A Family For The Soldier

“Funny how nothing’s disappeared from this place, though,” Vanessa said with a sly look. “Maybe the thieves are those kids you’ve got working on that, what is it, ranchers something or other?”

“Future Ranchers program,” Grady said, shooting her a warning look. “And you might want to watch what you say about the girls we’ve got helping here. The Markham sisters’ ranch has been hit, as well.”

“But that Maddy Coles. I mean, she’s a foster kid. She probably has all kind of weird friends.”

“That’s enough,” Grady snapped, angry at her allegations, then frustrated at his shortness with her.

Too many things were happening at once, he thought. His brother, Ben, in the hospital, Vanessa and her ever-changing insinuations, all the upheaval the thefts had caused in the community.

Seeing Chloe hadn’t helped his equilibrium, either. He’d thought hearing about her marriage would ease away the feelings he still harbored, but now she had come back to Little Horn. Single and as attractive as ever.

He felt a clutch of pain in his leg and all thoughts of Chloe vanished with it. He wasn’t the man he used to be and he had nothing to offer any woman. He shot a glance at Vanessa. Especially not with someone like her entangled in his life.

“What puzzles me is all the things other people are receiving,” Grandma said. “The new saddles at Ruby’s, the cattle at the Derrings’ and the clothes for their foster children. It’s all very nice and generous, but it’s puzzling.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind getting some of the stuff being handed out.” Vanessa tossed the magazine aside then stood in front of Grady and held out the little boy, who had woken up again and was stirring in her arms. “Can you take him? I’m tired. Didn’t sleep a wink last night.”

Grady hadn’t slept much, either, but he said nothing. Instead, he set his coffee on a nearby table and took him from Vanessa. Cody stared up at him with bright eyes and gurgled his pleasure, and Grady felt a tug on his heart. He was such a cute little guy.

“I think you should see about getting that Eva chick back, that nanny you hired,” Vanessa said. “I don’t think I can take care of this little boy by myself.”

Then she sauntered off before Grady could say anything more.

When she was out of earshot his grandmother got up and sat down beside Grady, letting Cody grab her finger with his. “I wish we could hire Eva again, but she’s married now and I want to give her time to concentrate on her husband and married life. I wish I knew what to do.”

“We will take care of him,” Grady said firmly. “He’s a Stillwater. Our flesh and blood. Our responsibility.”

But even as he spoke the brave words, he felt a tremor of apprehension. Ben lay in a coma. He had his own injuries to contend with. His grandmother was getting on in years.

If Vanessa wasn’t stepping up, what would Cody’s future look like? Grady knew getting married wasn’t in the picture for him, so he couldn’t count on creating any kind of family for Cody.

His thoughts, unexpectedly, drifted to Chloe. Her warm smile, as generous as always. Her easy nature.

He pushed them aside as irrelevant. He would never be marriage material.

His mother hadn’t been able to live with an injured man; how could he expect Chloe to?

Chapter Two

“Got a new patient for you. Is Salma here?”

Chloe looked up from the makeshift desk she had been given in one corner of the physical therapy department at the doctor standing in front of her. With his droopy moustache and thick eyebrows, Dr. Schuster looked as though he should be riding the range rather than diagnosing and treating patients. Dr. Schuster had taken advantage of this impression and adopted an aw-shucks attitude that put many of his patients at ease.

However, right now he looked anything but as he tapped the file he held against his other hand, the frown on his face giving her cause for concern.

“She’s gone for lunch. Can I help you?”

“I thought she would be around.”

“You look worried. Is it a difficult case?”

“I’ve got other things on my mind,” he said. “But this patient does bother me. He said he doesn’t need therapy.”

“Do you want me to talk to him?” Chloe asked, not sure she could make a difference, but sometimes another voice helped.

“You mean turn on that Miner charm?” Dr. Schuster joked. Then he shook his head. “No. I can’t ask that of you.”

“It’s my stepsister who has all the charm,” Chloe returned. Ever since yesterday when Vanessa had shown up with her arm hooked in Grady’s, grinning that smug Cheshire smile, Chloe had struggled with envy and frustration. So often in the years after Vanessa’s mother had married Chloe’s widowed and grieving father, Chloe had wished she and Vanessa could be close. As an only child she had looked forward to having a sister.

Instead, Vanessa had been difficult and contrary, trying at every opportunity to either discredit Chloe or treat her with contempt.

“Vanessa definitely has a certain appeal.” Dr. Schuster’s smile deepened. “She’s been the talk of the town since she descended on the party last month claiming to be Cody’s mother. But I doubt she has as much staying power as you.”

“Words to make a girl’s heart go pitty-pat,” Chloe said in a dry tone and held her hand out for the file. “Who is the reluctant patient?”

“Another Stillwater. Grady.”

And now Chloe’s heart did, in fact, go pitty-pat. And then some. She took the folder from Dr. Schuster and opened it, scanning the contents, trying to maintain her distance.

“This patient will need quite a bit of time spent with him.” Chloe flipped through the file, shifting into professional mode. “He’ll need to get started sooner, rather than later, if he wants to regain full mobility.”

“He only arrived Friday, last week,” Dr. Schuster said. “He came to see me yesterday on the recommendation of his surgeon in the army.”

“Okay. I’ll contact Mr. Stillwater. See what I can do.”

“Good. Great. Make sure you let Salma know, as well. I suspect once you get Grady cooperating, as senior therapist she’ll be doing most of the work.”

Chloe understood this, but worried that Dr. Schuster thought she wasn’t as competent as Salma. He looked as if he wanted to say more, then left, his lab coat flaring out behind him as he hurried off.

Clearly in a rush, Chloe thought, setting the file aside.

She had hoped to talk to him. Tell him about her personal situation. Guess it would have to be another time.

There were no other visitors in Ben’s room when she got there, and the only sound was the faint hissing of his oxygen, the steady beeps of the monitors. “I suppose you’ve heard about all the happenings in and around the county,” she said to him while she got him ready for his exercises. Talking to patients while she worked was part of the therapy. “Thefts and unexpected gifts and all sorts of stuff. Kind of crazy. So far, though, nothing from your place, so that’s good, I guess. And now your brother is back.” Chloe’s smile faded as she did a series of hip flexions and abductions, thinking of Grady.

“You know everyone says you look the same. I can see some minor differences,” she continued. “Grady’s eyelashes are thicker. Hope that doesn’t bother you, though I can’t imagine either of you could care about that. And his one eyebrow slants off to one side. I think he’s a bit taller. Maybe because of his army training. Makes him stand up straighter.”

A cough behind her caught her attention and she flushed, suddenly self-conscious about her chatter as Mamie Stillwater entered the room holding a sleeping Cody, a large quilted diaper bag hooked over her narrow shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Mamie said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“I’m just doing Ben’s exercises,” Chloe murmured, thankful she hadn’t said anything more.

“Do you mind if Cody and I watch?”

“Not at all.” Chloe felt a stirring in her soul at the sight of the little boy, so innocent, his rosy cheeks begging to be touched. Vanessa and Grady’s son. The thought hurt her more than it should.

At least this child has two parents. As opposed to mine.

She tried to fight the thought down. I’ll do the best I can, she reminded herself, thinking of the child she carried. At four and a half months, she thankfully wasn’t showing yet, so she hadn’t told anyone. Not even her close friend Lucy. She was too ashamed. Sooner or later, however, she would have to tell the hospital administration, and then everyone else.

Mamie dropped the diaper bag on an empty chair by the window, shifted the sleeping baby in her arms and stood on the opposite side of Ben, her free hand resting on his head while Chloe did some hamstring stretches.

“You’ve been doing this awhile?” Mamie asked, fingering Ben’s hair away from his face.

“About two years. It took me six to get my degree.”

“And you came back here...”

“I was offered this job.” Part-time and only temporary, she’d been told, but she’d wanted to come back to Little Horn badly enough that she took the chance it might turn into full-time work.

“I was sorry to hear about your father,” Mamie said.

“So was I.” Chloe had made a visit seven months ago for her father’s funeral, then returned to Fort Worth and Jeremy.

How much had changed since then, she thought.

Her father’s ranch had been sold, barely paying off the debts incurred against it from his accident, and Jeremy had started divorce proceedings once he’d found out she was pregnant.

She had felt rootless and lost. Taking this job had become her way of finding her footing.

Chloe moved to work on Ben’s arm when the rhythmic thump of a crutch on the floor gave her another start. Grady had arrived.

She pressed her lips together, sent up a prayer for strength and continued working.

“Good morning, Chloe,” he said, his deep voice creating an unwelcome shiver of awareness. She gave him a nod, her cheeks warming as he made his way around the bed. He wavered, catching the rail of the bed to steady himself. He wasn’t wearing his brace today, she noticed.

“Are you okay?” his grandmother asked.

“I’m fine.” His curt voice and the clench of his jaw told Chloe he wasn’t fine at all. She guessed his hip was causing him trouble, as was his knee. From what she’d read in his file, he’d been shot in the thigh, damaging many muscle groups and compromising the ligaments of his knee. “Do you want me to hold Cody?” Grady asked.

“He’s okay. And Chloe said we could stay while she does therapy with Ben,” Mamie said in a falsely bright voice. “It’s interesting to watch her work. She’s very capable.”

“I understand from Dr. Schuster that you’ll be coming to visit me in the physical therapy department,” Chloe said, piggybacking on what Mamie was saying.

“I doubt it,” Grady muttered, the tightness around his mouth another indication of the pain he dealt with. “I don’t have time with everything at the ranch falling on my shoulders now. And this little guy.” He glanced down at Cody, touched his chubby cheek with one finger, and Chloe’s heart hitched at the warmth of his smile. This man would make a good father.

Was a good father, she corrected herself.

“Plus I’ve got Ben and the Future Ranchers program he started at the ranch to keep me busy,” he continued. I don’t have time to run around for appointments that won’t make a difference.”

“But if you don’t take care of the low mobility in your knee and hip, you could be facing chronic pain later on,” Chloe suggested.

Grady shot her a frown, as if he didn’t appreciate what she had to say.

“As a physical therapist, I feel I must warn you the pain you are dealing with now will only worsen with lack of treatment.” Chloe manipulated Ben’s fingers, half her attention on helping the one brother while she tried to convince the other to accept what she could do for him.

“The pain isn’t that bad.” He dismissed her comment with a wave of his hand. “I know my dad managed through his. Your dad, as well. Just have to cowboy up.”

Chloe kept her comment about that to herself. She didn’t know everything about his father and care. However, she still maintained that, in the case of her own father, if he had received proper care and treatment, he would have been better able to do his work. “Being tough only gets you so far,” she carried on. “Your injuries will, however, only cause you more problems with lack of immediate care.”

She stopped then, sensing she was selling herself too hard. Grady looked as though he didn’t believe her. Didn’t or wouldn’t—she wasn’t sure which was uppermost.

“Are you working here full-time?” Mamie asked, stroking a strand of hair back from Ben’s forehead, shifting to another topic.

“I am here as a part-time, temporary worker.” Speaking the words aloud made her even more aware of her tenuous situation.

“Where will you go after this?”

Chloe shrugged, working with Ben’s fingers, stretching and manipulating, not sure she wanted to talk about her hopes and dreams to start up a dedicated physical therapy clinic in town. Finding out how little was left after settling her father’s estate had put that dream out of reach.

“There are other opportunities in Denton or Fort Worth, I’m sure.” Opportunities she had passed up when she’d taken this job. She wasn’t a city person. Coming back to Little Horn had filled an emptiness that had grown with each day she was away.

“I see.” Mamie held her eyes, nodding slowly, as if her mind was elsewhere.

“I need to work on Ben’s other leg and arm,” Chloe said, setting Ben’s hand down beside his still body. “So I’ll have to ask you to come over to this side of the bed.”

Just as Chloe came around the end of the bed, Cody whimpered, opened his eyes and started to cry.

“I should get something for him to eat,” Mamie said, jiggling him as she dug through the large diaper bag she had been carrying. She looked over at Chloe as Cody’s cries increased. “I’m sorry to ask, but can you hold him a moment?”

“Of course.”

“I can take him.” Grady shifted himself so he had his hands free.

But Mamie had already set Cody in Chloe’s arms.

She held the wiggling bundle of sorrow. His cries eased into hiccups. His dark brown eyes, still shining with tears, honed in on Chloe’s.

A peculiar motherly feeling washed over her. This little boy, so sweet, so precious. She cuddled him close and he quieted as he lay his head against her shoulder.

“You have a way with him,” Mamie said, pulling a jar of baby food out of the diaper bag. “Just like his previous nanny, my niece, Eva, did.”

“He is a sweetie,” Chloe murmured, rocking him to keep him quiet.

“I can take him back now,” Mamie said, taking the boy from her. “I should find a place I can heat this up.”

“There’s a microwave at the nurses’ station I’m sure you can use,” Chloe said, walking to the sink in Ben’s room to wash her hands again.

Mamie walked out, leaving Grady and Chloe alone. She moved to the other side of Ben’s bed and started with his leg exercises.

“Does that do anything?” Grady asked. “I mean, he’s not participating.”

“No, but it’s important we keep his abductors flexed, his hamstrings from pulling.” Chloe glanced over at Grady, disconcerted to see him staring at her. She dragged her attention back to her patient. “It’s a type of stimulation, as well. And if we don’t do these exercises, his muscles will seize up and when he gets out of the coma, he will have a much longer recovery ahead of him.”

“You said when.”

Chloe glanced up from Ben, thinking of the theories of coma patients being able, on a subliminal level, to hear what was said around their bed.

“I said when and I mean when,” she said, her voice firm. “He will come out of this. We just have to do what we can for him while we wait.”

Grady sat down in the chair, setting his crutch aside. “I like the sound of when. I have things I need to settle with my brother. Ben and I... Well, we had words before I left.”

“A fight?”

“A disagreement about his lifestyle,” Grady said. “I want to make it right.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Chloe saw Grady drag his hand over his face. He looked exhausted. She was sure some of it was the burdens he carried, in addition to the pain.

“Then, this is a chance for you to talk to him,” Chloe said, picking up Ben’s arm and stretching it gently above his head. “A chance for you to tell him what you feel. Tell him how you care for him.”

“So you think he can hear me?”

“I’d like to think he can.” Chloe gave him a gentle smile. “Sometimes talking aloud can be as much for yourself as for him.”

Grady nodded, then looked up at her, his expression growing serious. “You think it will help?”

“Confession is good for the soul,” she said.

“In that case, I’ll wait until you’re gone. I don’t want you hearing all my deep, dark secrets.”

“You have those?” And how did that semiflirty note get in her voice?

“Don’t you?”

She held his gaze a split-second longer than she should have, thinking of the last time she and Jeremy had been together and the repercussions of that. The child she now carried.

She had no right to talk this way to him. No right at all.

“If you’re referring to Cody’s parentage, I feel I need to tell you, he’s not my son. At all.” His gaze locked on hers, suddenly intense.

“He’s not?”

“No.”

Chloe seemed surprised and yet, at the same time, pleased that he wanted her to know.

“So why is Vanessa—” she stopped herself. She almost asked him why Vanessa was acting as if she had some claim on Grady, but it was none of her business.

Yet he seemed to think she needed to know. A tiny finger of awareness trickled down her neck. Was he trying to tell her something else?

She pushed it away as she returned to working on Ben. He was simply concerned about his reputation, that was all. Besides, it seemed that Vanessa, in spite of Grady not being Cody’s father, seemed to have laid her claim on Grady.

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.