BROKEN (18 page)

Hank chuckled.
 
“I guess that’s how you know it’s true love, son.
 
Nothing can make a man’s insides shake like the fear of losing the woman he loves.”

“Then it’s definitely true love.”

“So you’ll tell her?”

“Yes, but I’ll have to figure out how I’m going to say it first.
 
It’s not like I can just blurt it out…” Mitch’s voice trailed off.
 
He’d been staring at the house but not really seeing it.
 
“Jessie didn’t say she was going anywhere today, did she?”

“No, why?”
 
Hank turned to look at the house, the lines in his forehead deepening.
 
“No lights.
 
Even if she went into town, she would have made sure she was back in time to fix dinner.”

Mitch was already half way out the door.
 
“Something’s wrong.”
 
He all but ran to the porch and yanked the door open, calling out for Jessie as his hand batted at the light switch.
 
“I’ll check upstairs,” he called over his shoulder.
 

His heart thundered in his chest, imagining all sorts of horrible scenarios.
 
She’d fallen off a step ladder, slipped in the shower, had another one of her dizzy spells and hit her head.
 
Why hadn’t he thought to call her while he was out or have one of the boys check
on her?
 
It would be his fault if she’d hurt herself.
 
Barreling up the stairs, Mitch hollered out her name again but there was no response.
 
His stomach was in knots by the time he reached the bedroom and flipped on the light.

Relief flooded over him when he found her curled up on the bed, fast asleep.
 
Silently, he made his way to the bed and sat down on the edge.
 
He brushed her hair away from her face, worried by how exhausted she looked.
 
Mitch leaned closer, noting with a frown that her eyes were red and swollen.
 
She
had
obviously been crying and by the looks of it, she’d cried for quite some time.
 
Gently, he reached out and stroked her cheek.

“Jess, wake up, honey.”
 
Slowly her eyelids fluttered opened.
 
“Are you feeling okay?
 
You were sleeping so soundly…”
 

Mitch was almost knocked off the bed when Jessie bolted up and launched herself at him.
 
She threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him as if she
would
never let go.
 

“Jess, what’s wrong?
 
You’re shaking like leaf and you’ve been crying.”

Jessie squeezed her eyes shut.
 
“I had a horrible dream,” she squeaked out.
 
“I kept calling and calling for you
,
but I couldn’t find you
,
and I thought you’d left me and then I got worried that something bad had happened to you…”

“Easy, sweetheart, I’m right here.”
 
He held her for a moment, lightly stroking her back and pressing soft kisses to her temple until she finally stopped shaking.
 
He drew back just far enough so he could see her face.
 
“Now tell me why you’ve been crying.”
 

Jessie stared at him for a moment, her troubled eyes giving rise to an unreasonable fear.
 
But before she could answer him, Hank came bounding into the room.

“You could have told me you found her,” he snapped at Mitch.
 
His expression softened when he looked at Jessie.
 
“What’s wrong, honey, are you feeling sick again?”

She managed a weak smile.
 
“I’m fine, really.
 
I just had a bad dream, that’s all.”

“Like hell, that’s all,” Hank snorted.
 
“You’ve been crying and you were sleeping so hard you didn’t hear either of us when we hollered for you.”

Mitch turned back to Jessie.
 
“Well?”

She stared at his chest, unable to meet his eyes.
 
“I don’t know.
 
I was feeling a little blue and…and I just started crying.
 
I guess I must have fallen asleep.
 
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Mitch gave her a sympathetic hug, but Hank wasn’t buying it.
 
“You never were a very good liar.”
 
H
ank
said to Jessie
,
then nodded to Mitch.
 
“You work on getting it out of her while I go figure out what to make for dinner.”

“Oh, no,” Jessie cried, “is it really that late?”
 
She tried to stand up, but Mitch put his hands on her shoulders and gently, but firmly held her in place.
 
“I have to get dinner started.
 
The boys…”

“Will be just fine with whatever Hank makes them,” he finished for her.
 
“Go on, Hank, I’ll be down to help you as soon as I get a confession out of Jessie.”

“He’ll probably make hotdogs and throw a bag of chips on the table,” Jessie grumbled after Hank had gone.

“They’ll survive.
 
Now tell me what’s really bothering you
.
”

“I told you already, I was just feeling a little down.”

“Sweetheart, you’re eyes are red and swollen from crying so hard.
 
Please, Jess, tell me what’s wrong.”

What could she say that he
would
believe?
 
She couldn’t very well tell him she knew he wasn’t
Kincaid
or that she’d been grieving over
his brother’s
death.
 
If it wasn’t for Hank, he might have fallen for her story about feeling blue for no reason, but not now.
 
So
Jessie
said the only thing she was certain would keep him from asking any more questions.

“I always get emotional just before my period,” she blurted out.

Mitch blinked.
 
How the hell did he respond to something like that?
 
“I, uh, okay well…are you okay now?”

“I just needed a good cry, but I’m fine,” she assured him.

“Good, that’s good.”
 
He patted her shoulder awkwardly.
 
“I’m going to give Hank a hand with dinner.
 
You just…rest.”

“Don’t be silly.
 
I told you I’m fine and am perfectly capable of getting dinner on the table.”
 
She crawled off the bed then took his hands and pulled him to his feet.
 
“You and Hank can grab a glass of tea and relax until it’s time to eat.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.
 
Now give me a kiss, I’ve got work to do.”

Mitch pulled her into his arms, more than happy to exchange the uncomfortable conversation
for
an amorous kiss.
 
When he finally released her, she was wearing a soft smile
,
but he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling there was still something else bothering her.
 
Whatever it was, he decided it would have to wait until later when they were alone because she obviously wasn’t ready to talk about it now.

Having been shooed from the kitchen, he and Hank poured a couple of glasses of iced tea and wandered out onto the porch.
 
He was still trying to keep from laughing at having discovered the old man standing over the stove just seconds away from plopping hot dogs into a bowling pot.
 
Mitch propped himself against a pillar, sipping his tea while Hank settled down on the porch swing.

“What did she say?”

“It’s a female thing,” he muttered.

“That’s it?
 
That’s all you got out of her?”

“What was I supposed to say?
 
Gee, honey, hope your hormones settle down soon?”

“It isn’t her
hormones,
and it sure as hell isn’t her time of the month.”

Mitch almost choked on his tea.
 
“Now how on earth would you know that?”

“Because Jessie doesn’t get all teary-eyed and sensitive when it’s her time.
 
She gets down right mean for a few days and we all slink around like cowards for fear she’ll take a pick axe to us.”

“You’re exaggerating.
 
Jessie doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.”

“Not normally, but for a few days a month we post a sentry outside the bunkhouse in case she tries to kill one of us in our sleep.”
 
Hank scowled when Mitch howled with laughter.
 
“You won’t think it’s so funny when she comes after you with the devil in her eyes.
 
Even Adam had the sense to be sugar sweet to her during that time.”

Mitch dabbed at his eyes, attempting to maintain his composure.
 
“I’ll keep that under good advisement, old man.”

“You do that, and in the meantime you can pry the real reason she was crying out of her.”

“I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced by her story either but thought I’d wait until we were alone to talk to her.”

Hank agreed it was best, and for the better part of the next hour they talked about the Sinclair ranch and what improvements would need to be made in order to get it
operating to its full potential.
 
At the moment, Tom Sinclair was still running everything and would continue to do so until they moved, which was probably a good month or so away.
 

Mitch wasn’t really interested in being on hand to run the place himself
.  B
y hiring the right men to work it for him, he wouldn’t have to do more than check in once in a while.
 
They were still discussing how many head of cattle the land could handle when the rest of the men came up from the bunkhouse.

Mitch shouldn’t have been surprised to find the table set and supper waiting to be served as they filed into the kitchen, but it still amazed him at how effortlessly Jessie got things accomplished.
 
Once they sat down and he got a closer look at her, he realized just how much it had taken out of her.
 

Every movement she made seemed sluggish, as if all her energy was spent and she was simply running on autopilot.
 
He jumped to his feet and helped her finish carry the last of the food to the table then ordered her to sit.
 
She offered him a grateful smile as she dropped down into the chair beside him.
 
He gave her a stern look, one that told her he would take no arguments.
 

“After dinner I want you to go upstairs, take a nice long shower and crawl into bed.
 
I’ll get one of the men to help me clean up then I’ll join you.”

“I just slept half the day away, but I won’t fight you cleaning up or taking a long, hot shower.”

Kenny, who
had
taken the seat on the other side of her, looked up when he heard what she said.
 
“Are you getting sick again?”

Jessie groaned when the other men stopped talking and waited with anxious faces for her reply.
 
“I’m fine,” she insisted.
 
“I’m just feeling a little run down so you can all stop looking at me like that.”

“You should have called down to the bunkhouse,” Stu chastised lightly.
 
“We would have been happy to make our own dinner.”

Terry, the youngest of the lot, chimed in with, “You don’t look so good, Jessie.
 
Are you sure you’re not getting sick again?”

“Oh
,
for Heaven’s sake, I’m not dying, I'm just tired!”

“You have no color and there
are
dark circles under your eyes,” Del added his worried frown to the others.