“Yeah. I want my horses, our bed. I want to get us a dog.”
“You don’t think we travel too much for a dog?” He was sure to say “we”; he intended to go on the road with Jack as much as he could. “I guess Angelica could watch him when we’re out of town.”
“We’ll get one we can bring on the road a lot. A truck dog.”
“A truck dog. Why the hell not?” He squeezed Jack’s hand as they got on the elevator. “You good?”
“As good as I’m gonna be.” Jack squeezed his hand. “Let’s do this.”
25
“—fuck away from me! No! I fucking said no!”
Sid was ghostly, the nurses had already tightened Mackey’s restraints, and that meant he was up to bat.
“Goddamn it, Maverick!” Jack snapped. “Get your shit together. You’re scaring folks.”
Everyone stilled, and Sid stepped up, but Jack held one hand up, stopping him.
“Jacky? Jack, something’s wrong.”
Oh, fuck yeah. Mackey knew who he was. That was fucking amazing.
“No shit. You were in a wreck. Broke your damn neck again, but obviously you can move shit, so chill the fuck out.” Jack moved to where Mackey could see him. “You hear me? You broke your neck. You been out. Sid is here.”
“What?”
So he repeated it. That was part of the secret. Mackey was exhausted, hurting, and stoned.
“Okay. When can I go home?”
“Shit, get in a regular room first. You hurting?” Like they were going to let Mackey go yet. “We can get you knocked out again.”
“I’m here, Mackey.” Sid stepped closer. “I’m right here.”
Hudson followed Sid with one hand close to Sid’s back like the guy might fall over.
Mackey took a deep breath. “Oh. Sid? Sid, tell them I need to go home.”
Right. Sid wasn’t a sucker. He grinned at Sid, who was just beaming with relief.
“Wherever we’re together is home. I’m glad you’re awake; you tried to scare me.” Sid reached for Mackey’s hand, touched his fingers.
“Make them turn down the lights? My head’s pounding.”
“Oi. We got here as fast as we could,” Tommy stage-whispered from the door.
Hudson waved him in with one finger over his lips. The twins nodded in unison behind Tommy as they all came in.
Surely it was breaking some rule, but no one expected Mackey to be awake very long.
“Mother, I got things. You don’t worry. I told these hooligans I’ll make them bunk with their granny if they misbehave.”
“Tommy. I cain’t work tonight.”
“Oi. You don’t stress.” Tommy rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to say that they were about to leave for the next event. They’d all dealt with injured cowboys before.
“Don’t worry, boss. We already worked it out. You rest up.”