Wilson hoped his jaw hadn’t just dropped, because he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She’d apologized, and unless he was mistaken, it was sincere.
He shrugged, then smiled.
“Yeah, sure. No problem. See you downstairs.”
The nurse came in with the wheelchair as he was going out. By the time she’d signed all the necessary papers and seated herself in the chair, a good five minutes had passed.
The trip down in the elevator gave her time to pull herself together. She’d made a promise to herself that, if it was possible, she was going to do all she knew how to make it right with Wilson. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a very good start.
A few minutes later they were wheeling her out of the hospital. The cold air was a slap in the face and a reminder that winter in Dallas was far from over. By the time they got her seated in Wilson’s car, she was shivering, partly from cold and partly from the excruciating pain.
“Sweet Lord,” she muttered, and closed her eyes, willing herself to a calmer state of mind.
“Did they give you pain pills, or do we need to get a prescription filled?” Wilson asked.
“I have some samples and a script. The samples are enough to last a couple of days, then I can get the other filled.”
“Good enough,” Wilson said. “Do you need to take some now?” “No. I can make it until you get me home.”
Wilson set his jaw. “Yeah…about that…”
Cat’s eyes narrowed. “What? You’re not taking me home?” “Oh, I’m taking you home all right, but not yours…mine.” She frowned. “I can take care of myself.” “No, you can’t, and we both know it.”
She sighed. “Damn it, even if you wanted to—which I doubt—you can’t take off work to stay home and take care of me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Catherine. I’m the boss, so I can do what I want.”
He drove away from the hospital and was soon out on the freeway. At first Cat paid little attention to the way they were going. It wasn’t until he drove past the last exit that would have taken him home that she spoke up.
“You missed the turn.” “No, I didn’t.”
“But I thought you said you were taking me home with you.”
“I am, Catherine, but not my home here. We’re going to my family’s home outside of Austin.”
Cat panicked. “No, I’m not. You can’t make me. I don’t know those people. They won’t want—”
“Yes, you are. Yes, I can. It doesn’t matter, and yes, they do.” Cat’s jaw dropped.
Wilson didn’t give her time to come back at him again. “Those people are my people,” he said. “They want to help you. They want to meet you.”
“Looking like this? Lord…how perfect,” she muttered. “They know you were hurt. Like me, they’re just glad you survived.” “Why would they care?”
Wilson didn’t hesitate. He was through playing loose and easy with this woman. He was laying his heart on the line, with no excuses.
“Because I’m in love with you, damn it, and they know it. Through no fault of your own, but it’s true, just the same. You’ve done everything you know to mess it up, but for some reason, it hasn’t worked.”
Cat was in shock. Love? “Are you serious?”
Wilson took his eyes off the road long enough to glance at her expression. She looked scared to death. God. How could the mention of love make someone so brave feel so afraid? He didn’t know if this would work, but
he was going to give it his all.
“I’m as serious as a heart attack, lady.” Fifteen
Cat gave Wilson a mutinous stare. “I don’t want to go.”
“Duly noted,” he said. “The seat reclines. If you want to sleep, feel free. It’s a long ride.”
Her voice shook. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Already told you, but you’re obviously not listening, so there’s no point repeating myself.”
Cat’s heart rate was off the charts. Panic swept over her, leaving her weak and shaking.
“Wilson…please.”
“Close your eyes, honey. It will make the trip faster.” “You can’t just dump me in a house full of strangers.” “Oh…I’m not dumping you. I’m staying, too, at least for a while.” “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” she muttered.
“For God’s sake, Catherine, this isn’t a punishment. I’m taking you to the one woman I trust to take care of you. Someone I know will feed you and doctor you and baby you mercilessly. My mother is a sweet, gentle woman who offered to help care for you. I didn’t ask her. When she found out you’d been injured, she offered.” When he braked for a red light, he fixed her with a cool, steady stare. “So while you’re there, you will not insult her. You will not be a smart-ass. If you’re pissed, remember it’s at me and not her. Do we understand each other?”
Cat blinked. She was still considering whether or not to be insulted that he thought she would be rude to his family when she decided to give him a break. It wasn’t as if they’d spent all that much time together outside the bedroom, and her track record on attitude was well-known.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good.”
She turned her head to stare out the window, unwilling to let him see the tears in her eyes, and thought to herself that she would be heartily glad when she got her act back together. She never used to cry, especially over little things like this.
Wilson suspected that he’d hurt her feelings, but he wouldn’t relent. He wanted Catherine to love his family as much as he did, but he wouldn’t tolerate her being rude to them, especially when they were only trying to help.
So they drove in silence. After a while Cat reclined her seat and slept, and he drove on through the morning.
It was a few minutes past one when he turned off the highway onto a blacktop road.
It was the change of sound and speed that woke Cat. She roused, looked out through the windshield, then struggled to sit up. Finally she remembered the lever beside the seat and shifted from reclining to upright, wincing as her injured muscles objected.
She glanced at Wilson. He was looking straight ahead. “Are we there yet?”
It was the universal question that all traveling children asked that caught him by surprise. He looked at her, then smiled.
“Almost.”
She nodded, then began smoothing at her hair. Her stomach was a jumble of nerves, and her hands were shaking as she reached for the visor. She pulled it down so she could use the mirror on the back.
“I look like shit.”
Wilson figured that after everything else he’d gotten away with today, a lie would be asking too much.
“Yeah, you pretty much do,” he said.
She bit the side of her lip, then grinned reluctantly. “Well. Thank you. I
feel so much better now.”
Wilson chuckled. “Honey…they all know you’ve been hurt.”
She eyed the bruising, then ran her fingers lightly over the healing cuts in her hairline. She turned her face slightly, eyeing the stitches on her cheek, then the ones below her ear, then felt the ones beneath her chin.
“What did you tell them about…about how I got this way?”
“Mom knows you’re a bounty hunter. She just assumed one of the perps you were after did it, which, in a way, is true.”
Cat nodded. “Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.”
Wilson pulled her hand away from her face and held it. “Are you still mad at me?”
Cat sighed. “No.”
“It will be okay, I promise.”
She shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve never been dumped on strangers before. After Daddy was murdered, that’s the way I went through my childhood.”
Tears suddenly blurred Wilson’s vision. He blinked rapidly to clear it, then pulled her hand to his lips and kissed the bruised and skinned knuckles.
“I am so sorry. I never thought about it that way. I promise my parents
will not treat you lightly.”
“It’s okay,” Cat said. “I’m guessing that I’ll know all your secrets before I leave.”
He frowned. “I don’t have any secrets from you.” “Sure you do. Everyone has secrets.”
Wilson sighed. There was no use arguing. She was just going to have to live with people who trusted each other for a while before she got it.
A few minutes later they topped a rise. Wilson tapped on the brakes, then stopped. As always, the sight sent a wave of longing through him. This was his favorite place on earth. The roots that had bound him to this land as a child were still deep and thriving.
“There it is,” he said, pointing down into the valley below.
A spiral of smoke was trailing from the chimney of a white two-story farmhouse. There was an attached garage on the north side of the house and, of all things, a white picket fence around the yard. Several barns, sheds and corrals dotted the landscape around it, and Cat could see a large herd of cattle in the near pasture, gathered around a half-dozen large round bales of hay. It looked homey and welcoming, and she was surprised at how easily she could picture Wilson growing up in a place like this.
“What do you think?” Wilson asked.
“It looks good.” Then her voice wobbled with an emotion she wasn’t expecting. “It looks safe.”
Shattered by the honesty and innocence in her voice, Wilson had to swallow before he could speak.
“Jesus,” he said softly, then turned her hand over and kissed the middle of her palm. “You haven’t known safe very many times in your life, have you, baby?”
Cat pulled her hand away, then wadded her fists against her lap, trying to steady her emotions.
“I got by,” she said.
“Well, hell, Catherine. Sometimes it isn’t enough just to get by.”
At first she was puzzled by the anger in his voice, then realized it wasn’t aimed at her.
She shrugged. “I managed.”
“Well, now it’s my time to show you there’s a lot more to life than just getting by.”
She was struggling with how much to say without making an ass of herself when Wilson leaned over and kissed her on the mouth.
The touch was butterfly brief, but strong enough to go straight to her
heart. Wilson loved her, and she was beginning to believe that could be a good thing. She just needed to learn how to trust enough to love him back.
He took his foot off the brake, and down the hill they went. By the time they drove into the yard, Cat’s heart was thumping wildly and her palms were sweating. This was a crossroads in her life like none she’d never come to before. Despite the way it had come about, Wilson McKay had just brought her home to meet his parents. The implications boggled her senses.
She was reaching for the door handle when the front door of the house suddenly swung inward. A woman emerged dressed in jeans and a sweater. Her hair was red with snowy-white streaks, and she was smiling as she hurried off the porch.
For a moment Cat froze, searching for Wilson in the woman’s face, but when her gaze finally centered on the woman’s mouth and she saw her smile, she shivered. That smile was wide and genuine, and aimed right at her.
“Oh, man,” Cat mumbled.
Wilson gave her hand a quick squeeze. “That’s Mom. Welcome home, honey.”
Then he got out, met the woman at the gate and gave her a big hug before the two of them headed for the truck. Wilson opened the door and reached for Cat’s hand.
“Cat, honey…this is my mom, Dorothy. Mom…this is Catherine.”
Cat smiled shakily. “Hello, ma’am. You can call me Cat.”
Dorothy McKay slid past Wilson and reached inside the truck. “And you can call me Dorothy. Lord, Lord, darlin’, look what they’ve done to you. Come in, come in. You must be tired and hungry. I’ve got soup and cornbread, and your room is all made up.”
Dorothy looked back at Wilson.
“Wilson Lee…don’t just stand there, bring her in.”
Wilson arched an eyebrow, then grinned. “I was just waiting for you to get out of the way.”
Dorothy thumped him on the arm.
“Don’t be a smart-ass, mister. Just do as you’re told.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and leaned inside the cab to help Cat get out as his mother ran ahead to hold the gate open.
Cat was smiling. He glared.
“Don’t say anything,” he muttered. “Just help me out here, before I get into more trouble than I’m already in.”
“She’s a superwoman, isn’t she?”
“She thinks so,” Wilson said. “None of us have ever had the guts to argue with her…including Dad. Now come on. Let’s get in out of the cold and have some of that soup. What do you say?”
“I say yes,” Cat said, and slid her arm around Wilson’s neck.
He put one arm around her shoulders and the other under her knees, and helped turn her so she could slide out of the truck. When her feet were firmly on the ground, he let her go.
“Are you steady on your feet? If you’re not, I can carry you.”
“I can move on my own, but since you’re here, I’ll just lean on you a little, okay?”
“You can lean on me all you want, Catherine. Never forget it.” Cat took a step, then stifled a groan.
“Honey…?”