“Sure was.”
“You must like working with numbers then.”
“I liked a steady paycheck. A married man has to provide.”
“So you didn’t like your job?”
“It was okay. I didn’t hate it. Can’t say I was passionate about taxes or anything, though.”
“So what did you like?” Cory glanced into the rearview mirror. “There must have been something.”
“I had a horse,” the old man said quietly. “I liked the horse.”
They fell into silence, and Eloise settled comfortably into the seat. They were talking, and she felt gratified. Maybe it wasn’t her business, but she was glad to see the old man connecting with his son somehow.
“What kind of horse did you have?” Cory asked.
“Look, no offense, but I’m tired. Talk to her for a bit.”
Cory and Eloise exchanged a look and Eloise smothered a smile. She knew her patient well enough to fully expect his bad humor, but she suspected his son wouldn’t find his cantankerous nature quite so charming.
“You seem in a hurry to get back,” Eloise commented.
He nodded. “Like I said before, calving is a busy time.”
“What happens?”
He eyed her uncertainly. “I get the feeling that you aren’t much of a country girl.”
Eloise shrugged. “I grew up in Billings and moved out here for this position with your father. This is about as rural as I’m used to.”
“I appreciate you coming along. You’re getting me out of a bind.”
“What sorts of injuries should I expect?”
“Sprains, dislocations, cuts and lacerations. Nothing we want to waste time on a hospital visit to get treated. I’ve got fifty-four ranch hands doing everything from cattle wrangling to maintenance and upkeep around the place.”
Soft snoring rumbled from the backseat, and Eloise turned to find Robert sound asleep, his bird-like chest rising and falling.
The fields, fenced by rusty barbed wire, slipped past the window. The highway shot straight through an expanse of fields, the vast landscape dwarfed only by the sky. Huge, boiling cumulus clouds rolled overhead, their shadows slipping silently over the rolling land.
“You said you have a partner at the ranch,” she said, changing the subject.
“Zack.” Cory nodded. “He’s a good friend. When my grandfather passed away, he left the ranch to me and two other cousins. I bought them out, and Zack and his wife, Nora, joined me in running the place. They’re my management team. He’s got a stake in it, of course, but the ranch is mine.” He paused for a moment. “Nora is going to be overjoyed to see you.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
Cory laughed, the sound deep and full. “No, because you’re single and of marriageable age. She’ll try to set us up, you can count on that.”
Eloise felt heat in her cheeks once more. Cory’s gaze lingered on her for a moment before he put his attention back on the road.
“Just don’t take it personally,” he said, “and we should escape unscathed.”
Eloise had to admit that being set up with a handsome cowboy like Cory wasn’t exactly a hardship. She stole a glance in his direction. He tapped a rhythm on the top of the steering wheel, his expression relaxed.
“And what’s kept you single all these years?” Eloise asked.
Cory raised his eyebrows. He took a deep breath. “I haven’t been single this whole time. I was engaged once.”
Eloise eyed him curiously. She’d assumed he was the type who didn’t want to be tied down. She’d come across that kind one too many times in her life, and she found herself pleasantly surprised that Cory wasn’t one of that motley crew.
“What happened?”
“It didn’t work out.”
“Why not?” Eloise knew she was pressing, but he knew the worst about her relationship, so it only seemed fair.
“She left me at the altar.”
“Ouch.” Eloise winced. “Did she explain at all?”
“She left a letter back at the house. She said she couldn’t live the ranch life after all. She wanted to see what the city had to offer her, and I wasn’t that flexible. We wanted different things, it turned out.”
Eloise nodded. She could understand that well enough. Sometimes when a couple both wanted the same thing—like a baby—and it didn’t happen, the results could be equally disastrous.
Cory shrugged. “It’s not that easy to handle a ranching life. My fiancée grew up on a farm, so she was no stranger to hard work.”
“I guess she was no stranger to bad timing, either,” Eloise muttered.
Cory laughed. “It was better that she did it before the wedding, much as that hurt.”
“So what happened to her?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from her since.”
“When was that?”
“About five years ago.”
They drove in silence for some time, the flat expanse slipping past as the miles clicked by on the odometer.
“I guess we all have our painful pasts,” Eloise said quietly.
The window into Cory’s past had closed. Eloise watched him surreptitiously. His dark gaze moved over the landscape, his jaw tense.
Is he thinking about the woman who left him?
She wouldn’t blame him. When she was a teenager, she could eventually heal from a broken heart and move on with optimism for the future, but wedding vows had greater weight, and they took more with them when they tore free. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said that a married couple became one flesh. They didn’t separate without a lot of pain and some deep scars.
In the backseat, her patient shifted, then shifted again.
“Robert, are you all right?” Eloise asked, turning.
Mr. Bessler’s eyes fluttered open. “A little sore. I’m okay.”
“Scale of one to ten?”
“Fourteen.”
“Cory, could we stop at the next rest area?” she asked. “It might help.”
He nodded. “For sure. There’s a diner coming up in about five minutes.”
“Will that work?” Eloise asked.
Mr. Bessler nodded, his lips pale. “Yes. Thank you.”
As Eloise took his pills out of her bag and cracked open a bottle of water, she hoped that this trip wouldn’t be too much for the old man. As much as he could benefit from the new scenery, change of any kind was exhausting, especially for a terminal patient.
Cory’s brow furrowed and he pressed a little more heavily on the gas pedal.
He cares.
That little fact alone eased some of her worry.
* * *
After a stop at the diner for lunch, they drove on for another hour. The truck sped over a gravel country road, dust billowing up behind them. Eloise settled back in the seat, listening to the upbeat jangle of a country