Chapter 30 #2
“Your father was in so much pain, he threw up,” she said. “I didn’t know what else to do, and I don’t need you yelling at me too.”
“I didn’t yell at you,” Taylor uh, yelled, from somewhere on the other end of the line.
“I’m not yelling at you, Mother,” Winnie said in a calm, placating voice, quickly employing the role she’d always played in her family: a peacemaker between her parents and her sister. “How far out are they, Momma?”
“Seven minutes,” Momma said. “Can you come?”
“Momma, I live three hours away now, remember?”
“But you could be here soon,” her mother said.
“Mom, I have a job. I can’t just leave town. You’re capable. You’ll go to the hospital with Daddy, and you’ll figure out what’s going on, and you’ll text me.”
Not only that, but Taylor lived right there, and Brad only lived thirty minutes away. Winnie wasn’t sure why she needed to rearrange her life when her parents had other people to rely on.
“I’ll tell Taylor to be nice,” Winnie said. “And I’ll text Brad so I get all the updates, okay?”
“Okay,” Momma said a second later, the sound of Taylor’s voice silencing. “I swear that girl was getting on my last nerve.”
“She’s been on mine for a while,” Winnie said, a flash of sympathy moving through her at the same time. Her parents could kick Taylor out anytime they wanted, and they didn’t, so they must not hate having her live there as much as Momma sometimes said she did.
“Oh, they’re here,” Mom said. “That was so much faster than I thought.”
“I’ll let you go,” Winnie said. “Keep me updated.”
She hung up just as Ty sat down across from her. A sigh moved through her whole body, and she instinctively reached for another chip, because guacamole made everything better.
“What’s going on?” Ty asked, a hint of weariness in his voice now.
“My dad fell,” Winnie said.
Ty pulled in a breath, his eyes wide as panic played across his features. “Is he all right?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “My mother was freaking out. Taylor was yelling. They called the paramedics.”
She swiped her chip through the third sampling of guacamole on the plate, which was a fruity guacamole with pineapple and onion. It wasn’t her favorite, but she tried to have a bite of each whenever she came.
She picked up her phone and quickly texted her brother.
“I told Brad to call me later,” Winnie said. She raised her head and looked directly at Ty. “I’m not going to let it ruin my night. My parents have plenty of help. My sister lives with them, for crying out loud.”
Ty watched her for a moment, and then his gaze turned compassionate. “All right,” he said. “But feel free to take calls and answer texts.”
Winnie silenced her phone and flipped it over. “Nope. He’s not going to die tonight. I know that he fell and probably hurt his back, because he has broken discs there anyway.”
“Do you think he’ll have to have another surgery?” Ty asked.
“I don’t know,” Winnie said. “I don’t know anything.” She gave him a glare. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“All right,” he said, his voice pitching up.
Her soup arrived, and she gave the waitress the best smile she could, then reached to put all of the sour cream from the little cup into the soup. “Tell me about the property,” she said. “I want to hear about the houses. And you said one of the barns was actually in good shape.”
“Yeah.” Light returned to his eyes.
Ty wasn’t one to go on and on, and so when he did talk, Winnie wanted him to keep going.
He told her that the land was in decent condition and he could probably pay someone to grade it better and put in real concrete sidewalks instead of gravel walkways that would allow him to be steady on his feet and get out to the barn to his horse and other farm-animal pets he might add.
He made it clear that he was not trying to homestead like his friends Brandon and Lenore. Any animals he brought to his farm would be for fun, the way Conrad had mini donkeys, Mitch owned too many dogs, and Wilder’s fiancée, Savannah, had ducks and llamas and chickens.
Winnie loved this wild cowboy side of Ty, and as he spoke, she was able to set aside her worries over her dad and simply enjoy being out with the man who made her feel like a princess and treated her like his queen.
When he’d eaten his fill of tacos, and Winnie had eaten her chicken tortilla soup and the enchiladas she dreamed about, she drained the last of her mocktail and smiled at him.
“Well, there’s one more question for you tonight.”
“I’m tired of talking,” he said, because he’d detailed that the fences needed to be fixed and that the bigger house needed a new roof.
But the chicken coop had good bones, and the land seemed like it had been parceled thoughtfully for pastures and fields.
Ty didn’t want to plant alfalfa or hay, but he wanted to garden—an activity Winnie encouraged.
It did require a lot of bending and use of his hips, so he’d detailed how he could put in raised beds and that there was the frame of a greenhouse, though it needed to be cleaned out and rebuilt.
She worried about who would do all this work, as Ty was usually pretty exhausted at the end of his day now, and he only worked at Lone Star for about six hours three times a week and a half-day at the orchards on Tuesdays.
She kept her concerns to herself, because they’d never gone over well with Ty, and she knew he just needed her support over this property. He’d looked at so many and been disappointed over and over. This was the first time he’d actually been excited, and Winnie would not take that from him.
“It’s just a fast question,” she said. “I heard it was your birthday next month.”
Ty’s gaze went back to hers. “You heard it from who?”
“Colt texted me,” she said. “He and the boys want to take you out, but he doesn’t want to interrupt any of our—” She lifted her brows, feeling flirty and fun despite everything going on that night. “—And I quote, ‘fun romantic plans.’ I didn’t know it was your birthday next month.”
“I’m sure I’ve brought it up,” he said.
Winnie gave him a look. “Ty.”
“I don’t want it made a big deal of,” he said. “My Momma makes this huge deal of it—which, by the way, she wants us to go to dinner with her and my dad.”
A flash of anxiety moved through Winnie, but she kept it off her face and out of her voice. “Okay. We can set that up.”
“My birthday is on May eleventh,” he said. “And I’d much rather spend it with you than my friends.”
“I’m sure we can do both,” Winnie said matter-of-factly. “Let me look at my calendar.”
She flipped over the phone—which was a huge mistake—as she now had missed calls from her mother, Taylor, and Brad. Her mouth turned dry and her stomach swooped. She had eaten far too much Mexican food for that to be comfortable, but she tapped on her calendar and slid it from April to May.
“The eleventh is a Thursday,” she said. “That’s perfect—your day off.” She grinned at him. “I’ll take that day off too, and we can spend the whole day together, and you can go out on the weekend with your friends.” She looked at him, her eyebrows raised. “What do you think?”
“Yeah, that sounds fine,” he said.
“And your parents….” Winnie let the words hang there, waiting for Ty to tell her they didn’t need to set anything up with them.
When he didn’t, she added, “What about just next Thursday? You’re always so tired on Mondays and Wednesdays, and I teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it would give us an out.
We’d have to be done by six-forty-five.”
Ty looked at his phone. “Yeah, we’ve got to be done here in about fifteen minutes.”
Winnie was suddenly so glad that he’d driven so she could check texts and find out what was going on with her father as he drove them to Signs for Success for her evening sign-language class.
“I’ll tell them about next Thursday,” he said. “And see if that works. It probably will. They don’t do much.”
Winnie nodded, the texts about her father already consuming her while Ty asked for the check. She read that her father was getting an MRI and would be attached to an IV for stronger pain meds to deal with his back.
Taylor’s text was a lecture that Winnie had not answered her phone. She ignored it and texted her brother: I’m getting all the messages. I’m just busy tonight. It’s Thursday, remember? I’m teaching.
Oh, sure, got it, Brad said. Don’t worry, Win. We’ve got everything handled.
Do you? Winnie asked. Because Taylor seems like she’s about to lose her mind.
Brad sent a few laughing emojis and then: When does Taylor not act like she’s about to lose her mind? Daddy’s fine. He’s in the hospital, and they’re administering pain medications. I’m taking Momma something to eat, and I’ll be able to talk to the doctor.
Thank you so much, Brad, Winnie said.
Of course. I live right here. Don’t let Momma guilt you into coming up here. They’re fine. They have doctors who know what they’re doing.
He was right, of course, but Winnie couldn’t help the guilt that streamed through her.
Love you, sis. We’ll keep you updated.
Love you too, Brad, she said, and Winnie thanked the Lord above for her brother, because it seemed like the two of them were the only ones who didn’t completely freak out when something went wrong.
She looked up and reached for Ty’s hand, grateful for him too.
“Everything all right?” he asked, and she tucked her hand safely and securely inside his.
“It is now,” she said, as if holding his hand made all the difference, because to her, it did.