Chapter Nine #2
She opened his door, and he got out, wondering how he’d slept the whole trip, but then he remembered the doctor had ordered the nurse to give him medication for the pain. It had probably helped him relax and get the rest he needed.
“Come on. I’ll help you in,” Lainey said, slipping an arm around him and guiding him to the back door. A light was on in the kitchen.
“Need anything?” Lainey whispered at the kitchen doorway.
“No. Just rest.” Jason suddenly felt exhausted. And filthy. He smelled like horses, dirt, and sweat, and here Lainey was all snugged up close to him.
Before he could insist he could get himself upstairs to his room, Galen appeared in the hallway and took over assisting him.
Lainey remained in the kitchen.
After Galen helped him remove his boots and jeans, Jason took a quick shower, relieved he had just enough strength to see to the task before he pulled on a pair of pajama shorts. He opened the bathroom door to find both Galen and Lainey waiting for him.
“I’m fine,” he said, but leaned on his brother as he made his way to his bed.
“Here,” Lainey said, holding out a half-peeled banana. “Eat this, then you can take your medication.”
“Meds?” Jason asked, but accepted the banana and ate it in a few bites, then took the pills she dropped into his hand and washed them down with the glass of water she offered to him.
“The doctor gave you enough to last a few days. By then, you should be feeling much better,” Lainey offered in a voice she often used with his grandkids when she was reassuring them they were fine.
It would have annoyed him to no end if he hadn’t been too exhausted to think it through.
Jason slid between the crisp, clean sheets of his bed, and an involuntary sigh of relief rolled out of him.
“Thank you,” he whispered as his eyes drifted shut, and he fell into an exhausted sleep.
The next morning, streamers of sunlight crept around the edges of his bedroom drapes as Jason yawned and stretched.
A pain in his side reminded him of his bruised ribs.
He stared at the ceiling a moment, recalling everything that had happened the previous afternoon after the bull had knocked Stroker off his feet and onto Jason.
He closed his eyes and spent some time in prayer, grateful he hadn’t been hurt far worse than a mild concussion and a few ribs that would be sore for a week or so.
He could have broken his neck or his back.
He could have been crushed with grave internal injuries. He could have been paralyzed or killed.
And Lainey had been right there with him.
The first time he met her, he’d never have thought she’d fit so perfectly into his life. She was incredibly brave. Amazingly intelligent. And such a sweet, kind woman who focused on spreading light to others while she carried so much darkness and pain in her heart from the losses she’d survived.
As though thoughts of her made her materialize, a soft knock sounded on his door before it slowly opened, and Lainey peered around it. “You awake?”
Jason grinned. “Barely. Mostly.”
She laughed and stepped into the room. “Good. Galen, Pops, and I were beginning to think you might sleep the whole day away.”
Jason glanced at the clock and saw it said three. He gaped at it, wondering if the battery needed to be replaced, and it wasn’t keeping the correct time.
“It can’t be three.” He glanced at Lainey.
“It is three in the afternoon. You can understand our concern. Galen decided if you didn’t wake up by four, we’d call your family doctor.”
Jason ran a hand through his hair, trying to process the fact that he’d been asleep for almost fourteen hours. He’d never slept that long in his whole life.
He sat up, and the room did a few spins. The doctor had told him he might have a little dizziness, and that was normal. The room stopped going around, and he looked over at Lainey.
“Want me to have Galen help you get up?”
“I can do it.” He felt stronger than he had last night. His stomach growled, and he realized he was starving. “Don’t suppose I could get a little something to tide me over until dinner?”
Lainey smiled. “That could be arranged. Want me to bring up a tray for you?”
“I’ll come down.”
“Okay.” She turned and walked out the door, leaving it open.
Jason moved at the pace of a snail into the bathroom. When he came out, his brother was waiting for him, sitting on the end of the bed.
“Your head feel like it’s going to explode?” Galen asked.
“Maybe just split in two,” Jason said, forcing a carefree grin.
“Lainey said you wanted to come downstairs, but why don’t you rest a bit? I brought up a glass of juice, a sandwich, and more meds.”
The meds sounded the most appealing to Jason, but he took a seat on the chair by the window. Galen held out a plate. Jason took it and ate the sandwich, downed the meds along with a glass of orange juice, then felt exhausted.
His brother helped him into bed and shook his head. “I think Caitlyn has more strength than you do today, Jase. Get some rest. We’ll wake you up for dinner, unless you’d rather sleep through it.”
“No. Wake me up, and thanks, Galen.”
“Anytime.”
Jason closed his eyes and fell immediately asleep.
Something disturbed his sleep, and he brushed at a tickle beneath his nose. A quiet giggle and the smell of strawberries and sunshine clued him in to the fact that Caitlyn had snuck into the room.
Jason opened one eye just enough to see her perched beside him, a stuffed unicorn with a fuzzy tail clutched to her chest. He assumed the tail had been brushed across his face.
“Does your mama know you’re up here, Cait?” he asked quietly.
“No,” Caitlyn wiggled, and his ribs protested at the movement.
Jason wrapped an arm around his granddaughter and pulled her closer to him. “What are you doing in my room?”
“I heard Daddy and Pops. They said you got hurt, Papa. I wanted to make sure you aren’t deaded.” Caitlyn tilted her head and smiled at him. “Are you deaded?”
“No, baby. I’m going to be fine. I just need a few days to rest. Shall we go downstairs for dinner?”
“Yes! I’m hungry! Lainey and Uncle Galen made burders!”
A thick hamburger made with their Circle P beef did sound good. Jason flung back the covers and slid his legs around to the edge of the bed.
Caitlyn jumped off the bed and turned to look at him. “Papa?”
“What is it, honey?” he asked, waiting for the dizziness to pass before he stood.
“You need a shirt.”
“So I do,” Jason said, rubbing a hand across his bare chest. He hadn’t even been aware he wasn’t wearing one. “How about you grab me a shirt out of the drawer right there.” He pointed to a dresser drawer.
Caitlyn dashed across the room, opened the drawer, and extracted a T-shirt Jason hadn’t worn for years. She skipped over to him, waving the shirt like a flag, before handing it to him. Rather than reject it, he pulled it on, let his granddaughter take his hand, and slowly made his way downstairs.
Voices drew him to the kitchen, where his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren were gathered along with his dad, brother, and Lainey.
“Should you be up?” his father asked, giving him a worried once-over while the noise in the kitchen grew to a deafening silence.
“I’m starving. Caitlyn told me we’re having burders for dinner, so how could I miss that?”
“You couldn’t, Papa,” Dani said, hurrying over to him and giving him a careful hug. “I’m glad you’ll be okay.”
“Me, too, pumpkin.” Jason kissed her cheek and settled an arm around her shoulders, glad to be home with all the people he loved most in the world.
A week later, after sitting through the morning service at the church his family had attended in Baker City for as long as he could remember, Jason took Lainey for a drive into the mountains. They ate a picnic lunch sitting on the tailgate of his pickup and enjoyed a quiet afternoon.
On their drive home, Jason held Lainey’s hand in his and cast glances over at her, admiring the curve of her cheek, the length of her graceful neck, and the shimmer of her golden hair in the summer sunshine that surrounded her head like a halo.
She smiled at him, and he felt the warmth of it all the way to his heart.
This was what he’d missed. What he’d longed for. What he never thought he’d find again after losing Judy.
Lainey wasn’t perfect. Far from it. But Jason knew she was perfect for him. It hit him like another knock to the head as they followed a winding road home that he’d never even told her he loved her.
He did, though. With all his heart. And he knew he would never love anyone quite like he loved Lainey Collins.
In the past, when he tried to bring up his feelings for her, she deflected, distracted, and did everything short of running away to keep him from saying anything.
The past week, though, she barely left his side, as though she was afraid something would happen to him if she wasn’t there to keep watch over him.
After spending a day and a half in bed, Jason had felt fine other than a dull headache and a pain that had throbbed from his ribs if he tried to lift anything or do any work.
With nothing better to do, he’d taken long walks with Lainey, gone on several drives, and savored the time spent with her as they deepened their relationship.
Pops had hauled out every photo album they owned, and Jason and Lainey had spent hours on the couch looking at the photos and listening to the older man share his memories.
Lainey had been wise enough to turn on the voice recorder app on her phone so Pops’ stories would be preserved. It was something Jason hadn’t thought of doing, but he was grateful Lainey had. The thoughtful, kind, meaningful gestures she offered meant so much to Jason.
Sure, she was beautiful and successful. She claimed she had more money than she could spend before she died. But it was her heart and her innate goodness that appealed most to him.
Like the sunlight that backlit her, he could almost see the light that shone from her soul, illuminating those around her.