The Rancher's City Girl. Patricia Johns

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СКАЧАТЬ moved over the landscape, his jaw tense.

       Is he thinking about the woman who left him?

      She wouldn’t blame him. When she was a teenager, she could eventually heal from a broken heart and move on with optimism for the future, but wedding vows had greater weight, and they took more with them when they tore free. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said that a married couple became one flesh. They didn’t separate without a lot of pain and some deep scars.

      In the backseat, her patient shifted, then shifted again.

      “Robert, are you all right?” Eloise asked, turning.

      Mr. Bessler’s eyes fluttered open. “A little sore. I’m okay.”

      “Scale of one to ten?”

      “Fourteen.”

      “Cory, could we stop at the next rest area?” she asked. “It might help.”

      He nodded. “For sure. There’s a diner coming up in about five minutes.”

      “Will that work?” Eloise asked.

      Mr. Bessler nodded, his lips pale. “Yes. Thank you.”

      As Eloise took his pills out of her bag and cracked open a bottle of water, she hoped that this trip wouldn’t be too much for the old man. As much as he could benefit from the new scenery, change of any kind was exhausting, especially for a terminal patient.

      Cory’s brow furrowed and he pressed a little more heavily on the gas pedal.

       He cares.

      That little fact alone eased some of her worry.

      * * *

      After a stop at the diner for lunch, they drove on for another hour. The truck sped over a gravel country road, dust billowing up behind them. Eloise settled back in the seat, listening to the upbeat jangle of a country tune. Cattle grazed on the swell of a hill, heads down, tails swishing. Over the foothills in the distance, a rainstorm left a gray, foggy smudge, but the sun shone brilliantly overhead where they drove.

      “This is a beautiful area,” Eloise said.

      “This is mine.” There was something in the rumble of his voice that drew her attention.

      “Really?” She sat up straighter, her gaze moving over the field of green wheat out her window. “All of it?”

      “Out your window is land that I lease out for crops. Out my side—” Cory jutted a thumb in the other direction “—is grazing land for my cattle. Beyond Milk River are some hunting grounds.”

      “Gorgeous,” she breathed.

      His tone was light as he said, “I might be a little biased, but I think this is the most gorgeous land in the country. There is something about the soil that keeps bringing me back home.”

      “You really love living out here.”

      “It’s more than loving a location,” Cory replied. “It’s this ranch. Sometimes a place just becomes a part of you when you aren’t looking.”

      Eloise didn’t know how to answer, so she stayed quiet. She could sense the satisfaction in his voice when he talked about his land, his tone almost reverent. She was a city girl through and through, but cities changed constantly. New buildings went up, old buildings came down. While Billings held her memories from girlhood up to womanhood, it didn’t inspire the same deep attachment that Cory seemed to feel.

      The last few miles slipped by, and Cory slowed as they approached a log arch with a hanging sign that read Stone Ranch. They turned in and followed a meandering drive that led up to a sheltering copse, leaves fluttering in the constant prairie breeze. Beyond the leafy blind sprawled the house, a barn and a paddock. The house was a log ranch style, a long porch sweeping along the front with a couple of rocking chairs sitting empty. The gray barn across the way was more modern, and the paddock where several glossy horses munched hay stretched out in front of the barn. The scene reminded Eloise of pastoral paintings, all serenity in the golden afternoon sunlight. Except for that modern barn—what was it about modernity that ruined a perfectly pastoral scene?

      “Zack and Nora live in the manager’s house down that way,” Cory said, then chuckled. “Never mind. There they are.”

      A man and woman emerged from the gray horse barn, both in jeans with cowboy hats pushed back on their heads. Nora wore a T-shirt with a band logo emblazoned across the front, her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. Zack smacked a pair of leather work gloves against his thigh, a puff of dust exploding from the material. When they saw the truck, Nora raised her hand in a wave.

      “Welcome back, stranger,” Zack said with a grin as Cory got out of the truck.

      Nora came up to Eloise’s door and gave her a friendly smile and introduced herself. “You must be Eloise.”

      “Yes, that’s me,” she replied, returning the woman’s infectious smile. “You certainly live in a lovely area.”

      “It’s definitely God’s country,” Nora said. “Thanks for coming to help out. No injuries this morning, thankfully, but it’s only a matter of time with the calving.”

      “Can I give you a hand?” Cory asked, poking his head back into the open window of the vehicle.

      “Oh, we can handle it,” Nora replied. “Zack needs to show you a weakening spot in the barn roof. I’ll help Eloise get Mr. Bessler settled.”

      Cory raised his eyebrows at Eloise and she nodded, attempting to look more self-assured than she felt at the moment. “Go. You’re needed. We’ll be fine.”

      Cory grinned. “I’ll be back soon.”

      As the men walked in the direction of the barn, Eloise turned to her patient.

      “This is Robert Bessler.”

      Mr. Bessler smiled wanly in Nora’s direction. “Pleasure.”

      “How are you feeling?” Eloise asked quietly. “How is the pain since I gave you your pills at the diner?”

      “Six.”

      “Do you want more meds now, or after we get inside?”

      “Let’s get inside.” He covered his mouth with the oxygen mask and took a deep breath. “And get me out of this truck. I’m nauseated.”

      Eloise grinned at his comforting bad humor and the two women worked together to get the old man into his wheelchair, and then pushed it toward the main house. Nora walked ahead and dropped a ramp over the stairs just before they reached them.

      “This is handy,” Eloise commented.

      “We’ve been wheelchair accessible ever since Grandpa got sick. Come on in. I’ve got some sandwiches in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”

      Mr. Bessler muttered something.

      “What’s СКАЧАТЬ