My father walked out of the kitchen with a piece of toast slathered in jam in one hand. He ate jam made from the fruit of our orchards like he was under doctor’s orders. That probably should have fattened him up a little more after all these years, but he didn’t look very plump for mainlining sugar that way.
“Hey, Junebug, how did—” Whatever else he might have said got swallowed up as he took in my filthy condition. “What happened to you? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I just went to Ty Hardy’s.”
He looked me up and down. “Uh-huh. Ty do that to you, or the horses? Because one I’d have to shoot, the other, it’s just their nature.”
“It was both, kind of.”
Slipping off my dirty heels, I sat down at the old kitchen table and explained how Ty had been kicked, glossing over most of our conversations. Being in the wedding party together provided enough of an excuse for me to go see Ty, but hopefully, my pop wouldn’t ask questions. Long experience had proved I was no good at lying to him.
“Ty Hardy got kicked?” Pop took a big bite of toast and chewed a minute. “I didn’t think I’d live to see the day.”
“Well, today’s the day.”
“You know what they call him, don’t you?”
A few choice names swam through my mind.
“Unbreakable. He works with a lot of wild ones out there, but he’s always managed to avoid getting injured. I guess that winning streak’s over.”
“He’s got three cracked ribs and an utter refusal to accept it. He didn’t even want me to take him to the Medical Center in the first place.”
The fact he thought broken ribs was something he could just wait out drove me a little insane. I still didn’t like that the doctor had done nothing more than give him pain pills and a breathing device to try to keep his lungs strong. He needed to be in a hospital bed somewhere under a physician’s care, not hobbling around his house making his injury worse. I doubted he would have even taken his pain meds if I hadn’t been there to see that he did.
“Sounds normal to me. When I hit that deer and busted my ribs, your mother wanted me to go to the doctor, too, but I didn’t see the point.”
Seriously? I blew out a breath. “I wasn’t looking for you to take Ty’s side in this.”
“There’s no side, there’s just nothing to do about it. Like a broken finger or a toe.”
“And why can’t you straighten out the ring finger on your right hand?”
He curled his right hand into a fist a couple of times, one finger not quite matching the others. “It’s not so bad.”
I shouldn’t have expected my pop to get worked up over an injury. He could fall out of a peach tree, get a concussion, and still finish the rest of his chores in the orchard without so much as stopping to get an ice pack.
“His injury’s a lot worse than a finger.” The sound of Ty’s ribs breaking would haunt me for the rest of my life. He had been so vulnerable lying there in the dirt, like a completely different man. The confident, in control rancher had been replaced by a man who’d simply needed help. He’d neededme. The desperate look in his eyes hadn’t lasted long, but I couldn’t shake the memory. “I guess his parents are out of town. Does he have anyone else to help look after things?”
“I don’t have anybody else.”
His words kept rolling around in my mind. Running his training business all by himself was one thing, but having a busted-up chest with nobody to take care of him? The idea hurt my heart. No one deserved that, much less Ty.
Pop massaged the finger that couldn’t straighten. “I figured he’d have a ranch hand or two out there, but I don’t rightly know.”
“One, and only part-time.” The question nagging at me didn’t have anything to do with Ty’s paid staff. I ran my fingers over the grooves of the old wood table, playing this as casually as I could. “Is there anyone else who might take care of him?”
“You mean like a girlfriend?” Pop’s keen blue eyes always saw right through me. “I used to see a blonde with him around town, but it’s been a while now. Probably even since before you and—” He waved his hand around in the air as if gesturing at a pile of trash. “Bret.”
Pop had never quite been on board with Bret, even when things had still been fresh and new. A small-town farmer, he didn’t trust big corporations, and he trusted their lawyers even less. The fact that Bret had started out in Magnolia Ridge didn’t change things. As far as my pop was concerned, he had betrayed our town’s values. Betraying me had been the final nail in that coffin.
“Don’t worry about Ty,” he said. “If he says he’s got everything under control, he does. His word is better than most.”
“It’s not Ty’s word I’m worried about.” The man was more likely to grow another head than cheerfully follow doctor’s orders, even when those orders wereTake it easy. Maybe especially then. I’d like to believe he was lying in bed right now, getting some rest, but I wasn’t that naive.
The back door opened, and my older brother slunk through. Even dirtier than I was, he looked completely wrung out, but grinned when he caught sight of me.
“Well, hey, Junebug!”
