Page 34 of Rancher’s Strength (Flying Diamond 5, #4)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

LEXIE

I ’d had more visitors at the hospital than I could even remember.

It seemed like everyone in town had filtered through.

But the one constant was Ryder. If he slept, I never saw him, and I didn’t think he’d even left my side.

Mom had agreed to stay with Ruby and Sawyer, and she’d bring them up after school.

I loved hearing about their day and seeing what they’d done in class, and art projects hung on almost every surface of the room I was in.

Mom had even taken them to see Dad. Thankfully, his good days were frequent right now, but that didn’t stop the kids from asking questions.

Mom handled them like a champ. She was in her glory being a grandma.

A soft knock on the door made me look up from my e-reader. “I hope I’m not interrupting.” A lovely woman was standing at the door with a pen and legal pad in her hand. “I’m Doctor Walton, the psychiatrist. I hear you want to talk to me.”

“Please come in.” My heart raced, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake asking to talk to someone. She closed the door and took the seat beside my bed. “I don’t know where to start.” I shrugged with my good shoulder.

“Where we start doesn’t matter, just go with it and see where it takes you.” She crossed her legs and waited for me to begin speaking.

An hour passed, and I’d lost count of how many times she’d flipped her paper over, but I’d spilled everything that had been weighing me down.

From my infertility to leaving Ryder, Anita and Hank’s death, my dad’s illness, what it might mean for me down the road, and what happened out in that meadow.

“I think you should enter into therapy for a while. This is a lot to work through in an hour. And I understand the challenges of getting somewhere, so if you’d like, I can set up Telehealth meetings for us.

” She flipped the papers back over and waited for my answer.

If my big, burly rancher could be vulnerable enough to know when he needed help, I could too.

“That would be wonderful.” I nodded as she placed her card on the bedside table.

“My receptionist will call you to book a time in a few days. I know you’re on your way home in a few hours, so we’ll let you get settled and be in touch.

” She stood and left the room. Laying my head back on the pillow, I felt more wrung out than I had after surgery, but at least I wasn’t drowning with what was rolling around in my head now.

“Hey sexy, are you ready to swap this bed for mine?” His husky voice in my ear made me smile.

“As long as your bed involves lots of pillows and ice cream. Oh, and a bell so I can call you when I need something.” I held up the call bell that had been tied to the railing within arm’s reach.

“I wonder if this thing is like what they use on Jeopardy?” I stared at the red button on the end of the control and tried not to laugh.

“I’ll take Sexy Men for one thousand, please, Alex.

The answer is, the sexiest man on the planet.

” I hit the button and said, “Who is my husband?”

“How long ago did you get pain meds?” Ryder asked flatly, as if I weren’t funny—let alone hilarious.

“Thirty minutes ago, in preparation for her trip home,” a voice said from the doorway. I looked up to see the nurse standing there with a bunch of papers in her hands. “Ready to go?” she asked, arching a brow and smiling.

“She’s playing Jeopardy, badly. You tell me,” Ryder said flatly as he looked at the nurse. The nurse started laughing and turned to me.

“So ready.”

She went over all my discharge instructions and informed us that my prescriptions would be ready at the pharmacy in Weston Gap.

“I talked to Jake. He’s going to get them and bring them out to the house. He wants to check you over after the drive home,” Ryder said as he bounced his attention between me and the nurse.

“All I need is for you to sign here, and your chariot awaits.” She pointed to the corner of the room.

Shakily, I signed the discharge form, and I was pretty sure that signature wouldn’t hold up in court because it looked nothing like mine, and I was high as a kite.

“Sure is going to be a lot more drab in this room again now that you’ve taken all the art down.

” She smiled as she looked around. Ryder had taken everything down and packed it in a bag because I wanted to save everything the kids did.

They’d even drawn pictures for the nurses’ station, and I was excited to see them hanging up every time I made a lap around the unit.

“Thank you for everything,” I said as she gently helped me into a sitting position on the side of the bed. Ryder moved the wheelchair close, so all I had to do was turn and sit down. He would have made a great nurse, I thought to myself, and stifled a chuckle, mostly because it hurt to laugh.

Once I was in the truck and we were out of Everton, I took a slow deep breath for what felt like the first time in years.

Ryder’s hand was possessively resting on my thigh, and I gently let my hand rest on his.

I couldn’t help but stare at the rings on my hand.

Ryder had slipped them back on after surgery, and I think I remember vowing never to take them off ever again.

A pothole apparently jumped out of nowhere, and I groaned. “Do I need to stop?” Ryder asked, his voice filled with worry.

“Nope,” I groaned as I shifted in the seat. “Maybe just try to miss the others?”

Turning onto our road, I smiled at the balloons on the rail fence. “Your mom helped the kids with that,” Ryder said, his tone slightly unimpressed.

“Call one of the guys to get them so they don’t end up in a pasture causing issues for the cows.” I knew exactly where his mind would go. Besides Ruby, Sawyer, and me, his next worry was always about the cows.

“I’m pretty sure Kipp was behind me, and he’ll get them.” My relationship with Kipp still felt as though it wasn’t on firm footing, but I hoped that as time went on and I proved that the only place I wanted to be was at Ryder’s side, he’d warm up to me again.

“I didn’t want to tell you at the hospital, and I’m not sure that now’s the right time either, but Violet’s gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” I turned slowly to look at my husband. “Like The Five dealt with her gone, or gone from town?”

“Gone as in went back to Kentucky.” He frowned and shook his head.

“Can’t blame me for asking, with you five you can’t be too sure,” I said as I let my head rest back against the seat.

“She tried to come crawling back to Nash, hoping he’d take pity on her.”

“Are you serious? She basically led that man to the doorstep and stood by while he terrorized her son’s family and friends. That woman’s lucky she’s gone or I’d be the one going after her.” Rage boiled out of me—today’s therapy appointment hadn’t helped one damn bit.

“She tried to go to your mom also,” Ryder said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Her fucking husband shot me twice, and she thought my mom would be sympathetic? Come to think of it, she probably had better luck with Nash.”

“Want to know what your mom did?” His gin spread wider across his face, and when he took his eyes off the road, they were beaming with pride.

“Umm, yeah.”

“She grabbed the gun out of my truck and threatened to put her down just like we’d done to her husband. Lex, don’t cross your mother. She’s terrifying.”

“All these years, you thought she was so sweet and kind. Well, now you know the dark side of Helen Paulson. That’s the woman Lydia and I grew up with, not the sweet person she makes everyone think she is.

” Him seeing her like that made me feel vindicated.

I was going to have to tell Lydia that our mother’s sweetness and light mask had slipped.

Ryder laughed, and I looked out the window as we pulled into the yard.

My kids were standing on the porch, looking like they were ready to leap off it and come running to me.

Mom stood behind them, with her arms around their shoulders, making sure they didn’t leap on me.

Lydia and Faith were also there, smiling and holding hands.

Tears filled my dry eyes as I looked at my sister, smiling and, for the first time in ages, looking at ease.

“Come on, let’s get you in the house,” Ryder said as he opened my door and helped me out of the truck. Helped wasn’t actually the word since he lifted me out and carried me, cradled in his arms, into our home.

“Ryder, I can walk,” I grumbled as we entered the house and walked down the hall to our room.

“Auntie Lex, I’m so glad you’re home,” Ruby said as she gingerly hugged me. Sawyer crawled up on the bed with me and snuggled next to me.

“You saved us,” he sighed as he took my hand. Tears ran down my face as I looked at the little boy, whose eyes were filled with awe.

“You’re my kids; there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe,” I said as my voice cracked, and they both gently cuddled up next to me.

I didn’t know how long they’d stayed beside me.

I fell asleep almost immediately and didn’t wake up until Jake came in to help me get settled.

He seemed happy with how my healing was progressing.

Tayla had offered to take the kids for the night, but I couldn’t bear to have them away from me just yet.

Ruby and Jake’s oldest daughter, Libby, had become fast friends, and I imagined they’d be trouble if they were anything like Tayla and me when we were together.

I dozed on and off most of the afternoon, and when I woke up, Ryder was sitting in the chair at the foot of the bed.

“You know you don’t have to watch me sleep.

There’s work you probably need to catch up on.

” Shifting my shoulders made him jump from his chair and help me fix the pillow that had moved so it wasn’t under my arm anymore.

He grabbed the bottle of pills Jake had left beside my bed and gave me two and a sip of water.

“There’s four other people to get the work done, six if you count Phil and Wes. Just so you know, Faith isn’t a bad cowgirl. The ranch might just have to steal her from you,” he said as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“She grew up on a ranch in North Dakota, and I’m not surprised a bit about her abilities.” Smiling, I ached for him to lie beside me. A knock on the door stopped me from asking him to do that.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I need to tell you both something.” Kipp stood in the doorway, his hat in hand, avoiding eye contact with both of us.

“You really think this is the time?” Ryder asked, annoyance dripping from his voice.

“Ry, it’s fine. Come in, Kipp. I just woke up, and my pain meds haven’t kicked in yet. Which is too bad for you because I’m hilarious when they do.” I snorted as I laughed, trying not to laugh harder.

“I think they’re kicking in,” Ryder said dryly, and that made a smile crack on Kipp’s face.

“Lexie, I owe you an apology. When you returned with Ryder, I was angry that he’d let you back in so easily after everything.

” He shuffled on his feet and raised his eyes to look at me.

“What I see now is that you two make one another whole. There’s a light in his eyes that’s been gone for a while.

I’m sorry, what I said at your wedding wasn’t my place.

And I’m glad you’re back, for good.” He smiled awkwardly, and I shifted, trying to sit up.

“There’s a lot of things I could say about my wedding day, and I can’t believe I’m even going to say this —but thank you.

Hearing your words wasn’t easy, but I’m not sure I would have ever been privy to the information if you hadn’t.

” I shifted my gaze to Ryder. Because if I knew my husband as well as I thought I did, he would have carried that to his grave just to save me from the hurt.

“Your timing sucked, but I needed to hear it.” I held out my hand and was overjoyed when he took it.

“Okay, now that we’re all happy, I just want to say if I ever catch you upstairs in this house with my wife, I’ll punch you again.” Ryder stood from the bed and crossed his arms, glaring at Kipp.

“You told him?” Kipp slapped his cowboy hat against his leg.

“Yeah, I did. It seemed to be a night of confessions.”

“Did you tell him it was weird as hell and awkward, and we never did it again?”

“Yep.” I shrugged with my good shoulder and fought off laughing.

“Well, pal, I assure you I have no interest in kissing your wife ever again.” He shivered like the thought repulsed him, and I couldn’t blame him. The feeling was mutual. “No offense,” he added quickly.

“None taken. I feel the same way.” I grinned and smiled at Ryder. “Sorry, I ruined round up.” Kipp was organized, and I’m sure the mess put him days behind.

“Nah, nothing to be sorry for. We’re out of the shadow of that man, and life will be back to normal. God, it seems so long since that was even a possibility.”

“Not so normal. We’re going to have to deal with Linc and Kristin,” I said, the pain meds definitely kicking in now—my head felt heavy.

“Yeah, well, I think he just needs space. Who knows, maybe someone new will wander into the Fencepost and make him forget,” Kipp said, his words not at all convincing.

Something had shifted in the last few days, and it was like everything was right in the world again.

The threat to the ranch was over. Our friends in the community were also safe from someone trying to take them over.

My unexpected little family was together, and I hadn’t ever been happier, even with two bullet holes in me.

There was an ache in my heart that my dad wasn’t a part of any of this, but there was nothing I could do to change it. We’d just have to make sure we saw him no matter how hard it was.