Counting on Love (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) (Carson Hill Ranch series: Book 3) (9 page)

“Hey, Joseph!” Emma whispered intently. “Wake up, cowboy, we’re home.” She pushed his hair back from his face gently and kissed him softly on the forehead, trying to wake him slowly from some of the best sleep he’d had in days. She was tempted to let him keep sleeping, but didn’t know how staying in the car that long would affect his back.

She leaned over him again and tried to wake him, only to have him grab her suddenly and pull her to his waiting lips. His mouth ravaged hers in a way that he’d not kissed her before, enticing her to open to him. When they finally moved apart, foreheads still touching as they both tried to quiet their breaths, she looked into his eyes and saw a fire in him that hadn’t been there the whole short time she’d known him.

A dozen thoughts worked their way to the front of her mind, but she pushed them down. This was an important moment for Joseph, for both of them. Today marked the first day since this journey began that a small piece of who he was came back to the surface. Emma took him by the hands and pulled him up from the seat of the car, then wound her hands behind his neck to kiss him again. The same fire was there in his kiss, but the desperation to feel her was gone. Instead, he placed her hands at her waist and held her to him, taking his time and letting this kiss linger.

Without a word, Emma took him by the hand and led him inside, watching his face as they walked for any sign that he was hurting. Instead, she saw a new emotion there and instinctively knew she was seeing the real Joseph for the first time. This was no longer the defeated young guy she’d encountered on the ranch, but the real him.

Inside the apartment, Joseph made his wants very clear, sitting on the small sofa and guiding Emma down to sit in his lap, sliding his hands up over her arms to cradle her face softly as he kissed her again. She forced herself to keep her touch light, despite the heat burning through her and the want she felt as well.

“You have to tell me if I hurt you,” Emma whispered against Joseph’s mouth as they kissed, only to be acknowledged by his tongue lovingly finding hers. She ran her fingertips through his hair, clinging to him as their lips moved together.

****

The next morning, as she’d predicted, Joseph had a harder time than usual getting out of bed, but not because of his usual morning pain.

“No, it can’t be time to get up. Stay in bed,” he moaned from under a pillow, reaching a hand toward her to pull Emma back onto the bed. As tempting as staying in bed with him would be, he had a schedule to keep and a life to get back to.

“No, buddy, let’s go! Up and at ‘em!” she called out before leaning over to whisper seductively in his ear when he refused to stir. “I bet after physical therapy you’ll be all hot and sweaty…you’ll probably need a nice, long, hot shower…” He opened one eye to look up at her, trying to decide if her idea of a shower and his were one in the same.

“I’m up,” he promised her. “But we could skip physical therapy and go straight to the shower. It would save a lot of time.”

“No! No shower until you work yourself into a frenzy! Now let’s go!” Emma practically danced from the room, overjoyed that Joseph had done so much physical activity yesterday—secretly biting her lower lip when she thought about how much physical activity they’d both done—but wasn’t bed-ridden from it today.

Joseph ate his breakfast on the way to the hospital, steeling himself for the three hours he would put in that morning. The electrodes that stimulated his nerves no longer felt like the flesh was being ripped off his bones, and the massage therapist more than made up for the effort he would have to put into it, but riding Brandy yesterday had ignited in him a stronger desire to be back at the ranch than before.

Darius commented on Joseph’s effort almost immediately. “Look at you, man! You’re a work horse! You’re a weight lifting machine! What’s up with you today?”

Joseph smiled, sneaking a glance over to Emma and chuckling quietly when he saw embarrassment color her cheeks. “I’m just ready to be done and go home,” he answered, looking pleased with himself.

“Well, you keep making this kind of progress, I’m betting you’re not here two weeks from now,” Darius answered, making a note about Joseph’s improved range of motion in his chart. “I’ll talk to your doctor this morning and see what he says about all this. You just keep that arm moving!” he called over his shoulder.

Luckily, the doctor agreed. He sat Joseph down after his session was over to discuss his options. “I’d love to see you home in time for Christmas, but that’s going to depend entirely on you. If you can swear to me that you’ll follow my instructions to the letter, I can feel pretty good about releasing you. You’ll have to come back up here once a month for follow-ups, then after about four months, we can make it every three months. The last thing we want to do is lose any range of motion. I would really like to see some more muscle mass on that arm before you go but if you’ll do your exercises every day, that’ll come back, too.”

Joseph met the doctor’s gaze with a broad grin. “You won’t be able to stop me from exercising!” He explained all about getting the chance to ride Brandy only the day before, and how he’d love nothing more than to be back up in that saddle. “If you tell me the only way to get better is to tie bows in my hair and put on some lipstick, you can bet I’ll do it. Anything that gets me back to riding and ranching.” He snuck a glance over at Emma, letting her know with his soft expression that he was acknowledging her role in his healing as well, even if he didn’t say it for fear of embarrassing her.

The doctor laughed. “Hopefully, it won’t take lipstick but the bows might actually do the trick. Or we can just keep up with this regimen. When you come in tomorrow, we’ll go over a list of exercises you’ll need to do at home, along with a little bit of equipment you’ll need to have. Let’s finish out this week, and then you two can head back to Hale over the weekend.”

When the doctor had gone, Joseph turned to Emma and kissed her soundly on the lips. “Did you hear that? We get to go home! Finally!” She smiled for him, but he noticed its effect didn’t reach her eyes the way it usually did. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you looking forward to getting out of the city?”

“Sure,” she answered without emotion. “I just…” Joseph looked at her expectantly. “I just hadn’t thought about what I would do after you didn’t need me any more. I need to get my head on straight and make some definite plans.”

“What do you mean, after I don’t need you?” he demanded, confusion and hurt in his voice. “I need you now, and I’ll need you just as much next week.”

“No, you won’t. You’ll have your family to take care of you. You won’t have to put up with me any more.” She punched him playfully on the arm but drew back when she noticed the somber expression on his face.

“So, you were only here because my family thought I needed help?”

“What? No! I’m here because I wanted to be. I just wanted you to know that I don’t expect you or your family to have to keep me around.”

“Oh. Okay. I get it.” Joseph stood up and walked back into the main therapy room, wordlessly getting to work on his exercises, not watching for Emma’s reaction the way he used to.

The ride home to Dallas was tense and quiet, and even Casey could feel it. Now that Joseph was feeling so much stronger, there was no need for the snail’s pace of the RV and instead, they traveled back to the ranch in one of the extended cab pickup trucks. Joseph stretched out across the back seat as much as his long legs would let him, while Emma rode up front with Casey, watching the landscape through the passenger window. Every mile that brought Joseph closer to home took him away farther away from her, leaving her with an uncertain destiny.

“You guys are awfully quiet,” Casey called out, breaking the awkward silence in the cab. “You’d think you two were sad to be leaving the city.”

“Not me,” Joseph replied, his head leaned back against the door and his eyes closed. “I can’t wait to get back to where a person can breathe. That city was too big and too packed.”

“Says the kid who lives on over 3,000 square miles with 30,000 head of cattle,” his brother teased, but he understood what Joseph meant. Emma, he noticed, had stayed quiet, still looking out the window, but he didn’t goad her into answering.

When they finally made it to the house sometime after dark, the other family members and some of the permanent ranch hands were waiting in the yard for them, a small fire glowing in a pit and a party-like atmosphere emanating from the group. The cheers and clapping began as soon as the truck’s headlights appeared over the ridge line, ending in the small group swarming the truck when Casey pulled up to the house.

“Welcome home,” Bernard called, pulling Joseph into a delicate hug. The old man had spent the better part of the time his son was away beating himself up for not trusting him, not believing him when he said he was hurt. He was determined to make up for it.

Joseph returned his father’s hug, but pulled him tighter. “It’s okay, Dad, I’m almost good as new. You don’t have to be so careful,” he said quietly. His father’s arm tightened slightly around his shoulders, and he knew it was a struggle for his dad to take this all in.

No one seemed to notice Emma slide out of the passenger seat on the other side of the large vehicle, grabbing her bag and attempting to slip into the house for the night. She would make some plans tonight, and be gone in the morning.

Once inside the house, Emma crossed over to the small table that held a satellite phone, studying its complicated looking buttons for a second before managing to produce a green light, indicating it was powered up. She dialed the number she knew by heart, and waited, praying the voice on the other end would take her call.

When she heard the familiar voice, Emma hesitated. After all this time and the way she just disappeared from their lives, would they even let her come home?

****

Joseph was the first one up the next morning, despite the late hour when they had arrived. He looked in different rooms, even opening the door to Gracie’s room just a crack, disappointment rushing over him when he saw she was the only one in her room. He searched in different places where a couch could have been made up, even looking to see if anyone occupied his father’s office.

It was no use. Emma wasn’t there.

At the sound of his footsteps throughout the house, various other people began to stir. Amy, who had stayed out on the ranch to welcome Joseph home, met him turning a corner of the house.

“Joseph? What are you doing up? It’s only a little after five o’clock, buddy,” she explained in surprise.

“Have you seen Emma?” he asked frantically, his brief search of the house already telling him what he knew. She was gone.

“Well, no, now that you mention it. I didn’t think to watch out for her.” Amy’s eyebrows came together as she concentrated, trying to remember if she’d even noticed the girl.

“She has to be around here somewhere. You don’t think she’d take off in the middle of the night, do you?” he wondered, causing Amy to look up in alarm. After all, the girl did have a history of trying to make it on foot, and the temperatures last night had been none too friendly.

“Come on, we’ll take the truck and go look for her,” Amy offered, already heading in the kitchen to assemble a pack of food and water. Joseph caught her arm and stopped her, already shaking his head at her suggestion.

“If she did leave, I think I know where she went. Just in case, you head to the old cabin since that’s where she was trying to go when she ended up here. I’m going in the other direction.” He reached the mud room close to the front door and began putting on boots and his jacket.

“Joseph, with your arm still weak, you don’t need to try to drive one of those trucks, not across this terrain. You need two good hands to control a four wheel drive, you know that,” Amy warned him, trying not to mention that he still wasn’t able to handle full ranch work.

“I’m not taking the truck, I’m taking Brandy.” He shoved his other foot down in his boot and grabbed a ruck sack off a wall hook, crossing over to the kitchen. Amy followed behind.

“Joseph, this is dangerous. It’s cold and the sun is barely up. I’m warning you, if you try to head out there on your own, I’ll have to tell your brothers. They’ll stop you, you know.”

“Do what you have to do, Sheriff,” Joseph said, spitting out the last word acidly. “And I’m doing what I have to do. Emma put herself out there for me, and for this family, without giving it a second thought, and now she’s taken off because of a misunderstanding. She could get hurt out there, and I’m not gonna let that happen.”

Joseph headed out with his supplies, stopping in one of the smaller outbuildings for a few extra wool blankets, tying them in a roll under his ruck sack. In the stable, he greeted his horse with his usual rub to her nose, whispering a greeting before saddling her. His shoved away the images of the last time he’d tried to get on his horse by himself, ending up writhing on the ground and having to be half-carried to bed. This time, he had to succeed.

Using the low wooden stall doors to brace himself, Joseph hoisted himself up into the saddle, waiting while holding his breath for the familiar stabs of pain to snake their way from his skull to his shoulder. Instead, he felt only a raw sensation in his incision site, and only the dull ache of using muscles that had spent almost a year lying in wait for him to get well.

Once in the saddle, Joseph felt a different type of confidence. Gone was the easy feeling of having done this for almost every day of his life, and he realized with a flash of sadness that the old feeling may be gone forever. But in its place was a strong feeling of purpose, of knowing that he had a job to do, and that together, he and Brandy could do it. He nudged her flank behind the saddle with his heel, urging her forward and out of the barn.

Once out under the morning sky, his breath appeared solidly in front of him. It wasn’t lost on him that his horse’s breath was visible, too, the foggy vapors of horse and rider mixing in clouds that billowed out behind him. He let Brandy set the pace, and quickly fell into the rhythm of her run. If he hadn’t been so worried about Emma, frozen and walking alone on the ranch, he would have laughed out loud from the sheer joy of the run.

Back in the house, Amy wrestled with the decision to rat out Joseph. After all, isn’t this what they wanted? Hadn’t the whole point of sending him to Dallas been to get him well physically and to make him whole emotionally? This kind of behavior—taking off after someone he cared about while everyone else slept—was exactly the kind of thing the old Joseph would have done, so why was she so worried?

Her instincts as a police officer won out over her joy at having the impetuous cowboy back. Someone needed to know, and she wasn’t the one to make the decision for the entire family to just let him go.

“Carey, wake up,” she whispered, returning to the bed she’d crept into late last night after the welcome home party had died down. Carey groaned quietly, turning onto his side and pulling the covers up over his bare shoulder. She kissed his cheek before whispering again in his ear. “Carey, this is serious. Wake up.”

He opened his eyes into half-slits and looked at her, confused for a minute. “What’s wrong?”

“Your brother…”

“What’s wrong with Joseph?” Carey demanded, sitting bolt upright and fully awake.

“Nothing. Well, something, but nothing bad,” she answered, brushing her red curls out of her face as she sat up to look at him. “He’s taken off on his horse, though. He’s going after Emma.”

Carey looked at her like she wasn’t even speaking his language. “Come again?”

Amy sighed, then explained. As she spoke, Carey was already climbing out of the bed and reaching for his clothes, dressing in a hurry. “Where are you going?”

“I think it’s kind of obvious, don’t you? I’m going after him.”

“Carey, I think that’s a bad idea,” she interrupted, and Carey froze in place, one foot in the air and poised over his waiting boot. “Sit down for a second, and think this through. This is exactly the kind of thing Joseph would have done before he was thrown, right? Before he was hurt, and before the drugs? So let him do it.”

“Are you crazy? He could get hurt! He just came home from rehab yesterday, remember?” Carey fired back at her sarcastically, his fear for his brother making him forget his manners. “And you think I should just let him go do something stupid before sun up on the back of a half-ton animal?”

“Look, I know you’re worried. Quite frankly, I’m scared to death. But we have to let him do this. He finally has the strength to do something and the passion he needs to make him do it. He’s been a lifeless bag of bones for months! He’s alive right now, and going after someone he cares about!”

Those words stopped Carey in his tracks. “You think he cares for Emma, too?”

“I know he does,” Amy answered confidently. “I saw the horror on his face this morning, I saw the way he ran from room to room looking for her, and the way he was crushed when he realized she wasn’t here. I saw the determination on his face when he decided to go after her. I have to say it…I haven’t seen that kind of fire in him in for far too long.” She came over to Carey and slid her arms around his waist, kissing his bare chest, then looking up at him. “Let him do this.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” he asked, defeated, the ire returning to his voice when he realized that Amy was right. “Wait until he doesn’t come home ‘til dark, then go searching for his body?”

“No. We wait, and we think good thoughts, and we remember that he’s a strong, capable member of this family. We respect that, and we respect him.” Carey blew out a breath and nodded, still not liking the situation one bit. “Besides, he’s a Carson and he’s a cowboy, one who you helped him become. That means he’ll be just fine.”