Laying Down The Law (#4, Cowboy Way) (The Cowboy Way) Read Online Free PDF

could protect themselves in the antics they pulled meant she could leave here with a clear conscience because she’d done everything she could to save the two crazy old women from themselves.
    When her mother’s mouth opened, she held up her hand. “And I also want you to swear you won’t go again until you are fully healed.” 
    Her mother stared at her a minute, then looked at June.  “Can you believe she came all this way just to lay down the law to me?”
    June snorted.  “It’s about time someone did.  I’m getting too old to keep you out of trouble that’s for sure.”
    Her mother harrumphed.  “Well, isn’t that the pot calling the damned kettle black—”
    “I’m going to take a shower and I’ll be back down to help you into bed in a few minutes,” Melanie announced, cutting them off, because honestly?  She had no idea how much more of this she could take. 
    A yearning for her peaceful apartment down the street from the hospital where she crashed when she wasn’t on shift hit her hard as her foot landed on the first tread on the stairs.  There were no irrational old ladies bickering there, and there certainly wasn’t a brooding sheriff in town who was looking for reasons to harass her.  A man she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since their run-in at the diner.
    ***
    “There has to be a doctor who can figure out what’s wrong with him,” Brock said as he lifted Brady from the backseat.  He groaned and wondered if Lucy ever cleaned the damned van he’d bought her when he saw multi-colored gummy candy ground into the seat under him and fast food bags littering the back floorboard.  “This has been going on too long,” Brock said, as he carried him to the front door of the apartment and waited for Lucy to open it.
    Brady had been this way since he was three-years old.  Brock felt so damned helpless not knowing what to do for him.
    “I’ve taken him to every doctor in Georgia, Brock, and you know it.  They all say that nothing is wrong with him except his potassium is low.  They give me a prescription for supplements and send me on my way, or put him in the hospital for an IV drip.  I think they think he’s a hypochondriac, or I’m just a worrywart, because we’re in there so much.  I told the doctor today to admit him for more tests, an upper GI and colonoscopy, or exploratory surgery, but they said he’s too young and doesn’t need that.  The CAT scan of his abdomen didn’t show anything.”
    “I’ve gotta pee, daddy—put me down,” Brady said weakly, and Brock set him on his feet.  He gagged as he held his stomach and staggered down the hallway to the bathroom, so Brock knew that wasn’t all he was going to do in there.  The retching started and Brock flinched, wanting to retch himself.
    “I want you to find a specialist,” he said.  This had to stop.  Brady couldn’t go on like this and neither could they.
    “Aaaargh,” Brady moaned from the bathroom.
    Brock sprinted down the hallway, his heart pounding in his ears.  When he flew in the door and his eyes landed on the blood coursing in a steady stream from Brady’s nose, he’d had enough.  Jerking the towel from the rack, he knelt to press it to his nose.
    “Call a damned ambulance—he’s going to the hospital,” he grated.
    “ No !” Brady yelled into the towel, his eyes frantic. 
    Frustration churned inside of Brock as he pulled the towel away and wiped the rest of the blood from his flushed face.  “You need to get checked out, sport.”
    “I have to go to school tomorrow, because I have a spelling test.  Will you sleep with me tonight, Daddy?”
    How in the hell could he say no?  He’d have to call Rowdy and see if he could go by the ranch to feed the animals.  “Let me make a call and I’ll see, buddy.”
    When Brady gave him a wobbly, relieved smile, Brock’s stomach unclenched and he pulled him in for a tight hug.  “Get your clothes and take a bath.  I’ll help you