A Family Kind of Guy (20 page)

“I'll bet she likes that,” Bliss replied with only a trace of derision.

“Not a whole lot, no.”

“I don't think she'll be coming to the wedding,” Bliss said.

“Uh-oh.” Katie eased up on the throttle when she spied a sheriff's cruiser speeding in the opposite direction. She checked the rearview mirror to make sure the deputy hadn't decided to make a quick U-turn and tail her. “Oh, she'll come, all right. I know she appears kind of stuffy and reserved when you first meet her, but trust me, she'll warm up to you and, if nothing else, curiosity will entice her to the ceremony.”

“I don't know.” Bliss wasn't convinced. She wasn't even sure about Katie's feelings. “Tiffany seemed to resent me.”

“Of course she does, but she'll get over it. I already told you I think she's gonna like you, but give it a little time, will ya? Remember, Bliss, you're the one kid our father claimed. You grew up privileged, while Tiffany and I had to scrape by. Now, it never really bothered me, because I didn't know that John was my father until a little while ago and we had a big happy, if poor, family, but Tiff, she's lived with a real downer of a mother who lied to her, and it sounds like now that she knows the truth, her mom's made no big deal that she's still bitter about it. Never married. Wouldn't take a dime of support from John.”

“How do you know this?” Bliss asked, as Katie cranked on the wheel and the convertible rolled into the driveway of the ranch.

“Mom.”

“Brynnie knew?”

“She and John have always been close and I know that probably bothers you, but…well, there it is…” Her voice faded as she stared through the bug-spattered windshield. “Uh-oh. What's going on?”

Bliss had been looking at her half sister but as she turned, she spied an ambulance, its lights still flashing starkly. Parked at an odd angle near the front door of the house, the white-and-orange emergency vehicle loomed before Bliss like a specter. Her heart nearly stopped. “Oh, God. It's…it's Dad!” she cried, her throat closing and fear congealing her insides. “He's had another heart attack!”

“You don't know anything of the sort—” But Katie stepped on the brakes. The convertible skidded to a stop only feet from the ambulance.

Bliss's heart turned to stone.

Paramedics were wheeling a gurney out of the house. Wheels rattled and creaked, and an ashen-faced John Cawthorne lay on the thin white mattress.

“Dad!” Bliss was out of the car in an instant.

Brynnie, sobbing hysterically, was following close behind the gurney and Oscar was yapping and bounding, confused by all the activity. Horses and cattle grazed lazily, unaffected by all the human drama, and a few of the ranch hands were standing around, grim faced, their hands in their pockets, their cheeks bulging with chewing tobacco. From somewhere—probably the dash of the ambulance—a radio crackled and the entire scene seemed surreal. Bliss's legs felt like lead as she ran toward her father. Her heart was beating a dread-filled cadence and her eyes burned with tears she didn't dare shed.

“What happened? Is he all right? Where are you taking him?” she asked, surprised she wasn't shrieking.

“Slow down and stay out of the way.” The shorter paramedic sliced her a look that brooked no argument. “We're taking him into town, the medical center. If the doctors there think he needs more specific care, he'll be transported to the hospital in Medford.”

The hospital. Mom had died in Seattle General. Dad had nearly lost his life, as well. “Oh, my God.”

“He's gonna be all right,” Katie predicted, but beneath her freckles her skin had turned the color of the sheets draping her father's thin body.

Let him be all right,
Bliss silently prayed as she grabbed one of John's hands.

“Please, miss, stand aside,” the round paramedic with thinning blond hair ordered. Bliss stepped back and let her father's fingers slide through her own.

“I'm his daughter,” Bliss said.

“So am I,” Katie added.

“Just stand back and let the men do their jobs.” Mason was striding from the front porch. Bliss's gaze touched his and she saw fear in his eyes—fear and something else, something deeper and more personal. He looked so big, his shoulders so wide. His jaw was tense, his expression hard and determined.

“Oh, John, I'm so sorry, so damned sorry,” Brynnie wailed as she, still trying to pull on her sandals, followed the attendants. “Not now, dear God, not now!”

“Everyone give us some room!” The paramedics were loading the gurney into the back of the ambulance.

“It's his heart, I just know it. He can't breathe,” Brynnie said, her eyes and nose red.

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 said, 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.”

“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.

“I, uh, saw Dee Dee today,” she said, as much to break the silence as to keep her mind off her father.

“Today?”

“At Tiffany's.”

He checked his watch. “Terri said she'd drop her off for a couple of hours, but it was supposed to be later this evening. Are you sure?” Concentration furrowed his brow as they reached the outskirts of town.

“Yes, I spoke with her.”

“For the love of Mike, that woman!” His mouth flattened over his teeth. “Look, I'll drop you at the clinic, then check on Dee Dee, but I'll be back.”

“Fine,” she said, knowing that he had to look in on his child but feeling disappointed nonetheless. All too quickly she was becoming dependent upon his strength.

At the clinic, Mason gunned the truck into a parking space near the ER entrance. Bliss was out of his pickup before it had completely stopped moving. “I'll be back,” Mason promised, then drove off. Bliss nodded and straightened her shoulders. She'd get through this. Somehow. No matter what happened.

She strode through the automatic doors and found Brynnie, ashen faced, wringing a shredded tissue in her hands. She was seated on the edge of one of the well-used plastic couches in the waiting area.

“How's Dad?” Bliss asked.

“I don't know anything,” Brynnie responded as she dabbed at the corners of her eyes. Mascara ran down her cheeks despite her best efforts. “The paramedics seem to think it was just heatstroke, but the doctors are running tests anyway. Oh, Lordy, Bliss, I don't know what I'll do if I lose that man. I've loved him so long, and now…now that we finally have the chance to be together, he might…” She dissolved into tears, and Bliss, unable to resist, wrapped her arms around the older woman as Brynnie sobbed in earnest.

For all her faults, Brynnie did seem to love John Cawthorne, and Bliss had trouble disliking a woman who cared so deeply.

“I should never have sold part of the ranch to Mason. I thought it would help, but it backfired on me. John will never forgive me.”

“Sure, he will. Mason says he'll sell it back to you.”

“I know, I know, but I'm afraid it's too late. John will never trust me again.”

“Shh. You don't know that.”

“Where is Mason?”

“He had to check on Dee Dee, but he said he'll be back soon.”

“He's a good man, Bliss. No matter what your father says.”

“I know.”

People came and went as the minutes ticked by. After nearly half an hour, Mason returned with his daughter in tow. She looked small and frail beside him; her eyes were wide and wary and stared at Bliss as if she were some kind of oddity.

Mason guided his daughter to a chair by the windows where potted plants were growing in profusion and a rack of well-used magazines was propped against a post. After one last suspicious glance cast in Bliss's direction she dug into her oversize bag and dragged out a thin paperback novel. Mason nodded at Bliss but stayed near his young charge.

“What's taking so long?” Brynnie asked, gnawing on her lower lip.

“Don't worry. It always takes a while. Dad will be fine,” Bliss assured the older woman, all the while wishing she could believe her own words and aware of Mason's gaze boring into her. “He wouldn't miss your wedding for the world.”

Brynnie laughed despite her tears and blew her nose so loudly she woke a baby who was sleeping in his mother's arms in a nearby chair. The mother smoothed the baby's curls and softly hummed a lullaby to quiet the child, who nestled even closer and sighed as his eyelids drooped again.