Page 16 of Caleb’s Cause (Broken Wheel Ranch #12)
Hours later, Katherine slowly woke and instead of jerking awake, she slowly opened her eyes and let them adjust to the semi-darkness.
She frowned when she didn’t recognize the room, and as she saw the bag she’d carried around for weeks sitting on a chair on the other side of the room, everything she’d gone through recently came rushing back to her.
She sat up quickly, looked around, and when she saw the attached bathroom, she tossed the blankets back and paused when she didn’t see that she wore her jeans.
Instead of worrying about it, she grabbed the bag, and headed into the bathroom.
After using the facilities, she took a shower and dressed.
At the bottom of the bag, she found the phone, and after turning it on, she quickly dialed the only number programmed into it.
“I’m safe.” As soon as she gave those two words, she quickly turned it off, and not knowing whether it was untraceable or not, she removed the battery and put them both back into the plastic bag she had placed the phone in.
During her trek to Fool’s Gold from Denver, it had rained for two days, and she didn’t want everything to get wet, so she had purchased some baggies to keep her clothes dry, then asked the employees at one store if she could just have one garbage bag to put the entire pack in. They had given her one.
Not knowing what time it was, Katherine slowly opened the bedroom door, peeked out, then headed to the kitchen, or where she suspected the kitchen was.
“Whoa,” she said as soon as she entered and saw a man’s naked back.
He was facing the counter, but before he turned, she could see all the muscles on his back, his taut ass in his jeans, and she smiled at the sight of his bare feet.
When he whipped around at her words, she sucked in her breath as she saw his well-defined muscles of his chest and stomach.
“Wow.” She thought she’d said that in her head, but when he grinned, she felt her face heat and covered it with her hands.
“Excuse me,” Caleb said, and hurried away, and from faraway, he called out that the coffee was done.
When he returned, he was pulling a shirt over his head, and though Katherine felt better, she was also sad that he had covered up.
Because she hadn’t moved from where she’d stopped when she’d spotted him, Caleb finished making his coffee and got out a mug for her and set it on the table.
“What time is it?”
They both settled at the kitchen table, and Caleb didn’t respond until he had taken a sip of his coffee, then nodded to her to do the same. He noted that she’d risen and gotten the milk Laurie had brought over the day before, and put just a splash of it in her cup.
“Don’t be mad, but it’s six o’clock Friday morning.”
“Wait, what day did I arrive?”
“Wednesday.”
“Holy shit, I’ve been sleeping for the last day and a half?”
“Yes, we all figured that you were exhausted from your ordeal, and though I’m a chiropractor as well as a physical therapist, both Tom and Lorissa have been over to check on you several times.
” He sipped his coffee again and gave her a smirk from over the rim.
“They are both animal doctors.” Her response to that had him sputtering his coffee, then he busted out laughing.
“Well, as long as they didn’t stick a thermometer up my ass, I guess there’s nothing I could do about it.” She picked up her mug and started to slowly sip it as she looked across the table at him. “Did you take my pants and bra off?”
“No, you fell asleep in my car on the way here. Do you remember talking to a bunch of men, then eating lunch?”
“Yes, I remember all that. I just don’t remember how I got here, and how I lost my jeans and bra.”
“Like I said, I was bringing you here, you fell asleep, and when you wouldn’t wake, I carried you in and laid you on the bed. Marcia, Adele, and Opal arrived shortly after and they were the ones that got you into bed. I had laid you on top of the covers.”
She nodded and looked at him with a wrinkled nose, which he found extremely cute. “Which ones were they again? I saw so many people that day, I don’t know if I will ever be able to keep them straight.”
“It took me a few days to get them straight. I know this probably isn’t politically correct, but I used my profession to sort them out in my mind.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Being a physical therapist, I look at the bodies, not in a sexual way, but to see how they move.”
“Ah, in case they have a problem that you might need to fix.”
“Correct, along with the other two things I do, I have also taken training in prosthetics.”
“What’s that?”
“Fake limbs. Adele has a prosthetic on her lower right leg. Opal is missing her left arm above the elbow, and she will probably shoot me if she knew this, but Marcia walks cautiously.”
“What does that even mean?”
Caleb shook his head and got up to refill their coffee cups, when he returned, he settled back in his chair.
“Everyone here has a story to tell. Just like you told all of us about what happened to you, and why you’re on the run, they all have stories.
It is my understanding that the only people that have not been in the military, besides myself, are Naomi, Clem, Cole, and Erin.
” He shook his head at her when she opened her mouth to speak.
“No, I can’t tell you their stories, because I don’t know them.
I know a little about Ryan Carter’s, but not the extent of it. ”
“Why him? Why not the others?”
“Because he’s my uncle by blood. He and my mother are siblings.” Again he shook his head. “I’ve never been in the military myself, and I don’t have a story. If I did have one, I guess you could say that I grew up with a bitch of a mother, and had to deal with her shit my entire life.”
“That sounds like there’s a story there.”
“There is, but we can table that for later. Right now, we have guests coming for breakfast. He smiled as he rose and opened the door before anyone even knocked on it, then went to the kitchen and started cooking.