They ate a snack beside the stream as the horses grazed lazily. Hannah found herself in a meadow of bright green grass alongside an icy stream with her teenage brothers-in-law near a rickety, old cabin built by their great grandfather years and years ago. It was small with just one room and a stone fireplace. Most of the cabin was crumbling and one whole wall had been destroyed by a fierce wildfire years ago, yet it held a rustic charm. She could imagine living here, alone with just your family around you in the shadow of the tall California pines. She sighed. She had once imagined Adam and herself, living alone in a little house, but then he had stopped the jeep in front of a large white farmhouse and all his brothers had come spilling out to see the girl he'd brought home; his surprise wife.
"It would be a beautiful spot to live." She said looking around her.
"If you don't mind mountain lions." Evan said with a laugh.
"And a three hour ride to the nearest store - when the weather is good." Ford agreed.
"Well, I didn't say perfect." She smiled. "You boys hungry? How much farther is it to the upper meadow?" She knew the answer to her question about being hungry; it was always yes.
"It's about another half hour or so. It is near the edge of our land and borders the National Forest. It's really pretty." Ford told her. "But we could eat a snack first." He grinned at her.
She hadn't grown up around boys. She had only an older sister, who had moved away with her father when Hannah was still young. Her life was now overpowered with boys. She lived with seven men who she sometimes jokingly called her seven dwarves. Of course there was nothing dwarf-like about them. They ate an impressive amount of food, produced an amazing amount of laundry, and filled the house with deafening noises. She moved to her horse and pulled out some of the food she'd packed for them.
"A little snack before lunch then?" She asked pulling out ham sandwiches, apples, cheese, and brownies.
"You are my favorite sister-in-law!" Evan proclaimed reaching for a sandwich.
"Thanks." She smiled at him.
"Don't get all excited, Hannah. He says that to all the wives Adam suddenly brings home on a random Saturday." Ford winked at her, and she shook her head.
"You are trouble, boy!" They ate in cheerful silence and then headed out to see the upper meadow.
If she had thought the stream and small field alongside the cabin was beautiful, she had no words to express how truly majestic the upper meadow was. The boys were right. It was beautiful. She sat up on Ignacio, holding him back and gazed all around her. To her left she could see a moss covered log from an old oak that had split and fallen. She smiled and kicked Ignacio in his flanks and rode toward it, with Evan and Ford close behind.
"This way." Ford said, and rode past her leading her to a smaller meadow completely filled with wildflowers.
She brought the horse to a stop and slid down. Holding him by the reins, she walked out into the flowers surrounded by golden poppies, purple and pink sweet peas, wild roses, bright white daisies. There were so many flowers; a kaleidoscope of colors in the shadow of the looming green mountains. She turned to Evan who had ridden up beside her.
"Dad always left it alone,and never let the cattle graze here. He said it was Mama's meadow. We stayed away from it for a long time, after . . ." He hesitated and her heart ached thinking of him so small and broken then. "The wildflowers must have just spread and spread. Adam started coming here again after he met you, I guess. I don't know for sure, but that's what we figured because Guthrie must've followed him. That's where they get all those flowers they bring you."
Ford walked up to her, holding the reins of his horse, Butterscotch. "We thought you'd like it." He glanced over at her. "Are you crying?" He looked up at Evan. "She's crying."
"Well," Evan said looking down at them. "She's a girl. They cry over all kinds of things."
"You an expert on girls now?" Ford asked his older brother teasing. He turned back to Hannah who was wiping her eyes.
"We decided we like you, is all, Hannah, and we wanted to do something nice to show you we did. Don't get all cry-y about it!" He told her shrugging his shoulders.
"Geez, don't yell at her." Evan said jumping down off of Diablo. "You got the sensitivity of a rock, Ford Michael McFadden."
"Me? You gotta be kidding. You're the one who . . . and where do you get off using my middle name? You are seventeen damn months older than me!"
"I learned a lot in those seventeen months. Don't curse. You're spoiling Hannah's beautiful, touching, crying moment."
"Sorry, Hannah. I didn't mean to ruin your crying." Ford said sheepishly. "You got me all riled up, Evan! Geez, this isn't how we planned it!"
"Listen, I told you to stick to my plan." Evan said clearly irritated. He turned to Hannah. "We planned all these nice things we were gonna say. Ford, here screwed it up." He punched his brother's arm.
"I did not!" Ford protested.
"Oh, no! You didn't ruin anything Ford. It is beautiful and you are both sweet. Thank you." She watched them glare at one another. "No need to get into a fight over it. I am very happy. You made me cry because well . . .I'm just happy about it. That's all." She could have laughed out loud, and knew she would later when she told Adam all about it. They would laugh together and then she probably would cry again, so grateful and happy that his brothers loved her too.
"If you want, Hannah," Ford said breaking into her thoughts. "We can cut across the edge of the National Forest, and meet up with Adam and Brian for lunch. It shouldn't take too long."
"That would be nice." She said thinking that Ford understood her pretty well. She began to wonder if his fight with Evan wasn't staged. His attempt to allow her space and time to deal with her emotions. She glanced at him thinking there was a lot more to Ford than met the eye. She smiled warmly at both of them.
"First, I'm gonna give you both a hug to say thanks." She said. They blushed, but ignoring their shyness, she gave each of them a hug and kiss on their cheek. She smiled up at them - they were both taller than her already, and her vision was blurred again with tears.
"Girls sure do cry a lot." Evan said shaking his head and climbing up onto Diablo. "Help her up, dummy." He told Ford.
She laughed out loud, joyfully, surprised to find that in almost no time at all she had fallen in love with every single McFadden brother.
***7***
Daniel just happened to be inside the house when the phone range. He had nicked his finger working on a fence and had gone inside to wash it and bandage it up. Crane, whom, he had called "Old Grandma" had insisted.
"You don't want it to get infected." He'd told him. "Go wash it."
"Hello!" He said holding the phone against his shoulder as he wrapped his hand.
"Daniel! Cool! I was thinking there was no way in hell I'd catch you!"
"Parker!" He said recognizing the voice. "I bet you just crawled out of bed. God, you are one lazy son of a . . ."
"Yeah, yeah!" Paker interrupted. "Listen, if your slave driver will let you off the compound, a bunch of us are heading out to ride ATV's. Come on, man! It's gonna be awesome! There's gonna be girls!"
"What girls? You don't know any girls? And what ATV's?" He asked mildly curious. He didn't hang around his old highschool friends too much. Most of the kids from his class had gone off to college, and the rest like Parker, were still in school. Plus, between the ranch and his band, he had zero free time. It was only Parker's relentless invitations that kept him involved with his old group.
"Jimmy's cousins came from Oregon and brought three ATV's with them! We are all going out. Jimmy says girls will be there - maybe from Oregon. What the hell do you care? As long as they are girls!"
"Jimmy says a lot of things." He sighed thinking it would be fun to just blow off working and . . . Adam would never agree to it. "I can't man. I got a ton of crap I gotta do here. You know how Dad gets."
"Jesus, man! You never do anything fun. Listen, if you change your mind or decide to knock old Adam over the head and make a run for it - we are heading up to the National Forest. You could cut right across your property line. Hell, Daniel, you could tell him you were out doing something with those cows, and just sort of disappear. He'd never know."
"'Something with those cows?' Jesus, you are a town kid!" Daniel laughed. Parker's parents ran a small real estate agency in town and lived three blocks from the school. He was not a rancher, and couldn't believe the amount of work Daniel and his brothers tackled daily. "You can't ride ATVs in the National Forest. It's protected land." Daniel pointed out.
"Yeah, but the rangers are all over on the other end fighting that wildfire. There's no one around to stop us. Come on, beg your brother." Parker said.
"Nah, I got stuff to do. I'm probably in trouble already for talking to you so long. Are you coming on Saturday?" Daniel asked him.
"Yep. You promise there'll be girls, right?" Parker was very serious about his pursuit of women.
"Should be. Plus, you know, my band's pretty good." He said irritated that Parker was more interested in the scenery than his music. "See you then. Don't do anything stupid, okay?"
"Way to kill the fun, Grandpa!" Parker hung up before Daniel could respond. He shook his head and hung up the phone, and headed out to see what chore was set aside for him next.
***7***
The noise was so sudden, and so shocking that it was as if the drivers had waited in silence to spring out just as the horses crossed through the small rocky, open area that ran alongside the National Forest. The three ATVs darted out into the open, skidding and kicking up dirt as they spun a sharp 180 degree turn just before the fence line, and roared away and back into the darkness of the trees. It was so loud and sudden that Hannah cried out in surprise, as all the horses reared up startled.
Evan, the best rider of them all, managed, just barely, to hold onto Diablo and calm him, but both Ignacio, who was always a little twitchy around noise, and Butterscotch reared up high, throwing both Hannah and Ford to the ground. It took Evan several minutes to calm Diablo enough to jump down, and check on them. His eyes widened in horror as he could see bright red drops of blood on the rocks. Ford was already sitting up, holding his ankle.
"I'm okay." He told Evan. "It's just my ankle, again. I caught it on a damn rock!" He looked over at Hannah who lay still on the ground, and then he saw the blood too. "Hannah!" He yelled and tried to rise, but his ankle hurt too badly.
Evan was already beside her. "Hannah." He tried not to sound as panicked as he felt. He could see a deep gash on her left cheek, dangerously close to her eye. Her wrist was swelling already. He was greatly relieved when her eyes fluttered open. It wasn't until he was looking into her deep brown eyes, that he realized he had feared she'd been killed.
"Where's Ford?" She asked immediately.
"I'm alright." Ford answered. "I just sprained my ankle, I think." She sat up slowly with Evan holding onto her right arm.
"You sure? You didn't hit your head?" She asked.
"No! I'm fine. What about you? You're bleeding!" Ford said his voice filled with worry. She reached a hand up to her face.
"Yeah." She said looking at the blood on her fingers. Stay calm. She told herself. "Grab me one of those towels in my bag, please, Evan. And bring the first aid kit, okay?" It was in reaching for the towel that she realized her arm was probably broken. Her face grew white with pain.
"Hannah?" Evan asked with wide eyes.
"Listen, Adam's close by, right?" Evan and Ford both nodded. Evan had scooted along the ground so both boys sat facing her. "You ride over and get him and Brian. Only make sure he knows, we're alright. Don't panic him. You know how fussy he gets. I don't think I can get up on that horse without help, and Ford's gonna need help too. You go get them and bring them here, okay?"
Evan glanced at Ford hesitantly. "I don't think I should leave you. You are both hurt."
"I'm okay. It's just that stupid ankle." Ford said irritated. "I can look after her. She's right Ev, it's just another fifteen or twenty minutes."
"Alright, I guess." Evan rose looking at the two of them. He didn't like it. She had been knocked out. The gash in her cheek looked deep enough for stitches. It was the stupidest thing too - if it had happened just a few seconds before or after they would've landed on the soft ground. He glanced around him feeling frustrated, worried and strangely protectively angry.
"I'm alright, sweetheart." She said looking up at him. "Just hand me that first aid kit, and get going, okay?"
"Oh, yeah." He said looking at the first aid kit in his hand. He handed it to her kneeling in front of her. "I'll be right back, okay?" She reached out and patted his cheek with her right hand.
"We'll wait here then, okay?" She said gently, and meeting her kind, loving eyes, all his insides seemed to turn to goosh. "Just don't look so panicked when you talk to Adam, and remember Evan, he always sounds mad when he's scared. Don't let it get to you." She smiled up at him wishing that all this wasn't taking so long. Her head and arm really hurt and she was concerned about how much her cheek was bleeding. She didn't want to pass out.
"I'll be right back." Evan said and running jumped on Diablo and thundered away. She turned to Ford.
"Take out that ice pack, and snap it so it gets cold. You need to put it on your ankle."
"You should use it. Hannah, your eye is already black."
"I'm okay." She told him, but could see he was ready to argue with her. "You do as I say, young man." She said sternly, knowing Ford was quick to obey. He reached in and snapped the pack placing it on his ankle.
"Should you clean the cut?" He asked her looking in the box and seeing a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
"No, they'll be here soon. I just need to keep pressure on it. If I pass out, you keep pressure on it, alright?" She tried to smile at him to counteract her words but she could tell he was unconvinced. "I know I can count on you. Are you hurt anywhere else? You sure you didn't hit your head?"
"No, I tried to roll, but my ankle got caught on a rock." He said taking off his coat and putting it around her. She shivered.
"You should keep it on." She said, but he just shook his head at her.
"No, ma'am." His eyes were so serious that she knew arguing would be useless.
"Can you take out that ace bandage? We need to strap my arm to my chest so it won't move. You'll have to help me, hon."
Ford pulled out the bandage. He watched as Hannah drew in a deep steadying breath. "Okay, I'm gonna lift it, but it hurts like the devil so I'll need you to help me. Even if I cry, Ford, you gotta make me move it." He nodded with serious eyes.
"Ready?" He asked her.
"On three." She said. "One. Two."
"Three." He said lifting her wrist so it lay near her right shoulder as though she were saying the pledge of allegiance. She cried out and he hesitated briefly.
"Damn it, Ford! What did I say?"
"Right. Sorry." He said and moved her arm into position wrapping it as quickly as he could. Her face was white and her eyes down.
"Hannah?" He asked frightened.
"It's okay. I'm okay." She whispered. "I'm so ashamed. I never should have . . . Ford! I cursed at you!" She looked up then and he laughed.
"Oh, hell, Hannah! Adam's said way worse than 'damn'!"
"Not at you though." She said and he was surprised at how well she knew and understood all of them already.
"Mostly at Brian." He admitted. "Is the pain worse or better now?"
"I'm fine. What about your ankle?"
"It's okay." He said surprised that he barely even felt the dull familiar ache; he was so intent on her. "Drink some water." He said, handing her the bottle.
The time from Evan thundering away for help until Adam and Brian arrived seemed an eternity. In reality it was maybe twenty-five minutes which led Hannah to believe that none of them had ridden with their own safety in mind. They heard them long before they arrived.
"Hannah!" Adam's shout echoed through the forest.
"Get ready." She said to Ford, knowing her husband's tendency to overreact.
She closed her eyes briefly against the pain and dizziness, and then suddenly he was there. She could feel his presence even before she opened her eyes to see him jump off his horse and run to her. He reached out with his hand and held her by her right shoulder. She felt a million times better looking up into his dark, worried eyes.
"Hon?" He asked kneeling in front of her.
"Ford says he didn't hit his head but check his skull Adam. They threw us right over those rocks. I couldn't check it. He might not remember it." Adam blinked at her for several seconds with a look that said, Ford? Who's Ford?
"Brian's got him." He said at last. "What about you? Baby, let's see that cut." He lifted the cloth off her cheek and she could tell by his look that it was bad. He met her eyes, and she bit the inside of her lip. She could see him work his jaw from side to side, a tell-tale sign of stress.
"I rolled just like you taught me." She said trying to grin at him. "It would've worked great except for those rocks."
"Yeah." He cleared his throat and kissed her forehead.
"There goes my modeling career." She said trying to get him to throttle down. He looked so stressed.
"You're too short to model." He said but his eyes filled with tears which surprised her.
"I'm okay, Adam." She said seriously and he looked away biting his lip.
"Yeah." He said nodding his head. "Yeah, of course, hon. You're gonna be just fine. You think you can ride?" He asked. "You hit your head, didn't you?"
"I think I was just out for a second." She studied him seeing how worried he was. She reached out and patted his cheek, or at least started too, but moving made her wince in pain. His eyes grew wide.
"Let's get moving, girl." He said in a tight, clipped tone. "Can you stand?" He moved behind her, his hand under her right arm. "On three, okay?"
"Okay, but Adam if I pass out. Stay calm, okay. It's just a cut. I'm not gonna die. It is just an injury. I studied this, remember? It isn't super serious."
"The hell it isn't!" He disagreed. "Ready. One. Two. Three." He helped her stand and she felt all her bruises then. She stood leaning against him taking in deep breaths - trying to stay conscious against the wave of pain that washed over her.
"Okay. Now we just gotta get you up on that horse."
She laughed even as tears spilled out, glad he couldn't see her face just then. "Seriously? Adam, I don't know if. . ."
"Here honey." Brian said standing in front of her. "I'll lift her up. You get on the other side of Chief, Adam. You think you can hang on 'til he's up there?" He asked looking at her.
"I guess we'll find out." She said wearily. "Is Ford okay?"
"Aw, shut the hell up about Ford! Let's get you on that damn horse. I'm lifting you now. Get moving Adam." Brian bent and lifted her up, carrying her over to Chief. Evan held the reins and had positioned Chief so he was beside a small mound of dirt so that holding her, she was nearly level with the saddle. It took every ounce of her strength to climb over onto Chief. She clung to his mane grinding her teeth.
"Hurry up, idiot! She doesn't look so good." Brian said.
Adam climbed up behind her and she relaxed against him, his strong arm around her. "Okay?"
"I'm having the nicest day." She said through clenched teeth.
"Oh, good." He said.
"Get her out of here. Don't wait for us." Brian said. "We got Ford."
The ride was a blur to her. Her cheek hurt badly, and her wrist ached. Her head pounded. She felt every single movement of the horse; every rock, every bump and every single turn. The whole way back, Adam kept speaking softly to her. "Almost there, girl. Stay with me. We're almost back. Hang in there. Easy now, baby." He used every single nickname he'd ever called her, throwing a few new ones in too. They became a chant and she focused only on them: hon, sweetheart, darling, honey, sweetie girl, hon, sweetheart, darling, honey, sweetie girl - it echoed over and over in her head as they rode for what seemed hours and hours.
Her vision blurred and time seemed to stand still and then suddenly they were in the barn. Adam held onto her with one hand, steadying her as he climbed down.
"Just fall back. I'll catch you. Just slide my way." He lifted her down off the horse but didn't set her down carrying her to the truck.
"I can walk." She said.
"Shut up." He said gently helping her into the truck. She kept conscious the whole drive watching the needle on the speedometer go up and up and up.
"Slow down." She said, but Adam ignored her. When he finally, laid her down on the gurney after storming into the emergency room, she was completely exhausted. It was only then that she allowed herself to at last close her eyes. The last thing she saw and the last thing she remembered was Adam's face staring down at her, his eyes wide with fear, his lips moving saying something, but the pain was too great and she just couldn't focus any more.
"Call the house, and tell Crane to turn down the pot roast or it will burn." She said, thinking that she ought to say something more significant; something about love and devotion, but at the time she was worried that dinner would be ruined. She almost laughed thinking how different real life was - if this were a movie she'd have said something much more profound than, "Don't let the dinner burn!" But as she drifted off her mind was filled with a single beautiful image - as though she were in some movie. She saw again the field all covered in wildflowers set aside; sacred; dedicated to love.