Chapter 17

Whoever it was who’d first said that all good things must come to an end had been wise beyond their years. Two days later, Worth, Rowdy, and Cinco crossed the Guadalupe in a Zodiac. Lucy had told Rosie on the sat phone that they were coming, but it had been surreal to see three familiar faces walking across the front yard.

Dallas’s ankle was bad and he needed help, but Rosie had to admit that she’d liked spending alone time with him. With the arrival of his brothers, their little bubble of unreality had burst. It was back to normal.

She watched as Worth and Cinco carried Dallas down the porch and across the front yard.

Rosie wasn’t sure that there was a normal anymore.

Surely Dallas wouldn’t go back to not being able to talk to her.

Rowdy took her work tote from her and pointed to her Jimmy Choos. “Sorry, no shoes in the Zodiac.”

He wiggled his bare feet to drive the point home.

“You’re the first person I’ve ever seen who wore an Armani suit to a boat rescue.” She stepped out of her heels and picked them up.

“Been in lots of water rescues, have you?” He matched her pace as they walked across the front yard.

“You have a point.” She shaded her eyes from the blazing sun. “How bad is the devastation now that the water’s receded?”

They got to the edge of the limestone cliff, and her breath caught in her throat. Trees were upended everywhere, and a blue car of some unknown make was tangled in what had to be a hundred-foot-tall cypress tree. Chunks of concrete and broken boards dotted the mud-covered bank. Across the river, only the concrete pads of the cabins remained.

Rowdy put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t mean to minimize your loss of the B&B, but this is nothing. Most of downtown Roseville is gone. Five hundred houses were leveled and thousands of people are now homeless. We’ve got seven families staying with us.”

“It’s both horrible and amazing what a little water can do.” She followed his lead down the little path that led to the swollen riverbank. She stumbled and Rowdy caught her before she fell.

“Get your hands off my woman,” Dallas yelled from the boat. “What the hell are you even doing here?”

Cinco shrugged. “You got me.” He pointed to Worth. “We did all the work.”

“Excuse me, I’m carrying Rosie’s bag, which is something I bet neither of you Neanderthals thought to do.” Rowdy helped Rosie climb into the boat. “I’m also here for moral support.” He clapped his hands and smiled over-brightly at Cinco and then Worth. “Good job, guys.”

“Think Mom would notice if we threw him overboard and held him down?” Cinco pulled the chain to start the outboard motor.

“Nah, but Justus is bound to miss him.” Worth used a paddle to push away from shore. “Then again, we could make it look like an accident.”

“Stop talking about killing me in front of Rosie. She won’t know you’re kidding.” Rowdy handed her an orange life vest.

She shrugged it on and buckled it.

“Who says we’re kidding?” Cinco steered the boat toward the opposite bank.

“How come I didn’t get a life vest?” Dallas, who was lying down in the bow, pointed to the vest Rosie had just buckled on.

“It’s simple.” Worth knelt beside Dallas. “We don’t like you.”

“With all of the love I’m feeling in this boat, we don’t need a motor. We could power it solely on goodwill.” Dallas rolled his eyes.

“You sound like a hippy or a hipster; they’re pretty much interchangeable.” Cinco aimed the boat toward Lefty, who was standing on the riverbank waving a couple of orange flags like he was directing a plane on the tarmac.

“Why is Lefty waving those flags?” She’d never seen anyone wave anything with as much gusto and self-importance.

Worth waved to Lefty. “He wanted to come with us, but he doesn’t like the water. He fell into the lake as a kid and couldn’t swim. We gave him the very important job of waving us to the shore.”

“Why would he need to wave us to the shore? It’s a sunny, cloudless day.” Rosie looked around. There was nothing obstructing their view of the riverbank.

“It gave him a job so we didn’t have to bring him with us.” Rowdy laughed. “I vote we pretend we don’t see him just to see what he does.”

“You’re a very mean overdressed man.” Cinco turned the boat and headed upstream. “I’m in.”

Lefty’s arm flapping turned panicked as he jumped up and down.

“Why is he running in a serpentine pattern? We’re not shooting at him.” Worth laughed as he worked his smartphone out of his back pocket. “I have got to get that on video.”

“Okay, I’m going to turn around. Everyone stare straight ahead and ignore him.” Cinco turned the boat around and headed downstream. “I can’t wait to tell CanDee about how much we’re messing with Lefty. She’ll be so pleased.”

“I haven’t seen moves like that since the last time I took in a show in Vegas.” Rowdy pulled out his smartphone and snapped off a couple of pictures.

“Come on, y’all are going to give him a heart attack.” Dallas tried to sit up. “Can we get there already? My ankle is killing me.”

“Since when are you a party pooper?” Worth nodded toward Rosie. “He must be trying to impress you.” He sat back and looked down at his brother. “I’m just glad you’re able to speak in her presence now. That drooling was embarrassing.”

“Drooling?” Cinco perked up. “I didn’t hear about any drooling.”

“Me either.” Rowdy shook his head. “I hate when they do that twin bonding thing and don’t tell the rest of the world what dumb stuff they’ve done. So annoying.”

The Zodiac touched ground, and Lefty rushed to meet them.

“I’m so glad I was here to wave y’all in or y’all might’ve ended up in Fredericksburg.” He was out of breath. “If I hadn’t had them flags, y’all couldn’t have seen me.”

“Thank you, Lefty, you saved our lives.” Rowdy was all grateful solemnity. He hopped off the boat and gave Lefty a big hug.

“Y’all was messing with me, weren’t you?” Lefty knew the Rose boys too well.

“No.” Rowdy kept his arm around Lefty. “You saved our lives.”

Lefty took a step back and regarded them all with his one eye. “Every single one of you besides Rosie here is on my list. No golf carts for a month.”

“Hey, what did I do?” Dallas threw his hands up. “All I did was get hurt, and I’m getting punished for something I didn’t do.”

“You might not be responsible for this one, but I figure you done lots of other stuff.” Lefty turned his good eye on Dallas. “Want to tell me what happened to the south fence on the back forty acres when you was in high school?”

Dallas looked around like a cornered rabbit. “One month without a golf cart sounds fair.”

“That’s what I thought.” Lefty threw the flags down and offered Rosie his hand.

“Thank you.” She took his hand and stepped off the boat and then turned around to see if she could help them off-load Dallas.

A beep… beep… beeping noise came from higher up the riverbank, like a garbage truck backing up. An ambulance appeared out of the tree line and stopped. The back doors opened and Lucy hopped out. She ran to Dallas.

“An ambulance… really?” Dallas looked at his mother like she’d lost her mind.

Gingerly, she touched his ankle, moving her hands up and down the injury.

The driver of the ambulance got out and walked toward them. “What do you think, Dr. Rose?”

She pointed to Dallas’s ankle. “See the gross deformity? I think we’re talking talus and tib fracture and maybe some ligament damage.

“Don’t you think an ambulance is overkill?” Dallas winced as his brothers laid him down on the riverbank.

“No, I think it’s just about right.” She smiled down at her son. “We’ll need to remove this duct tape and take some X-rays, but I’m pretty sure you’re having ankle surgery.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Dallas gritted his teeth as his mother touched the top of his ankle.

“How’s your pain level?” She continued her examination.

“It wasn’t too bad… until now.” His face was turning red with the effort of holding back the pain as Lucy explored his injury.

Rosie had to do something to help, only she didn’t know what she could do. She knelt beside him and took his hand. “I ran out of ibuprofen this morning, so I’m sure he hurts.”

This was all her fault but she couldn’t think of a way to fix it.

“It’s not that bad.” Dallas was breathing heavily and sweat had broken out on his upper lip.

“Can you give him something for the pain?” There had to be something that Lucy could do right now.

“I have something in my bag.” Lucy pointed to the ambulance.

A second EMT walked around from the passenger’s side of the ambulance and grabbed a black messenger bag. She brought it to Lucy.

Lucy opened it, pulled out a vial and a syringe, and filled the syringe. “This should put a big dent in the pain.”

She grabbed a small square packet, ripped off one side, pulled out the alcohol swab, and rubbed it on Dallas’s upper arm. She sank the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger.

Lucy looked in the direction of the EMT who’d brought her the messenger bag. “Bev, let’s get an IV started. Saline only.”

“Yes, Dr. Rose.” Bev jumped to attention and ran back to the ambulance. She pulled out a stretcher and tossed a red canvas bag on top. She and the other EMT rolled the stretcher over.

Bev set the red bag on the ground. “Mike, you take his left and I’ll take the right.” She pointed to Dallas’s left. “On three.” She bent low, slid her arms under Dallas. “One—”

“Are they really going on three?” Dallas’s words were beginning to slur. “It’s not like before.” He tried to wink at Rosie, but he just kept blinking. At least, she thought he was trying to wink.

“He’s stoned… right?” Otherwise he’d suffered a head injury when Rosie wasn’t looking.

“Oh yeah. He feels like he has several margaritas in him.” Lucy nodded as she looked back at Rosie. “Want me to record all of the goofy things he says on the way to the hospital?”

“No.” Rosie shook her head. “Wouldn’t be fair.”

Worth squatted down next to Rosie. “Why not? I think it would make a wonderful entry for America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

Dallas waved at Rosie. “Hey, Rosie Posy.”

She waved back.

“Shhhh.” Dallas shushed everyone and tried to put his index finger to his pursed lips but he ended up shushing his nose. “No one tell Rosie I’m in love with her, okay? It’s too soon. It’ll make her uncomfortable.”

All eyes turned to Rosie. She had no idea what to do.

He loved her? It did make her uncomfortable. What was she supposed to say?

Dallas blew Rosie a kiss. “She doesn’t love me yet, but she likes my body.”

Lucy clamped a hand down on Dallas’s mouth. “Let’s get him to the hospital.”

“Yes, I think that would be best.” Rowdy put a gentle hand on Rosie’s shoulder. “Why don’t I drive you over to my house? CanDee and Justus are chomping at the bit to make sure you’re okay. Also, your sisters are there waiting for you. It took all of us to keep Louisa from diving into the river and coming to get you.”

Louisa was worried about her? Rosie couldn’t remember her oldest sister ever worrying about her before.

Things had changed in the time she’d been with Dallas. Hopefully they had changed for the better.