Page 78 of The Cowboy Complication

“Because it would take a complete fucking idiot to let you go, and since he’s a surgeon, he can’t be a total dumbass.” He knew it was coming. Kind of expected Isla’s ex to show up before now. “What did he say?”

She stared at him a second, blinking. “I don’t really remember.” Going back to his breakfast, she unrolled his flatware and handed him the fork. “I wasn’t listening really well to begin with, and then Grady called to tell me you were hurt and I pretty much blacked out. I just left him there, got in my car, and drove here as fast as I could.”

That had him frowning. “Grady didn’t send someone to come get you?” What the fuck was the man thinking? Isla was a new driver. There was no way she should have had to get herself to Billings, especially under dire circumstances.

Isla gave him a sheepish smile. “Like I said, my brain pretty much stopped working.” She lifted the lid off his coffee and added a tiny container of half and half to the steaming brew. “Apparently, he called me because Leland went to my apartment after Evelyn told them I’d left their house, but I wasn’t there. Then he went to your place and I wasn’t there either. He was calling me to find out where I was so Leland could bring me over, but I sort of lost my shit and hung up on him.”

He reached for her, catching her hand and bringing it to his lips. “I’m so sorry, Princess. If I’d known what was going to happen I wouldn’t have?—”

“What?” Isla gave him a small smile. “You wouldn’t have gone into work?” She shook her head. “We both know that’s not true. That’s not how you are.” She took a deep breath, pulling her hand away so she could finish setting up his meal. “I’ll be okay. I just need to wrap my head around what it’s going to be like to be married to a police officer.”

“You do.” He watched as she put all her focus into buttering his lukewarm toast. “Out of curiosity, about how long do you think that will take?”

She lifted her eyes to his. “Why?”

He shrugged his good shoulder. “Just making plans. Trying to figure out if we’re looking at a winter wedding or a summer one.”

Isla chewed her lower lip. “Next winter is a long time away.”

He grinned. “I wasn’t talking about next winter.”

He’d marry her right there in the hospital room if she’d let him. He’d marry her at the courthouse. In his backyard. At The Inn at Red Cedar Ranch if she wanted something fancy.

Didn’t matter.

Isla’s mouth curved into a smile as she finished with his toast and came to sit beside him. “I bet a winter wedding would be pretty.”

“Any wedding with you in it is gonna be pretty.” He took a bite of the eggs. They weren’t awful, but they weren’t great. He shoveled more in though, because she would worry if he didn’t. “You pick the date and I’ll make it happen.”

Isla watched him eat, concern lining her brow. “Shouldn’t I meet your parents first? Are they going to be shocked?”

“No. They won’t be shocked.” He shoved in a mouthful of toast as hunger finally hit, talking around the bite. “I told them I was gonna marry you a week ago.”

* * *

“I feel like this was all just an elaborate plan to get out of having to move shit.” Leland grunted a little as he lifted one end of Isla’s mattress and helped Grady carry it out of the truck.

“You’re right.” Cooper walked alongside them, helping navigate the porch steps. “I got shot so I wouldn’t have to carry my fiancée’s bed into my house.”

“I swear to God, if I hear you say that word one more time, I’m going to punch you in the face.” Leland had shown up in a shit mood that morning and his disposition had only gone downhill since.

“I don’t know what crawled up your asshole and started to squirm, but you’re supposed to be being nice to me.” He opened the door, holding it as they passed through. “If it wasn’t me who ended up in the hospital, it would have been one of you two.”

But ending up in the hospital wasn’t actually the worst part about what happened that day. A scar, he could live with. Learning he’d taken a man’s life had been a hell of a lot more difficult to accept. It didn’t matter how or why it happened. Who fired first, or even the lack of choices he’d had.

He was still the reason a man was no longer alive, and it kept him up at night. Ate away at the edges of any happiness or joy he started to feel. It colored every thought he had and tightened every breath he took.

“The final report came back on that this morning. The chief called to let me know what they found.” Grady started up the steps, going backwards as Leland brought up the rear. “From what they can tell, he’d hidden a gun in that barn before he was arrested the first time and went back to get it as soon as he bailed out.”

Cooper trailed behind Leland, locked onto every word Grady said. “Why in the hell would he do that?”

“They ran ballistics on the gun he shot you with and got a hit.” Grady reached the landing and slid the mattress into the formerly empty room they were setting up as a guest space using Isla’s furniture from her apartment. After lining it onto the frame, he came to where Cooper stood, resting a palm on his uninjured shoulder. “It was the same weapon used in two murders in Billings.”

Grady probably thought this new information would change things, but it didn’t. Not really.

Was it possible he’d rid the world of a murderer? Maybe. But if that was the case, he’d also stolen the chance for two families to get justice and closure.

“How’s it going up here?” Isla walked in at just the right time.

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