Love on the Range: A Looking Glass Lake Prequel (13 page)

“Jett, wake up and please tell me what to do,” she whispered, even as her mind raced to piece together a plan of action.

“What you’re doing is good.”

Jett’s rough whisper startled her, and she jerked her head back.

His white face lay motionless, except for a twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“I’m glad you appreciate my concern, cowboy,” she bit out. She dashed at her tears with the back of her hand. Nothing doused panic like a flood of anger.

He started to chuckle, but it ended in a groan that tightened her gut and had her leaning forward again.

Instinctively, she smoothed his hair back again, and stroked his cheeks, soft murmurs of comfort slipping out of her lips.

“Nobody’s ever fussed over me like this.”

She froze, then yanked her hands back.

“Ouch!” He yelped as his head hit the rock under him. “Easy now.” He opened his eyes, a twinkle of humor edging out the pain she’d seen in them earlier.

“Faker.” Marlee folded her arms.

He grunted as he tried to sit up. She watched as his face tightened with pain. He struggled for a minute, then laid back, eyes closed and breath coming hard.

“I’m not helping if you’re going to make fun of me,” she muttered.

“Sorry,” he said. His eyes were still closed, and his voice hoarse. “Trying to distract myself from the pain.”

Marlee swallowed panic. “What hurts?”

She reached for him again. At her touch, tension in his face released and he opened his eyes. The humor was gone, replaced by pure pain. Her throat burned with tears again.

“My shoulder,” he said between slow breaths. “It’s dislocated.”

Marlee’s stomach clenched. “What do we do?”

He looked into her eyes, then, and she had the strange sensation that he was searching for something. Dread twisted her stomach tighter, but she set her chin. She had to be strong for him.

“You need to jerk it back in place.”

Marlee gasped. “No,” she said through stiff lips. “That sounds painful, and I don’t think I can—” She sniffed. “We should get you back to camp with the others, and they’ll know what to do.”

He shook his head and his dark gaze fixed on her, unwavering.

She pressed her lips together and hugged her chest. The adrenaline that had fueled her strike on the rustlers was fading, and her arms and legs trembled. Her muscles were so weak now, the idea of climbing back up on Calamity and riding back to camp seemed impossible. And there was no way she could shove Jett’s shoulder back into its socket.

“Marlee,” he whispered.

She sniffed and swiped at her tears. Behind the pain in his eyes, there was gentleness and strength. She sucked in a breath of frosty pine air. His eyes told her he believed in her.

It felt good. No one had ever looked at her like that. Like she was capable of more than she knew. But still, her gut knotted and turned on itself.

“It will hurt,” she said.

“Yup.” His eyes held her steady.

“I don’t know how,” she whispered. She didn’t want to hurt him. He was irritating. He was arrogant. But he was also…sweet in his own way. She swallowed a lump.

“I’ll show you,” he said. “But I need you to be quick.”

She stiffened and then blew out a calming breath. While he waited for her to muscle up some courage, he was in pain. Yet his eyes held hers with tenderness. They told her that she wasn’t the kind of woman who would sit on the sidelines, no matter how often she doubted her own abilities.

“Ok,” she said. Her voice sounded far stronger than she felt.

“I’ve had this happen before,” he said. He was trying to keep calm, but pain squeezed short breaths out between words. “Kneel next to my side, just under my armpit, and—” He stopped for a moment and breathed hard.

Marlee scrambled on the cold rock with numb and trembling limbs until she was in place.

“Bend my elbow until my arm is extended straight.”

He groaned as she followed his instructions, and she bit her lip.

If this didn’t work, they were going to be in a world of hurt.

“Now, I’m going to relax my muscles as much as I can. You move my arm. Don’t jerk on it. Use a smooth motion and take my wrist. Pull slightly on my arm to give it a bit of tension. Then move it up like you’re having me make a snow angel.”

Marlee took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut in the dark. Tears oozed out. She was a chef, not a paramedic. She was a city-girl, not a tough cowboy.

How in the world had she gotten way out here in the middle of nowhere, attacked by rustlers, and trying to take care of an injured man while freezing to death?

Her pride. That’s how.

“Marlee.” His voice brushed against her softly in the darkness. “You can do this. You’re a lot tougher than you look.”

A sob tore past her lips as she gripped his wrist and then moved his arm up.

He cried out with a tortured groan that stiffened her resolve, and then there was a popping sound.

Marlee tightened her grip. “Did I get it?”

His laughter, full of relief, surrounded her as he tugged lightly, pulling her toward him. His arms closed around her.

“You got it,” he said. His voice sounded stronger now, and he curled his fists in her hair.

Marlee laughed, too, letting relief and the warmth of his arms melt into her shaking body.

* * *

Jett held Marlee close, even though pain lashed through his ribs. He didn’t care that her laughter nudged against his ribcage, intensifying the discomfort.

He pulled back, running his hands over her hair. Her eyes were wet with tears. For him.

As her laughter died, something expectant sparked in those deep brown eyes. He could breathe through his pain, but he wasn’t sure he could muster a single breath with those velvet eyes softening over him.

He wanted to kiss her.

Pull her closer, and feel her sweet lips against his. Wanted to show her with his mouth everything he was thinking and feeling.

But he couldn’t. He had to keep his mind on the job at hand. He was no good to anyone laying there, letting the pain addle his brain into thinking up delirious visions of kissing a feisty brown-eyed chef with wild silky curls.

Nope.

He needed to get himself together. Get them both to safety. And then finish the job of getting the cattle back to the ranch.

He cleared his throat, and shifted. “I think I broke a few ribs,” he said.

Marlee blinked. In an instant, the melted warmth of her chocolate eyes cooled. Carefully, she pulled out of his arms, a flush tinging her cheeks in the light of the campfire.

Oh, man.
He didn’t mean to embarrass her.

It’s just that he couldn’t keep holding her. He’d have kissed her. Already, he was starting to forget why kissing her was a bad idea.

“Anything else hurt?”

He shook his head. “Only a few scrapes and bruises, I think.”

“If your shoulder still hurts, will you be able to ride?”

Jett tightened his mouth. It wasn’t shoulder pain he was dreading. It was the excruciating pain he’d face while bouncing around on Fat Cat with broken ribs.

“No choice,” he said.

He sat up and a piercing wave of blackness and nausea hit him.

He waited a moment, waiting for the ache to subside before he tried to stand.

“Put your weight on me,” she said, sliding her shoulder under his armpit.

He opened his mouth. He wanted to say if he did that, he’d end up squashing her small frame. But the effort and torture to stand was like swimming against a current of agony. It stripped his strength, left him gasping for air, and nearly buckled his knees.

“Good thing we haven’t unsaddled the horses,” she said.

He grunted because there was no way he could get his tongue to work when moving his feet took all his strength.

When they got to Fat Cat, he leaned on the saddle for a moment to catch his breath.

He wasn’t entirely sure how he’d make it up on the big roan.

In the quiet, wind mewled along the rocks around them. By now, the wolves’ calls had subsided somewhat, and even the crickets were still.

“Maybe we should stay here, Jett,” she said. “They probably won’t come back, and we could stay warm enough if we keep a fire going.”

Jett shook his head in the dark.

The air smelled sharp. That meant snow. Tonight.

“Can’t,” he said. “Snow.” He wanted to say more, but that was hard to do with his jaw wired shut from the agony of cracked ribs and a throbbing shoulder.

She stood, quiet and calm by his side, her hand circling in trails of comfort along his back. He looked down at her. In the starlight, her dark eyes seemed larger.

He stifled a chuckle. He’d never been so grateful for pain in all of his life. Because otherwise, he might do something rash and kiss her right there.

He sucked in a breath, put his foot in the stirrup, and mustered all his strength to swing into the saddle. He almost didn’t make it, but Marlee braced him from the ground.

Yeah. That was painful. The ride back to camp was going to be sheer torture.

But they couldn’t stay here.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Marlee drug her battered body into the mess tent to finish the dinner that Fern had started.

Out by the campfire, Fern Aimstock and Crazy Hoss fussed over Jett, rigging a makeshift sling to stabilize his shoulder, and wrapping his ribs tightly.

Marlee rushed through preparations, anxious to get back to the campfire. Fern already had the beans prepped for the fire, so Marlee whipped up a quick batter for cornbread.

Normally, she’d spend more time piddling with seasonings and getting it all just right. But tonight, she was too tired.

And she wanted to get back to Jett.

Sure, he was going to be all right. But still. It would feel better to sit next to him. See him eat. Watch his eyes brighten. See him relax in the warmth of the fire.

Make sure he was okay.

She grabbed the beans and ducked out under the canvas flap.

Jett sat on a log next to the fire. Their eyes locked, and he gave her a tired smile. Fern was tucking a blanket around his shoulders, and Crazy Hoss was wrapping his ribs.

Marlee smiled back and then knelt to nestle the Dutch oven over the coals. A quick boil and then a two-hour simmer, and dinner would be on. Her rumbling stomach reminded her that was a long time to wait.

Especially for a man that could use a pick-me-up right now.

So Marlee headed back to the tent for the green beans Jett had wanted her to leave behind. She also grabbed some bacon, a cast iron skillet, and a handful of dried blueberries she’d spied in one of the drawers of the old chuck wagon.

She came back out with her arms full, and knelt by the campfire. If pioneer women could figure out campfire cooking, so could she.

“…we tried to lose ‘em,” Jett was saying.

Marlee glanced up. Crazy Hoss’s eyes were ready to pop right out of his head and roll down his gray beard. Fern’s mouth hung open, and every single cowpoke around the camp leaned forward.

“Marlee put up a brush fence, and I scrambled up Chimney Point to see if we’d lost them.”

Marlee could feel his eyes on her, but she focused on her task. Balancing the big skillet on two hot rocks of the fire ring seemed to work pretty well. While the skillet heated, she broke the green beans into small pieces with her hands.

She could fall asleep right here by the fire, its warmth melting stiff muscles, with Jett’s voice rolling over her.

“Well, did ya?” Crazy Hoss was impatient for the rest of the story.

Jett shook his head once. “About the time I’d figured out they’d crept in behind us, I realized I’d left Marlee down there alone and defenseless.”

Buck gave a low whistle, and all eyes turned to Marlee.

Ty’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “So ya had to go down and save her,” he said.

“No, sir.” Jett kept a straight face, but Marlee caught a twinkle in his eye.

A warmth that didn’t come from the fire spread through her.

“Well then, what happened?” Crazy Hoss demanded.

“I tried to go down and save her,” Jett said. “But it was dark, and that old rock wall plumb threw me.”

Fern gasped.

Marlee swallowed a grin and snapped a bean. She didn’t know Jett was such a storyteller. She could imagine him around the campfire, telling stories like this to his kids.

“So you pulled yourself together and tussled with a few rustlers,” Ty said. “Took a few wallops to the ribs and a crack to your shoulder and then saved the little lady.” The lanky cowboy grinned, confident in his foreman.

“No, sir.” Jett grinned this time, and Marlee had to look away because her stomach was doing flips and dips.