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No! This couldn’t be happening. Not after he’d survived the first attack. Bliss swallowed back tears. “I’m coming, too.”
Brynnie climbed inside and Bliss was about to do the same when Mason grabbed her arm. “You can ride with me.” She wanted to fight him but didn’t. Right now, she needed his strength. She didn’t kid herself that he cared about her, but it didn’t matter—not until this crisis had passed.
“What—what are you doing here?” she asked, but deep in her heart, she knew the answer. He’d come to see her father; there had been an argument. John Cawthorne had lost his cool and his already-weakened heart had quit working.
Sirens wailing, the ambulance took off.
“I can drive,” Katie offered, her face ashen as she glanced at her watch. “I just have time to pick up Josh and then we can—”
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll take her,” Mason interrupted.
Bliss was already on her way to his pickup. She couldn’t think, couldn’t believe that this was happening. First her mother’s painful death, then her father’s heart attack. Had he survived only to die a few months later? Please, God, no. Not now!
As she reached the door of Mason’s track, she stopped, and the damning truth hit her as hard as a belly punch. She sagged against his rig and turned on him. “Don’t tell me, Lafferty. You’re the reason my dad’s had another attack.”
“I don’t know,” Mason admitted, his face grim as he hurried to his pickup. Mason opened the door for her, then slid behind the wheel. “I told you this place was too much for your father.” He slammed his door shut and switched on the ignition.
“So you had to come by and badger him again.” Fear and anger took hold of her tongue. “I don’t know what it is with you, Mason, but you should leave him alone.”
“Believe me, I am,” he said, jamming the truck into gear.
“Oh, sure, and that’s why you came out here to pick a fight with him.”
“I didn’t pick a fight, Bliss.” He popped the clutch and the truck took off. “In fact, if you want to know the truth, I came out here to sell the place back to Brynnie for what she paid for it.”
“What?”
“That’s right,” he s
aid, slipping his aviator sunglasses onto his nose. “I’m out of this mess with your father. As far as I’m concerned, he can do whatever he wants with his ranch. I don’t want it.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Wait a minute. You don’t want the ranch? After all this legal maneuvering and arguing and angst?” Bliss couldn’t believe her ears. “Come on, Mason, what happened? You came out here to sell back Brynnie’s share to her and what—my dad collapsed? Give me a break.”
“Believe what you want to believe.” His lips barely moved as he spoke.
The interior of the pickup was hot. Stuffy. Too close. Bliss cranked down the window and looked away from Mason’s sharp-honed profile. She couldn’t think about him and the last time they’d been together—not now, not when her father’s life was in question. In the distance, the horrifying shriek of the ambulance’s siren sliced across the arid fields.
Mason slid her a glance. His mouth was tight, his jaw hard, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel.
She took a deep, calming breath. “Okay, okay, no more accusations,” she said. Nervously Bliss stared through the dusty windshield. Her throat clogged and she couldn’t help but wonder if at this very moment her father was fighting for his life or if, like her mother, he’d slipped away. She bit her lip and crossed her fingers. Surely she wouldn’t lose him. Not now, she thought, echoing Brynnie’s words. “Just tell me what happened.”
“I thought we—you and I—needed to talk, so I stopped by, looking for you,” he said. “I wanted to speak to you first before I offered John and Brynnie the place back. But you weren’t around and Brynnie invited me in for a glass of iced tea. So I decided to wait.
“I was in the kitchen talking to her when John came in from working outside.” He slid a glance in Bliss’s direction. “I don’t mean to scare you, but he didn’t look all that great. He was red in the face and sweating like nobody’s business. He took two steps into the house, saw me and stumbled. I caught hold of his arm and we both ended up on the floor.” The corners of Mason’s mouth turned down. “Your father lost consciousness. Brynnie dialed 911 and I tried and failed to revive him.”
“Oh, God,” she said, feeling tears burn behind her eyelids. As angry as she’d been with her dad, she loved him, didn’t want to lose him. “I—I should have been there.”
“There wasn’t anything you could have done. John won’t slow down—you know that as well as I do. He’s not happy unless he’s going twice the speed of sound.”
“You don’t think he’s going to make it,” she said, stunned.
“Don’t give up.” Mason placed a hand on her shoulder. “You know your dad. He’s a fighter. He was still breathing, his heartbeat still strong when the paramedics arrived.” He offered her the hint of a smile. “If anyone can beat this, it’s your old man.”
“I hope you’re right,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. She stared out the open window and fought tears. It wasn’t like her to cry, yet right now, knowing she might lose her only surviving parent, she wanted to break down completely and shake her fist and scream and tell the whole world that it wasn’t fair.
Mason’s hand was comforting and she wished there was time for him to fold her into his arms and tell her everything would be all right, that her father would live a robust life, that somehow she’d learn to accept John’s bride as well as the half sisters she hadn’t known existed. And that, crazy though it seemed, they would all be one big happy family. Of course, it was a pipe dream.
