There was no way Chloe could compete with her very attractive stepsister.
A few minutes later she had finished. Before she left, she couldn’t help a glance Grady’s way. But his entire attention was on his brother. So she made a notation on Ben’s chart then left.
Dr. Schuster stood by the nurses’ station, but he looked up when she came near.
“Chloe. Just the person I need to talk to.” His grim expression made her apprehensive.
She swallowed down her nervousness. “What do you need?”
Dr. Schuster tugged at his moustache, then steered her toward a small room just off the nurses’ station. “I had hoped to do this in my office, but I don’t have time.” Another tug on his moustache. “I’m sorry to tell you this, Chloe. But I just got the word that I have to cut back on the budget. I know I promised you a job for longer than this, but I’m afraid I have to let you go. I don’t have much choice.”
“Excuse me?” Chloe wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “I’ve lost my job?”
“The position was only temporary,” he reminded her.
“For a year.” She fought down her rising panic, trying to maintain a professional attitude, trying not to sound as though she was pleading. “I need this job, Dr. Schuster.”
Her life had been turned upside down the past four months. She had counted on this year to catch her breath, make other plans.
“I’m sorry, Chloe. You’re a hard worker and I’d love to keep you. We could certainly use a fully staffed physical therapy department. But it’s not going to happen. Sorry.”
“When do I leave?”
“I’ll pay out your two weeks’ salary, but Friday will be your last day.” He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and left.
Chloe leaned back against the wall, fighting down an unwelcome urge to cry. Silly hormones, she thought, closing her eyes and breathing slowly.
Help me, Lord, she prayed. Help me get through this.
The prayer had been her constant refrain the past year. Each time she felt that she had caught her balance, life spun her around again.
She covered her face with her hands, pulled in a wavering breath, then slowly released it.
“Are you okay?”
Mamie Stillwater’s concerned voice behind her made her straighten and force a smile to her face before turning around. “I’m fine,” she assured the elderly woman, still holding Cody, who slept again. “I’m just fine. Just tired. How’s Cody?”
“He’s tired, too.” Mamie gave her a careful look. “I better get back to see how Ben is. You take care of yourself, okay?” She patted her on the shoulder with one thin hand, then trudged away, her own shoulders stooped, as if carrying Cody was more than she could bear, either.
Chloe gave herself a few more moments to compose herself. But as she walked past Ben’s room, she glanced sideways only to catch Grady looking directly at her. She gave him a wan smile, then carried on. She had one more patient and then she was done for the day.
And where was she supposed to go after that? How was she going to take care of her child on her own? Jeremy had disappeared after he found out she was pregnant, disavowed any interest in her or her child, and she hadn’t been able to find him. Nor did she have the energy right now.
Help me, Lord, was all she managed as she made her way to the next patient’s room.
* * *
“Boy, does it smell bad in here.”
Grady cringed as Vanessa’s shrill voice echoed down the hallway of the barn.
“You in here, Grady? I need to talk to you. I’m not coming in.”
“Will you excuse me a moment?” Grady said to the three young girls standing by the doorway of one of the horse stalls. “I need to speak with Vanessa.”
Maddy Coles, Lynne James and Christie Markham were part of the Future Ranchers program his brother, Ben, had initiated to help high school students get extra credit. They came to the ranch whenever they could to work with the horses and to assist with their training and care.
“Do you want me to clean out the stalls?” Maddy asked, grabbing a fork from the wall.
“That would be good. Start with Apollo. Lynne and Christy, you can go outside and get Bishop, Shiloh and Chief in. Saul said he wanted to check their hooves when he comes here. I’ll be right back.”
The girls nodded and Maddy, eager as ever to work, stepped into the first stall.
Grady hurried down the alleyway, the thump of his crutch on the wooden floor echoing through the cavernous horse barn. A chill wind whistled toward him as he neared the open door where Vanessa stood, her winter coat wrapped around her, her mouth turned down in a grimace of disgust.
“I don’t know what’s nastier, the weather out here or the stink in there.” She waved her hand delicately in front of her face as if to dispel the scent.
“What can I do for you?” Grady asked.
“First off, Mamie wants you to come to the house. She’s not feeling that great and Cody has been crying the past half hour.”
“And you can’t take care of him?”
“I told you. Hire that nanny back. I’m headed to Austin. I’ve got a fitting for a dress I ordered. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Grady could only stare at her, the suspicions that had been hovering in the back of his mind growing stronger each moment he spent with her. “So you’re leaving your son with his great-grandmother?”
Vanessa shrugged. “I don’t have time for this. I have to go.” She turned and hurried off, her high-heeled boots slipping in the snow that had fallen overnight.
Grady watched her go, heaving out a sigh. He shouldn’t have pushed her. He blamed his lapse on the steady pain in his leg and the headaches he’d been fighting the past two days. He took a deep breath and worked his way back to Maddy and the other girls. After giving them instructions for work that would keep them busy for the next hour, he hobbled back to the house to help his grandmother.
Cody’s heart-rending wails were the first thing he heard when he stepped in the house.
He shucked off his coat, banged the packed snow off the bottom of his crutch, then, moving as fast as he could, followed the little boy’s cries. He had trouble negotiating the stairs, Cody’s distress adding to his own growing panic. He burst into the nursery, hurried to the crib, his ears hurting from the noise the little boy emitted.
Where was his grandmother?
He set aside his crutch and grabbed the tiny, upset bundle of baby. Cody arched his back, his fists batting the air, screeching with eyes scrunched shut as Grady tried to lift him out of the crib.
Grady wobbled on his feet, trying to hold the squirming child. Cody turned away again, screaming even louder, and Grady lost his footing.
He was going down.
He twisted, shifting his center of balance so that Cody would land on top of him.
Excruciating pain drilled through Grady’s thigh, up his back and into his head as he landed hard on his bad leg. Cody let out another squawk.
Grady rode out the waves of agony, breathing slowly, then he lifted his head to see Cody staring at him, finally quiet. Thankfully he was unhurt.
“Grady. What happened?” Grandma Mamie burst into the room and hurried to Grady’s side, taking Cody from him. “How did you fall? Are you okay?”
Grady sucked in