The Rancher's Family Thanksgiving. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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СКАЧАТЬ A Saturday, both Meg and Luke were working outside in the yard, raking leaves and weeding flower beds. As Tyler approached, he thought about how respected both were in the community. Meg was director of nursing at Laramie Community Hospital. Luke ran the family practice program that had recruited both Tyler’s cousin Riley, and their son, Jeremy Carrigan, to be on the hospital staff. They were good parents and they loved all four of their children dearly.

      But they were making a mistake and it was up to Tyler to help them see it.

      Hoping his meddling wouldn’t be taken the wrong way, Tyler headed up the walk. The last thing he wanted to do was make Susie’s life more difficult than it already was.

      “Hi, Dr. Carrigan.”

      “Tyler.” Luke put down his edger and ran a hand through his silver-blond hair.

      Tyler nodded at Susie’s mother. “Mrs. Carrigan.”

      Meg left her spade in the dirt and rose from her place beside the flower beds. Her auburn hair was mussed from the breeze stirring the fall air. Dirt and grass stained the knees of her coveralls. She smiled at Tyler, inching off her work gloves.

      “Mind if I have a word with you?” Tyler asked.

      “Of course not.” Meg motioned him to the screened-in back porch at the rear of the large turn-of-the-century Cape Cod.

      Unlike the evening before, the afternoon was pleasantly warm.

      She slipped into the house and came back with three glasses of mint iced tea.

      “What’s up?” Luke Carrigan always got straight to the point.

      Tyler sat in a cushioned wicker chair, opposite the long-married couple. “I want to talk to you about this plan to fix up Susie with four more guys.”

      Brows lifted. Meg and Luke exchanged the kind of husband and wife glances that brimmed with understanding but required no words. “She told you,” Meg said finally.

      Tyler nodded. “The first introduction didn’t go so well.”

      “Yes, we know,” Luke said.

      “Whit called this morning to say he and Susie were destined to be friends. The chemistry just wasn’t there.” Meg made no effort to hide her disappointment.

      The next was a little harder to broach. Tyler frowned. “She’s upset you paired her with an oncologist.”

      Meg and Luke clearly did not agree with Tyler’s opinion that it had been a stupid thing to do.

      Giving Tyler the kind of man-to-man look that held nothing back, Luke replied, “Who better, if it had worked out?”

      Me, Tyler wanted to say, though he had no idea where that thought had come from. He and Susie were not—had never been—a couple. They were crisis buddies, pure and simple.

      Most of the time they were busy living their own lives. But right now Susie needed his help in the worst way.

      Tyler approached her parents with the same mixture of tempered caution and compassion he used on his patients’ owners.

      “Susie is trying to put the disease in her past.”

      Meg’s expression clouded with remorse. It was clear she was reacting as much as a medical professional now, as a mother.

      “That’s not possible, Tyler,” Meg said.

      Luke added, with empathy, “None of us can ever forget what Susie went through to regain her good health.” He paused, looked Tyler straight in the eye, his aggravation plain. “I would think you would understand that better than anyone, given how much time you spent with Susie during her treatment.”

      “And every time since, when she has encountered some sort of difficulty,” Meg added, with a look at her husband.

      It hadn’t mattered what kind of problem Susie’d had, Tyler thought. Business, personal, whatever. If she needed a shoulder to lean on, he was there. And when she no longer needed him, he just as conveniently disappeared. That way, they could maintain the status quo. It was very important to Tyler to maintain their relationship just as it was. To not do anything that would risk what he hoped would be a life-long connection.

      “And we appreciate all that you’ve done for her, thus far, more than we can say,” Luke continued.

      Not about to be cast in the role of hero now, as he had been by the Carrigans back then, Tyler shrugged. As much as he pretended Susie was just another friend, deep inside, he knew that was not the case. Susie and he shared an intimacy, an ability to tell each other anything, he had with no one else, and that included his two triplet-brothers. Tyler sensed that for Susie, as close as she was to her family, she felt the same way about him. She could unburden herself to him in a way she could not confide in anyone else.

      It had been that way from his very first visit to her hospital room. It was that way now, and always would be, he figured, no matter who else came and went in their lives. And if the past was any indication, other people would always come and go, since neither he nor Susie had the desire to marry and settle down.

      Aware the Carrigans were waiting for him to continue explaining why he felt the need to butt into a family matter that was clearly none of his business, or should not have been, anyway, Tyler said, “I’m glad you appreciate what I’ve done for your daughter, but it’s a two-way street. Susie has been there for me, too, when I’ve needed her.”

      Luke drained his tea. His expression shifted into Overprotective Father mode. “Unfortunately,” Luke stated evenly, “we also know Susie needs a lot more in her life than you can give her as a go-to friend.”

      Meg held up a hand before Tyler could comment.

      “Getting Susie to admit that, however, has proved difficult,” Meg concurred with Luke, like a mama bear protecting her cub. “Which is why her father and I have taken matters into our own hands and given her the nudge she needs to get out there and really start living her life again. Not just day to day, the way she has been, Tyler, but with a real eye toward the future and all she has left to experience.”

      “I HEARD YOU STOPPED BY my folks’ this morning on your way to the clinic.”

      Tyler looked up to see Susie framed in the doorway of his office.

      He pushed back from the endless paperwork that occupied him the first and third Saturday afternoon of every month. He had hoped she wouldn’t find out about his visit.

      “Can’t keep anything from you, can I?” he teased.

      As expected, Susie refused to let his cajoling get him off the hook.

      She sauntered in, looking beautiful in jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt. Four oddly shaped pearls hung pendant style around her neck from a thin piece of brown leather necklace, two more adorned her ear. Tyler smiled. Susie liked to accessorize, and her tastes ran to the unusual.

      “They thought your interference was sweet but ill-advised.”

      Tyler noted her wavy blond hair had been drawn into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. He knew Susie only put it back like that when СКАЧАТЬ