Page 8 of Take Me Please, Cowboy
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
“No problem, Mom.”
They hung up, and Rye immediately went to his bank app, tapped transfers, and moved money from his account to his mom’s.While there, he checked his sisters’ accounts.They both had a couple hundred, which wasn’t a lot, but they were frugal and had part-time jobs to help pay for gas and books at the college.
He closed out of the bank app and closed his eyes, but sleep evaded him this time.
All he could see was his family home in Eureka, and the wraparound porch with the ramp for Jasper’s wheelchair.For a time after his dad’s injury, his dad was in a chair, too, but thankfully, he’d recovered enough not to need it anymore.But his dad was still incapacitated, forever unable to work.There had been disability checks in the beginning but after a few years those stopped.His mom worked as much as she could considering his father and brother were dependent on her.
So, Rye worked, and worked hard.
He didn’t mind working, either.He was one of those that liked being busy, needed a purpose, but the fact that the family couldn’t survive without him, and that every check he earned, whether from roofing or competing, was required for his family’s survival created a pressure of its own.He didn’t resent his family or the pressure, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel it.Thank goodness he had big shoulders, a thick skin, and a high tolerance for pain.It allowed him to keep going when others might have quit.There was no quitting for him, though.He loved his family.He was glad he could help.But it did mean his options were limited.
He wouldn’t ever move away from them.He couldn’t.
He wouldn’t take work that didn’t pay the bills.
He was always aware he couldn’t afford to get injured, not seriously, as his family would suffer the consequences.And so, when he entered his rodeo events, he always told his mom he’d entered the safe events.But there was big money in bull riding, and every now and then, he’d slip an additional event onto his schedule, thinking an extra hundred or two would go a long way toward groceries, or an extra physical therapy for his brother.The physical therapy sessions weren’t covered by insurance anymore.Very little was covered by insurance.
Rye had begun opening the bills before his mom could and handling the insurance as well.Far better he shield her from the negativity.She didn’t need it.It would wear her down and then she’d struggle emotionally, and he wouldn’t allow that.
He glanced at his watch.Almost eight thirty.He’d need to feed his horses soon and get them some exercise.He needed exercise.The rodeo itself didn’t begin until tomorrow, which gave him time to get his head together.He knew what was important.He knew to stay focused.Which was why he’d become a loner on the circuit.He didn’t drink or date.He didn’t go dancing.He couldn’t afford to go out to eat with the others.Being social wasn’t as important as taking care of his family, and until his family no longer needed him so desperately, friends could wait.Women could wait.His dreams could wait.There would be time for all of that one day.Someday.God willing.
An ambulance arrived, siren off but lights flashing.A few minutes later, a second ambulance pulled in.Rye’s gaze narrowed as hospital staff streamed out to meet the EMTs, assisting the patients as EMTs rolled the gurneys into the hospital through an entrance reserved just for them.
There was a lot of staff moving, and a rather dazed-looking woman climbing out of the ambulance, shouldering her purse, trailing after a gurney.
*
He’d just climbedout of his truck to stretch his legs when he spotted a young woman in a baseball cap trying to push a wheelchair.The man was big and slumped to one side.She was struggling to keep the chair rolling.She seemed to be hitting every crack in the asphalt, catching the wheelchair’s front casters and bringing it to a jerky stop.
Rye shouldn’t get involved.He didn’t need to get involved, but it was hard to ignore someone struggling when Rye had so much experience with wheelchairs.The least he could do was get the old man into ER safely.
Crossing the parking lot, he approached the pair.“Can I help?”
The young woman looked up at him from beneath the brim of her cap, and he felt a jolt of recognition.Her blue eyes widened at the same time.She recognized him, too.It was the beautiful, sun-kissed blonde from Jackson Flint’s truck.A beautiful sun-kissed blonde that was also probably Jackson Flint’s girlfriend.“You’re Jackson’s girl,” he said.
“No, just a friend of Jackson’s.”She took a frustrated breath.“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.I keep getting stuck.”
“You’re doing fine, it’s the parking lot that’s the problem, not you.Let me.”He grasped the handles on the back of the chair, tipped the chair backwards slightly, freeing the small front casters.It didn’t take him long to get the wheelchair onto a smoother surface and as he pushed the chair towards the emergency room entrance, the young woman walked quickly next to him.
“Almost there, Uncle Clyde,” she said, patting the old man’s shoulder.“Hang in there.”
The old man’s eyes were closed, his features creased with pain.
The woman looked up at Rye, alarmed.
Rye just focused on getting the wheelchair past the two ambulances parked beneath the hospital portico, and then up the small ramp to ER.“I’ll follow you,” he said as the glass doors opened.
She nodded and headed to the reception and spoke to the nurse at the desk.Rye glanced down at the older man in the wheelchair.The old man looked pale, and his eyes were still closed.
The young woman turned and gestured for Rye to push the wheelchair forward.He did.She leaned down to speak to her uncle.“I need your wallet.Did we bring it?”
“Pocket,” the old man gritted.“Back on the right.”He tried to lean forward, and Rye quickly retrieved it, handing the wallet over.
The beautiful blonde flashed him a grateful look and returned her attention to registering her uncle.Once that was done, another nurse came over and took the old man’s vitals and asked the young woman questions.She didn’t seem to know the answers to most and then an orderly claimed the old man, and wheeled him away, taking him to an examination room.
His niece rose to go, but her uncle grunted something about privacy and for her to stay, and then the wheelchair and patient were gone.
