“Pissed me off what that guy said about us.”

“I noticed that,” Carson said dryly.

“This happened a lot to you, didn’t it? Havin’ to fight when some ass**le started talkin’ shit about the McKays.”

Carson wiped his bloodied mouth on his other sleeve. “It’s still goin’ on. I expect it always will. The bouncer was right about one thing. I’m getting too damn old to fight.”

“Not from where I was standing.”

A beat passed and then Carson grinned at Cord. “Your old man’s still got it, eh?”

“Looks like. Lucky thing you’ve got five sons, one daughter and five nephews to set folks straight on what it means to mess with the McKays.”

Carolyn frowned. Why hadn’t Cord included Casper’s four sons in that tally?

Because he sees them as part of the problem, not the solution.

Those kids couldn’t help their parentage, and they were only little boys. But guaranteed they’d turn out bitter like their father if they didn’t have a better influence. In that moment she knew she’d try to foster a relationship between the cousins—even if she had to fight her husband to make it happen.

She tuned back in to hear Carson say to Cord, “Nah, we’re good. Your Ma is gonna take care of me, right, sugar?”

Her eyes met her husband’s. The lust glittering in those blue depths liquefied her bones. As soon as they were alone the man would have her pushed up against the side of his truck pounding into her, or he’d have her bent over the tailgate slamming into her.

And she couldn’t wait.

She rested her hand on Carson’s chest. “Let me grab my purse from Cord’s truck and then we’re good to go.”

Carson didn’t respond, but the sexual heat and urgency rolled off him.

Carolyn grabbed Cord’s sleeve. “Come on.”

After she’d shouldered her purse, her oldest son got right in her face. “Ma. Dad is scaring me with the way he’s actin’. There’s a look in his eye I’ve never seen before so I think it’d be better if he rode home with me.”

Cord was on the cusp of manhood; she suspected he already had experienced the pleasure found in a woman’s body. And even if it might embarrass them both, he needed to understand the full spectrum of the night’s events. “Your father would never hurt me. Fighting revs him up. I know how to handle him and what he needs.”

His eyes widened and then he blushed. Embarrassed by his blush, he retorted, “I don’t know why I’m standin’ here feelin’ shocked about you and Dad getting…” He shook his head as if to clear the mental image. “It ain’t like the walls upstairs are that thick between the bedrooms. Just drive safe.”

“I will. Don’t wait up.”

After she’d become her grieving husband’s refuge, letting him lose himself in the potency of their physical connection, welcoming his body powering into hers, she soothed him, bringing him to the calm after the storm.

Whether it was the booze or crashing from the post-fight and post-sex adrenaline high, Carson finally opened up about his father’s passing. The man’s tears were rare and that much more heartbreaking when he sobbed in her arms.

They didn’t return home until the middle of the night.

Once they were in their bed, Carson reached for her again, almost desperately. He made love to her with such tenderness, with such sweetness, with such devotion, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling even as she shuddered in pleasure beneath him.

Afterward he kissed her, keeping the physical connection of their bodies. “I love you, Caro. I ain’t an easy man to love. I’m grateful every damn day that you see past what’s on the surface and know the man I am down deep. It’s never scared you—even when it’s scared me. You give me more happiness and love in one day than I ever thought I’d have in a lifetime. Thank you.”

She’d been married to the man nearly twenty years and he still had the power to surprise her. To move her. To remind her that she, too, was lucky.

The images turned fuzzy and then disappeared entirely. Then she floated in that gray matter again.

No! I want to go back. I want to relive what happens next. I have to remember it all!

But as Carson’s words, “Come back to me. I’m right here. Where I’ve always been, where I’ll always be. I love you. Please. Come back to me,” registered as the end of their time together, the grayness became black, swallowing her completely.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hospital, Day 4—early evening

“Funny, you don’t look like the anti-Christ.”

Carson jolted awake. God. How long had he been asleep? He squinted at the clock. Only fifteen minutes. Between the flashbacks and the dreams, he had a serious time disconnect.

“Dammit. I woke you up, didn’t I?”

“Uh, yeah.” He blinked and tried to orient himself. He looked at his daughter-in-law. “Hey, AJ. Sorry I’m out of it.”

“Which I expected, given the circumstances. I won’t ask if there’s been any change, because even though you banned everyone from the ICU, you would’ve let someone know.”

“Of course I would have.” He paused. “They really are painting me out to be the anti-Christ, ain’t they? I didn’t ban them from the ICU waiting room, just the ICU itself.”

AJ opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. “Why don’t you sit over here?”