Where the Heart Leads (16 page)

“Hold on, I’m going to help you.” She looked in his eyes and saw the pain and worry. As hurt as he was, she could tell his only thought was for Iris and his girls. “You had to go and cause all this trouble, didn’t you?”

A corner of his mouth twitched. His eyes warmed at her attempt at humor. “Every time I try to sit up on my own, I black out.”

“Then it’s a good thing I came along to help you.” Her pulse lurched to a stop as she took in the blood. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but you look awful.”

“I’ve been better. And if you make me laugh, it’s gonna hurt.” He stopped, swallowing hard. Cords stood up in his neck. He went ashen. “You’re gonna have to go for help. There’s no way you can carry me, and I know I can’t stand.”

“I’m not leaving you.” Her stomach dropped, thinking of the pain he must be in. What was she going to do? She had to leave him to get help.

And then an approaching vehicle rattled on the road behind her. Her spirits both fell and leapt at the sight of a pair of perfectly matched black horses.

Gabriel.

He seemed so tall sitting on the seat, with the disappearing clouds behind him and the gray sky framing him. Her heart shone like the sun fighting its way through the clouds. She fought that brightness, that light.

Her breath hitched as he swung down from his buckboard. Somehow the worry and fear for Milo vanished as Gabriel hiked over. Calm, capable, shoulders straight, he towered over her. Awesome, just awesome.

“Sheriff.” Gabriel planted both hands on his hips. “It looks like you got yourself into some trouble.”

“That’s what I was just telling Aumaleigh.” Milo coughed, grimacing in pain. “This time I wasn’t even trying. Trouble found me.”

“That happens when you’re a sheriff.” Gabriel knelt down, studying the injured man with care.

Was it the compassion on his face that got to her? Or was it the steady, solid strength emanating from him? As if no matter what, he was prepared. He could handle anything.

“Looks like you got lucky with that bullet wound.” Gabriel didn’t look her way as he pushed back the lapel of Milo’s duster to reveal the small round hole in his lower chest oozing blood. Slow but steady.

She took in a deep breath. “I’ve mended my share of wounded cowboys on the ranch. Let me get some pressure on that.”

“Aumaleigh.” Gabriel’s voice warmed, and held a hint of a warning too. “Let me handle this.”

She opened her mouth to argue but his gaze stopped her. Steady. Authentic. Understanding. Something whispered from out of the past, words he’d once told her so often they seemed emblazoned on her brain.
You’re not alone anymore. You have me. Depend on me, Aumaleigh. You’ll see I won’t let you down.

Her head was nodding before she realized it. How had he been able to reach down deep, to the old wound inside she tried so hard to ignore?

Gabriel knelt down and offered Milo his hand. “Aumaleigh, how close is the doctor?”

“He’s in town, so he’s close. If he isn’t out on his rounds.” Aumaleigh watched as Gabriel wedged a hand behind the sheriff’s shoulder blades and levered him up with care.

“We’ll take him in my buckboard.” Gabriel crossed the road to his vehicle. “My horses are faster.”

Hard to argue with that. She climbed into the back of the buckboard, on the opposite side from Gabriel and helped ease the injured Milo onto the seat.

“You’re treating me like I’m half dead.” Milo managed to sit up on the seat before his head began to wobble. “I can do this—well, maybe not.”

“You’re a stubborn man, Sheriff.” Gabriel deftly eased the man all the way back onto the seat. Every movement was slow and measured, confident, as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

“Stubborn, yep. I can’t deny it.” Milo groaned, blinking fresh blood out of his eyes.

Aumaleigh whipped out a clean handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed that bothersome blood away. The knot on his head was the size of a walnut, and the cut running down the middle of it looked deep. She told herself that was not bone she could see. Not at all.

“Just close your eyes,” she told him as Gabriel moved in again, this time with a blanket he must have found beneath the front seat. “You’ll be in a warm bed before you know it.”

“Thanks for finding me, Aumaleigh.” Milo blinked rapidly, like a man struggling to hold onto consciousness. “Thanks, Gabriel.”

“No problem.” Gabriel tucked the blanket in around the sheriff, swift and sure. “Aumaleigh, stay with him. I’m going to tie up the horses.”

“Give Buttons plenty of rein. She’ll want to graze.” She turned her attention back to Milo, but he’d passed out. His eyes were shut, he was breathing, shallow and unsteady, but he was breathing. He was strong. That was what mattered.

The sun came out in full, throwing rays of light from sky to earth and surrounding Gabriel with that golden, rare light. Her heart threatened to tug, to fill with caring that had no end, but she was its master. She was in control.

Besides, wasn’t it just that old caring she’d once felt for him? Like a ghost, a trace of a memory, that could never be real. Just a shadow of something that had once been so great and so strong. That’s all.

But a part of her wasn’t so sure.

The buckboard wobbled a bit as Gabriel hopped onto the front seat. “I’m going to need directions,” was all he said as he turned his horses around and pushed them into an all-out gallop toward town.

The board creaked beneath his boot as he made his way down the hallway of the doctor’s house. Voices rose in the back room where he’d carried Milo, leaving him to the medical man’s care. He didn’t much like doctors.

Muffled footsteps rushed toward him. The front door swung open. A woman appeared, her face twisted with fear and wet with tears. He stepped against the wall, giving enough room so that Iris McPhee could rush past him.

“He’ll be okay,” he felt compelled to tell her.

Her sob of relief was her only answer as she disappeared around the doorway.

Yeah, he knew how that felt too. Knowing your loved one was hurting, knowing there was nothing you could do. Wanting them out of pain and whole again and ready to trade your life so that could happen.

“Gabriel.” Aumaleigh’s pinched face was pale with worry. “I heard what you said. I was afraid about his head wound.”

“I know the doc’s worried, but he’s lucid. That’s important. Not that I know much about medicine, I’ve just been an observer.”

“You’re right. I’ve seen it too. Cowboys tend to get thrown when they’re breaking horses and hit their heads now and again.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, looking uncomfortable with being alone with him.

Remembering their last, pivotal conversation, he could see why. She thought they were strangers—and in a way, they were. But in another way, he knew her like no one had—or maybe ever would.

“You were pretty calm when I found you with Milo.” He pushed away from the wall, moving slow, hoping she would come along with him. “You did a good job keeping pressure on his bullet wound on the ride here. It was pretty jostling.”

“The cowboys have wound up with a few of those over the years too.”

“Your voice warms when you mention them. The cowboys.” He remembered every sparse but important detail he’d been able to wring out of Seth and Josslyn. “I hear you’ve known some of them for decades.”

“Yes. John came with us from Ohio.” Aumaleigh shuffled forward, coming with him as if reluctantly. Her dark hair had slipped down from its bun, and his finger itched from wanting to push it out of her eyes.

Old habit, he realized.

“They were my parent’s employees first, so I got to know them from cooking for them.”

“I guess some things never changed for you. You never got out of your mother’s kitchen.”

Her face fell. She came to a stop in the hallway. “I always hoped to. Anyway, the cowboys were friends. Some of them feel like brothers, others like sons. I’m terribly fond of them all. I don’t know what I’d do without them.”

“They’re lucky to have you. You must feel more responsible for them now that you own the ranch.”

“True. What about you?” She eyed him assessingly. “You knew exactly how to lift and carry Milo without hurting him. You’ve done a lot of home care, haven’t you?”

“I took care of Victoria for years.” His voice cracked. He didn’t like the show of emotion, not when it was overwhelming. “I worked hard all my life, trying to make something of myself. Long hours, longer days, day in and day out. I was in the dirt, in the barn, working with the animals, raising crops. And when a crop failed, I was in town working a night job to make sure my family was provided for.”

“I’m not surprised to hear that. I always knew you would be a successful rancher.” Her voice thinned and she stared out the window again. “I always believed in you, Gabriel.”

“Good to know.” He ignored the ache in his chest. It mattered. A lot. “Yet all that meant nothing when Victoria fell ill.”

“You did everything you could for her.”

“Yes.” It mattered too, that she could see that. “I found the best doctors. I hired the kindest and most competent nurses. But the one thing I could not do was leave her side.”

Aumaleigh said nothing. She turned away from him. She took as long as she needed to blink the tears from her eyes. “That’s the kind of man you are, Gabriel. I’m not surprised. You took care of her through everything.”

“Until the end.”

“I’m glad she had you.” Emotion made her words thick.

He knew how she felt. “Even now, grief can still bring me to my knees. I was better until I stepped foot inside this place. Doctors make me remember.”

“It’s not something you should forget.” It was illuminating to see this side of Gabriel. His tender, tender heart hidden inside that iron-tough man. “I wish I’d been able to love like that.”

He looked like a man who didn’t know what to say.

Not that she could blame him. She didn’t know what to say after that either. An uncomfortable silence settled between them. She stared out at the waning daylight, wishing she could take back the words. She’d confessed too much.

The front door burst open and Hazel Gray blew in with the wind. “Where’s my son? Where’s Milo?”

“He’s in the back. I’ll show you.” Aumaleigh jumped at the opportunity to leave. Wanting to help Hazel, she escorted her down the hallway and into back room.

“Milo? I feared the worst.” Hazel buried her face in her hands. “Your deputy said you’d be all right, but I had to see it with my own eyes. Oh, Iris. You must be feeling this too.”

“Exactly.” Sweet Iris slipped an arm around her future mother-in-law. “A part of me died when Fred came into the bakery and said he saw Milo bleeding in the back of Gabriel’s buckboard, that he’d been shot. All I thought was, he’s dead. Even now, I can’t stop shaking.”

“I’m not worth all this carrying on.” Milo tried to grin but wound up grimacing as the doctor stitched up his wound. Stretched out on the treatment bed with his shirt off and a bandage over his head, he looked worse off than he was. “It’s just a little gunshot wound.”

“A
little
gunshot wound?” Iris looked faint. So did poor Hazel.

I don’t belong here.
This was family business. Aumaleigh backtracked into the hall and nearly bumped into Gabriel.

“C’mon.” He gave a chin-jut toward the back door. “I’ll give you a ride back to your horse and buggy.”

“No, need. I’ll get a ride with one of my nieces.”

“I’m going that way anyway. You might as well go with me. If it’s adding fuel to those rumors about us, you can lay down in the back and we’ll cover you with a blanket. No one will even know you’re there.”

She smiled. Then she chuckled. Then she laughed. “I’d feel better if I drove and we covered you with the blanket.”

“Sorry, can’t be done. My feet will stick out. It’s a short blanket.” He unhooked her coat from the wall peg and shook it open for her.

“Excuses. I expected more from you, Gabriel. You could bend your knees.”

“True, but then my bent knees would stick out. I have long legs.” He moved in behind her, and his nearness buzzed through her, sending little tingles into her bloodstream. He held the sleeve for her as she slipped her arms in and settled the garment on her shoulders. “Maybe I was wrong about the blanket. It’s exactly five o’clock. Fred is off duty. We’re safe.”

She rolled her eyes as the mantel clock struck five. “Fred is never off duty when it comes to gossip.”

“Maybe we can wait ten minutes and he’ll be at home?”

“We’d be smarter to take the back way and stay out of town completely.”

“Come to think of it, it’s almost dark, so that will work.” He opened the door. “The good news is, you won’t have to hide under the blanket for long.”

“Me?” She rolled her eyes, not able to say exactly why she was laughing. She crossed the porch. “Why do I remember that time we fell asleep in the back of your wagon?”

“We were stretched out, looking up, watching the clouds float by.”

“And the horses startled, the wagon jerked and you rolled out all tangled up in the blanket. You hit the ground and rolled downhill. Snoring.”

“You would have thought the impact would have jolted me awake.”