Gambling on a Dream (12 page)

The doctor rubbed the dark stubble of a five o’clock shadow on his chin. “Come with me.”

They followed him into a claustrophobic room with more gray plastic chairs and another fake wood table in the center. The doctor gestured toward the chairs. “Please, sit down.”

Once they settled around the table--Wyatt and Audrey sitting on either side of their mother with their father stoically standing behind them--the doctor closed the door and sat across the table from them.

Dad cleared his throat, but his voice still came out rough. “How is she, Doc?”

“I’m Doctor Dan Forsyth. Rachel is in critical condition and has been moved to the intensive care unit, but I feel confident she will pull through.” The doctor shook his head and glanced at his hands as he cleared his throat. “I knew Major McPherson from Afghanistan. She and I worked at the same hospital when she and Colonel Webster were shot. I know what PTSD can do to a person. But she’s a fighter, and she’ll get through this.”

“You worked with our daughter?” Mom’s voice broke on the last word.

“Yes, I was a government contractor.” Forsyth smiled. “I moved to Colton when my contract was up partly because of what Rachel said about the place. I couldn’t believe such a perfect little town could exist.”

Wyatt wasn’t so sure he’d call Colton perfect, but it did have its own kind of charm. What surprised him was that Rachel spoke so highly of a place she’d avoided for years.

Audrey glanced at him as if she was thinking the same thing. “When can we see her?”

“She’s sleeping, but I think her parents can visit for a few moments tonight. Then it would be best if you all go home and wait until tomorrow. I suspect she’ll be awake by morning.”

Wyatt had to get out of there. He stood and Audrey looked at him. “I need some air.” Before anyone could question him, he kissed his mother’s cheek and patted his father on the shoulder, then left the room as the first tears stung his eyes.
Dear God, Ladybug, what made you think suicide was the answer?

He had no idea where he was going when he opened up the throttle of his Harley, letting the cool wind whip through his hair and dry the tears on his cheeks, until he turned into the gravel drive of the C Bar M Ranch.

* * * *

Dawn pulled into her driveway and stared at the Harley sitting by the barn. But she didn’t see its owner until she caught movement by the door. Wyatt leaned against the wall and watched her park her truck. Her heart sped up as she got out of the rig.

From the way his forehead pulled down over his eyes, and the deep frown tugged on his lips, something bad had happened. She stopped halfway to him and folded her arms across her chest.

He stepped away from the barn, and before she knew what was happening, his arms were wrapped around her like his life depended on it. She snaked her arms around him and held on tight. His body pressed against hers, but there was nothing sexual in the embrace, despite her heart’s rapid beating and the tightness in her lower belly. Her nose filled with his wonderful scent of leather, fresh air, and his unique musk. His breathing was ragged, and from the way he trembled, she wondered if he was crying. But a man like Wyatt would never cry unless his world had imploded.

Several moments passed before he lifted his head from her neck and met her gaze. The pain in his blue eyes broke her heart.

He took a deep breath and looked toward the pasture next to the barn. “I’m sorry.”

God, his voice was so deep.

“I… uh…” As he shook his head, the chilly breeze lifted his hair, and the setting sun turned the auburn strands scarlet. Her hands tingled at the memory of the softness of his hair.

“Wy, what’s going on?” She’d never seen him so rattled.

As he closed his eyes, he stepped out of her arms, but took her hand. “Rachel tried to commit suicide.”

She sucked in a breath. “Dear God. Is she okay?”

“She will be. She’s in the ICU and had her stomach pumped.” He wiped his free hand over his face. “She overdosed on her antidepressants and washed them down with a bottle of Ma’s Christmas brandy.”

“Oh, God.” She squeezed his hand and those electric eyes met hers. “C’mon. Let’s go inside.”

He nodded and let her lead him across the driveway and up the porch steps. Taco waddled and wiggled over when Dawn opened the door. Dawn ruffled the dog’s long ears and let her out. Taco recognized Wyatt and barked, but the need to do her business overrode any obligation she must have possessed to protect her mistress.

Wyatt followed Dawn into the living room. He’d let go of her when she’d opened the door and jammed his hands into the pockets of his bomber jacket. He never looked more lost.

She headed for the gun safe next to the kitchen, removed her service belt, and locked her Glock in the safe. Sensing him watching her, she took a deep breath and turned around. “Would you like some coffee?”

He shook his head. “How about something stronger?”

“Beer?”

“Yeah.”

She went into the kitchen and returned with two Coors Lights. Why had he come to her? He could have gone to Zack and Tracy’s or his cousin Dylan Quinn or his latest fling…The list went on. But instead, he was here, and she refused to ponder the reasons.

As he took the bottle from her, he sat on the couch. She perched on the edge of the wing chair next to the safe with the cold bottle between her hands. He tipped his bottle back and gulped about half.

“Do you want to talk?” Why else would he be here?

He lowered the bottle and stared at it as he leaned over his long legs. “She wasn’t breathing, and her pulse stopped when Ma and I found her. I started CPR, and when Dad got there with the ambulance, he shocked her to restart her heart. We almost lost her.” His voice dipped so low it broke.

“Damn.”

He nodded and drank more of his beer. “I thought we lost her. What the fuck was she thinking?”

Wyatt often cursed, but his use of the f-bomb scared her as much as his being here. She set her bottle on the end table and moved to sit beside him. Although she had no idea why he’d come to her, he obviously needed comfort. Was she willing to provide it?

The pain in his startling baby blues had her heart seizing. She’d do anything to relieve his hurt.

Anything?

She slipped her arm around his waist. “She feels helpless.”

Sweet Jesus, what would she do if she were in Rachel’s shoes? She may have lost her baby, but Rachel would never know what it is like to have a baby grow inside of her. She would never have a child of her own.

What would Dawn have done if she hadn’t stopped the bullet and it had hit Wyatt all those years ago? Would she have been as helpless and lost as Rachel losing the man she loved? But Dawn lost him anyway, and the child they’d created.

“I know she’s hurting, but she has to stop holding in the pain. I know the timing of Audrey’s announcement the other day was terrible, and I know she’s grieving, but there has to be something that can be done to make things better.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I was just settling in at the ranch, now I think it’s best if I stay at Mom and Dad’s to help with Rachel a little longer.”

One of the many things she’d always loved and admired about Wyatt was the way he loved his sisters. But sometimes love wasn’t enough. “I don’t think that’s the answer.”

He met her gaze again. “What?”

For several moments, they stared at each other. Her sinuses burned from both fear and sorrow for her friend.

She averted her gaze to the fisted hand on her thigh. What had helped her get through her loss? “She needs to get out and around people. Your parents and you mean well, but I can only imagine she feels like a burden on you all. If you delay your move, you’ll only manage to make her feel more stifled.”

He shifted beside her and rested his hand over hers. She snapped her eyes to him.

“I suppose I see your point.” Swallowing so hard his Adam’s apple bobbed, he set his empty bottle on the table beside him. When he turned back to her, he wrapped his arm around her. “What do you think we should do?”

He was asking
her
? She shrugged, feeling strangely comforted by his touch and agitated by it at the same time. “She’s a nurse. Why not see if she can volunteer either at the hospital or at one of the nursing homes? Maybe if she’s working again, she will be able to heal.”

“In other words, if she’s busy, she doesn’t have time to dwell on the rotten things going on with her?”

She shrugged. “Not really, but she has to feel like she’s needed. Like she’s in control of her life again.”

After she’d lost their baby, she’d come back to Colton, and as soon as her doctor released her to go back to work, she’d begged her dad to give her a job with the sheriff’s department. Keeping busy helped her deal with not only the loss of her baby, but her broken heart.

He searched her face and eyes as if he demanded to know all of her secrets. Dawn couldn’t breathe as she watched him close in, then she gasped when his lips landed on hers. The kiss was nothing like the one from the other night. This one was tender, but passion sizzled under the surface.

She turned into him. He pulled her into his lap, and gripped her waist, holding her close. Licking her upper lip, he demanded entrance. Taking his face between her hands, she straddled his legs, pushed him into the back of the couch, and took his onslaught with welcome fervor.

* * * *

“Wyatt,” Dawn whispered against his lips, but unlike the other night, she didn’t stop him. She opened the snaps of his shirt and shoved it aside. He hissed between his teeth when she kissed down his neck to his pulse point.

His heart thumped in his chest with a hungry need he didn’t realize was possible. He’d never wanted her more than he did right now. He wanted the fiery sensations of her hands caressing over his chest to help him forget the pain he carried for his sister and anger at his not being able to protect her.

How could he ever forgive Dawn for her betrayal? And yet, here he was, seeking comfort from her. Was he willing to make love to her?

Was he going to use her like this?

She moaned in his mouth and ground against his hardening cock, and his desire took over any conscious thought.

He groped for the buttons of her uniform blouse. When he couldn’t get them open with his trembling fingers, he gripped the edges and pulled. Buttons flew to the left and right, but he didn’t care. And apparently, neither did Dawn. She shrugged out of the shirt.

The small pucker above her left breast had his breath freezing in his lungs. He touched the scar, and she trembled as their eyes met.

Had she taken a bullet for him?

Why on God’s Earth would she have done that? He’d had things under control that night.

He couldn’t bare thinking about the pain and shock he’d been consumed with when the doctor had come out of the OR of the Dallas hospital to tell him Dawn would be okay, though the bullet grazed her heart. However, the child she carried couldn’t be saved.

If he’d been a few minutes later, Rachel would have been beyond saving. He’d have failed his sister as he’d failed saving his baby.

“Stop thinking,” Dawn whispered, as she leaned in and kissed him, plunging her tongue deep into his mouth setting him on fire all over again.

As he stripped her of her bra, she worked open his belt and fly. When she wrapped her hot hand around his erection, he broke the kiss with a curse. He opened his eyes when she slipped off his lap. Her dark brown eyes burned, scorching him as she kissed down his chest, stopping to lick over his erect, sensitive nipples. All the while, she pumped his cock. She stroked her thumb over the sensitive head of his penis, and the electric shock zapped through him and landed in his balls.

“Dawn.” He lolled his head back, but couldn’t tear his gaze from hers.

She shifted to her feet, took off her boots, and pushed her tan slacks and panties to the floor. As he watched her, he toed off his boots, then removed his jeans and underwear.

She slid her gaze over his body, and her breathing came in quick spurts as she reached up and pulled the band from her hair. The long black waterfall landed around her shoulders and reached the curve of her ass.

Dear God in heaven, she was beautiful.

Blood rushed so fast out of his head, his vision fuzzed, causing him to blink. He filled his lungs with air scented by Dawn’s distinct fragrance of honeysuckle and spice.

She crawled back into his lap. He gripped her waist and held her in place. “I don’t have any condoms.”

He wheezed as if he’d run a twenty-mile race. At this point, if they couldn’t follow through, it would about kill him. He was beyond a cold shower.

Touching his face as she had earlier, with both hands caressing his cheeks and jaw, she smiled. “It’s okay. I’m on the pill. And I trust you.” She swallowed and her smile wavered a little. “I haven’t been with anyone since we were together.”

Then why was she on the pill?

She must have sensed his question. “After…” Again she swallowed and the smile disappeared completely. “After I lost the baby, I went on the pill to regulate… things.”

He nodded and pulled her to his mouth. At the moment, speech was as beyond his capabilities as were regret and anger at her reminder of the child he’d never know. As their lips melded, she took him deep into her body and moaned into his mouth.

Tight, wet heat engulfed him. The shock hit his balls and light flashed through his head. He was going to come before things even had a chance to get started. He broke the kiss, and air rushed out him, hissing between his gritted teeth as he got a grip on his control.

She arched her back into a beautiful bow. Her breasts rose high as she lifted up and slid back down, starting a relentless rhythm that had him panting. She opened her eyes and met his gaze as the first ripple tightened around him, cutting through his fragile control like a knife.

She closed her eyes again and a long gasp escaped as her orgasm shattered her.

He couldn’t hold back. The fireball barreling down his spine and through his groin was too much. Squeezing his eyes closed and gritting his teeth, he gripped her hips, taking over, and thrust into her deep and hard. She quaked around him as he exploded into her.