Rescue Me

past, but seeing Vince threw her. Maybe because he was a benefits man. Maybe because now everyone at the JH knew he’d spent the night. Or maybe because he looked so damn good and she looked a mess. If she’d known, she would have at least brushed her hair.
    “You cooked for Vince?” she asked as she poured a generous amount of hazelnut creamer into the mug. Clara Anne never cooked.
    “Goodness no. Carolynn brought him over a plate from the cookhouse.”
    Great. No doubt they’d already started to plan her wedding. She raised the mug to her lips and blew into it. Her gaze met Vince’s as she took a big drink. She recognized the look in his eyes, reminding her that she was naked beneath the silk robe.
    “I have to get going,” he said as he tossed his napkin on the table and stood. “It was nice to meet you, Clara Anne. Tell Carolynn I enjoyed her breakfast very much.”
    “I will and don’t be a stranger.” Clara Anne gave him a hug and he patted her twice on the back. “You’re as big as hell and half of Texas.”
    He looked over at Sadie, who shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. Hey, he was in Texas. Around natives. Natives were huggers.
    Clara Anne let him go and he moved toward Sadie and took her free hand. She was careful not to spill her coffee as they walked to the front door. “I sacked out. Sorry, I don’t know how that happened. It never happens,” he said in the entry. “Then I got caught sneaking out like a felon.”
    “And Clara Anne forced you to eat breakfast?”
    “She offered and I was hungry.” He smiled. “I worked up an appetite last night.”
    “And wore yourself out?”
    “Yeah. Sorry.”
    “Don’t be sorry. It’s fine.” Although she would have liked a little warning so she could have brushed her hair. “Except you look good and I look like shit.”
    He kissed the messy part in her hair. “That’s the thing about you, Sadie. You can look like shit and I still want to get you naked.” He lifted his head and reached for the knob behind him. “See you later.”
    She nodded and took a step back. “Maybe I’ll swing by the Gas and Go.”
    “Do, and maybe I’ll let you swing my sledgehammer.” He opened the door and stepped outside. “Or put you to work prying up old vinyl floor tiles from the fifties.”
    “Yuck. I’ll text first to make sure you’re done with that.” She said good-bye and closed the door behind him. She let out a breath as she leaned her back against it. She took a sip and figured she had two choices. Head upstairs and take a shower or retrace her steps to the kitchen and convince Clara Anne that a wedding was not in the cards. She took the easy way out and headed up the stairs. She jumped in the shower and washed her hair. She exfoliated with a loofah, then brushed her teeth in the sink. For the past few days, her daddy had talked more and more about the ranch and the day he wouldn’t be around much longer. She wished he wouldn’t talk like that. It gave her a panicky tightness in her chest. Not just because she wasn’t ready for the responsibility of the JH, but because she didn’t want to think of her daddy not being here. On the ranch. Breeding his paints. Being a cranky pain in the ass.
    Her anchor.
    She dried her hair and pulled on a blue sundress over her white bra and panties. Maybe she’d swing into the store and buy him some flowers to cheer up his room. Not that it ever seemed to make a difference.
    The phone rang as she swiped her lashes with mascara, top and bottom until they were long and lush. She wasn’t much of a beauty queen like her mama, but she did give special attention to her hair and lashes.
    “Sadie Jo,” Clara Anne called from the bottom of the stairs. “The phone is for you. It’s the rehab hospital in Amarillo.”
    She set down the mascara and moved down the hall to her bedroom. It wasn’t all that unusual for one of her father’s doctors to contact her after his morning calls. “Hello.” She sat on the side of her unmade bed. “This is Sadie.”
    “It’s Dr. Morgan,” the geriatric specialist said.
    “Hi, Doctor. How’s Daddy this morning?”
    “When the morning shift nurse checked in on him, she found him unresponsive.”
    Unresponsive? “Is he just really tired again?”
    “I’m sorry. He’s no longer with us.”
    “He left? Where’d he go?”
    “He passed away.”
    Passed away? “What?”
    “He died in his sleep between three A.M. when the night nurse checked on him and six