in Los Piños, not from Hank or anyone else.
“No,” Lizzy said.
“Then I think you’d better have something very specific in mind by the time you tell him or you’ll get swept up in his plans.”
Lizzy gave her friend a wry look. “Which is exactly why I didn’t answer the phone.”
Kelsey nodded. “Of course.” She was silent for several
minutes before she asked, “Any ideas?”
Lizzy sighed. “Unfortunately, not a one.”
All she knew for sure was that when she did come up with a plan, it had better be a doozy.
* * *
“Have you talked to Lizzy lately?” Cody asked when Hank ran into him in town.
“Not for a couple of days, actually,” Hank admitted. “I’ve had trouble catching up with her. What about you?”
“No. Nobody at White Pines has been able to reach her, either. You don’t suppose something’s wrong?”
Hank had wondered that very thing. “What could be wrong?”
Cody shook his head. “I don’t have any idea. If it were up to me, I’d just chalk it up to the fact that she’s Lizzy and that she’s a female, but Daddy doesn’t seem inclined to let it go at that. He’s getting all worked up over it.”
“Maybe you ought to leave a message for her to that effect. You know she’d never intentionally worry Harlan.”
Cody nodded. “Good idea. I’ll try it later. If you get through to her, let me know what you find out.”
Hank nodded. “You do the same.”
Up until now, Hank had been making excuses for not being able to reach Lizzy. Surely if something were truly wrong, he would feel it, just as she had known there was a problem the night he hadn’t called her as scheduled. The fact that she wasn’t talking to anyone at White Pines, either, made him very uneasy.
He walked into Dolan’s and approached Sharon Lynn. “Hey, sweetheart, mind if I use your phone? I’ll put it on my credit card.”
“Help yourself, but if you’re going to call Lizzy, don’t bother,” she said. “I just tried and got that blasted answering machine again. She can’t possibly be in classes or off studying at the library twenty-four hours a day.”
Hank’s stomach knotted. “Then you’re worried, too?”
She nodded. “This isn’t like her. Lizzy always stays in touch, especially now.”
“Because of her daddy.”
“Exactly. She never goes more than a day or two without calling. And I’m trying to reach her about the wedding. If I don’t get her soon, I’m going to see to it her maid-of-honor dress is chartreuse with lots and lots of ruffles. She’ll hate that.”
White Pines Summer Page 30
