Emmett

“She just wasn’t used to kids, I guess,” Polk added. He grinned, too.

Behind them there were the remains of two foam-filled pillows and what appeared to be the ropes that closed the heavy curtains.

“We had a pillow fight,” Amy explained.

“And then we went skiing in the bathroom,” Polk said.

Melody could barely see the bathroom. The door was ajar and the floor seemed to be soaked. She was beginning to understand her predecessor’s agile retreat. Days and days…of this. She wouldn’t have an apartment left! And all because she felt sorry for a man who had to be her worst enemy.

“Why are you here?” Guy asked belligerently. “Where’s Dad?”

That brought her back to her original purpose for being there. Emmett’s accident.

She sat down on the sofa, tossing her purse beside her, while she struggled to find the right words to tell them.

“Something’s happened,” Guy said when he saw her face. He stiffened. “What?”

Even at such a young age, he was already showing signs of great inner strength, of ability to cope with whatever life threw at him. Amy and Polk looked suddenly vulnerable, but not Guy.

“Your father has a brain concussion,” Melody told them. “He’s conscious now, but in a lot of pain. He’ll have to stay in the hospital for a day or so. Meanwhile, he wants you to come home with me.”

“He hates you,” Guy said coldly. “Why would he want us to stay with you?”

“Because I’m all you’ve got,” Melody replied. “Unless you’d rather I called the juvenile authorities…?”

Guy’s massive self-confidence failed. He shrugged and turned away.

Amy climbed onto Melody’s lap and clung. “Our daddy will be all right, won’t he?” she asked tearfully.

“Of course he will,” Melody assured her, gathering her close. “He’s very tough. It will take more than a concussion to keep him down.”

“Yes, it will,” Polk said. He turned away because his lower lip was trembling.

“Let’s get your things together and go,” Melody said. “Have you had something to eat?”

“We had pizza and chocolate sundaes.”

Melody could imagine that the elderly lady in charge of them had agreed with any menu that would keep them quiet. But she’d have to get some decent food into them. That would give her something to work toward. Meanwhile, she found herself actually worrying about Emmett. The first thing she was going to do when they got to the apartment was phone the hospital and get an update. Surely Emmett was indestructible, wasn’t he?

She looked at the children and felt a surge of pity for them. She knew how it felt to be alone. When their parents had died, Randy had worked at two jobs to support them, while Melody was still in school. She’d carried her share of the load, but it had been lonely for both of them. She hoped these children wouldn’t have the same ordeal to face that she and Randy had.

Chapter 2

The nurse on duty in Emmett’s ward told Melody that Emmett would have to be confined for at least two days. He was barely conscious, but they were cautiously optimistic about his condition.

Melody was assured that she and the children would be allowed to see him the next day, during visiting hours. In the meantime, she scoured her apartment to find enough blankets and pillows for three sleepy children. She put two of them in her bed, and one of them on a cot that had belonged to Randy when he was a boy. She slept on her own pullout sofa bed, and was delighted to find that it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable.

It was fortunate that she had the weekend to look after the children. Having to juggle them, along with her job, would have been a real headache. She’d have coped. But how?

They had a change of clothing. Getting them to change, though, was the trick.

“This isn’t dirty—” Guy indicated a shirt limp and dingy and smelly from long wear “—and I won’t change it.”

“I’m all right, too,” Polk said, grinning at her.

“We’re fine, Melody,” Amy agreed. She patted the woman’s hand in a most patronizing way. “Now, you just get dressed yourself and don’t worry about us, all right?”

Melody counted to ten. “We’re going to see your father,” she said calmly. “Don’t you want him to think you look nice?”

“Oh, Emmett never notices unless we go naked, Melody,” Amy assured her.

“And sometimes not even then,” Polk said with a chuckle. “Dad’s very absentminded when he’s rodeoing.”

“He sure doesn’t seem to notice what the three of you get up to,” she said quietly.

“We like our dad just the way he is,” Guy said belligerently. “Nobody bad-mouths our dad.”

“I wasn’t bad-mouthing him,” Melody said through her teeth. “Can we just go to the hospital now?”

“Sure,” Guy said, folding his thin arms over his chest. “But I’m not changing clothes.”

She threw up her hands. “Oh, all right,” she muttered. “Have it your way. But if your clothes set off the sprinkler system, I’m climbing into a broom closet so nobody will know who brought you.”

At the hospital, Melody herded them off the elevator and down the hall to the nurses’ station.

“Look at all the gadgets.” Polk whistled, peering over the counter at the computers. “Wouldn’t I love to play with that!”

“Bite your tongue,” Melody said under her breath. She smiled at an approaching nurse. “I’m Melody Cartman. You have an Emmett Deverell on this floor with a concussion…?”

A loud roar, followed by, “You’re not putting that damned thing under me!” caught their attention.

“Indeed we do,” the nurse told Melody. “Are you a concerned relative anxious to transfer him to another hospital?” she added hopefully.

“I’m afraid not,” Melody said. “These are his children and they want to see him very much.”

“Do you have him tied up in one of those white things?” Amy asked.

“No,” the nurse said with a wistful sigh. She turned. “Come on, I’ll take you down to his room. Perhaps a diversion will improve his mood.”

“I really wouldn’t count on it,” Melody replied.

“I was afraid you were going to say that. Here we are.”

“Dad!” Guy exclaimed, running to his father as a practical nurse laid down a trail of fire getting out the door. “How are you?”

Emmett stared at his eldest blankly. His pale green eyes were bloodshot. His dark hair was disheveled. There was a huge bump on his forehead with stitches and red antiseptic lacing it. He was wearing a white patterned hospital gown and looking as if he’d like to eat half the staff raw.

“It’s almost noon,” he informed Melody. “Where in hell have you been? Get me out of here!”

“Don’t worry, Dad, we’ll spring you,” Guy promised, with a wary glance toward the nurse.

“You can’t leave today, Mr. Deverell,” the young nurse said apologetically. “Dr. Miller said that you must stay for at least forty-eight hours. You’ve had a very severe concussion. You can’t go walking around the streets like that. It’s very dangerous.”

Emmett glared at her. “I hate it here!”

The nurse looked as if she might bite through her tongue trying not to reply in kind. She forced a smile. “I’m sure you do. But you can’t leave yet. I’ll leave you to visit with your family. I’m sure you’re glad to see your wife and children.”

“She’s not the hell my wife!” Emmett raged. “I’d rather marry a pit viper!”

“I assure you that the feeling is mutual,” Melody said to the nurse.

The woman leaned close on her way out the door. “Dr. Miller escaped. When he comes back, I’ll beg on my knees for sedation for Mr. Deverell. I swear.”

“God bless you,” Melody said fervently.

“What are you mumbling about?” Emmett demanded when the nurse left. “And why haven’t these kids changed clothes? They smell of pizza and dirt!”

“They wouldn’t change,” she said defensively.

“You’re bigger than they are,” he pointed out. “Make them.”

She glanced at the kids and shook her head. “Not me, mister. I know when I’m outnumbered. I’m not going to end my days tied to a post imitating barbecue.”

“They don’t burn people at the stake,” he said with exaggerated patience. “That was just gossip about that lady motorist they kidnapped.”

“That’s right,” Polk said. “Gossip.”

“Anyway, she got loose before she was very singed.” Amy sighed.

Melody gave Emmett a speaking look. It was totally wasted.

“Are you really okay?” Guy asked his father. He, of the three children, was the most worried. He was the oldest. He understood better than they did how serious his father’s injury could have been.

“I’m okay,” Emmett said. His voice was different when he spoke to the children; it was softer, more tender. He smiled at Guy, and Melody couldn’t remember ever being on the receiving end of such a smile. “How about you kids?”

“We’re fine,” Amy told him. “Melody has a very nice apartment, Emmett. We like it there.”

“She has a cat,” Polk added. “He’s a big orange tabby named Alistair.”

“Alistair?” Emmett mused.

“He was a very ordinary-looking cat,” Melody said defensively. “The least he deserved was a nice name.”

He leaned back against his pillows and closed his eyes. “Saints deliver us.”

“I don’t think the saints like you very much, Mr. Deverell, on present evidence,” she couldn’t resist saying.

One bloodshot pale green eye opened. “The saints didn’t do this to me. It was a horse. A very nasty-tempered horse whose only purpose in life is to maim poor stupid cowboys who are dim enough to get on him. I let myself get distracted and I came off like a loose hat.”

She smiled gently at the description. “I’m sure the horse is crying his eyes out with guilt.”

The smile changed her. He liked what he saw. She was vulnerable when her eyes twinkled like that. He opened the other eye, too, and for one long moment they just looked at each other. Melody felt warning bells go off in her head.

“When can you come home, Emmett?” Amy asked, her big eyes on her father.

He blinked and looked down at her. “Two days they said,” he replied. “God, I’m sorry about this!” He glanced toward Melody. “I had no right to involve you in my problems.”

That sounded like a wholesale apology. Perhaps the head injury had erased his memory so that he’d forgotten her part in Adell’s escape.

“I don’t mind watching the children for you,” she said hesitantly. She pushed back her hair with a nervous hand. “They’re no trouble.”

“Of course not, they were asleep all night,” he replied. “Don’t let them out of your sight.”

“Aw, Dad,” Polk grumbled. “We’ll be good.”

“Sure we will,” Guy said. He glanced at Melody irritably. “If we have to.”

“It’s only for a day or two,” Emmett said. He was feeling foggier by the minute. “I’ll reimburse you, of course,” he told Melody. He touched his head with an unsteady hand. “God, my head hurts!”

“I guess it does,” Melody said gently. She moved closer to the bed, concerned. “Shall I call the nurse?”

“They won’t give me anything until the doctor authorizes it, and he’s in hiding,” he said. His eyes closed. “Can’t say I blame him. I was pretty unhappy about being here.”

“I noticed.”

He managed a weak chuckle. “If Logan had been at home, you wouldn’t be landed with those kids….”

He was asleep.

“Is he going to be okay?” Amy asked. She was chewing her lower lip, looking very young and worried.

Melody smoothed back her hair. “Yes, he’ll be fine,” she assured the girl. “Come on. We’ll go home and I’ll make lunch for all of you.”

“I want a hot dog,” Polk said. “So does Amy.”

“I hate hot dogs,” Guy replied. “I don’t want to stay with you. I’ll stay here with Dad.”

“You aren’t allowed to,” Melody pointed out.

He took an angry breath.

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” she murmured. “But we’re stuck with each other. We’d better go.”

They followed her out, reluctantly. She stopped long enough to assure the nurse at the desk that she’d bring the kids back the next day to visit their father. She was concerned enough to ask if it was natural for Emmett to go to sleep, and was told that the doctor would check to make sure he was all right.

Guy’s dislike of Melody extended to her apartment, her cat, her furniture and especially her cooking.

“I won’t eat that,” he said forcefully when she put hot dogs and buns and condiments on the table. “I’ll starve first.”

She knew that it would give him the upper hand if she stooped to arguing with him, so she didn’t. “Suit yourself. But we’ll have ice cream for dessert and you won’t. It’s a house rule that you don’t get dessert if you don’t eat the main course.”

“I hate ice cream,” he said triumphantly.

“No, he doesn’t,” Amy said sadly. “He just doesn’t like you. He thinks you took our mom away. She won’t even write to us or talk to us on the telephone.”

“That’s right,” Guy said angrily. “It’s all because of you! Because of your stupid brother!”

He got up, knocking over his chair, and stomped off into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

Melody took a bite of her own hot dog, but it tasted like so much cardboard. It was going to be a long two days.

She didn’t know how true her prediction was going to be. Guy sulked for the rest of the day, while she and the other two children watched television and played Monopoly on the kitchen table. While they were going past Go for the tenth time, Guy opened the apartment door and deliberately let Alistair out….

Melody didn’t discover that her cat was missing until she started to put his food into his dish.

She looked around, frowning. “Alistair?” she called. The big cat was nowhere in sight. He couldn’t have gone out the window. The apartment was on the fourth story and there was no balcony. She searched the apartment, including under the bed, but she couldn’t find him.

“Have any of you seen my cat?” she asked.

“Not me,” Amy murmured. She was watching cartoons with Polk.

“Me, neither,” he said absently.

Guy was staring out the window. He jerked his head, which she assumed meant he hadn’t seen the cat.

But he looked odd. She frowned. Alistair had been curled up on the couch just before Guy had stormed off into the bathroom. She hadn’t seen the cat since. But surely the boy wouldn’t have done something so heartless as to let the cat out. Surely he wouldn’t!

Melody had found Alistair in an alley on her way home from work late one rainy afternoon last year. He’d had a string tied around his neck and was choking. She’d freed him and taken him home. He was flea-infested and pitifully thin, but a trip to the veterinarian and some healthful food had transformed him. He’d been Melody’s friend and companion and confidant ever since.

Tears stung her eyes as she searched again, her voice sounding frantic as she called her pet’s name with increasing urgency.

Amy got up from the carpet and followed her, frowning. “Can’t you find your cat?”

“No,” Melody said, her voice raspy. She brushed at a tear on her face.

“Oh, Melody, don’t cry!” Amy said. She hugged her. “It will be all right! We’ll find him! Polk, Guy,” she called sharply. “Come on. Help us hunt for Melody’s cat! She can’t find him anywhere!”

“Sure,” Polk said. “We’ll help.”

They scoured the apartment. Guy looked, too, but his cheeks were flushed and he wouldn’t meet Melody’s eyes.

In desperation, Melody went to the two apartments nearby to ask her neighbors if they’d seen her cat, but no one had noticed him. There was an elevator and a staircase, but there was a door that led to the stairwell and surely it would be closed…

All the same, she checked, and was disturbed to find that the stairwell door was propped open while workmen carried materials to an apartment down the hall that was being renovated.

Leaving the children in the apartment, she rushed down the steps looking for Alistair. She called and called, but there was no answer, and he was nowhere to be found.

Defeated, Melody went back to the apartment. Her expression was so morose that the children knew without asking that she hadn’t found the cat.

“I’m sorry,” Amy said. “I guess you love him a lot, huh?”

“He’s all I have,” Melody said without looking up. The pain in her voice was almost tangible. “All I… had.”

Guy turned up the television and sat down very close to the screen. He didn’t say a word.

Melody cried herself to sleep that night. Randy had Adell, but Melody had no other family. Alistair was the only real family she had left. She was so sick at heart that she didn’t know how she was going to stand it. Dismal images of Alistair being run over or chased by dogs and children made her miserable.

She got up early and fixed bacon and eggs before she called the children. They were unnaturally quiet, too, and ate very little. Melody was preoccupied all through the meal. When it was over, she went outside to search some more. But Alistair was nowhere to be found.

Later, she took the kids to the hospital to see Emmett. He was sitting up in a chair looking impatient.

“Get me the hell out of here,” he said immediately. “I’m leaving whether they like it or not!”

He seemed to mean it. He was fully dressed, in the jeans and shirt and boots he’d been wearing when they’d taken him to the hospital. The shirt was bloodstained but wearable. He looked pale, even if he sounded in charge of himself.

“What did the doctor say?”

“He said I could go if I insisted, and I’m insisting,” Emmett said. “I’ll take the kids and go back to the hotel.”

Melody went closer to him, clutching her purse. “Mr. Deverell, don’t you realize what a risk you’d be taking? If you won’t think of yourself, do think of the kids. What will they do if anything happens to you?”

“I won’t stay here!” he muttered. “They keep trying to bathe me!”

She managed a faint smile even through her misery. “It’s for your own good.”

“I’m leaving,” he said, his flinty pale green eyes glaring straight into her dark ones.

She sighed. “Well, you can come back with us for today,” she said firmly. “I can’t let you stagger around Houston alone. My boss would never forgive me.”

“Think so?” He narrowed one eye. “I don’t need help.”

“Yes, you do. One more night won’t kill me, I suppose,” she added.

“Her cat ran away,” Amy said. “She’s very sad.”

Emmett scowled. “Alistair? How could he run away? Don’t you live in an apartment building?”

“Yes. I… He must have gotten out the door,” she said, staring down at her feet. “The stairwell door was open, where the workmen were going in and out of the building.”

“I’m sorry,” he said shortly. He glanced at the kids. Amy and Polk seemed very sympathetic, but Guy was surlier than ever and his lower lip was prominent. Emmett’s eyes narrowed.

“Have you checked yourself out?” Melody asked, changing the subject to keep from bursting into tears.

“Yes.” He got to his feet, a little unsteadily.

“I’ll help you, Dad,” Guy said. He propped up his father’s side. He wouldn’t look at Melody.

“Did you drive or take a cab?” he asked her.

“I drove.”

“What do you drive?”

“A Volkswagen,” she told him.

He groaned. She smiled for the first time that day. As tall as he was, fitting him inside her small car, even in the front seat, was going to be an interesting experience.

And it was. He had to bring his knees up almost to his chin. Polk and Amy laughed at the picture he made.

“Poor Emmett,” Amy said. “You don’t fit very well.”

“First you shove gory pictures under my nose. Then you stuff me into a tin can with wheels,” Emmett began with a meaningful glance in Melody’s direction.

“Don’t insult my beautiful little car. It isn’t the car’s fault that you’re too tall,” she reminded him as she started her car. “And you were horrible to me. I was only getting even.”

“I am not too tall.”

“I hope you aren’t going to collapse,” she said worriedly when he leaned his head back against the seat. “I live on the fourth floor.”

“I’m all right. I’m just groggy.”

“I hope so,” she murmured. She put the car in gear and reversed it.

Guy helped him into the elevator and upstairs. Amy and Polk got on the other side, and between them, they maneuvered him into Melody’s apartment and onto her sofa.

The sleeping arrangements were going to be interesting, she thought. She could put Emmett and the boys in her bedroom and she and Amy could share the sleeper sofa. It wasn’t ideal, but it would be adequate. What wouldn’t was managing some pajamas for Emmett.

“I don’t wear pajamas,” he muttered. “You aren’t going to be in the bedroom, so it won’t concern you,” he added with a glittery green stare.

She turned away to keep him from seeing the color in her cheeks. “All right. I’ll see about getting something together for sandwiches.”

At least, he wasn’t picky about what he ate. That was a mixed blessing. Perhaps it was the concussion, making him so agreeable.

“This isn’t bad,” he murmured when he’d finished off two egg salad sandwiches.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“I hate eggs,” Guy remarked, but he was still eating his sandwich as he said it. He didn’t look at Melody.

“And me,” Melody added for him. He looked up, surprised, and her steady gaze told him that she knew exactly how her cat had managed to get out the door and lost.

He flushed and put down the rest of his sandwich. “I’m not hungry.” He got up and went into the living room with Amy and Polk, who were eating on TV tables.

Emmett ran a big hand through his dark hair. “I’m sorry about your cat,” he said.

“So am I.” She got up and cleared away the dishes. “There’s coffee if you’d like some.”

“I would. Black.”

“I’ll bet you don’t eat catsup on steak, either,” she murmured.

He smiled at her as she put a mug of steaming coffee beside his hand. “Smart girl.”

“Why do you ride in rodeos?” she asked when she was sitting down.

The question surprised him. He leaned back in his chair fingering the hot mug, and considered it. “I always have,” he began.

“It must be hard on the children, having you away from home so much,” she continued. “Even if your housekeeper does look after them.”

“They’re resourceful,” he said noncommittally.

“They’re ruined,” she returned. “And you know it. Especially Guy.”

His eyes narrowed as they met hers. “They’re my kids,” he said quietly. “And how I raise them is none of your business.”

“They’re my nephews and niece,” she pointed out.

His face went taut under its dark tan. “Don’t bring that up.”

“Why do you have to keep hiding from it?” she asked miserably. “Randy’s my brother. I love him. But he couldn’t have taken Adell if she hadn’t wanted to go with him…!”

“My God, don’t you think I know that?” he asked with bridled fury.

She saw the pain in his face, in his eyes, and she understood. “But, it wasn’t because something was lacking in you,” she said softly, trying to make him understand. “It was because she found something in Randy that she needed. Don’t you see, it wasn’t your fault!”

His whole body clenched. He grimaced and lifted the cup, burning his lips as he forced coffee between them. “It’s none of your business,” he said gruffly. “Let it alone.”

She wanted to pursue the subject, but it wouldn’t be wise. She let it go.

“There’s a little ice cream,” she told him.

He shook his head. “I don’t like sweets.”

Just like Guy, but she didn’t say it. Guy hated her. He hated her enough to let her cat out the door and into the street. Her eyes closed on a wave of pain. It was just as well she wasn’t mooning over Emmett, because she was certain that Guy wouldn’t let that situation develop.

“You should be in bed,” she told Emmett after a tense minute.