Bucking Bronc Lodge 04(26)

His fingers shook as he punched Jordan’s number. Seconds later, she answered, her voice heavy with sleep.

“Hello?”

“Jordan, I’m sorry to wake you, but it’s Timmy.”

Sheets rustling echoed over the line, and he realized she was getting out of bed. “What’s wrong?”

“He had a nightmare and I can’t get him to wake up.” Miles’s voice cracked. “I tried to comfort him, but he won’t let me near him. He started wailing and threw his shoe at me and now he’s banging the wall.”

“I’ll be right there.”

The line went dead. Miles moved to the front door and unlocked it, hoping Jordan could help Timmy since his son didn’t want him.

* * *

JORDAN’S CHEST ACHED at the sight of Miles’s forlorn face. She wanted to console him and assure him that Timmy’s actions weren’t personal, that he would work out his grief and trauma in his own way.

But when she heard the troubled wails coming from the frightened little boy, she simply squeezed his arm and hurried into Timmy’s room. He looked haunted, his small body tucked tightly into a fetal ball as he rocked back and forth. The painful sounds rolling from deep in his gut were almost unbearable to hear.

She took a calming breath, then slowly walked toward him. “Timmy, it’s me, Jordan.” He didn’t acknowledge her, but she moved closer anyway, forcing her voice to remain calm as she lowered herself beside him on the floor.

Tension radiated from Miles, so she gave him a sympathetic but encouraging smile.

Then she reached out one hand and gently stroked Timmy’s hair. “I’m right here, Timmy. And so is your daddy. You’re all right now, you’re safe.”

His rocking motion slowed slightly, and he looked up at her with tear-stained, swollen eyes. His thin face looked gaunt, shadowed by the pain eating at his insides. “You had a bad dream, didn’t you?”

He chewed on his bottom lip, another sob escaping.

“Except that it felt real, didn’t it?” she said gently.

This time he nodded, a tiny movement, but it was an encouraging sign. “I know you’ve gone through a terrible ordeal. You lost your mama, and you were scared.”

His face crumpled, then he fell into her arms with another bone-deep cry. Jordan swallowed back her own emotions, then wrapped her arms around him and patted his back.

“Oh, sweetie,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry. I know you’re hurting. You miss your mother. And you learned something that most kids your age shouldn’t. That there are bad people out there.”

His crying intensified, and she held him tighter, allowing him to purge his sorrow. “But your daddy loves you, and I care about you, too. And we won’t let anything bad happen to you, not ever again.”

He clung to her, his little body shaking for what seemed like hours as he unleashed a flood of tears. When she looked up at Miles, she felt his agony as if it were her own.

His jaw tightened, then he suddenly left the room. Jordan wanted to go to him, but she had to stay with Timmy. He needed her more than his father, although Miles also needed help. But he was too proud to ask for it.

Instead he’d channeled his grief into anger and the need for revenge.

Timmy’s chest rose and fell on another sob, but his body finally relaxed, his cries subsiding.

“I promise, Timmy, one day you’ll feel better. You’ll be happy and you’ll laugh and play like the other kids.” She soothed him with other soft words, repeatedly telling him how much his father loved him and that one day they would have a good life again. Finally he drifted asleep against her chest.

She lifted him in her arms, then carried him back to bed and tucked him under the covers. For a long moment, she sat beside him, stroking his arm, not wanting to leave him until she was sure he was resting and at peace.

When she felt confident he’d settled down, she stood and stretched, then rubbed the knots from her shoulders and left the bedroom in search of Miles. She found him standing outside on the porch, his head bowed, his hands clenching the porch rails in a white-knuckled grip. His shoulders were shaking slightly, pain radiating from him in such strong waves that she felt his turmoil deep down in her bones.

For a moment, she watched him, her mind spinning with the fact that he was the toughest-looking man she’d ever met, that she knew what he did for a living and the sacrifices he’d made, but he was vulnerable and worried sick about his five-year-old little boy.

She reminded herself to keep her distance, that she couldn’t get personally involved with Miles. But she had never been one to listen to reason when emotions were involved.