Branded Page 11

  Chapter Seventeen

  SARA JUMPED TO HER FEET before Jo realized what was happening. “Oh God. Trace and Eric are fighting.”

  “What?” Jo immediately spotted the two brothers near the fountain. Judging by the way Eric was rubbing his jaw, Trace had just landed a punch there.

  “Holy crap.” She got up from her chair and hurried down the stairs. Word quickly spread, and people seated at tables jumped to their feet. Those standing moved closer to the twosome, making it difficult for Jo to push her way through the crowd, Sara on her heels.

  They emerged into the informal space left around the brothers, and Jo had to duck when Eric took a swing at Trace, who veered to the side, so that the punch nearly hit her instead.

  She knew better than to try and calm an angry bull. And there were two of them in this particular pen.

  “We better move back and let them have this out,” Jo said, herding Sara a safe distance away.

  Trace landed a stomach punch and Sara cried out and covered her face with her hands, causing Jo to cringe. She’d seen her share of ranch fights, but guessed this might be Sara’s first.

  “You may want to brace yourself,” she said quietly. “These things can get pretty dirty.”

  “What?” Sara was incredulous. “Why doesn’t someone stop them?”

  Jo gave her a long look. “Sometimes it’s just better to let them get out whatever they’ve kept bottled up. What’s the point in stopping something that’s already started?” She winced when Eric landed a solid upper cut, causing Trace’s hat to fly off. It fell to the ground behind him and he stumbled backward, crushing it under his boot heel. That seemed to make him madder still.

  She cleared her throat. “Unfortunately, I think this particular fight has been a long time coming. So there’s no telling how long it will last.”

  “But they could get hurt.”

  “Nothing that won’t heal.”

  Sara gasped. “You can’t be serious.”

  Jo shrugged. “Sorry. That’s just the way of things down here.”

  Sara covered her face again at the smack of fist against flesh and bone, and then turned toward the house. “I can’t watch this.”

  “I’m sure they’ll break it up soon!” Jo called after her.

  But she didn’t make a move to follow. Instead, she crossed her arms and watched the two men unload a lifetime of pent-up resentment. The crowd was cheering and groaning at each hit and miss.

  Jo herself had been involved in a couple of scuffles in her life. But that was before the military. She wouldn’t dare invite a physical fight with any of the guys now, partly because she could be charged with premeditated murder if anything bad happened, given her training. Plus she’d seen a lot of action on the front lines and no longer felt the desire for combat, physical or otherwise.

  Finally, the brothers seemed to be tiring. The crowd was already beginning to thin, people drifting back to their food and drink. Even the band was returning to the stage.

  Any minute now, someone would call for a truce and step in between the two men. If that didn’t work, others would hold them away from each other.

  Eric charged Trace one last time and caught him around the waist. He pushed him backward, gaining momentum instead of losing it, until the back of Trace’s legs hit the cement lip of the fountain. All it took from there was a simple shove, and Trace went in with a loud splash.

  The crowd cheered as Jo watched with a mixture of horror and amusement.

  Eric stalked off in the direction of the house. So much for a handshake and a truce, she thought as she hurried toward Trace. “Show’s over, everyone,” she called. “Go back to what you were doing.”

  Reluctantly, the crowd dispersed. Jo stopped at the edge of the fountain, looking down at where Trace lay propped up on his elbows in the shallow water, one of the cherubs pissing on his head. Aside from a cut above his right brow, he didn’t look any the worse for wear. And the water seemed to have cooled him off.

  “Aw, Jo, did you come over to help me?” he asked. “I’m flattered, but I think my brother’s more in need of help than I am.”

  Jo reached for the hand he stretched in her direction…but rather than coming out, he dragged her in with him.

  She gasped as the cool water engulfed her, molding the little bit of fabric that was her dress to her body.

  Trace dipped his chin into the water and then spat a stream out, mimicking the fountain above him.

  “Have you gone and lost your mind, Armstrong?” she demanded. “Or are you looking for another good licking?”

  He laughed, throwing his head back.

  And she found herself laughing with him as a few women nearby clapped in approval at the display they made.

  Trace pulled her to his side, smoothing down the hem of her dress even though the wet fabric revealed everything.

  Thankfully, before Jo could figure out how she was going to get out of the fountain without giving the guests a whole lot more to talk about, Sara darted out with a couple of beach towels.

  Jo thanked her and got up and wrapped herself in one.

  “Jo?”

  She looked up to see Sara’s brows knit together in concern. “A call just came for you. It sounded urgent.”

  Who would call the main house for her?

  “It was your father. Your mother’s taken ill and has been transported to the hospital…”

  TWO HOURS LATER, Jo still didn’t know the details of her mother’s condition. Since her father didn’t have a cell phone, he’d left the number of the hospital with Sara. Jo had called.

  “Are you coming, Jo?” he’d asked her, not sounding at all like himself.

  “I’m coming, Daddy. I’m on my way. How’s she doing? What happened?”

  He didn’t answer and she realized he was listening to someone else speak to him. “I’ve got to go. Your mother’s calling for me…”

  Then he’d hung up.

  And Jo had run for her pickup without saying anything to anybody.

  Now she tightly gripped the steering wheel, her eyes bone dry as she stared at the never-ending stretch of road in front of her. She was purposely trying to ignore the small voice in the back of her head that said she’d known this was coming. She hadn’t known when or how, but it was only a matter of time before her mother’s health completely deteriorated. If she were to face up to the truth, she’d admit that Daisy Mae Atchison had been killing herself for a long, long time. And now her body was granting her wish.

  “Stop it,” Jo ordered herself. “Just stop it.”

  Anything could have happened. Her mother might have fallen in the bathtub. Or hurt herself in the kitchen. Being in the hospital now might not have anything to do with her overall health.

  But the tone of her father’s voice when he’d asked if Jo was coming had sent liquid metal down her spine.

  No. This was more serious. It had to be. He wouldn’t have contacted her at the ranch house otherwise.

  Such were Jo’s thoughts throughout the long race toward Beaumont. Around and around they went, as she tried to make sense of the situation.

  Tried to ascertain blame, which she had to admit rested fully on her shoulders.

  While her father might also be to blame, she had always been the no-nonsense one. “The speaker of truth,” her father had once said. But when it came to her mother, Jo had been as silent and as much a contributor to her failing health as her father was.

  She finally took the exit for Beaumont, and within minutes parked her truck in a handicap-only spot right up front, running for the doors of the emergency room. Over two hours had passed since she’d spoken to her father, but as far as she was concerned, it had felt like five minutes.

  “I need to see a patient, Mrs. Daisy Mae Atchison,” she said to the clerk at the window.

  The woman looked her over and then went through the sign-in chart in front of her. It was then that Jo realized she hadn’t changed after her unplanned dunk in the fountain wi
th Trace. Her hair must be a matted mess, her makeup had probably run, and while her dress was dry now, it was wrinkled, and the pin that Sara had fastened was missing, leaving the material agape, revealing her bra.

  “Mrs. Atchison has been admitted and has been moved to a regular room,” the clerk said. “You’ll have to go to the other entrance for further information.”

  Jo squinted at her. “Are you serious? You can’t give me directions from here?”

  “Sorry, ma’am, but I cannot. Now, what you’ll want to do is go back out the way—”

  But Jo had already stopped listening. She stalked back outside in her wet boots, looked around wildly, and spotted the sign for the main entrance. She scrubbed her face as she walked, hating that her fingers came away with black smears from the mascara Sara had applied. Jo must look like a serial killer clown about now. Which was fitting. Today could have easily been Halloween for her. The dress, the makeup…they were a costume. Not her. Not the Jo she prided herself on being. So it didn’t surprise her that the costume had fallen apart at the first sign of trouble.

  She got her mother’s room number, provided proof that she was, indeed, family, and took the elevator up to the third floor. She immediately spotted her father pacing along a hall. He didn’t see her until she was right in front of him.

  “Daddy?” She reached for his hands to halt his movements, and forced him to look at her.

  He blinked as if not recognizing her. Then he hugged her tightly. “Oh, thank God you came, Jo.”

  “Of course I came,” she said, with guilt pressing down on her. There hadn’t been a question of her coming today, but that hadn’t always been the case. The military had provided the perfect excuse for her not to respond when something happened to her mother. A fall. Complaints of shortness of breath.

  But now…

  “What happened, Daddy? How is she? Can I see her?”

  He looked Jo over. “I think you might want to clean up first.”

  Now that she was there, she found she did want to do that. To go in to her mother looking a mess was asking for more trouble than Jo cared for just then.

  She asked for directions to the visitors’ restroom and moments later stood in front of a long line of mirrors, alone.

  “Hell.”

  That’s what she looked like. Her hair might have dried straight, as it usually did, but all the products Sara had applied had made it a ratted mess. Jo tried to finger comb it, but when that didn’t work, she wet it again as best she could and tried again, with minimal success.

  Then her gaze went to her face.

  Long, thick lines of mascara trailed down her cheeks, and the red lipstick was badly smeared. The eye shadow seemed notably untouched, bright blue against the blended color palette on the rest of her face.

  Jo squeezed out a handful of industrial soap and began washing off the awful mask, vowing that she’d never wear makeup again. She was aware of how petty the promise was, but as she scrubbed away, her movements growing ever more frenetic, she couldn’t seem to form a coherent thought to save her life.

  There was the impersonal atmosphere of the hospital. The disinfectant smell. Doctors being paged over the intercom.

  And just a few doors down, her mother was away from her safe home, outside the circle of protection Jo and her father had always provided, and possibly dying.

  Jo’s shoulders shook and her forearms dropped against the lip of the sink, as she gave in to the enormous need to cry…

  Chapter Eighteen

  “MAMA?” Jo stood next to her hospital bed a short time later. She was fearful at how pale her mother looked against the sheets. Before Jo went in, her father had finally told her that Daisy Mae had collapsed at home. He’d been helping her into bed for the night and she’d begun feeling dizzy, right before she passed out. Her weight had been too much for him to bear by himself, and she’d crumpled to the floor, suffering major bruising. Paramedics had found her blood pressure alarmingly high.

  The emergency room doctor had informed Lyndon that she’d suffered a hyperglycemic hyperosmolar nonketotic episode, and had she not been treated immediately she might have slipped into a coma and possibly even died. She’d originally been admitted to ICU, but had been moved to a regular room when she’d responded well to treatment. Right now she had an IV taped to her arm to help treat dehydration.

  “You didn’t tell me she had diabetes,” Jo had said. “How long? How serious?”

  Her father had waved his hand dismissively. “Some years now. Nothing serious. Type 2. I didn’t want to worry you about it, since we’ve been able to keep it under control.”

  “By having me bring pecan pie?”

  “What was I supposed to do once you brought it? Tell her she couldn’t have a piece? So long as she’s careful, she can even have that every now and again.”

  “If I had known, I never would have brought it. Jesus, Daddy. Do you know how serious this is? You can’t control Mama any more than you can control the setting of the sun.”

  Jo had served with a marine with type 1 diabetes. He’d been born with it and it ran in his family. But since the disease didn’t run in hers, she’d never had reason to believe any of them could get it. She hadn’t realized her mother’s obesity would make her more susceptible.

  “Mama?” she said again, smoothing her hair back from her face.

  Daisy Mae’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled faintly. “JoEllen Sue. What are you doing here?”

  Jo was relieved that she not only was able to speak to her, but still had her same old spunk. “I’m here to see how you are, of course.”

  “Oh, dear. I should have told your father not to call you.”

  “From what I understand, you weren’t able to tell him anything.”

  Daisy Mae frowned, as if trying to remember.

  “Would you like some ice chips?” Jo asked, filling a plastic cup from the ice holder.

  “Ice chips?” Daisy Mae licked her lips. “Why ever would I want ice chips? Surely there’s some sweet tea I could have?”

  Jo bit her bottom lip and held up the glass of ice. “Open.”

  Her mother did.

  Jo’s heart nearly broke as she watched her chew on the chips. Her father must have helped her wash before the collapse, because there was not a speck of makeup on her mother’s face. A face that without rouge looked rounder than Jo could ever remember it. So much so that Daisy Mae’s eyes seemed like narrow slits, her mouth and nose tiny.

  Hot tears welled up in Jo’s eyes.

  “Mama, how can you keep doing this to yourself?” she whispered. “Doing this to us?”

  Daisy Mae’s eyes focused on her and blinked several times. “Do what, JoEllen Sue?”

  Jo swallowed thickly as she put the cup back on the side table. “This…putting on so much weight.”

  Spots of color appeared on Daisy Mae’s cheeks, the only sign she’d registered what Jo had said. “I don’t know what you mean. I don’t weigh all that much more than I did when I won Miss Beaumont.”

  Jo stared at her. “Mama, you weigh enough for four Miss Beaumonts.”

  She patted Jo’s hand. “Don’t be silly. It’s just that thyroid problem I told you about. Nothing more. Watch. You’ll see. The doctor will be here in a minute to tell me I can go home in the morning.”

  “And then what?”

  “Pardon me?”

  “You heard me, Mama. Then what? What happens after you go home? Have you seen the bruises on your hip and back? Has anyone shown you?”

  Daisy Mae made a face. “Is that why I hurt so much? Must have happened during the fall. Nothing to be concerned about.”

  “There’s everything to be concerned about. You shouldn’t be falling in the first place. Why didn’t you tell me you had diabetes?”

  “It’s just a touch of The Sugar. There wasn’t any reason to tell you. Anyway, it’s not the serious type.”

  “How can you say that? You could have died tonight. If the paramedics hadn�
�t arrived when they had, you might not be here right now.”

  “Don’t go getting all dramatic on me, JoEllen Sue. It’s nowhere near as serious as that.”

  Jo took a closer look at her mother. Was that what she would have been told, had her father not panicked and called her tonight? If he had not been afraid that her mother was near death? That it had been nothing serious? Would Jo have learned of the hospital visit at all? Found out about her mother’s failing health?

  “Mama, you’ve got to lose weight.”

  There, she’d said it.

  Daisy Mae looked as if she’d been smacked in the face. Causing Jo to feel she’d just been the one to smack her.

  “Your father…your father, bless his heart, loves me just the way I am.”

  “I love you, too, Mama.” Jo grasped her hand, holding it tightly in both of hers. “This isn’t about love. I don’t care how you look. I care about your health. And being as big as you are isn’t healthy.”

  Daisy Mae tried to laugh off her words, but Jo could tell she was stung. And running as far and as fast as she could from the truth. It might have worked, but now that Jo was in a place where she had to deal directly with the problems their family faced, she wouldn’t allow herself to be put off. Not again.

  “You sound just like my doctor. He wants me to have that surgery where they take out half of your insides—”

  “Gastric bypass?” Jo interrupted.

  “Yes. I think that’s it. He—”

  “How long as he been talking to you about it?”

  “How long?” Daisy Mae paused, clearly not used to being interrupted. “Oh, I don’t know. Three years or so.”

  “And why haven’t you had it done?”

  Her mother blinked. “What?”

  “I asked why you haven’t gone ahead with the surgery. If your doctor thinks it’s the best course of action, then it sounds to me like something you should take him up on.”

  Daisy Mae’s color had flared again, albeit for a different reason. Jo could tell she was getting her back up. And once that happened, there would be no talking sense to her. She could argue the rain back into the sky, as Jo’s father liked to say.