Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Kendall
“Travis, I’m fine,” I called down.
My spoiled, three-legged husky was having none of it. He let out a howl of distress, clearly upset with me for being in this predicament, and likely more frustrated that he couldn’t fix it. Meanwhile, our new rescue pig stood placidly at his side with her face turned up to watch.
“Annie, I’m okay,” I assured her. She blinked in return.
I heard the sound of tires on gravel and let out a sigh of relief.
Tommy had gone running to the resort once he discovered me.
All of this happened because I’d come up here alone to repair the flooring.
Unfortunately for me, I’d been right about the weak spot up here.
The old floorboards, which had to be at least fifty years old, gave way.
I knew I had scratches from the wood that splintered around my leg.
For now, the pressing issue was that my arms were exhausted from holding on.
But I hadn’t fallen through yet, so I had my fingers crossed (metaphorically, not literally because that would be a bad idea about now) I could hold on long enough.
I heard the barn door fling open and Jude’s voice call out, “Kendall!”
Travis yipped and howled. Tommy and Lincoln’s voices followed. Emotion lodged in my throat at the worry in Jude’s voice.
“I’m over here!” I called. “You can’t see me from over there.”
Moments later, all three of them were below me, peering up beside Annie.
“What the hell happened?” Lincoln asked.
“I’m fine,” I announced.
I heard Jude let out a breath.
“We’re not going to panic,” Lincoln said before Jude could speak.
“I’m not panicking!” Jude declared.
“Kendall, Jude is panicking,” Lincoln said matter-of-factly. “But that’s okay because we’re here.”
“How the hell do we get up there?” Jude asked.
“Well, I don’t think it’s a great idea for you to come up here. I came up here to fix the weak boards—”
“—and fell through,” Jude finished.
“You can say ‘I told you so.’ You did tell me so,” I said.
“I wasn’t going to say that,” Jude muttered.
“He was going to tell you he loves you,” Lincoln offered, his tone teasing.
“Well, I do love you,” Jude said, locking eyes with me from below.
“And, I love you.” I blinked rapidly to keep from crying.
“Oh, whatever,” Tommy muttered. “This is getting sappy. How do we help?”
“Now that’s the pertinent question,” Lincoln said dryly. “Specifically, we need an articulating ladder.”
“What’s an ar-tic-u-lat-ing ladder?” Tommy asked, saying the new-to-him word slowly.
“You’ll see,” Lincoln said. “They’re pretty handy.
“We’ve got plenty of ladders,” Jude said. “Follow me. Stay in place. Don’t move,” he ordered, glancing back up at me.
“I can’t,” I pointed out. The only reason I hadn’t fallen through was that my shoulder was wedged against a beam braced to the wall. My arms were shaking at the effort to keep myself wedged in place.
They hustled. I didn’t know what the plan was until I saw it—two articulating ladders with a piece of plywood on top of them creating a platform beneath me with two more ladders on each side of the barn wall closest to me.
Lincoln eyed Tommy. “You are not climbing,” Lincoln explained. “Your job is to watch the platform and make sure it stays stable. Also, keep an eye on the ladder feet, we’ve put rubber braces on them.”
“You know,” Jude added, “you really should build a staircase up here.”
“We had one. On the other side, but it’s not helpful right now,” I said.
“I know what our project is this weekend,” Lincoln said. “Fixing all the flooring and stairs for this hayloft.”
“Exactly,” Jude said.
A few minutes later, Lincoln and Jude were making their way up the ladders.
“You’re not wrong. All the flooring around you is weak,” Lincoln said.
“I know.” I bit back a sigh.
“The last thing we need is for one of us to fall through,” Jude added.
Within minutes, Asher, Grady, Haven, and Cole showed up. “It’s all the Silver boys,” I said to myself.
“Elsa told me people in town call us that,” Haven said to Cole.
“Well, we are the Silver boys,” Cole replied.
I couldn’t help the snort of laughter. Lincoln appeared beside me with Jude on the other side.
“Hey, sweetheart,” Jude said.
“Hey. My arms are really tired.”
“You’re strong. You’ve got this,” he assured me.
Carefully, they eased me out of the hole, put a sling around me, and lowered me between the ladders. All the while, Tommy narrated the whole thing like a documentary.
“How you doing?” Jude’s voice was low.
“I’m okay,” I said, although now that they had carefully freed me from my predicament, I could actually feel the cuts from the boards.
The next few moments were a jumble as they lowered me down.
Once I was on the ground, Tommy eyed my leg and exclaimed, “Whoa, that’s a big gash.”
I looked down and saw the long cut running from just below my knee all the way to my ankle. I couldn’t help but gasp. Travis was licking my face, hurriedly circling me.
“We need to get this cleaned up,” Jude said. “She needs stitches.”
Lincoln interjected, “Maybe not for all of them. But definitely that one.”
“We can—” Jude began, but Haven cut in, “Dude, I know you’re worried about Kendall and you want to take care of all of this completely by yourself, but the best thing is to get her to the hospital where they’ll stitch her up right.
It doesn’t look like she got cut by any nails, but she may need a tetanus shot depending on when she last had one. ”
Jude’s gaze locked with mine, and my heart squeezed tight in my chest. I tried to keep my breathing slow. I didn’t need to spiral into panic now. I’d stayed calm all the way through this.
“To the hospital,” Jude said.
I took a slow breath as I nodded. “Okay. Should we…?”
“There is zero reason to call an ambulance. All of us are emergency first responders, and we can get you there faster than someone driving out here and back to town,” Haven pointed out.
Jude announced, “I’ll clean her leg.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why don’t you just hold her hand and calm the hell down?” Cole said dryly.
I insisted on walking, and Jude was definitely not pleased with that. “Kendall, I can carry you.”
“I know. But it makes me feel better to feel like I have some control over the situation,” I pointed out. I watched his shoulders rise with a deep breath as he nodded reluctantly.
Tommy had a million questions for his uncles and his dad. Lincoln decided to drive, and they loaded me into the back of the double-cab truck. Jude was beside me with Haven on the other side. I stretched my leg out and Haven carefully began cleaning it.
“How bad did it hurt?” Haven asked conversationally.
“It happened so fast. I was more startled than anything. Honestly, just now it’s starting to hurt more.”
“Adrenaline’s a great anesthetic,” he said dryly.
Lincoln, Cole, and Haven talked casually while I leaned against Jude. He pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“How you doing?” he asked, his voice hushed and gruff.
“I’ve been better. But I’m okay now.”
“Who’s got Travis?” I finally thought to ask.
“Tommy’s taking him back to the resort. He’d be fine just running around at the rescue program, but we were worried he was going to chase the truck. He doesn’t like when you’re not with him and he’s alone,” Jude pointed out.
“I know.”
When I glanced up, our gazes locked. “I love you,” he whispered.
My eyes stung with tears, and I leaned up to press a kiss on the edge of his jaw. “Well, you know I love you.”
His brothers didn’t even seem to notice our low chatter. Haven patted my knee in a brotherly fashion. “You can either leave your leg up or lower it. It’s as clean as it’s going to get until we get to the hospital. How you feeling?”
“Okay. Thanks, guys,” I said.
“Anytime, Kendall,” Lincoln said, flashing a grin in the rearview mirror.
As we rode along toward the hospital, with Jude’s arm strong and steady around my shoulders, I felt settled inside in a way I hadn’t in over a week.
I knew my world didn’t revolve around Jude, and I could calm myself down on my own.
But he was my best friend, and he was my lover.
His presence helped more than anyone’s could.