Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,66
left for her. The kids knew her, and they liked her. She loved them, and she’d brought Jess dinner on Saturday night.
Dallas had returned on Sunday evening, Martha in tow. She did not look good, and she’d been mean and crying when Jess had met her.
That was just yesterday, and Jess had left the children at the ranch while she’d come to see what they were dealing with. It hadn’t been pretty, and Jess had cried the whole way back to the ranch. She’d kept the children at the ranch with her that morning, where they all fed and watered horses, rode horses, ate hot dogs and potato chips, and kept trying to guess what was in the packages under the tree in the West Wing.
She’d thought Dallas would admit Martha to a treatment center today, as they’d discussed. She wasn’t expecting Martha to be at Dallas’s at all.
Jess turned back to the house, and it seethed with tension, pulsing it out into the atmosphere like a heartbeat. She took a deep breath and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. For good measure, she locked it. That way, Thomas and Remmy would have to ring the doorbell.
She found Dallas faced off with Martha in the dining room. She sat at the table, looking worse today than she had last night. He wore pure anger on his face, and Jess was actually afraid of him for the first time.
He hadn’t been in Miami for very long, but he’d come back a different man.
“We’re back.” She looked between Dallas and Martha, her eyes wide with worry.
“Where are the kids?” Martha stood up, looking around wildly for them. Her hands shook, and she looked like she’d painted red circles around her eyelids.
The air held no oxygen, and Jess felt like she was suffocating one breath at a time. It was a slow, agonizing pain that spread through her whole chest.
“You can’t see the children when you’re like this,” Dallas said quietly. He still hadn’t looked at Jess. “Martha, you need help. If you go to the treatment center, I’ll bring the kids to see you as soon as you’re clean. It’ll only take a few days.”
Jess hated the soft, kind way he spoke to her. She wanted the anger and frustration she’d heard in his voice only a few minutes ago to reappear, because this woman deserved it. Those two emotions built inside Jess, and she clenched her fists so she wouldn’t do something she’d regret later.
Martha screamed, and she flew toward Dallas. He flinched away from her but still managed to catch her along her forearms so she couldn’t hit him. “Martha,” he said, his voice hard. “Stop it. Stop it now.”
Jess’s emotions surged, and she had absolutely no idea what to do. The level of helplessness inside her threatened to drown her, and tears filled her eyes. “Dallas,” she said while he continued to grapple with Martha. There was no way for him to hear her above Martha’s incoherent ranting, and Jess felt like she’d entered a horrible, terrible movie that certainly couldn’t be real.
She blinked, and the situation didn’t change. It absolutely was her reality.
“Stop it,” Dallas said again, and he managed to get Martha back into one of the chairs at the table. “We’re going right now. You’ve lost your ability to make rational decisions, and I’m doing this for your own good.” He finally met Jess’s eye and added, “There’s a bag beside the couch. Will you get it, please?”
She scampered over to the couch and picked up the benign bag. She wondered what he’d packed for his ex-wife’s visit to a drug treatment facility, but Jess wasted no time opening it to see. She quickly pulled out her phone and texted Mrs. Clyde.
We have to run an errand, she said. Could you keep the kids? I’ll call Nate and have him come get them.
Before Mrs. Clyde could answer, she dialed Ginger. “How’s it going there?” Ginger answered after only one ring.
“Not good,” Jess whispered. “Can you and Nate come get the kids? They’re at Mrs. Clyde’s next door. The white house with the green door.”
“We’re leaving now,” Ginger said, and relief and gratitude painted Jess’s insides. She wanted to be the kind of person who dropped everything when those she loved needed help, and Ginger had always been such a great example of that.
Jess looked back at Dallas, who had crouched down and was pleading with Martha. Actually pleading with her.
Fury rose within her, and something