Home Is Where Hank Is (Cowboys To The Rescue 1) (18 page)
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Authors: Martha Shields
Tags: #Contemporary, #Romance, #Fiction, #Forever Love, #Adult, #Bachelor, #Single Woman, #Sensual, #Hearts Desire, #Harlequin Treasury, #Series, #Cowboys, #Rescue, #Family Life, #Western, #Rancher, #Rodeo, #Teenage Sister, #Caretaker, #Household, #Manage, #Persuade, #Reconcile, #Relationships, #Marriage Minded, #General Romance, #Silhouette, #1990's
BOOK: Home Is Where Hank Is (Cowboys To The Rescue 1)
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They turned their heads toward Claire, who suddenly found her watch fascinating.
“You need to get going,” Alex told him softly.
“But I need to explain why—”
She shook her head. “You already did. And Travis needs you. I’m okay now. It was just an old childish bugaboo of mine, being left behind.” She smiled as trembling fingers traced his unshaven jaw. “You chased my monster away.”
His brows furrowed. “I did? How?”
“By making me feel like you need me.”
He searched the depths of her eyes before uttering, “God forgive me, I do need you.”
Her heart hammering with love and excitement, she leaned forward and kissed him. They weren’t exactly the words she wanted to hear, but they were close enough. “You’d better go.”
He kissed her once more, then set her down. “We’ll be gone by the time you get home. I’ll call from the hospital.”
She nodded. “I’ll wait up.”
He shook his head and turned the gelding around. “Get some sleep. I won’t call till morning.”
“You’ll be flying?”
“No. There’s not a plane out of Jackson until tomorrow. We can be there by then.”
“Be careful,” she called as he and Claire rode away. Then she added softly, “I love you.”
Alex ran down the hall and grabbed the phone on the second ring. “Hello? Hank?”
“He’s okay” were the first words Hank uttered.
“Thank goodness!” She sank to the floor in relief. “He’s awake, then?”
“Yep. Came to last night. Can’t get much out of him, though. They’ve given him enough painkillers to kill a moose. He’s trussed up like a branded calf and keeps mumbling something about Japan. Maybe he’s dreaming about geisha girls.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Concussion, cracked ribs, multiple arm fractures, dislocated shoulder. You name it.”
“When are you bringing him home?”
“Can’t leave until tomorrow. The doc wants to keep him under observation at least twenty-four hours, make sure his brains aren’t scrambled. I told the doc they already were.”
“Hank...”
He sighed wearily over the line. “Damn, I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. The house seems empty with nobody here but me and Sugar. What time did you get in?”
“Around dawn.”
“You probably haven’t slept at all, have you?”
“No. Have you?”
“I tried.” She stroked Sugar’s head as he jumped on her lap. “Long-distance is expensive. Be careful driving back. When should I expect you?”
“Not till late. We’ll have to drive through because of Travis’s horses.”
“Okay. I’ll keep something warm. Get some sleep, okay? You’ve got a long drive tomorrow.”
“Okay. Bye, darlin’. See you soon.”
“Hurry home.”
The line clicked off and Alex stared at the receiver. In that instant she knew without a doubt that the Garden was her home. She didn’t want a restaurant anymore. How could customers be her family? She had a family right here who needed her, who wanted her as much as she wanted them.
Grinning, she wrapped her arms around Sugar and squeezed, tears of happiness spilling onto his orange fur.
Alex woke with a start, sending the book on her chest sliding to the floor. The loud thump helped clear her brain. Over the barking of dogs she could hear the low rumble of trucks coming up the drive.
Hank was home.
She jumped up and ran down the hall. A quick glance at the grandfather clock told her it was nearly midnight. She skidded to a halt at the mud room. Though her first instinct was to run outside and throw herself into Hank’s arms, she probably should check on their supper. The last time she remembered doing it was around ten.
As she stirred the soup and turned up the heat, she heard one truck head into the garage. The other stopped at the barn.
Dropping the lid into place, she hurried outside to find Hank walking stiffly across the yard to Travis’s rig. He stopped for a moment when he saw her. Since he looked like he couldn’t decide between coming to her or continuing to the barn, she took the decision away. Running down the steps, she raced across the yard to be enfolded in his arms. Their lips met in a hungry dance, then he buried his face in her hair.
“Thank goodness you’re home,” she breathed.
He kissed her again, deeply, then turned her in his arms so they could walk to Travis’s rig. “You were worried?”
“You’re so late.”
“Checking him out took the whole damn morning. It was close to noon before we left the hospital.”
Claire came around the front of Travis’s truck as they approached.
“How’s he doing?” Hank called.
“About the same,” she answered. “You’d better help me open the door. He’s been asleep. He may fall out.”
The cab door opened, and a deep, scratchy voice uttered, “I can do it.”
As the door swung open, Travis tumbled out, his good arm scrambling for purchase. Hank caught him just before he fell face-down in the dirt.
Travis cussed and shoved away from his brother. “I said I can do it.” He stumbled back a few steps, then squinted around at them. His eyes finally fell on the house.
Alex held her breath. This man didn’t look or act like the same Travis she’d met a few weeks before. His angular, handsome face was swollen, the entire left side dark with bruises. His left arm was in a sling, cradled against his ribs.
“He sounds drunk,” Alex whispered to Claire.
“It’s the medicine.” Claire closed the truck door as Travis lurched across the drive. Hank followed. “He slept most of the way, thank Heaven. I might have killed him if he hadn’t.”
“He must be in a lot of pain,” Alex noted.
Claire harrumphed.
“You want me to help unload the horses?”
She shook her head. “I can handle it. Why don’t you see if Mr. Personality will let you help him to bed? Travis won’t let Hank touch him, and if I spend one more minute in his company, I’ll probably—”
“All right.” Alex started across the yard, calling back, “In case you get in before I come down, there’s soup on the stove.”
“Sounds great!” Claire called back. “I’m starving. Hank set a grueling pace that even I had trouble keeping up with. The only time I got anything to eat was when we stopped for gas. See if you can get some soup down Travis, will you? He refused everything I offered him.”
“I’ll try.” Alex turned and sprinted across the yard. Just as she reached the porch, Travis began to teeter off the second step. Hank grabbed him from behind. The tirade Travis heaped upon his brother’s head as he jerked away was only halfcoherent, but the parts Alex could understand were all curses.
Hurrying forward, she slipped under Travis’s arm. He tried to pull away, but she grabbed his belt and hung on. “Where you going, cowboy?”
He looked down at her, his eyes trying to focus. “Alex?”
“That’s me. Where we going?”
Travis fixed his eyes on the screen door. “I’m going into
my home
. The house my great-granddaddy built near a hundred years ago.” He waved at the house expansively, his speech slurred. “The house he passed down to his son, who passed it to his son, then his son, then—”
my home
. The house my great-granddaddy built near a hundred years ago.” He waved at the house expansively, his speech slurred. “The house he passed down to his son, who passed it to his son, then his son, then—”
“I get the picture. But we won’t get there unless we walk. There’s three more steps to go, okay? That’s right. Good. One more.”
Hank followed them all the way upstairs, not uttering a word. Travis seemed oblivious of his presence, even during the several times Hank had to catch him as he staggered back off the stairs to the second floor. As they slowly climbed toward his bedroom, Travis kept up a broken stream of disjointed memories in the rooms they lurched through.
Finally, he fell onto his bed. He bellowed once and grabbed his rib cage. Slowly his features softened from a grimace as sleep claimed him.
Alex leaned over and pulled off his hat.
“Sorry about all this,” Hank began.
Alex waved him quiet. “You’re the one he’s abusing, not me.”
Hank removed his own hat and raked tight fingers through his hair. “I don’t understand it. The last time we saw each other was at the rodeo. We got along better than we ever have. But he howled every time I walked into his hospital room, like I was punching him in the ribs.”
Hank pulled her close and kissed her with a fervency that set her blood boiling, then he walked her to the door. “I heard you tell Claire you’ve got some soup on the stove. Why don’t you go dish it up, while I get Travis out of his clothes? It shouldn’t take long, now that he’s asleep.”
Alex started to argue, then changed her mind. Hank seemed determined to take care of his brother, whether Travis wanted him to or not. She’d better let Hank do what he could while Travis was in no shape to argue. “Don’t be long.”
“I won’t,” he promised with another kiss.
Half an hour later Alex came upstairs to see what was keeping Hank. She found him stretched across his own bed with his boots still on. Shaking her head, she pulled off his boots and covered him with a blanket.
She bent over the bed to kiss his cheek, rough from four days growth of beard. “Sweet dreams, cowboy.”
Alex closed the door to the refrigerator. As the loud thump died away, she heard creaking on the stairs.
“Travis?”
She dropped two large packages of beef chuck into the sink and stepped into the hall.
“Where’s Hank?” he demanded before she could say anything.
“You shouldn’t be down here. What if you fell down the stairs? Go—”
“I’m tired of being treated like a kid!” he shouted.
By closing her eyes and counting to five, Alex refrained from informing him that he was treated like a kid because he acted like one. His temper sure hadn’t improved since she’d taken breakfast up to him. “I’m not treating you like a kid,” she said with more patience than she felt. “I’m treating you like an injured man whose mind is clouded with painkillers.”
“Not today,” he said grimly.
She placed her hands on her hips. “You didn’t take those pills I put on your tray?”
His bruised, swollen chin rose a notch, and he steadied himself with a hand on the banister. “I flushed every damn one of them down the john.”
“What’s going on?” Claire asked from the head of the stairs, still in her nightgown. “Oh. Grumpy’s up.”
“He just told me he threw away all the painkillers the doctor prescribed.”
Claire descended to the stair above Travis. “You did what? Why?”
“I’m home now. I don’t need them.”
“You idiot,” Claire shot at him.
Alex threw up her hands. “Fine. Suffer.”
“Where’s Hank?” Travis demanded.
“He’s working,” Alex said. “Where else would he be? He left this morning even before I was up. Jed said he went to check on the herd. Hank was dead tired last night, but he lost two days going to get you.”
Claire nodded. “Hank would get out of the grave to check on the herd.”
Travis’s eyes narrowed. “He working close?”
“All I know is he and the men will be home for lunch around noon.”
His bloodshot eyes moved to the clock. “That’s an hour. I’ll wait down here.”
He continued down the stairs, grimacing with every step.
Alex and Claire exchanged puzzled looks.
“Travis, you’ve been acting like a bear woke up on Christmas Day ever since you came to at the hospital,” his sister pointed out, hands on her hips. “What’s wrong?”
He stopped and stared up at her a long minute, then descended to the next step. “I’ll be on the porch.”
Alex sighed. “Can I get you anything?”
“No.”
She shook her head and returned to the kitchen, determined to ignore him. Claire followed.
“A good night’s sleep didn’t do him any good, did it?” the girl said.
“At least he seems clearheaded.”
Claire harrumphed. “But it’s not an improvement. Is it lunchtime already? I thought I was heading down for breakfast.”
“You want something now or are you going to wait?” Alex asked.
“I’ll wait. Let me go get dressed, then I’ll come down and help you.”
“Thanks.”
As Alex worked on lunch, she could hear the porch swing squeak slowly. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something Hank had done or said was eating at Travis. Hank had left early, before Travis woke up, so he didn’t have a chance to learn what was bothering his brother. Now it looked like Travis came down determined to have it out. Knowing Hank’s mule-headedness and temper, and having had this glimpse into Travis’s, she hoped she wasn’t anywhere around when it happened. Maybe she could head them off until after lunch.
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