Chapter 8 #2
“Sweetheart… You’re awake. Did you rest… Are you hurting? You can have another pain pill if you are. We cooked.”
She stopped. “I know. Yes, I did. Yes, I am. I believe I do. It smells good.”
He grinned. “You sorted through all that as quickly as you used to find the mistakes in my math homework. Come sit. Supper is almost ready.”
Gunner was shuffling papers aside and moving laptops to make room for her and the food. “You slept a long time, and I was getting hungry enough to consider checking you for a pulse,” he said.
Nora laughed. “You didn’t have to wait. I would be happy with leftovers.”
“That’s just it,” Asher said. “The Kingstons don’t leave leftovers. I’ll make your plate if you’ll allow me, and cut up the ham for you, too. The rest of it is easy to manage.”
“Feel free,” Nora said.
“We’re having baked potatoes. I made them,” Gunner said.
“Yes, you did, little brother. You turned on the oven and rolled them in foil, then forgot to set the timer. I saved them from incineration, and we are all grateful for your assistance.”
Gunner shrugged. “Oh. Well. I’m better at my job, I assure you. Butter and sour cream, Nora?”
“Yes, please, and salt and pepper,” she added, then watched them working together and knew this was how they’d grown up. Without a mother, they’d learned to do everything together.
When they finally sat down to eat, the first bites of food delayed the need for conversation, but when Nora realized Dylan was gone, she spoke up.
“Did Dylan go back to Amarillo?”
Ash nodded. “Yes, right after we got the door fixed.”
“What were you doing when you cut your hand?” Gunner asked.
“Re-caulking a loose windowpane on the back of the house. I’m getting it ready to sell. I can’t live here and do my job, and I don’t want to be a long-distance landlord.”
“Where do you live in Fort Worth?” Ash asked. “I mean…house or apartment?”
“A very tall apartment building I call my ivory tower. Since I work mostly from home, I don’t get out much,” she said.
“Ash has a really cool house,” Gunner said. “Lots of room. Multiple bedrooms and stuff.”
Nora refused to respond, because she and Asher had already discussed all that.
Ash glanced at her and winked. “She already knows I live in a house now. I did the apartment thing when I was younger, but soon figured out I need privacy and space. Product of all this wide-open space we grew up in, I suppose.”
“And I, a single woman on my own, chose the high-rise for the safety features,” Nora said.
“A doorman. Twenty-four-hour building security. Covered parking garage. Taser. Pepper spray, and I live on the fourteenth floor and have three locks on my door and there are security cameras in the halls on every floor. That leaves two points of escape for any perp. Elevators, which are traditionally slow, or fourteen flights of stairs. It’s a serious deterrent. ”
Ash paled, and Gunner’s shock was evident.
“All of those are prerequisites for renting an apartment? Are you serious?” Asher asked.
Nora shrugged. “No, but it’s the optimal choices.
All women live with the knowledge that anywhere, at any moment, they can become a victim of a mugging, a rape, or a murder.
And, lord love a duck, don’t forget the stalkers.
I’m just fortunate enough to afford the extra perks.
Most women aren’t. They become the victims you two deal with. I don’t want to become a statistic.”
“I may never let you out of my sight again,” Ash muttered.
Nora frowned. “And yet I have managed to survive the cold, ugly world all on my own for years and years without a keeper.” She held up her bandaged hand. “This is just an awkward thing I did to myself. It hurts now, but it will heal a lot faster than the injuries I incurred from a stalker.”
All the expression on Ash’s face disappeared. “You were stalked?”
She nodded. “Right after I moved to Fort Worth. It was a man where I worked. He thought he was going to scare me into submission. Left threatening messages beneath my door after I turned him down, sent pictures of me walking down the streets to let me know he was following me. So, I hired a private investigator to follow my stalker who was following me…and take pictures of him while he was doing it.”
Asher was in shock, imagining all she’d gone through alone, but it was Gunner who asked.
“So, what happened? Did you turn him in to the police?”
“Of course I did. Nothing happened, because he hadn’t physically harmed me, and my boss looked at me like it was my fault.
So, I got a protective order against him and bought a Taser.
He thought he’d skated home free, cornered me in a covered parking lot and hit me in the face with his fist. That hurt way worse than this cut on my hand.
He busted my lip and broke a bone in my cheek, and didn’t expect me to fight back.
But he got the message when I Tasered him in the crotch and put him on the ground. Then I called the police again.”
Gunner’s face was flushed in anger. “You better be telling me they jailed him this time.”
Nora nodded. “Oh, yes. He’s in prison somewhere now.
I sued the company I worked for over their refusal to respond to the danger I was in which created a dangerous workplace environment, and I won.
Then I took myself to a different company, rented a nice apartment in my ivory tower with the expectation of living happily ever after, and you both know that didn’t go as planned. ”
There were tears running down Ash’s face, but he didn’t know it. He wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.
Nora saw his shock and reached for his hand across the table.
“Don’t, Ash. I didn’t tell this for sympathy, or to make anyone feel bad. It’s just a part of what happened to me after I left Crossroads. You weren’t responsible for me. You weren’t my designated bodyguard. You were the boy from home who I loved, and clearly, still love.”
Gunner stood up and walked out. They needed to talk, and he wanted to check on Dylan and make sure he got back to Amarillo okay, so he sat down in the living room, turned on the TV to drown out their conversation, then made the call.
* * *
Dylan drove straight to the hospital, arriving in time to get an update on his dad’s condition before he went in to visit, and was relieved to learn he was continuing to improve. There was a nurse checking Jacob’s vitals and the drip in his IV when he walked up to his bed.
“How’s he doing?” Dylan asked.
Jacob opened his eyes. “He’s still ticking,” he said.
Dylan smiled. “And making jokes, thank the Lord.”
The nurse smiled. “Jacob is a good patient. We’re going to miss him when they move him into a regular room.”
“Really? When is that happening?” Dylan asked.
“Doctor will make that decision tomorrow after rounds,” she said. “I’ll leave you to visit. Ten minutes go fast.”
Dylan reached for his dad’s hand. “You scared the hell out of us, Dad.”
“Scared myself pretty good, too,” Jacob said. “Did I dream it, or were your brothers here, too?”
“Yes. You talked to them. Do you remember what you said?” Dylan asked.
“Did I mention the two men who wanted to buy the bar?”
Dylan nodded. “You also told us two men broke into the bar right after you’d closed. That one of them took you down, told you that you should have sold the bar, and then another one shot you. Is that still how you remember it?”
“Yes. Did you tell me it was Pearl who saved me?”
“Yes, we did. She was sleeping with her bedroom window open. The gunshot woke her. She tried to call you, and when you didn’t answer, she got dressed, grabbed that shotgun of hers, and took off running toward the bar.
She found you bleeding out behind the bar, called 911 and then applied pressure bandages until help came. ”
A tear rolled down the side of Jacob’s face and onto the pillow.
“I owe her, big-time,” he said.
Dylan nodded. “When we told you that the first time, you made a rather surprising comment. You said that you should have married her, instead.”
Jacob didn’t respond and Dylan was afraid he’d said something he shouldn’t have, and then Jacob sighed.
“We were a couple for nearly a year, then we had a falling out because of Brenda. She told Pearl a lie about me that I knew nothing about, and it broke her heart. I didn’t know why she quit me until long after I’d married your mom.
Brenda was always a little wild, but I didn’t know the depths of her deception until she got drunk one New Year’s Eve and told what she’d done for a laugh.
” Then Jacob went into detail about the lies, and shook his head.
“I’ll admit, it was a shock, but it was in the past. Asher was two years old and as they say… I’d already made my bed.”
“Oh man. Did Pearl ever know this?”
“I doubt it. And I was sad that she’d been hurt like that. Water under the bridge,” Jacob said.
“Ash and Gunner send their love. They’re already in investigation mode and determined to figure out why this happened and who did it. I’m staying in Amarillo to be with you,” Dylan said.
“You don’t need to do that, son.”
“Yes, sir, I do need to do this. You were the best dad that three little boys could have, and this is our chance to give back to you. Now, I’m getting the nod that visiting time is over.
I’m staying in a hotel just down the street.
I’ll be back in the morning to see what your doctor has to say.
Just rest and get stronger.” Then he leaned over and gave Jacob a gentle hug. “Love you, Dad.”
“Love you, too,” Jacob said, then shifted slightly and closed his eyes.
* * *
Dylan’s head was spinning when he left the hospital. Finding out what Brenda had done to break up Pearl and Jacob had been shocking. But like Jacob said, “water under the bridge.” He drove past his hotel to a fast-food drive-through, and then headed back to the hotel.