A Broken Cowboy (BWWM Interracial Romance) (10 page)

The sound of whirring helicopter blades pounding through the air woke Mimi, still halfway perched on a branch in the tree, most of her body still swaying in the frigid water. She looked around her, dazed, and saw the new roof of her cabin barely sticking up out of the water nearly half a mile away, the rest of that distance now nothing but brown water dotted with floating debris. She looked up, too exhausted and too heartbroken to even wave for help.

The helicopter circled overhead for almost twenty minutes, then Mimi heard its blades grow louder and louder as it descended closer to her. A voice over an intercom shouted instructions down to her, but the words were just noise to her grief-stricken brain.

Everything is gone. Everything that I wanted out here has been taken away. My home, my ranch…and Gabriel.

Gabriel.

She couldn’t bare the thought of what must have happened to him. She closed her eyes and hoped she could slip away, carried off by the water like he was.

There’s no reason to hold on anymore. I could just let go and it would all be over soon. It would all be over soon.

Those words resonated in her head like a warning message, causing her to sit up and take a deep breath. What kind of thought was that? What would her father have given for just a little more time? What did Gabriel fight so hard for overseas, and then struggle with every single day afterward, if not to keep living? He could have given up any minute of any day, and his pain would have been over. But he didn’t. He fought, and so would she.

Heavy tears blurred her vision, making it almost impossible to see. A harness, lowered on a cable from the helicopter, splashed down into the water near her, but through her tears she couldn’t see how far it was. She tried reaching for it with one arm, but was so weak from holding on through the night that as soon as she took one hand off the limb the rest of her started to slip below the surface. She quickly grabbed the limb with both hands and waited for some insight into what to do.

Mimi tried pointing one leg out toward the cable, hoping to bring the harness closer to her by catching it with her bare foot, but it was too far out of reach. She crept down the limb hand over hand towards the harness and tried again, scraping her legs on the churned up fragments that the flood had washed into the yard.

Finally, Mimi knew what she had to do: she had to let go. There was no way to hang onto what she was holding and still move forward, a thought that made her close her eyes against the fresh tears that spilled down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and released her hold on the tree, letting the water shove her cruelly under water for a second. She forced herself to the surface and opened her eyes immediately to find the bright red harness, spearing it with one arm just as the moving river almost carried her past it. Her arm pulled back painfully, a tearing pain ripping through her shoulder as the harness went taut.

Mimi rested for a second, letting the current stretch out her body while she held on to the large harness, her arm linked through it and holding on with her free hand. Soon, she gathered the last ounces of her strength and pulled herself against the force of the water, inch by inch, until she had both arms through the harness. The last step was to push against the current and get her head and shoulders through in order to be lifted to safety and away from the nightmare.

Five minutes later, Mimi still struggled in the water. She had no leverage as she kicked in the water, her feet only finding solid objects to push against when limbs below the water raked painfully by her. Too soon, all of her progress was for nothing as she found herself once again hanging on by just her hands. She dropped her head and prayed, fighting the urge to cry and give in, forcing herself to look hard within herself in order to find not only the strength that she needed to do this, but also the will. Doubt crept back into her mind as she looked around her, realizing that all she really had to do in order to end this was just let go.

As her numb, frozen fingers began to open one last time, releasing their grip on the harness, a splash nearby startled her, as did the pair of hands that grabbed her roughly by the wet, torn fabric of her shirt. Mimi turned in surprise and stared into Gabriel’s face.

“Gabriel?” she yelled, confused and disoriented.

“It’s me, baby. I’m right here,” he answered grimly in a voice that sounded far away, so far that Mimi wasn’t sure she heard it so much as felt it.

“How did you get here?”

“There’s no time to talk, you have to hold on. Hold onto the harness.”

“I can’t, my hands are frozen. I’m too weak,” she argued. “I tried, I really did.”

“I know you did, but you’re not done. Come on. Do it again. Do it for me, don’t let it end like this.” She felt his touch on her arms and was shocked by how warm he felt against her icy skin. She tried, for him, just as he’d asked her to. This time, feeling Gabriel lift her up, Mimi slid through the harness and got her arms out through its opening. She was immediately lifted up by the cable, up out of the horrible water, and looked back to see Gabriel’s face shimmering below her. He was smiling at her.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

When Mimi awoke, she was warm and dry, wrapped in a soft blanket. A beeping sound nearby came from a small array of machines that kept track of her vital signs. She opened her eyes to the sterile whiteness of a hospital room. A woman in scrubs stood with her back to her, recording information on a clipboard.

“Hello?” Mimi asked, her voice a hoarse whisper that burned its way out of her throat.

“You’re awake! How do you feel?” the nurse asked brightly, coming over to check Mimi’s IV line.

“I’m thirsty,” she answered in a dull voice.

“Yeah, I’ll get you some ice in just a second. I bet you’re probably hungry, too. They only brought you in this morning, but you’ve been asleep pretty much since you got here. I have to say, you’re in really great shape for someone who spent the night in that water. Your lungs are clear and you don’t have any broken bones. You had a few nasty scrapes and one cut that needed stitches, but other than needing a tetanus shot, you were good!”

“That’s good news, I guess,” Mimi thought soberly. She closed her eyes against the harsh white light in the room, and let her head fall back against the crinkly hospital pillow. Unlike in the movies, Mimi remembered everything. She remembered the shadow of Gabriel falling and disappearing beneath the muddy water’s surface, and she remembered the way his image and his voice appeared to her, giving her the strength to fight her way out of the flood. But it was all for nothing.

Now, she was alive and awake, but empty. She almost wished she’d never met Gabriel in the first place if fate was only going to take him away, literally ripping him out of her arms and out of her heart. She knew on some level that there had to be a reason, a purpose in all of this, but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out what it could be.

Hadn’t she been a good person? Hadn’t she even found a way to use the ranch to help other people? Was it really too much to ask that she be allowed to keep the one person who’d made her happier than she’d been in a long time? She’d already endured more than she should have had to, losing first her dad to a horrifically violent crime, then her mother only a few years ago to illness. Why did she have to lose Gabriel, too? More importantly, why was she still alive when the people she cared about were all gone?

“And now,” the nurse continued, “thank goodness I can go tell this guy you’re awake. Maybe then he’ll get off our backs!” The nurse opened the door and spoke to someone in the hallway. Mimi heard pounding footsteps that sounded like someone was running, then nearly fainted when Gabriel appeared beside the bed. She struggled to speak, but not finding the words.

“Hey there,” he said softly, placing a kiss on Mimi’s lips before stepping back and grabbing the chair beside the bed, pulling it over so close that Mimi had to refocus on his handsome face. An angry red slash above his eyebrow glistened from some kind of ointment, but otherwise, he looked fine. “You need to take swimming lessons.”

Mimi was still too dumbfounded to speak. She’d seen him get carried away by the flood, and then in the morning was certain it was his ghost that helped her through. But here he was, warm and gorgeous and very much alive. She started to cry even as she smiled at him.

“Now, now, no crying!” he said, suddenly concerned. “It’s all over. You’re okay.”

“How is this possible? I saw you fall,” she began, doubting her own memory of the incident. “And then…”

“I did fall, then I went along with the current for a while. I slowly started veering towards solid ground as it carried me, and by then I was so far from you that it was a better choice to go for help. I was in the helicopter with the rescue team, and when you couldn’t get in the harness, I jumped,” he explained, taking her hand in his and holding it firmly as she shook.

“It’s too unbelievable,” she began, still crying from the emotional strain of being alone and wanting to die, to being so overjoyed that Gabriel was alive and real.

“No more tears, baby. I’m fine,” he assured her.

“That’s not why I’m crying,” she said, laughing as she wiped at the tears with the back of her other hand. She lifted it and gestured to the hospital room and the building. “You’re inside!”

Gabriel laughed too and whispered, “The next time you want me to come inside, promise me that you won’t try to die. Just tell me, and I promise I’ll come in.” Mimi shook her head before fixing him with a confident gaze.

“Nope, no more dying for either of us. Indoors, outdoors, I don’t care. We’ll pitch a tent, live under a rock, whatever. Just as long as you’re still there.” She smiled at him, and was a little bit shocked to realize she meant it. The city woman who once lived in a home with gleaming stainless steel appliances and polished granite counter tops would give up central heat and air conditioning—heck, she’d even give up indoor plumbing—just as long as it meant she got to stay here with Gabriel.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised her. “I’m here. I love you.” He stood to lean over her and kissed her again, lingering with his lips pressed against hers. She reached up and put her hand on the back of his neck, refusing to let him go.

“I love you, too, Gabriel,” she said after finally releasing him. They both laughed at the sudden increase in speed from the heart rate monitor that beeped near the head of her bed.

The next day, Mimi and Gabriel walked out of the hospital, hand in hand, and rode out with Sarah to survey the damage. The cabin was completely destroyed, pieces of it scattered in a winding line where the waters were beginning to recede a fraction. It would be weeks before the water would be gone and rebuilding could start.

“Well,” Mimi said, refusing to be brought down by the whole incident, “the good thing is I didn’t really own anything yet. I won’t have a ton of stuff to replace, and anything I did lose will be covered by insurance.”

“Wow, Mimi,” Sarah said with a sad smile. “You have such a great heart. An incident like this comes along only every so often, but it can really knock people down. It’s amazing how you’re just taking it in stride! Thank goodness your horses were free and able to make it to higher ground. If they’d been in the barn…” Her voice trailed off, leaving unsaid the horrific thought.

Mimi’s horses were skittish and hadn’t returned yet, but Gabriel had promised Mimi that he’d seen them standing up on the ridge, overlooking the ranch. At least she knew they were safe, and knew that they would come back when they felt safe again.

“I’ve already been through the worst. This is nothing compared to how it could have turned out, how I thought it had turned out,” she said, looking up at Gabriel with a pointed expression. Mimi had spent that torturous night thinking he was gone, and woke the next day ready to let the water claim her too. Houses and material things didn’t compare with that pain.

“Well, you guys are welcome to stay over at our place until this water washes away and you can get something set up,” Sarah offered.

Mimi shook her head. “Thank you, but no. We’ll be just fine out here. It’s great to have a roof over your head, but it’s not the only way to live.” Gabriel smiled at Mimi, squeezing her hand and nudging her with his shoulder.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Mimi stared at the “No Trespassing: This Means Mimi” sign that Gabriel had erected alongside the dirt road that led to where her cabin used to stand. It had been months since the flood and this was the first time he’d let her see what remained of her former home. He held her tightly in case the water works started up again when she saw how everything was gone. He was surprised when she turned to look at him with a beaming expression on her face.

“I’m done with the tears. The girl who used to cry over silly things like bats and wet laundry is gone. I came up out of that water knowing what is really important. This muddy plot of land used to be where my house stood, and I don’t care in the least. I still have what’s important,” she said firmly, leaning her head against his shoulder.

She’d been living under the overhang with Gabriel since the flood, pressed against him during the night and finding his delicious warmth to be all the shelter she needed. They cooked together over his fire and ate their meals under the sky, making love often and for hours at a time.