Page 81 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

“Of course.” He looked over at her, saw the determination etched on her face and understood exactly why she and Paige were friends. Aurelie’s distant stare, her furrowed brow, was the same look that frequently passed over Paige’s face when she worked through a problem.

“I need you to take me to the hospital.”

“Sure,” Owen said, his foot lifting off the pedal. “You mean now?”

“Please. I know it’s out of the way, but I’d like to start there.”

“You bet,” he said. “Just let me flip around and call the guys. I’m meeting Brad and his friend at the Connors’s farm to help fix the barn before Paige’s dad gets home.”

“Thank you, Owen. This is so kind of you.” With that, Aurelie fixed her gaze on the window again and didn’t say anything for the rest of the ride. He called Brad, filled him in, and made the ten-minute detour to the hospital in silence. When he pulled up outside the in-patient entrance, Aurelie rustled in her small bag and pulled out a bottle of Caribbean rum. “For your help,” she said, putting it on the seat between them.

Owen shook a hand at her, laughing. “No, really. Save it for Paige. It sounds like you’ve got quite a reunion ahead of you.”

“Oh, honey, I have plenty more where that came from,” Aurelie said, tossing her head back towards the bed of the truck. That’s why the bag felt heavy, even for him.

Owen chuckled. “Well in that case, I don’t mind if I do.” He jumped out. There was no way that petite woman was getting down without his help. When she was safe on the ground, Owen climbed the tire well and dug out her suitcase. “Thanks, and I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“I think you can count on that,” Aurelie said, and with a sway of her hips she was through the hospital doors. What a crazy day it turned out to be. He wanted to tell Paige all about it, but she wasn’t his person anymore. Maybe she never had been.

Oh well. Time to get back to work.

It took about twenty minutes to get back to the farm. Paige’s car was back, and she’d come back much calmer than she’d left by the look of the driveway. On Alan and Marge’s side of the drive he could see Steve’s truck backed up to the barn, the two guys unloading some tools and boards. Owen backed his truck down beside Steve’s. He was actually excited about working on the shutter.

“Hey, Steve. Heard you guys really tied one on last night after I left.”

“That’s what they tell me.” Steve rubbed his temple, where Owen assumed more than a small headache brewed. Brad looked up, a wry smile on his face, which was paler than usual.

“You feeling okay?” Owen asked him.

Brad nodded then winced. “As long as I don’t move my head. Or talk. Talking hurts, too. Hell, breathing is a chore.” Brad patted the small farm dog that nipped at his heels, desperate for the attention of someone. Owen guessed Penske hadn’t gotten much love with his owners holed up in Butte. Maybe he’d take the pup to his house for the next few days, make sure he had what he needed while Marge tended to her husband.

He bent down and scratched Penske’s ears.

“I’ve been there, buddy. More than once.”

“The older I get, the longer it takes to recover,” Brad said, putting sunglasses on and grabbing a twelve-foot board from the back of Owen’s truck.

“Try being forty,” Steve said. “It’s a miracle I’m not hugging the porcelain bowl after a night like last night.”

“Yet you do them all the time,” Brad said.

“Well, they’re so much damn fun when you’re in the middle of them. I can’t help myself.” He grinned mischievously, threw on a pair of glasses as well, and followed Brad with a board from his truck. Penske tore off like a bolt of lightning down the driveway, along the fence that bordered the dirt road to town, barking like he chased the devil himself.

“What’s he after?” Owen asked, thumbing towards the dog as he barked his way towards the edge of the Connors’s property.

“The UPS truck. As long as it has an engine, he thinks it wants to play. Should have his name changed to ‘Motor.’”

Owen laughed. “You leave with that waitress?” he asked Steve, his arms full of the tools he’d collected from his barn.

“C’mon, man, you know I don’t kiss and tell.”

“That mean if you don’t tell, there was something to say?”

“Now you’re getting the idea,” Steve said, throwing the guys an exaggerated wink. “But enough about me, I think we all want to know about this mysterious woman you picked up at a bus stop,” Steve said.

“Nothing to tell. She’s Paige’s friend, Aurelie, from the islands. Nice enough, needed a ride. Seems your sister forgot she was coming,” Owen said.

“Is she hot?” Steve probed. He was like a kid in a candy store when he talked about women. Owen didn’t know how he did it. One was enough for him—too much, actually.

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