Eight

Jake smelled the scent of roses before he even opened his eyes. He knew the hair that had fallen across his chin was Randy’s. He realized she was lying by his side, an arm across his middle and her head on his upper chest, as though she wanted to make sure his heart was still beating.

He moved one hand to pet her hair. “Randy?”

She jerked awake, raising her head and looking confused at first. Then she smiled.

“Jake! You finally woke up!” She straightened, her hair a mess, her eyes puffy from crying.

“Randy, what—” He started to rise, only to be met with stinging pain deep in his left side. He groaned and put his head back down.

“Jake, you shouldn’t move yet. You were shot.” Randy leaned over him and kissed his cheek. “You’ve been out since Doctor Snow took the bullet out of your side yesterday. It’s—” She glanced at a clock on the wall, its pendulum swinging to a soft, ticking sound. “It’s nearly three in the afternoon now.” She rubbed at her eyes. “You also have a head wound.”

Jake lay there, trying to gather his senses. Out since yesterday? Had Randy been here by his side the entire time? He put a hand to his head, realizing then that he had bandages wrapped around it.

“Jake, how do you feel?” Randy took his hand. “Are you fully awake? The doctor was a little worried about concussion.”

Still gathering his thoughts, Jake looked her over and realized she was wearing the same dress as yesterday. There was blood on the skirt. He bent one leg and tried to sit up more, but he grunted with pain again. “I’ll tell you…how I feel. Like someone stuck a pine cone inside of me and then sewed me up.” He put a hand to his head. “I hardly remember anything.”

Randy pushed some of her hair behind one ear and sat up straighter. “Jake, you’re the hero of Boulder. You foiled that bank robbery and killed all but four of the robbers. George Callahan was one of those who was killed.” Her eyes teared. “I thought I’d lost you when I saw you down in the street.” Her lips quivered, and she covered her mouth with her hand. “Jake, I was so scared.”

He looked around the room, memories of the shoot-out flooding back to him. “Tricia!”

“She’s fine.” Randy jerked with a sob. “She’s…at the hotel with…Teresa.” She turned away and started to rise. “I’ll get Doctor Snow.”

Jake caught her arm. “Wait!” His faculties returning and his mind clearer, he took a good look at her. “Jesus, Randy, look at you! There’s blood on your dress! You haven’t washed or changed. Have you eaten?”

Randy quickly wiped at her eyes. “No. How could I? I thought you might die this time. I had to stay with you.”

Jake saw the terror return to her eyes. “Randy Harkner, you have to live for me! At this rate you’re the one who will die!” Anger at her condition brought back some of his resolve to get out of bed and help her. Again, he tried to sit up. This time, in spite of incredible pain, he managed to do so. Randy quickly propped some pillows behind him.

“Jake, you shouldn’t be moving around! You’ll break open your stitches!” she fussed. “Are you hungry? Should I get you something to eat?”

“No!” He grimaced again. “You need to eat!” He called out louder, “Nurse! Anyone out there? Get in here!”

“Jake, don’t do this. Please calm down. You’ve just had serious surgery and you lost so much blood.”

Jake grasped her wrist again, squeezing lightly. “I’m more worried about you! This has to stop, Randy! I can’t believe you managed to get through this. And the doctor should have made you go take care of yourself. Look at you! He should have made you eat, made you clean up, given you a bed to sleep in beside me instead of letting you lay half-on and half-off this cot!”

“I’ll…I’ll be all right.”

“No, you won’t!” He kept hold of her wrist and laid his head back against the pillows. “I wish Lloyd were here. He wouldn’t have allowed this.”

“I sent for him. Please don’t be angry, Jake. I can’t eat. How can I eat or sleep when you might need me?”

“I do need you!”

A nurse came in, followed by Doctor Snow.

“Well, look who’s awake!” the doctor exclaimed. “Let’s have a look at that—”

“Why have you let my wife just lie here with hardly any sleep and nothing to eat?” Jake asked angrily.

“Well, I… She insisted.”

“You’re a doctor, aren’t you?”

“Of course, Mr. Harkner, but—”

“But nothing! This woman needs nourishment and rest. She’s been losing too much weight, and you should have noticed the state she’s in. You should have ordered her to eat and given her something to help her sleep. She hasn’t been well. You could have set up a bed beside mine if she didn’t want to leave!”

“We were just too concerned about you, Mr. Harkner.”

“And I’m a goddamned worthless sonofabitch compared to this woman! Someone go to the nearest restaurant and get her some food—something nourishing and something with fat in it that will stick to her bony ribs! Bring it back here, because I intend to watch her eat it and make sure she swallows every last bite!”

Doctor Snow turned to his nurse. “Well, no more wondering when this man will wake up and regain his strength. Constance, go to the café two doors down and bring back some food for his wife.”

The nurse glanced at Jake with a scowl. “Would you like something, Mr. Harkner?”

“I’d like my guns. Where are they?”

Constance glanced at Doctor Snow.

“They are in a trunk in my office,” the doctor told him.

“Get them! People will know I’m in a weak state. You’d be surprised how many men might decide to take advantage of that.” Jake turned to the nurse. “Go get that food.”

“Jake, don’t be rude,” Randy argued. “I’m fine.”

“I’ll be rude when it comes to you being neglected. And you’re not fine. In fact, I want the doctor to look you over and give you a tonic or something that might help you get your strength back. And I mean it about eating. You’re wasting away to nothing.” He looked at the doctor again. “And send someone to get her companion, the Mexican woman called Teresa. She’s over at the Gold Dust Hotel with my little granddaughter. Have her pack some things and bring them over here so my wife can wash up and change her clothes.”

Constance left, and the doctor moved to Jake’s side. “I want to look at your stitches.”

“Go right ahead. Are you sure you didn’t leave a knife in me or something? It sure feels like you did.”

“I assure you, it’s just the bullet damage. It will get better.”

“I’ve felt that before, too many times to count.”

The doctor stood at his side and folded his arms. “You know, Jake, somewhere amid all of this someone said something about you being too mean to die. In fact, I think you’re the one who said it. I’m beginning to agree with that comment. I’d like to think your personality has changed because of your head wound, but I have a strong suspicion that this behavior is common for you.”

Jake closed his eyes and leaned back. “Jesus, I’m sorry, Doc. I just woke up and saw the state my wife is in, and that really woke me up! And I am too mean to die, so start helping Randy, not me. And I’m sorry about your nurse. I don’t usually yell at women.”

The doctor sighed, walking over to a cabinet to take out some scissors and clean gauze, along with a brown bottle. “This iodine will help stave off infection. I’ll put more on those stitches as soon as I have a look at them.” He pulled a chair to the side of Jake’s bed and cut off the gauze. A little dried blood made the gauze stick, and Jake winced when the doctor pulled it away. “Someone named Jeff called while you were still unconscious,” he told Jake. “I spoke with him and explained what happened and what kind of injuries you have.”

The mention of Jeff brought a faint smile to Jake’s lips. He glanced at Randy, who still sat on the edge of the bed, wiping at her eyes with her other hand.

“Oh, Jake, it’s nice to know Jeff called,” she told him. “Isn’t that typical of him?”

The doctor gently applied iodine to Jake’s stitches, and he winced with pain. “It sure is,” he answered Randy. “I’ll bet he’s madder than hell that he wasn’t here to see the shoot-out.” The doctor began taping a clean patch of gauze over his stitches. “I can just imagine what Jeff is thinking right now,” Jake continued. “He and Peter are probably shaking their heads over this one.”

Randy smiled, but then the tears came. “Don’t be angry with me for not eating, Jake. I thought you would die! I couldn’t leave you.”

He reached over and took her hand. “When have I ever been truly angry with you? I’m angry with others who should have seen you needed some medical help of your own.” He scowled at the doctor, who finished covering the wound.

“Well, do forgive me,” the man said with a hint of sarcasm. “I was a little busy trying to keep you from bleeding to death.”

Jake couldn’t help a faint grin. “Yeah, well, you still should have been concerned about my wife. You can see how thin she is. She barely eats.”

The doctor looked Randy over. “Have you been sick, Mrs. Harkner?”

“No, I—” Randy glanced at Jake.

“It’s just a woman thing, I think,” Jake lied. Randy wouldn’t want the doctor to know the truth. It was important that no one outside of the J&L know, and she’d be devastated to have to talk about it. “You know how things change for women when they get a little older. She’s been depressed.”

“Well, I have a tonic that might help that.” Doctor Snow put back the scissors. “It’s in the outer office. I’ll see about it.”

He left the room, and Jake looked at Randy. “You stay here when the nurse brings that food. I want to witness you eating. I love you and I need you and I’m not going to sit around and watch you dry up and blow away like the wind, Randy Harkner.”

The doctor returned with a brown bottle and a spoon. “Take a teaspoon of this a couple of times a day, Mrs. Harkner. I’ll check you over after you’ve cleaned up and eaten. And we have a bathing room behind that door over there.” He turned his attention to Jake. “My nurse can help your wife clean up.” He frowned. “When you wake up…you wake up in a big way! Apparently I don’t need to wonder if you’re better. I saw enough of those old bullet wounds on your body that by all rights you should have died a long time ago.”

Jake put a hand to his head. “Well, Doc, for some reason, the Good Lord keeps me alive to keep putting this poor woman here through hell—and to keep doctors like you on their toes. I have a son-in-law who’s a doctor, and between me and six grandchildren and accidents on the ranch, he hardly gets a day’s rest, especially during roundup and branding.”

The doctor sighed. “Mr. Harkner, I’ve heard plenty about you. How in God’s name you could be so badly wounded and still manage to put bullets into the heads of those men holding hostages, I will never understand. I didn’t see it, but witnesses say it was phenomenal, the best damn demonstration of fast and accurate shooting a man could ask for. By now it’s in all the newspapers.”

“They had my wife and granddaughter. I didn’t have any choice.”

“Still, it was quite something. The mayor and some other city officials are talking about asking you to be our new sheriff. Our own was shot dead by one of those bastards.”

Jake felt Randy’s hand tighten around his. “No, thanks. I have a big family back on the J&L, and I would never leave. My wife went through enough when I was a marshal back in Oklahoma.”

“Well, just the same, I’ll let you handle it.” He nodded to Randy. “I’m sorry I didn’t do something sooner, ma’am, but you seemed so bent on not leaving your husband’s side that I didn’t have the heart to try to force you into anything. I’ll send word to the hotel. I’m sure that little girl over there wants to see her grandfather.”

“I’ll bet she does,” Jake said with a smile. “And I want to see my Button. This whole thing must have terrified her. I wish I could give her a hug.”

“If I were you, I’d just lie still, Mr. Harkner, for another couple of days anyway. Relax until your son gets here. I’ll try to keep reporters and the mayor and others who’ve been clamoring outside my door out of here.”

“Thanks. I don’t want to talk to any of them.” Jake looked at Randy again. “Little Jake will have a fit over not having been here to see his grandfather in a gunfight.”

“Oh, he’ll be beside himself,” Randy told him.

The doctor took a moment to listen to Jake’s heart, then felt for fever. “You’re going to be fine as long as there is no infection.” He looked at Randy. “Don’t take that tonic until you get some food in your stomach.” He straightened, turning his attention to Jake again. “You say your son-in-law is a doctor?”

“Brian Stewart,” Randy answered for Jake, “and he’s a very fine doctor. He travels around to other ranches to help with everything from broken bones to birthing babies and doctoring spider bites. I’m sure he’ll come here with Lloyd so he can be with Jake on the way home.”

“Well, if he’s along, maybe Jake can leave sooner than I would normally let him go.” Doctor Snow glanced at Jake on those words, an obvious expression of “I’d like you off my hands” on his face.

Jake grinned. “I know. You can’t wait till I’m out of here.”

The doctor chuckled and walked out for a moment, coming back with Jake’s gun belt. “This damn thing is heavy with both guns in it.” He hung it over the bedpost near Jake. “There you go. I have no desire to touch those things.”

“I’d advise you not to.”

“After all that shooting, the guns are likely empty.”

“I’ll load them myself once the nurse returns with that food and I see my wife eating.”

“Suit yourself.”

The doctor left, and Jake turned to his wife. “This whole thing of not eating has to stop. I can’t stand to watch you wither away like this.”

She blinked back tears. “I’ll try to eat when they bring the food.”

“You’ll do more than try.” Jake studied the circles under her eyes and reached out to touch her about the ribs. He grimaced from pain as he urged her to sit closer to him on the edge of the bed. “You’re just bones,” he told her. “I’m afraid to even hold you anymore.”

Randy laid across his chest again. “You have to hold me. I need you to hold me.”

There it was again. How many times had she asked him not to let go of her? How she’d managed to get through this current horror, he couldn’t understand. He could only take hope in the fact that she did get through it. It meant some of the old, strong Randy was down in there somewhere, keeping her from completely falling apart. “I’m serious, Randy. I don’t care if you eat so much you get fat. You’ve got to take care of yourself. Do it for me if for no other reason, but don’t forget we have six grandchildren who adore you and need you.”

“I’ll try, Jake.” She closed her eyes and leaned down to kiss his hand. “You won’t take any of those jobs, will you? The range detective? Or sheriff here in Boulder?”

“And be away from you or make you worry? Hell no. You’ve been through enough for ten lifetimes, and I’m damn sorry for that. Why would I leave you now?”

“When you’re better, can we go back up to the line shack?”

“What about the fund-raiser here in Boulder you wanted to go to?”

“Right now, all I want is to go home and then go up to the line shack. When we’re there, I have you all to myself. I feel so safe when it’s just you and me alone.”

“What about the grizzlies and mountain lions?” Jake took heart in the way she smiled.

“They’re afraid of you,” she teased.

Jake grinned, squeezing her hand. “They should be afraid of me.”

The doctor walked in. “Jake, Constance is back with a tray of food.”

Jake kept his eyes on Randy. “I intend to watch you eat every bite, and after that, I want you to clean up, and I want you to sleep. Maybe the doctor can bring in an extra cot so you can stay close to me.”

“I can do that,” the doctor told him.

Someone loudly cleared her throat, and Jake and Randy turned to see the nurse standing in the doorway with a tray of food.

Jake smiled at her. “Constance! Thanks for the food. Just set it over here on this table by my wife so I can make sure she eats all of it.”

“Yes, sir.” Constance was a robust older woman, her dark hair pulled into a bun at the base of her neck. She carried in the tray and set it on the table next to the bed.

“Constance, I apologize for my outburst earlier.” Jake turned his gaze to Randy again. “I love this woman here beyond words, and I’m worried about her health.” He looked back at Constance. “Will you help her clean up when she’s done eating and make sure she takes some of that tonic there?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.” Jake reached out his hand, and Constance took it. He pressed her hand gently. “Am I forgiven?”

Constance glanced at Randy, who only smiled and shook her head.

“Something tells me, Mr. Harkner, that no woman stays angry with you for long. Yes, you are forgiven.”

Constance walked out, and Jake glanced from Randy to the food and back again. “Start eating. You say you can’t live without me, Randy, but it would be worse for me without you.” He watched her reach over and pick up a biscuit and butter it.

“Want some?”

“I’ll eat later. I want you to swallow everything on that tray.”

Randy sighed. “I’ll try.” She bit into the biscuit.

Jake watched her eat, and with every bite, he wished he could land another blow on Brad Buckley and ram burning coals down the man’s throat. All for her, this woman who was the air he breathed.