but she’ll definitely need to lay a new driveway. And the well. She’s trying to get that running again today.”
“My God. And everyone’s okay?”
Nate ignored his own battle scars. Mitch had switched to father mode. He wanted to hear about his daughter and grandson. Nate quoted the words she’d told him time and again, even if he hadn’t always believed them. “Jolene and the baby are fine.”
After a quick accounting of their patients at the Rock-a-Bye, and a status report on his three friends and fellow volunteers from Courage Bay, Nate needed Mitch to be a father again. Sitting up straight in his seat, as if facing the man himself, Nate put forth a proposition. “When we get back to town, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you, Mitch. I’d be curious to know whether you’d be interested in hiring a paramedic to help Turning Point get back on its feet until your doctor comes back. Or even to stay on full-time.”
Mitch’s ravaged voice was succinct, revealing a bit of curiosity and suspicion. “You want to move to Turning Point?”
Technically, he wanted to move to a ranch a few miles west of Turning Point. But he wasn’t going to ask Jolene’s father that kind of question over the radio. Out loud he answered, “Yeah. There’s something about Texas that’s growing on me. And I imagine you’ll be short-staffed for a while.”
“I’ll think about it. We’ll talk later.” That was the boss’s answer. But Mitch had to make one last fatherly check. Nate respected the man for it. “Everything’s all right with Jolene, isn’t it? I mean, she’s…happy?…With your decision?”
“I haven’t really discussed it with her yet.”
“I see. Well, I expect my daughter to be safe and happy before we talk about that job.”
Nate understood the underlying message. He wouldn’t be particularly amenable to anyone who hurt Jolene, either. “Yes, sir.” He looked through the cracked windshield and took note of the sun turning into a bright orange ball as it sank toward the western horizon. “I’d better get back to the ranch. She seems to have a penchant for getting herself into situations when no one’s keeping an eye on her.”
Mitch laughed, the tension eased. “You are getting to know my daughter. Good luck, son.”
Nate signed off the radio and turned off the engine. It was time to saddle Checker and go home.
Go home. Nate wasn’t thinking California or the rolling, pristine hills of the Whispering Dawn. He was thinking of a few hundred storm-ravaged acres on the Coastal Plain of southeastern Texas.
He was thinking of the blue-eyed angel who didn’t believe he was coming back.
HE WASN’T COMING BACK.
The sun was setting, dinner—such as it was—was on the table, but he wasn’t coming back.
Jolene wandered through the empty house. She opened the front door, stepped out onto the porch and scanned the southern horizon one more time for any sign of a man on horseback.
No horse. No ball cap. No tight white T-shirt. No Nate.
Only the bellowing cry of Rocky stirring restlessly in his pen. Jolene leaned against a post and watched him walk circles inside the fencing, wondering what he could sense that she could not.
“What’s with you?” she teased, as if that big brute would answer her. “Did you get a whiff of some pretty little heifer walkin’ by?”
Or did he sense his savior and keeper, Nate, approaching?
Jolene turned and looked one more time. No Nate.
With a huffy sigh that sounded as if she cared less than she really did, she went back inside. She’d kept herself busy all day, doing whatever she could to keep herself from thinking about that California cowboy who could break her heart.
The pump needed a new part, but she’d toted and boiled and bottled enough safe water to flood her own tributary. The house was clean, the yard clean, the horses had been out and the dogs had been brushed and spoiled. Sandwiches were made and a can of soup bubbled over the grill.
Now there was nothing to do but wait. And worry.
Since he’d been gone so long, she hoped he had gotten through to Lily’s and wasn’t crawling through a ditch somewhere, trying to limp his way back for help. Maybe he’d arrived at Lily’s, gotten her truck going, found a decent road and made it all the way into town. Maybe he was already saying goodbye to her dad, making an airline reservation, and asking someone else to drive back and rescue her.
“Stop it.” Her imagination wasn’t being fair