Trying not to dwell on those questions, she jerked a container of goat’s milk from the refrigerator and poured a half gallon into a sterilized bottle. After she placed it in a bucket of warm water, she decided to walk down to the end of the barn and clean Josie’s stall while she waited for the milk to heat.
At least the little girl calf had become a bright spot in Laurel’s life. This past week she’d been eating voraciously and packing on weight. She was feeling so good, in fact, that she was bucking and racing around the small stall, especially when she saw Laurel coming with breakfast and dinner.
“Okay, Josie!” she sang out as she approached the calf pen. “Here I come.”
Expecting to hear the rustle of straw, she was surprised when no sound greeted her. At this age, Josie did sleep a lot, but she was always awake at dinnertime.
“Josie?” She passed through the gate and into the stall, then suddenly stopped in shock. “Oh! Oh, no!”
The calf was lying stretched on its side, and from her long experience with animals, Laurel could quickly detect the little heifer wasn’t asleep—it was in distress.
Cold fear washed over her as she raced over to the animal and collapsed to her knees. Josie was still breathing, but her respiration was rapid and there appeared to be some sort of white froth around her mouth.
Oh God, oh God, she prayed. Don’t let my little girl die!
Her hands shaking violently, she jerked out her phone and punched Russ’s number. He answered it after the second ring, and her voice was breaking with sobs as she tried to speak.
“Russ, please come quick! Josie—something is wrong. Hurry, please!”
“Laramie and I have just returned to the ranch yard. I’ll be right in.”
In less than a minute, he was striding into the stall with his medical bag in hand, and though she wanted to throw herself sobbing against his chest, she swallowed down her tears and forced her work experience to take control.
“When did this happen?” he asked quickly as he knelt over the animal.
“I just found her like this. I was getting her bottle ready and came down to clean her pen.”
“Have you noticed any scouring today?” he asked as he quickly checked the heifer’s eyes and nose and beneath her tail.
“No. She hasn’t had scours at any time. The goat’s milk has totally agreed with her.”
He pulled out a stethoscope and listened to several spots on Josie’s side. While he continued to examine the calf, Laurel checked the small water trough. “The water looks clean and fresh,” she told him.
“Collect a sample of it,” he instructed. “I want to test it and the goat’s milk for bacteria. But first I want to get her started on an IV.”
He rattled off the medications he needed, and Laurel hurried to the treatment room to collect them. By the time she returned with the bag, he’d already drawn several blood samples and affixed a needle to the animal. Now he quickly attached the tubing and adjusted the flow of fluids.
As Laurel hovered nearby, she wanted to throw several questions at him. Mainly, would the baby live? But she kept them bottled inside. Her job wasn’t to distract the doctor with questions he might not be able to answer; it was to assist him and be an extension of his capable hands.
Biting down on her lip, she looked away and blinked at the hot moisture in her eyes. Getting attached to an animal was a no-no. It was one of the first things she’d learned when she’d started working at Russ’s clinic. But Josie was different. She was a twin that had been separated from her sister and mother, just as Laurel had been separated from hers. Foolish or not, she’d seen herself in the little heifer and had instinctively become its mother. Now it looked as though she might lose Josie, too.
Russ straightened to his full height and looked at Laurel. “I’m going to the treatment room to have a look at the blood. Have you noticed the calf staggering or going around in a circle?”
“No. But a few hours have passed from the last time I looked in on her until now. Why? Do you think she might have the same thing as the sick cows from the mountain herd?”
“I see some similarities. Hopefully the blood will give me some clues. Right now I can’t tell you straight out that she’s going to live. I’ll do everything I can. It’s going to depend on how she responds to treatment.”
Laurel swallowed hard as emotions formed a hot ball in her throat. “Is there— What can I do for her now?”
“Nothing. I want you to go home.”
Her chin jutted forward. “No! I’m not leaving her.”
“You’re as pale as a sheet and about to drop.” After picking up his bag, he walked over to where she stood. “Laurel, you don’t have to tell me how you feel about Josie. But I want you to rest. I’ll take care of your little girl. Trust me.”
“I’ll come back tonight and stay with her.”
He shook his head. “You’ll stay away from this barn until the morning,” he ordered. “If anything changes I’ll let you know.”
As she swiped a hand over her face, she realized she was too drained and weary to argue. “Okay. I’ll do what you say.” She lifted her gaze to his. “And I’m sorry for getting emotional.”
His features softened as he curved a hand tightly over her shoulder. “Oh, Laurel,” he said gently, “you don’t have to apologize to me for having a heart. Not this time.”
He understood, she thought. Really understood! And suddenly her heart was swelling, filling with a love that was so deep and intense she was stunned by it.
“Thank you, Russ.” She kissed him on the cheek and hurried out of the barn.
* * *
At home Laurel tried to make herself rest, but she ended up pacing restlessly through the house until bedtime. Then, once she’d gone to bed, she’d tossed from one side of the mattress to the other.
Her mind refused to shut down long enough to get one minute’s sleep. Something had happened to her when she’d found Josie sick. Suddenly she’d been thrown back to her childhood and she was seeing Lainey sick and dying, her mother packing and walking out the door, and her father unable to give her any kind of emotional support.
And then Russ had walked into the stall, and just the sight of him had been like a steadying hand, a rock when everything else was falling to pieces. At that moment it had struck her that he was a man who would never crumble or leave. He would be there to hold her hand, to keep her standing through anything and everything. Why had it taken her so long to realize this? Why had she been trying to run away from the man instead of running to him?
Now she desperately wanted to be with Russ and little Josie. She wanted to tell them how much she loved them. Hopefully it wasn’t too late with Russ. As for Josie, she could only pray that he could make her well again.
At midnight she checked her phone for messages. There was one from Russ that simply read, Unchanged. After that, she tried to doze, but every few minutes she would jerk away and glance at her phone.
By five o’clock that morning, she could stand it no longer. She jerked on jeans, pulled a flannel shirt over a thermal top and tied her hair in a ponytail. Once she’d fed her pets, she hurried outside to her truck and headed down the mountain.
During the past week the weather had warmed considerably and melted all the snow. As a result the roads were muddy, and each time Laurel tried to speed up, the truck would slip and slide.
Finally the ranch yard came in view, and though it was still dark, she could see a thick curl of smoke coming from the bunkhouse chimney. Two cowboys were loading feed sacks onto a flatbed truck, while a row of saddled horses were already tethered and waiting at a hitching post.
As she passed the horses, she slackened her speed, then gunned the truck on to the treatment barn. Once she parked and leaped out of the truck, she didn’t bother going to the office to see if anyone was there. Instead, she trotted to the end of the building where a door would lead her close to Josie’s little pen.
Terrified at what she might find, sh
e drew in a deep, bracing breath before she stepped inside the barn. But as she moved forward, a sense of peace came over her. No matter what happened with Josie, she thought, she could bear it, because Russ would be with her.
Squaring her shoulders, she walked from the shadowy alleyway and toward the glow of dim light pooling over the calf’s pen. As she grew closer, she tried to peer over the board fence, but it was too tall for her to see anything. Or maybe nothing was inside, she thought. Maybe Josie had died and Russ had already taken her somewhere.
Opening the gate, Laurel stepped inside the pen, then stopped short at the sight before her. Russ was sitting on the straw, his legs stretched out in front of him, his back resting against the board fence. Josie was lying against his outer thigh, her nose partially propped upon his knee.
Beneath the brim of Russ’s hat, she could see his eyes were closed. As for Josie, she appeared to be breathing at a normal, restful rate.
Moving over to them, she lowered herself to the straw and gently touched Russ’s shoulder. His eyes immediately flew open and focused on her face. As Laurel gazed back at him, the warmth of her love glowed in her eyes.
“Laurel. What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice gruff with sleep. “I told you to stay away until morning.”
“You must have slept for a while, because it’s nearly daylight,” she told him.
“I remember Gus stopping by sometime in the night and then I must have fallen asleep.”
Suddenly remembering the calf at his side, Russ quickly grabbed the stethoscope that was already resting around his neck and fastened it to his ears. Laurel watched anxiously as he carefully listened to Josie’s heart and lungs and digestive sounds.
When he finally lifted his head and pulled the instrument from his ears, he looked at Laurel with faint amazement. “It’s hard to believe, but she’s much, much better.”
Hope blossomed on Laurel’s face. “Oh, Russ, does that mean she’s going to survive?”
“She’s made it through the worst of it and turned the corner. I can’t see her taking a back step now.”
Stemming the urge to squeal with joy, she looked at him through a haze of happy tears. “I love you, Russ Hollister.”
The puzzled frown on his face was almost comical. “What did you say?”
“I said, I love you, Russ Hollister,” she repeated.
Easing away from the calf, he grabbed her hands and quickly drew both of them to a standing position.
“Are you saying this because of Josie? Because you’re grateful to me for saving her?”
She met his gaze with a confidence she’d never felt in her life. “This has nothing to do with Josie. Although I am very grateful that you’re getting her well. I’m saying this because I’ve come to realize that hiding from the truth won’t fix things or save me from being hurt. This thing with Josie has made me see that life is always going to be filled with disappointments, losses and trials.” She lifted her hand to his face and wondered why it had taken so long to find the courage to open her heart and let him truly come in. “Before, I had always believed that if I was ever faced with another situation like Lainey’s, I couldn’t hold up to it. I believed I had used up all my emotional strength on her and would run away from the problem like my mother had.”
Groaning, he pulled her into the tight, loving circle of his arms. “Laurel, you are a strong woman. You prove it every day. Working in this business, at my side, you’ve gone through plenty of heart-wrenching situations. You’ve always stood strong. You’ve never broken down or run away. I’ve always been proud of you, Laurel, and I love you. Very, very much.”
“Russ. My love.”
He was kissing her when she felt something nudging the side of her leg. Pulling her mouth from Russ’s, she looked down, then yelped with surprise.
“Russ, look! It’s Josie. She’s standing! She’s telling her mommy she wants her milk.”
Laughing, he smacked a quick kiss on her lips, then released his hold on her. “Okay. I’ll forgive her for the interruption this time. Go fix her bottle, and after she has her breakfast, we’ll have ours. Then you and I have a lot of planning to do.”
Happiness shining in her smile, she gave him one last kiss, then, leaving the stall, she called back over her shoulder. “Maybe we can talk Reena into making us some bacon and eggs. I want—”
Her words were suddenly cut short as her head begin to whirl and a rushing noise exploded in her ears. She thought she heard Russ calling her name right before she crumpled onto the straw in a dead faint.
When Laurel woke a few minutes later, she was on the couch in Russ’s office. As her eyes focused, she realized he was bending over her, his face full of concern.
“What happened?” she asked groggily. “I remember getting dizzy and then my legs went all mushy.”
“You fainted. And I’m taking you to the hospital to be checked out.”
His announcement was enough to push her straight up to a sitting position. “No! Josie needs feeding and—”
“Maccoy just brought in a pail of fresh milk. He’s going to take care of Josie’s feeding,” he assured her.
“Well, I’m fine now. You’re a doctor. You can see for yourself that my vitals are back on track.”
“Your vitals are clearly on the mend,” he agreed. “But something caused you to faint. To keep you healthy, we need to know the reason.”
She anchored her hands on his broad shoulders. “Russ, what if I have Lainey’s blood disease?”
“Don’t think in those terms, darling. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it together.”
Days ago she might have panicked at the idea of being seriously ill. But not now. Not with Russ at her side. “I’m not worried,” she told him. “Kissing you would cause any girl to faint.”
Smiling, he scooped her up in his arms. “We’ll put that theory to the test later.”
* * *
More than two hours later, Russ sat in the Sierra General emergency room and thought what a cruel twist of fate it would be if something should take Laurel from him now. Now that she’d finally agreed that the two of them should be together.
But he couldn’t allow himself to think in terms of losing. His mother had taught him that real love couldn’t be measured with time. And though he’d felt desperately cheated when Nan Hollister had passed on, so early in his young life, he’d matured beyond that hurt. Instead, he’d grown to realize what a blessing she had been, how she’d guided and encouraged and inspired him to be the man he was today. She’d taught him that love was a precious gift, no matter if a person had it for one day or thousands.
“There he is. Over there—in the black hat.”
At the sound of Laurel’s voice, Russ turned his head to see the love of his life walking toward him with a young, dark-haired nurse strolling close at her side.
Jumping to his feet, he rushed over to the two women. “Laurel, my God, you’ve been back there forever!”
“That’s the way with you damned doctors. You don’t care how long you keep a patient waiting. Especially when she’s starving,” Laurel teased.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to push you out to the curb in a wheelchair, Miss Stanton? We don’t want you to faint again before you have the chance to eat.”
Laurel smiled at the pretty nurse. “Thank you. But Russ will let me lean on him.”
The nurse smiled coyly. “I don’t blame you. He’s much nicer than a cold chair.” She gave Laurel a quick hug and a short wave. “Take care of yourself. And congratulations.”
Russ watched the nurse walk away, then turned a confused look on Laurel. “What did she mean by that? Was she congratulating you for not being sick?”
“Let’s go over here and I’ll explain.” With a hesitant smile, Laurel led him across the wide room to a quiet alcove where no one else was seated. After they were both seated on a green couch, she went on, “I’m not what you’d actually call sick, Russ. Thank God my blood tests are fine. That’
s why it took so long—the doctor wanted to make sure everything looked right. He didn’t have time to do in-depth testing, but he could tell from the initial results that I’m perfectly healthy.”
“Really? Perfectly healthy women fall over in a dead faint?” he asked with skeptical sarcasm. “The man must be a quack!”
Laurel couldn’t stop a laugh from bursting out of her. “Well, the quack just told me I’m pregnant. That’s why I fainted. That, plus the fact that I’ve not eaten in twenty hours!”
Russ’s eyes grew wide with disbelief. “Pregnant! Then you’re not ill?”
Beaming now, Laurel shook her head. “Believe me, it was the last thing I was expecting the doctor to tell me. Like I told you, I take the Pill, but he says if I go back and look I’ll probably find I’ve missed one or took one out of turn. Or he said stress sometimes throws a woman’s cycle so out of kilter, and a pill can’t overcome the change. And God knows I’ve experienced some stress here lately.”
A mixture of relief and concern continued to parade across his face. “But Laurel—you said you didn’t want children. How do you feel about this news?”
She clutched his hands. “I said all of that out of fear, Russ. Before I realized how stupidly I was looking at things. Having your child is— It’s the most wonderful thing I can imagine. I’ve never been so excited or happy in my life.” The smile suddenly fell from her face. “But how do you feel, Russ? We’re not yet married. And I assured you I was protected against pregnancy.”
Suddenly he was laughing a deep, rich laugh that vibrated right through to her soul.
“The baby was meant to be. Just like you and I are meant to have a long, happy life together.”
Epilogue
A month later, the family room in the big Chaparral ranch house was filled with a huge group of family and friends enjoying drinks and appetizers while they waited for dinner to be served. Tonight was a double celebration of sorts. Abe was having his eighty-fifth birthday, while Laurel and Russ had been married for three blissful weeks. And because they’d eloped and gotten married in a beautiful old mission up in Santa Fe, they’d missed out on having a wedding reception with their friends. Tonight’s dual fiesta was meant to make up for that.
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