Page 34 of Cowboy's Christmas Wife

Daryl lost himself in thought. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “My calendar was clear of any projects due today, so I don’t think I’ve forgotten a commission that I needed to send out…but I still feel like I’m missing something.”

Laura reached across and slipped her hand into his. She brought his hand up and, mimicking his move from earlier, kissed his knuckles. “It’ll come to you later,” she said. “For now, we can celebrate the fact that things are going to be okay.” He nodded, but she didn’t miss the mournful look on his face. She was sure that she had a matching expression, but she couldn’t make it better. There was nothing to say. They’d gotten what they both wanted—their financial futures were looking much brighter—but things between the two of them had never felt more uncertain.

TWENTY

Daryl and Laura were halfway through their meal at Rue Franklin, a small French bistro in the neighboring town of Oakton, when his phone went off. It was Georgina. “Hey—” His greeting cut off when he realized that his sister was sobbing. “Georgina? Georgina, what’s wrong?” he called out, feeling more panicked by the second. “What happened? Did something happen to you? To the kids?”

He heard her take a deep breath, as if she was trying to pull herself together. “Kyle…Kyle was hurt,” she said finally. “He was doing some renovations in the barn on his own, and he fell. He needs stitches, but he won’t leave the house.”

Dread pooled in his stomach. “What was he doing renovations alone for? Where’s Caleb?” Even as he said the words, he remembered—Caleb was out of town. That was why Kyle had askedDarylto help him—and Daryl, like an idiot, had said yes without checking the calendar or realizing that it was the same day as the hearing.Thatwas the thing he’d forgotten, the thing that kept nagging at him as they were driving earlier. Why the hell Kyle had decided to take on the project by himself rather than waiting for the next day, Daryl didn’t know—but there was nothing they could do about it now.

“Is he okay?”

Georgina let out a frustrated rasp of sound. “I don’t know because the stubborn ass won’t leave the ranch. I only found out because he called me just a few minutes after you left, wanting to know how to getbloodstainsout. I drove right over to see what was going on, and I’ve been arguing with him ever since. I need your help.”

“I’m coming,” he assured her. “I’ll be there soon.” He hung up and met Laura’s wide, concerned eyes. “We need to head back,” he said. “Kyle’s hurt.”

Daryl was relieved when Laura didn’t need to hear an explanation or an apology—she just grabbed Lily and the diaper bag, he paid, and they were on their way. It was quiet and tense in the cab of his truck. Daryl gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his hands ached, and he could feel himself grinding his teeth. He didn’t want to let himself think or talk because he knew that he would spiral.

“Did your sister say what happened?” Laura asked. Her voice practically echoed in the silence of the truck’s cab.

“He fell,” Daryl gritted out. “I’m not sure how far, but she thinks that he needs stitches, and he’s refusing to leave the ranch.”

He could see that she was horrified by the news. He knew that she genuinely cared about Kyle and must be feeling as worried as he was, but he couldn’t offer her comfort at the moment. He was too occupied by his stomach attempting to twist itself into knots.It’s my fault, he kept telling himself.I wasn’t there when I told him that I would be.

It felt like the drive to the ranch took hours. Daryl pulled in beside his sister’s car and launched himself out of the truck. He didn’t wait for Laura to unbuckle Lily—he knew she was right behind him—but rushed into the house instead. Georgina was seated beside Kyle, holding a wad of paper towels against his arm. Blood was already seeping through the stack. Daryl’s stomach dropped into his knees. “Holy shit, Kyle,” he breathed. Laura nearly ran into his back, and she let out a little gasp when she saw him. “You need to go to the hospital.”

Kyle scoffed, but when he tried to stand up, he slumped back onto the couch. His face had gone a chalky pale. “You might be right,” he muttered.

“Finally!” Georgina sighed and started to haul him up, but Kyle hissed in pain, and she eased him back down. She looked to Daryl. “Should we call 911?”

“No,” Kyle argued. “It’s a waste of money.”

Daryl bit back that they didn’t have to worry so much about that anymore—it probably wouldn’t go over well at the moment. “Come on,” he said, crossing to his siblings. He leaned down and wrapped a hand around Kyle’s arm. “Let’s get him up, Georgina.” Together, they walked him back towards the door. Daryl spared a moment to look at Laura. “We—”

“Go,” she said, cutting him off. “Lily needs to eat and get a bath anyway; we can talk when you get back.”

Daryl nodded, and then they were moving through the front door. They elected to take Georgina’s car so that they could easily load Kyle into the backseat. The ride to the hospital wasn’t a long one, but the tense silence made the minutes stretch on painfully. The urge to apologize, to explain himself, rose in his throat, but he focused on the road in front of him instead. “You awake back there, Kyle?”

“Yes,” Kyle answered. Short and clipped. So, Kyle was mad at him. Well, that was fair enough—Daryl was mad at himself.

Deciding to just apologize, regardless of what his brother responded with, he swallowed hard. “Kyle—”

“Not now, Daryl,” Georgina hissed at him, effectively shutting him down. He bit the side of his cheek to keep the words from rolling out: Georgina was right. He could—would—talk to Kyle later, after they weren’t worried about the alarming amount of blood coming from his arm.

Luckily, the ER charge nurse took one look at him coming through the door and shooed them through to triage. “Only one visitor,” the woman said. Daryl didn’t have to be told to head to the waiting room; he watched his brother and sister disappear through the locked double doors, heart aching in his chest. It wasn’t that he would be better at holding Kyle’s hand through stitches any better than Georgina, but to know, absolutely, that the injury being treated was his fault made his stomach roll in an endless, sickening cycle.

His family meant everything to him, but ever since Laura came into his life, his focus had shifted, to the point where he’d totally forgotten about a promise he’d made to his brother in light of being there for Laura. Why did it take something like this for him to realize it?It stops now, he thought. He cared for Laura—God, he cared for her so much—but he’d known from the start that their relationship wasn’t supposed to last. He never should have let it distract him from the things that truly mattered. Daryl had to put his priorities straight, and now that the hearing was over—

Daryl hated that thought as well. He didn’t want Laura out of his life; he didn’t want her out of his house. But would it make things easier? He had the awful feeling that it might. Daryl lost himself in thought, turning over the what-ifs in his mind.

Two hours and so many stitches that Georgina said she lost track later, his siblings emerged. Daryl followed them, in a fog, to the car. “Can you drive home?” Georgina asked. “I’m wiped.” Daryl managed to nod and slid behind the wheel. He offered to drop Georgina off at her house, but she insisted on coming home with them. The drive back to the ranch was faster, but he kept sneaking peeks into the backseat. Kyle was dozing—they’d given him some kind of pain medication, and he was a little looped.

When they got home, Laura was walking with Lily in the living room. The little girl’s head was plopped on her shoulder, but Laura kept walking the carpet, rubbing at her back. Daryl couldn’t help but smile: she was worried about Kyle. It was endearing. “I’m going to put him to bed,” Georgina said, taking Kyle’s weight from Daryl.

“Do you need help?”

Georgina cut a look at him that could have made him bleed. “I’ve got it.”

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