Page 85 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
“Brooks, buddy, try to get an earlier flight in if you can. I know you had a couple-hour layover. I’m on the way with Ricky and Lucy to Burque. They’re saying surgery.” That was Kase.
“Uncle Brooks! He bled all over. It came out of his mouth! You need to come home!” That was Lucy. Sobbing.
Hysterically.
Shit. Who did he call first?
Right, start with the adult. “Call Kase.”
Kase answered the phone immediately, the familiar voice comforting as hell. “Hey, man, where are you? Are you in the States yet?”
“I am. I’m in LA, I’m heading for a gate to see what I can do. What happened?”
“Hold on.” There was a second of quiet, then, “Ryder’s on it. He was tore up worse than he thought. Torn spleen, torn liver, and a spot in his intestines was leaking. They opened him up, cleaned him out. They’re putting him back together now. Then it’s a waiting game to see how bad the infection is going to be.”
“Okay, but he’s all right? He’s going to be okay?” Coop was a goddamn hero.
“I don’t know, man. We don’t know.”
No, that was not the appropriate answer. “Okay. Kid situation.”
“Right. Ricky and Lucy are here with me. Bella is at the house. I’ve got cowboys feeding. Ryder has the three younger. Benji is on his way back here. He should beat you back into town. Well, depending on when you get here. I told Benji he didn’t have to stay, but he wanted to fly out, even if it is just for the week before he has to go back out because he’s on contract.”
“Sure. Okay. I’ll fly from here to Albuquerque. Can somebody come pick me up at the airport?”
“Sure, man. Of course. I think that someone’s going to come out here and pick the kids up and take them back down to the house. Bella is a little scared to be there at the house by herself, and Lucy doesn’t need to be sitting here fretting. I didn’t bring…supplies and the gift store isn’t open.”
“Right. Damn it.”
“Hey, you just get your ass here. Coop will need you for the recovery. We got to get all this figured, but we can. We got a cowboy set to do the chores at your place. We just need you home.”
“Okay. Where’s Ricky?”
“He went to get a Coke.”
“I’ll call him once I fix a flight. I’ll holler when I know.”
“You got it. Hang in there.”
“I love him, man. I need him to be okay.” The words were so true, truer than he’d known. But he didn’t have time to dither right now.
“I understand you, Brooks. Talk soon.”
He got to the desk at his gate, but it was empty. Too early for his flight, and yet the last before his had left. He didn’t want to have to go to the rebooking area, which would just have phones anyway, so he called the number on his app.
The airline put him on standby for a flight two hours earlier than his, and he trudged to that gate while he called all the other airlines.
Oddly enough, it was Southwest who could get him on a flight that boarded in ten minutes. Provided he could make it to the gate. So he hoisted his two carry-ons and ran like his ass was on fire. He was a cowboy damn it.
He could do this.
He raced to the gate in time to rush onto the plane and get a middle seat, and he managed to get both his bags into the overhead space.
He closed his eyes and breathed deep, trying to relax a little, because for the next hour and a half, he was out of touch anyway. There was nothing he could do until he got home.
But he should have been there.
And he was never going to forgive himself if Coop didn’t make it out of this mess.
