Someone To Watch Over Me (Harlequin Super Romance) (11 page)

“Hold still, you she-devils,” he ordered in a quieter tone than he would’ve used had Isabella not been in the outer room.

One nanny approached him, seeming to react favorably to the softer rumble of his voice. So he kept talking to her, and thought he had it made even though his knees creaked as he reached for a swinging teat. Quick as lightning, two sharp hooves hit Gabe smack in the chest. Once more he landed flat on his butt in the corner.

Sore, aching and growing damned tired of coming out on the short end, Gabe shrugged out of his coat, dropped it over the smallest goat’s head and man-handled her crossways into a corner. There, he proceeded to fill his glove, although it took him several tries to get the hang of it and the rhythm of coaxing milk from the nanny’s full udder.

Triumphant—and sore—Gabe practically strutted back to Isabella with his prize.

“Gabe, good. The other lambs have drained my glove dry. I can’t get the one you brought in to eat much at all. Do you mind letting me have the glove you just filled and go fill mine for yourself?”

Battered and bruised he might be, but could Gabe refuse Isabella Navarro anything when she asked so sweetly? Not on your life. Gathering his resolve, he blithely handed over the glove he’d almost killed himself to fill. He took the empty one from her, knowing that to repeat the process again meant doing battle with nanny number two. She was bigger and had butted him out the stall door.

Isabella’s thanks followed Gabe. He was damn glad his buddies weren’t around to see this insanity. He’d never hear the end of their ribbing.

Tarrying outside the stall, Gabe wondered if anyone had ever been killed trying to milk a goat. Since his
jacket already smelled, he chose to use the same method to subdue nanny number two.

She was older and wiser. She promptly threw off Gabe’s suit coat, grabbed it up in her mouth and shook it wildly as she raced around and around the stall. Before Gabe was able to snatch back his jacket, she dropped it on the floor and stomped on it with both feet. When she tired of that exercise, she lowered her head and munched contentedly on one sleeve.

“Hey!” Gabe’s protest was met with stony indifference. “Ah, what the hell?” His jacket was already ruined. Sidling up to the little witch, Gabe dropped down on one knee and, ignoring the bucket he’d brought in again, he felt around with one hand and eventually squirted milk straight into the opening at the top of the glove.

So, he became the conqueror again. Or maybe not, since it had cost him a chunk of machismo, and an Armani suit coat.

Still, he felt good about his victory when he walked back to where Isabella sat. At first he didn’t notice that his arrival had made no impression on her.

On second glance, Gabe noticed that she not only sat as silent as if she’d been carved from stone but that she’d dropped her rubber glove. Lambs were tugging and pulling and fighting over it. Milk spread across the hay all around Isabella’s knees. Her one pant leg was soaked.

Gabe had tied the top of his glove closed. He carefully propped it against a piece of farm equipment sitting off to the side.

“Isabella? Are you okay?” Gabe sank down in front of her, heedless of the sharp pains that reminded him of his encounter with Herman.

She opened her eyes and raised them ever so slightly. If Gabe thought he’d been stabbed through the heart when they’d first met, seeing the pain-filled expression in her dark eyes, this time was far worse. Her pain had risen to the surface and was stark and immediate.

Mere moments later, he realized her fingers were flexing almost madly in the woolly coat of the lamb she’d been trying to feed.
The limp body of a now-dead lamb.

“Oh, Isabella,” Gabe murmured, as he tried to remove the lifeless animal from her arms. “It’s not your fault. You did your best to save him.”

She snatched her hands back so fast, Gabe was left grasping air. Still without word, Isabella cradled the creature to her breast and began a distraught keening. It was a tortured, gut-wrenching sound. Gabe didn’t know how in God’s name to help her.

Instinct said that someone who hurt this badly needed holding. Considering the distance she always maintained between them, Gabe didn’t know if he should be the one to offer comfort. But right now there was no one else.

When he managed to get his feet under him, Gabe reached out slowly, so as not to startle her. Curling his hands around her upper arms, he rose with her, little by little. His knees screamed, but something stronger drove him.

What struck him was how little meat she had on her bones, and how she weighed next to nothing for a woman of her height. Taking greater care once they were both standing, he wrapped her and the inert lamb in a gentle embrace. And he rocked her from side to side, crooning nonsensical words close to her ear, just
loud enough for her to hear him over the sound of her distress.

She shivered violently, yet he knew it was warm enough in the barn to have dried his wet clothing. Clearly, Isabella’s coldness came from deep inside her. From the very depths of her soul.

It crossed Gabe’s mind that he should be relieving her of the lamb. But he didn’t know what the procedure was on the Navarro ranch for disposing of dead sheep. In an operation the size of theirs, he thought it’d probably be fairly common to lose animals for any number of reasons. And he doubted Isabella’s reaction was solely because of the lamb.

As her shivering lessened, Gabe discovered his inclination had been right. Over and over she moaned, “They’re not moving. Not breathing. My children,” she said pitifully. “Julian did this. He couldn’t have me, so he took what I loved most. My babies!” The sounds wracking her body grew more desperate.

“Shh.” Cupping her head in one hand, he tried to ease her agony.

Suddenly the barn door opened. Joseph Navarro, Isabella’s second-oldest brother, swept in on a shower of icy sleet. “What’s this? What’s going on here?” he demanded sharply, charging toward Gabe.

“Back off,” Gabe spat, sharper still. “A lamb your sister was feeding, a little bit of a thing, died on her.”

Easing back, Gabe studied Isabella’s face. She remained locked in pain from another time. From another place. He didn’t think she knew Joe had arrived. “I’m no psychiatrist, Joe, but I think the death of the lamb triggered memories of when she found her kids. I only did what I thought was best. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been alone with anyone when something
like this occurred. In the military, we had nurses and doctors to handle PTSD incidents. At least, I think what she’s going through is sort of like that. Post traumatic stress disorder,” he said when Joe looked blank. “Flashbacks,” Gabe tried again.

“Right. The doctor warned us she might have those. Jeez, Poston, you should’ve taken the lamb away from her,” Joe hissed, his voice dropping nearly to a whisper.

“I tried. She’s holding on for dear life.” Gabe continued to rock her from side to side.

“How long do these type of episodes last? Shall I go get Papa?” Joe was close enough now to hear the wounded-animal sounds his sister made.

Gabe shook his head. “Maybe your mom. She’s at the house, Angel said.”

“Yeah. Probably the doctor told her what to do. I’ll go get her and be right back.” Joe flew out the door.

Gabe tried again to pry the lamb out of Isabella’s arms. This time her fingers went slack, and he succeeded.

He’d have to leave her long enough to take care of the poor creature. But because Isabella began shivering uncontrollably again, he quickly wrapped the lamb in the soft towel she’d used to dry the animal earlier. Then Gabe placed the bundle well away from the lambs that remained underfoot.

Not really caring what Mrs. Navarro might think about finding her daughter locked in a near-stranger’s arms, he enfolded her again.

“I’m s-ooo c-c-cold.” Her teeth chattered.

Gabe was afraid to squeeze her any tighter for fear of cracking her fragile bones. Nevertheless, he turned
up the collar on her denim jacket and drew his own tattered coat over her shoulders.

She wasn’t shaking quite so hard when Luisa barreled through the door followed by Trini.

“Gabe. I didn’t realize you were back.” Trini sounded pleased about the discovery.

“I blew in on this storm. Mrs. Navarro, has Isabella ever suffered a spell like this before?”

Nodding, Luisa snapped her fingers at Joe. She barked out orders in rapid Euskera.

It was only when he approached and stripped Gabe’s jacket from around his sister that Gabe realized Joe intended to wrap her in a heavy wool blanket.

Joseph Navarro, a man with large hands, tenderly cocooned his sister from head to toe. He picked her up as if she weighed nothing and strode out the door, his mother hot on his heels. That left Gabe alone with Trini.

No longer responsible for Isabella’s care, Gabe felt his own knees wobbling. “She’ll be all right, won’t she?”

Trini glanced first at the door, then back at Gabe. “You do know about her children?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “But Isabella. Will she be okay?”

“She found them, you know. Came home after work, hit the garage door opener and boom, there they all were.”

Gabe felt his stomach heave. “God, Trini. How can you sound so matter-of-fact about something so awful? I can’t begin to imagine what that was like for her.”

“It was horrible. For the whole family. And it’s going to get worse, I think, the closer it gets to Julian’s trial.”

“I’m surprised they’re trying him. Anyone who’d do something like that is certifiably insane.”

“Don’t let Bella hear you say that. She’s determined to see Julian get a hundred years in prison.”

Gabe pondered Trini’s explosive admission. “I don’t blame her. For what he did, he should fry. But we don’t fry crazies. And won’t he be as safely put away in an asylum?”

“To you and me, yes. Not to Bella.”

“I don’t understand.” Gabe rubbed the back of his neck.

“But you’d like to. You care a lot about my sister, don’t you?”

Gabe’s fingers stilled. “Angel asked me to help Isabella feed orphaned lambs—he said I wasn’t dressed to work outside. He gave me a lamb to bring in. Isabella was feeding it when it died. I’ll bury him, if you tell me where.”

“Tonight?”

Gabe inclined his head.

Trini crossed her arms in a speculative manner. “Angel’s right. You aren’t dressed for working outside. Which includes digging a hole in half-frozen ground at 2:00 a.m.”

“I’ll go home first and put on jeans and boots, and a fleece-lined jacket.”

Trini tilted her head. A small dimple winked in one cheek. “Stubborn,” she announced. “You’re a lot like Bella, I think.” She bent over and picked up the glove her sister had been using to feed the lambs—the one whose milk had spilled. “Go on, Gabe. Bury the lamb. I’ll carry on here.”

“I’m coming back,” he said, donning his pathetic excuse for a jacket. “When I do, will you go check on
Isabella for me? I won’t rest until I know she’s doing better.”

“Mama has medicine to give her. It makes her sleep. I recommend you go grab some, too. Sleep, I mean. Although John probably left the house a mess. Maybe you won’t want to sleep there until after your housekeeper cleans the place.”

Gabe halted in his tracks. “Housekeeper? I haven’t hired one.”

“How much would you pay?” Trini assessed him as if seeing him in a new light.

Gabe hesitated. Was she offering to clean his house? Nah. Surely her family wouldn’t approve. He supposed Trini could be inquiring for a friend. “I’ll pay the going rate for the area. Do you know someone?”

“Me. I’ll start tomorrow. I have a shortened class schedule on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. And I’m free all day on Saturday unless Bella caters a party or a wedding. I wanted her to give me extra hours, but she can’t afford to at the moment.”

“Uh, Trini. I thought you asked what I’d pay because maybe you knew someone who does housework for a living.”

“Oh, don’t look so terrified. I’ll do a good job, and I promise not to chase you around the bed.” She grinned cheekily.

“Somehow I doubt your parents would approve under any circumstances.”

“I’m twenty-five, Gabe. I live at home to save money while I’m getting my Master’s. I’m behind schedule because I took a hiatus from school and bummed around California for a while. But I know what’s bugging you. You’re worried what Bella will think.”

“No. And no to your offer.” Gabe turned away and walked over to where he’d left the lamb. “I recall John had some wood crates on his back porch. The ground under that big old fir tree out in the back yard should be fairly dry, don’t you think? If anyone asks, that’s where I’m burying this little guy.”

Trini Navarro’s amused chuckle followed Gabe out the door. He was glad to escape. He’d met his share of women like Isabella’s sister. She wasn’t interested in him personally, probably even considered him too old for her, which he was. But she was born to flirt and make mischief.

Bracing for the elements, Gabe was happy to see the storm abating. The wind was still cold as sin. Even at that, he decided to bury the lamb before he changed clothes.

Floodlights ringed the perimeter of his house and provided all the light he needed. He’d been right about the old tree; the ground under the branches was dry. Gabe knew the animal had been largely a symbol to Isabella. Yet he felt she’d want him to take special pains with this particular lamb. It seemed fitting to him, too.

Gabe’s fingers froze, but he got the job done. Only then did he go inside the warm house to shower and change.

He gave silent thanks to John Campos for leaving the furnace on low. Once he was warm and dry and comfortable again, Gabe trekked back across the road. He decided against making Trini his go-between and veered off to knock on the Navarros’ back door.

Luisa answered, and waited while Gabe removed his hat. “Gabe. I almost didn’t recognize you. You
changed your clothes, and now you look like my menfolk.”

“I’m headed out to help with the sheep. But first, I’d like to know how Isabella’s doing.”

“She’ll be fine. One of us should’ve anticipated that this could happen. She loves the lambs so. We all do, but they were always more precious to Bella. We shouldn’t have left her alone.”