Cowboy Take Me Away Part 62

"Maybe."

"This time we'll both be sober. And we've got plenty of lube."

She looked up at him. "If you wanted to poke me in the rear, why didn't you say something?"

"I dunno. Wasn't like our s.e.x life was lacking. It took twenty-three years for you to want to try it at all so I didn't push it." He grinned. "I'm just glad it ain't gonna be twenty-three years before you wanna try it again. Maybe you oughta buy one of them gag things too so you can't argue with me."

"And with that, I'm calling it a night." Carolyn disentangled from his arms and went to the dresser for a nightie. As she was about to pull it over her head, she noticed Carson had a strange look on his face. "What?"

"How about you practice that wild streak and sleep nekkid?"

"Does that mean there's a chance you'll wake me up with your mouth between my legs?"

"I can pretty much guarantee it."

She threw the nightgown behind her.

He laughed.

They slipped beneath the sheets together and she admitted it'd be nice sleeping skin to skin with him all night.

Carson's lips brushed the top of her head. "I don't ever want you to think the pa.s.sion between us is a thing of the past. It might not be as urgent as it once was, it may've grown and changed and ain't as frequent as either of us would like it to be, but sugar, it's still there. It always will be if I got anything to say about it."

"I remember you told me once that you'd still want me when you were a hundred-and-five-year-old man. At the time I thought that was sweet. As well as vaguely creepy."

"I meant it. I still mean it. There are folks who think a grandma and grandpa havin' a hot s.e.x life is creepy, but I don't give a d.a.m.n. Let them think we're whittlin' and knittin' in our spare time. Only we'll know that we're wearin' out the mattress and testin' out the st.u.r.diness of all the furniture in this old house."

"Guess we'd better remember to start locking the door during the day."

She hated that the memory didn't fade to black like in the movies. Her head screamed as she pushed against the tide, her hands blindly reaching out to hold on to the moment only to spiral back down into that void again.

Chapter Twenty-Seven.

Hospital, Day 5-afternoon "Of course you're bringing him cookies," the nurse said. "That's pretty much been his diet. You're good to go in."

Carson watched as Cha.s.sie Glanzer came around the corner, holding a paper bag.

She smiled and pa.s.sed it over. "I'm sure you heard what's in here."

"Yeah, it's pretty quiet up here." He peeked inside. "These are gigantic. What kind are they?"

"Rancher cookies. They're a mix of chocolate chip and oatmeal with b.u.t.terscotch chips, peanuts and M&Ms. They're a favorite in our household."

"I can see why. Thanks, darlin', now supper is covered."

"I'll be honest; I wish I wasn't bringing them to you at all." She sat next to him. "Any news from the docs?"

"Nope. Still the same."

"I figured. India has kept me updated."

Usually Keely pa.s.sed on news to her West relatives. "Indy stopped by. But she wasn't bearing cookies."

"Trust me, Uncle Carson, if she had you wouldn't want to eat them. I love her, and she has many talents, but cookin' ain't one of them."

"That description fits me too." He set the bag aside. "How're the kids?"

"Healthy, first off, or I wouldn't be here. Enjoying the summer. They're pretty involved in 4-H. It sucks we had to start our own club since no one wanted us in theirs. But with Colt and Indy's kids and ours, and now the Anderson triplets from up the road wanting to join, we're making inroads."

"It sucks that you gotta make inroads at all. People oughta mind their own business and not worry about what someone else is doin' behind closed doors." While he didn't understand two guys wanting to be together, he also didn't understand why half the d.a.m.n couples in the county were together either.

Cha.s.sie leaned her head on his biceps-a very un-Cha.s.sie-like reaction. She'd always been a sweet and shy girl, thoughtful, kind, nothing at all like her a.s.shole father. If she'd acted anything like Harland West, Carson would've put his boot down and kept Cha.s.sie far away from Keely.

"I'm sorry," Cha.s.sie whispered. "Sorry this happened to Aunt Carolyn and sorry that you're goin' through h.e.l.l."

"In the words your generation are so fond of, it sucks all around."

She laughed softly and sniffled.

He couldn't deal with her tears-which he suspected were as rare as Keely's, so he changed the subject. "What're your men up to?"

"Getting ready to turn the bulls out. They've remodeled my goat pens into an actual barn and they're putting the finishing touches on it, and I gotta say, it is awesome. My men made sure everything is state of the art."

"I'll bet they did. Colt brags on you all the time, about how successful your products are."

"Colt is sweet and currently one of two of your kids who ain't on my s.h.i.t list."

"Who's the other one?"

"Carter. Them two are the only ones..." She shook her head. "Not my business or my drama. Anyway, you and Aunt C oughta swing by our place sometime and check out my new goat grotto."

"I promise we'll do that when Carolyn is feelin' up to it."

"I love how optimistic you are about her recovery."

"I refuse to accept that she won't recover."

"In all the years my mom was sick, I never heard my dad say anything like that about her. I hated that he'd pretty much accepted she was gonna die."

"Behavior he learned from your grandfather Eli West," was all Carson said.

Cha.s.sie glommed onto that comment. "I know some of the backstory about why the Wests and McKays feuded all those years. But it was always more personal between you and my dad. Why?"

Carson met her serious gaze. "Harland was your father, so I won't say anything that'll disrespect him...except my issue with him was how he treated my wife-his sister. I never wished the man ill, but I never thought he'd done right by his family either. So darlin', I've always been happy that you ain't a chip off the old block."

"Me too. As I was driving here, thinkin' about all the times I spent with Aunt C, and how wonderful she's always been to me, from the time I was a kid, then after Dag died, and especially how accepting she was-you both are-after me'n Trevor and Edgard became a family..." Her chin wobbled and she looked away until she regained control. "Anyway, I remembered that last time me'n Keely and Ramona went to church camp. Keely ended up in a fight-no surprise, but the real surprise was learning that she hadn't gotten that fighting mentality just from you, but from her mother."

"Few people know how much of a sc.r.a.pper Carolyn West McKay really is beneath that sweet and proper church lady persona."

"I saw it firsthand and, man, was I ever impressed. I've never forgotten it. As a matter of fact, when we were dealin' with all that bullying a few years back with Westin, I remembered that incident at camp and how fierce she was and I'd promised myself I'd be exactly like that when it came to my kids. And now I am. Because of her."

Choked up, Carson patted Cha.s.sie's leg. "Girl, you'd better be tellin' your aunt that to her face because it'd mean a lot to her comin' from you."

"I will make a point of blubbering all over her while she's recovering." She lightly kissed his cheek. "Take care of yourself. You need anything, just call."

After she'd left, he helped himself to a cookie. He'd polished off two by the time the nurse informed him to suit up and head in.

As corny as it sounded-h.e.l.l, as silly as it felt-for the last five days he always started those five minutes the same way, hoping the repet.i.tive words would get through to her.

"Hey sugar. I'm sittin' here beside you. I know you can hear me. I need you to hear me. Come back to me. I need you to know that I'm right here, I ain't goin' anywhere."

He paused, but kept stroking her arm.

"I must look like a man with a sweet tooth, 'cause Lord Almighty, woman, everyone's bringing me cookies. So I ain't gonna lie, I've pretty much been existing on cookies and Dr. Pepper the past few days. I've gone to the cafeteria a few times, but the food is s.h.i.t. I figured you let the grandkids eat as many cookies as they can shove in their greedy little mouths whenever they visit us, so no pa.s.sin' judgment on me.

"The latest cookie fairy was your niece Cha.s.sie. That little gal has always had a tough row to hoe, so I'm happy to see she's doin' well and she's come into her own. She invited us over to see her new goat grotto. I reckon I might even try that goat cheese you all have been raving about. The funny thing? As thick as she and Keely have always been, she's ticked off at our daughter. Then she went on to remind me of that time Keely got kicked out of church camp. Do you remember that? After she left, I got to thinkin' that you never really told me what happened that day. As far as I know, you might've punched a nun. Or socked a priest. But I'd like to think you would've told me since you know how hot it makes me when you get your back up and come out swinging."

"Mr. McKay. Time's up."

"Come back to me. I'm right here. Where I've always been, where I'll always be. I love you. Please. Come back to me."

Punched a nun? Socked a priest? Really Carson?

Carolyn hadn't strayed far from the last time he'd visited-or maybe she had and she just didn't know it. But it seemed as if she'd been right there this time, hearing every word from the moment he started to speak. And she felt that pang of separation as acutely as he did.

I want out of here. Please. Let me go. Find a way to bring me back.

But whenever she fought against the darkness it enveloped her more quickly.

She batted aside the cobwebs in her mind, focusing on the memory until the thread appeared that led her straight to the phone call that started it all...

"Mrs. McKay?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"This is Sister Grace from the Holy Rosary Church Camp in Gra.s.s Springs."

Her heart about stopped. "Has something happened to Keely?"

"No, she's fine, considering. She's..."

Carolyn waited for the nun to stutter out the issue.

"Directly to the point, your daughter has become a bit of a discipline problem."

Not exactly a newsflash. In the past two years, Keely resented going to church camp, even when she attended with her cousin Ramona, who she didn't get to see often. But Carolyn had warned her to suck it up; it was only fourteen days out of her summer. "Is Keely playing pranks again this year?"

"Not to my knowledge."

Carolyn didn't want to ask, but at age fifteen, Keely was already turning male heads. "Has she been visiting the boys' cabins? Because I'll remind you that she does have five older brothers and a dozen male cousins, so she tends to prefer the company of boys to girls."

"Mrs. McKay, that is not the problem either."

"Then please tell me what my daughter has done to earn the discipline problem phone call."

"She started a fight with not one, but two other girl campers. A fist fight," Sister Grace clarified.

"Good Lord." Carolyn bit her lip to stop from asking how bad the other girls' injuries were because Keely knew how to throw a punch, take a punch, and had no qualms about using her fists to get her point across.

Just like her father.

Or just like you.

It shouldn't have been a point of pride for Carolyn that her daughter never backed down from a fight-yet it was. Not that she'd ever admit that to anyone. "Was Keely injured?"

"Not as much as the other girls." She paused. "In light of this latest infraction...we're requesting that you come to camp and pick your daughter up."

She froze. "Excuse me? You're kicking Keely out of church camp?"

"Are you f.u.c.kin' serious?" Carson said behind her. "That girl is givin' me a G.o.dd.a.m.ned ulcer."

Carolyn whirled around and glared at him.

"I'm sure you understand our decision. We cannot tolerate that type of behavior at a church camp where young people are supposed to be learning to exhibit Christian behavior and live lives of kindness and compa.s.sion."

"While I understand your reasoning, I'm just as interested to know what provoked my daughter into that type of reaction. Because she only comes out swinging when she's backed into a corner or if a member of her family is threatened."

Silence.

Which meant there was more to this incident than her hot-headed daughter just hauling off and slugging someone. "Sister Grace? What aren't you telling me?"

"We've gotten a statement from two other campers about how the situation started-but the statements are conflicting. And the parents of the girls your daughter attacked are demanding that Keely be removed from camp."

"I can drive up there today and get her," Carson offered. "I always thought makin' her go to church camp was punishment anyway."

"Hush," she hissed at him.

"Excuse me?" Sister Grace said.

"Sorry, Sister, I was talking to a yapping dog."