9781631052323ForeverKindofCowboySullivan (11 page)

“Fuck me, baby.”

“Oh I plan to, cowboy. I’m
gonna
ride you into tomorrow.”

The slow crawl of her movements
had him panting in moments. He couldn’t hold back. He needed to come more than
his next breath, but he couldn’t, not without making sure she had an orgasm
along with him. “You need to come along for the ultimate ride.”

Her movements sped up. She
rocked her hips back and forth, drawing his own orgasm to the tip of his cock
before she moaned softly. “I’m right there. Help me.”

He reached down between their
bodies, rubbing her clit with his finger faster and faster as she continued to
rock. His own climax was held in check as he gritted his teeth until he felt
her quiver around him. “Come with me, Callie.”

“Fuck!” she screamed as her
climax broke.

He released the steely hold he
had on his own the moment he felt her squeeze him like a vice.

Jeremiah
woke up with a start to find cum across his abdomen.
Damn, I haven’t had a wet dream since I was a teenager.
He tossed
his legs over the side of the bed and struggled to his feet to go to the
bathroom to clean up.
Wow. That was
intense. It has to be from my forced celibacy the last several weeks.

Once he
cleaned off, he strolled over to his nightstand to check the time on his phone.
He wondered if Callie was asleep or out partying at the bar. No, the bar would
be closed by now. Was she alone or with Craig?

He
crawled back into his bed and lay staring at the ceiling wondering what he
should do. Talking to her didn’t seem to get him anywhere, but he really needed
to try.

That’s it. Tomorrow we are going
to sit down and have a nice long chat to get
all of this
out in the open. I’m tired of the way things are so something has to change.
Either we are a couple or we aren’t. No more beating around the bush, playing
Mr. Nice Guy and letting her date whomever she wants. She’s mine, damn it! It’s
about time she realized it.

The
jingle of his cell phone startled him. Who the hell would be calling at this
time of night? He reached over to grab it, realizing his fingers were numb
again.
Damn it!

The
caller ID said Jeff. “What the hell are you doing calling me at this time of
night?”

“It’s
Mom. Joey just called. There’s been a bad accident. Get your ass dressed and
meet me at the main lodge.”

“I’ll
be right there.”

He
jumped out of the bed, hopping around on one foot as he tried to put his legs
into his jeans. This didn’t sound good. Accidents on the back roads of Bandera
were bad. After he threw a shirt on, he slipped on his socks and boots before
he made a beeline for the door to the lodge. His heart clenched. His mom had to
be okay. She just had to be.

The
minute he went through the doors, he came to a sliding stop next to the crowd
of his brothers to get the scoop. “What’s happened?”

“Hang
on. We are waiting for Joel and Mesa.”

A
moment later, the last brother came through the doors. “Tell us.”

“Joey
called a few minutes ago. Mom was hit head-on by a drunk driver. Right now,
she’s on her way to the hospital in San Antonio by ambulance. She’s not
conscious. They don’t know the extent of her injuries.”

“What
hospital?” Jeff rattled off the name of one of the biggest hospitals in the
area. “I’m going,” Jeremiah said, spinning on his heels to rush to his truck.

“Slow
down, Jeremiah.
I’m sure we all want to be there, but having the entire Young clan bombard
their emergency room isn’t what is best for Mom.”

“I said
I’m going.”

“All
right, but I think
it’s
best if only a few of us go.”
The boys all spoke up at once until Jeff raised his hand. “I know you all want
to be there, but I think only three of us should go. Dad is already on his way
behind the ambulance and Joey, so that would make four. I’ll stay here with
Terri to make sure the ranch doesn’t fall apart. Jeremiah, you go.” He pointed
to two other brothers. “Jackson, you and Jason go too. The rest of us will stay
here. Make sure you call frequently with updates.”

“Will
do,” Jeremiah said, turning to the other two who would be going with him. “We
should probably ride together so we don’t have all of our vehicles at the
hospital.”

“Sounds
good to me,” Jackson replied.

A
moment or two later, the three men climbed into Jeremiah’s truck to head to San
Antonio. It would be a long ass drive without knowing what the hell was going
on with their mother. How badly was she hurt? Jeff said she was unconscious.
That wasn’t a good sign. He’d keep that thought to himself though. Talk amongst
the three of them was sobering. They didn’t say much, watching the streetlights
and empty buildings go by until they hit the interstate to take them into the
big city. Luckily the hospital wasn’t that far and they made it there in record
time as they pulled up into the emergency room parking lot.

Jeremiah
quickly called Jeff to let them know they’d made it safely. “Let’s hope Joey or
Dad
are
out in the waiting room. I doubt they’ll let
us back there.”

“Right,”
Jackson answered as they walked in through the double sliding doors.

Joey
stood off to the side with his back to the door, waiting.

“Joey?”
Jeremiah touched him on the shoulder.

“Oh.
Hey.”

“How’s
Mom?”

“I
don’t know. They haven’t told me anything. All I know is she regained
consciousness for a few minutes when they put her in the ambulance, but Dad
came out and told me she’d slipped back under by the time they got her here.”

“Is Dad
back there with her?”

“Yeah.”
Joey pulled his hat off and
raked his fingers through his hair.

He
wasn’t the type to get upset normally, but this had hit them all in the gut.
Their mother was the rock of the family. Having her hurt meant someone should
die. “Where is the guy who hit her?”

“He’s
in jail.”

“I
would hope so.”

“I
should have stopped him, guys. He was drunk at The Dusty Boot.
Drinking hard.
I should have taken his keys or something.”
Joey paced back and forth in front of the door.

“Was it
someone we know?”

“I
don’t think so. I didn’t know him before tonight.”

“Tonight?”

Joey
shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans as he exhaled forcibly.
“His sister was at the bar trying to get him to go home. He’d had a few beers.
Not too many, but we don’t know how much he was drinking before she got there.”
He rocked back on his heels. “I danced with her. In the meantime, he took off. She
and I went to find him if we could. We saw the fire trucks take off from the
station and followed them. Came up on the scene to realize it was a Thunder
Ridge truck. I didn’t know Mom was behind the wheel. When they cut her out, she
was breathing but not conscious. She regained consciousness while we were
there. Asked a few questions and said her leg hurt. When they put her in the
ambulance she was awake, but apparently on the way to the hospital, she lost
consciousness again according to Dad. They are doing some tests now to see
what’s wrong.”

Jeremiah
clapped Joey on the shoulder. “This isn’t your fault, Joe. You couldn’t have
known he would hit someone. You did what you could do to get him off the road.”

“It
wasn’t enough, Jeremiah. What if Mom dies?”

“She’s
not going to die!” Jackson spoke up for the first time. “Do you hear me? She’s
not going to die!”

“Easy,
Jackson,” Jeremiah said as he placed his hands on Jackson’s shoulders. “She’ll
be okay. She has to be.”

Their
father came through the double doors, walking toward them.

“Any
news?”
Joey
asked.

“She’s
regained consciousness, but doesn’t remember anything. They’re taking her back
for a CAT scan now to see what’s up. She has a concussion at least, but they
don’t know the extent of it right now. They’re concerned with bleeding on the
brain. Her leg is broken at the femur so she’ll be laid up for a while. They’ll
probably be keeping her here for a few days. She may need surgery on her leg.
They’re more concerned with her head at the moment.” A tear rolled down their
dad’s cheek. “I can’t lose her, boys.”

“She
isn’t going anywhere, Dad. Trust in God. He has her in His hands now.” Jeremiah
hugged his dad and then stepped back to see tears rolling down his cheeks. It
was difficult to see his dad so broken. They would all be in a world of hurt
should anything happen to their mom.

“I
know, but it’s hard to see her like this. She’s so confused.”

“Does
she know who you are?”

“Yes.”

“Then
she isn’t that confused.”

James
smiled. “After being together for forty years, I would hope she knew who I
was.”

The sad
look in his dad’s eyes hurt Jeremiah’s heart. He knew how much in love his
parents were. Someday, he wanted the same kind of
love,
a lifetime wouldn’t be long enough.

Chapter Ten

The
doctor came out of the double doors. “Mr. Young?”

“Yes?”
his father answered.

“We
need to discuss your wife’s care.”

“What’s
wrong?”

“She
has some bleeding on the brain from the accident. Her brain is swelling inside
her head.”

“What
does that mean?”

“She’ll
need to be admitted into intensive care so we can watch her closely. We’re
hoping the swelling will reduce on its own, but for now there isn’t much we can
do. If the swelling gets too bad, we’ll have to do surgery.”

“Holy
shit.”
Jeremiah’s breaths came out short and choppy through his nose and out through
his mouth as he tried to control it. Panicking wouldn’t help the situation.
“Surgery?”

The
doctor shoved his hands into the pocket of his lab coat.
“Only
if it gets bad.
If the bleeding stops and the swelling
goes
down on its own, she’ll be fine. Right now, we’re
monitoring her closely. We’ll keep her sedated to let her brain heal. We’ve put
a breathing tube down her throat to make sure she has enough oxygen and to keep
her sedated.”

The
boys gasped.

“It’s
only precautionary at this point. She could breathe on her own, but we want to
make sure the swelling goes down. This will protect her airway while we do
that. So far, everything looks good. The bleeding is in some small vessels so
they will likely resolve on their own.”

“What
about her leg?”

“She’ll
need surgery on it for a repair. We’ve stabilized it, but we don’t want to do
surgery until the issue with the bleeding is controlled. A couple of days with
the break won’t hurt anything. We’ve contacted our orthopedic surgeon to take a
look at her x-rays. He’s in complete agreement.”

Jeremiah
felt like his world had crumbled around him. His mother was hurt. His father
was a mess. What else could go wrong?

“If you
don’t have any further questions, I’ll leave you alone. We’ll be transferring
her to intensive care in a few moments. Then let you know what room shortly.”
The doctor put his hand on James’ shoulder. “She’ll be okay, Mr. Young. Have
faith.”

“Thank
you, Doctor.”

When
the doctor left them alone, the three boys each took turns hugging their
father. “She’ll be okay, Dad. The doctor said so.”

“God, I
hope so. I can’t lose her, Jeremiah. She’s my life.”

“I
know.” His cell phone jingled in his pocket. When he pulled it out, he saw it
was Jeff. “Hey.”

“What’s
up with Mom? You didn’t call.”

“We
just talked to the doctor, Jeff. Geez, give me a minute.” He told his brothers and
his father he would fill Jeff in as he walked away so he could hear. After he
gave his brother the report of what the doctor said, he closed the phone and
moved back to be with his father. When the nurse came out to tell them what
room they had moved his mother to, his father excused himself to go to the
intensive care unit as they wouldn’t let them all in at once. He told them he
would come back out as soon as he talked to the nurse to check on Nina.

The boys
took seats in the waiting room as they waited for news.

“She’ll
be fine. She has to be.” Joey leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “I
want to kill the guy who did this. It’s a good thing he’s in jail.”

“Me
too,” Jackson replied. “I don’t see how you didn’t kill him right there at the
accident scene.”

“Trust
me. If the cops hadn’t already had him in handcuffs, I would have. He was
belligerent and self-righteous even though he was being arrested for drunk
driving. I feel bad for his sister.”

“Was it
the same girl who got dumped on the floor?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah.
The one I was talking to at The
Dusty Boot.”

“When
you two left, I left too. I took a cab home since I’d had a bit to drink. I
must have been right in front of the accident on the road.”

“Probably.
We hit a couple of other bars
looking for him before the fire truck peeled out of the fire house headed for
the accident.”

“I was
in my room when Jeff called,” Jeremiah added. “I’d just gone to bed not too
long before that.”

“I
wonder if we should go on home. There isn’t much we can do here.” Jason
adjusted his hat on his head after he’d raked his fingers through his hair.

“I want
to see Mom first,” Jeremiah answered, with a resounding yeah from the rest of
the group. “I hope Dad comes back out soon.”

With
each brother lost in
their own
thoughts, Jeremiah
couldn’t help but compare the four of them. They all had their hang-ups and
trials as life went on around them.

Jason
had Peyton now. They seemed happy. They hadn’t been together long. He hoped his
brother enjoyed married life. He’d been kind of against it for a while.

Jackson
didn’t have a girl and didn’t seem to be worried about finding anyone. He did
his part on the ranch, but he seemed really interested in the history of the
land more so than the rest of them. Jeremiah knew he’d been doing a lot of
digging into the past lately.

Joey
did his own thing with the horses. He was kind of tied up with the neighbor
girl, although at eighteen she seemed kind of young for him. He’d been hot for
her for a few years. Jeremiah hoped he didn’t get into trouble with hanging
around her. Her daddy seemed kind of crazy.

And
then there were his issues with Callie lately. He needed to talk to her, but
his mom came first. It would have to wait until Nina was better. He just hoped
he’d have the time to straighten things out before all hell broke loose or she
found someone else. He couldn’t handle that if she did.

“Hey,
Jeremiah.
I
saw Callie with Craig tonight at the bar.” Joey sat back in the chair with his
legs crossed at the ankle.

“And?”

“She
didn’t seem happy.”

“No?”

“When
are you going to go after that girl?”

“What
the hell is it to you?”

“Because
if you don’t pull your head out of your ass, you’re
gonna
lose her.”

“I plan
on talking to her.”

“Talking
isn’t going to get shit done with her. She needs a man to take control.”

He
narrowed his gaze on his brother, thinking about the conversation at hand. “How
would you know?”

“I
talked to her. She wants you, not Craig.”

“I
talked to her tonight too. She basically told me to eat shit and die.”

“She
was just mad. She’s upset because you’ve been giving her the cold shoulder
treatment, or so she thinks.”

“No I
haven’t! I’ve been trying to tell her she belongs to me.”

“Somehow
I don’t think Callie is the type of woman to be told what to do,” Jason added
his two cents. “She seems pretty strong-willed. She reminds me a lot of
Peyton.”

“Yeah,
she does,” Jeremiah replied. “She doesn’t like me giving her orders.”

“Have
you had sex with her already?”

“Yeah.”

“And?”

“It was
mind-blowing. We’re good together, but I have to make her see we need each
other,
we complement each other in our personalities. She’s
a great woman.” Jeremiah sat forward. “Did you know she volunteers a lot at the
nursing home?”

“Really?”

“So
what is the problem here?” Joey asked. “As I see it, you tell her you want her,
she drops everything to be with you.
Done deal.”

Jeremiah
laughed so hard, he hurt as he doubled over. “Yeah, somehow that isn’t going to
work with Callie.”

“It
didn’t work with Peyton either. She’s very headstrong.”

“Did
you know she’s become good friends with Mandy?” Jeremiah asked. “In turn I
would think that makes her pretty good friends with Peyton.
Could
be bad news if they got into too much trouble together.”

“I’ll talk to Peyton.”

“Yeah,
you do that, bro.” Joey laughed. “If I know Peyton at all, she’ll tell you to stick
it up your ass.”

The
boys shared a laugh at Jason’s expense as he glanced at his phone. “I’m going
to call my wife.”

Jeremiah
thought about it for a moment before he asked, “Did Callie leave with Craig?”

“No.”

“She
didn’t, huh?” He smiled. Maybe things were looking up for him after all.
Jeremiah rubbed the fingers on his right hand, hoping to bring some feeling
back into them. He was getting kind of worried that they kept going numb on him
at odd times. Maybe had a pinched nerve or something. “I should call her.”

“No,
you should talk to her, but not by phone. This needs to be a face-to-face
conversation,” Jackson said. “She’s important to you, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Then
you need to make it a personal talk.”

“You’re
right.”

Their
father came out several minutes later. “The nurse said you can each go in one
at a time. Don’t stay more than a few minutes.”

“I’m
assuming you are staying here, Dad?” Joey asked, getting to his feet.

“Of
course.
I
won’t leave her side if I don’t have to.”

“We’ll
hold down the ranch.” Jackson stood as well. “We should make this fast so Dad
can go back in there.”

“I knew
I could count on you boys.”

 
They each filed in one after the other
until only Jeremiah was left. He wanted to see her, but then again, he didn’t.
He wasn’t one for hospitals, and to see his mother with a tube down her throat
on a breathing machine messed with his brain. She’d been too lively and giving
just a few short hours ago. What was she doing on the road at that late hour
anyway? He’d have to ask his father when he had a chance.

The
moment he walked in, his heart sank. Tubes and wires strung to the box above
her head monitored several things at once. He didn’t know what they meant. It
frightened him a little. As long as they weren’t making loud beeping noises, he
figured everything was okay.
“Mom?”

The
nurse came in behind him. “Talk to her. She might be able to hear you even
though she’s sedated.” She checked a few things, and then turned to leave. “You
can stay five minutes.”

“Thank
you.”

“You’re
welcome.”

He
picked up his mother’s limp hand. “I’m sorry you are here, Mom. When we talked
earlier, I never thought you’d be in this shape a few short hours later. You’ll
be okay though. The doctor said you should be okay.” A tear rolled down his
cheek, but he wiped it away angrily. “We’ll get the guy who did this to you. I
promise. He’ll pay for hurting you.”

Her
fingers moved slightly.

“Mom?”

No more
movement followed and he realized it was probably an involuntary reflex. It
made him feel better
though,
hoping she could hear him
so she would know they were all there for her no matter what it took to make
her better.

He
squeezed her hand before he walked slowly back toward the door. After several
peeks over his shoulder, he finally wandered out to the waiting room where his
brothers stood talking softly. “Are we ready to go?”

“Yeah,”
Joey said. “You have your truck, Dad, so you should be good.”

“I’ll
be sleeping in the waiting room since they won’t let me stay in her room. If
one of you could bring me some clean clothes at some point, I would appreciate it.”
He glanced down at the mud on his boots. “I’ve been wearing these since this
morning.”

“Will
do, Dad,” Jackson answered. “We’ll see you in a few hours. Some of the other
boys might come in rather than us. I’m sure they’ll want to see Mom too.”

“That’s
fine. Just tell them what to expect so they aren’t shocked when they see your
mother. I can’t imagine walking in on that without knowing. I don’t know if you
told them about the tubes?”

“Yeah,
I did, so they should be prepared.”

“Good.
Make sure to tell them they can’t stay long.”

“We
will.” Jeremiah hugged his dad before he stepped back. “Tell her we love her
and we’ll see her later.”

“Thanks
boys, for being here. You don’t know how much this means to me and your
mother.”

“We’re
family. It’s what families do,” Jeremiah answered.

“I
know, but you never know how people are going to react when things like this
happen. We love you boys.”