Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
The Hospital
“Yeah, you broke your wrist,” the doctor said without preamble when he came into the exam room. “The X-ray showed a clear break. You’ll be in a cast for six to eight weeks.”
“What about her ankle?” Cas asked.
“Just a sprain,” he replied. “The knee, though. You bashed it good when you fell. It’s going to swell and there’s a pocket of fluid behind the kneecap. It’s going to be gruesome looking, but icing it and keeping it elevated will help and it should heal just fine.”
“What about her pain?” Cas demanded. “What are you going to do about that?”
I reached up to him with my good hand. “Easy, Cas.”
Cas looked down at me. “You’re in pain and you’re pregnant with my baby. There is no easy. Not right now.”
“I’m not taking anything,” I said. “I’ll suffer through the pain.”
“Salem—”
“I’ll be fine, Cas.” I looked at him. “I got this, okay?”
“I don’t like seeing you hurt,” he said, his voice low.
My smile wobbled. “I know.”
The doctor cleared his throat. “We’ll get your wrist in a cast, and then you can go home.”
“Thanks, Doc,” I said.
The doctor left us for a moment.
“You’re so brave,” Cas said, cradling my cheek.
“Me?” I turned my head and kissed his palm. “You were the one who came charging in on a horse.”
“I’ve never been more terrified in my life, Salem. Not even when I was on the back of a bull named Diavolo.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I was scared too.”
He stared at me. “You admitted you were afraid.”
“Of course I was afraid,” I said in exasperation. “Only an idiot would lie about it.”
“I just meant, you’re not known for admitting fear.”
“Yeah, well. Try not to hold it against me, okay?”
He skimmed my cheek with his thumb and then dropped his hand. “Never.”
“Any word from Muddy about the fire?”
He shook his head. “Last I heard, Cole and the other smokejumpers were having trouble containing it. No idea about the damage or what caused it.”
“Do we have to evacuate?”
“Not at the moment. No.”
My phone pinged with an incoming text. I opened my cell and smiled at the message from Jane. I turned my cell to Cas who grinned at the photo of the male fox kit with a cast on his back right leg.
“Damn cute thing,” Cas said. “You’ll have matching casts. You took a huge risk, you know. He could’ve had rabies.”
“I grew up on a ranch. I’m familiar with rabies. I knew he was fine. Cas, I want to keep him,” I said.
“You can’t keep him.”
“If not pet, then why pet shaped?”
“He’s a wild fox.”
“Without a mom,” I pointed out. “And by the time he’s done recovering, he’ll be domesticated. He’ll never find his mother, and even if he did, she might not take him back.”
He sighed. “I’m not going to have a say in this, am I?”
“Did Declan have a say in the baby goat Hadley got?”
“Good point. We’re here to serve the Powell sisters. Whatever you want, you get.”
“You never really did tell me how you found out where I was,” I said.
“Next time you get up while I’m still sleeping, maybe you could leave a note or text about where you are,” he said.
“Hadley texted me and said you weren’t answering her calls.
And about ten minutes after that, Muddy sent out a family text about the fire in the area near your mom’s tree.
I just knew. I knew you were out there. Had to talk to your mom about my proposal, huh? ”
“Damn, I’ve already become predictable,” I muttered.
“No, I just know you really well.” He smiled. “While they were all planning for a potential evacuation, I got on Merlin and rode out to find you.”
“Cas . . .”
“I’ll always come for you, Salem. Always.”
I hobbled into the house. My body was a mess of pain and bruises, but I was safe and healthy overall, and so was the baby. I’d been lucky.
“Right into the den, sugar,” Muddy said as she closed the door behind me and Cas.
I sat down onto the couch and Muddy placed a pillow on the coffee table, and then helped me lift my leg.
“How did you know about my knee?” I asked.
“Cas sent a text. I’ve had time to prepare.”
“Uh oh,” I muttered.
“Uh oh? What, uh oh?” Cas asked.
“She’s got salves and compresses,” I explained. “Muddy is kind of a witchy woman.”
Muddy touched Cas’s arm. “Nothing I use will harm the baby. You have my word.”
He let out a breath and nodded. “She refused painkillers.”
“Of course she did.” Muddy grinned. “Because she knew I would take care of her.”
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Jane is at the clinic with your fox. Your father, damn his hide, is with Clint, in town. Hadley and Declan went with him,” Muddy explained.
“Can’t keep Dad bedridden for long,” I said.
“He’s gotta feel useful,” Muddy said. “I don’t blame him. Cas, why don’t you head into town. Things are kind of a mess. They had to evacuate the animals at Mountain Mutt Rescue.”
“Has anyone been hurt in the fire?” I asked.
“No,” Muddy said. “Thank God. And it’s finally been contained and should be out by morning. Give my love to Gracie, will you? As the wife of a smokejumper, she’s bound to be a bundle of nerves.”
“I’ll tell her,” Cas said. He looked at me. “You’re good?”
“I’m good.”
He kissed me on the lips, squeezed my shoulder, and then left Muddy to tend to me.
“He’s a good man, Salem,” she said. “Good in a crisis, too.”
“Thank God, because I don’t know what I would’ve done if he hadn’t found me.” I handed her my phone. “Will you charge this for me?”
“Sure.” She took my phone and plugged it into the charger. “I’m getting you ice and a salve, and then you’re going to tell me where you were and why you were out of cell range.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I sighed.
A few minutes later, Muddy returned with a hoard of supplies and a dark beer bottle.
“The last ginger beer,” she said, handing it to me. “How’s your pain?”
“Knee’s about a five. Ankle is a two. The wrist is an elevendy-squillion.”
“Sounds about right.” She inched up the pajama pants to reveal my leg. “Hot diggity dog. That’s brutal.”
My knee was angry, swollen and red. “It would be nice if this family could stop getting injuries that cause us to be bedridden for days on end.”
“Agreed. So, where were you?”
“North side of the property. Where the acreage butts up to national forest.”
“What were you doing all the way up there?” she asked.
“Mom never told you about our tree, did she?”
“What tree?”
Muddy’s hands were gentle as she dowsed my knee in salve. I hissed.
“Sorry, sugar. Almost done.”
“It’s fine,” I lied, my vision going spotty. “There’s this huge red cedar. It was already dead when we found it, and Mom and I carved our initials into it. It’s always been our secret place. Not even Hadley knows about it.”
“No?”
I shook my head. “I hope the fire didn’t destroy it.”
She didn’t say anything, she just moved on to my ankle. The salve made my knee warm and it began to tingle.
“Have you decided to put Cas out of his misery and accept his proposal?” she asked.
I looked at her.
“What? That’s why you went to visit the tree, right? To get your mind and heart right?”
“I forgot how well you know me,” I joked. “As for the proposal . . . I didn’t know why I kept saying no. My reasons sounded stupid.”
“Life-and-death experiences seem to bring about a sort of clarity, don’t they?”
I nodded.
“You’ve got a guardian angel, sugar.”
“Yeah. It’s Mom,” I said quietly. “She protected me when I was a kid. And now she protects me from . . . wherever she is. Pretty sure she sent me Cas.”
Muddy smiled. “I have no doubt about that.”
She finished doctoring my ankle and placed the ice pack on my knee. Then she handed me the remote. “You rest. I’ll fix you something to eat.”
“You take such good care of us,” I said, meeting her gaze. “I don’t know if I ever thanked you for that.”
Muddy leaned over and pressed her forehead to mine. “It’s an honor, Salem. Truly an honor.”
After I was fed and sleepy, Muddy moved to her crochet chair and worked on her project. She still wouldn’t tell me what it was, no matter how many times I asked.
My eyes were just starting to close when the front door opened. The sound of paws scrambling across the wooden floor had me sitting up and looking around.
“Who is this?” Muddy asked as a snout appeared from around the back of the couch. At the timbre of Muddy’s voice, the dog rushed over to her and placed its head in her lap. Its black tail with a white tip wagged like a car antenna.
“This is Fig,” Cas said as he came into the room and set a leash down onto the end table. “She’s a three-year-old beagle mix and she was one of the dogs at Mountain Mutt Rescue.”
Fig lifted her head, complete with floppy beagle ears, and looked at me with golden brown eyes. Then she came over to greet me.
“Beagle mix, huh?” Muddy said. “Does she bay?”
“Not yet,” Cas said.
Fig jumped up onto the couch without invitation and curled into my side. My hand went to her neck and I began to stroke her. She made a little whoof of contentment.
“I thought you could use a buddy while you’re laid up,” Cas said. “According to one of the volunteers, Fig has couch potato like tendencies, but she also has an affinity for mischief.”
“You got me a dog?” I asked him, tears gathering in my eyes.
“Dogs are closer to foxes than goats,” he said, leaning down and pressing a kiss to my head. “And when the fox is ready to be released back into the wild, we’ll do it here. So maybe he’ll be a bit domesticated and come for a visit from time to time.”
I was going to have so many of this man’s babies, it wasn’t even funny.
“We’ll have a fox and a hound,” I said with a grin.
“Almost like it was meant to be,” he joked. “Fig’s not sleeping in the bed though.”
“That’s what Declan said about Tempest,” Muddy announced.
“I have more willpower than Declan,” Cas boasted.
Fig lifted her head and stared at Cas, and then her tail began to thump against the couch.
Cas sighed. “Fuck.”