THE MORNING AFTER he woke up, when his fellow firefighters from the Jackson Hole fire station came by to visit, Brian could see in their eyes what they thought about his chances of getting back to work. Slim to none. Every time one of them shook his hand as he or she was leaving, Brian gritted his teeth and promised himself that he’d prove them all wrong.
Except he wasn’t sure his leg was going to cooperate.
When the doctor changed his bandages later that morning, and he saw the extent of the damage for the first time, his heart sank to his toes. A six-inch stretch of his calf had been sheared of flesh to within an inch or so of the bone. He was still on an antibiotic IV drip, and would be for quite a while, to make sure the infection was gone for good. He was refusing painkillers because they made him groggy, and the resulting pain made him grouchy.
Brian hated being stuck in bed, but the doctor had warned him he would do more damage than good if he got out of it. Aiden had brought him the latest Jack Reacher novel, but he didn’t have the patience to read it. He felt like yelling. Hollering the roof down. He felt as surely imprisoned as if he’d never gotten out of that goddamned cave.
When Battalion Chief Fire Marshal Kathy Warren came by at noon, he sat up a little straighter and ignored the pounding in his maimed calf.
“You look better than I thought you would,” she said, regarding him with a critical eye. “When are you coming back to work?”
Brian was so shocked by the chief’s comment that he couldn’t find his voice for a moment. “You’re expecting me back?”
“Why not? You had the best scores I’ve ever seen on the Work Capacity Test. Presuming you can get that leg in shape and get an okay from your doctor, I don’t see why you can’t be one of my firefighters.”
The chief laid a hand on his shoulder and said, “Keep your chin up, Brian. See you in a couple of months.”
When she was gone, Brian remembered how hard he’d trained for his Work Capacity Test the previous year. He tried to imagine how, dressed in full Bunker gear, including air bottle, SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus), pants, coat (three layers—thermal, waterproof, and rip-proof), boots, helmet, and gloves, he was going to perform the difficult series of firefighting skills required—and not just complete them, but do it within five minutes—on this bum leg.
Shit.
He understood from the doctor that there was no replacing the muscle he’d cut out. Where was he going to get the leg strength he needed?
He looked up, saw Aiden in the doorway, and said, “You look like your dog died. I’m the one with the crippled leg. What the hell is your problem?”
“You’re my problem.”
Brian’s heartbeat ratcheted up. “Is there something the doctor didn’t tell me? Is the infection worse? Does he want to cut off my leg?”
“Whoa there, Mr. Leaps-out-of-planes-into-burning-forests. Don’t start jumping to conclusions.”
“Then what is it?”
Aiden settled onto the foot of Brian’s bed. “Would you believe a romance gone wrong?”
Brian hissed out a relieved breath. The infection wasn’t back. And the doctor didn’t want to cut off his leg. He suddenly realized what must be troubling Aiden. “Leah?”
“Who else?”
“I’m sorry, Aiden. What I did, telling her about the bet, was the pits. You can have my Harley as soon—” Brian yelped when Aiden jumped up quickly enough to jerk the sheets around his leg. “Ow! Watch it!”
Aiden didn’t apologize, just glared at him. “I don’t want your damned Harley. I want Leah back.”
“So get her back!” Brian snapped. “And stay off my bed.” He grimaced as he gently rearranged the sheet around his injured limb.
Aiden paced the room in agitation. “She says she can never trust me again. She’s not giving me a second chance.”
“Then move on.”
He stopped and confronted Brian. “You just don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“I love her. I want to spend my life with her.”
Brian bit his tongue rather than say, “It’ll never work.” But he didn’t think it would ever work. It wasn’t just the animosity between their families. The obstacle keeping them apart was plain old logistics. Both Aiden and Leah ran their fathers’ ranches, which meant they needed to live in two different places. Matt’s appearance had complicated things for Leah, but Brian didn’t think she’d give up Kingdom Come without one hell of a fight. And Aiden would never leave the Lucky 7. “If you’re looking for suggestions,” Brian said. “I don’t have any.”
Aiden groaned as he ruffled his hair, then smoothed it back down. “I just needed to vent with someone, and since you’re the only other person who knows about this, you’re it.”
“Uh. That’s not exactly true.”
“Brian, if you’ve—” Aiden began.
Brian put up both hands to cut him off. “Hey! Tag and I thought we were going to die in that cave. I was feeling guilty about never being able to make things square with you, so I told her what I did.”
His brother looked horrified. “She knows about me and Leah?”
“Not about you being married. But yeah, she knows about the bet. I didn’t tell Tag not to say anything, but I don’t think she will. I mean, she wouldn’t want to hurt Leah’s feelings by telling her she knows what we did. Would she? Should I call her—”
“No! Hell, no. If you fuck this up any more than you already have, Brian, I swear I’ll hack off both your legs myself.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t be seeing Tag again.”
Aiden frowned. “I thought you guys got kind of close. When Leah and I found the two of you, she was holding you in her arms like you were the love of her life. From what I saw, and what I heard later, she’s the one who kept you alive.”
Brian felt his face flush with embarrassment. “I have no idea what she did, because I was out of it. Nobody’s said anything to me about her part in this before now.”
“Well you should get down on your knees—when you can—and thank her.”
Brian remembered how he’d kicked Tag out of his room. How he’d denied having any feelings for her. No wonder she’d been so mad.
He missed her. Missed her constant chatter. Missed holding her, touching her, being inside her. He had vivid memories of the two of them during the last days he’d been lucid. How he’d told Tag he loved her. How they’d planned their future together.
But he wasn’t the same man who’d spoken those words of love. And he needed time and space to figure out whether he was going to have any sort of future to offer her.
Aiden had remained silent, and Brian realized the two of them made a great pair, both of them brooding over Grayhawk women. He would have laughed, if the whole situation hadn’t been so tragic.
“Sorry I couldn’t be more help solving your problem with Leah,” he said at last.
“Yeah. Me, too.”
“What are you going to do?”
Aiden shrugged. “Wait. And hope. How about you?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, what about you and Tag?”
“There’s nothing—”
“Don’t try to bullshit me. She’s in love with you. If I remember correctly, you spent a lot of time sulking in your room when she broke up with you in high school. You saved her life getting the two of you out of that plane and into the cave. She saved yours treating that wound in your leg. That sort of life-affirming experience tends to bond people.”
“We’re not stuck in a cave anymore. We have separate lives.”
Aiden snorted. “If Tag’s the woman you want, you should run after her as fast as you can.”
“I can’t run anywhere.”
“You don’t have to be standing on two feet to let her know you’re interested. She showed up in this room the instant she got out of her hospital bed, and she sat there beside you day after day until you woke up. That says something.”
“Shit.”
“What’s wrong now?”
“I threw her out. I told her not to come back.”
“You’ll kick yourself from here to Sunday,” Aiden said, “if you let her get away a second time. Maybe I won’t end up with the love of my life, but there’s no reason you have to screw up your love life as well. Don’t just lie there.” He gave Brian a slap on his back. “Do something about it.”
He turned and marched out of the room, leaving Brian with a stinging shoulder and a great deal of food for thought.