AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His wrinkled chin wobbled. Big tears pooled on his lower lashes as he nodded.
“Thank you,” Jo said softly, standing. “Frankie and I are going to get you to your feet, then help you lift your left leg into the cab. Then we’ll give you a big push to get you the rest of the way in.” She eased one arm around Earl’s back and one under his left leg, poised to lift, then looked at Frankie. “On the count of three. One, two, three!”
It took more than three counts, four tries, and five disappointing fumbles, but eventually, they managed it, hefting Earl safely into the passenger seat of the cab, strapping on his seat belt and sighing with relief.
“Good night above,” Frankie whispered as they loaded the wheelchair into the truck bed. “How in the world are we gonna manage to get him in the house? We can use the wheelchair to get him across the lawn but there ain’t no way we’ll be able to carry him up all those steps to get him inside.”
Jo secured the wheelchair with a truck bed bungee cord to keep it from sliding around during the drive over the potholes in bumpy dirt roads and pushed her hair back from her sweaty forehead. She lifted her face to the cool fall breeze, a chill spreading along her overheated skin, then looked at Frankie, whose cheeks were as flaming red as her own felt from their recent exertion.
“We’ll just have to figure that out when we get there, I guess.”
Thirty minutes later, Jo took a right and turned Earl’s truck onto the long dirt driveway of Lone Oaks Crossing. He hadn’t said a word during the entire trip home. Instead, he’d sat silently in the passenger seat and stared at the rural scenery as it passed, his tired eyes growing heavier with each mile.
“We’re here, Earl,” she said, glancing to her right.
A slow smile lifted her lips. He was asleep, his tanned, wrinkled cheek pressed to the cool glass of the window, his mouth peacefully slack and hands resting motionless in his lap.
“He’s tuckered.” Frankie, seated in the back seat of the cab, leaned over the console and gently brushed a strand of gray hair behind his ear. “Oh, how he hates this, Jo. Being weak and vulnerable. But Lord knows, I’m glad he’s home where we can take care of him—whether he likes it or not.”
“Me, too,” Jo said softly as she drove slowly up the driveway.
Despite the afternoon’s troubles, it was a beautiful day. The midafternoon sun shined bright over the quiet acreage of Lone Oaks Crossing. Jo eased her foot off the gas pedal a little more, taking a moment to soak it all in, to relish her happiness at having Earl home again, safe and cared for in the home he adored by people he loved.
It seemed like such a small thing to do—to help nurse him back to health—but the prospect of being able to return just a small percentage of the love, security, and support that Earl had provided throughout her childhood flooded her heart with hope and a yearning to set things right again. To see Lone Oaks Crossing thrive as it once had, its green pastures full of grazing horses, healthy and strong, and Earl, confident and in control again, overseeing the daily operations of the renewed working farm.
Jo drove on, past the pastures, around the winding dirt drive, and up to the modest home Earl had lived in all his life. The one she remembered fondly from childhood. She slowed the truck, however, at the site of a large truck and trailer parked near the stables.
“Looks like we have a guest,” Frankie said, easing even farther over the console, peering around Jo toward the truck and trailer. “You expecting someone?”
“No.” Jo’s gaze strayed from the truck and trailer and moved toward the house, where a familiar man stood at the foot of the porch steps. He looked out of place, his muscular form clad in a dress shirt and what appeared to be custom-tailored jeans, pristine and at odds with the aging two-story house behind him. “From the looks of it, I’d say our new benefactor has decided to pay us a visit.”
“With a trailer?” Frankie perked up. “You think he found two new boarders for us already?”
Jo slowed the truck, bringing it to a stop in front of the house, several feet away from Brooks, her eyes meeting his through the windshield. “I wouldn’t doubt it. From the looks of his estate when I visited the other day, he’s pretty much got the entire world at his fingertips.”
Which, she thought uncomfortably, was probably true when someone had as much wealth at their disposal as Brooks had. Days before, after he’d handed her a twenty-thousand-dollar check in his home office and she’d returned to Earl’s truck and driven away, she’d still found herself looking in the rearview mirror, gaping in awe at the imposing sight of his mansion and pristine grounds.
“Huh.” Frankie glanced at Brooks, too. “Good thing he’s on our side then.”
And heaven help them if he ever decided not to be, Jo thought.
She cut the engine. “Would you mind waiting here for a minute? I’d like to see what he wants before we try to get Earl inside.”
Frankie patted her shoulder. “Go ahead. Earl’s snoozing pretty good right now. It won’t hurt to give him a few more minutes.”
Jo glanced fondly at Earl, then exited the truck, shutting the door softly so as not to disturb him.
Brooks strode across the front lawn toward her, his long legs easily eating up the distance between them. “You have a full truck, I see.”
Jo removed the sunglasses she’d donned for the drive home. “I wasn’t expecting you.” She motioned over her shoulder toward the truck and trailer parked by the stable. “But that trailer’s a welcome sight. Were you able to find two new boarders for us?”
Brooks nodded. “Yep. And I think you’ll be pleased.” He leaned to the side and peered over her shoulder into the cab of Earl’s truck. “I’m glad to see you made it home safely with Earl.”
Jo’s confusion must have shown on her face.
“You mentioned he was being released from the hospital at the end of the week when you visited me at Original Sin the other day,” Brooks said. “I called the hospital to check on him and was told he was being discharged today. I figured you might need some help getting him inside and comfortable, so I thought I’d pop over and give you a hand while I was delivering your new boarders.”
His chivalrous impulse sent a pleasurable flutter through her middle. She grinned. “It’s very nice of you, but that kinda sounds like a man who’s trying to be in charge.” She grinned wider. “I don’t remember giving you a call . . . or a beck.”
