Page 59 of Single Mom for the Mountain Men
“Someone is going to meet us up there in two days to look at what’s left of the cabin and start the process of getting it rebuilt.”
“I can help build the house,” Tanner says. “In fact, I think it would be really cool to build our own cabin this time around.”
“I don’t know how to build anything,” I tell Tanner and shake my head.
“I can teach you guys!” he says eagerly, the idea clearly taking hold in his head. “I bet it would help us with the claim as well. We’d be able to take all the money for the rebuild and devote it to supplies instead of paying people to do the work for us. We could make a huge cabin that will fit all of us!”
“All of us?” Brody asks skeptically. “What makes you think Lena will want to stay here after everything that you put her through?”
Tanner looks crestfallen, but he nods. “Oh, yeah. I didn’t think of that.”
“We won’t know anything until she wakes up again,” I say to soften the blow. I give Brody a stern look. Tanner has apologizedso many times now that I’m getting tired of hearing it. Brody, however, can’t seem to resist leaning on him about his mistakes at every opportunity.
I open my mouth to say something about standing firm as a family when, suddenly, I feel Lena’s hand move underneath mine.
I look down in shock and excitement. “Lena?” I say and squeeze her fingers. “Lena?”
I almost think I imagined the movement of her fingers, but then, her head lolls a little on the pillow, and she frowns a bit.
“She’s waking up!” I say excitedly to the other men and Sophie. Everyone huddles around the bed as Lena starts to shift a bit, struggling to wake.
“Momma!” Sophie says loudly, struggling past Brody to clamber on the bed. I catch her before she can lay on top of her mother and help her to kneel beside Lena on the bed instead.
“Soph…” Lena starts to say, then succumbs to a fit of coughing. “Sophie?” she tries again, her voice weak as her eyelids flutter.
And then, for the first time in a week, Lena’s green gaze locks onto mine. Her long lashes flutter a few times, then she looks around at us with some confusion.
“Where am I?” she asks.
“The hospital,” Brody tells her while passing her a cup of ice. She sucks an ice cube into her mouth and lifts her arm, so that Sophie can cuddle in close to her. She winces as she moves her injured side and then frowns as memories start to come back to her.
“Oh…oh, I was shot,” she says, and we all nod. “Am I okay now?”
“Yes,” I tell her with a gentle smile. “The doctor says that you will heal up just fine. You just lost a lot of blood, and so, you didn’t wake up after your surgery like we all expected you to.”
She blinks. “What? How long have I been in a…coma?”
“A week,” I tell her gently, hoping that this won’t shock her too much.
“Oh,” she says again, that little frown still turning down her plump lips. Then, a wry little smile curls her mouth. “Well, I hadn’t been sleeping very well the past month, so I guess I got a chance to catch up on it.”
I grin at Brody and then at Tanner.What other woman on Earth could be as sweet as her? She can turn anything into an upside with ease.
“The cabin…” she says sadly as her memories start to come back.
“We’re going to rebuild it ourselves,” Tanner puts in, despite Brody’s quelling look. “I want to add more rooms…for you and for Sophie.”
“Do you guys know how to build a cabin?” Lena asks, looking away from Tanner’s eager face to myself and then Brody.
Brody rolls his eyes. “Tanner thinks he does, and he thinks that we’ll help him.”
“Idoknow how to build a house,” Tanner insists. “It’s not that hard and…”
“The insurance guy hasn’t even come to see what’s left of the cabin yet,” Brody says sternly. “We can cross that bridge when it’s time.”
“What about James?” Lena asks, her expression tight.
“He’s…not a very nice man,” Brody says, glancing cautiously as Sophie. “There’s more than enough dirt on him between all of his antics on the mountain and his shell companies and other crimes that he will be going to prison for the rest of his life.”
