Texas Bossa Nova (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 5) (6 page)

Shivering now, he was glad when the last stick of wood landed on the top of the pile.

“Done,” he said. He looked at Magda, still the sexiest woman he’d ever known. “Thanks for your help. You were right. Two people made the work go much faster.”

She slapped her hand over her chest and batted her eyelashes. “Why, Reno. I think that’s the nicest thang you’ve said to me since I got here.” Her words were spoken in a slow, drawn-out Southern twang. He couldn’t help it. He laughed.

“Come on. I’ll help you down.” He moved to the truck gate and held up his arms.

“I’ve got it.”

“It’s slick down here. Don’t be stubborn. Let me help.”

Blowing out a loud sigh, she leaned over and let him lift her to the ground. If hearing her laugh and eating her food was bad, touching her was sheer hell. Although her coat was thick leather, his hands could still find the indentation at her waist. And even when she was safely on the ground, his fingers didn’t want to unwrap, didn’t want to release the treasure they held.

Surprisingly, she didn’t push him away or try to step from his grasp. Her gaze rose until it met his. Her green eyes reflected the confusion he felt. They stood frozen, staring into each other’s faces. Reno lifted his hand and, using his thumb, wiped the sleet off her lips. For a second, he felt her press her cheek into his hand, but then it was gone.

She stepped back. “Okay, then,” she said, huffing out a breath. “Got us some firewood for a while.”

“I’ll park the truck. Why don’t you go ahead and get warm?”

“Going.” Whipping around on her heel, she marched around the corner of the house. He heard the front door slam after she let herself inside.

Nope. This was not going to work at all.

Chapter Seven

Magda took a moment to lean against the front door. She’d been so close to rising to her toes and kissing Reno. Of course, he wouldn’t have pushed her away. He was a Montgomery. They took what they wanted, and she was sure he’d enjoy a nice roll in the sack with her.

God. Her mind flashed back to May and the Montgomery Memorial Day party. They’d snuck off behind the barn to a grove of shade trees and hedges. He’d pushed her against a tree. Sucked her breasts like a starving man. Jerked her shorts and panties down and off her. Wrapped her leg around his waist as he’d driven into her.

Each thrust had been hard and fast, slamming her into the bark at her back. Each stroke had been accompanied with his groan of pleasure. The memory of his eyes flashing to hot and wild as he took her made her wet even now. And then there was the way the sweat that collected in the dip right above his ass cheeks felt when she stroked down his back to his firm and luscious butt.

She shivered, but not from the cold. In fact, the heat between her thighs was downright scorching.

A hot shower seemed to be what she needed right now, although a cold one might do better at addressing her out-of-control libido. She pushed off the door and headed toward her bath. Hot shower won the argument.

If only she had a handheld shower massager, she could take care of her hot areas and her cold areas at the same time.

Like the chicken she was, she hid out in her bedroom the rest of the evening. She had her own television in there. And a comfortable bed. And a chair. And all her books, so it wasn’t as though staying in her room was a punishment of any sort. And it was easier than confronting and restraining her lust.

Yeah, she was a chicken shit.

Something jarred her awake. She looked at the clock. Two a.m. She jumped when a fist pounded on her door.

“Magda.” It was Reno’s voice.

“I’m up. Come in.” She sat up in bed and pulled the covers up over her breasts, although she didn’t know why. The man had seen all she had to offer. Hell, he’d seen and tasted every inch of her body.

The door swung open. Dressed in jeans, a shirt and boots, he looked ready for work, if the boots had been his work boots rather than his nice ones.

“What’s up?” She looked at the clock again to see if maybe she’d misread the time and had overslept. Anyone who knew her well knew that she wasn’t really a morning person. It’d been one of the stressors of this job. The other stood directly in front of her.

“The hospital just called. Darren’s had an accident.”

Magda pushed the covers off and leapt from the bed. “How bad is he?”

“Don’t know. The nurse wouldn’t tell me much over the phone except I needed to come.”

“Give me five minutes. I’m going with you.”

His mouth opened as though he were going to object, but in the end, he nodded and left. Less than five minutes later, Magda hurried from her room. Reno stood at the back door, hat in hand, boot tip tapping. The minute he saw her, he threw open the door and headed for his truck with Magda close on his heels.

Luckily, the temperatures had drifted up to a pleasant thirty-seven, so the roads were wet but with no ice.

Magda was no stranger to speeding. She pretty much considered posted speed limits as suggestions. Tonight, Reno paid no mind to posted speeds or wet conditions or any cop car that might roll in their path. He hit the D&R drive with the gas pedal to the floor and kept it there until he turned into the hospital parking lot. Still, the drive to Whispering Springs Hospital seemed to take a lifetime.

They dashed into the lobby, stopping short when they found Drake Gentry, Reno’s brother-in-law, standing in the lobby.

“I was sent to bring you up to the surgery waiting room. Come on.”

“What’s happening? How bad is he?” Reno asked in a tone that demanded answers.

“I can’t really tell you much. KC and I got here first. She went up and I stayed in the lobby to direct family upstairs. You’re the last one to arrive.”

Reno’s jaw hardened. Magda suspected he was cussing himself for living so far away. The rest of the Montgomery clan could make it to the hospital in under forty-five minutes with the gas pedal floored. She’d bet her eyetooth he was feeling guilty about something he had no control over.

Being twins, Reno and Darren were much closer than many siblings. She’d seen it in action. At meals, it was common for one to finish the sentence of the other. Disagreements were rare. She had no doubt that they would fight to the death for the other. Losing Darren would destroy Reno.

The elevator doors opened on the second floor and Reno rushed through, hurried to find his family and get some news.

Magda followed behind, no less anxious but giving Reno the space he appeared to need.

As she arrived in the waiting room, she heard Dr. Caroline Graham-Montgomery say, “The break is bad, Reno. I’m not going to lie to you. He’s going to be in the hospital for a while. Luckily for him, he was wearing his seat belt so he wasn’t thrown through the truck’s windshield. However, a leg break like this is serious.”

“So how serious? What are they doing to him in surgery?”

“He broke both the tibia and the fibula.” She pointed to her shin. “These bones here. The one in the front is the tibia, and the one we are the most concerned with. When the eighteen-wheeler hit Darren’s truck and broke his leg, a piece of the tibia was shoved through his skin. We call it an open fracture. You following me?”

Reno nodded. Magda didn’t like how pale his face had become and thought he looked a little unsteady on his feet.

“Maybe he’d better sit down while you explain this,” Magda said. “I know I’m still digesting all this after being awakened from a deep sleep and making a frantic drive down.”

“I’m fine, Magda,” he snapped.

“Actually,” said Caroline, “I think she’s right.” She slipped her hand through her cousin-in-law’s arm and made him take a seat with the rest of the Montgomerys gathered there.

“As I was saying, the orthopedic surgeon felt the best course of action was to take Darren to surgery to clean out the open wound. There was a lot of dirt and grease in it. The worst thing that could happen now would be an infection. We want to avoid that at all costs. Understand?”

“Yeah. I’m with you. So what’s next? A cast?”

“Not in this case. Since Dr. Jackson had to take him to surgery and clean out the wound, and given the severity of the break, he is doing what is called an open reduction and internal fixation. That means he’s exposing the bone and moving the fragments back into the correct alignment. Then he’ll put a metal plate along the tibia to hold those pieces in the right places. He’ll put screws in above and below the break to hold the metal plate on.”

“And what about long term? Is he going to be crippled from this?”

Caroline responded with a smile, the first one since she’d started explaining what was going on with Darren. Reno’s shoulders relaxed, only slightly, but Magda knew him well enough to see the comfort he took in Caroline’s expression.

“Nope. It’ll be stronger than ever. But he has a long road ahead of him. It’s going to take at least three months to heal, maybe longer. And he’ll have to go through physical therapy to get all his strength back, but he’ll get there.”

Reno’s eyes widened. “Mom and Dad.” His gaze swung to his sister beside him. “KC, you’ve called them, right?”

She put her arm around him. “I called. They’ll be here in the morning. There’s nothing they can do tonight, so I told them not to charter a private plane. No reason to. Besides…” she swept her arm around the waiting room and sea of Montgomerys standing and sitting there, “…I assured her that we have loads of family support.”

“Yeah.” A long breath escaped. He raked his fingers through his hair. “Thank you all for coming.”

Caroline stood. “I’m heading back into surgery to see how it’s going. I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything more than what I’ve told you.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” She leaned down to hug his shoulders. “Hang in there. Darren is in the best hands I know.”

He nodded.

Caroline motioned Magda to follow her. “I’m glad you came with him,” she said. “He’s going to need all the support he can get.”

“I know. I remember how helpless I felt when Zeb was in here, like there was something I could be doing but wasn’t.”

Caroline nodded. “Patients have it rough, but then families do too, especially families as close as the Montgomerys.” Her gaze flicked to her husband, Travis, and back. “Marrying Travis and inheriting all this family was the best idea I ever had.”

Magda smiled. “They all love you. I can tell.”

“Speaking of family, Zeb seems to be doing well.”

Chuckling, Magda said, “Good medicine or a good woman. Which do you think?”

Caroline nodded. “A combination of both, I’m thinking. But I’m glad he’s getting back on his feet. I’d better get back to the OR and see what’s going on.”

Magda stood alone for a minute, worried that she’d overstepped and shouldn’t have come with him. But then Mitch came over.

“Good to see you, Magda.” He snaked an arm about her shoulder and gave her a hug. “How’s working for Reno and Darren been?”

“They’ve been easier to train than you were.”

He laughed. “I was older and more set in my ways maybe.”

“Maybe. Or more bullheaded.”

“Yeah, that too.”

“How’s Blanche working out?” She wasn’t sure what she wanted him to say. Her ego wanted him to say that Blanche couldn’t compare to her. But seeing how happy Blanche made Zeb, and how Blanche seemed to care about Zeb, she also kind of hoped she was as awesome as Zeb thought.

“Well, she’s no Magda Hobbs.”

“But then again, who is?” she replied.

He squeezed her shoulder again. “Blanche is working out fine. Good cook. The kids love her. She’s the third grandmother in their lives. Spoils them rotten. I can tell you that Adam is still convinced you’re his girlfriend, so you haven’t been replaced there.”

Magda wiped her hand across her brow to remove imaginary sweat. “Whew. At least someone loves me.”

“Hey. The whole Landry family loves you. We missed you too. Can’t tell you how glad we are to have you back around. Zeb is happier than I’ve ever seen since him, excluding the day he dragged you to my ranch. There wasn’t a happier man in the world.”

“Thanks for saying that.” She glanced over at Reno. “I better go see if I can do anything for him or KC.”

As it turned out, Reno only needed her to sit by him.

Around the room, there were small clusters of Montgomery family members talking and drinking coffee. The conversations were hushed as though they were sitting in a library or church.

In an unexpected action, Reno reached over and took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. Her first response was to jerk her hand back, but she didn’t want to make a scene, and ultimately, she was glad she hadn’t reacted when he also took KC’s hand.

“Thank you for coming,” he said to Magda.

“You have lots of family here. I’m pretty much a surplus.”

“No, never a surplus.” His lips pulled into a sad smile. “Frankly, I couldn’t hold hands with Travis or Drake. Their fingers would never fit between mine.”

She squeezed his fingers and returned his smile. “Not to mention all the family jokes that’d come out of that.” She was trying to keep the conversation light and maybe even distract him a little from the deep worry etched on his face.

“Okay, I’ve got news,” Caroline announced as she came back into the room. She’d changed into hospital scrubs. Her hair was hidden under a flowered surgical cap and her shoes were covered in paper slippers. “And it’s all good.”

Beside her, Reno let out the breath he’d been holding, but he tightened the hold on her hand.

“The tibia is broken and the break is severe. However, the realignment went together as easy as two matching puzzle pieces. Dr. Jackson will be out to talk to you all when he’s done, but so far, Darren is handling surgery well. He does have a bad contusion on his chest where he rammed the steering wheel.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Reno said.

“A bad bruise,” Caroline said. “He’s got some other bruises and dings, but the leg seems to be the worst of it.”

Reno released Magda’s hand and stood. The cool air in the room chilled her fingers, which had been warm and snug in Reno’s hand.

“Thanks, Caroline. I’m glad Travis picked you to marry.”

Travis and his wife exchanged glances and then Travis laughed. “Me too, Reno. Me too.”

Magda could tell there was a story there, but obviously one known only by those in the Montgomery clan.

Around five a.m., Reno’s aunt and uncle, Jackie and Lane Montgomery, arrived. Not surprisingly, Reno’s parents were with them.

His mother hurried over to hug Reno and then KC. “We got here as fast as we could.”

“Mom,” KC said. “I told you a private plane wasn’t necessary.”

“What’s the point of having money if I can’t use it when I need to?” Nadine Montgomery replied. “Where’s Darren? Can we see him?”

Caroline came over. “Hi, Nadine.” She hugged her husband’s aunt. “I’m always glad to see you, but not like this. Darren is in recovery. He’s doing great. Come on over here and let’s sit down. I’ll go over what’s happened so far.”

Caroline led Darren’s parents and Jackie and Lane Montgomery over to a table where they could all sit and talk.

Reno’s cousin, Cash, came in and walked directly to Reno. “Hey man. Hated hearing about Darren.”

“Thanks.”

“I know you’re going to need a hand around the ranch for a while, and I’m your man.”

Once again, Magda stood in amazement as the Montgomery family circled the wagons around one of their own. Until Cash’s comment, she hadn’t given the workload at the ranch much thought, but being a ranching family, the rest of the family had obviously already discussed the challenges Reno would face trying to deal with the D&R alone.

“Thanks, Cash, but I can’t ask you to do that.”

Cash laid a large hand on Reno’s shoulder. “You didn’t ask. I’m volunteering, which means I’m donatin’ my time to help you.”