Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

She climbed into the car and put the smart key in the cup holder.

“Seat belt,” he emphasized.

She glared at him. “It will wrinkle my dress,” she said fussily, because it was delicate silk, pink and very pretty.

“Seat belt or the car doesn’t move,” he repeated.

She sighed. He was very forceful. She liked that. She smiled at him prettily. “Okay.”

She put it on, grimacing as it wrinkled the delicate fabric. Oh, well, the dry cleaners could fix it. She didn’t want to make Cort mad. She pushed the button Cort showed her, the button that would start the car, but nothing happened.

“Brake,” he said.

She glared at him. “I’m not going fast enough to brake!”

“You have to put your foot on the brake or it won’t start,” he explained patiently.

“Oh.”

She put her foot on the brake and it started. The air vents opened and the touch screen came on. “It’s like something out of a science-fiction movie,” she said, impressed.

“Isn’t it, though?” He chuckled.

She glanced at him, her face radiant. “I have got to have Daddy get me one of these!” she exclaimed.

Cort hoped her father wouldn’t murder him when he saw what they cost.

Odalie pulled the car out of the driveway in short jerks. She grimaced. “I haven’t driven in a while, but it will come back to me, honest.”

“Okay. I’m not worried.” He was petrified, but he wasn’t showing it. He hoped he could grab the wheel if he had to.

She smoothed out the motions when she got onto the highway. “There, better?” she teased, looking at him.

“Eyes on the road,” he cautioned.

She sighed. “Cort, you’re no fun.”

“It’s a powerful machine. You have to respect it. That means keeping your eyes on the road and paying attention to your surroundings.”

“I’m doing that,” she argued, looking at him again.

He prayed silently that they’d get home again.

She pulled off on a side road and he began to worry.

“Why are we going this way?” he asked suspiciously.

“Isn’t this the way to Catelow?” she asked in all innocence.

“No, it’s not,” he said. “It’s the road that leads to the Lane ranch.”

“Oh, dear, I don’t want to go there. But there’s no place to turn off,” she worried. “Anyway, the ranch is just ahead, I’ll turn around there.”

Cort had to bite his lip to keep from saying something.

Maddie was out in the yard with her garbage can lid. This time Pumpkin had gotten out of the pen when she was looking. He’d jumped a seven-foot-high fence. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she’d never have believed it.

“Pumpkin, you fool!” she yelled at him. “Why can’t you stay where I put you? Get back in there!”

But he ran around her. This time he wasn’t even trying to spur her. He ran toward the road. It was his favorite place, for some reason, despite the heat that made the ribbon of black asphalt hotter than a frying pan.

“You come back here!” she yelled.

Just as she started after him, Odalie’s foot hit the accelerator pedal too hard, Cort called out, Odalie looked at him instead of the road…

Maddie heard screaming. She was numb. She opened her eyes and there was Cort, his face contorted with horror. Beside him, Odalie was screaming and crying.

“Just lie still,” Cort said hoarsely. “The ambulance is on the way. Just lie still, baby.”

“I hit her, I hit her!” Odalie screamed. “I didn’t see her until it was too late! I hit her!”

“Odalie, you have to calm down. You’re not helping!” Cort snapped at her. “Find something to cover her. Hurry!”

“Yes…there’s a blanket…in the backseat, isn’t there…?”

Odalie fetched it with cold, shaking hands. She drew it over Maddie’s prone body. There was blood. So much blood. She felt as if she were going to faint, or throw up. Then she saw Maddie’s face and tears ran down her cheeks. “Oh, Maddie,” she sobbed, “I’m so sorry!”

“Find something to prop her head, in case her spine is injured,” Cort gritted. He was terrified. He brushed back Maddie’s blond hair, listened to her ragged breathing, saw her face go even paler. “Please hurry!” he groaned.

There wasn’t anything. Odalie put her beautiful white leather purse on one side of Maddie’s head without a single word, knowing it would ruin the leather and not caring at all. She put her knit overblouse on the other, crumpled up. She knelt in the dirt road beside Maddie and sat down, tears in her eyes. She touched Maddie’s arm. “Help is coming,” she whispered brokenly. “You hold on, Maddie. Hold on!”

Maddie couldn’t believe it. Her worst enemy was sitting beside her in a vision of a horrifically expensive pink silk dress that was going to be absolutely ruined, and apparently didn’t mind at all.

She tried to speak. “Pum… Pumpkin?” she rasped.

Cort looked past her and grimaced. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

Maddie started to cry, great heaving sobs.

“We’ll get you another rooster,” Cort said at once. “I’ll train him to attack me. Anything. You just have to…hold on, baby,” he pleaded. “Hold on!”

She couldn’t breathe. “Hurts,” she whispered as sensation rushed back in and she began to shudder.

Cort was in hell. There was no other word that would express what he felt as he saw her lying there in bloody clothing, maybe dying, and he couldn’t do one damned thing to help her. He was sick to his soul.

He brushed back her hair, trying to remember anything else, anything that would help her until the ambulance arrived.

“Call them again!” Odalie said firmly.