CHAPTER FOURTEEN
COLIE HAD BEEN making breakfast when she heard a key in the lock of the front door.
Ludie looked up at her mother and winced. “Bad man, Mommy, bad man!” she said urgently.
Before Colie had time to react, Rodney and his friend Barry came in the door. Rodney’s expression was one of regret and apology. His friend, holding a pistol in his hand, was arrogant.
“Colie, you have to call your bosses and tell them not to go ahead with that drug case,” Rodney said quickly. He darted a glance at Barry. “She’ll do it, I know she will,” he added. “You don’t need the gun...!”
“She’ll never do it,” Barry said, reading with accuracy the look on Colie’s face. “She doesn’t care if you go to prison.”
“That’s not true...” Colie began, playing for more time to think, to do something. Let him shoot her, if he had to, but she must save Ludie. If only she’d asked J.C. to stay with them. Too late now.
“But,” Rodney protested, and looked as if it actually mattered to him that his sister wasn’t harmed. For once, his eyes weren’t bloodshot. He looked like the brother he used to be, not under the influence of drugs.
“Shut up, Rod,” Barry said. “It’s too late. Get the kid. You’re coming with me,” he told Colie.
“No,” she said, and reached for a butcher knife on the counter.
Barry simply pointed the .45 automatic at Ludie’s head. “Your choice,” he drawled.
Now Colie was terrified. The man didn’t seem to be bluffing. If the court case went ahead, he’d be in federal prison in no time, and he knew it. He was desperate enough to do anything; even shoot a helpless toddler.
“All right,” Colie said quickly, putting the knife down. “All right, I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt Ludie.”
“Bad man,” Ludie said, staring at Barry. “Bad man.”
“Bad enough,” Barry said with an arrogant smile. “Let’s go.” He pointed the gun at Colie. “Get the kid and come on.”
“Where are you taking them?” Rodney asked, worried.
“Just out for a ride, and a little conversation. You stay here and wait until I get back,” he instructed. “Give me your car keys.”
Rodney did, primed to do anything this man said, because he was up to his neck in trouble and he knew Barry wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him, too. But he honestly didn’t realize for precious minutes what the man had said. “Until I get back.” Barry meant that he’d be returning alone.
* * *
“DO ANYTHING YOU like to me, just don’t hurt my daughter,” Colie pleaded as Barry drove up the road to a deserted stretch that ran alongside Ren Colter’s ranch.
“You told them what you saw three years ago, didn’t you?” Barry asked as he drove. “You told them you saw me bring Rod a suitcase of drugs. You’re the only witness who can testify to that.”
She caught her breath. So this was what it was really about—not the court case at all. “I never told a soul,” she protested.
“Sure, you didn’t,” he said hotly. “But you won’t testify.”
“No. I won’t. I promise,” she said, bargaining for their freedom. She held Ludie tight. There was no car seat, so Ludie was in her lap.
“Too late for that.” He stopped the car and produced the gun. “This is a nice, private spot. No witnesses.”
Colie had seconds to act. She threw open the door and put Ludie out on the snow-covered ground. “Run!” she told the child. “Run like the...wind!” Her voice broke as the man beside her pulled the trigger. Blood went everywhere, splattering even onto Ludie’s white jacket.
Ludie screamed as she heard the shot. She tried to look back, but her mother cried, “Run!” one last time.
She ran toward the fence, found an opening under it where some large animal had dug an entrance through the snow and crawled through it. With tears staining her cheeks, she ran as fast as she could into the sheltering woods.
“You won’t hurt...my child!” Colie said, struggling with the man. She wasn’t big-boned, but she was strong. Even with adrenaline pumping through her, the wound was weakening her. She could barely get a breath and she was light-headed. She felt the life draining out of her through the hole in her chest. “You...won’t!”
“She’ll freeze to death out there before too long,” Barry said harshly, “and she won’t be a witness, anyway.”
“Witness...” He was blurring in her eyes. The chest wound was making odd sounds. She struggled to get a tiny breath of air.
It had felt like a fist slamming into her rib cage, but now the pain was starting. If only Ludie made it to safety! She must try to stay conscious...
She took a last, labored breath and passed out. Barry thought of pushing her out, but it might lead someone to the child, if they spotted small footprints in the snow. He didn’t want the child found. The dying woman beside him wouldn’t be able to tell where she was, anyway.
He drove the car back to Rodney’s house.
* * *
ROD WAS WAITING on the front porch, pacing. He ran toward Barry. “What did you do... Sis!” he exploded when he saw her.
“Just what was necessary,” Barry told him nonchalantly. “Now there’ll be no witness to testify against me for a drug deal, even if her law firm does pull the rug out from under the dealers. I can beat that rap. But an eyewitness to drug distribution could have put me in federal prison. I couldn’t take the chance.”
“My sister.” Rod lifted her gently out of the car, tears running down his face. “My sister!”
“Your car, her blood, guess who’ll go up for murder one?” Barry drawled.
Rodney wasn’t hearing him. He laid Colie gently on the floor of the porch. “You killed my sister!” He looked into the open passenger door and his blood ran hotter. “Where’s Ludie?”
Barry just shrugged. “Lost in the woods. You’d better think about what you’re going to do,” he said easily. “Me, I’m driving back to Jackson Hole. I may go to Aruba. You’re on your own. You were a lousy dealer, Rod. Just as well I don’t have to keep an eye on you anymore to see what your sister’s up to.” He looked at the dying woman. “She won’t be a problem anymore.”
“Murderer!” Rod raged, and rushed him.
Barry easily put him on the floor, adjusted his expensive suit and walked to his own luxury car. He got into it and drove away. Even if Rodney called the cops, Barry was in the clear. There were no witnesses, and the blood and the body could be traced to Rod’s car. It wasn’t Barry who’d go to jail for murder. Meanwhile, he could relax. There were no witnesses to what he’d done. And who knew, with the snow falling so hard, they might not find the kid’s body for a long time.
* * *
RODNEY CALLED 911 from one of his throwaway phones. He didn’t dare stay. Barry was right. He’d be on the rack for murder one if Colie died. His sister. He’d left her on her own, been reluctant to leave Barry and the quick money, sold out his own flesh and blood. His father was dead. His sister was dying. And Ludie. What about Ludie? He had no idea where she could be. Barry hadn’t been gone long, but it was a big area. He’d never be able to find the poor child, even if he had time to look for her.
He smoothed back Colie’s hair. She had a sucking chest wound. It would kill her soon if she didn’t get help. He told dispatch where the house was, but he hung up almost immediately. He went into the house and got a big plastic bag from the kitchen. He put it on the chest wound and wrapped a blanket tight around her to hold it in place. During his term in service, he’d seen makeshift treatments for all sorts of wounds. Thank God he remembered this one.
But she was still in bad shape and he didn’t dare stay. He wanted to leave a note, implicate Barry, tell Colie he was sorry he’d brought this on her and her child. Her child! His blood ran cold. It was J.C.’s child. He knew. Most people knew that Colie had only ever had one lover, and it was J.C. He was certain that no other man had fathered that little girl, and he could only imagine what J.C. would do when she was found dead. Or when Colie was found dead, if she didn’t survive.
The safest place was going to be somewhere out of the country. Rod had money. He could get away. But only if he acted quickly.
He jumped into the car, wincing at the blood on the passenger seat, and shot off into the distance down the road. He could stop at a service station and get some paper towels to clean up the mess. He’d find some rural one, on a less traveled road, to do that. Meanwhile he sent up a silent prayer that Colie would be found in time, even if she lived to testify and put him in prison. He’d been responsible for it all. His father had raised him to be a good boy, but he’d been weak and easily led with tragic results. His father would be ashamed of him. He was ashamed of himself. But he kept driving, just the same.
* * *
THE DEPUTY FOUND Colie on the porch and radioed for the EMTs. They were less than a minute away, having just checked out Ludie up the road where J.C. had found her.
“Look at this,” one EMT told the other as they stabilized Colie, noting the makeshift bandage. “Somebody tried to help her.”
“Maybe the person who shot her,” his companion said. “We’ve got something better than that, thank God. Let’s call it in and get her ready for transport.”
“I’m way ahead of you,” the woman said, rushing back to the truck for supplies.
* * *
J.C. HAD JUST finished with Ludie in the emergency room. Except for some emotional trauma, the resident told him, the child would be fine. She was unharmed, even by the snow she’d been found lying in. Lucky, the man added, because frostbite would have been an issue if she’d stayed out in the cold much longer.
J.C. thanked the man and cuddled Ludie close as they left the cubicle.
“Mommy over there,” Ludie said, pointing.
J.C. looked and then smiled. “No, baby, she’s not. They’re looking for her...” He didn’t have much hope that she’d be found alive. It was like acid, eating his heart, knowing that. He had to be calm, for Ludie’s sake.
“Mommy,” the child insisted.
J.C. looked again, and EMTs were rushing in with a woman on a stretcher.
“Colie!” J.C. burst out. He ran to the stretcher with Ludie in his arms.
“This is her child,” he told them as he followed. “Will she live?”
“It’s a GSW,” one EMT said, meaning a gunshot wound.
“It’s a sucking chest wound,” the female EMT added, not breaking stride on her way through the swinging doors to surgery. “She’s in bad shape. The doctor will have to evaluate her and give you a prognosis. Are you a relative?”
“Her fiancé,” he said.
“That’s my mommy,” Ludie told them, crying again. “Mommy be okay?” she asked.
“We’ll do everything we can,” the man assured her.
“This my daddy,” Ludie added, patting J.C.’s face.
The EMT, who was local, just grinned at J.C., who looked at the child with mingled pride and delight.
“We’ll wait out here,” J.C. told them.
They rushed Colie back into the emergency section.
* * *
IT WAS A long time before a man in surgical gear came to talk to them, pulling down his mask as he walked.
J.C. was on his feet immediately, with Ludie in his arms. “How is she?” he asked quickly.
“She’ll live,” the man said, noting the horror that had been contained in the two pairs of eyes that were identical, a pale, shimmery gray.
“Thank God,” J.C. said heavily. Ludie just smiled at the surgeon, who grinned at her.
“There was some damage to the lower lobe of her lung. The bullet ricocheted and nicked her colon. It lodged in her back, in a place where it would be more dangerous to remove it than to leave it,” he added quietly. “The body will react by building a fleshy shield around it. She won’t know it’s there.”
“I’ve got one in me somewhere,” J.C. replied. “Combat in the Middle East. It’s not a souvenir I really wanted, but my combat surgeon told me the same thing you just said about Colie.”
“I’ve had some royal battles with policemen over removal of bullets for evidence. Went to court one time to make sure I wasn’t pressured into doing something I deemed an unnecessary risk. The policeman had to search for other evidence. He did find it, in case you wondered.”
“Can we see Colie?” he asked huskily.
The surgeon was reluctant until he looked into Ludie’s eyes. He relented. “Okay. Just for a minute, though. She isn’t out from under the anesthesia just yet.”
They followed him back to the recovery room, where a nurse was overseeing two postsurgical patients.
“Her daughter,” the surgeon told the hovering nurse, who took one look at Ludie’s little tearstained face and couldn’t help smiling.
“Mommy!” Ludie exclaimed.
J.C. moved to the still, white form under the sheet. “Dear God, I’ve never prayed so much in my whole life,” he said under his breath.
“It was a close call,” the surgeon affirmed. “If she’d been found just a little later, and if someone hadn’t rigged a plug for the wound...”
“A what?” J.C. exclaimed.
“Somebody treated her before the EMTs arrived,” he said. “There was a makeshift bandage, a plastic one, over the sucking chest wound. Very effective. Probably saved her life.”
“Yes.” J.C. hefted Ludie closer and reached down to touch Colie’s white face. He brushed back her thick, soft dark hair tenderly. “Colie,” he whispered huskily.
Her eyes shot open. She looked up at them through a layer of mental fog brought on by the anesthesia. She blinked. She winced.
“Mommy!” Ludie called.
She looked at the child and managed a smile through the pain that was slowly returning. “Ludie. My baby,” she whispered.
“Who shot you?” J.C. asked quickly.
“Barry. He was going to kill...both of us. I put Ludie out. Told her...to run.” Tears threatened. “I was afraid...she could have frozen to death!”
“She’s fine. I’ll take her home with me,” J.C. said gently. “You’ll be fine, honey. Just fine.”
She looked up at him with pain-filled green eyes. “Thanks...J.C.” she managed.
His big hand smoothed her hair. “We’ll come back to see you tomorrow. Okay?”
She managed a smile. “I love you, Ludie,” she whispered.
“I love you, Mommy,” the little girl replied. “Bad man ran away!” she added.
“He won’t get far,” J.C. said curtly. “Half of Wyoming law has him in their sights.”
“I want five...minutes alone with him,” Colie whispered. “With a tire iron...” She tried to laugh and drifted away instead.
“She’ll sleep now,” the surgeon assured them. “You have to leave. So do I. I have another case waiting.”
“Thanks for letting us in,” J.C. said with a wistful, relieved glance back at Colie. “We were scared to death.”
“Mommy okay now, Daddy,” Ludie said, nuzzling close to him.
He smiled over her head at the surgeon and walked out to the SUV.
* * *
HE CALLED SHERIFF BANKS from his cell phone when he and Ludie got back to Skyhorn, but the sheriff had been too busy to answer. He left a callback number. Banks needed to know what Colie had told him.
He left Ludie with Ren’s wife, Merrie, with a plea to bathe her and wash her clothes while he went back to town to buy some clothes and a toy or two for the little girl, who was going to stay in his cabin with him. Merrie assured him that she’d take care of the child. It amused her to see the very real bond between father and daughter that had already appeared.
Banks called him when he’d just pulled up in front of a clothing boutique that catered to children, in downtown Catelow. “I talked to Colie at the emergency room,” he told Banks. “She said Barry Todd shot her. He was going to kill Ludie as well, but she pushed Ludie out and told her to run.”
“I figured that. She must have something on Barry Todd, for him to have tried to murder her and the child, as well.”
“Something she’s never told anyone,” J.C. agreed. “I thought it was because of the court case back in Texas. They have an informer who’s ready to blow the drug distribution network apart, and apparently it involves Barry himself.”
“So maybe he had two reasons.”
“Somebody dressed the wound. Somebody who knew how. It was a sucking chest wound. The surgeon said it saved her life.”
Banks let out a sigh. “Thank God for small blessings. Todd wouldn’t have done that,” he added.
“I know. I’m pretty sure it was Rod. He was in combat. I know he’d have some idea of what to do for a wound.”
“Yeah. I’ve got a BOLO out for him, and for Todd. If we can find him, Todd will go up for attempted murder. And since he literally kidnapped Colie and her child from their home, I can bring in the feds to help. Federal offense, kidnapping. Todd’s sealed his own coffin.”
“We can hope so,” J.C. said coldly. “I left Ludie with Merrie while I get her some clothes and I’m going to get her a kid’s meal from the local fast-food joint. I can cook, but I’m not in the mood right now. It’s been a damned long day.”
“Tell me about it,” Banks laughed hollowly. “I’m out after a bank robber, believe it or not. He took several hundred dollars from a dry goods store at gunpoint and ran for his life. We’ve got him cornered at his grandmother’s house, but he’s threatening to kill her if we don’t back off. That’s why I haven’t been to the hospital to question Colie. She’s going to be all right, then?”
“That’s what the doctor says. He had to leave the bullet in.”
“Hey, I’ve got one of those, too,” Banks said.
J.C. laughed. “Me, too. Maybe we’ll form a club or something.”
“I have to get back to my men. I’ll let you know if we turn up Todd or Colie’s brother.”
“Thanks, Cody.”
“No problem.”
J.C. hung up. He walked into the children’s shop. The clerk, who knew about him from Lucy, who shopped there for her son, eyed him with shock.
“I need some things for my daughter,” he said, and the words ran through him like liquid joy.
The woman smiled. “Tell me what you want.”
* * *
IT WAS AN ADVENTURE, shopping for a little girl who was little more than a toddler. He had no idea of what size things to buy, so he just guessed. If some of the things didn’t fit, the saleslady assured him, he could bring them back and return them. He got pajamas and a couple of pair of pants and two shirts, plus some underthings and a new jacket with a hood. He didn’t like the idea of having his child in a bloodstained garment.
He gave the woman his credit card and thanked her when she had it all packaged. He took it out to his big black SUV.
There was a tearstained woman standing there, looking at him with fear and hope. “Colie,” Lucy said huskily. “How is she? Is Ludie okay?”
“They’re both going to be fine,” he assured her. “Colie had a chest wound. Ludie was only traumatized. She got away in time.”
“Who did it?” Lucy asked coldly. “It was that slimy friend of Rodney’s, wasn’t it? That Barry Todd!”
“Colie identified him as the shooter. I still don’t know why he’d target her, just because her law firm was involved in court case over drugs.”
“Neither do I,” Lucy agreed. “Colie said there was something more, a secret she’d kept for a long time. She wouldn’t even tell me, because she said it would put me at risk. But I’m pretty sure it’s why she’s stayed in Texas all this time. You know she’d have been here with her father, if there hadn’t been a good reason for her to keep away from Catelow.”
He sighed. “I think it’s why Rodney and his friend Barry met me at the airport and told me Colie had cheated on me.” His face closed up. “I should have laid them both out on the floor and trusted Colie instead. I had issues,” he added, averting his eyes.
“Sometimes we get second chances,” Lucy replied.
He managed a smile. “Sometimes we hope we won’t mess those up, too. I’m just grateful that they’re both still alive. It was a close call.”
“If Colie needs me to help her with Ludie, I’ll be glad to stay with her,” Lucy offered.
“Thanks. I’ll tell her. But for the time being, Ludie’s staying with me at Skyhorn. In case that deranged drug lord finds out she’s alive and decides to try again.” His face hardened. “I’ll ask Banks to post a man at the hospital as well, to make sure Colie’s kept safe.” They both knew that since the crime had taken place outside the city limits, Banks would have jurisdiction. Not to mention that the hospital was located outside the city limits, as well.
“Good idea. I’ll get back home,” Lucy said. “I heard about the shooting on the radio and I spotted your truck on my way to the hospital. I figured you’d know what happened.”
“I do know. Colie’s in intensive care,” he added. “I doubt they’ll let you in. But the surgeon said that they may be able to move her into a room tomorrow. She came out from under the anesthetic while Ludie and I were in the recovery room with her. The surgeon made an exception for us.”
“I’m so glad she’s going to be okay,” Lucy said huskily. “I don’t make friends easily. I’ve missed Colie since she’s lived in Texas.”
“A lot of us have missed her,” he said. He glanced at his watch. “I’d better get back to the ranch. Merrie’s giving her a bath for me.” He laughed softly. “I imagine I’ll get a crash course in child raising tonight.”
Lucy studied him quietly. “She’s a precious little girl. She does have some very unusual skills, for such a young person.”
“She sees things,” J.C. replied. “My grandmother had the same gift. It’s fairly rare.”
“It amazes me. She amazes me. She’s very mature for a child who’s just over two years old.”
He nodded. “Colie said that Ludie told her at the airport that her father was gone, before I spotted them on the concourse.”
“An exceptional child,” Lucy said.
“And very sweet, like Colie,” he replied. He sighed. “I’ve got so much to make up to them that I hardly know where to start.”
“One day at a time,” she advised.
He just nodded.
* * *
LUDIE WAS DELIGHTED with a toy J.C. had bought her in the little boutique in town. It was a fuzzy bear that repeated everything the child said.
“He’s so cute!” Ludie enthused. She ran to J.C. to be swung up in his arms, bear and all. He kissed a rosy cheek. “Thanks, Daddy,” she said with twinkling eyes.
He was still getting used to that word. It filled him with pleasure, every time she said it. He was beaming from ear to ear when he noticed the looks he was getting from Ren and Merrie and Delsey.
He grimaced. “I suppose it’s an open secret already, right?” he asked with resignation.
“Not much guesswork, you know,” Merrie commented. “Everybody knew that Colie would never have let another man touch her. She was so crazy about you.”
His high cheekbones flushed. It reminded him that he hadn’t believed Colie. He’d preferred Rod’s lie to the truth. It was still hard to live with.
“What about Colie?” Ren asked. “Barry Todd is still on the loose. If he knows she survived the shooting...”
“Banks has a man stationed inside the hospital, near the ICU where she’s spending the night,” J.C. revealed. “I spoke to him just a few minutes ago. He was concerned, as well.”
“I hope they can nail Barry Todd and Rodney Thompson to a big, hard wall,” Merrie muttered.
“By the ears,” her husband agreed with a cold smile.
“Barbarians,” J.C. scoffed.
“Daddy, what’s a bar...bar...that thing?” Ludie asked him.
The others smiled at her.
“Barbarian,” J.C. replied. “And you need to grow a bit before you ask me for that answer. Okay?”
She nodded solemnly. “Okay, Daddy,” she promised.
He shifted her in his arms. “I’d better get her to bed. It’s been a long day.” He hesitated. “Thanks for bathing her and feeding her,” he added. “I had no idea what to buy.”
“You’re just lucky that she’s on the same level of food that our son is, and that I always have extra jars of it,” Merrie chuckled. “But you’re very welcome.”
“We’ll go and see Colie when she’s better,” Ren promised. “But right now, our only mandate is to keep her breathing.”
“Amen,” J.C. added.
* * *
COLIE WAS BREATHING much better when J.C. went to see her at the hospital the next morning. They had her in a semiprivate room, propped up in bed in one of those strange-looking hospital gowns. She had a worn look on her pale face. Her hair was disheveled and she was bandaged on the left side of her chest, where the bullet had gone in.
“Is Ludie all right?” she asked quickly.
“She’s fine,” he said softly. “I borrowed a rollaway bed from one of the married cowboys and kept her right next to my bed all night. She only woke once.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“I’m enjoying it,” he replied. “It’s not what I expected. Having a child around, I mean,” he added as he stood beside the bed. “I always thought of kids as a nuisance.”
“It’s different when they’re...when you know them,” she amended.
He knew that she meant “when they’re yours,” but she wasn’t admitting that just yet. He couldn’t blame her. He’d done nothing to earn her trust. He hoped he could manage that in time to keep her from going back to Texas when the situation resolved itself.
“Lucy was on her way to the hospital when she spotted me at the children’s boutique yesterday,” he added. “I told her how you were. She was worried. She’ll be over today.”
“She’s the only real friend I have,” Colie confided. It was still difficult to talk. The wound was taking a toll on her. She winced as she moved. “It didn’t hurt so much...yesterday.”
“You were numb and in shock yesterday,” he said. “The first few days after a wound are pretty bad. But you’ll get through it. Take your meds and do what they tell you.”
“There’s a man in a uniform outside,” she remarked. “I got...a glimpse of him when the nurses came in.”
“It’s one of Banks’s men,” he replied. “We’re taking no chances that Rod’s friend Barry might try again.”
“He’s probably halfway around the world by now,” she said heavily.
“There’s a BOLO, as well,” J.C. told her. “One for your brother, too. Although he’s the reason you’re probably still alive.”
“What?”
“He did a makeshift bandage,” he explained. “You had a sucking chest wound. It could have killed you very quickly if it had gone untreated for any length of time.”
“Maybe Daddy was right,” Colie said. “Maybe Rod still has a little good in him.”
“I read about a serial killer who carried an old woman’s groceries in the house for her and repaired a disabled man’s porch steps,” he commented.
She just looked at him.
“One trait doesn’t rule out another, worse, one,” he said simply. “Someone can do a good deed and go right out and commit murder. That’s hard for people to understand. It’s why some killers go free.”
She frowned. “I see.”
“I spoke to the surgeon on my way in here,” he said. “He thinks you’ll recover nicely. It will take time,” he added firmly. “That means, you won’t jump up and run back to Texas within a few days.”
“I figured that. My job,” she said, and winced. “I’ll be letting them down.”
“Have Lucy call them for you and explain what’s going on.”
“I can do that.”
“Meanwhile, I’ll take care of Ludie.”
“How will you work?” she worried.
He laughed softly. “Most of what I do is around the ranch. I’ll just take her with me. She’s fascinated by the horses and cows and dogs.”
“She loves animals.”
“You always did, too,” he replied. “Your father dreaded telling you when Big Tom died,” he added. “He said you took it hard.”
“I loved him,” she said simply.
“I remember.”
She drew in a painful breath. “Pain’s coming back.” She touched a control and a painkiller was triggered to counteract it. “Modern technology is awesome.”
“It truly is.”
She looked up at him. “What if Barry comes back to finish the job?” she worried.
“When you leave here, you’re coming to Skyhorn,” he said simply. “Merrie says they have two spare bedrooms. You and Ludie can have one until it’s safe for you to go home.”
“Oh, that’s so kind of her!” Colie said, fighting tears.
“I would have invited you to stay with me, but I’ve given Catelow enough reason to gossip about you and Ludie. Never again.”
She searched his pale eyes, so much like Ludie’s.
“I’ve made a mess of both our lives.” He paused. “Do you remember long ago, when we compared the fortunes we were told?”
She thought back. “Yes.”
“In hindsight, I think I could say they were eerily accurate.”
“Too much so.”
He reached down and brushed back her disheveled hair. “Yours had something about joy following sorrow, didn’t it?”
“I believe so.”
“Mine, as well.” He bent farther and brushed his mouth tenderly over hers. “So when you get out of here, we might consider going in search of some of that. Joy, I mean.”
“Joy.” She was staring up at him with her heart in her eyes.
His lips teased hers gently in the long silence. “I never believed in miracles. Before.”
“You didn’t...?” She was trying to lift closer to that hard, sensuous mouth. It had been so long! Even through layers of pain and painkiller, she was dying for him, all over again.
“I didn’t,” he whispered as her lips parted. “But, now...”
The door opened and he jerked erect, actually flushing as the nurse came in to check Colie’s vitals.
“You look flushed. We’d better check your temp,” the nurse said gently.
Colie looked past her to J.C. and they exchanged helplessly amused smiles. Colie actually felt the joy, pulsing through her veins like molten honey. J.C.’s eyes were promising heaven.