She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I need you too, Ben, but Cooper comes first. Always.”
He kissed her again, quickly, tightening his hands on her waist. “Thank you for understanding and for protecting my son. Now, I need to go. As soon as I feel like he’s better, I’ll have you come over. Even if we can’t be alone, I’d like to be with you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there today—to protect you both.”
She cupped his jaw, her green eyes narrowing. “Stop that. I mean it. Ben, I’m glad I was here.”
“Here” made him think about her being back, which led toanother thought. “Word’s going to travel fast in town. If you don’t want to, I can have Reba call your parents. With your mother not being well, I think you’ll want to warn your dad in case she goes shopping or something.”
Her mouth tightened before she nodded. “I’ll call him. Now go to Cooper and use his Hurt Buster to help calm him.”
He leaned down and took her mouth again after thanking her, wishing he could stop time and hold her against him forever. Pulling away, he caressed her cheek before opening the door and walking back to the living room. Reba handed him Cooper’s lunch bag when he arrived. He looked around the room, his throat tight, knowing he’d caused more grief to the people he cared about. Cursing under his breath, he could only incline his head and leave the room as quickly as he’d come, promising himself he would use everything in his power to ensure it never happened again.
He only wished he could be sure he could stop it.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The atmosphereon the Triple M was tense.
Hannah stayed close to home, placing dried plants into containers, making more plantain salve, and finalizing their podcast’s educational video package under a watchful Neil. If she jumped when a door slammed or someone came up behind her, she told herself it was a natural reaction and sniffed more lavender and drank lemon balm tea.
She saw a few more cowboys with minor injuries, and Reba brought up her prize-winning blueberry pie to thank her and check on her. They’d had the chance to have a good visit, and when Reba had kissed her cheek and said in her usual matter-of-fact way that everyone thought it was a blessing she was back, her heart had warmed enough to shake off the recent unpleasantness keeping her awake at night.
Her call to her father had been short and curt. HisI’m glad you weren’t hurthad sounded stiff, and he’d ended it quickly before she could ask for news of how her mother was faring.
Ben invited her to have dinner at the main house and to watch one of Cooper’s favorite movies afterward, but theydidn’t have a moment alone with him lying down with Cooper to help him go to sleep.
When Jolene called to see how she was and suggested she come to Stitch & Bitch since her friend was hosting, she happily agreed. Good to get out of the house and her mind off things. Except when she arrived at the Prentice house, no one wanted to talk about anything but the events on the Triple M on Sunday.
Wanda Akins, who ran Wanda’s Western Wear, had plunked down on the sofa the moment she’d sat down. Wearing an eye-catching black denim dress with heart snaps up the front, Wanda didn’t dish out comfort. She dished out gossip—which her daughter, Paisley, had told Cooper before, she well recalled.
“You must have been terrified,” Wanda practically wailed. “Just how drunk was Amber? I mean, was she high on drugs too like I’ve heard talk?”
She only shrugged noncommittally and took a drink of the huckleberry margarita Jolene had stuck in her hand the moment she’d met her at the door.
Mae Hawkins from the Jams and Gems Gift Shop had been a little sweeter, but then again, Hannah had known Reba’s daughter growing up. She had a new store, famous for its preserves and other bits and bobs. “You were brave, Hannah, so brave that I’m giving you a jar of my special bourbon huckleberry jam before you leave. I heard Amber threatened to kill you!”
To this line, she weakly nodded, thanked the woman for the jam, and took another drink.
The other questions came in a blur from the women buzzing around her, practically a who’s who of female business owners in Sanctuary Springs. And boy, were there a lot of them, a legacy of Grandma Elena giving loans to women who started businesses back in the Old West days, a fundwhich continued now. While the men ranched, strong women had always run this town. Hannah liked the idea of joining their ranks and, in some ways, running her own herbal practice, so she didn’t try to change the subject. Getting to know these women, some of whom were new to her, seemed the better approach.
Tallulah Barker, who ran Dusty Mugs Country Store and Antiques, talked as quietly as a librarian, while Gertie Frazier of Pioneer Pantry’s booming voice still had the power to make Hannah stop short from drinking her beverage when she’d asked Hannah if anyone had knocked that nasty Owen Kincaid out cold like he deserved.
Gwen Gentry of Needles and Lace responded before she could that no one deserved it more in that prim way of hers. Ruby Holbrook said Owen should be horsewhipped for the times he’d come into The Next Chapter Bookstore and knocked romance novels off the shelves, saying only lonely women like Ruby read them.
On that, Hannah had to comment. “Lonely women? Shoot that bastard,” she cried out teasingly, making all the women cackle for the first time that night.
Pippa Lockwood of the Root and Shoots Garden Nursery dove into the conversation, saying Amber was so mean she’d made the nursery’s plants wilt when she’d gone by. Hannah couldn’t stop laughing after that. Velma Nichols of the town’s single microbrewery and liquor store, Brews and Booze, added that the fancy French champagne she kept on for special occasions went flat when Amber or Owen Kincaid’s name was spoken in her store.
By then, Hannah was nodding and laughing along with the rest of the women. She could have used these women growing up, when Amber and her brother picked on her.
Savannah Anderson of Laughing Leaves Landscaping added to the booming laughter that her plantings wouldn’tgrow on the Kincaid property because the ground was as toxic as those two miscreants.
Hearing anyone called miscreants had sent the women into more gales, and Hannah hadn’t thought much of it when Jolene took her empty glass and fitted her hand with another delicious salt-rimmed margarita. Yum. She blew a kiss to her friend.
Dolly Merriweather of Boots and Baubles, who’d been happily named after Dolly Parton and who packed a pretty good singing voice herself, raised her turquoise cowboy boots off the floor and said the Kincaid kids were like the cow patties you stepped on when you weren’t looking.
People cheered their agreement, herself included, as Emmeline Osborn of Satin and Sass laid a dramatic hand to her forehead and said the Kincaid children were the kind to send people asking for their smelling salts back in the day. Then everyone had pretty much wheezed with laughter when Scout Robbins of the Bake My Day Café had said she used a fresh plate of chopped onions to revive anyone who fainted in her establishment when those two “miscreants” came by for a donut.
“I need to make a keep-away roller ball with onions,” Hannah declared, thrusting out her drink. “That’ll keep those ‘miscreants’ away.”
