Diana Palmer - Wyoming Brave

“Of course.” Merrie took Delsey’s place under Ren’s arm and felt the hard muscular body closer than she ever had before. He was warm and strong, and smelled of fir trees. She liked the feeling she got, being near him like this. It was something she’d never experienced.

Ren liked the softness of her young body. He liked the feel of her. He liked it too much, he thought to himself. He moved restlessly. He felt really sick.

“It’s okay,” Merrie said softly. “The doctor will give you something, and you’ll get better.”

“I’ve got work to do...!”

“It will get done when it gets done,” she said firmly. “You can’t work if you’re dead, now, can you?”

He looked down into her soft pale blue eyes. “Pest,” he muttered.

She grinned up at him. “Certifiable.”

He managed a laugh, but it made him cough.

Delsey motioned to them. “Tubbs is right outside. Come on, Mr. Ren.” She looked out the door. “Tubbs, come help, he’s heavy!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Tubbs came shooting in the door, grinned at Merrie and took Ren under the arm. “Come on, boss man. You can’t die. We’ll all have to go looking for work and we’ll never find anybody else who’ll yell at us and threaten to soak our blankets in vinegar.”

“Tubbs...” Ren began irritably.

“On the other hand, if you die, I want that nice watch you have, the one with all the dials,” Tubbs continued.

Surprisingly, Ren burst out laughing, which caused another coughing fit.

“In you go, boss man. You’re not dying today.” He waved to the women, got in beside Ren and drove away.

Merrie went back inside the house with Delsey, rubbing her arms because it was bitterly cold outside.

“You need a winter coat,” Delsey said firmly.

“I’ll go shopping. But not today.” Merrie laughed. She followed Delsey into the kitchen. “He’ll be okay, won’t he?” she added, worried and not able to hide it.

Delsey suppressed a smile. “He’ll be fine. Dr. Fellows will make sure of it. He delivered Ren.”

She cocked her head. “How long ago?” she wondered.

“Almost thirty-seven years,” Delsey replied. “He was born December 6.”

“I see.” He was older than she’d thought. Thirty-six, to her twenty-two. Well, she’d be twenty-three in November. It was still fourteen years. She supposed a mature man like that would think of her as just a child. It depressed her. She wondered why. He was hot-tempered, irritable, impatient, overbearing... Well, she had to finish that knitting, and adding to the adjectives would take a long time.

* * *

REN CAME HOME LATER, with Tubbs still supporting him.

“We have medicine and orders from the doctor,” Tubbs said, helping Ren up the staircase. “I expect him to take the first and ignore the second.”

“You can bet on it,” Ren muttered.

Tubbs just laughed.

After he got Ren settled, he came back down the staircase. He tipped his hat to the women. “I have to go ride the fence line and look for breaks.”

“Button that coat,” Delsey said firmly. “One sick man is enough.”

Tubbs grinned at her. “I never get sick.” He glanced at Merrie and started to speak.

“Out,” Delsey said, because she had a feeling he wanted to ask Merrie out. Ren wouldn’t like it.

He made a face. “You’re as bad as he is,” he remarked, nodding up the staircase.

“Where do you think I learned it from?” Delsey returned, and she grinned.

“Ah, well, fair maiden, there’s always tomorrow,” Tubbs said, and made Merrie a sweeping bow before he left. “Parting is such sweet sorrow!” he added on his way out.

Merrie looked after him, but not with any real interest. She turned back to Delsey. “Will Ren take the medicine, you think?”

“I would bet money that he sticks it in his medicine cabinet and closes the door,” Delsey replied. “It’s what he did the last time, and he ended up right back in Dr. Fellows’s office.”

Merrie hesitated. “Does he wear pajamas?” she asked, flushing.

“Ah. I see.” Delsey smiled gently. “He wears the bottoms,” she said. “Think you can get the medicine in him?”

“I got medicine in an outlaw horse once,” Merrie replied.

Delsey smiled gently. “Let me heat up some soup for him, and we’ll both take it up.”

“Great!” Merrie said.

Delsey kept her thoughts to herself. It was a relief, however, to notice that dashing Tubbs hadn’t made an impression on the young woman. The boss looked at Merrie in a way he hadn’t looked at a woman since that she-cat took him for the ride of his life. It was a start.

* * *

REN WAS IN BED with the covers pulled up to his waist, looking miserable, when Delsey and Merrie walked in.

“I just need rest,” he muttered, glaring at them. “Not mothering!”

“Nobody’s mothering you,” Merrie promised. “Where’s the medicine?”

He glared at her.

“In the medicine cabinet, I’ll bet,” Delsey told her.

“Traitor!” Ren shot at her.

Merrie walked into his bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. There were two prescriptions. One was an antibiotic, one was a powerful cough syrup.

She carried them both triumphantly back into the bedroom and started to open the antibiotic.

“Is that the cough syrup?” Delsey asked, reaching for it. She had a spoon in her hand. She read the directions, poured some into a spoon and pushed it toward Ren’s defiantly closed mouth.

“Open up, or I’ll roll you in a towel and shove it into you,” Merrie said forcefully.

The words, and the tone, caused him to burst out laughing. He opened his mouth, and Delsey spooned the cough syrup in.

“Very nice,” Merrie said. She held a pill in her hand. “This one, too,” she said.

He stared up at her. “You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

“Delsey, have you got a really big towel and two strong men...?”

“Hell.” He opened his mouth and glared at Merrie as she put the pill on his tongue.

He swallowed it down with some of the milk Delsey had brought him.

“Milk causes more mucus, you know,” Merrie commented.

“It’s all he’ll drink when he’s sick.” Delsey sighed as she put the tray with legs over him and set the soup and spoon and napkin on it.

“He needs to drink lots of water, to thin the secretions so he can cough up the mucus,” Merrie added.

“I’m right here,” Ren muttered. “I can hear both of you.”

They both stared at him.

He grimaced and picked up his soup spoon. “All right, you had your way. Now get out of here and let me eat my soup in peace.”

“It’s not soup. It’s oyster stew. Your favorite,” Delsey added with a warm smile.

He made a face at her, but then he smiled. “Okay. Thanks.”

“You get better. If you need anything, use the intercom,” Delsey added, indicating the unit on his bedside table.

“I won’t. But thanks.” He included Merrie in that. “Don’t think that threat about the towel made any difference,” he added firmly.

She grinned at him. “Liar,” she said mischievously.

He just chuckled.

* * *

THAT NIGHT, MERRIE went in to see Ren before she went to bed. She was still fully dressed. She didn’t want to be seen by a man in just pajamas and a robe, even if it was a modern world.

She knocked lightly and peered in the door. “Doing okay?” she asked.

He glared at her. “Close the door, from the outside,” he said icily.

“Yes, sir.” She closed it, wincing at his angry tone, and went down the hall to her own room.

He was so unpredictable. One day he was almost nice to her, the next he snapped her head off. She looked at herself in the mirror and realized the cause of his sudden irritation. Her cross was visible around her neck, outside the sweatshirt she was wearing.