He stood too quickly and stumbled, but was caught by Matt’s strong arms before he hit the ground. “Hey, easy there, kid,” he said. “Sit down for a bit.”
Exhausted, Adam could only shake his head. “Need to get out of here. Take a shower.”
Molly was still lying on her back playing dead—except her tail was wagging. Matt bent down and rubbed her tummy. She rewarded him with a squirm of pleasure.
“The television people want to interview you.” Matt indicated the crew he’d been speaking to behind the police cordon.
“What for?” Adam looked away from their prying cameras. “I was just doing my job.”
He felt Matt’s hand on his shoulder and welcomed its warmth. “You’re a hero, little brother.”
He hated that word. He was no hero. “Like I said, I was just doing my job. Do you do interviews every time you arrest some bad guy?”
“You saved the life of a child and a dog. You know how this town loves dogs.”
“Then tell ‘em to donate generously to the pound.” Adam was fed up with talking. “Where’s your vehicle?” he asked. “Can you drive me home?”
Matt crossed his arms in a gesture that said he wasn’t pleased. “Since you live at home, why don’t you have Mom take you?”
“Because I want peace and quiet, not Mom alternating between singing my praises and getting hysterical about how risky my job is.”
“Mom is never hysterical.”
“You didn’t see her earlier.”
“Darling!”
“Speak of the devil,” Adam muttered as their mother returned.
“Could you drive Adam home?” she said to Matt. “Carly and her children don’t have anyone to stay with, so I’ve offered them the apartment over the stables for as long as they need it. Molly’s coming, too.”
What am I? Chopped liver? Adam felt like asking. Instead, he said, “In case you’ve forgotten, Mom, I’m living in the apartment over the stables.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, darling, but I’m moving you into the house so Carly and her little brood can have some privacy. You don’t mind, do you?” Without waiting for his answer, she turned away and directed the Carly woman and her children toward her SUV.
Adam stared after her. “Is this the same person who, last week when I returned home, practically kissed the ground I walked on?”
“The very same,” Matt said. “You know Mom can’t resist a waif, and now she’s got five of them to care for. Correction—six.” Matt indicated Molly being lifted from her stretcher by one of the firefighters and carried to his mom’s vehicle.
“Can I stay at your place?” Adam begged. Matt and his wife, Beth, lived in a large home their brother Jack had built them in a picturesque valley outside town. Adam would love to live in that same valley one day. Someday. After he’d confronted his demons.
“Sure. I did tell you Sarah’s teething, didn’t I?”
“No, you didn’t. Now that you mention it, maybe I would be better off at home,” Adam said, and followed Matt to his vehicle. Although where he’d sleep, Adam had no idea, since one of his three nieces was occupying his old bedroom.
As it turned out, his tomboy of a niece Daisy was only too happy to give up her room to her “hero” uncle. So Adam slept among her animal posters and woke up during the night with a lump under the mattress that turned out to be a stirrup. He pulled it out, tossed it on the floor, coughed up more black goop and went back to sleep.
Chapter Two
Awakened the next morning by pandemonium from the kitchen, Adam recognized the deep pitch of several of his brothers’ voices and an occasional “Shh!” from his mom.
He stumbled out of bed, washed his face but didn’t bother shaving and went downstairs, hungry enough to eat one of their prize black Angus steers all by himself. He’d missed dinner since he’d taken the much-wanted shower and fallen into bed, exhausted, and slept through the night.
Sunday mornings, the family usually gathered at Two Elk Ranch for breakfast. However, today was Saturday, Adam noted as he strode into the kitchen, a huge room that accommodated the family dining table. Today it was packed to overflowing with all his brothers.
“Here he is!” Celeste, his youngest niece, cried and ran to him, her arms outstretched.
Adam bent to lift Celeste the way he’d done a hundred times before, but as he did, a muscle twitched with pain. He grunted and nearly dropped her.
His reaction had most of the occupants of the kitchen rushing forward to help him. He held out a hand to restrain them and ruffled Celeste’s hair. “Next time, kiddo,” he said. “I must’ve put out something in my back.”
He rubbed at the spot, but couldn’t quite reach it.
“Then it’s lucky Carly is a massage therapist,” his brother Will said. He came around the table to clap Adam on the back, making him wince. “And in case I didn’t say it yesterday, well done, little brother. Anyone who saves a dog is good people in my book.”
Speaking of the dog, he wondered where she was. Adam tried not to groan as Will slapped him again.
“You should have Carly look at that,” his mom said.
“I’d be happy to.”
Adam glanced around and found the woman with too many children, with the littlest one perched on her hip. She seemed slightly less vulnerable than she had the last time he’d seen her. The toddler’s face was covered with goo that might or might not have been oatmeal. He smiled and waved at Adam. Adam forced himself to smile back. He smiled at the mom, too—but not an overly friendly smile, since she and her kids were responsible for getting him booted out of the apartment above the stables.
He wished he could disappear. He wasn’t comfortable with crowds, even if he was related to most of the people there. How he missed the seclusion of that apartment.
Then his eyes fell on the newspaper spread across the table and his stomach lurched. The headline, Hometown Hero, glared up at Adam, along with a photo of him carrying the child out of the burning apartment building. A smaller one showed him and Molly lying on their stretchers side by side. Unfortunately, it also featured Louella kissing him. The caption beneath read Mayor’s Pet Pig Thanks Heroic Firefighter Adam O’Malley.
Adam hated seeing the word hero associated with his name. He was no hero. Heroes didn’t let their friend take the rap for a fatal car accident.
His dad came forward and clapped him on the back. Like his two oldest sons, Luke and Matt, Mac O’Malley was a man of few words. Adam figured his mom more than made up for it. He didn’t expect his dad to say anything, so when Adam saw tears brimming in his eyes, he nodded and let his dad pass by him and leave the kitchen.
His brother Jack came over and was about to clap him on the back, too, but Adam held up his hand and Jack dropped his. “Sore, eh, buddy?” Jack asked, and Adam nodded.
“I’m so proud of you,” Jack said. Then tears welled in his eyes, as well.
Oh, jeez, this was what he didn’t need, an outpouring of emotion from the O’Malley men. Although he and Jack were separated in age by only eleven months, they were pretty much opposite in temperament. Jack wore his heart on his sleeve; Adam wasn’t sure if he even had a heart.
Coming back to town had been a bad idea. He shouldn’t have accepted that one-month