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Gabs
The three weeks following that day in the hotel passed me by in a blur. Dad had thankfully come through the surgery fine, but it had set back his recovery. I continued to stay at the hospital until Mom was released, then I moved back home to make sure she didn’t try to do more than she should, and to drive her in to see Dad each day.
Once Dad’s condition was more stable, I also went back to Silky Ink. Not full time—Mom needed me during the day—but once she went to bed in the early evening, I was free to head in to work for a few hours.
I was constantly on the move. There was always something that needed to be done, and that suited me just fine. It meant I didn’t have time to notice the gaping hole in my heart that Boone had filled. I also didn’t have time to give in to Silk, who’d been trying to get me to open up to her about what had happened.
My routine was going to change again today. Dad was finally coming home. Christopher was driving him back. Mom had been fluffing around most of the morning. Her shoulder had healed up, the scar on her forearm was looking good, and it didn’t appear she had any long-term nerve damage. However, she still shouldn’t be trying to do everything she used to do. She didn’t have the energy or stamina she’d had before. Getting her to accept that just because the outside was healing up well, didn’t mean internally her body wasn’t still trying to recover was a struggle.
I was putting the vacuum cleaner away when a car pulled into the drive.
“Mom? I think that’s Christopher with Dad.”
She hustled to the front door and swung it open.
“Mom! Slow down, you don’t want to re-injure yourself.”
She waved me off. “Oh hush, Gabs. I’m fine. It’s your father who’s going to need fussing over, not me.”
Rolling my eyes, I followed her out to greet the men.
Half an hour later, Dad was settled on his recliner in the family room snoring away. Mom was fussing in the kitchen making him something to eat for when he woke up, and Christopher was frowning my way.
“What?”
“When did you last go to your place?”
I shrugged. “Um, I’m not sure. Two weeks ago? Three, maybe. I went and packed up some more clothes and stuff when Mom was released, and I moved in here.”
I was not telling Christopher about the eggs that had been smashed against my front door, or how my flower garden under my kitchen window had been ripped up, the flowers tossed all over the place to die. Nope. My brother didn’t need to know about any of that.
“And when did you last do something for yourself… that wasn’t going to Silky Ink?”
Instantly forgetting all about the issues with my trailer, heat crept up my neck and flashed over my cheeks as I remembered the day Boone had taken me to the hotel. Then my anger kicked in and I turned to glare at Christopher. How dare he make me feel like shit for all I was doing.
In a whisper-yell so I didn’t wake up Dad, I said, “You know exactly when the last time was. I haven’t had a chance since then! In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been a full-time job to keep Mom from doing too much. And now with Dad home, it’ll be even harder to keep her resting like she should be.”
He nodded and the sympathy in his gaze had me wanting to throw something.
“And without Boone around to call us on our shit, we’ve all sat back and let you do everything again. I don’t know what happened that day at the hotel, but I wish it hadn’t. He was good for you, Gabs. Hell, he was good for us too.” He stood and came over to me, pulling me up from where I was sitting. “Mom’s not the only one who needs to be careful to not over-do things. I’ve taken the next three days off to stay here and help out. How about you go back to your place and relax? Take a bath, read a book, go ride a horse. Whatever it is you need to do, do it. Live a little. And maybe give Boone a call. Whatever happened can’t be so bad. Clearly, you were feeling him. I know you’ve been trying to hide it and all, but I’m your brother, Gabs. I know you. I can see the pain in your eyes.”
Shock held me frozen in place. My brother had never spoken to me like that before. I’d actually wondered on occasion if he felt emotions at all, or if he was more robot than man. Emotion clogged my throat as he leaned in to press a soft kiss on my forehead, just like Boone had that final time. I couldn’t speak as he pulled back and looked me in the eye.
“Go on home, Gabs. Take a few days to recoup. Mom and Dad are going to need us both for a good, long while yet. Once you get some R ’n’ R time, we’ll sit down and do up a schedule, yeah? So we get them covered but without working you to the bone in the process.”
I nodded, wondering where this new and improved Christopher had come from. Normally, he was totally ignorant to how much I did.
“Thanks for this. It’ll be good to go back to my trailer for a bit.”
I wouldn’t be able to go riding, though. That thought sat like a lump of lead in my stomach as I packed up some of my clothes. Once I had that done, I said goodbye to Mom, telling her to call me if she needed anything. Then, after a quick bye to Christopher, I was out the door and loading my stuff into my car.
It didn’t take long to drive back home. Nerves at what I’d find this time had me white-knuckling the steering wheel as I turned into my driveway.
“Motherfucker!”
I rarely swore, but rolling up to find my house with toilet paper wrapped all around it warranted a few curse words. For a few moments, I contemplated turning around and heading to the motel in town but that would be a waste of money. I would need to tidy all this mess up at some point, and it might as well be now.
With a sigh, I got out and headed to the front door, wincing as I got a closer look at all that had been done to my poor little trailer. Not only had there been toilet paper thrown around, but someone had put newspaper over the windows all along the front. I could take a guess that all the windows had been given the same treatment. Why would Royce be this childish? Surely, if he was truly so hurt at my refusal of his advances, he’d just give me an eviction notice, not pull childish pranks.
