Randy hugged her close. “People will see that he had reason for what he did. We have to pray for that, Evie, but it won’t help Jake’s cause for him to stay in this mood, especially if there is a trial. He has to show people the wonderful man he really is. You can bring that out in him.”
“I’m going in there with her,” Brian told Randy. “I need to check on Lloyd, and I’ll otherwise stay out of the way, but I’m not sending Evie in there alone—not in her condition. She’s still shaken from seeing Holt in the first place.”
“I understand how you feel,” Randy told him, “but when it comes to Evie, Jake is a pushover, even when he’s like this. She’ll be fine.” She looked at Evie. “Try to get him out of there for a while, Evie. Send him to our room. I need my husband back. He has to understand we are in this together. He’s got to share this with me and not keep it all to himself.”
Evie nodded. “I know.” She wiped at her eyes and took Brian’s hand. Randy watched as they walked to the door to Lloyd’s room. Brian knocked.
“Jake, its Brian. I have Evie with me.”
When there came no reply, Evie opened the door and marched inside.
Twenty-one
Jake turned from the window as Evie rushed over to kneel beside her brother’s bed. She took his hand and bowed her head and began praying, while Brian moved to the other side of the bed to get out his stethoscope and listen to Lloyd’s heart. He checked the bandages for bleeding and felt Lloyd’s forehead for fever.
“I changed the towels,” Jake told him, “and that pad underneath him. His bladder is still working okay. That’s good, right?”
Brian checked under Lloyd’s closed eyelids. “Anything that appears to be working right is a good sign.”
“You tell Katie that,” Jake told him, more in the tone of an order rather than a request. “For a while, taking care of him is going to be a lot of work, some of it backbreaking because of his size. The best thing she can do is stay in bed and hang on to that baby. I know she feels like she should be in here doing some of these things, but if he comes around and finds out she lost that baby, it’s going to take him twice as long to recover…if he recovers.”
“I think she understands that, Jake.” Brian faced him. “But Dr. Cook and I will continue to help, and Gretta said her Sam can help, too. You can’t keep doing this around the clock. It’s going to catch up with you, and you’re going to go right to the floor and be no help at all. You’re killing yourself, just like you almost did when you rode like a maniac going after Evie, and you were nearly four years younger then.”
Jake looked at his daughter…his beautiful, precious daughter. “I couldn’t save my mother, and I almost didn’t save Evie. In fact, I didn’t save her from those bastards before they—” He turned back to the window. “At least she lived. Lloyd might not. Either way, I can at least be here for him.”
Brian sighed. “How’s that shoulder?”
“I’ll live.”
“Well, whether you like it or not, I’m changing that bandage tomorrow. For now, I’m going to leave Evie alone with you for a while, because that’s what she wants, but at the moment, being around you is like being around the loveless, hardened, wanted man you used to be, and she’s not designed for that. She only knows the Jake who raised her, the Jake who loves almost too much.” He glanced at Evie as she rose from the other side of the bed and came around to sit on the edge of the bed closest to where Jake’s chair was.
“You sure you want to stay here?” Brian asked her.
Evie watched her father, who stood with his back to her. “I’m sure.” Jake was wearing a pair of Lloyd’s denim pants and Lloyd’s favorite blue-paisley shirt. He’d refused to go back to his room to change into his own clothes. “I’m fine.” She turned to look at her husband. “It’s okay. You can go.”
Scowling, Brian walked to the door. “I’ll be in the next room, Jake. I’m going to give Randy something to help her sleep, but her best medicine would be getting her husband back. She needs holding, and not by any of the rest of us.” He spoke the words with the hint of an order, then started out.
“Brian,” Jake called.
Brian hesitated.
“Thank you.” Jake faced him. “I can’t recall seeing you truly angry before, and I don’t blame you. There were times when you were the one who held this family together, and right now you’re doing it again. You’re a hell of a doctor and a hell of a son-in-law…and a hell of a husband.”