"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..."
Ecclesiastes 3:1
By Atonia and Jo
Jo writing Maximus, Caroline, Bud, Marie, Lachlan, Hope, Cort, Daisy, Ben, Mae, Zack
Atonia writing Terry, Dee, Alex, Linda, Jack, Tarwyn, John, Bethany, Dino, Max, Sophia
PART 14:
Jack stood at the back door with a look of amusement in his eyes. Tarwyn had stopped him
there on the threshold.
“Now, now you have to take it slowly to take it all in. Don’t just glance…look.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” He moistened his lips and looked down a moment. He noticed the rug and to
the right of him an umbrella stand.
Taking a deep breath, she took him by the arm. “The den, this is where we spend most of our time.”
He stood quietly and looked at it…taking it in as instructed. “It looks very nice, Tarwyn. I can spend time in here.” He walked into the room and felt at home. He wasn’t sure what kind of words he was supposed to say. It was light and…nice. It smelt of some sort of polish and new…new fabric. “Yes, this will do quite well.”
“I’m glad you like it. I thought you would.” Taking his arm again she led him down the hall
and showed him the living room and dining room. Both were done a little more formally but
still light and in soft neutral colors. The living room, especially, had an English country house look to it and she’d wanted the dining room rather bare except for a long sideboard and a
china cabinet. The dining room table was a highly-polished antique oval.
Jack took it in again, commenting on one thing or another that caught his eye. He was pleased and would be proud to entertain anyone in the house.
“Now, something special for you…I hope.” Back in the hallway she opened the door into his room and stepped back a little for him to go in.
He recognized it for what it was and walked around looking at the artifacts in the display cases and scanning the bookshelves. He noticed a complete set of Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin series. History books…good reading for him to catch up. Matching sofas…but something about the room said…captain’s cabin. His eye rested on the Surprise replica.
Tarwyn quietly slipped in and found the remote controls. From the sound system came the sound track from Master and Commander. Jack turned around and looked at her for a long time, long enough she began to fidget about, swinging her arms and clasping them behind her. Had she got it wrong?
He walked over to her and took her in his arms. “You know me better than I know myself.”
In a little while Canfield came out with Bud’s x-rays. “You are neither cracked nor broken, except maybe in the good sense department. What you have is a lot of bruised and mashed tissue. Go home and soak in a tub of hot water, take two of these for the pain, and for God’s
sake don’t call me in the morning.” He handed an envelope of pills to Marie. “You, however, can call me in the morning, preferably not reporting he’s had his legs cut off by a freight train. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go up and visit a pretend patient, someone who really needs me.”
Terry looked at Bud and shook his head. “You made me miss a home-cooked meal. Don’t think I’m forgetting that.”
“Yeah, and I was gonna eat too…buddy.” Dino made a big frown. “Stay outta torn up houses. That’s an order.”
“I second that order, Bud. Marie, I have much sympathy for you.” Terry bussed her cheek.
When Terry and Dino had left, Cort squatted by the wheelchair. “Bud, you weren’t breathin’ there for a while an’ then the water tank broke an’ the basement was floodin’. We almost lost Maximus an’ Lachlan in the storm. We’ve got to not take unnecessary risks. I truly appreciate you wantin’ to save some things for Hope an’ Lachlan, but you bein’ here with us is more important than anythin’. We need you, Bud. You fill a place here nobody else can fill.” He stood up, wiped a hand across his mouth, then added, “We all worried about John ‘cause he went off on his home. You just did the same thing, Bud. Think about that. That’s all I’m sayin’…think about that.”
Bud dropped his chin to his chest a moment. “You’re fuckin’ right. I know that.”
“The smartest thing you did today, Bud, was call me before you went in. You’d be squashed
an’ drowned in that basement if you hadn’t done that.”
“Least I’m not a total fuck-up.”
Marie kissed the top of his head. “No, Officer White, only about 85%.”
Dee was watching TV when Terry and Dino came in wet to the bone. “I’m not even going to ask but did you save Bud?”
“We saved him…um, shower.” Terry kissed the top of her head and headed for the bedroom. Dino disappeared into the other bathroom.
She sighed. That meant she would have to do laundry again tonight for Dino. “Hey, Dino!” she called out. He stuck his head out of the bathroom door.
“You need to get in here first?”
“No, I need your wet clothes again. Why don’t you blokes ever go anywhere DRY?”
Dino was chucking his clothes out the door. “Believe me, Deidre, it wasn’t my idea to go swimming in the water tower.”
“The water tower?”
“Yeah, it fell over on the house and today with Bud trapped inside it decides to bust open.”
Dee shook her head and took his wet clothes. She thought she might as well get Terry’s too. She opened the door to the bathroom. “Umm, I like you in your birthday suit. I don’t get to see that much anymore.”
“I’ll show it to you later,” he grinned. “Anything left to eat?”
“It’s in the oven drying out. I’ll wring out these pants on it and soften it up.” She accepted his kiss and left him to take his shower.
Marie drove Bud home in his car. He leaned his temple against the window and kept his eyes closed most of the way. While he’d been getting his x-rays, Cort had described how they’d found him and she fully realized she’d almost lost him. She bit her lip as she drove. Thanksgiving was so close. She reached her right hand out, resting it on his left thigh and in a moment he moved his hand to cover hers.
When they got to the apartment, she filled the bathtub for him with very warm water and he settled into it with a sigh. She rolled a towel to put behind his head and he leaned on it. Kneeling beside the bathtub she began to soap him up. He inhaled a long breath, letting it out slowly, appreciating the simple fact of breathing.
“I’m tired,” he said softly, closing his eyes as she gently wiped his chest. Big bruises were already forming all over it. “Who knew getting squashed like a bug would wear you out.”
She smiled but didn’t say anything, just lifted his right arm and wiped the soapy rag down its length.
“Would you like me to bring you something back?” Bethany asked John.
“Bring me the Kindle and the charger.”
“Okay, want some junk food?”
He smiled and reached for her hand. “No, honey. You know, you don’t have to stay here with
me all the time. I know there are things at home you want to be doing.”
“That’s true, but I want to be doing them with you in the next room. I don’t like being there by myself. It feels strange like…I can’t remember a time when we weren’t together. No. When you check out of here, I check out with you. You be good while I’m gone. You know Lachlan can’t help it.”
“Yeah, I know.” He played with her hand. “If I could get up and walk in there I’d tell him a thing or two about who he is. Good thing I’m stuck, I guess.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Love you.” She kissed him and with a wave left for the elevator. Reaching in her purse for her keys her hand felt the gun. It was John’s returned to him after
the accident with his car. She’d forgotten to leave it at home yesterday.
She arrived at their house and ran inside and up the stairs. She picked up the Kindle from the night stand and the charger and crammed it in her purse. What else…change her top. She pulled off her sweater and was rummaging in a drawer for another when she heard something…definitely…on the stairs.
With her heart beating madly in her chest she moved behind the open bedroom door. The door opened wider and she held her breath…no…no! She slammed the door into whoever was on the other side of it and heard a grunt and a curse. Now she was exposed and he came around the door and grabbed her by the arms. Bethany was screaming to no avail. He slapped her around and she fought him, digging her nails into his face. Her mind couldn’t get around what was happening to her.
The man threw her on the bed and she backed up toward the headboard. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted her handbag. He hadn’t said a word to her. Big man with a stocking cap pulled down over his face, two eye holes and a mouth hole. He was a monster. In a split second while he was unbuckling his belt she moved her hand into the handbag, pointed the gun and
shot him. He fell heavily across the foot of the bed and she screamed and screamed.
It took her nearly ten minutes after the fact to pull her phone out of her bag and she called Terry.
“Honey, he’s in the shower,” Dee answered his phone. “What’s the matter? Something happen?” She could hear her hiccupping.
“Shot…I shot a man…oh, Dee, help me!”
“Where are you?”
“Home…help me!” She was shaking so bad she couldn’t hold onto her phone. It dropped to the floor and she pulled out a pillow to cover her face so she couldn’t see the monster on the foot of the bed.
Ben watched the firelight play on Mae’s face. They’d cooked steaks together, baked some potatoes, and she was tossing a salad as Outlaw studied every move she made.
“It’s lettuce, Outlaw. Dogs don’t like lettuce,” she said.
“That there dog’ll eat anythin’ don’t eat him first.”
“Have you tried to feed him a lemon?”
“Well, I can’t rightly say as I have. Don’t keep lemons in the house.”
“Why not?”
“Ain’t used to ‘em.”
“They didn’t have lemons in Arizona?”
“Not when I was there.”
“When was that?” She cocked a brow.
“Long time ago.”
“How long?”
“Long.”
“You’re so informative, Ben.”
“So are you, Mae.”
As they sat at the table to eat, he said, “I tell you somethin’ ‘bout me, you tell me somethin’ ‘bout you. Deal?”
“We’ll have to see about that. Tell me something.”
“You the first woman I ever had in this here house.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“I ain’t been here long,” he grinned.
“Ok. This is the first house I’ve ever been in in Texas.”
“You new, too?”
“Very new.”
“How new?”
“Very.”
He smiled. “We gettin’ somewhere real fast, ain’t we?’
She cut off a bite of steak and fed it to Outlaw. “How long you and him been buddies?”
“Not long. I stayed in the city for a while. Found him…no, he found me…when I was walkin’ home late one night.”
“Nobody waiting for you to come home?”
“Nobody, but I’m used to that.”
“You ever been married, Ben?”
“No.”
“You been close to getting married?”
“No.”
“You ever want to get married?”
“Never was in a place where that could happen.”
“Why not?”
“I was mostly on the move.”
“Somebody chasing you, Ben?”
He looked down at his plate for a while before lifting his eyes to hers. “Used to. Not any more.”
“Terry!” Dee beat on the shower door.
“What is it, Nolia?” He opened the door, water dripping down his face, shampoo in his hair.
“It’s Bethany. I think she’s shot somebody…and look at you. She needs some help and needs it now. I’m going.”
“Deidre, you wait a minute!” He stepped back under the water and rinsed the shampoo from
his hair then turned it off.
“She’s at home and I know she’s there by herself with a dead body. She’s all to pieces, Terry.”
Terry was drying off as fast as he could and reaching for a pair of leisure pants. “What happened, did she say?”
“No…she’s in bad shape right now. Here, put this on.” She tossed a sweatshirt at him and handed him a pair of running shoes. “Hurry!”
It took them nearly twenty minutes to get to Bethany’s house. The front door was unlocked and they went in and called her. No answer. Terry took the stairs two at a time and Dee followed him.
“Oh, my God!” Terry took in the scene. Gingerly he felt of the man’s neck. No pulse. “He’s dead.”
“Bethany, honey, oh, Bethy!” Dee hugged her and rocked her back and forth. She was silently crying.
Terry sat down on the bed, opposite side of Dee. “Bethany, what happened, luv?”
“I…I was…gonna find a clean shirt and…I heard something…oh…” She lost it again.
Dee looked over Bethany at Terry. “We have to call the police on this.”
“Yeah, I know. Have you called John?”
“No, no, no, I haven’t called anybody but you. I don’t want to tell him.”
“He has to know, honey. He loves you.” Dee held her against her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry, so sorry.”
“Nothing for you to be sorry about. Clearly it was self defense.” Terry looked at the attacker.
He didn’t want to touch him. “I’m going to call 911. Deidre, call somebody and let them know what’s going on.”
“Who? Who’s still walking around?”
“Call Alex, call Cort…he may not be all the way home yet.”
Deidre pulled out her phone and looked up Cort’s number. “Cort, this is Deidre. Have you
made it home yet?”
“I haven’t even started yet, Dee. I was stickin’ around the hospital to stay with Hope. She’s pretty lost right now what with Lachlan thinkin’ he’s in World War II an’ all. What’s up?
You need me for somethin’?”
“We wanted to let somebody know…Cort, Terry and I are out at John and Bethany’s house.
She came home and an intruder attacked her. Cort…she shot him dead. Terry’s just called
911. The…man is lying across the foot of her bed and we’ve taken her out of the room to the guest room. John doesn’t know. I don’t know if you should tell him or…what to do. I think we can handle her here. She’s all to pieces right now.”
“John needs to know but he’ll right off also need to see that she’s all right, that she’s not hurt.” He sighed. “I tell you what. I’m goin’ to hang around here some more, let Canfield know, see what he says about tellin’ John. I know the police’ll be questionin’ her an’ all, but she can’t
stay there tonight anyway. She needs to be with John an’ he’ll be needin’ her to be there. You think you an’ Terry can bring her to the hospital when the police are done? Give me a head’s up you’re comin’ an’ I’ll sorta prepare John a bit.”
“All right, Cort, thanks for being there.”
After the call was over, he found Canfield in his office signing some papers.
“What’s up, Cort? You all right?”
“Tired, Doc, but, yeah, pretty good considerin’. What I wanted to ask you about is somethin’
to do with John an’ what you think is best.”
Canfield set his pen down and leaned back in his chair. “Something happened?”
“Busy day, Doc.”
“Aren’t they all?”
Cort let out a little snort. “Beth left the hospital a while ago an’ went home to change clothes an’ pick up some stuff for John. Seems a guy broke into the house and attacked her in the bedroom.”
“Good Lord, Cort! She’s pregnant! Did he…?”
“No. He tried but she had John’s gun in her purse an’ managed to get it and shot him. He died right there on the bed. Dee an’ Terry are with her an’ Dee called me. Anyway, she’ll be with
the police a bit I ‘spect but John’ll be needin’ to know what’s goin’ on with his wife. How you want that handled that’ll be best for him?”
“I know him. He’ll go all tense and his head will explode. I want to give him some pain meds before he’s told and I also want to be in the room when he’s told. You planning on waiting
until closer to time for Beth to get to the hospital?”
“That was what I was thinkin’, yes. No use in him lyin’ there knowin’ when she’s tied up with the police. I asked Dee to call when she an’ Terry are bringin’ her. You think that’ll work?”
“I think no matter what his head’s going to explode. He’s very protective of her, especially
now she’s pregnant, and this will hit him hard, but he’s got to know. He’s her husband and
he’d want to know.”
“Ok, then. I’m goin’ down the hall an’ sit with Hope some more. I’ll let you know when Dee calls.”
As much as Dee wanted to wash the cuts and scratches on Bethany with soap and water she
held off, but she did find a robe for her to drape around herself for when the police and the emergency folks arrived. She got her a glass of water and sat with her in the guest room.
Terry paced about in and out of the room, wondering what was taking so damn long for the responders to arrive. He tried to comfort Bethany as best he could.
“You’re in for some questioning, you understand that? We’ll be right here with you. You won’t be alone, Bethany. You did what you had to do to protect yourself and your baby. Nobody can fault you for that. That fella in there was intent on doing you some harm. You’ll be okay, luv.” He held her hands.
Sirens interrupted the silence. Now it would begin.
The detective that arrived shortly after the police was the same one that had questioned John and Bud about Mrs. Braithwaite. When she identified herself he knew who she was and who
her husband was and also knew he was in the hospital. He was very sympathetic with her, knowing her situation. They soon found where he’d forced the French doors on the deck and entered the house. He was probably already in the house when she arrived.
“We’ve been pretty lucky so far with the looting. Always have some of that after a storm like
we had. I’m sure he’s been watching your house, probably knew no one was staying here.”
The detective turned and stepped out of the door. The body was being taken out of the bedroom.
Bethany told them she was staying at the hospital with John. She gave them her phone number
if they needed further information, although she’d told them everything she could think of. It was John’s gun and she’d taken possession of it the day before down at the police station.
“Tomorrow, we’re going to have a security system installed here,” Terry told her. He’d identified himself as her brother in law.
An hour and a half after she’d fired the shot, the police left. Dee went into the bedroom and gathered up her purse, her phone and some clothes.
“John’s going to be so worried. I’ve been gone so long.”
“It’s okay, luv. I’ll drive you to the hospital. Deidre, will you be okay driving?”
“Yes, Terry, I’ll follow you.” Dee wanted to get off to herself and cry too. Maybe she’d get that out of the way before they reached the hospital.
Once in her car she called Cort. “Cort, we’re on our way. She’s with Terry.”
“I’m so glad he’s not in Australia,” Cort sighed. “Thanks for lettin’ me know, Dee. I’ll go tell Canfield and we’ll get John ready.”
He popped his head in Canfield’s office. “On their way.”
“All right.” He went with Cort down the hall to John’s room and while Cort made small talk
for a minute, he injected some pain meds into John’s IV, not enough to put him to sleep, just enough to help him stay calmer and not hurt so much when the tension set in. He nodded to Cort, who pulled a chair up close to the bed.
“John, Beth’s on her way back to the hospital now. Terry’s drivin’ her.”
“Terry’s driving her, why?”
As was Cort’s habit, he ran his right thumb pad in circles around his left palm. “Well, there
was a little trouble at your house.”
“What…what kind of trouble?” John was alarmed and tried to raise his head off the pillow.
“First thing you need to know is that Beth’s not hurt an’ she’ll be here in just a few minutes. You keep that in mind, John, all right?”
“Bethany…what happened?”
“You know how Beth went home to change clothes and pick up your stuff, right?”
“Yeah, she’s been gone a long time, too.”
“Well, after the hurricane there’s been a lot of looters goin’ around, lookin’ for houses where nobody’s home.”
“Oh, fuck!” John felt it running all over him. Bethany…
“Seems one of them was in your house when Beth got there.” He looked over at Canfield, who shook his head, studied John’s face and turned up the drip on the IV.
“No, no!” John felt the pressure building up in his head. “Bethany…she…?”
“He didn’t hurt her, John. Just a few scratches from what Dee said on the phone, an’, yes,
Dee and Terry have been with her for a while now. She called them an’ they came right over.”
“Oh, God…he was gonna hurt her.” He wanted to scream, to cry, to beat something.
“I’m afraid that’s right, John. He was after more than loot, but Beth, well, she had your gun
in her purse an’ she managed to get it an’…yeah, she shot him.”
“Shot? Bethany…shot him?” He felt the pain medication giving him a little moment of strangeness.
“He’s dead, John. She saved herself an’ we’re all mighty proud of her. She’s given her statement to the police an’ they’ve taken the guy away so she’s free now to come back an’ be with you.”
“Bethany…shot...?”
“I know, but…” Just then the door opened and Beth was there, Dee and Terry right behind her.
She’d had her scratches taken care of downstairs before she came in. She went straight to
John and fell apart in his arms.
Terry moved around the bed and let the side down so she could get to him.
Dee lay a hand on Cort’s shoulder and nodded. “Thank you.” Turning to Dr. Canfield she said, “I hope you can clear it with her doctor to give her something. She needs it. She’s half way in shock over what’s happened.
John was crying along with her and holding her as tightly as he could.
Cort wanted to give them privacy so left and walked down the hall to where Hope was. “Baby girl,” he said, feeling very protective of her, “I’m goin’ home. Daisy’s alone out there an’ I
need to be with her. Why don’t you come on with me? Lachlan’s sleepin’ now an’ there’s nothin’ you can do for him tonight.”
“Thanks, Daddy, but I can’t…I just can’t leave the hospital. He’s going to remember me, I know he is, and I have to be here when that happens. I just have to!”
“I understand. I do. I just hate goin’ off an’ leavin’ you here.”
“I’ll be all right. It’s where I want to be so that makes it all right, Daddy. He’ll come to
himself soon and everything’ll be just fine and we’ll go home and…” She let out a breath. “I guess we won’t go home, will we?” She looked up at her father. “I can’t believe Uncle Bud almost died trying to save my things.”
“He cares about you, Peaches.”
“I care about him, too. He’s very dear to me.”
Cort smiled. “You have a big family, little darlin’, an' you don’t need to worry about where home will be. Lachlan’s the youngest of us an' you’ve always been everyone’s special girl.
You both will come out of this all right. I promise.”
She stood up and he wrapped her in his arms. “Everythin’ will be just fine.”
As he left the hospital he called Daisy. “I’m comin’ home, darlin’.”
Terry and Dee stayed for awhile and made sure Bethany was going to be all right. Terry
pushed the extra bed she’d been sleeping in up next to John’s so they could be together.
After leaving the hospital Dee remembered she’d left the oven on warming up his dinner. “Terry, you might as well stop for a sandwich on the way home. I left the oven on.”
“Surely, Dino, would have turned it off…and probably eaten my meal.” He wheeled into a drive through and bought a burger and some fries.
Dino had indeed eaten the warmed over dinner and left the remains on top of the stove.
“So what happened?” He pulled up a chair and watched Terry munching fries.
Terry relayed the scene at John’s house. “She’s a smart lady and I admire her courage.”
“Yeah…pulled the trigger. Well, if she hadn’t, it might have gone down really bad for her.”
“So, what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”
“I’m flying to Houston and clear out what I can. I need to contact our pilot and let him know we’re moving. He can fly one of the helicopters up here. We need a hanger. Guess I can see to that in the morning. You’re going where?”
“Port Arthur, HAWCO business. We have an oil spill to see to.”
“We…you’re already there, aren’t you?”
Terry looked at him a moment. “It was inevitable. I didn’t choose it…it chose me.”
“You asleep?” Lachlan asked into the darkened room.
“Not yet,” Zack replied. “Something’s been going on out there. I’ve heard a lot of people
going down the hall.” He was actually quite worried something bad had happened with John but there was no way for him to find out about it. He was trapped where he was as long as Lachlan was still fighting World War II. None of the brothers came by because they’d been asked not to. He’d definitely heard Cort’s voice just outside the door and he felt tense and uncomfortable not being a part of what was going on.
“Probably bringing in new prisoners to torture.”
“They might be just patients, you know…since this might be just a hospital.”
“Look, Zack, this place is in Germany. It can’t be ‘just’ a hospital.”
“You don’t know for sure it’s in Germany, Lachlan.”
“I know bloody well I saw that sign in German.”
“What did the sign say?”
“Wieser. It said Wieser Feed Store. Wieser is definitely a German name.”
“That’s true, it is. Was, um, Feed Store also in, um, German?”
“Of cour…ah…well, I don’t remember.”
“Try to see the sign in your head, Lachlan. Was it in German?”
He could see it. It was English. “That wouldn’t make sense. Why would part of it be in German and part of it not?”
“Maybe the guy’s name who owned it is German, but there’s a lot of German names in other parts of the world, right?”
“Sure, but…what are you getting at?”
“I’m just saying maybe this isn’t Germany, that’s all.”
“Why are you so determined, Zack, that it’s not?”
“It matters to me that I know where I am. Don’t you want to know where you really are?”
“I’m here…right bloody well here…and so are you.”
“But, Lachlan, where is here?”
“You act like knowing that’s a big deal.”
“What if it is a big deal, Lachlan? What if it really matters?”
“Why would it matter that much?”
“Don’t you want to know if you went outside whether you’d be in Germany or…or…Argentina…or even maybe Texas?”
Lachlan laughed. “Argentina? That’s about as ridiculous as us being in Texas.”
“You ever been to Texas, Lachlan?”
“Not that I…no. I’ve never been there.”
“You sure about that? Maybe you have. Maybe you’ve got people there who want you back.”
“Look, mate. I’m an Aussie. Why on earth would I have people in Texas? You’re going off the deep end with that line of thinking.”
Zack sighed. He was getting nowhere and he felt tired. “I’m going to sleep now.”
“Ok. Good night…Texan.” Lachlan chuckled at the mere thought of it, but he found himself lying there, staring up in the darkness, disturbed by the fact Feed Store had been in English.
It also seemed to him the men who chased him down were shouting in English. That didn’t
make any sense, not any sense at all.
Linda was snuggled up with Alex. “You’re going to Port Arthur with Terry tomorrow?”
“He asked me to.”
“I like Terry. He’s strong and dependable. He’s going to make a good CEO.”
“That’s what he was at NanoCorp. He’s also likely to take off for the jungle for a couple of months at a time. You’ve thought of that, right?”
“He told me.”
“Linda, don’t put too much on his shoulders. You’re right about him but everybody has a breaking point. Don’t push him too hard. He’ll help all he can but HAWCO will not be his life.”
“It’s not going to be mine either. It pretty much runs by its self. There just has to be someone
to answer to at the top.”
“Well, that’s you, baby.”
“I don’t want it to be me.”
“Terry’s not the top honcho, you are. Don’t try to make him into someone he’s not. It’s hard for him to say no to you.”
“It’s not hard for Max. I offered him the same thing and he flat refused.”
“Good for him. He knows his limitations and knows how deep he wants to tread.”
“What about the others? Who else can we bring in?”
“Ah, I’m not going to go there. I haven’t seen anything on the roster for a gunslinger/priest or an outlaw, a Roman general, a sea captain or a flyboy. Zack, I don’t know. He’s a clean slate. John and Bud…well, cops.”
“I wanted you, too.”
“You’ve got me, all of me right now and why don’t we quit talking about HAWCO and slide
into something I’m good at.”
She smiled and nuzzled his neck. “And what would that be…oh…yes, that.”
It was quite late when Cort finally got home. He was still dirty and his clothes torn from getting Bud out of the demolished house. When he came wearily in the door, Daisy took one look at him and went, “Oh…my!” He’d called and told her about what had happened but he looked much worse than she’d expected.
He kissed her without hugging her because he was too dirty to do that and said one word, “Shower.”
“Good idea, my darling,” she smiled. “Have you had anything to eat?”
“Just out of the vending machine. Chips, I think, and a Coke.”
“I’ll make you something while you get cleaned up.”
“I love you,” he said and headed for the master bathroom. He stood for a long time letting the hot water stream down on the top of his head, sluicing away the dirt, mud, and dust. His hand hurt and he looked down at the cut across it. Needed to do something about that.
Dressed in a jogging outfit and slippers, he went down to the kitchen, setting some bandages
and antibiotic ointment on the table. “Think you can fix this up for me, darlin’?”
“How’d you do that?”
“Somethin’ sharp down in the basement while I was tryin’ to pull stuff off Bud. Not sure just what it was.”
She spread the ointment gently over it and wrapped some gauze around his hand, lifting it
when she was done and kissing his fingertips.
“It’s so good to be home,” he sighed.
“It’s so good to have you home.”
“I know I’ve been gone a lot. Lachlan seems still to be stuck in the war. Canfield says Zack’s helping, though. I hope he can get through to him. This is bein’ real hard on Hope. I tried to get her to come home with me, but she wanted to be there in case he has a break-through.”
“I would, too, if it were you.”
He guided her down onto his lap then buried his face in the curve of her shoulder. “I’m almost too tired to eat.”
She kissed his hair in several places. “Bed soon. Eat something first.”
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