Shannon explained. She was grateful for Kate’s wry humor and the fact that her cousin let her handle her lunch without help. Not that sipping a milk shake through a straw took a lot of skill. Neither did eating the paste that was supposed to be pudding.
Kate read the messages on the get-well cards out loud.
“Can you tell me who the flowers are from?” Shannon asked. “Rory said I had a roomful.”
When Kate read Brad’s name on a card attached to a vase of pink roses, Shannon perked up.
So he was busy on a case. Or maybe he’d gone to visit his folks in St. Louis this week, although he’d indicated he wasn’t going home for the holidays this year.
Reality reared its head. Some people were repulsed by those with a disability. Or scars. That was one worry she hadn’t voiced. It seemed so vain compared to everything else, but she had no idea how the wounds would look when they healed.
She would face that when the time came, she promised. Later. When she was alone and could think…
“There, done,” Kate said, finishing the cards.
“Thanks.” Shannon hesitated, then spoke. “When the doctor came in this morning, he said I’d have to wear the bandages two weeks to give my eyes a good rest. Then…”
“Then we’ll know,” Kate said quietly.
“Yes.”
“Megan and I’ll be there for you. You know that.”
Shannon nodded, not quite able to envision the future. Fear returned.
Kate kept her entertained with tales of her newly adopted daughter Amanda, Mandy to the family, and Jeremy, Kate’s stepson, for the next two hours. When Kate mentioned Jess, her husband of three months, her tone changed, going softer, huskier.
As she listened to Kate’s quiet chatter, Shannon thought of Rory Daniels. Maybe he had been the man of cool light who had made her feel safe when she’d been so strangely lost in a hot, dark fog. Or was her dream man only an illusion created out of pain and delirium? Sometimes she still needed him….
“By the way, did Rory tell you he’d bought the place next door to us?” Kate asked when she stood to leave.
“No. What place?”
“The Mulholland land.”
The land had belonged to Kate’s mother-in-law. Kate’s first husband had grown up there. Kris had been several years older than she, a Vietnam vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. One minute he would be fine; the next, he would change into an angry, suspicious man lost in the jungles of his mind, sure the enemy was near and searching for him and his family. It had been eerie. The marriage had ended in Kris’s suicide. Kate deserved all the happiness she now had.
“Will Rory live in the house?” Shannon asked, curious since she’d recently had the ancient foreman’s cabin on the Windraven Ranch, across the creek from the Mulholland house, remodeled, and had planned to move in over Christmas.
Oh. She was supposed to be out of her apartment in town by the first of the year. “My apartment,” she began.
“Megan and I finished moving the last of your things and cleaned it. It’s all been taken care of. Your SUV is stored in the garage at the new place, too. Sorry. I should have told you earlier so you wouldn’t worry.”
“I’d forgotten until this moment.” Shannon lifted a hand to her temple.
Kate touched her shoulder, then gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Your mind is fine. Quit worrying.”
“It isn’t my mind I’m worried about, not really.”
“Oh, honey.” Kate hugged her fiercely, her protective, nurturing nature familiar and comforting. “We can only wait and see how things turn out. It’s hard, I know. You’ve been terribly brave.”
“Hardly. I wanted to ask, has anyone else come to visit that you know of?”
“Like a certain young attorney who’s new in town?” Kate teased. Her voice became serious. “Not that I know, but Jess said the sheriff had ordered no visitors other than immediate family. He had a deputy outside your door twenty-four hours a day during the week you were in a coma. He’s been pretty worried about you.”
“I guess he thought the robber would sneak in and smother me or something,” she scoffed, trying not to recall that Rory had somehow gotten in to see her.
Couldn’t Brad have found a way?
Maybe. If he’d loved her.
There were a lot of ifs in her life just now. She would have to take each day as it came. But she would be okay. She was sure of it.
Chapter Three
Shannon repeated that assurance to everyone who called the rest of the day and the next when Gene Thompson, the sheriff and her boss, came to visit. They discussed the case.
“There was no third man,” Shannon told the lawman. “The wounded guy was the perp.” She sensed his impatience at her stubborn denial in the silence that followed.
“According to his story, the third man was a customer who came in after you and the store owner were unconscious,” Gene said, his gruff voice gentle.
At six feet, six inches and two hundred-plus pounds, the law officer reminded her of a big, friendly bear. Under the tough exterior, he was all heart. He took it hard when one of his deputies was injured.
“They struggled, then the robber shot him and made his getaway?” she asked skeptically.
“Yes.”
Shannon mulled over the information. “Well,” she finally concluded, “I suppose the evidence shoots holes in my theory that the guy you let go was the robber, especially since the perp’s gun wasn’t on the premises. I know I shot the real crook. In the shoulder, too, just like the other guy had. The gun couldn’t have walked off by itself, and since Rory found three people on the floor, all of us unconscious, the robber must have escaped.”
“Yep. With nothing to go on, the case goes onto the back burner.”
She hit the flat of her hand on the chair arm. “I wish I could see the store, go over it…” She stopped, then shrugged impatiently, refusing to give way to despair.
“Don’t, honey,” Gene said softly. “You’re going to be fine. Everything has a way of working out.”
“Does it?”
“I have to believe that, or else I’d go crazy with the insane things people do. Like shoot people over money.” He stood. “Well, it’s back to work for me. I understand you’ll be going home today.”
“Yes, Megan is coming for me as soon as she finishes with her riding students this afternoon. Uh, the nurse said you wouldn’t allow any visitors in my room, except family,” Shannon said. “And Rory Daniels?”
Gene muttered a curse. “I told them no one other than Kate and Megan.” He snorted, then chuckled. “It’s his looks. Women melt when he glances at them. Must be nice.”
“I don’t know,” Shannon said on a lighter note. “It could be hell, having everyone fall all over you.”
“Could be. Wind River may not be heaven,” the sheriff said, abruptly changing the subject, “but it’s still a good place to live. Don’t let one incident spoil your life.”
“I won’t,” Shannon promised, thinking of the cards, flowers and candy she’d received. It had all been disposed of and her room was bare, ready for the next occupant when she left. She wanted to go. Ten days in a hospital was enough for a lifetime.
She kept smiling until the last of her visitors left at the close of visiting hours