Dash walked in to find me hanging over the side of the crib doing the potty dance. “Everything okay?” he asked skeptically.
“No!” I shouted and hopped as fast as I could to the bathroom. “Get James, I’ll be right out!”
I was granted the sweetest relief; my baby stopped crying just as I started to pee. Pure bliss.
I finished my business and hopped back into my room to find Dash holding James and a wide-eyed Ember gaping at me. I cocked my head to the side and raised my good hand to waggle my fingers, “Hi!” I sang to her.
She put her hands on her hips and tried to glare at me, “Reese Walker, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
Ah shit. I lost it. I fell sideways on the bed and laughed my ass off. Whew, maybe it was time to cut back on the pain meds a bit.
I felt the bed shift when Ember sat down beside me. “Seriously, are you okay, honey?”
“I will be. Can, um, can one of you change James? I can’t do it and I don’t know where anybody is,” I explained.
“I got him,” Dash said. “I’m sure you girls need to catch up.” That was the understatement of the year.
“Thanks, Dash.” I turned to Ember and put on my best please-don’t-hate-me face. “How much do you know?”
“I know about the baby, the wreck, and the injuries. Is there more?”
“Uh, some threatening letters probably sent by my ex-boyfriend who is a member of the MC that likely killed my parents and siblings, but that’s it,” I said in an almost jovial tone, trying to keep the mood light.
Ember’s face fell. She placed her hand on top of mine, “Oh, Reese.” She shook her head, silently admonishing me for my actions.
I immediately went on the defensive. “Look, I know I haven’t made the choices that other people think they would have made in my situation, but the fact of it is, no one has lived this life but me and I’ve done the best I could.”
“I’m not judging you. I just wish you would’ve let me help you, or let anyone help you. No one deserves to go through the things you’ve been through alone. You were there for me in the most trying time of my life. I would be more than happy to do the same for you. That’s what friends are for.”
Damn her and her sweetness. She was making my eyes water. I loathed emotional tears. They were always accompanied by feeling the need to vomit.
“Well, I’m here now.”
“That you are. Now, introduce me to your son and tell me what you need help with.”
Dash walked over and carefully placed James on my lap. “Ember, this is James Mason Jackson. James, this is Ember, the crazy lady you’ve heard Mommy talk about.” Ember gasped. “Just kidding!”
Dash left a few minutes later, giving Ember and me plenty of time to catch up. She told me all about the stables and her organic fruits and vegetables project. She was a huge help and James seemed to adore her. But the best was when she helped me wash my hair and take a quasi-bath. For that, I would be eternally grateful to her.
“So, how long are you going to be an invalid?”
I scoffed. “Several weeks. My arm isn’t that bad. My ankle is another story. I have to go see an orthopedic surgeon in a few days. Patch is supposed to be getting that set up for me. I’ll more than likely have to have surgery on it and then it will be weeks of healing. I‘m hoping it won’t be too bad once I have use of my arm again.”
“You mentioned a crazy ex-boyfriend earlier. Do you think he’s responsible for the wreck?”
“I don’t know. I would have said yes, but I know it was a woman driving the car and her plates were from Arizona. None of that points to him, but I have no idea who else could have been behind it,” I explained.
“Do you know anyone from Arizona other than Duke and Harper?”
“What?” I shrieked. “They’re from Arizona? How do you know that?”
“He works at the stables. It was on his new hire paperwork. He used to work at a ranch somewhere out in Arizona before he and Harper moved to Devil Springs. You didn’t know?”
I shook my head, mouth hanging open. “No, I did not know that…” I trailed off. Surely, that was just a coincidence, right?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Duke
