“Thanks, I got it.”
“Sure you do, but seeing as I’m a gentleman and my mama taught me right, I’ll carry if for you,” he said, motioning her down the aisle before him.
“I can carry it, Cubby.”
“We talked about manners in LA, princess. You forgotten how you were raised?”
Her teeth snapped together. “No, I haven’t forgotten, and thank you for carrying my bag,” she said in a tight voice.
“Welcome.”
He ushered her ahead of him through the doors and into the terminal where Cubby saw the tall dark head of Ethan Gelderman the Fifth. Cubby snorted when he saw the Texan was leaning on a wall chatting with an elderly woman. He could always find someone to listen to him. The man was a magnet to women, no matter their age. He just smiled and flashed his baby blues and they were butter in his hands. Then he’d speak in that slow drawl and the rest was history.
“Tex.” Cubby used his nickname and the man straightened, excusing himself. He then made his way toward them, eyes on Katie.
“Well if it isn’t little Katie McBride. How you doing, sweet cheeks?”
Cubby watched Katie stiffen as Ethan enveloped her in a gentle hug; he didn’t let go until she’d relaxed and hugged him back.
“I hear you got a bit banged up, baby, how’s that feeling now?”
“Good thanks, Ethan.”
Ethan kept up the conversation until they reached the restrooms, and Katie excused herself. The men watched her until she’d disappeared.
“Jesus, Cubby! She’s a shadow of the girl I last saw.”
“It’s a long and dirty story, Tex, and I’ll tell it, but we’ll wait till Jake’s with us, because we got some things to put in place to ensure she stays safe.”
Tex whistled. “You all good there, Sheriff? You’re looking a bit peaky yourself.”
“The hell I do.” Cubby punched his friend in the arm. “Never looked peaky a day in my life.”
“And there’s our fiery redhead, come back to torment the gentle citizens of Lake Howling.”
“The truth is she’s pretty beat up, inside and out,” Cubby said with his eyes on the door to make sure Katie didn’t reappear. She’d be annoyed if she heard them talking about her.
“Jake said as much. But we can heal her, Cubby, it’ll just take time.”
And they would; all of them would play a hand in the rebuild of Katie McBride, because that was how he and his friends worked. They were a unit, a team that could always rely on each other.
“Newman brought this hot blonde home, and she broke the heel on one of her stilts on the main street and told him that he wasn’t good enough in bed to make her stay after that,” Ethan said when he saw Katie appear. “The man’s broken, I tell you, a shell of himself.”
“Bullshit he is,” Cubby said. “Newman’s ego could power the national grid.”
They kept up the chat until they were in Ethan’s car. The drive was accomplished with the Texan asking Katie a few questions and her answering in a polite tone that had him frowning.
“You ready to take a trip in my bird, sweetheart?”
“Looking forward to it, Ethan,” she said, and Cubby could hear the nerves now. The thought of seeing her family was tensing her up even more than the prospect of the flight.
The helicopter took off, with Katie beside Ethan and Cubby in the back, and soon they were flying over lakes and hills, and he felt himself relax. She would be safe here.
“You see those mountains from Howling,” Tex said as he flew over the top of the snow-capped range.
“They still look big even close up,” Katie said, leaning her forehead on the window as she looked at the scenery below “Makes you feel small though, seeing something so vast like that.”
“You climbed those, Sheriff?” Tex asked him.
