A Family For The Soldier. Carolyne Aarsen

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      “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 СКАЧАТЬ