Unbreak my Heart (7 page)

“Will the food keep
for a day?” he groaned, kissing her back before she could answer.

When their lips finally parted,
Clare felt so giddy she could barely speak. “It should keep fresh for a few more days, why?”

“Good. Then you and Willow can come along for the drive to Marshall
this evening, and once we have picked up my nephews I will drive us around ‘til we find an eat-in pizza joint and then fill us all up with pizzas and soda. What do you say?”

Willow’s ears pricked up. “Did you say pizza
, Crank? Yum, pizza is my favourite!”

“Good. Me too
!” he agreed, smiling down at her. “What do you say, Clare? Would you and Willow like to accompany me to Marshall this evening?”

Clare fiddled in her pocket for a key and slipped it into the keyhole of her front door. “Willow and I
would love to, but only under one condition.”

“And what’s that?” Crank asked
curiously.

Clare
pushed open the front door. “That you let me shout the pizzas and soda. It’s the least I can do to repay you for replacing my radiator today.”

Crank glimpsed down at his watch. “
It’s a deal. How ‘bout I head back to my cabin, grab a shower and get changed and then pick you both up around six? That should get us into Marshall in plenty of time to meet the boy’s bus at seven.”

Clare looked down at her daughter and raised her brows.
“I think us ladies can manage to get ourselves ready by six. What do you think Willow?”

Willow giggled loudly. “Yeah
Mama, we can do it!”

As
Clare stood at the cabin door waiting for Willow to drag the chair she had been sitting on back into place, Crank hovered by the edge of her porch, totally mesmerised by her incredible beauty.

Clare
shooed him with her hands like she would a stray cat. “Go on, scoot,” she said as Willow skipped past her into the cabin, “or we’ll be late picking up your nephews.”

“Uncle Crank!” The twins called out in unison as they spotted him with Clare and Willow waiting on the footpath by the bus stop. “It’s so great to see you again.” Both boys gave him a brief hug before following the bus driver to the luggage compartment to fetch their luggage.

When they returned with their bags Crank did the formal introductions. “Clare and Willow I would like to introduce you both to my nephews, Edward and Michael,
” pointing to each nephew in turn as he said their name.

“Hi Clare
. Hi Willow,” Edward piped up instantly, greeting Clare with a smile and a brief handshake.

“Hi Clare
. Hi Willow,” Michael added, stifling a yawn as he shook Clare’s hand.

Willow looked up at their almost identical faces. “Wow you two look exactly the same! How will I tell you apart?”

“That’s easy,” Michael replied, “I’m the smart one. Just ask me anything you need to know and I’ll tell ya; and if I don’t know the answer I’ll Google it.” He crouched down and shook Willow’s hand.

“Really?”
Willow asked wide mouthed, not too sure whether to believe him or not.”

“He thinks he is,” Edward retorted,
crouching down beside his brother to also shake her hand, “but it’s not true. It’s just that I like to use my brain for cooler things like sport and drawing cool tattoo art and making my friends laugh rather than filling it with useless information.”

“You don’t call it useless information when you
need my help to study,” Michael jibed, giving Edward a playful shove which made him land on his butt.

Edward got to his feet
and dusted off the back of his jeans. “Actually, Willow, there’s a much easier way to tell us apart,” he grinned, pulling Michael back up beside him and running his flattened palm from the top of his own head over to Michael’s and back again. “I’m taller than Michael by a quarter of an inch as you can plainly see.” He then pointed to the laptop case Michael was holding and the
Hunger Games
book tucked under his arm and rolled his eyes. “Besides, he will have his nose buried in that book or in his computer all day if Uncle Crank lets him get away with it.”

Crank
walked over and squeezed his way between his two nephews, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. “Normally I would love to stand around and listen to your sibling rivalry until you run out of derogatory things to say to each other,” he drawled, “but tonight I am shouting us all to pizza and sodas for dinner so pick up your luggage and follow us to the car. I am starved.”

“
Ahem.” Clare interrupted loudly, putting her hands on her hips and raising her eyebrows in mock protest “Who did you say was shouting the pizza and sodas tonight, Crank?”

“Sorry, my mistake, Crank apologised.
He placed an arm around Clare’s shoulder. “Clare is shouting for the pizzas and sodas tonight, boys. We are her privileged guests for dinner.”

Edward turned to Clare. “Thanks for shouting us all pizza tonight,
” he said wryly, “but I just hope you don’t regret it when you see how much pizza Uncle Crank can eat. Mom always used to say he’s like a bottomless pit when he’s hungry.”

Clare looked up at Crank and smiled a dimpled smile that made him want to
whisk her into his arms and kiss her again right there on the spot. “I think I should be able to cover it ... just,” she quipped, “but if I was a little short I’m sure your uncle could lend me a few bucks to cover it.”

This time it was Michael who decided to add his two bob’s worth.
“Actually,” he piped up, “Uncle Crank is so rich he …”

Crank was forced to act fast.
“Could afford to shout the whole meal,” he cut in before Michael had a chance to spill the beans about his vast wealth. “Providing, of course, that you two nephews of mine haven’t also both turned into bottomless pits since I last saw you.”

Michael looked at him strangely, but said nothing.

“Well, bottomless pits are my concern for tonight and mine alone,” Clare reminded Crank as he opened up the back of his 4WD so that Michael and Edward could put their luggage in. “And I am fairly certain that I can cover the cost of our meals regardless of how much anybody eats.”

Once they were all in the car and buckled up, Crank started the engine and headed
back to Karnack. “I’m fairly certain that I spotted a pizza joint a couple of blocks from where I dropped you ladies off in town yesterday,” he said, glancing at Clare.

As he drove toward the heart of Karnack
they passed a Thai and a Mexican restaurant and several high profile American fast food chains intermingled amongst the shops. “I don’t think it’s too much further now,” he said, turning on his indicator as he approached a set of lights. “I’m fairly certain that it was right… yup, just as I remembered.” He pointed to the large pink and white sign with a massive picture of a pizza as he turned the corner. “… just around the corner on the left.”

“Michael, could you please help me undo my seatbelt?” Willow asked
him politely when Crank had stopped the engine in the car park. “Yesterday it was a little stiff.”

“He’s not Michael, I am!” Edward teased.

Willow scratched her head and looked confused. “But I thought …?”

“Don’t worry Willow,”
Michael said, undoing the seatbelt for her. “Edward’s just messin’ with ya. I am Michael. He does that all the time tryin’ to be funny, but hardly anyone ever gets fooled. Besides, I’m not even sure he knows how to unbuckle a seatbelt.”

“
Doesn’t he!” Willow giggled.

Michael pretended to be shocked as he watched Edward undo his seatbelt and open the car door. “So he does, what a surprise!” he exclaimed.

Willow giggled again. “You two are funny.”

As they sat at their table
inside the pizza parlour quietly talking amongst themselves as they waited for their orders, the sudden burst of music from Crank’s cell phone cut through the chatter.

“Excuse me for a moment,” he apologised, noticing that the call was from Macey. “
Boys it’s your Mom. I’m gonna take this outside where it’s a little quieter. I’ll let you know the news as soon as I get back inside, okay?”

“Hi Mace
,” he greeted as he reached the curb. “Has there been any word yet about Eli’s condition?”

“Hi Crank.” Macey seemed a little calmer. “Did the boys arrive okay?”

“Yeah, they’re a little tired after their long bus trip, but they’re both fine; still bickering as usual. As a matter of fact we’re just about to have pizza for dinner.”

“That’s great. Look Crank, thank
you so much again for agreeing to have the boys for a while. It’s a real load off my mind knowing they are being taken care of properly with you instead of at home at the ranch by themselves.”

“So has there been any more news about Eli’s condition?”
he asked again.

“Yes.” she said cheerily. “The doctor on call said that some of the swelling on Eli’s brain has already started to go down
and his vital signs have improved immensely. He thinks that if Eli keeps improving at the same speed as today they may be able to bring him out of his coma the day after tomorrow.”

Crank felt relieved. “And do they still think he may have any form of brain damage?”

“It’s still possible,” Macey admitted, “but the doctors are a lot more optimistic now than what they were this morning. They say that apart from a few temporary gross and fine motor deficits, he’s likely to be just fine.”

Crank breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Mace that’s absolutely wonderful news,” he said excitedly. “I’ll pass that on to the boys for you as soon as I get back inside the restaurant.”

“Crank!”
Macey said. “Can I just ask one more favour?”

Crank
’s stomach rumbled as he glimpsed in through the window of the restaurant and saw that several trays of mixed pizza pieces had arrived at the table along with some sides of garlic bread and several jugs of soda. “Of course Mace, anything, just ask.”

“Could you
please encourage the boys to get out and explore the lake a little rather than sit around with their computers chatting on social media websites, or in Michael’s case, burying his head in YouTube and books? The brochures for Caddo Lake all looked so peaceful and interesting and I would love for them to get out and explore it. Heck, when we were kids Mama and Daddy hardly saw us between sun up and sun down. We were always too busy riding our bikes or climbin’ trees to stay indoors.”

“
And fishin’ and swimmin’,” Crank reminded her. “Look Sis, don’t worry about Michael and Edward, just concentrate on Eli. I’ll make sure the boys get out of the cabin and experience nature.”

“Thanks Crank, I’ll call again as soon as I have some more news, okay.”

“Okay Mace, I’d better get back to the boys before they start bickering again.”

“Tell them I love them
,” she interjected.

“Will do, bye”

“Bye.”

After
telling the twins the good news about their father, the five of them enjoyed a delicious feed of pizzas and soda until they were all stuffed. When all of the pizza was finally finished Michael and Edward asked Crank for some coins so they could try their luck at winning Willow a toy from the claw machine and suddenly he and Clare were alone again for the first time since he had kissed her outside her cabin.

“Edward and Michael seem like fine young men,” she complimented, breaking the awkward silence that had crept in.
“And Willow certainly seems to like them.”

Crank looked over toward the claw machine and watched as the two boys worked together to pick up a soft toy
in the claw while Willow stood nearby cheering them on. “They used to be the same with Ellie before she died,” he said sadly, remembering how much the boys used to enjoy hanging out with their younger cousin.

“Whenever Georgia and I
used to visit their folk’s ranch, they would keep her entertained for hours. Then, when it was time to leave, we used to have a real job getting her to come home with us because she always wanted to sleep over with her Aunt Macey and Uncle Eli so she could continue to hang out with Michael and Edward.”

Clare reached her hand across the table and placed it over Crank’s
. “You’re an amazing man Crank, you know that. I would have probably lost the plot if I had lost my whole family in an accident. But not you, you’ve got such a big heart.”

Crank turned his attention back to Clare. “
Clare, there’s something important I need to tell you,” he said cautiously, “but you may not like it.” He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, fuelled by absolute panic that once he told her he had been in jail for killing a man she would want nothing more to do with him. But he also knew that if he intended to start a relationship with her then he would have to tell her the whole story at some stage so why not right now. After all, it was hardly the sort of detail you could just leave out. That would be too dishonest and the chances were Clare would find out anyway, eventually. Secrets always have a way of coming out in relationships at the most inopportune times and that was something that he wanted to avoid.

He looked deep into her
attentive blue eyes. “Clare, I’m actually not as strong as you think I am. You see, after Georgia and Ellie were killed I did lose the plot. At first I turned to the bottle and drank myself into oblivion every night for weeks to avoid the pain until eventually my best friend and business partner, Kurt, hauled me up by my boot straps and dragged my ass back to work to distract me from my personal hell.”

Clare recognised the name.
“Ah, Kurt, your generous friend who paid for my new radiator. Did going back to work help?” she asked. “I’m not sure it would have for me.”

Crank nodded. “For a while things returned to normal, at least from the outside, the pain was still there and when I was alone the grief and pain would literally consume me. Bu
t at least I was kept busy during the day and pulling my weight as a partner at our firm. But then when the vehicular homicide trial finally made it to court for the drunk driver who was behind the wheel when they were killed, I made one of the dumbest split–second decisions I have ever made in my life and I have been paying for that mistake for a long time. You see outside the court I ….”

“Mama, Crank, look what Edward and Michael won for me!” Willow
interrupted excitedly, jumping up and down between them waving a small, blue teddy bear from side to side, innocently breaking the momentum of his confession to Clare that he had been in jail for manslaughter for the past six years.

“They picked it up in the claw
and dropped it dropped down the hole for me!”

Crank
wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or upset that he had been interrupted. He reached down and touched the soft, blue fur of the plush toy with his finger. “Wow, you’re such a lucky girl, what are you going to call him?”

“I’m going to call him
Lucky
,” she said happily, “because we won him on the very last coin.”