Dallas stood and shook his hand. “I’ll call in that favor first thing tomorrow morning, bright and early. I’ll call you when I have any information.”
“I’m obliged,” Rafe said.
When he’d shut the front door of the ranch house behind him, his cell phone buzzed.
Tom. “Yeah, Tom, what’s up?”
“Come to the doc’s,” Tom said. “It’s Dad.”
Chapter Sixteen
“What happened?” Rafe asked Tom as he hurried into Doc Larson’s office.
“He’s back getting an x-ray. Called the doc in on his day off.”
“Well, that’s the chance you take being a small-town doc.”
“True that. He fell getting out of the tub. That darn hip of his.”
“Where’s Lilia?”
“Around the corner getting us some coffees from Rena’s. You want anything?” He held up his phone. “I can call her.”
“No, no, I just had some coffee. I’m good.”
“Good news,” Doc said as he entered the waiting room. “No fracture. Just some bruised ribs. He’ll be in some pain, but he’ll be good as new in a few weeks. I’ll give him a couple Percocet. After that ibuprofen should be fine.”
Lilia came in with the coffees. She handed one to Tom and one to Doc. “How is he?”
Doc smiled. “He’ll be fine. Nothing’s broken, just bruised.”
“Thank God.” Lilia sat down. “I was so worried. He’s so stubborn sometimes. He scares the devil out of me when he insists on going out walking alone at night. I’m always afraid he’ll fall and hurt himself. And then he falls getting out of the tub!”
Tom laughed. “At least he’s keeping clean.”
“It’s not funny. If anything happened to him—”
“Nothing’s going to happen to him,” Rafe said. “Like you said, he’s too stubborn to let anything truly bad happen. If he’d use a cane, his life would be a little easier, but he’s too stubborn.”
“Too proud,” Tom said.
“Proud, schmoud,” Lilia said. “He’s still young at heart. Still handsome as anything. So his hips don’t work like they used to. So what?”
“We’re sure glad he has you around, Lilia,” Tom said.
Yeah, Lilia was a godsend. And here he was screwing everything up. What if she had to go back to Mexico? What would his father do? Rafe and Tom would have to step up and pick up the slack, that was all. They’d get him a housekeeper. It would cut into the money for the Arizona place, but so be it.
Unless…
No. Even if he couldn’t help Angie, he still needed to dissolve his marriage. Both he and Lilia deserved better than a marriage on paper only. They deserved love.
“He doesn’t listen. Tells me I’m nagging.” Lilia took a tissue out of her purse, wiped at her eyes, and blew her nose. “Well, maybe I am nagging, but it’s for his own good.”
Tom laughed out loud. “You sound just like our mother.”
Rafe agreed. “He hated her nagging. He’s always been stubborn. Never did know what was good for him.”
A few minutes later, out came Jack Grayhawk, leaning on Doc Larson.