Page 24 of His Reluctant Cowboy

He slammed to a stop in the driveway behind Dad’s pickup and next to Josiah’s car, barely noticing the dust his wheels kicked up. He tore through the yard and up onto the porch and, if he hadn’t taken a split second to remember the loose chain, might have yanked the screen door right off the house.

Dad stared at him from his bed, the frame adjusted so he sat completely upright, legs slightly bent, his expression a mix of confusion and annoyance. Josiah sat on the couch, bent at the waist, face resting on his hands, which were braced on his knees. It seemed like progress, since Dad said Josiah had been sitting on the kitchen floor before, so he’d at least gotten up and moved.

“Josiah?” Michael asked.

Josiah’s entire body flinched in a way Michael didn’t like.

“Hasn’t said much,” Dad said. “He’s moving around, though, so I guess he didn’t have a stroke like I did.”

Michael didn’t have the wherewithal to laugh or even snort at the terrible joke. He circled the couch and sat next to Josiah, watching the younger man carefully. No obvious sign of injury beyond the very faint trembling in his arms and shoulders. “Josiah? Are you hurt?”

Josiah shook his head without looking up. Muttered something Michael couldn’t make out.

Despite his concern, Michael turned to Dad. “Are you okay?”

“Hungry for lunch,” Dad replied with a half smile that took the edge off his grumpy tone. “Take care of the kid, first. I’ll live.”

You’d better, you old bastard.

Michael eased onto the couch, leaving about a foot of space between himself and Josiah, who still hadn’t looked up. “Okay, guy, I need you to talk to me. What’s going on?” When Josiah didn’t say anything, a tiny bit of temper peeked through. “I left my own job to come back here because something’s wrong. Tell me what happened.”

“I’m really sorry,” Josiah said to his hands and lap. “You can dock me the whole day’s pay if you have to. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t worry about pay right now. What happened?” The last thing he needed was someone unreliable looking after his disabled father, but everything in Michael insisted this wasn’t incompetence. This was something else.

Josiah looked up. His cheeks and eyes were red, but he wasn’t crying or breaking down. He looked miserable, though, and that spoke to all of Michael’s protective instincts. “I’m so sorry you had to leave work, Michael. I, um, think it was a panic attack. That’s why I collapsed.”

Alarm jolted down Michael’s spine. “Do you have those a lot?”

“No. Not really.” He ran both hands through his thick, messy hair. “I might need a new place to live soon, and after hurting myself this morning, things just snowballed in my head, and I kind of lost it.”

“I thought you hurt your ribs last night.”

Something a lot like guilt flashed in Josiah’s expressive dark eyes. Eyes not blocked at all by his glasses. “Right, last night. Please, can I have like ten minutes in the bathroom to breathe, and then I promise I can keep working. I didn’t mean to make you doubt me.”

“Hey, I’m not doubting you. You’ve been great, but we all have bad days. We all get sick or have, you know, moments.” Something else Josiah said made it through, and Michael’s heart skipped. “You’re losing your place with the sheriff?”

Josiah coughed and hunched even deeper into himself. “It’s complicated, but yeah, I think so.”

“Okay, well that’s something we can fix pretty damned easy.”

“You can’t.”

“Sure, I can.” Michael lightly tapped Josiah’s knee. “Hey? We’ve got a trailer right out in the yard that no one’s renting or living in. Even if your roommate kicked you out today, you wouldn’t have to sleep in your car. Shit, we could probably work out a deal on rent in exchange for you helping Dad.”

Josiah blinked at him several times, his eyes wet now. “Really?”

“Of course.” He glanced over at Dad, whose quiet calm betrayed a hint of anger. But not anger at Michael or his offer to Josiah; he knew his father better than that, despite their estrangement. Dad helped people, and they both knew something wasn’t right in this situation. “Look, man, you’ve been good with my dad and if you’ve got some problems we can help you work through them.”

“I, um, don’t know for sure what my circumstances are right now, but I appreciate the offers of help from you both.” He popped his glasses back on. “I just really need a few minutes to collect myself, and then I am fine to keep working.”

As much as Michael wanted to demand Josiah relax for the rest of the day, he also recognized stubborn people when their minds were made up. “One question first.”

His eyes narrowed. “Okay.”

“When did you last eat?”

Josiah frowned.

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