Her Favorite Cowboy

“Do you know if he’s suffering from any blood sugar problems?” Cori asked Gage as she clocked the man’s pulse. She could feel his tremors as she held on to his wrist. He also seemed anxious and nervous, but that could be from what had to be an embarrassing situation.

Gage hesitated as Cori looked to him for an easy answer. His grandfather was breathing too fast, which would only make him dizzy.

“I don’t know.”

“He’s your grandfather. Do you know anything about his health?”

“No. Not really.”

His statements took her by surprise, especially since he’d claimed to want to spend time with his grandfather. Cori knew everything about her grandmother, down to what vitamins she took and what she ate for breakfast. But then, Cori had always shared a special relationship with her gram, and felt closer to her than she did to her own parents.

“What’s his name?”

“Buck, Buck Remington.”

Cori directed her full attention to the patient. “Mr. Remington, I’d like you to take some deep, slow breaths to calm yourself. Can you do that for me? I’ll lead the way?”

Buck nodded, as they each slowly sucked in air through their mouths. “Now let it out through your nose,” she told him, and he dutifully followed her lead.

Once she had him breathing normally, his pulse slowed to a more acceptable pace. An older woman with pure white, shoulder-length hair and deep red lips leaned over and handed Gage her pink sweater. “Maybe you can put this under his head. That floor’s hard.”

“Thanks,” Gage told her, while Cori threw the generous woman a quick smile.

Gage looked to Cori for approval. She nodded, then he carefully lifted Buck’s head and rested it on the folded sweater.

“Have you been diagnosed with hypoglycemia, Mr. Remington?”

He nodded again. His pulse quickened and sweat beaded on his forehead.

She looked up at Gage. “He needs glucose. Could you get him a glass of orange juice from the bar?”

“Sure.” Gage jumped up and rushed back to the tavern.

“I caught him as he went down,” a tall, lean gentleman, probably in his late sixties or early seventies and wearing a cream-colored cowboy hat offered. “He didn’t hit anything but my chest, so nothing should be broken. Court’s the name. Steve Court. Been Buck’s friend for the past ten years or so. Never know’d him to drop like that. Glad I was close by to break his fall.”

“You did perfect,” she told the man, then directed her attention back to Mr. Remington. “Can you sit up?”

He nodded and she motioned for Mr. Court to please help her.

She cradled his head and shoulder with one arm, and Mr. Court leaned down to help put Buck upright.

Gage returned with the juice.

“Drink this, Mr. Remington. It’ll make you feel better.”

Buck did as he was told and quickly slurped up all the juice, then handed the empty glass back to Gage. “Thank you, son,” he mumbled, his hand visibly shaking.

A siren screamed in the distance.

“Don’t worry, Gramps. We’ll get you checked out at the hospital, and you’ll be fine.”

“I’m not going to no dang hospital. I’m fine now. Just lost my balance is all.”

He struggled with each movement as if his limbs wouldn’t cooperate with his mind.

“Just rest for a bit, Mr. Remington. Take your time. There’s no rush.”

“Not going to no dang hospital.”

Two male EMTs walked into the lobby and came over to the group. The glow of the swirling red lights from their ambulance pulsed in through the windows and stained the walls with their fiery color.

“Gramps, stop being so obstinate. I’ll be right there with you.”

“You ain’t been with me since you was a kid. Don’t think you can tell me what to do now. I can make my own decisions.”

Cori quickly realized their relationship was in even worse shape than Gage had led her to believe.

She reached out and took Mr. Remington’s hand. “I knew a Buck when I was in medical school. He was a kind, thoughtful, easy-going man. I think those traits go along with the name. I have a feeling you probably didn’t eat a meal for a long time, and because of that, you might not be your sweet self. Your grandson only wants what’s best for you, and so do I.”

Buck nodded, staring into Cori’s eyes. His demeanor changed and Cori could see the tension drain from his body. He relaxed his shoulders, and gently squeezed her hand.

Cori worked on instinct and purposely stopped herself from thinking about what she was doing or saying despite the fact that she had started second-guessing herself a few months back.

Her self-doubt and stress had caused her to walk away from her ER position at Manhattan Central Hospital for some much-needed rest and reassessment. She’d been chronically fatigued for weeks from lack of sleep. And after nearly running off the road with her nine-year-old daughter Hailey in the car on their way home from another school event that Cori had all but missed, she knew her life had to change.

Those changes began with her turning in her resignation.

Up until that moment, Cori had thought she could do it all. Now she wasn’t so sure she could do anything right, and that included diagnosing hypoglycemia in an elderly man with the appropriate symptoms.

She gazed at her patient and saw all the fear and loneliness in his light blue eyes.

He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her, as if he was trying to place where he’d seen her before, but Cori knew that wasn’t possible.

“Rose? What are you doing here, Rose? I thought you were...”

“My name is Cori, Mr. Remington. I’m not Rose.”

He hesitated for a second, smiled and whispered, “You remind me of my wife. Same color hair and eyes. And your voice, there’s something familiar about your voice. She was a looker just like you, and a real spitfire. That woman could get me to eat hay if she asked me to. Always kept me on a schedule. Since she passed, I don’t know when to eat or what to eat. I’m all mixed up. It ain’t right that she left first. Ain’t right at all.”

“My grandmother passed a couple years ago,” Gage told her.

She understood Buck’s despair much better now. She could identify with it.

“It’s hard losing someone you love, especially your soul mate. Believe me, I know how you feel. I lost my husband five years ago. He took a piece of my heart that I’ll never get back. But he wanted me to go on and be well and love again. I’m sure Rose wanted the same for you. You need to take care of yourself for Rose.”

His defenses seemed to tumble down, and she saw only love in his eyes. “She always took good care of me.”

“Then don’t let her down. Please allow these competent professionals to take you to the hospital to run a few tests. I’m sure it won’t take very long, and if everything goes well, your grandson will have you back here in time for the barbecue tonight.”

Gage’s eyes were moist as he turned to his grandfather. “We’ll get you fixed up, Gramps. I’m here now, and I’ll see to it that you get everything you need.”

“Thanks, son,” Buck told him as he allowed one of the EMTs to help him into a wheelchair and roll him out of the lobby.

Cori and Gage stood, and at once she caught a whiff of cinnamon mixed with citrus. Nothing heavy. It was more aromatic than anything else. She gazed around the room, wondering if there was a candle burning or if perhaps there was a plate of cookies on the front desk, but she couldn’t see anything.

Gage took her hand in his, running his thumb over the back of her hand. His touch sent a shiver through her.

“Are you always this amazing?” he asked.

“Your grandfather’s the one who’s amazing. I merely did what I was trained to do.”

“Thank you.”

She glanced out the front window. The ambulance was getting ready to leave.

“You better get going.”

“Will you be here when we get back?”

“All five days.”

“Great.”

And he took off out the front door, leaving Cori to wonder what exactly he meant by that. Cori hadn’t come on this trip with her gram looking for anything other than some time to heal and rethink her chosen profession. Meeting a pseudo cowboy hadn’t been part of her idea of healing, and she certainly didn’t want to add any complications to her already taxed life.

But still...

Chapter Two

As it turned out, Doctor Cori Parker had been right about Gage’s grandfather collapsing from acute hypoglycemia. Other than a low iron count and some arthritis in his joints, Gramps was in excellent health for a man in his seventies. All those years of cowboying had done well by him. Of course, they hadn’t done much for his ornery disposition.

“I don’t need no rest up in the room,” Gramps told Gage in no uncertain terms as they entered the hotel’s front lobby once again. “We got ourselves an opening talk and a barbecue to attend. There ain’t nothing short of death that’s gonna stop me from enjoying every part of this here conference.”

Gage decided it was easier to simply roll with the program than to continue arguing his point. “Whatever you say, Gramps. You know best.”

His grandfather gave him a little harrumph and moved on ahead of Gage in the direction of the Henry Strater Theater where the event had been planned. By now everyone would be in line for what was sure to be a Western treat with some fine Colorado beef, chicken and all the trimmings for a real down-home kind of meal, something Gage hadn’t experienced in too many years to remember. His ex-wife’s parents had come close several times, but a pot roast was little substitution for a rack of ribs and grilled chicken.

Gage tried to keep up, but his grandfather seemed to want to prove that he was “fit as a fiddle,” a saying his gramps liked to use, and had already disappeared around the corner of the lobby. In truth, now that his gramps was feeling better, with no side-effects from his collapse, all Gage could think about was Cori Parker. She’d been on his mind ever since he’d met her, and despite all his efforts to shake her free, he seemed to be stuck wanting to see her again, if for nothing else but to thank her for taking such good care of his grandfather.

But that had to be it.

He’d thank her and let it go at that.

Nothing more.

There would be no getting involved no matter how intoxicating her eyes were, or the sultry curve of her lips, or the way she had soothed his worries when his grandfather was in crisis.

He reminded himself that she was merely doing her job. Something she’d been trained to do. His grandfather could have been any number of people in need and the treatment would have been exactly the same. Sure, she’d been extra kind and compassionate when she learned about his grandmother’s passing, but weren’t all doctors trained to be empathetic to the elderly?

He tried to think of her as just another doctor when he spotted her standing in front of the open doors to the theater. With one glance, his breath caught in his throat, and his stomach was clenched.

“What the—” he said under his breath, angry that he’d had such a visceral reaction. He shook the sensation free, and forced his now-tense body to relax as he watched his grandfather give her a tight hug. One thing was for sure—the men in his family sure took to her like bees to honey.

He stopped walking and chided himself for the analogy. He hadn’t been in the west for more than a day and already his thoughts had gone all folksy.

“You saved my life,” Gage overheard Grandpa Buck say when he and Cori separated. His face glowed with appreciation.

“Hardly,” Cori told him, a slight blush on her cheeks. “All I did was help you get through a challenging time. Your grandson did much more than I did.”

Gage walked up alongside them and immediately his pulse quickened, as if her mere presence caused a physical reaction, which he knew couldn’t be the case. They barely knew each other. He blamed his response on the tensions of the day. There could be no other reason...at least none that made any sense.

“It was a good start,” Gramps teased, leaning in closer to Cori as if they had a secret bond. There was a time when he and his grandfather had their own secret bond, when his grandfather had a dry sense of humor that Gage always got, and most times added to the joke. Now he questioned almost everything his grandfather said. Nothing seemed funny and everything seemed like an attack.

“Was that a compliment?” Gage asked, hoping his gramps would lighten up.

Grandpa Buck turned to face him. “No. It was a fact.” Then he turned and walked into the theater where he met up with some of his male friends, each giving him a strong handshake and a pat on the back. Gage watched as his grandfather’s face lit up with each touch, with each recognition, and he longed for that light to be directed in his direction.

“He’ll come around. These things take time,” Cori said in a low voice.

It was as if Cori could read his mind. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a little spooky?”

“How so?”

“Do you always know what a person’s thinking, or am I one of the lucky ones?”

“You have an expressive face.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind whenever you and I are conversing.” Gage purposely relaxed the muscles in his face and tried to look deadpan.

She pointed her index finger and made little air circles around his face. He loved being this close to her and seeing her smile. He really worked at remaining expressionless, but as her smile spread, and her perfume engulfed his senses, he couldn’t keep a straight face.

“See, right there.” She pointed to his eyes, then to his forehead. “And right there. I can tell you’re happy to see me. And you want to sit with me during dinner.”

“Yes, I’m happy to see you, but I hadn’t thought about seating arrangements.”

She turned to walk inside. “Well, you should have. I’m a great dinner partner.”

He followed close behind, softly chuckling at how she could wrap him around her finger with a few words and a smile. “Let me grab my grandfather and we’ll join you at one of the more private tables along the wall. Will that work?”

“Sure, I’ll hunt down my family and let them know. There’ll be three of us.”

Gage left her at the door wondering what she’d meant by her family. He’d thought she had come with her grandmother and no one else, but then, they really hadn’t had time to discuss much of anything before his grandfather collapsed in the lobby. A fact that still haunted him. Grandpa Buck could have hit his head on a table or a chair or broken a leg or an arm and where was his grandson?

In a bar...as usual.

* * *

THE HENRY STRATER THEATER, according to the brochure Cori had read up in her room, was one of the oldest continually running theaters in Colorado, featuring comedy nights with world-renowned comedians, improv troupes and ragtime music—from The Rocky Horror Picture Show during late October to Breakfast with Santa in December. The theater acted as both a community space and a cultural center.

Deep red velvet drapes hung in various areas around the large room and across the stage. Elevated box seats adorned both sides of the room, and exposed redbrick walls gave off an Old West ambience. At once Cori felt as if she’d been transported into another time. A feeling of absolute delight filled her as she walked toward her grandmother and Hailey, her precocious daughter. At one point she had doubted her decision to quit her job.

She wanted a calmer place and a better way to live. She’d thought they could move to her grandmother’s small town, until she saw just how small the town really was. There wasn’t an adequate local school for Hailey, and the nearest possible employment for Cori was over sixty miles away in Denver.

As soon as they had arrived at her grandmother’s new home, she thought for sure she wouldn’t be able to last a week. Her gram had sold the big rambling house soon after Cori’s grandpa had died three years ago, and the new one was so small the guest bedroom barely held a double bed and a dresser. The place was great for her gram, but not so great for Cori and Hailey if their visit wasn’t going to be a short one.

So many good memories had been centered in her gram’s town that Cori had built it up to be somewhat magical. In reality, it was still a sweet little place, but unless she was an entrepreneur or was willing to make the commute into Denver, there was no way she and Hailey could settle there. She would have to find an alternative.

Cori knew she wanted to raise Hailey in a close-knit community—just not her gram’s community, which had turned out to be very disappointing for Cori. The thought of not being able to put down roots next to her gram had thrown Cori off course, but hanging out in Durango was proving to be something else entirely. More and more she felt sure this change was exactly what she needed, especially seeing the group of seniors who had gathered in the theater for the buffet-style barbecue dinner during the opening talks of the conference. Cori knew there had to be something more to life than merely working eight to twelve hours a day. She wanted time to spend with her daughter, time to pursue a hobby, time to learn how to cook something other than a prepackaged meal.

There was something comforting about being around energetic older folks, as if they were clearing the path with their tenacity and courage of conviction, saying, “Look at me! If I can make it to my golden years and still pursue my hobbies and dreams, so can you.”

“Mom! Mom! Grammy’s going to let me help during the auction. I get to hand out books and stuff. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Hailey’s face glowed with anticipation, causing her blue-gray eyes to sparkle. Her thick caramel colored hair was pulled back in a long ponytail, and it bounced with her every move. She wore jeans, a soft pink Western shirt and cowgirl boots Cori hadn’t seen before. Obviously, Gram had taken her shopping, a pastime they both enjoyed more than they should.

Hailey could barely contain her excitement. For the most part, she loved doing things with her grammy, especially if the two of them could go shopping either before or afterward. Helping Grammy in the kitchen, however, wasn’t on Hailey’s list of fun activities, especially if it had anything to do with cleaning up.

Helping out with the auction, on the other hand, sounded perfect.

“Are you sure it will be okay?” Cori asked her gram, who was seated at one of the many long tables.

Cori noticed an empty chair right next to her gram, no doubt being saved especially for Cori’s arrival.

“Don’t be silly, Corina-May. I never would have suggested it if she couldn’t do it. Besides, there’ll be a couple other people available to help her,” Grandma May said. Grandma May always referred to Cori by her birth name, making it a point to tack on the May part, in case anyone had any doubt who Cori was named after.

Cori looked around the crowded room and spotted Gage coming their way.

“I made a new friend today, and I thought we’d sit with him and his grandfather for dinner. Would you two mind?”

“Nope,” Hailey answered, sticking out her chin and shaking her head. “Does your new friend have any kids I could play with?”

“I don’t really know, but if he does, he didn’t bring them to the conference.”

Cori hadn’t given any thought to whether or not Gage was a father. Not that it mattered, but he didn’t seem like the type. Dads were usually more in tune with family, and Gage seemed completely out of step with that element of his life.

“That’s all right,” Hailey mumbled, making a frown.

Cori knew that Hailey was lonely for her friends, especially for her best friend, Susan, who she’d spent time with almost every day since they were five. Her decision to quit her job and move halfway across the country to live with Gram for a while was proving to be more of a challenge than she had anticipated, especially for Hailey. Not being able to play with Susan was really hard on her. Once they settled somewhere, Cori felt confident that Hailey would find a new best friend in no time. Till then, the two girls would have to be content to chat on Skype every night.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, I haven’t seen any children at this convention, but when we get back to Grammy’s house, we’ll make a point of getting out there and meeting some. Okay?”

“We’ll go to the Community Center and sign you up for a swimming class or gymnastics and you’ll meet lots of kids your age,” Gram said, trying to assure her.

“But I already know how to swim and I don’t like gymnastics. Don’t they have anything else?”

“As soon as we get back to my house, we’ll walk on over there and see what they offer. You can sign up for anything you want. Okay?”

“Okay,” Hailey mumbled, but Cori could tell she wasn’t the least bit excited about the prospects. All Hailey really wanted to do was go back home to be with Susan and her friends. It was up to Cori to change her mind...which wasn’t going to be easy.

Cori glanced back to see Gage as he approached. Grandma May tilted her head to get a clear view of Gage Remington as he weaved through the group to get to them. A smile creased May’s pink lips and her gray eyes lit up as he approached. “Is that your new friend heading our way?”

Cori turned and threw Gage a welcoming smile. He returned the gesture, and his entire face lit up. He was more ruggedly handsome when he smiled, if that was even possible. Cori didn’t know if her attraction to him was causing his looks to take on an Adonis flair or if he’d had those qualities from the beginning. Either way, her insides had turned to mush, watching him approach.

“Where’d you find him?” Gram asked.

“In the bar this afternoon.”

“He’s a real looker. Is he your boyfriend?”

“I just met him. How could he be my boyfriend?”

“It took your grandpa and me about ten minutes to know we were in love. What’s taking you so long?”

“Love is something that grows with time.” Cori was thinking about Jeremy, her deceased husband. They had known each other for three years before they’d started dating, then another two before they were married, each wanting to be sure marriage was the right move.

“In my day, as soon as you met someone you knew in that instant whether or not you were in love. I think it has to do with smell. Either you like the way he smells or you don’t. What’s he smell like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Sure you do, or he wouldn’t be heading our way.”

Cori thought about it for a moment and remembered how she had caught a citrusy cinnamon scent when they were in the lobby. That couldn’t have been from Gage. Way too sweet to come from a man. Men were more musky, more driftwood and cedar, not lemons and cookies.

“He has no particular scent.”

“Hogwash! And why didn’t you warn me we would be sitting with your new boyfriend? I would’ve worn my red lipstick. I look younger with red lips. You don’t want him to think your grandmother’s old, do you?”

Cori wanted to tell her the truth: you are old, Gram, but she knew better.

“Gram, he’s just a friend.”

Grandma May’s demeanor suddenly changed for the worse as she stared past Gage toward the group standing at the end of the buffet line. “Darn. He’s back.”

“Who?”

“That old coot, Buck Remington. I thought for sure with what happened earlier he’d be out for the entire conference. He’s already back, thinking up ways to aggravate me, I’m sure. Couldn’t you have insisted they keep him at the hospital for at least twenty-four hours?”

“No, Gram. He’s fine. Nothing that a good meal can’t fix. And what do you mean by ‘old coot?’ Buck’s a sweetheart.”

Cori knew what low blood sugar could do to a person’s personality, and Buck was certainly a prime example. Low blood sugar could change his mood, blur his vision, make it difficult for him to concentrate or make a decision, and cause him to be suddenly excessively hungry. If it ever became severe, like it already had, he would faint, or worse, he could slip into a coma.