“I’ll get Daley,” a deep voice said. He was fairly certain he was dealing with both Taggarts, plus Adam. And he’d gotten a glimpse of something pink. Had Ian Taggart been wearing a pink shirt?
“Hey, brother. Way to survive a tornado.” Adam’s hand clasped his forearm. “I’ve been here for years and never actually seen one of the fuckers. You’re here for a few months and get caught in one. You are one unlucky son of a bitch.”
Yep. That was him. He groaned as he tried to open his eyes again. The last year had been one gut punch after another. IED and then fighting off insurgents with one leg. Watching Ronnie…no. He wasn’t going there. It was so much easier to think about how his ex-wife had screwed him over and taken everything.
The only good thing to happen to him in that last year was…
He forced his eyes open. “Ally? Ally was with me.” He gripped his brother’s arm. “Ally was in the bathroom.”
Sean Taggart shook his head. “No, she wasn’t.”
“Oh, god, what happened?” Ally couldn’t be dead. He’d told her where to go, how to protect herself. Memories came flooding back. He’d grabbed the flashlight right before the lights went out. And then everything had gone dark and he tripped over something with his stupid non-leg and he’d fallen. He’d bashed his head and right before he’d gone out he’d been happy that Ally was safe.
Ally hadn’t been safe?
His boss looked across the bed to grin at his brother. “Told you.” He glanced down toward Macon. “Ally disobeyed and you’re lucky she’s a brat. They found her covering your body with hers. She protected your head with her back and it was a good thing. When the tornado hit all the pots we had hanging overhead fell and they would have come right down on your noggin.”
“Or your hands.” Ian Taggart strode back into the room. There was a pink blanket wrapped over his massive chest. It was a weird fashion statement for a former Green Beret to make. “They could have crushed your hands. She’s a goddamn hero.”
Big Tag was fond of his lemon pie.
Ally had done what? His brain wasn’t quite functioning. He had to process the information. “Who found us? Where is Ally?”
“The crew was at a bar in Deep Ellum,” Sean explained. “When they heard where the tornado hit, they came running. They found you in the kitchen with Ally protecting your nasty ass.”
“She’s alive?”
Sean moved to his left and gestured toward the window. “She’s fine. She’s asleep. I convinced the nurses to bring in a cot and let her spend the night.”
He sat up despite the knife that threatened to split his brain in two. She was lying across a small cot, her body curled up and her back to the wall. Her arms were crossed over her chest and there was something about the way she slept that made him think she was protecting herself.
“She covered my body with hers?” He let his voice go low, not wanting to disturb her.
“Yeah and she’s got the bruises to prove it,” Sean said. “Her back took a couple of nice whacks, but would you like to know what she said when we tried to get her into the ER?”
“She wouldn’t go because she can’t afford it.” He knew what Ally’s first fear would be. She wouldn’t want to run up a bunch of bills she couldn’t afford. “She hasn’t been around long enough. Her insurance hasn’t kicked in.”
“Yep. I brought in a friend of mine. He checked her out. She’s fine. And she can sleep through anything,” Ian said as his pink blanket moved. The big guy looked down. “Root around all you like, baby girl. Nothing’s coming out of that. I need to take her to her momma. Kenzie should be finished by now. The girl eats like a Hoover. She makes Daddy proud.”
“Charlotte’s here?”
“Of course. Dude, you’re important to us. You make the pies.”
“What Ian is trying to say is you’re family,” Adam said, rolling his eyes. “Everyone’s out in the waiting room. Charlotte and Avery are having a breast in. Some dude was dumb enough to tell them to find somewhere private to feed the babies, so now they’re letting it all hang out in protest.”
The door opened and a tall man in a white coat walked in. “Good morning, Adam’s brother. I’m Will Daley. I’ll be making sure your brain is functioning today.”
“Ask him if he remembers how to make the pies, doc,” Ian said before heading off to find his wife.
“Sorry about my brother. He’s an idiot,” Sean said as Will took a look at his chart.
“He’s also more sarcastic than usual when he’s freaked out. He thought Sean was closing,” Adam explained. “He showed up a few minutes after the crew. He was the one who forced everyone to wait for the ambulance. Ally was going to try to get you into her car to take you to the hospital.”
“Ian acts like an ass most of the time, but he really does have a heart of gold,” Sean said. “I think you’ll discover my brother believes he owes you for more than good pies. And so do I.”
“Is she really all right?” He couldn’t take his eyes off Ally.
“That one is stubborn as hell, but she seems fine,” the doctor said.
“You checked her out?” When Ian said he’d brought a friend in, Macon thought it was likely an old Army buddy with some medic training. He would feel so much better if a practicing doctor had examined her.
Will pulled out a penlight. “Yes, I did. I had to promise there would be no paperwork. That girl is terrified of hospital bills. Not that I blame her. Yours is going to be a doozy. Let me take a look at your eyes.”
After a few moments of flashing too-bright lights in his eyes, Will proclaimed him ready to go home. He’d taken a whack to his head, but Will hadn’t seen any real damage in the incredibly expensive CT scan he’d been put through. “I can release you today, but I want you to rest for a few days. With your leg injury, you could be off balance. You’re not long post op, are you?”
He shook his head, uncomfortable even talking about it. He knew Ally knew, but he’d been careful around her. She hadn’t seen him trip or have to adjust the damn thing. She certainly hadn’t seen his stump. Knowing and seeing were two different things. “It’s been almost a year.”
“Well, it can take even longer for you to get truly confortable with the prosthetic. I noticed your organic leg is banged up.”
“What?” Adam asked.
His brother could be a mother hen at times. “I fell while I was jogging.”
Will held up a hand, stopping Adam’s next comment. “It’s good. You should attempt to do all the things you did before. Trying to get back to normal is an excellent sign, but you have to take better care of those scrapes and lay off the running for a week. You need someone to keep an eye on you for the next few days and I’ll need to see you again in about a week.”
“We’ll take care of it, Will,” Adam said.
“No. I will.”
Everyone turned to look at the woman who had said the words. Ally sat up, blinking and then covering her yawn. She looked like a sleepy kitten waking up. She stood up and stretched, her breasts moving against the thin fabric of her T-shirt.
“He’s not the only one who needs watching after,” Daley said with a frown, looking her way. “I have no idea how you slept on that thing. Aren’t you sore?”
She shook her head. “I’ve had worse. Look, Miles and I can watch out for each other. You’ve got a place, right?”
Despite the events of the night before, she looked pretty and young. He probably looked really rough. “Yeah, but it’s really my brother’s guesthouse.”
She shrugged. “Digs is digs, Miles. You’ve got a place to crash and I have a car. Yeah, the restaurant might not have survived but Bessie did. And to think all those stupid mechanics wanted to put her down when she hit two hundred K. So between the two of us, we are practically a fully functional human being.”
“With three and a quarter legs.” The sarcasm was catching.
“Yep. We got those, too. And stop complaining. You’ve got a three-quarters bionic leg. What do you say, Miles? Can I crash at your place for a while and we can get the docs off our backs?”
He nodded and then winced. Damn, they were a sad couple.
Couple. He’d kissed her. It had been going somewhere until Mother Nature decided to try to kill them.
She slapped her hands together. “Cool. Then lay it on me, Doc. What do I need to watch for with the big guy?”
She and Will stepped outside, talking about pain medications and side effects.
“Is the restaurant gone?” They might have less than Ally said. They might be down two jobs.
Sean shook his head. “She’s exaggerating. We’ve got blown windows and some minor damage. We’ll be open again in a week, which will give you plenty of time to recover. I’m going to find someone else to do the desserts for the parties. You need to rest.”
Sean was hosting a birthday party for his wife this weekend. Two actually. There was a family party on Saturday afternoon and an adults-only party at Adam, Jake, and Serena’s that night. Macon had already planned a spectacular cake. “Don’t. I’ll be fine in a couple of days. I want to do it.”