Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
I just want someone to love me for the raging, unpredictable, horrific bitch that I am.
—Magnolia’s secret thoughts
MAGNOLIA
I had a broken ulna.
So broken, in fact, that it required surgery to repair.
It was a fine ending to a pretty shitty day—at least for me.
For the Cowgirls, other than losing me for the rest of the game, they’d done pretty damn well.
We won the game 4-2, and no other players were hurt in the game besides me.
Unluckily, again for the United States Referee Association, all eyes were on them. And the professional soccer world was not happy.
This was now three games in a row where we’d had issues with our refereeing and not a single person was liking what they saw. Not professional team owners. Not the league officials. Not the players. And certainly not the fans.
My arm breaking had made worldwide news, and the USRA was scrambling to come up with answers to questions that they couldn’t get out of answering.
To be completely honest, it was quite comical to see everyone scrambling.
Like right now, I was watching SportsCenter where our last three games were being played on a loop as everyone dissected the game to see where everything was going wrong.
My phone rang, and I picked it up with a smile. “Hey, Merrill.”
“Don’t ‘Hey, Merrill’ me. Why didn’t you call me to tell me what happened?” she grumbled.
I smiled as I picked a thread that was dislodging from the sheets that were covering me.
“I would have, only I went straight into surgery. Then when I was out, it was pushing nearly two in the morning. Then I was in recovery, then Iris was there. I just didn’t have a second to spare until now.
Which was why I called you,” I explained.
“Though I’d like to note that you got that call two hours ago. ”
She sighed. “I’m busy.”
My brows rose. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” She paused. “I’m moving.”
I blinked. “Moving where?”
She sighed. “You know where, dufus.”
My heart leaped into my chest. “You’re moving here? To Montana?”
“Yes,” she grumbled. “I can’t survive without you. Plus, there aren’t any great men around.”
I laughed. “You’re in Texas, which has the second highest population in the US.”
“Yeah, but after a quick Google search, I found out that Montana has the most men.”
I grinned. “That’s because it’s cold as fuck here, and women don’t want to deal with the weather.”
“Whatever it may be, I am going to move to stupid, cold Montana. Where there are cowboys and men that like having rough hands.”
I giggled, thinking about how rough Beau’s hands were.
He may have been working in a suit the last eight months, but that didn’t stop him from having work-roughened hands.
“When will you be here?” I asked.
“I’m actually winding down my two-week notice now,” she said. “And I already got a job at Jesper County Memorial. I’ll start as an x-ray tech soon.”
“Good.” I smiled. “We’ll be able to see each other all over again!”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Do you think that shit is going to hit the fan with Eloy?”
I frowned. “What? Why?”
There was a long pause and then Merrill said, “He all but outed your relationship—or previous relationship—to ESPN. He said that you were the love of his life, and he wishes that he’d excused himself from that game, because he was trying to hide his feelings for you, and in doing so, he stopped making calls that could’ve protected you. ”
I blinked.
Then blinked again. Slowly.
“He what?”
And just as I all but screeched that last part, the door to my hospital room opened and none other than the topic of our conversation walked in, looking sheepish.
This motherfucker.
“I gotta go,” I grumbled. “The asshole is here.”
Merrill sucked in a breath. “Do you want me to call your new man?”
I smiled at that.
She was right.
Beau was my new man.
But…
“No,” I admitted. “He’s taking Iris to school, and this is her first day back after she was hurt. I’m imagining that it’ll take longer than usual, and he doesn’t really need that distraction right now.”
She muttered something under her breath. “I’m calling back in ten minutes. If you don’t answer, I’m calling him.”
“You don’t have his number,” I pointed out.
“Sure, of course I don’t.”
Then she hung up, letting me know that she did have his number, and she’d probably had it for a while.
Did they ever talk about me?
Surely not…
“Ahem.”
I reluctantly looked up and found Eloy now completely in my room, looking chagrined.
It was too bad that he didn’t show up two hours from now. I was being discharged from the hospital, and I’d already asked Beau to pick me up in an hour.
He’d done the get-Iris-to-school routine today, so he wasn’t here when I’d gotten the news that I would be released soon. But he’d promised that he would be here as soon as he was done.
Not soon enough, though.
“Mag?”
I gritted my teeth at the nickname that only he’d called me.
Noli, which Beau sometimes called me, was okay. But Mag made me want to set things on fire.
I instantly wanted to ask him to leave, but something stilled my verbal reprimand.
“Hey,” he said.
“What are you doing here, Eloy?” I grumbled.
He surprisingly didn’t beat around the bush.
“I realized that I love you still.”
I blinked. “You could’ve texted me that.”
He shifted from foot to foot. “I think that’s something that needs to be said face-to-face.”
Was it?
“Then why did you break up with me over text message?” I wondered. “Same logic applies.”
He again started shifting from foot to foot.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really wish I could take it all back. Get a do-over.”
“Well, you can’t.”
That hadn’t come from me.
That’d come from Beau who was standing in the doorway, Iris on his hip.
She had a death grip on his t-shirt, and she looked like she’d had that death grip on him for a while.
“I’m having a private conversation—” Eloy started, but I interrupted.
“What happened?”
Beau ignored Eloy and came farther into the room. “She didn’t have it in her to go to school today.”
My stomach sank. “Really?”
Iris shifted toward me, and I pulled her into my good arm, surprised and relieved to get a hug from her. Soaking it up, I closed my eyes and just…breathed.
I didn’t get these very often, and when they came, I cherished every second.
“You okay, Iris?”
She nodded against my chest.
“Maybe we can try again tomorrow,” I suggested.
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Is this her?”
I felt a shift and opened my eyes to see that Beau had placed himself in front of Iris and me. “It’s time to leave.”
“I…”
“Aren’t welcome,” Beau interjected before he could give his excuse. “Thanks for stopping by.”
Silence.
I felt my lips stretch up into a grin and couldn’t stop the small laugh that bubbled out of me when Eloy continued to stutter out his excuses.
In the end, Beau helped him find his way out of the room, leaving Iris and me alone to snuggle.
Though not for long.
Beau and Eloy weren’t gone but for a few seconds when the nurse came in and declared, “Time to bounce!”
I liked her a lot.
She was a great nurse and an even easier person to talk to.
I hoped that I got to see her a lot when I officially started working here after the Christmas holidays. She seemed like she would be a great friend.
Especially when she started to whisper all the things that Beau was saying to Eloy in the hallway.
“That man…” She fanned her face. “He is HOT!”
I grinned. “He is.”
“And so sweet and concerned about you,” she said.
“I’ve known him for my entire life, you know.
Never seen him like this with a woman. You would think that his world starts and ends with you.
” She shook her head. “I always knew that it’d take a special kind of woman to tie him down.
So wild. Racing horses. Running wild at his friends’ parents’ ranches.
Hell, one year he even decided to start rodeoing.
Then he found the Marines and it was like his world finally clicked.
We all thought he’d forever be single, but seeing him now?
Like this? With you? It’s obvious that it just took the right woman. ”
Of course she knew him.
They’d been casual around each other, and it’d never occurred to me until now.
“Was he a bad boy?”
That came from Iris.
“Oh, yes.” My nurse, Tina’s, eyes lit with an inner fire. “I swear, there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t in trouble in school. I think he was in the principal’s office more than he was in class.”
“Telling lies about me, Tina?” Beau drawled.
“Of course not,” Tina razzed him. “I’m telling only the truths as I know them to be.”
“Uh, huh.” He snorted. “Is my girl allowed to go home?”
“She is,” Tina confirmed. “But she’ll still need to get her meds picked up. I called them into The Mercantile, so you’ll need to stop there first.”
“Anything special that I need to know?” Beau asked as he came to stand at my side.
“Nothing. The doctor already went over it with her. No driving with the pain meds in her system. Also, when you play your game on Friday, make sure to pre-medicate. Since I have a feeling that you’re going to play it.”
“I am,” I interrupted Beau’s “she’s not.”
Tina rolled her eyes. “Anyway, pre-medicate. Ibuprofen for the swelling, alternated with these pain meds. Take both right before your game.”
“Will do.” I slid my feet off the bed and stood.
I felt a little wobbly, which Beau immediately noticed and caught me around the hip.
Since Iris was still clinging, he held on to me until I was steady on my feet again.
“Who’s this little lady?” Tina asked.
She’d come on after Beau had left last night to get Iris to sleep.
“This is my other girl, Iris,” Beau answered. “She’s my favorite person in the world.”
Iris smiled against my neck, clearly hearing him and liking his words.
Fifteen minutes later, we were in the driveway of Beau’s house.
I didn’t comment on his choice of houses to take me to.
Instead, I got out and headed for the front door.
What I did not expect when we walked into the door of Beau’s place was Beau’s mother to be waiting with a beaming smile stretching her face.
She walked up to me and caught my good hand in hers. “I’m so glad that you’re okay, Magnolia. I’ve heard so much about you from Beau that I just had to be here.”
I grinned. “He’s told me a lot about you as well. I’m glad to finally meet you. I wish it was under better circumstances, though.”
She waved that away. “Beau was hogging you, wanting to keep you all to himself. He didn’t know I was coming, so don’t be surprised when he walks in and whines.”
The next moment he walked through the door with Iris, and his face fell. “Mom.”
Her lips twitched. “Yes?”
“Of course you’re here.” He sighed. “Magnolia, get off your feet. Mom, meet Iris. My best friend.”
Iris lifted her head up and smiled.
“Hi,” she signed.
Expertly, Olive signed back to my girl.
“Hi, I’m Grandma Olive.”
And for some reason, I didn’t correct her.
Because, if this was going where I thought it might, she’d spoken the truth.
It gave me a squishy, excited feeling inside my chest to realize, too.