Page 46 of Blue Moon Cowboy
And Lainey had been right there with him.
The first time he met her, he’d never have thought she’d fit so perfectly into his life. She was incredibly brave. Amazingly intelligent. And such a sweet, kind woman who focused on spreading light to others while she carried so much darkness and pain in her heart from the losses she’d survived.
As though thoughts of her made her materialize, a soft knock sounded on his door before it slowly opened, and Lainey peered around it. “You awake?”
Jason grinned. “Barely. Mostly.”
She laughed and stepped into the room. “Good. Galen, Pops, and I were beginning to think you might sleep the whole day away.”
Jason glanced at the clock and saw it said three. He gaped at it, wondering if the battery needed to be replaced, and it wasn’t keeping the correct time.
“It can’t be three.” He glanced at Lainey.
“It is three in the afternoon. You can understand our concern. Galen decided if you didn’t wake up by four, we’d call your family doctor.”
Jason ran a hand through his hair, trying to process the fact that he’d been asleep for almost fourteen hours. He’d never slept that long in his whole life.
He sat up, and the room did a few spins. The doctor had told him he might have a little dizziness, and that was normal. The room stopped going around, and he looked over at Lainey.
“Want me to have Galen help you get up?”
“I can do it.” He felt stronger than he had last night. His stomach growled, and he realized he was starving. “Don’t suppose I could get a little something to tide me over until dinner?”
Lainey smiled. “That could be arranged. Want me to bring up a tray for you?”
“I’ll come down.”
“Okay.” She turned and walked out the door, leaving it open.
Jason moved at the pace of a snail into the bathroom. When he came out, his brother was waiting for him, sitting on the end of the bed.
“Your head feel like it’s going to explode?” Galen asked.
“Maybe just split in two,” Jason said, forcing a carefree grin.
“Lainey said you wanted to come downstairs, but why don’t you rest a bit? I brought up a glass of juice, a sandwich, and more meds.”
The meds sounded the most appealing to Jason, but he took a seat on the chair by the window. Galen held out a plate. Jason took it and ate the sandwich, downed the meds along with a glass of orange juice, then felt exhausted.
His brother helped him into bed and shook his head. “I think Caitlyn has more strength than you do today, Jase. Get some rest. We’ll wake you up for dinner, unless you’d rather sleep through it.”
“No. Wake me up, and thanks, Galen.”
“Anytime.”
Jason closed his eyes and fell immediately asleep.
Something disturbed his sleep, and he brushed at a tickle beneath his nose. A quiet giggle and the smell of strawberries and sunshine clued him in to the fact that Caitlyn had snuck into the room.
Jason opened one eye just enough to see her perched beside him, a stuffed unicorn with a fuzzy tail clutched to her chest. He assumed the tail had been brushed across his face.
“Does your mama know you’re up here, Cait?” he asked quietly.
“No,” Caitlyn wiggled, and his ribs protested at the movement.
Jason wrapped an arm around his granddaughter and pulled her closer to him. “What are you doing in my room?”
“I heard Daddy and Pops. They said you got hurt, Papa. I wanted to make sure you aren’t deaded.” Caitlyn tilted her head and smiled at him. “Are you deaded?”
