“Can we see him now, doctor?” I asked.
“Sure, I’ll take you right back.” The doctor pushed through the double doors that led back to the exam rooms. He slid the curtain back in the last room at the end of the hall. I couldn’t help the gasp that escaped my lungs. Colt was layin’ in bed with his eyes closed. When we got closer, he opened them and tried to focus on us. His face was all wrapped up in white bandages and he kinda looked like a mummy. His eyes were really all you could see. Those familiar green eyes were blood red and the little bit of skin you could see around them almost looked charred.
He looked so small and weak lying there in that bed. The twins were both big boys - 6’ 5” or 6’ 6”. Both weighed about 250 - all muscle. They looked almost identical except Colt’s hair was a little darker blonde than Cole’s. They both had green eyes just like mine. When they turned eighteen, I took ‘em to get tats. They were so damn excited until we got there. When Cole saw the needle, he ‘bout puked and then quickly backed out. Colt got a tat of barbed wire around his left bicep. He said he wanted somethin’ to remind him life was tough and could be tricky to maneuver, but as long as you were careful and went the right way, you’d get through it just fine. Colt was definitely the smart twin…I loved those boys so damn much and it was killin’ me to see him like this. I walked over to the side of the bed by the window.
Thank God Cole wasn’t here to see this. He’d gone to Joplin for a few days for a friend’s weddin’. I really wished Colt would’ve gone with him, but he had decided to stay here and help me with the babies. I would need to get in touch with Aunt Regina and let her know what had happened. Maybe Larry or Cord had already done that? I couldn’t think about it right now. I had to see Colt.
“Hey, man, how ya feelin’?” I asked as I placed my hand on his shoulder. He jumped back and let out a moan when I touched him. I pulled my hand away. “Sorry, I’m so fuckin’ stupid.” I couldn’t believe I touched his shoulder when I knew how badly burned he was.
“Man, I’ve been a hell of a lot better.” His voice was reduced to a low, raspy growl.
“Did you see or hear anything before the explosion, Colt?” Cord asked. He was all serious. You could tell he had put his lawyer hat on.
“Nothin’, I don’t remember a damn thing. I was so tired after we spent the day birthin’ all the babies. I knew Clay was comin’ back to Cade’s so I just wanted to take a little nap before I went home. Next thing I knew I was in here feelin’ like my entire body was on fuckin’ fire.”
I slapped Clay on the back of the head. That little bastard told Colt he was bringin’ Anna back to my place. We were fixin’ to have a “come to Jesus” meetin’. It was probably gonna include my fists, but the little bastard needed it. He was fuckin’ out of control and this shit had to stop.
“Why the hell’d you hit me?” Clay asked as he rubbed the back of his head.
“You had this shit with Anna planned?” I asked, as I poked my finger firmly into his chest and pushed him up against the wall in the back corner of the room.
“Um, well, yeah. She was over at the house yesterday and she told me, well, she told me she wanted to do it in your bed.”
“And you didn’t think that was fuckin’ insane? What the hell is wrong with you? That bitch has wanted me since we were kids. She’s a nutcase. How many damn times do I have to warn you to stay the hell away from her?” I was stickin’ my finger into his chest with such force, that I could feel his heart poundin’.
“This doesn’t have a damn thing to do with her. Why do you care who the hell I screw?” Clay asked as he tried to pull away from me.
“I don’t care who you screw, I care that you are screwin’ ‘em in my house and in my bed. I also care that they are only doin’ you to get to me. I warned you about her, man. She’s bad news.”
“Okay, okay...I’ll stay away from her. She’s not that great, anyways.”
I smacked him upside the head again. “Respect - even Anna deserves it.”
I’d tried to teach him how to treat a lady, but that was hard to do in this case, because I never really thought of Anna as a lady. She had tried to get into my bed since we were kids. I never slept with her, which honestly was a pretty big deal. There really weren’t many women in town whose company I hadn’t enjoyed. But there was always something about Anna. She just seemed kinda crazy. Not even kinda...I was pretty damn positive she was insane.
“Brother, you scared the shit out of me,” Clay said as he leaned down and whispered something in Colt’s ear.
“What the hell ever. He would’ve found out anyway. You can’t kick my ass for speakin’ the truth.” Colt grumbled at Clay.
“We’ll see about that. As soon as you get outta here, we’ll handle this like brothers. With a fist fight out by the barn,” Clay said as he crossed his arms across his chest and nodded at Colt.
The barn. I had been so worried about Colt that I hadn’t even thought about the barn. Now that I knew Colt was gonna be okay, I needed to get home and check out the damage. I just knew it was gonna be gone. That explosion was crazy. Scared the shit out of me. I had to talk to Larry and find out what we’d lost.
Larry McGuire had worked for my family since I was a little boy. He’d become like a second father to me after my parents passed. He was in his sixties now and walked with a limp. He had diabetes and that caused him a lot of problems, including having two toes amputated, which caused his limp.
He was out in the waiting room, so I excused myself and left Cord, Clay, and Colt to whine about kicking each other’s asses, while I went to find Larry.
I had always hated hospitals. No matter the temperature outside, they always seemed to be about thirty-two degrees and had that fuckin’ smell. That smell…you know the mix between bleach and death. I couldn’t really explain it, but it just made ya feel sick. As I walked toward the waiting room, I not only noticed the smell, but also the dingy green walls and the old, ripped chairs. If you weren’t sick when you came into the hospital, you would get that way pretty damn quick.
When I walked into the waiting room, Larry stood up and walked over to me. “How is he, son?” He looked like he’d aged twenty years in the past couple of hours. His eyes were heavy and those creases in his forehead looked deeper than they had earlier today. The poor man looked terrified.
“He’s gonna be okay. Thank God. How bad’s the damage, Larry?” I didn’t think I really wanted to hear the answer.
“It’s bad, Cade. It’s real bad.” He couldn’t even look at me. His head was down and he was wringing his hands and digging his boots into the nasty green carpet. “Son, I don’t know what we’re gonna do. We lost all the babies and we had most of the mamas in the barn to recover. We lost all of them, too. We had two bulls in there - lost them. All of the people were already out, except for Colt. Apparently, he decided to take a nap in the back room.”
“We have to be thankful for that, Larry. We’ll make it. We can fix this. We have to. That ranch is my life and I ain’t losin’ it like this.” I grabbed Larry by the shoulders and looked him in the eye. “We’ll survive this. We’ll succeed in rebuildin’. I ain’t ever gonna give up and neither will you.” He nodded.
I patted him on the back and turned around to go back to Colt’s room when I saw her - my favorite redhead. She came runnin’ across the room toward me. I swooped her up in a big bear hug. We didn’t speak. We didn’t need to. We just held each other. She was my best friend. She knew what I needed. Suzy Q. Well, I called her that, but her name was Suzanna. She’d been my best friend since the third grade. We’d been through an awful lot together and I didn’t know what the hell I would do without her.
When I finally put her down, she asked, “Everybody gonna be okay?” Her big brown eyes were filled with tears. I couldn’t stand to see her hurtin’ like that. I caught a tear with my finger as it started down her cheek.
“Everybody’s gonna be just fine. Colt’s pretty badly burnt, but he’s gonna make it. We lost the barn and a lot of the herd. Hell, we lost most of it, Suzy Q.”
She reached up and placed her hand on my cheek. “I’m so sorry, Cade. I know how much the ranch means to you. You can build it back. I have faith in you, I know you won’t give up,” she said with a little smile.
Our moment was interrupted by Branch. Damn, I hated that man. He was nowhere near good enough for my Suzy Q. He was a big guy, not nearly as big as me, I’m sure in more ways than one. He had dark hair and his eyes were crazy blue. I mean they were blue, and always had this crazy look to ‘em. I hated the fact that he was married to my best friend. I would never understand how she settled for him. She was so much better than that.
“Suzanna, why do we have to be here? Looks like everything’s under control. Let’s get home. Isabella is with my parents. We need to go pick her up,” Branch hissed as he took hold of Suzanna’s arm and pulled her away from me.
“Just give me a minute, Branch. Go out to the truck, I’ll be right there,” Suzanna said as Branch leaned in and whispered somethin’ in her ear. I couldn’t hear what he said, but he made her cringe.
What the hell?
I grabbed him by the arm. “What’s your fuckin’ problem?” I growled at him.
“You. You’ve always been my fuckin’ problem. Why the hell can’t you leave my wife alone? My. Wife.”
He always had to point that out. He felt like he had to remind me every day that she was his wife. Suzy Q and I were just friends. Some stuff had happened when we were younger, and I kinda thought we might be more than friends, but that didn’t pan out.
“Branch, go outside. I’ll be right there.” Suzanna placed her hand in his. “I promise.”
Branch shot me a look and headed out the door.
“I’m sorry,” Suzanna said as she looked down at her feet. My Suzy Q was the strongest woman I’d ever known, but when she was around Branch, she turned into this weak little kitten. She acted like she was scared of him, but if somethin’ was goin’ on, she woulda told me before now. If I ever heard that he laid a hand on her or Izzy B, that man wouldn’t be breathin’ much longer.
Isabella, or Izzy B, just turned three years old. I nicknamed her before she was even born. She had to be the sweetest little thing I’d ever seen. Bright red hair, just like her momma, and big blue eyes that she got from her daddy. On her they were beautiful, not crazy like they were on Branch. I adored that little girl and her momma. I would lay down my life for them, and that bastard better make damn sure he did everything in his power to deserve them.
“Not your fault, Suzy Q. Thanks for comin’ down here. Ya didn’t have to, I coulda called ya.” I placed my arm on her shoulder and she was shakin’. I couldn’t tell if she was upset about what happened to Colt or what Branch had just done.
“I had to come see for myself. Is it okay if I go back and see him?”
“I don’t see why not. I’ll take ya back.” I took her hand in mine and started toward the room Colt was in. When we walked in, Suzy Q gasped and let go of my hand, placing both of her hands over her mouth.
“Colt, honey. What have I told you about sleeping out in the barn?” Suzy Q was trying to not show Colt how upset she was after her little outburst when we walked in.
“I know. I really oughta listen to ya, huh?” Colt replied trying to crack a smile at her.
“You Walker boys could save yourselves a lot of grief if you’d just listen to me once in a while. Ya’ll know I’m always right.” She smiled and lightly brushed her lips over Colt’s bandaged cheek. “I love you, Colt. I’m sorry you didn’t listen to me.” She laughed and he chuckled softly.
“I really gotta get out of here. Branch is waiting out in the truck for me.” She went around the room and gave us all a kiss on the cheek and a hug. When she got to me she asked, “Wanna walk me out?”
I nodded and we headed down the hall. I caught a glimpse of her face in the window in the hall. She was cryin’ and tryin’ real hard for me to not see her. She turned her back to me and started diggin’ for somethin’ in her purse. I put my hands on her shoulders and whispered, “He’s gonna be fine, hon. Doctor’s said he’ll back to normal in no time. No need to cry.”
She sniffled and took a tissue from her purse and wiped her eyes and nose. “He looked so small laying there in that bed. It bout broke my heart, Cade.”
“I know. It didn’t do wonders for me either, but it’s all gonna be just fine. Time’ll heal all wounds, right?”
She smiled, “Always the optimist, Cade Walker.”
“I try my best, hon.” I smiled back and led her out to Branch. She climbed up in the truck and as she started to wave at me, he peeled out of the parking lot. Fuckin’ bastard.
~Chapter 2~
Nine Years Old
Cade~
I was sittin’ on the floor in the hallway at my little elementary school, like I did most afternoons. The floor was cold concrete and the walls were painted a sunny yellow. Last week we’d made these sunshines out of construction paper and tissue paper for a project we had on the solar system. They were linin’ the wall in front of me. Mine was, of course, the best one. I used black construction paper and my sun was actually orange. I even made some flames goin’ down the side.
My third grade teacher, Mrs. Merritt, was not my biggest fan. I wouldn’t really say we were buddies. She kinda sorta hated me. I had no idea why. I mean, I wasn’t a perfect student, but I didn’t give her that much grief. Today I may have put a frog in her desk drawer, and it may have jumped down her shirt when she opened the drawer, but that was really her fault. The tiny little frog was just scared. It didn’t know she was gonna open that drawer. I mean seriously, this was really all Mrs. Merritt’s fault. But here I sat, once again in trouble for something I really didn’t have a darn thing to do with.
That’s when I saw her, the little red-headed girl. She was walking down the hall toward the restroom, kickin’ a pebble across the floor. She never looked up. She had bright red hair and she was kinda scrawny. She had on a lacy, yellow dress and old brown cowboy boots. None of those fancy girly shoes. Nope, she was wearin’ old cowboy boots. She went to kick the pebble again and she kicked me instead. I guess she was so busy with the pebble that she didn’t even notice me sittin’ there. When she finally looked at me, she kinda looked scared. I wasn’t scary. I was just a kid in trouble sittin’ in the hallway. Welcome to Cade Walker’s life.