“Glad you suggest it. Your mother said she’ll be here soon enough.”
“Why? There’s nothing she can do.”
“She wants to see all the grandchildren. She wants to see her boys. Said she wanted to meet the wonderful woman who talked me into getting off my high horse and calling her.” Josiah’s eyes grew misty. “Funny thing about your mother, she has a heart of gold. I wish I’d appreciated that when I was younger. It’s something you miss out on about your wife when you’re busy trying to make a living.”
Jack blinked. “Are you going to marry Sara?”
“Yep,” Josiah said, “just as soon as I’m well.”
“Our family tree is odd,” Jack said. “There’s a lot of twists among the branches.”
Josiah shrugged. “Every family has its twists and unique branches, son. The fact that we keep fertilizing the roots is what makes our tree strong.”
“Oh, hell,” Jack said. “Next you’re going to be after me to do some fertilizing. Pop, kids is one thing you’re never going to get out of me, so don’t even start the chorus.”
“Excuse me,” the doctor said as he came into the room, “I’m Dr. Goodlaw.”
Jack stood, shook the doctor’s hand. “Jack Morgan.”
“Ah, Mr. Morgan’s eldest son.”
Jack nodded.
“Well, I have an unusual bit of news,” Dr. Goodlaw said. “We just had a kidney come up that is a match for you, Mr. Morgan.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” Josiah’s brows furrowed.
“It means that this particular kidney is from a young accident victim whose parents want his organs donated. He was healthy and active, and his family would like to know that his organs are helping other people to live healthy, active lives. I know you have a family match who has offered, but I recall you didn’t elect for surgery under those conditions.”
“No, I did not,” Josiah said with a stern glance at Jack. “I don’t elect, not one bit.”
“It’s up to you, Mr. Morgan, although a decision will need to be reached fairly quickly. There are other recipients in the registry, of course.”
Jack and his father looked at each other. Then Josiah shrugged. “I don’t need any time to think it over. I’ll take the kidney.”
Dr. Goodlaw nodded. “I’ll go make the arrangements.” He shook Jack’s hand, then Josiah’s. “This will move fairly quickly.”
“Good,” Josiah shot back. “I’m tired of feeling like I’m at everyone’s mercy.”
The doctor smiled and left the room. Josiah refused to meet Jack’s gaze. Jack knew exactly what his father was thinking: I owe nobody nothing. Jack couldn’t say whether he felt any particular relief that he wouldn’t be giving up a part of his body. “Are you all right, Pop?”
“I’m fine,” Josiah said. “As fine as anyone can be who just had a miracle thrust upon them.”
“What do you mean?” Jack went and sat by his father.
“I prayed I wouldn’t have to take your kidney. I couldn’t stand the thought of you rodeoing with one kidney. I just don’t want to outlive my kids,” Josiah said. “Now that I’ve got my boys all around, I’d like to get to know you.”
Jack felt honest emotion jump inside him. He looked away, cleared his throat. “I almost like you better when you’re being a jackass.”
“That’s because I’m an enemy you can keep fighting against. You like holding grudges. But you won’t get any fight out of me, son. I’m getting a young person’s kidney, and I’m going to take full advantage of the spark it gives me. You’re off the hook.”
Jack shook his head. “You just didn’t want anything from me.”
“True.” Josiah closed his eyes. “I don’t want you doing anything for me that you don’t really want to do.”
“I didn’t mind, Pop.”
“I know you didn’t mind the surgery, and I thank you for being willing to make the sacrifice. But I think it’s better this way.”
“Okay, Pop.”
Josiah took a deep breath. “And since I’m wiping slates clean here, I guess you’ll be wanting your million dollars.”
“Not if it comes with a wife.”
“It doesn’t. But you do have to reside at the ranch, same as the other boys did.”
“They didn’t stay a year!”
“No, but they did get married, have families. They fulfilled what I wanted, which was to get along with each other, bring some harmony into our family.”
“Pop, I was going to give you my kidney. I’ve visited you often in the hospital. That’s pretty harmonious for us.”
“Yes,” Josiah said, “but it’s your brothers I want you visiting.”
“I will, Pop, I will.”
“It won’t hurt you to hold some babies, get to know your nieces and nephews,” Pop nagged.
Jack held up his hands. “Pop, you’re about to have surgery. We can talk about this later.”
“We can talk about it now. Is it a deal or not?” Pop demanded, and Jack looked at his father.
“Why are you so hopped up about this all of a sudden?”
“Because I’m about to have complicated surgery! It’s not like getting a hangnail removed. I need to make a phone call to my lawyer. I have to make sure all the family matters are tended to just in case my old body doesn’t like young, healthy kidneys!”
Jack held up his hands. “Hang on, Pop, relax. Don’t give yourself high blood pressure or they won’t operate. What exactly is it that you want from me? Where do I sign on the dotted line so that you can cool down?”
“You have to stay at the ranch for a year, get to know your brothers, be a family. Same deal they got.”
“And if, just if, a wife and family comes into the picture? Does that abbreviate the deal?”
Josiah sniffed. “I make those decisions when they occur. Depends on many factors. Do I like your choice of bride? Am I really getting grandkids? Are you improving your life? Being a good uncle? I don’t want you loafing around the ranch for a year, biding your time just to get my million bucks. I don’t want you forwarding your mail to the ranch and saying you live there. In other words, I wait and see what I’m buying before I pay.”
“I don’t really need a million dollars, Pop,” Jack said. “I’m pretty happy being free.”
“Yeah,” Josiah said, “you’re my hardheaded son.”
Jack grinned. “I’ll do this on one condition.”
“I’m living with Sara,” Josiah said. “I’m not insisting upon this because I need you to be my nursemaid.”
Jack shook his head. Pop was the most stubborn human he’d ever met. “You don’t start sending a bunch of women to the ranch to try to settle me, thinking I’ll give up rodeo just because you find me a wife.”
Josiah shook his head. “I would never do such a thing.”
“You’re fairly relentless in your pursuit of the perfect family tree.”
“Not me,” Josiah said. “I don’t believe there are perfect family trees. But I do think wives are a durn good thing. Bring a man a lot of good stuff he never knew he was missing.”
Jack shook his head. He tried to decide if he could stomach a year of family, and then he thought about Cricket.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to live in Union Junction for a year. “Where do I sign with my blood?”
Josiah rubbed his hands. “It’s a gentleman’s verbal agreement. Now get out so I can call my lawyer. I have to hurry because Dr. Moneybags may be here soon to take his pound of flesh from me.”
“I guess I’ll go check out the cafeteria.”
“Good,” Josiah said, reaching for the phone. “Find a cute nurse while you’re in there. There’s lots of them around here.”
Jack headed to the cafeteria with no intention of taking that advice. He had one woman on his mind—and that
was plenty.
He dialed up his brothers and let them know Pop’s news. Then he drummed his fingers on the table, watching people move around with trays. He couldn’t say he wasn’t relieved not to be tied by an organ to his father. It felt as if they were coming to some kind of agreement between them, something almost resembling respect.
Since he was going to be a resident of Union Junction for a while, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to call a certain deacon and let her know that he’d be living close by, just in case she was interested.
But what would he say? I heard you bought Priscilla’s house and tea shop in Fort Wylie, but I wish you lived in Union Junction so I could see you occasionally.
There was no point.
Chapter 7
There were many details Josiah needed to wrap up before he went under the knife. Nothing was going smoothly with Jack, as it had with his other sons. They’d fallen in with his plans after a hiccup or two, but Jack was no closer to finding his way home to family than before. He was really worried about how Jack would accept Gisella. Josiah understood that his eldest son had always been a sincere loner, and if anything, anything at all got ticklish between he and his mother, Jack would disappear. No million dollars would bring him back. Jack lived in a world of his own creation.
Josiah knew why this was. As soon as Josiah got out of the military, he’d begun his lifelong goal of acquiring business and property. He was determined to deserve Gisella, give her everything she didn’t have.
But Josiah was moody, struggling with start-up businesses. He and his wife fought a lot. Gisella hated being left alone on the ranch; she was afraid of the dark. Their few cattle started disappearing and Gisella was always edgy, afraid the boys would have a run-in with some dangerous rustlers. Gisella was from France, and English was not her first language. She had no female friends where they lived out in the country to make her feel less isolated.
He was gone on a business trip to Dallas when he got the worried call from Jack. All of eight years old, Jack tried manfully to tell him his mother was gone—in the end, he dissolved into tears that Josiah would never forget hearing him cry.
His eldest son would never forgive his mother for deserting him. Jack had barely forgiven Josiah for the rough treatment Josiah had felt Jack needed to handle the hard knocks life was sure to mete out. Josiah wasn’t sure he’d made the right decision with Jack. His eldest was almost too tough now, emotionally locked up. Nothing really penetrated his stoic approach to life.
Jack was likely to find a reason to skip Gisella’s visit altogether. Josiah had pondered this, giving it great thought, and hatched a plan. There weren’t many second chances in life, but he really wanted mother and son to have one with each other. He suspected that if this bond wasn’t recreated, Jack would never be able to maintain a loving, giving relationship with a woman. Josiah hated that he cost Jack something in life that gave a man great pleasure.
Josiah hoped Gisella and Jack would both forgive him for what he was about to do—but it had to be done, for the sake of the family.
* * *
Two hours later, Gisella walked into the room unannounced. Grouped around Josiah’s bedside were Gabe, Dane, Pete, their wives and Jack. Sara Corkindale was there as well, giving Josiah the comfort he had learned to expect from her calm presence. No one recognized Gisella except Josiah, and he felt the familiar flash of joy at her beauty and bearing. Time had not changed her cruelly by etching wrinkles on her face. He saw that she was smiling at him as one did at a long-lost friend. He hoped they could be friends after she learned what he had done.
He was about to be prepped for surgery and there was little time for fretting about the past. “My sons,” he said, “this is your mother.”
It was as if a stone dropped from the ceiling and landed in the room. No one went to hug her. The brothers stared at her so finally Gisella moved forward, giving Josiah a gentle kiss on the forehead. “You look well, Josiah, for what you have been through.”
“I hope I look as well tomorrow,” Josiah said.
Gisella looked at Sara. “You must be the wonderful woman who convinced Josiah to call me.”
Sara smiled, and the women shook hands. “I’m sure you know that no one can convince Josiah of anything unless he is already convinced of it himself.”
Gisella laughed, a full-throated sound Jack remembered from his childhood. It came upon him with a wild, stinging sensation that he’d never gotten over missing that laugh. He had never gotten over missing her. As a boy, he couldn’t understand why she’d left him, what he’d done wrong.
Gabe went and hugged Gisella. Dane followed and then Pete. Jack scowled, wanting to hang back, but after the wives had been introduced, Jack realized the time had come. “Mother,” he said, barely kissing her cheek.
She smelled fresh, like spring roses, and it occurred to him he’d missed that smell. Painful memories rushed over him.
“I can see my little man has grown into a big man,” Gisella said. “I’ve thought about you often, Jack.”
“Yes, yes,” Josiah said, interrupting the homecoming, to Jack’s infinite relief. “And now that your mother’s here, there’s some tidying up to do. Best to get these things done in case I croak under Dr. Moneybag’s good care.”
“Pop, there’s no point in getting worked up about things that can wait. We’re all shell-shocked to see Mom. Let us enjoy her for a moment,” Pete pointed out, but Josiah waved an impatient hand at him.
“A man doesn’t go to his grave with a messy conscience,” he said, “not unless he’s an idiot or run out of time, neither of which applies to me. Sara, may I have the box, please.”
Sara produced a shoe box from her handbag and handed it to Josiah.
Josiah sniffed, then looked at Gisella. “Gisella, on many counts I was not a good husband.”
“On many counts, you were,” Gisella returned. “I was not the perfect wife. There is no such thing as perfection in a marriage.”
“I like her,” Sara said. “She understands family.”
“I pick good women,” Josiah said gruffly. “Sara, you might as well know this about me along with everybody else. Boys, in this box are all the letters your mother sent you over the years.” Josiah pulled the top off the box. “You can see that none of them have been opened. I could have read them to you since I speak and read French, but I chose not to out of a stubborn sense of pride and misplaced pain. For this egregious misdeed, I apologize to you all and humbly ask for forgiveness.”
Gisella’s eyes sparkled with tears. For the first time, a little forgiveness toward his mother seeped into Jack’s heart. “Pop,” he said, “that’s kind of brutal, don’t you think?”
Dr. Moneybags came into the room to make certain his patient was being prepped and to give his soothing pre-surgery talk. “Doc,” Josiah said, “I need ten more minutes before you roll me to the gallows.”
“Mr. Morgan,” Dr. Goodlaw replied, not sure whether to be offended or not, “I assure you we have an excellent team to perform this surgery. It is not a gallows situation.”
“Ten minutes is all I need, please, Doctor. And I meant no offence to your skills.”
The doctor nodded. “The next time I see you, you’ll be asleep. Do you have any questions?”
Josiah looked around the room at his sons, their wives and the two women in his life. “Do I need much more reason to wake up after surgery with a grin on my face?”
The doctor smiled and left. Josiah let out a sigh. “Gisella, I owe you an apology. Many actually. I was mad when you left. It doesn’t excuse what I did. It doesn’t save me from the damage I inflicted upon our children. I hope you can forgive me.”
Gisella started to say something, but Josiah waved her quiet. “Hang on a minute, there’s more,” he said. “The Christmas and birthday presents she sent you for many years were given to charity. I’m sorry. It was a selfish
thing to do, more than selfish.”
Jack stared at his father, looked at his mother, who seemed fairly upset but not necessarily destroyed by his father’s confession. Then Gisella went over and kissed him again on the forehead.
“You are too hard on yourself, Josiah,” she said. “You are a good man. Let’s not think about the past anymore.”
“Well.” Josiah sniffed. “I was still an ass.”
“I knew that about you when I married you. I didn’t want a man who wasn’t strong.” Gisella smiled. “It takes a very strong man to ask forgiveness.”
“Yeah. I guess. I have a lot to ask.” Josiah looked around the room. “So, I have one more thing to tell the assembled family. By the way, I would like to see everybody together again and not necessarily on my deathbed next time—”
A general groan broke out in the room.
Josiah nodded. “Jack’s going to reside at the ranch for a year.”
“I’ll try to,” Jack interrupted.
“In order to earn his million dollars, he’ll do it,” Josiah said, ignoring his son’s words. “However, I have begun the paperwork to cede the ranch to Gisella. It is now hers to do with as she sees fit, although it cannot be sold until after Jack completes his quest. Gisella, one year from today, you may sell it if you wish. I’m sorry I didn’t give you the home and the love you needed when we were married, but now I hope to make up for that.” Josiah looked at all his children, his gaze stern. “And I expect everyone to remember that my driving force is family. Visit your mother often.”
He sat up and looked at Sara. “Get the nurses. I’m ready to be split open like a turkey at Thanksgiving.”
She smiled at him. “Your family members may do it for you,” she said sweetly.
“And that reminds me, no lawsuits over the land or ranch,” he said, wagging a finger at all of them. “Or you forfeit your portion of my will, little as it may be after Dr. Moneybags takes his chunk. Is that understood?”
Everyone murmured a shocked assent except Jack, because he didn’t need anything, money or land, from his father. Thankfully, he was tied to no one.
Claiming the Texan's Heart Page 24
