Six Weeks Later

 

Abby stood beside her daughter, looking out over the expanse of land that made up her new home.

“Should he even be on a horse six weeks after chest surgery?” Lexi stared out the window.

She followed her daughter’s line of sight. Jack was by the barn. He carefully dismounted his horse.

Abby was more than happy to have her daughter in Willow Fork. Having Lexi in the house she shared with Jack and Sam made it seem more like home than ever.

“He’s made a remarkable recovery,” she murmured with a grin.

“You know your mama’s taking excellent care of him.” Abby’s mother joined them at the family room window. She hugged her granddaughter.

“I hear she’s the reason he’s alive,” Lexi said with a proud glance at her mother.

Lexi had the Echols’s coloring. Her black hair and dark eyes gave her a slightly exotic look. Her hair was up in a high ponytail. To Abby, she looked younger than her twenty years.

She would always be her mama’s baby.

“The way Jack and Sam tell it, Mama was practically a superhero,” Lexi continued. “She managed to bandage up Jack so well the paramedics didn’t have to do anything but load him onto the helicopter when they got there.”

“The doctors said she made the difference,” Abby’s mom commented. “Then, when Ruby collapsed, Abigail gave her CPR.”

“That didn’t make a difference,” she said briskly.

She didn’t like to think about that day at all. It only led to her thinking about the interminable hours she and Sam had spent huddled together in the waiting room praying that Jack would make it through. It was so much nicer to look forward, but Lexi deserved to know.

Lexi turned and enveloped her in a hug. “You did everything you could, Mom. You did way more than anyone could have asked. She shot your husband and you still tried to save her life.”

“Well, I was hoping she’d spend the rest of it in jail,” Abby allowed.

There were tears in Lexi’s dark eyes as she ignored the joke. “Uncle Walter really appreciated it. He and Aunt Jan think the world of you.”

Lexi had been visiting with Adam’s brother and his family quite a bit while she spent time in her father’s hometown. Walter had shown her around and told her all kinds of stories about Adam. Abby had been worried, but Lexi seemed to be enjoying learning about the dad she’d never met and getting to know her little cousins.

“Oh, there’s Sam,” Lexi pointed out, shaking her head. “I’m going to have to get used to that.”

“Used to what?” She stared out the window, trying to see what her daughter was talking about.

Sam dismounted and went to help Jack, who slapped him across the chest. They bickered back and forth for a moment and then smiled as they walked into the barn to put up the horses.

“How hot my dads are,” Lexi admitted with a groan. “I’ll never be able to bring friends here. They’ll drool over my dads.”

Abby slanted her daughter a cautious glance. She had been pleased with how well Lexi had taken everything up to this point. Abby had to suffer through a few “Moms Gone Wild” jokes, but her daughter had seemed thrilled with the arrangement. “It’s all right to be embarrassed. I know that this new marriage of mine is…odd.”

Lexi grinned at her. “I believe the word you’re searching for is bigamy, Mom. Polyandry is a good one, too. Don’t worry. I’m going to be a writer so it doesn’t bug me at all. My friends will think it’s eccentric and cool. Besides, threesomes are all the rage on campus.”

“I don’t think I wanted to hear that,” Jack said as he walked in. He took his new stepfather role seriously. He’d groaned when he heard his daughter was dating a musician.

“It sounds perfectly normal to me.” Sam followed Jack. Abby had noted how carefully Sam watched Jack since he left the hospital. He was always close, waiting to lend a hand if he needed it. “Now, when we start getting into foursomes or fivesomes, one has to start questioning the morality of the woman involved.”

Abby rolled her eyes. He was still on her about that one little book.

Sam had purchased a bookcase and placed it in their bedroom. He’d lovingly stored her entire collection of erotica, even the really filthy stuff.

Benita walked in and, with a huge smile, announced that lunch was ready. Jack winked at Abby as he turned and started for the dining room. Sam was talking to Lexi and Diane about the renovations they were doing to the house, and Abby hung back for a moment, watching her family walking in for a meal together.

She felt love surge through her heart as Sam said something that made Jack’s laugh boom through the house. He’d proven to be a perfect patient. He’d followed her every order. He seemed to bask in her attention and genuinely appreciated the love she lavished on him. Sam had stepped up and kept the ranch running in perfect order. Any worries he’d had about taking care of things were a distant memory now. Sam seemed surer of himself than ever before, and Jack was more peaceful. Her daughter and her mother loved her new husbands and had accepted them without a qualm.

“Are you coming, sweetheart?” Jack asked, looking back into the living room.

“The roast is going to get cold,” Sam pointed out.

“I’m coming.” Abby brushed away the happy tears in her eyes.

She couldn’t help but cry when she thought of it. It had taken twenty years.

No, it had taken a lifetime, but she was home. She was finally and forever home.

 

* * * *

 

Jack, Sam, and Abby will return in Siren in the City, coming January 23, 2017. Click to purchase.