Free Hooked by Cat Johnson Page A

the guys—” Luke hated laying it all on Chris, but at the moment he had no other choice. He was holding on to his composure by the skin of his teeth. If he opened his soul to Annie and saw the sympathy in her eyes, he’d lose it. He’d turn into an emotional mess in the middle of everyone and he didn’t want that.
    Chris gave his shoulder one last squeeze and then released his hold. “I’ll take care of it all. You finish packing up then we’ll go.”
    All Luke could do was watch Annie and Chris walk away, and try to remember to breathe.

Chapter Six
    The drive had been hell. Knowing his family needed him and he couldn’t get home fast enough while he sat helpless in the passenger seat had been torture. But actually arriving at the hospital was not a relief in any way either. The sights and smells of the ICU nearly took Luke off his feet. The steady beep-beep of monitors. The overpowering scent of bleach or whatever it was they used to clean with. He walked like a zombie through the hallway guided by Chris. Without his friend, Luke probably wouldn’t have been able to even follow the simple directions the floor nurse at the desk had given them to his father’s room.
    Maybe the truth was that deep down he didn’t want to locate it. Inside would be simply the shell of the man who’d been the most important person in his life since the day he was born. The man who’d put him on top of his first sheep in the mutton-busting competition in the local rodeo when Luke was barely five years old. The man who’d worked day and night to make the money to help pay for Luke’s entrance fees and equipment when he was just starting out as an amateur bull rider in high school. The man who had taught him to shoot, to pray and to respect both women and the value of a dollar.
    How in the world could he live without that steadying force in his life?
    Chris slowed to a stop and then stood to the side of a doorway. Luke knew this was it. Steeling his nerves, and dreading what waited inside that room, he walked through the entrance. He saw first his mother, her face tearstained and showing the strain of the past day. Luke realized how selfish his thoughts had been. Only of himself and what his father’s death would mean to him. How would his mother live without the man she’d been with since they’d started dating at age fifteen?
    His gaze traveled to the figure in the bed beneath the oxygen mask and wires. It was not his father. He couldn’t think of this as his father, because far too soon all that stuff would be unhooked and then…
    Luke couldn’t even think of it.
    “Luke.” His mother rose from her chair and threw herself into his arms.
    “Mom. I’m sorry I took so long to get here.” He held her tight and buried his face against the top of her head. The familiar feel and smell of her helped combat the less than comforting atmosphere of the hospital.
    “It’s okay. You’re here now.”
    He glanced over his mother’s head and at his father in the bed. His face was ashen, the sickly color obscuring whatever tan was left over from all the hours the man had spent working out in the sun.
    “What—” Luke’s voice caught in his throat. He cleared it and tried again. “What happened?”
    “He got up early just like he always did to feed the stock. He went into the kitchen and turned on the coffee pot. The next thing I heard was something crashing. By the time I got to the kitchen, he was lying on the floor with the chair on top of him. He must—” his mother’s voice cracked, “—must have grabbed for it when he started to fall. I called the ambulance right away. Then I called the Collins’s house.”
    “But why did he fall? What caused it?” A strong man like his father didn’t faint or just collapse for no good reason.
    “The doctor said it was a brain aneurism.”
    He still didn’t know exactly what that meant or what they could have done to avoid it. All Luke knew was that his father never looked so