That rejection textfrom Charley had distracted him and he’d shrieked as the woman’s knee slammed into his groin.Instantaneous sickening pain almost made him puke. With long, brown hair, she had been the closest match to Charley that he’d ever caught. The voices said she was a noxious whore like his mother. They deserved toadflax, not flowers. How stupid could she be walking the streets with a killer on the loose? The irony made him laugh. He’d pulled up alongside her and made an offer. Sure enough, for twenty bucks, this one had willingly accepteda ride. Not until his hands had tightened around her throat did she fight back. She’d clawed, hit, and kicked her way out from under him. Also like Charley, she’d escaped. For now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“Good morning,” Charley said, opening her bedroom door bright and early on Triple C-West.
“Good morning,” Abilene said, holding Wyatt Earp.
“Hi,” Austin, her twin brother said. “I knocked on your door so that we could tell you we like your puppy.”
Cooper caught up with his siblings, and Chloe was right behind him. She shooed the children, along with Spike and Wyatt, down the hall to the top of the stairs.
“Come to the kitchen whenever you’re ready, Charley. Derek’s already gone to the stables. I’m going to feed the kids some breakfast and get them on the school bus.”
“Okay,” Charley said, watching them trek down the staircase. “I’ll be right there.”
With a laugh, Chloe said, “We can have our breakfast in peace after they leave.”
Charley shut her door and put the same clothes back on that she’d worn the previous day. She had no makeup with her and really wanted a shower and a change of clothes. She couldn’t go see Sully again looking as bad, at least in her opinion, as she’d been the day before. So, she made her bed, grabbed her purse, and hurried downstairs. Finding Chloe and the kids in thekitchen, Charley poured herself a cup of coffee and picked up Wyatt. She took him out to the front yard. As he did his business and played, she sat in a rocker on the porch.
Wyatt was back in Charley’s lap when the kids came bustling out of the house. Shouting and waving goodbye to her, they piled into a golf cart parked beside the house, and Chloe drove them to the end of the drive. Spike raced alongside them. Within three or four minutes, a big, yellow school bus stopped in front of the Triple C Ranch-West archway and the children boarded. Chloe waved, and Spike barked. The dog jumped onto the passenger’s seat of the golf cart, and Chloe returned to the house. Spike hopped out and stopped next to Charley and Wyatt.
“I want all of this someday,” Charley said to her cousin as Chloe walked onto the porch.
Chloe smiled and said, “That same school bus just picked up Colton and Courtney Cooper. And before Triple C-Central, it goes right by Cash’s, yours, and Sully’s ranches.”
Charley stood, put Wyatt down, and hugged her cousin. In the kitchen, Chloe poured coffee, served along with yogurt and blueberries and a side of toast for breakfast. The dogs ate in the mudroom as Scarlett, who had evidently already dined, sunned herself in the windowsill. As Charley finished her coffee, she received a text from Sully. When Chloe cocked a questioning brow, Charlie smiled.
“Sully’s awake. He says they moved him out of the ICU last night as planned. He’s on a discharge floor now, has no temperature, and feels good. The nurse just told him that his doctor will be making rounds soon. Sully will know then if he’ll be discharged.” Charley texted back and said, “I don’t know why I’m so nervous, but I can’t wait to see him.”
“Because you’ve admitted out loud that you’re in love with him, and in your heart you’re hoping he’s in love with you too.”
Charley raised both of her eyebrows, sighed, and admitted, “That sums it up perfectly.” They both laughed, and Charley said she was going to head to her cabin with Wyatt. “I need to try and look a bit more presentable today than I did yesterday. Or I might lose Sully before I can win him.”
“I highly doubt that,” Chloe said. “I think you’ve already won him.” After breakfast, Chloe walked her back out to her car with Wyatt and Spike as escorts. “Please keep us posted, and if Sully isn’t discharged, come spend the night again.”
“Okay, I sure will. Thank you, Chloe. I love you all.”
“The entire Cooper family loves you too, Charley.”
Charley hugged her and promised to keep them posted. Putting Wyatt and his puppy food into her car she got in after him, and with a wave, headed down the drive. She met up with Derek in his truck as he turned off the highway and into the driveway.
He stopped, rolled down his window, and said, “Be careful and say hello to Sully.”
“I will. Thanks again for taking me to the crash site yesterday, Derek.”
With a nod, he raised a hand in goodbye and Charley waved back before heading east on the highway leading to her cabin. She talked to Wyatt as she drove, telling him about Sully. She waved at Chase and Jade Cooper, who were also in a truck, and heading west. Triple C Ranch-East was next, and everything looked quiet. The parking lot of the Lodge, however, was packed. Despite the fact they were busy, she’d heard Cash say at the Halloween party that he was taking some time off from the dude ranch during the holidays due to the expected Thanksgiving arrival of the new baby boy. How exciting and wonderful.
Charley reached her cabin, and heading inside with Wyatt, she planned to make fast work of taking a shower and changing. Humming a happy tune, she was excited to get backto the hospital and check on Sully’s discharge status. But when she looked through her clothes, she couldn’t find the freshly laundered sweater and jeans she’d planned to wear. That was frustrating enough, but in the process of taking things out of her duffel bag, she dropped her hairdryer onto the bathroom floor, and it decided not to work. The shower would be postponed.
“Wyatt, it’s broad daylight. We’re going to make a quick trip in and out of my Old Colorado City apartment,” Charley said.
Locking the cabin, she took the puppy back to her car. Placing Wyatt in his dog bed on the passenger’s seat, they zipped west down the highway. “I love Pikes Peak,” she said, admiring it in the distance.
Wyatt gave a puppy-sized barked as if he agreed. Reaching the corner of her shop on Colorado Avenue, everything appeared normal. In the parking pad area at the duplex, Charley looked in all directions before exiting the car.
Wyatt relieved himself, and Charley said, “Wyatt, I think someone may have done some housetraining with you before you were abandoned.” Charley wondered again if that person had since been murdered.
They hurried inside, and she locked the door. Giving Wyatt water, she made a mental note to take his dog bowls with her this time. As Wyatt curled up on a thick rug for a puppy nap, Charley found the clothes she wanted to wear and took her shower. After shampooing and blow-drying her hair, she dressed. With a dab of makeup, she felt like her old self.
