Flawless Surrender (The Surrender Trilogy, #2)(6)

Sawyer groaned, “I was saddling that new mare we just got, Clover, and she got spooked by something. When I tried to calm her down she started bucking and kicking to get away from me. She kicked me clear across the barn and I felt my knee pop before it twisted underneath me.”

Tanner looked up when Parker ran into the barn from the corral entrance. “Damn, Sawyer! What the hell did you do to yourself? I just saw Clover shoot out of the barn and figured something was wrong.”

“Stupid fu-cking horse, whose dumbass idea was it to buy that one?” Sawyer’s face was pale and his jaw was clenched with pain as he reached up to his forehead to feel the wound.

Parker grunted, “I hate to say it, but it was yours.”

Sawyer cursed again, and made a move to sit up only to let out a groan of pain when his bent leg shifted.

“Stay put until the ambulance gets here. You’ve done something bad to that knee, and if you try to move you might make it worse.” Tanner looked around for something to press on Sawyer’s bloody head to stop the bleeding. In the end, he just tugged his own t-shirt off and pressed it to his friend’s forehead. “This cut will need stitches too. I can see your skull, but lucky for you, not your brain.”

Parker snorted, but his face remained drawn with tension. “He has no brain to see. Sawyer, I thought we agreed to wait on Clover’s training until we could put her through her paces together a few times?”

“Yeah, well you were busy, and I had time to work on it today. We needed to get her going,” Sawyer said, groaning when Tanner moved and brushed his injured leg.

“It’s not like I expected her to freak out like that.”

The barn door creaked loudly as it was thrown open and Rachel came barreling in with a bundle full of blankets and baby. Her eyes widened in horror as she took in the situation. Tanner watched a myriad of emotions cross her face before she set her jaw in determination and nudged him out of his place next to her husband.

“Sawyer Brooks, what have you done to yourself? Have you lost your mind getting hurt? This will not, I repeat, will not get you out of changing diapers, do you hear me?”

Tanner was stunned to find her pushing the infant into his arms so she could focus on Sawyer’s injuries. For a heart stopping moment, his inner bachelor freaked out at the tiny bundle of future he held in his big hands, but with everyone focused on Sawyer, he was able to get his nerves under control pretty quickly. Rising to his feet, he stared down at the little girl and he was pleased to see her smiling back at him. She really was adorable.

Rachel and Parker were taking care of Sawyer, so Tanner backed up and took a seat on a stack of hay bales holding Juliet close to his naked chest so he wouldn’t accidentally drop her. It was then that he noticed Zoey standing nearby watching him with a smile on her face.

“What?” he asked with a frown. Juliet seemed to sense the change in his mood because she whimpered a little, triggering an instant shushing sound from his mouth and a little bouncing movement from his arms. He hadn’t even known he could do that.

Zoey moved closer and reached out to stroke her finger over Juliet’s tiny fist. The fingers stretched out and then curled around her index finger like a cuff linking the three of them.

“I’ve never seen you holding a baby before. You seem to be a natural.” Tanner lifted his eyes to hers and he was surprised to see longing in their depths. It must be a female thing to find men holding babies sexually attractive because Tanner didn’t feel sexy in the least. However, he wanted Zoey just as much as her blue eyes seemed to want him, so it made for an awfully fascinating cluster fu-ck of feelings in his chest.

“This is the first time I’ve held one in years. I didn’t even hold her when she was born.” He heard the words coming out of his mouth, but he wasn’t in control of them.

Zoey glanced back over her shoulder as the sound of an ambulance siren wailed down the drive to the house.

“You’ve done a bang up job on yourself, Brooks.” Silas White was an old school mate of the guys, and Tanner was actually relieved to see him and his partner coming through the door. There was no better paramedic than Silas.

Within moments they were assessing Sawyers injuries and relaying information back to the 911 operator. Somehow in those brief seconds, Zoey had managed to plant herself right in front of Tanner like a human shield between the tiny being in his arms and the painful situation for her father.

“Is he going to be okay, Si?” Rachel asked from her place against Parker’s chest. Despite her initial confidence, the pallor of her skin proved she was freaking out like the rest of them.

Silas looked up at her with a smile, “Of course he is, Rachel, but he’s going to have to go to the hospital in Austin. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say he’s torn something in that knee. We can patch up his head and give him something for pain at the clinic, but then we’ll have to transport him to have an MRI done.”

Rachel looked up at Parker and then back at Sawyer before her eyes landed on Tanner and her daughter. “I can’t leave Juliet.”

“Yes you can, I’ll watch her,” Zoey responded firmly, and just like that, the tiny woman took control of the situation. “I’ll stay here with Jules, while you two go to the hospital with Sawyer. Where are Rogan and Hudson at?”

Parker’s eyes came up to meet hers, and Tanner could see the concern in his glazed expression. “Austin. They went to take care of some business and won’t be back until late. They can meet Rachel at the hospital. I still have the evening chores to do and the animals can’t wait, but I would be grateful if you could stay to watch Jules.”