Mystic Cowboy(88)

Rebel rolled his eyes.

“Why do you ask?”

Rebel pressed on. “She’s a good doctor? You like working with her?”

“Yes, okay? She’s a damn good doctor—or did you blink out last night?”

“You wouldn’t mind working with her on a more permanent basis?”

The silence filled the truck’s cab as the miles squeaked past. “Is that what you’re thinking?”

“Yeah.” Permanent. Permanent like a house with a porch. Permanent like a wedding. Permanent like forever.

He’d tried forever once before, but if he was really honest with himself—and there was no time like the present—he’d known then that it wasn’t forever forever. This was different. This really could be his forever—if she didn’t order him out. Again.

“We could do a lot worse than her—and we have. But I doubt we could do a whole hell of a lot better,” Clarence finally said. He sounded almost like he was lost in thought. “You think she’ll go for it?”

The clinic crested over the hill. Jesse’s truck was still out front next to her Jeep, and he could see both Blue Eye and Nobody’s horse off in the distance. Two other cars filled out the lot. From a distance, it looked like a normal Monday.

Normal for the rez, anyway. “I don’t know,” he replied in all honesty.

“Well, if she don’t, try not to piss her off so much that she bails. She’s supposed to stay for another year and a half.”

The vote of confidence was underwhelming, but then Clarence had busted in on them when Madeline had jumped right off the cliff on conclusions. The fact Clarence hadn’t already punched his lights out was probably as good as it was going to get. “I’ll do what I can.”

The truck pulled to a stop. Even though he’d been itching to get here, he sat for just a second, bracing himself for whatever version of doctor-lover-zombie was waiting for him. Knowing her, she’d refused to sleep much, if at all. She wouldn’t have wanted to miss anything, or she wouldn’t have trusted Nobody and Jesse.

He was betting it all on zombie. Big time.

Four people were sitting in the waiting room, looking miserable but not deathly. Madeline was sitting at Tara’s desk.

Sitting, he quickly corrected himself, was too strong a word. She was slumped over, nose-to-nose with the desk in a way that didn’t look like she’d moved a lot recently.

“Madeline?” He got no response, not that time or the next three times he said it, not even the last time, when he nearly shouted it in her ear.

Nobody sidled up next to him and nodded to the waiting people.

“How long?” Rebel asked.

“Ten minutes. I, uh, told them they had to wait.” He looked down at Madeline, and Rebel was surprised to see real concern in his eyes.

Rebel nodded. Clarence could handle the new people. “Good thinking.” He looked back to Madeline.

Nobody’s head ducked. He actually looked embarrassed. The man must be exhausted, Rebel thought. He never looked embarrassed, especially during daylight hours when someone might actually see him.

“She wouldn’t sleep. She just sat there, staring at the phone,” said Nobody.

That was an apology, Rebel realized. And staring was an overstatement. She was sleeping with her eyes open. “It’s okay. I’m gonna take her home and put her to bed. Can you get home okay? Do you need a ride?”

Nobody’s shoulders stiffened. “I can stay.”

“You’ve been here for thirty-two hours. So have Madeline and Jesse.” Speaking of, where was Jesse? Rebel stepped out of the waiting room and found Jesse in a relocated waiting-room chair, looking like a Slinky gone haywire. He had one hand on Nelly’s arm, the other on a different kid’s arm, and his legs looked like jelly left out in the sun too long.

“Jesse,” Rebel said as he nudged jelly legs with his boot. “Wake up. Go home.” And then, feeling a whole hell of a lot like boss of the world, he added, “Take Nobody with you. Both of you get a shower and some sleep. Or else.”

Jesse started, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “Huh? Oh. Rebel.”

“Go home,” he said again, pulling Jesse to his feet. “Clarence is here. We’ll keep an eye on Nelly.”

“Oh. Yeah. Home.” Jesse slapped his face twice and shook out some of the cobwebs. “Uh, Nobody, you coming?”

Nobody managed to look inconvenienced, which was enough to make Jesse pale. Jesse didn’t know Nobody, after all. When it had been them against the world for the last thirty-two hours, that had been one thing. But in the light of day, Nobody was still more or less an unknown.