disregarded her foolish thoughts. She set the water and pills down and shook him awake.
He moaned then dragged open his eyes, staring at her.
"Theresa? You’re back?" Then he frowned, swinging out one hand. "Go away. Go away now."
It seemed Theresa wasn't too popular.
One thing was for certain. She couldn't walk away from this mess.
What was going on?
A princess drifted into Wyatt's vision, turquoise and sparkly, waving a wand in front of him. He struggled to open his eyes, trying to grasp what was happening. His head pounded like someone was beating it with a sledgehammer, and his whole body felt like he'd had a bad go-round with a green bronc. A sense of urgency gripped him, but he couldn't sort out what he had to do.
Then a woman appeared, pulling a blanket over him.
Was Theresa back?
No. She was gone. Thank goodness.
Who was this, then?
Sleep and a dull nausea pulled him down into a crazy whorl of thoughts and worry. He was chasing cows that turned into blue butterflies and stars. Chocolate and kisses. His girls were dancing toward wild horses and he was trying to catch them.
Then, through all this, a woman with a deep husky voice was calling his name. Who was she? What was she saying?
He strained to understand her words, swimming upward through the heat that enveloped him and the unceasing nausea that made everything spin, including his stomach. He had to get up. He had things to do. But every movement triggered pain and whirling. Then a hand, soft and gentle, stroked his damp hair away from his face.
The voice sifted through the darkness that clung to him.
"You need to drink this," the voice was saying.
Was she part of these confused dreams? Wyatt blinked, trying to focus on her. A shimmer of wavy brown hair, gray eyes. A smattering of freckles that seemed to dance on her face.
She helped him to a sitting position and the dreams that had stuck to him slithered away for a moment, but the room spun around.
"Take these and drink them down," the pretty woman was saying, handing him a couple of pills.
Drugs? Should he take them?
"It's ibuprofen," she said. "It's okay." She held up one pill as if to show him.
His hand shook as he took the pills, his eyes flickering with vertigo. He dropped one as he tried to put it into his mouth, and she picked it up and placed it in his hand again. He swallowed and got them down without spilling too much water or throwing up. Then he laid his head back against the couch, exhausted by the effort, eyes closed to fight down the nausea.
"Can you stand up?" the woman asked him.
Could he? He tried to process this as he realized he was sitting on the couch in the family room wearing just his blue jeans. His T-shirt lay on the floor, his feet were bare. He blinked, looking around, and saw his daughters staring at him, smiling. They seemed okay.
Was this woman here to take them away?
"Are you with Theresa?" he managed. "You come to take the kids?"
"No. I'm not here to take the girls. Sally sent me here. She gave me your name and told me where you live."
He didn't know who Sally was, but the woman seemed concerned. She touched his forehead again, her hand cool. Soft. Gentle.
Then she was again urging him to stand so he could get to bed.
All he wanted to do was lie down again, but he knew he had to move.
He struggled to his feet, shaky and unsteady, wishing the room would settle down and stop its spinning as he stumbled alongside her to the bedroom.
He lay down on the bed and, with a groan, pulled his legs up, curling up, shivering with cold.
She pulled a blanket over him as he wrapped his arms around himself, trying to get warm.
Then, slowly, sleep pulled on him and he fell into another troubled dream.
Chapter Two
Adele blew out her breath as she closed the bedroom door behind her. Wyatt was taken care of for now.
"I’m hungry," Maria called out as she walked toward the kitchen.
Obviously, that was next on the agenda.
Was there no one else around? No one else who could help him?
"So, let's make you girls some breakfast or some lunch," she said glancing at the clock on the stove. It was past noon already.
Time flies...
"What would you like to have?"
"I yike chocolate," Maria said.
"I can see that," Adele said. "But I'm not making breakfast out of something