Montana Wrangler (8 page)

“I, um...” Her cheeks glowed pink again. “Sure. It's got to be better than my cooking. If Grandpa feels up to it. You looked pretty tired when you came back from the trail ride.”

“I'm fine, girl. Not going to turn down a juicy steak when Jay's paying.”

“You got it, old man,” Jay said with a laugh. “I'll go round up Bryan and get myself cleaned up. Say a half hour?”

Paige nodded, and Jay left the house, his footsteps lighter than when he'd arrived. He had to remind himself this wasn't like a real date. It was
family.

He liked that thought, too.

* * *

Paige and Bryan sat in the backseat of Jay's extended cab pickup, Grandpa in the front with Jay. The sensation of being a family, of all going out to dinner together, encompassed Paige like a warm, cozy blanket. Yet this wasn't reality. All too soon she would take Bryan to Seattle. It would be just the two of them.

To shake off the thought, she turned away to look out the truck window. The sun cast lengthening shadows as it headed toward sunset, and when they passed the municipal park, Paige caught a glimpse of Bear Lake. Streaks of gold shimmered across the rippling surface as boats cut through the water.

“Do you like to go boating?” she asked Bryan.

“It's okay, I guess.”

“We've got lots of boating around Seattle. I've got some friends that can take us out on the Sound. We could even try to catch some fish.”

His half lift of one shoulder indicated little interest in her suggestion. She'd have to check online to see what sort of activities were available near her condo for a boy Bryan's age. Otherwise it would be a long, lonely summer for him.

Jay pulled the truck into a parking spot in front of the Pine Tree Diner, a three-story pink building with white trim. A sign on the front window indicated they served authentic Czech dishes, which sounded more interesting than ordinary diner fare.

Paige climbed out of the pickup, an awkward maneuver in a skirt and heels.

Jay held open the restaurant door, and they all filed inside. A pleasant murmur of conversation met them along with the scent of fresh coffee and burgers on the grill.

An attractive blonde wearing a neat white blouse and slacks stepped out from behind the cash register with a handful of menus. Her welcoming smile greeted them.

“Hello, Henry.” She winked at Bryan. “Good to see you, Jay. You haven't been around for a while.”

“Hey, Alisa.” He removed his hat. “How's the new bride doing?”

A blush tinted her cheeks. “Couldn't be better. Nick's a dream, and Mama couldn't be happier having a chef around to share the workload.”

“I bet.” He chuckled and turned to Paige. “This is Krissy's sister from Seattle, Paige Barclay. She's been staying with Henry for a few days. This is Alisa Machak, owner of—”

“Alisa
Carbini
,” the young woman corrected with a smile.

“Yeah, that's going to take some getting used to.”

Alisa's expression turned somber as she greeted Paige. “I'm so sorry about your sister. I'd wanted to get to Krissy's funeral service, but—” Her lips slanted into an expression of apology. “When we're shorthanded, it's hard to get away.”

“Please don't worry about it.” The memory of the funeral tightened Paige's chest. “Pastor Walker performed a very nice service for her. I'm sure Krissy would have been pleased.” That little white lie pained Paige. She had no idea what her sister's feelings were about church, only that she rarely, if ever, attended.

“Now then...” Alisa glanced around at the booths that were covered in bright pink vinyl, most of which were occupied. “Do you want to be seated inside or out on the patio?”

“Let's sit outside,” Grandpa said. “Maybe we'll catch the sunset.”

“You okay with that?” Jay asked Paige.

“That'll be fine.”

Alisa hooked her arm around Bryan's shoulders. “Come on, buddy. I heard you blew everybody away at Game Day yesterday.”

“Yeah, I did.” The boy fell into step with Alisa, relating the details of his grand success.

A twinge of envy pricked Paige as she saw the easy way Alisa interacted with Bryan. Would he ever be that comfortable with her?

The rest of them followed Alisa out onto a lovely patio where tables were set up around a big fire pit, although there was no fire at the moment. A mountain range to the west was caught in the slanting rays of sunlight casting the dips and valleys in shadow.

After seating them, Alisa gave them menus and took their drink orders. “Your waitress will be right with you.”

When she left, Paige asked, “Is she really a newlywed?”

Grandpa flipped open his menu. “Yep, got married just a few weeks ago.”

“They had the reception in the banquet room here at the diner,” Jay said. “You should've seen the layout. Every Czech dish you can imagine. Real goulash and sauerkraut—”

“That tasted gross.” Bryan wrinkled his nose.

“You sure liked the apple strudel, young man,” Grandpa said. “You had three helpings. With ice cream.”

“Yeah, well, I was hungry.”

Grandpa nudged him with his elbow. “Glad you found something to eat or you would have starved, right?”

Bryan ducked his head. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Kid's always hungry,” Jay said. “I caught him once eating a handful of the oats we feed the horses.”

Bryan scowled at him. “Only one bite! I wanted to see if it tasted like oatmeal.”

“Did it?” Paige asked, curious.

“Naw. It was like cardboard. I don't know how they eat that stuff.”

They all laughed, and Paige sat back, enjoying the lighthearted teasing between Grandpa and Bryan, and the way Jay jumped right in as though he was family, too.

With Jay sitting next to her, his arm brushing hers from time to time, the scent of his aftershave teasing her senses, she felt a part of the family, as well. He had a deep, masculine laugh that reached inside her, creating an unfamiliar fluttery feeling. The fact that they were
celebrating
her first solo ride on Peaches tickled her funny bone. She couldn't stop smiling.

As she listened to their banter, she realized dinner conversation had almost been entirely absent in her family. Except when there was something about the hardware store that needed to be discussed. Or when Krissy was in trouble.

She almost envied the years Krissy had lived with Grandpa, particularly while Grandma Lisbeth was still alive.

Glancing around at the other diners, she noted they were mostly moms and dads with children, all of who were laughing and having a good time. She didn't begrudge them their happiness. But her own sense of loneliness, of the lack of deep friendships and a loving family, welled up in her chest.

She quickly repressed the feeling. She and Bryan would be a family. Just the two of them. She vowed they'd be happy together. Bryan might be her only chance to ever be, if not a mother, a woman who had a child to raise and love. At least for a few years.

When the waitress returned, Grandpa asked for a medium-rare steak, Jay ordered a buffalo burger and Bryan had a regular hamburger. Paige splurged, ordering sliced veal in a cream sauce with mashed potatoes and fresh string beans.

As they waited for their dinners, the conversation turned to business and the Bear Lake Outfitters' website.

“You have a website, Grandpa?” Paige hadn't known that or she would have checked it out.

Grandpa nodded. “Yep. Krissy set us up with one and taught me how to keep track of things. We get most of our business from the web these days.”

Beyond surprised, Paige said, “I didn't know Krissy knew anything about computers.”

“She was a smart girl, all right. When she wanted to be.”

“Mom always said I got my smarts from her,” Bryan said. “That's how come I get good grades.” A sense of pride and love rode on the way Bryan sat a little straighter and puffed out his chest.

Paige wanted to reach out and hug him. “I'm sure you got a lot of good things from your mother, honey.”

Their dinner arrived, and they ate in silence for a time. Paige's veal was melt-in-your-mouth tender, the sauce delicious and the mashed potatoes were the creamiest she'd ever tasted. The beans crunched when she bit into them. Elite Hotels would do well to hire the chef from Pine Tree Diner. Although that seemed unlikely since he was apparently married to the owner.

Paige was too stuffed to finish all of her meal, but her three male escorts devoured theirs and ordered fresh apple pie à la mode. Paige had no idea how they could hold that much food.

As they finished the ice cream, Paige noticed Grandpa pressing his hand to his chest. Sweat beaded his forehead. His color had gone gray.

“Grandpa, are you all right?” She started to get to her feet.

“Ate too much.” He pushed back his chair, stood unsteadily for a moment, then crumpled to the ground.

“Grandpa!” she cried.

Both she and Jay reached Grandpa at the same time. Jay pressed his fingers to Grandpa's neck to check his pulse.

“He's still alive.” Jay met Paige's eyes for an instant, telegraphing his concern. Then he snatched his cell phone from his pocket and called 9–1–1.

Please, Lord...
She left her prayer unfinished, knowing God would understand her plea.

Chapter Eight

J
ay followed the ambulance in his truck, Bryan riding with him. Paige rode with Henry and the EMTs.

“Is Grandpa going to die?” Bryan's voice sounded choked with tears he was trying not to shed.

Jay glanced at him. Ever since Henry had collapsed, the kid had been as pale as a rabbit in its winter coat. A pretty scary thing for a youngster of twelve to see.

It was pretty scary for Jay, too. He didn't want to consider what would happen if the old guy passed away. That would be tough on Bryan. And Paige. Losing two family members in less than two weeks would be hard to face.

“I don't know,” he said with honesty. “We'll find out after the doctors get a look at him.”

“First thing the ambulance guy did was put an oxygen mask on Grandpa.” His chin trembled.

“That's a good sign.” Jay tried to reassure Bryan when, in fact, he was more worried about Henry's rapid pulse. It had felt like Henry's heart was trying to launch itself out of his chest. “It means your grandfather was still breathing. He just needed a little help getting enough oxygen.”

Bryan didn't seem entirely satisfied with Jay's answer.

Siren screaming and emergency lights flashing, the ambulance cleared a path down the highway. Jay hung close behind it. He remembered how he had raced Annie to the hospital when she started to bleed rather than wait for an ambulance, and a knot formed in his gut.

They hadn't been able to save her at the hospital.

He prayed to God that Henry would make it.

The ambulance turned onto a side street, slowing only as it reached the emergency entrance to Bear Lake Medical Clinic. A modern two-story building, it served the needs of residents and tourists in a fifty-mile radius.

Jay peeled into the parking lot and found a spot near the main entrance.

He and Bryan walked in through the automatic doors. Jay headed for the information desk. A middle-aged woman wearing a blue volunteer jacket looked up expectantly.

“The ambulance is bringing Henry Stephenson into the emergency room now. Is there any way we can get in there to see him?”

“Are you a relative?”

Jay hooked his arm around Bryan's shoulder. “He's Stephenson's great-grandson.”

She nodded, glanced at Bryan with sympathetic eyes then clicked a few keys on her computer. “We don't have him checked into the system yet. It will be better if you wait here in the lobby until they have him settled. It can get pretty chaotic in there. I'll let you know when it's all right to go in.”

“Okay.” At least Paige was there with Henry. She'd see to it that Henry got the attention he needed.

Jay looked around. An assortment of chairs were arranged facing a television set that was showing a basketball play-off game with the sound muted. Two couples were staring at the screen. A mother sat rocking a baby in her arms.

“Let's find ourselves a couple seats, son. This may be a long wait.”

Bryan scrubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. His shoulders slack, he found himself a chair and plopped himself down.

Jay sat next to him, looped his arm around the boy and gave his shoulder a squeeze. After losing his mother so recently, the wait was going to seem longer to Bryan than it was to Jay.

He wondered how Paige was holding up. She didn't seem the type to get hysterical. Which would be good if Henry got himself all riled up.

Lifting his arm from around Bryan, Jay leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. He lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Lord, if You can see Your way clear to keeping Henry here on Earth for a while longer, I sure would appreciate it. So would a lot of other good people like Bryan and Paige.

* * *

“There's nothing wrong with me!” Grandpa had continually fussed at Dr. Johansen since he had arrived in the emergency room. Despite the oxygen he was getting through his nose, when he drew a deep breath, it wheezed through his chest. Sweat continued to bead his forehead.

Holding his hand, Paige tried to calm her grandfather and not let him see how scared she was. “Let the doctor listen to your heart, Grandpa. He needs to be sure you're all right.”

“I got a little dizzy. Happens to everybody sometimes.”

The doctor cranked up the bed so Grandpa was in a more seated position instead of lying flat on his back. “Getting dizzy only happens to me when I stand on my head too long. Is that what you did, Henry?” The doctor had Henry lean forward so he could put his stethoscope on his back.

“Bah. Your pricking and prodding at me isn't going to help. I'll be fine once I get home.”

The doctor straightened. “I enjoy your company so much, Henry, I think we'll just keep you around for a while. First thing, I'm going to get the portable X-ray machine in here so we can figure out what's going on in your chest.”

“Same thing that's always been going on in there, youngster. What do you expect?” Grandpa groused.

“Behave yourself, Grandpa.” Paige squeezed his hand.

His scowl deepened the lines across his forehead into crevasses.

“The nurse will be here in a minute to take some blood,” the doctor said. “Then we'll get that picture of your chest.”

“Waste of your time and my money,” Grandpa complained.

The doctor stepped out of the curtained cubicle. Paige admonished her grandfather to rest quietly until she returned, then went after the doctor. She had to agree that Dr. Johansen seemed quite young, his boyish face and blond hair giving him a youthful appearance. But she had no reason to doubt his experience or skill.

“Doctor, do you have any idea yet what's wrong with my grandfather?”

He looked up from the notes he was writing on a chart. “I can't be sure of the seriousness of his problem until we get some test results back, but at this point it looks like pulmonary edema.”

Paige felt the blood drain from her face. “That doesn't sound good.”

“It's fortunate you got him to the clinic as quickly as you did. If his heart is causing the edema, then it could be very serious.”

Her own heart plummeted to her stomach. “Is he—”

“Assuming I don't find a heart condition that requires surgery, I think we'll be able to stabilize him within a day or two. Then medication should prevent a further crisis. He's a tough ol' guy.” The doctor smiled, trying to reassure her. “I imagine he's passed down some pretty strong genes.”

Paige wasn't so sure about that.

A nurse wearing blue scrubs went into the cubicle.

“Thank you, Doctor,” Paige said. She followed the nurse in an effort to protect her from the worst of Grandpa's disagreeable disposition.

A few minutes later when the X-ray technician arrived, he asked her to step outside the cubicle. That seemed like a good time for Paige to find Jay and bring him and Bryan up-to-date.

The moment she entered the lobby, Jay was on his feet. His dark brows lowered, reflecting her own concern for Grandpa. She was enormously grateful Jay was there. That she didn't have to go through this alone. That she had someone to lean on. For most of her life, she hadn't had anyone to lean on except herself.

Bryan turned in his chair and looked up at her. His chin trembled.

Paige leaned down to kiss him on the top of his head.

“Can the doctor fix Grandpa?” he asked.

“Yes, honey, Grandpa is going to be fine.” She glanced up at Jay. “They're doing a chest X-ray now and there will probably be more tests. The doctor thinks he has pulmonary edema.”

Jay's Adam's apple bobbed, and he looked away.

Sitting up on his knees, Bryan held on to the back of his chair. “What's pulmonary whatever you said?”

“I'm not quite sure. I think it has something to do with Grandpa not being able to breathe well.” Several times since she'd arrived in Bear Lake, Paige had noticed him gasping for air. She should have forced him to see a doctor then, not wait until it was an emergency. Regret for her failure to take action weighed on her conscience.

“I should've known there was something wrong,” Jay said. “He's so stubborn.” He jammed his fingertips in his hip pockets. “He kept saying it was just old age. I believed him.”

“You're not a doctor, Jay. You couldn't know.” Yet she blamed herself. Ever the
good
daughter.

The nurse who had drawn Grandpa's blood came out of the emergency room. She crossed the lobby to Paige.

“They're going to take your grandfather downstairs for an electrocardiograph and an ultrasound,” the woman told Paige. “After that, they'll admit him to the hospital and take him to a room upstairs.”

“Will we be able to see him then?” Paige asked.

“Of course.” The nurse glanced at Bryan. “It may take a while.”

“We'll wait,” Jay said.

“Maybe you should take Bryan home,” Paige suggested. “It's already late.”

Bryan lowered his brows. “I wanna stay, too. I'm not a baby.”

“No, you're not,” Paige agreed, realizing it was important to Bryan to be treated as an adult when he was so worried about Grandpa.

As she was about to leave, the nurse said, “We have a small chapel just opposite the gift shop.” She gestured toward the rear of the lobby. “It's always quiet there. The pews are quite comfortable. I can tell reception where you'll be.”

Paige thanked the nurse, who then vanished back into the emergency room.

In unspoken agreement, Paige, Jay and Bryan headed for the chapel, a small, intimate room with three short wooden pews on each side separated by a center aisle. Soft music played in the background as they sat down, the cushioned pews as comfortable as the nurse had promised. Paige studied the mural across the front of the chapel—a tranquil scene featuring a quiet valley cut by a winding, placid river and surrounded by soaring mountains covered with stately trees.

“That's beautiful,” she said.

Jay rested his arm across the pew behind her. “It's the river that flows into Bear Lake from the north. It's not far from Henry's place.”

“Someday I'd like to see it in person.”

“I'll take you.”

His offer sent a curl of pleasure through Paige. Sighing, she repressed the feeling and tried to ease the tension in her shoulders.

“Here, let me. Lean forward.” Jay's hands closed over her shoulders. His thumbs gently worked her knotted muscles, circling them, easing the tightness.

She almost groaned aloud relishing his touch. If she could bottle the sensation, she'd take it back to Seattle with her and pull it out on those days when one too many crises at the hotel plagued her.

Except Jay wouldn't really be there massaging her stress away, only her memory of this one time.

Slouched on the pew next to Jay, Bryan said, “Are we supposed to pray or something?”

Guilt flushing her cheeks, Paige quickly straightened. “Would you like to?”

“I guess.”

“Okay. Why don't we all hold hands and you can say a prayer for Grandpa.” She grasped Jay's hand and reached in front of him to take Bryan's. She bowed her head. “You go ahead and start whenever you're ready.”

“Dear God.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I love Grandpa a lot and I don't want him to die. I know he's old and maybe You want him up there with You to take care of Your horses or somethin'. But I'd sure like it if You could leave him here with me for a while.” He sniffed. “Please, God. Amen.”

“Amen,” Paige echoed, tears stinging her eyes.

Jay's “Amen” followed hers, a deep sound that was more a vibration in his chest than a spoken word.

* * *

An hour or so later, Dr. Johansen arrived in the chapel. Paige, Jay and Bryan, who had been dozing, gathered around him.

“I've sedated Mr. Stephenson, and he's resting comfortably in his room now.” The doctor's white jacket looked wrinkled and his eyes seemed tired.

“What did the tests tell you?” Paige asked.

“Definitely pulmonary edema, but I can't be definitive yet about the heart's involvement. We'll do some more tests in the morning. Meanwhile, I've ordered medication for his high blood pressure and a diuretic to reduce the buildup of fluid around his heart.”

Paige imagined Grandpa would hate taking the pills. He'd always refused to admit any weakness.

“When can Grandpa come home?” Bryan asked.

“If all goes well, I'd say a couple days.” The doctor's smile softened as he answered Bryan. “Guess you're going to miss him, huh?”

“Yes, sir. He's a real good grandpa.”

“I'm sure he is,” the doctor said.

“Can we go see him?” Bryan asked.

Recognizing the boy's distress, Paige rested her hand on his shoulder. “He's sleeping now. We can come back to see him tomorrow.”

The faint sound of a siren penetrated the quiet of the chapel. Dr. Johansen checked his pager. “I think it would be fine if you went up to your grandpa's room for just a minute. If you'll excuse me.”

“Of course, Doctor,” Paige said. The poor man was having a busy night in the emergency room.

Jay got Grandpa's room number from the receptionist, and they walked up the stairs to the second floor. As the doctor had indicated, Grandpa was asleep. He was still getting extra oxygen and he'd been hooked up to a heart monitor. The green line tracked across the screen, the rhythmic heartbeat reassuring.

“I can see his chest going up and down,” Bryan whispered. “That means he's breathing, right?”

Jay pointed to the monitor. “That bouncing line says his heart's beating, too. Your grandpa is doing fine, son.”

Paige wished she could be as confident as Jay about Grandpa's health. At the age of eighty-five, any heart condition could put him in a perilous situation.

Who would take care of Grandpa if he became incapacitated?