Authors: Natalie Frost
“If you need anything,” the nurse said, turning and pointing down the right hallway, “the nurse’s station is just around this corner.”
Frankie breathed out a weak “thanks” as she walked up to Hanes’s bed.
With the exception of his chest moving up and down in a painfully slow rhythm, he remained stiff.
Frankie, once again, grabbed his hand and squeezed. Still warm.
“I’m sorry,” she said, voice cracked but otherwise clear. She sniffled and blinked hard, trying to focus. “I’m so sorry about overreacting earlier. I should have known better. I should have trusted you. Please…please don’t ever do this to me or your family again. I know these adrenaline rushes are important to you, but…” Frankie closed her eyes tight, a dry sob threatening to tear its way out of her throat. She bowed forward and inhaled shakily. “Hanes, I need you. I love you. And your child needs you to be alive for a long, long time still. Please just…be okay. Be a little safer? Please?”
In truth, she had been speaking more for herself than for Hanes. She needed to get these words off her aching chest, and she had planned on repeating herself when Hanes was conscious. It was important that they talk about everything—to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
So she jumped when she felt Hanes squeeze her hand back. Her eyes snapped open and looked at his face.
His eyes were still closed, and his breathing was still slow, but he still managed to mumble out, “Sorry, baby.”
Frankie hiccuped a breathy sound of relief, her thumb running over Hanes’s knuckles. “Thank God.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
He had to stay at the hospital for a few days. Hanes had protested that plan the moment he had enough control over his mouth to do so. One day at the hospital would be fine, and then he could rest up in his trailer.
But then his mother had lightly smacked his shoulder, making him wince.
“You scared your pregnant girlfriend half to death,” the old woman said scornfully. She jabbed a finger in Hanes’s face. “Not to mention the rest of us. You are staying as long as the doctor says you need to say. No arguments.”
“They’re just trying to suck out all your money,” Hanes argued, voice garbled. His entire body was either sore or numb in that tingly kind of way—good drugs, and all that—but he didn’t care. “Take advantage of you.”
“I don’t care, Hanes Matthew Copper. You are staying put.”
So he stayed put. As uncomfortable as he was with hospitals and health care in general, he was even more uncomfortable with going against his mother. Plus, she mentioned to Frankie…it had been a smart move. The guilt and embarrassment that encased him was hard to fight past.
When he was finally released by his doctor, Hanes was on crutches with Frankie and his relatives helping him walk to Thomas’s car before they helped him get settled in the backseat.
Frankie scooted in next to him, her shoulder pressed against his. Her hands gently rested over his arm, but she seemed too afraid to snuggle against him—to hold him tightly.
Hanes rested his head against hers and kissed the top of her head. She hummed and relaxed a little bit against him, making him smile.
Thomas and his other brothers talked outside of the car—making plans on going back home and helping Hanes, or something like that. Hanes couldn’t hear too well from inside of the care, so he wasn’t fully sure what they said. Not that he fully cared. His attention was mainly focused on Frankie.
“Sorry again,” he said again for the umpteenth time. They had already had their talk—about him not acting reckless every time Frankie got upset. “How you doing?”
“Much better,” she said. She kissed his shoulder. “You?”
“Same.”
“Good.”
They rested like that for a minute longer—Thomas taking out another paper outside of the car and showing it to the other brothers.
Talking about business again, Hanes thought bitterly. He rolled his eyes. “They can’t wait to do all that at home?” He was going to say more when he saw Thomas tear up the paper.
Hanes stiffened. Well, he stiffened as much as his aching body would let him.
“They’ve been talking about how to talk to you,” Frankie said. “It’s kind of sweet in a funny way.”
“Talk to me about what?”
“Fairly splitting your dad’s assets and profit. Apparently, me crying in front of them and then you getting nearly trampled to death helped them get over their feud.”
Hanes blinked, stunned. “Huh.”
“Yup.”
Each brother shook hands with another before Thomas finally got in the driver’s seat of his car. He looked back at Hanes. “How you holding up, dumb-ass?”
Hanes scowled. “I just came out of the hospital. Have some class.”
“Not when you were put in the hospital for a stupid reason.”
Hanes would have argued if Frankie wasn’t right there. She had—in a much kinder way—said the same thing, and he had agreed with her at the time. Caught between his pride and his sincerity, he huffed out a frustrated breath and glanced away.
“That’s what I thought,” Thomas said, starting the car.
The drive back home was quiet, nothing but the radio playing country and the outside noises penetrating the silence. It was peaceful—restful, even. Hanes closed his eyes and sagged against Frankie.
When he opened his eyes again, they were at his parents’ estate.
Surprised, he raised his head and looked around. All the while, Frankie patted his arm.
Thomas got out of his own car and jogged around so that he could open Hanes’s door for him. His other brothers popped up from somewhere, too, all of them helping Hanes ease out of the backseat with his crutches.
“Want me to carry you?” Thomas asked, making kissy sounds right in Hanes ear.
“Shut up,” Hanes said, unable to contain the laughter that came out of him.
Thomas was never so…goofy. To see him like that—Hanes laughed a little harder and lightly pushed against Thomas’s shoulder.
And then everyone was laughing. Hanes wasn’t sure if they were laughing at Thomas or at Hanes—or laughing with them, even—but it was…nice. It had been a long time since Hanes shared an enjoyable moment with his family.
They all walked to the front of the manor at the same slow pace that Hanes was moving. Frankie walked right next to him, though she allowed him enough room to use his crutches.
When he reached the deck—the steps having taken forever for him to conquer—Gina burst out of the front door and nearly hugged him. Horror struck her face though, and she quickly stepped back.
“You look awful,” she said, grimacing as she eyed him up and down. “How are you even alive?”
Hanes snorted. “I missed you, too, you runt.”
“If you ever do something so idiotic again—”
He tilted his head to the side and huffed. “I know, I know. I got all kinds of lectures back at the hospital. I won’t do that ever again.”
Gina visibly relaxed. “Okay then.” She slowly moved forward and gave him the lightest hug he had ever received. “You’re the good one, you know.”
Hanes smiled fondly, pressing a kiss to his baby sister’s head. “Second to you, maybe.”
Gina snorted, but she didn’t disagree with him. She patted his back once before backing away and opening the door for them all.
Hanes nod his thanks as he hobbled his way inside the air-conditioned home. He heard Frankie and his family shuffle in after him—all of them so close to him and one another. They practically hovered over him until he sat down on the couch, his crutches placed against the couch’s arm.
Frankie, quickly but gently, settled in beside him again.
And then everything returned to normal.
“We should talk about how exactly to split up dad’s assets,” Thomas said, taking his seat in the lounge chair. “He does have some properties on the east coast that I think we should sell. And we have lost some renters this past year, so we need to focus on doing more advertising.”
“Again with the advertising,” Eunice whined. “That’s all you ever talk about.”
“Advertising is how sales happen.”
“We haven’t even gotten a proper contract set up yet. Everything still belongs to Hanes right now.”
Thomas’s face fell. “Right.” He turned to Hanes. “Um—”
Hanes waved his hand at them all, some of them taking their seats while others remained standing with their arms crossed. “Don’t give a damn. You can have it all.”
“You should have some say in the company,” his mother said. She was one of the ones who remained standing, her face contorting with frustration. “Those stables and ranches your father rented out are his legacy.”
“I thought that was what we were. Why else would he write out the will the way he did?”
That got everyone quiet, their gazes lowering.
Hanes smirked with triumph. And now that everything was silent, he could return his full attention to Frankie, snuggled against his side. “You know,” he said, amusement and warmth coursing through him, “someone at the hospital told me that you and I were engaged.”
Frankie jolted a bit before backing away to face him properly. A blush coated her entire face, her mouth opening and closing before an actual sound came up. “Well, um, Thomas thought that—it—I—”
“I really liked the sound of it,” Hanes said, his smirk softening as he stared at his babbling beauty.
Her face went slack, her eyes moistening. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He leaned a little closer. Her scent, her warmth—it wrapped around him, made him feel like he truly was home. Everything about Frankie Carmichael was everything he had ever needed, and he felt the urge to make it permanent as soon as possible. “I would get on one knee if I could, but—”
“I’ll marry you,” she breathed before kissing him. “Of course I will.”
As Hanes heart soared, his relatives applauded. He didn’t know why they were clapping—he and Frankie weren’t their only little reality show—but he didn’t care. He leaned forward and kissed Frankie again, his hand moving to rest on her swollen belly.
Home, he thought again, joy and peace settling over him.
THE END
The Wealthy Cowboy’s Baby
CHAPTER ONE
She first saw Cade Major from the little window of the Bar and Grill’s kitchen. She had finished preparing three Kansas Kin Barbecue Burger meals and was pushing the plates through the window when she saw Cade stride up to the front counter. He flashed his gleaming teeth at her father—working behind by the cash register—and tilted his large cowboy hat to him.
Dana frowned at the stranger, her hand flicking the tiny bell that hung beside the window to announce the finished order. Her family was no stranger to unusual attention. Being the only multi-generational black family for hundreds of miles always stood out. That same family running one of the most successful Kansas based barbecue restaurants stood out even more.
Cade Major seemed like the sort who would dress like a cowboy to appease a cowboy. And while Abel’s Bar and Grill attracted all kinds of new people, it rarely attracted posers.
Her mother—in a nice black shirt and a pair of jeans—picked up a tray before taking all three plates from the little window.
Dana continued to lean forward a bit, her eyes glued on the man talking to her father. “Ma, who is that over there?”
Her mother glanced at Cade and frowned. “I don’t know. New customer, I guess.” Once she had all the plates on the tray, she spun around and headed for one of the many crowded tables.
In her place, a waitress—Lisa—strode up to a little window and read out her order before ripping it from her notepad and placing it on the metal wheel. She spun it lightly so that the order would face Dana. Then she hurried away.
But Dana still couldn’t take her gaze away from Cade, who was smirking and talking up a storm while her father stood there in a rigid posture. Something wasn’t right.
Dana craned her head forward, but the customers’ chatter—as well as the noisy equipment within the kitchen—masked this new man’s voice.
Her father extended his long arm toward the front doors, his index finger pointing at them. His shoulders were tensed, his head held high.