Maggie's Mountain (24 page)

“I’ll stay here. If she wakes up while you’re gone, I’ll let you know.”

With a final squeeze of Maggie’s hand and a quick thank you to Jolene, Hale eased out of the first exam room and down to his mother’s. He opened the door to his brother holding Cordelia, cradling her against his chest. She was disheveled, her clothes dirt stained and torn, her hands skinned, her bun hanging slightly lopsided as hair escaped willy-nilly. Hale was so shocked by the picture that he wasn’t sure what he should do.

Trent didn’t give him a chance to retreat. “Hale’s here.”

Their mother looked up, tears welling in her red rimmed eyes as she motioned him closer. “I’m so sorry; I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t seem to stop crying.”

Hale pulled a tissue from a nearby box, handed it to her, and watched as she dabbed at the tears on her cheeks. “Are you all right?”

Cordelia gave a jerky nod. “I’m…I’m fine. Oh, Hale, it was awful. Maggie…she threw me out of the way. If she hadn’t turned me around—but she did. She pushed me away and took my place. She took my place, Hale. She saved me.”

Trent brushed a wild curl of hair from her forehead. “You thought she’d let you get hit?”

“After what I did, what I said, how I acted…I don’t know if I could have blamed her.”

Hale didn’t want to add to his mother’s obvious upset, so was careful with the anger rising just beneath his concern. “What did you say to her, Mom?”

Cordelia had the grace to look away for a moment before she replied. “I went to her house to tell her to leave you alone. I was going to give her a check.”

Trent interrupted the explanation with a quick laugh. “And she refused to take your money, right?”

“As a matter of fact, she told me she didn’t want it, or my life, or even the prestige of our name. I…was having trouble believing it.”

“And then the truck,” Hale put in.

She nodded. “Then the truck. I couldn’t believe it. She didn’t have to do that. If she’d let me stay there, I would have…the truck would have run me over. She wouldn’t have had me standing in her way.”

Hale let his mother’s complete confusion ease some of his anger. “I’ve tried to tell you, Mom, she’s not the person you think she is. She never has been.”

Cordelia didn’t reply; she patted Trent’s hand and wiped at another stray tear.

“I’m asking her to marry me, as soon as she wakes up.”

His announcement brought total silence. Trent was staring at him, a mix of admiration and shock on his face, and his mother was gazing at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“Hale, you can’t! You barely know the girl.”

“I know enough.”

Trent shook his head. “Well, big brother, I have to admit it sounds a lot like you’ve lost your mind.”

Hale grinned, unabashed. “Maybe I have. But the fact is when I think about my life in a year, five years, twenty years from now, I can only see myself with Maggie.”

Cordelia huffed. “She’ll never agree, and I won’t give you my blessing. If you do this it will be against my wishes.”

His mother’s shoulders were straight now, her jaw set in staunch determination, but there was something desperately sad in her gaze that belied her posture. He wished he could change her; he wanted nothing more than to somehow make her see she was only hurting herself. He supposed the years living with his father, and the years believing she’d been wronged by an innocent woman, made it almost impossible for the situation to be easily resolved.

Hale reached and covered her cold fingers with his hand. “I’d appreciate your blessing, Mother, but I won’t insist. I don’t want to hurt you, and I don’t want to pressure you, either. I know this is hard, and I don’t expect you to change your mind when you’ve had it made up for nearly thirty years. I love you and you’re important to me, but so is Maggie. It’s your choice.” Hale turned to Trent. “Are you okay with all of this?”

“I like her; I think you’ll make each other happy.”

Their mother gave a little jerk of her body, stiffening against his brother. Trent ignored her attempt to pull away, instead holding her closer.

“Thank you.” Hale paused, then placed a kiss on his mother’s cheek. “I’m going back to take care of Maggie, but I’ll be back later to check on you.”

Cordelia, flustered and overwhelmed, fought back another bout of tears. “This whole situation…how am I supposed to explain it to my friends? It all just sounds so absurd.”

“It’s romantic,” Trent protested. “You’re just upset because you know Maggie won’t give you a chance to drape tulle over every available surface; but if you play your cards right, you might be able to talk her into a sit down dinner reception at the club.”

“Enough of your nonsense, Trent. Your brother is about to make a colossal mistake.”

“Hale’s made plenty of mistakes, mother. This may or may not be one of them. Why don’t you give him enough room to figure that out for himself?” Trent looked at Hale and smiled. “I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

“Let me know if you need anything,” Hale replied. “Mother, try to get some rest.”

He turned and left the room, his mind already sorting through the words he wanted to use when he asked Maggie to marry him.

Chapter Twenty

Maggie woke slowly, her head groggy and her body strangely light. She felt as if she were just floating on the edge of reality, an edge that compelled her to continue gliding along. It was a nice place to be, this not quite in the world feeling. She wondered how long she could linger here.

“Come on, sweetheart. Time to wake up for good. You’ve been teasing us with your in and out routine all night.”

Hale’s voice pressed its way into her thoughts. It was nice to have his voice here with her. It added a happy warmth to the world.

“Oh, no, baby, come on back to us. You drifted off in the middle of our last conversation.”

Back to him…that thought brought bliss. There was a giggle from somewhere; a moment later she realized it was from her own throat.

“Laughing is a good sign.” Her friend’s voice added to the cozy atmosphere. Jolene actually sounded as if she were going to burst into laughter. It was good that her friend was feeling as blissful as she was.

“Great, you two are laughing at me now. Fine, make me the butt of your jokes all you want, just open those gorgeous eyes.”

He thought her eyes were gorgeous. That sent an electric thrill along her sluggish bones. Maybe she should do what he was asking. After all, she did enjoying looking at him. He was just so handsome. She tried to pry her eyelids up, but they were more reluctant than she’d anticipated. She couldn’t imagine why she couldn’t open her eyes; she’d had plenty of sleep the night before. And it had been so comfortable, so lovely, to lie curled in Hale’s arms.

She should really wake up; she had a long day ahead, and Mac could do with an afternoon hike in the woods. Those odd dreams she’d been having, half nightmare, half dreamscape, played along her mind, provoking her just enough to raise her curiosity. She should really talk to Hale and Jolene about the odd dreams filled with grotesque sounds and staccato voices. She managed to get one eyelid up a fraction of an inch before it fell shut again. This was crazy, she thought, and forced her eyes half open.

“There’s my girl.” Hale was staring down at her, grinning. “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”

“Hi there, Maggie.” Jo’s pert face came into sudden focus.

“Hale…” Her throat was so dry she nearly choked. He hurried to hold a straw to her lips, and she took a long sip. “Why is Jolene here?”

“Mags, you don’t…we talked a few times, remember? When you woke up?” Jo nibbled her bottom lip as she waited for a response.

Hale slid down to sit beside her. “Maggie, sweetheart, wake up a little bit more.”

She took another sip of water when he offered it, then let her head fall back to the pillow. Obviously she was supposed to remember something, but what? Wait, where was she? She turned her head, saw the sterile walls, the paint by numbers picture, the small dry erase board just under a corner mounted television. This wasn’t the cabin, this was—

“The hospital,” she managed.

“Yes,” Hale confirmed.

“But I don’t understand—”

The memories came flooding back, snapshots of scenes as they played out. Hale’s mother coming to her house, having to close Mac in the dining room, the insulting offer of money. Then…she creased her brow in concentration. A truck. There had been a truck and it had—

“The cabin!” She tried to sit up, but pain shot through her like hot serrated blades.

“Easy, Mags.” Jolene hurried to her other side, helping Hale to ease her back down. “You have bruised ribs. I guess you’re still a little addled from the pain killers they gave you a few hours ago.”

“Oh, God, Hale, your mother.” She turned wide eyes to him as fear coursed through her blood. “Your mother, is she okay? I thought she was okay. You said she’s all right, didn’t you? I tried to get her out of the way.”

He stroked her hair to calm her nerves. “She’s fine thanks to you, remember? That’s one of the first things you asked. She has a few bumps and cuts, but she went home last night.”

“Last night? Then I…wait, I remember the E.R. I have—” She stopped and stared down at her heavy leg. “I broke my leg, and hurt the ligaments in my arm. Mac!”

“He’s okay, too,” Hale reassured her. “I asked Trent to go pick him up and take him to the farm last night.”

She let out a long sigh of relief. “Everyone’s okay? That’s right, they are. You told me when the nurse woke me taking my vitals. What about the person who crashed?”

Hale and Jolene exchanged a loaded look, one that spoke volumes. She didn’t need to hear an explanation to know what had happened.

“He got away,” Jo confirmed. “I’m sorry, honey; somehow he managed to bail out without anyone seeing or stopping him.”

“But they know who did it,” she said, hoping she was right but afraid she wasn’t.

It was left to Hale to break the news. “No, they don’t. Apparently the truck was stolen from the Blackburn’s sometime yesterday morning.”

Maggie didn’t say it; she didn’t have to. Whoever had done it had targeted her house. It was just one more act of escalating violence which couldn’t be denied. She had hoped the fervor would die down, but it was plain that someone must know about her and Hale. And whoever knew didn’t like it.

“I called your insurance this morning, like I told you I would.” Maggie vaguely remembered her friend writing on a legal pad sometime in the night. With her practical business sense, Jolene had been quick to make a short list of what needed to be done. “They said they’ll be sending someone out this afternoon to take a look at the damage.”

“I want to see it.”

Hale stilled his movements as leaned over to stare into her face. “No. You aren’t leaving this hospital until they say you’re good to go.”

Maggie wet her lips and tried her best to sound authoritative. “Just give me a few minutes to completely wake up and I’ll be fine.”

“Damn it, Maggie, will you
please
listen to me about this?” His swearing at her might have been grating if she hadn’t seen the dark worry swirling in his eyes. “It isn’t safe there right now, whether you’re alone or not.”

“I wasn’t going to stay there, Hale. I just have this…need to see what happened.”

Jolene piped in to back her friend. “Of course she won’t be staying there. How could she? She’ll be coming home with me.”

“Oh, no she won’t. She’s going home with me. It’s bad enough that we have to postpone our wedding, but I’m not giving up spending as much time with Maggie as I can.”

His bald statement stole the air from her lungs. “Wh…what did you just say?”

Jolene rolled her eyes. “Hale Warrick, you might be a ladies’ man, but you’re lousy when it comes to proposing.”

“Proposing?” Maggie blinked, confused.

“We’ve never been conventional, have we, Maggie Mae?” Hale's tone was tender as he gazed at her, his face soft with wry self-amusement. “I made a deal with the Man upstairs yesterday. I told Him if you were okay, that I’d marry you and make sure you were nothing but happy for the rest of your life. I swore I’d do it last night, but Jolene convinced me you’d want to have time to plan the wedding just the way you want it.”

“You want to marry me because I didn’t die?” She was having a hard time fathoming exactly what it was he was saying, what with the blood rushing through her ears and her insides jangling with excitement.

He dropped a gentle kiss on her lips before he answered. “No, I want to marry you because I love you. The accident just gave me a darn good excuse to beg you to stay with me forever. You see, sweetheart, I’ve realized I don’t want to live another minute without you.” He winked as a radiant smile bloomed across his rugged features. “I’ll promise I’ll be as patient as I can.”

Maggie just stared.

“We’re still waiting for an actual proposal, Hale.” Jolene egged him on with a devilish gleam in her eyes.

Hale gave them a long, steady look before he finally stood up. “Okay, fine.”

He dropped to his knee beside the bed, took her injured hand gingerly into his and kissed it. “Maggie Mae Cooper Brannon, I love you. I love you so much I’m crazy with it. Half the time I don’t know if I’m coming or going, and the other half of the time I spend grinning like a fool because I’m thinking about you. I don’t want to live without you beside me. Would you grant me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Maggie stared at the man she loved, only vaguely aware that Jolene was snapping shots with her phone camera. He was right: they would never be a conventional couple. Her heart felt as if it had grown out to twine around every cell in her body. Love spilled out into all the dark places, bringing with it a glow so brilliant she thought rays might shoot from her toes and fingertips.

She gave him a long look before she answered. “I’m under the influence of drugs, and I’ve had a nasty shock.”

“I’m hoping those things will work in my favor,” he admitted, his face falling.

“I should say it’s too soon,” she said.

“Maybe,” he replied.

“Your mother still hates me.”

“Hate is a strong word, especially since you saved her life. My brother likes you a lot, though.”