Black Hills Angel (Black Hills Series) (22 page)

"Geez! So that was the smell!" She laughed and Matt playfully pushed her to the side. "Go on! I will keep an ear out for trouble."

"Yeah, yeah! It takes one to know one." Matt responded in his cheeky banter. It felt good to let some of the darkness and heavy weight go.
Even if only for the moment.

The shower and shave flew by in record time. He was super careful not to knick himself with the razor. His mind still strayed to Andy and Harper. Thinking of them, wanting to be with them, and loving them seemed to come so naturally. They were his little family. A family he needed. His heart lifted thinking of them and he quickly threw a pair of shorts on and slipped a t-shirt over his head as he went down the stairs. He could hear Nora and Garrett talking in the kitchen. He could smell the pizza. His stomach rumbled. Hospital food had done very little for his appetite.

Stopping at the spare room door, Matt stuck his head in to tell Andy the food was here. He clipped the words off before they came out. Blue eyes widened as they took in a moment he would remember forever. His heart thumped in a steady, dominating thud. Coming closer to the bed, he took a deep breath and smiled softly. Both of his girls were asleep; Andy with her fingers in Harper's hair, and Harper with her arms outstretched. He leaned over the bed to place a gentle kiss on Harper's forehead and then on Andy's.

"Sweet dreams." It was a heartfelt whisper that seared his soul. Matt turned with a smile and left the room.

***

Five days after the accident and two days since being released from the hospital, Andy was about ready to climb the walls! She prided herself on being a fairly even tempered person, but it took all of her self-control to lay in the bed. Yet
another
talk show was on! If it wasn't a talk show, it was one of the many soap operas that played out in much the same fashion as her own life had. It shocked her! Girl falls for man. Guy is still attached to former lover. Former lover tries to kill Girl. Girl gets hurt. Guy suddenly realizes he loves Girl. Guy and Girl never live happily ever after. Andy frowned. If she didn't know better, she might think even the cable company was out to drive her insane.

She growled. A caged, wild tiger might be less unhinged than she was right at this moment. She huffed again, rocketing a small throw pillow across the room. Grimacing at the tender twinges that surrounded her chest, Andy swung her legs off of the mattress and planted her feet on the floor.
Ouch!
Deep breathing was not quite up to par.
Bruised ribs!
Her crabby conscience reminded her repeatedly that things would not right themselves over night.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" A male voice groaned from the doorway. Andy daggered him with her eyes as she pulled herself up straight. Garrett shook his head in exasperation.

"I can't stand this! This is driving me insane. I can literally feel my brain cells dying, Garrett!" Her expressive green eyes pleaded for him to understand. Sad thing was he probably did understand. Matt had left Garrett to babysit Andy while he took Harper with him to the grocery store. Matt's older brother was a good guy, but he was at a loss as to how to object to Andy moving around.

"You need rest; that is what the doctor stressed. Just lay down and take a nap. You will feel better after you do." Garrett waved his hand at the bed, trying to shoo her back into her temporary
prison
! She narrowed her eyes and growled at him. She fought the urge to giggle as Garrett's dark brows disappeared into his hair line. They stared at each other for a minute.
Stand down and no one gets hurt.

"I can't go back in there." Andy braced a hand against the door jamb; half blocking and half holding herself upright. She cradled her left side with her right hand.
Remember to take more ibuprofen
. Garrett glanced at her hand on the door and the other on her side. He huffed and finally tilted his head to the side.

"Fine. Do you feel like taking a short walk?" He turned towards the front door. "I need to grab the mail." Garrett didn't look to see if she was following him, which of course, she was. Pausing by the front door to help her slip her bare feet into her flip flops, Andy was grateful for his thoughtfulness. Garrett's tall six foot-three stature made him appear almost a giant. He was much broader than Matt and that too made him look menacing. He wasn't, she thought. He was the proverbial teddy bear and a bear with a temper if he were provoked.

Sandals on her feet, Andy walked slowly through the front door that Garrett held open for her.

"Thank you." She smiled at him when he only shook his head again. He stayed right beside her. He could have lengthened his stride and left her struggling to keep up, but he measured out his steps to match her own. The silence might have been uncomfortable had it been so. Garrett was a quiet man, who spoke volumes in his own way. She didn't feel the need to fill the air with endless chatter and she didn't feel the need to buffer against him. It was nice to know he was there.

Turning her attention to the bright afternoon sunshine, Andy registered the chill that hung in the air. Almost the end of September, South Dakota experienced an autumn quickly and then it fully immersed its landscape and inhabitants in winter. When the exact date was no one knew for sure, but even the squirrels were amping up their efforts to store food for the colder months. One such busy squirrel bolted from the yard and Garrett grumbled something about finding a pellet gun. Andy grinned.

"They are so cute." Andy threw him a sly smile and Garrett shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"They are a pain in the
ass
. Stupid rodents make a mess of the backyard trees." Garrett gestured over the six foot tall privacy fence. She giggled at his candor and felt relaxed for the first time in the last five days. She needed a friend; preferably one who didn't need to analyze everything. Nora was wonderful and caring, but she had to know how Andy felt
all
the time.
Sometimes you just need the quiet.
Apparently, Garrett was her go-to man. It was only a couple more feet to the large black steel mailbox at the curb. Andy reached out and pulled the curved handle open. A jumble of letters and a large manila envelope was crammed inside.

"For you." Andy gave Garrett the heavy envelope and he busied himself with tearing it open. "Anything good?" She asked him as he shuffled through the papers. Garrett shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Just new requests and plans from the golf course job. I swear these guys are going to change their minds every chance they get." He grumbled as he shoved the papers back inside the envelope. The newest golf course build had been a singular focus for Garrett and Matt's company. It meant a huge upgrade of clientele and it also meant more flighty investors.

"It will be amazing when it's done and then you can brag that you built it!" Andy tried to put some positivity back into the universe. She wasn't the most positive, forward thinking person, but she believed in karma. Hopefully if she
tried
to put good things out into the world, good things might actually start coming back to her.
Preferably before I am too old to remember them!
Andy grimaced. It might be better said than done in her case.

"Anything good in there?" Garrett gestured to the pile of envelopes in her hands. It jolted her from her day dreams and she shuffled through them, handing Garrett his mail as she sorted.
Bill. Bill. Sweepstakes. Bill.
Garrett was opening each letter as she handed them to him so his attention was elsewhere when she ran across a soft pink envelope with very familiar cursive writing. Her heart skipped, dangerously on the edge of stopping.
Mom.
She knew that writing anywhere. Her hand trembled as she slid her fingertips along the seam. Almost afraid to touch it, let alone believe it was real had Andy at a standstill.
Sweet and merciful saints!
How could they know where she was?

"What do you have there? Andy?" Garrett's voice was interested, but his face was confused as she glanced at him from the corner of her vision. He tipped the edge of the envelope and growled.

2416 Blue Veil Drive, Calliwell, Illinois.

No return names; just the address.

"
Sonofabitch.
" Garrett let go of her mail, but he didn't step away from her. With stilted steps, she turned and made her way back to the house. It barely registered that Garrett was beside her. Once again she was thankful for his silence, but she could almost feel his mental cussing. Why, she didn't know, but she was going to find out.

She felt like she was standing at a great abyss; its chasm deep and uninterrupted. Wishing she could take a deep breath, Andy sat on the corner of the mattress facing the large set of small paned windows. The sheer green curtains blocked direct view, but still allowed the sunshine to filter inside. More landscape pictures hung on the cream walls that connected to the light wood floor. She tried to lose herself in the rambling creek with clean, clear water cutting through the lush green grass. Pine trees hemmed the creek in, but still it flowed with beautiful confidence. The creek, trees and grass had a place that they belonged and thrived. She couldn't help but feel that she still didn't know where her confidence was or if she was even brave enough to find it.

"Hey babe! Garrett said you wanted to talk to me." Matt stood in the doorway, staring at her back. Andy gritted her teeth, squeezing the unopened envelope in her hands. "Are you all right?"

She could hear his footsteps as he came further into the bedroom. His boots clicked on the wood. The silence stretched her nerves to the breaking point and she let the anger flow through her.

"Why the
fuck
did you not tell me? Did we not just do this days ago?" Anguish broke free of its moorings inside her and every word took a superhuman effort to say. Her whole body trembled.

"What do you mean?" Matt's voice was soft, almost imperceptible with the ringing in her ears. Standing up and pivoting, grimacing at the pain, Andy threw the envelope onto the bed. It looked bright against the cream quilted bed spread. His blue eyes flickered from her own to the envelope and back to hers again. "
Christ!
" He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Andy, the nurse told me they didn't know how bad you were. They strongly suggested that I let your family know."

"You couldn't WAIT to see what they had to say? I've told you how it is with them and still you contacted them?" Andy yelled out, emotion nearly choking her. She swallowed hard. Matt shook his head, looked at the envelope again, and stuff his hands back into his front pockets.

"Damn it, Andy, I was so worried that you would die! You were hit by a
fucking
car! What did you expect me to do? Wait patiently in the waiting room for them to tell me you weren't coming back and Harper didn't have a mother anymore?" Matt howled back at her. Blue eyes sparking in the hottest flame. His chest heaved with the effort to pull on the reins. Andy wasn't afraid. She was angry, confused, and hurt.
How could he do this to her again?

"It was your
psycho
ex-girlfriend that tried to kill me!" She couldn't think of anything to throw at him, except something that he truly had no control over and even then had tried to control. She didn't care if it sounded unreasonable. She was furious with everything that had happened.

"
God,
I know, Andy. I know." His anger bubbled, brimming near the edge. She could feel it.

"I am sick, Matt! I am so tired of taking people's shit and dealing with it!" Word vomit. It burbled past her lips faster than her mind could translate. All the anger, desolation, anxiety and pain was boiling over and Matt was the unsuspecting target. Her chest heaved as she tried to take an adequate breath. She felt light-headed, but still she stood her ground.

"Don't blame me for it, Andy! Don't trample our feelings, because you don't know how to deal with it!" Matt was hurt. He was lashing out as good as he got. He advanced a few feet towards her and stopped. The room fairly crackled with their energies.

"You bastard, of course, you are to blame!  If I had never met you, I wouldn't be hurting like hell. I wouldn't be so pissed off at the world. I wouldn't be..." A sob broke over the last of her words and her voice wouldn't say what had very nearly slipped. Matt surged forward, grasping her roughly by the upper arms.

"Say it, damn it! Say it! You wouldn't be what?" His voice was just below yelling, but the intensity was still there. Andy's vision blurred with tears and she swallowed as the flood rushed down her cheeks.

"I wouldn't be...in love...with you." The roaring hushed in her ears. Matt pulled her mouth hard against his own. It was all teeth, tongue, lips and tears. She tried to breathe. Pain ripped through her heart, her soul, and her poor bruised body.

"Ow!" She exclaimed as Matt gathered her tight against his body. Immediately he released her from his death grip.

"Shit! I'm sorry, Andy." Desperate to still feel her touch, he leaned his forehead against hers. Their ragged breathing was testament to their fierce emotions so close to the surface. Andy felt exhausted. Closing her eyes, she rested against him despite her aching ribs. His hands wandered softly along her hips, gently over her ribs, and up around the back of her shoulders. His palms flattened over the boney blades.