Fletch
From the way her head gently rolls back and forth against my shoulder with King’s easy gait, I can tell she’s dozed off.
Not a surprise. Hell, I’m exhausted myself after the events of the past twenty-four hours. I could use a nap, if for anything, to get some perspective. The feel of Nella’s soft hair brushing my beard is messing with my head.
I care about my brothers—my family at High Meadow—and of course Ama, but it’s been many years since I’ve allowed myself to care about anyone else. There was a reason I hid out in the mountains around Fernie, British Columbia; I didn’t want to care. Ultimately, I wasn’t able to say no to Jonas when he found me, but even here in Montana, I mostly keep to myself. Purely out of self-preservation.
But in the past few days, this woman has broken through. Maybe I was an ass to her at first because I already felt that pull she seems to have on me. Not that she’s actively tried to get in my good graces—hell no, quite the opposite—but somehow she made me care.
She’s not what might be considered a knockout—she covers herself with this prim and proper shield—but her true beauty comes through in the strength of character she has shown. Nella is a total surprise. It may have been easy to dismiss her before, but I’m pretty sure ignoring her is no longer an option. Not when the feel of her warm body and faint scent of her shampoo is stirring my blood.
“She okay?”
James rides up alongside me, darting a glance at Nella.
“Exhausted.”
“I bet,” he acknowledges. “Ama called for an ambulance, but maybe we should’ve called for two. May not be a bad idea to get her checked out as well.”
“I don’t need an ambulance.” Nella lifts her head from my shoulder and throws James a look. “I’m not leaving my sister.”
“Fair enough,” he says with a grin to her and a wink for me, before he lets his horse fall back in line again.
True enough, the ambulance is waiting right beside the ranch’s horse trailer when we clear the woods. By the time I help Nella off King, EMTs have already strapped her sister to a stretcher and are rolling her to the rig. Nella rushes after them. Before I have a chance to follow her, she’s already climbing in the back of the ambulance with Pippa.
Fuck. I don’t have wheels.
“So I’m guessing you’re staying?”
In the end it had been Sully who drove me to the hospital. I should probably have gotten a ride to pick up my truck on Scenery Mountain and gone back to the ranch, but I wanted to make sure Nella got herself checked out. My gut told me she’d likely ignore her own injuries and had no one to look after her.
Sully witnessed a heated exchange in the ER waiting room when we caught up with Nella. I won the argument and just watched her leave through the doors with the nurse I called over. She’s pissed with me but that’s nothing new, I realize. I seem to have that effect on her. She probably expects me to leave and maybe that’s part of why I settle back in the uncomfortable chair, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Good guess,” I answer Sully, who is leaning against the doorway.
“Figured as much,” he mumbles, grinning when I glare at him.
“What do you suggest I do?” I snap defensively. “She doesn’t know anyone here; she has no mode of transportation—her van is still up on the mountain—and we don’t even know if the sister is gonna make it through.”
Sully raises his hands in defense.
“You’ll get no argument from me. I’m gonna swing by the ranch and grab a couple of the hands to help me fetch your truck and her vehicle. We can drop them off here.”
I toss him my keys and inform him, “She probably has her keys on her.”
“I’ll see if I can grab them from her.”
He’s about to leave the room when I call after him.
“Just drop off my truck here. You can take her van to the ranch.”
Not sure what the hell I’m thinking, but I don’t like the idea of Nella getting another wild hair and taking off to sleep in that damn van somewhere. This way at least I have some control; the woman clearly needs a keeper.
“Want me to lie to her?” he asks, earning himself another glare.
“You don’t have to fucking lie, just tell her you’re getting her van and nothing else.”
I know he’s yanking my chain when the corner of his mouth starts twitching as he mock-salutes me before disappearing down the hall.
There are only a few other people in the waiting room but rather than awkwardly glance at each other every few minutes, I lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes. May as well catch a few z’s while I can.
I wake up when someone nudges my knee. Sully is back, shoving a paper bag and a travel mug at me.
“Here, Sleeping Beauty. Lunch.” He drops a bag on the floor by my feet. “And some clean clothes for you and your friend, all courtesy of Ama. She says she’ll check in this afternoon. Van is parked outside your cabin, but we had to hotwire it. They wouldn’t let me go back to see Nella. Where is she anyway?” He looks around the room.
“No fucking clue. How long were you gone?”
“An hour.”
I get up and set the coffee and whatever Ama packed for lunch on my chair. Then I pull my change of clothes from the plastic bag, set those down too, and take the rest over to the nurses’ station.
“Excuse me. I’m here with Antonella Freling and her sister, Pippa. Any news on either of them?”
The nurse looks at me over the rim of her glasses.
“Are you family?”
“Yes. I have some clean clothes for Antonella.”
I don’t elaborate on the lie, I just set the bag on the desk and stare right back at the woman.
“Let me have a look,” she finally concedes, grabbing the clothes off her desk and disappearing through the door behind her.
A few minutes later she comes back.
“Ms. Freling should be done shortly and a doctor will be out to discuss her sister in a bit.”
Not much information, but at least it sounds like Nella will be walking out of here.
I mumble my thanks and return to my seat.
“She should be out soon,” I volunteer before digging into the paper bag.
“One of those is for Nella,” he tells me when I pull one of the two huge, tightly-wrapped burritos from the bag.
Ama fills those suckers with everything but the kitchen sink, and I can’t stop the groan when I sink my teeth into what tastes like pulled pork, roasted vegetables, and refried beans. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now.
Sully silently sits beside me while I devour my lunch. I have to resist starting on Nella’s and instead grab my clean clothes.
“If she comes out, tell her I’ll be right back.”
I’m starting to smell myself, which is never a good thing, and quickly find a restroom, locking the door behind me. There’s only so much you can do with antibacterial soap in a dispenser and a small sink, but I do my best. I use about half the supply of paper towels to dry off before getting dressed and instantly feel a ton better.
Stealing the liner from the garbage can, I dump my clothes in the bag and return to the waiting room. Nella is sitting beside Sully. She’s wearing the clean clothes but looks surprised when she sees me.
“You came back.”
“I never left,” I correct her before dumping my soiled clothes on Sully’s lap with a dirty look. “I just washed up a bit, which this asshole was supposed to tell you.”
“Sorry, must’ve slipped my mind,” the asshole in question says with a grin on his face.
Ignoring him, I sit down on Nella’s other side.
“So what’s the verdict on you?”
“A few cracked ribs. Nothing serious,” she brushes me off.
That may well be, but I know from experience it hurts like a sonofabitch.
“Did they give you pain meds?”
“A prescription.” She waves a piece of paper. “I don’t think I need them, though.”
Like hell.
I snatch the script from her hand and shove it at Sully.
“Sully will get it filled at the pharmacy in the main lobby. Won’t you, Sully?”
“Sure thing.”
He takes the paper and disappears down the hall.
Nella
“That was rude.”
I turn to Fletch with a glare.
I’m half pissed at him, half pissed at myself for feeling abandoned just moments ago when I thought he’d left.
“Trust me, it’s better to stay on top of the pain,” he explains before pointing to the paper bag his friend set on the floor. “Ama packed lunch. You should eat something, keep your strength up.”
He annoys me with his bossiness and I’m tempted to refuse, but the truth is I know I should eat. Waiting for the doctor to tell me what is happening with my sister has my stomach in knots though, and I only manage a few bites. When Fletch offers me his cup, I gratefully take a sip.
Warm coffee. I almost hum with the instant jolt of caffeine. Now that I could drink a vat of.
But the moment I hear my name called by an older doctor walking into the waiting room, my stomach instantly revolts. His face is so serious, I’m afraid of what he might have to say.
I’m not ready.
“Ms. Freling?” he repeats when Fletch waves him over.
I shoot to my feet, blindly feeling for something to hold on to when I encounter Fletch’s hand and grab on for dear life.
“Yes?”
My voice is as wobbly as my knees.
“If you would follow me?”
Oh fuck. Oh no, that can’t be good.
Fletch gives my fingers a squeeze, and I hold on tight as I force my feet to follow the doctor. I don’t think I can do this alone.
We’re led into a small office where the doctor invites us to take a seat. When we each sit down, I instantly miss the warmth of Fletch’s strong hand gripping mine.
“As you know, your sister was brought in unconscious, severely undernourished, dehydrated, and with a head injury which had become infected. Do you know what happened?”
“We think she may have hit her head on a rock, but that would’ve been about two weeks ago,” I fill him in.
Surely if Pippa hadn’t survived he would’ve just told us so.
“That makes more sense. The wound looked like it hadn’t just happened. We did a scan and discovered a very recent skull fracture that would likely have occurred at the same time.” He sits down at the desk and flips through a file folder. “The EMTs noted she’d been missing for the same length of time?”
I gave the female EMT some background information while in the back of the ambulance.
“Yes.”
“Hmm. I don’t see how she could’ve survived all this time without water at the very least.”
“We found her a couple of miles from where we think she hit her head,” Fletch volunteers. “On the other side of a creek. She’d found shelter in a cave and left a few clues along the way, so she must’ve still been able to find her way there. Able to sustain herself.”
The doctor nods. “That’s the more likely scenario, and in a progressively weakened state her body wouldn’t have been able to fight off the infection.”
“Is she going to be all right?” I risk asking.
He sends me a sympathetic smile. “We’re doing everything in our power. IV antibiotics and fluids, we’re debriding the wound to remove all the dead and infected skin. We’re also waiting for some more tests to come back. Once we have those, she’ll be moved to the ICU and even though she hasn’t woken up yet, we’ll likely be keeping her in an induced coma.”
“A coma?”
Fletch must’ve heard the fear in my voice because he scoots his chair closer and puts his warm, calloused hand reassuringly on my clenched ones.
“Not unusual in a case like this, it gives her body a chance to heal before we take her upstairs. We’ll be monitoring her closely in the ICU.”
“Can I see her?”
“Once she’s settled in, I’ll make sure to tell one of the nurses to come and get you. It likely won’t be for a while though, so if you wanted to step out, make sure you leave a number with the nurse at the ER desk so you can be reached.”
With that he gets up and we automatically do the same, following him out of the room. By the doors to the ER waiting room, he stops and turns to me.
“I should get back, but I promise we’ll take good care of her.”
“Thank you, Doctor…”
He smiles. “Sorry, it’s Osborne.”
“Thank you, Dr. Osborne.”
He nods at Fletch and then he walks down the hall and through a second pair of doors.
That’s where she is. Pippa.
I’m not sure how he knows but before my knees have a chance to give out, Fletch already has me firmly in his arms.
Then the dam breaks.