Page 6 of Caleb's Cause
“What’s that?”
“That if any of the Riceman employees need your services, you take them on as a patient. They have excellent health care, so that wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t expect you to kick a current patient out of your office, but I will expect you to work with my employees. I can’t run my business without people. Also, you don’t want to piss me off.”
“What happens if I piss you off?”
“The last people that pissed me off, I mean really, really pissed me off are currently sitting in jail, and if all goes as planned, they won’t be getting out for decades to come. We still have their trial to go through.”
“I understand. I just have one question for now.”
“What’s that?”
“Will I be getting paid for working on your employees?”
“Yes, I also would like you to work with the clients of Broken.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Clark,” Erin said, and nodded to the other man. Caleb watched him set his coffee cup down, and walk over to a wall and lifted pages of a map. As Erin talked, to describe what Riceman property was all about, Clark used a ruler Julie handed him to point it all out, and dropped a page with each new ranch. At the end of the discussion Caleb didn’t react when Clark returned to his seat, but reached over and shut Caleb’s mouth.
It took a few seconds, but Caleb finally shook his head to clear it. “Let me get this straight. I can have my own office space at Broken Two. I can see any outside patients I want, but I also have to work on any of your employees that need my services, as well as work with a client and their current doctor or physical therapist to help them while they are here in the rehabilitation program? Did I get it all?”
“Yes. Is that too hard?”
“Not at all, I just have one more question.”
“What’s that?”
“Which services are we talking about?”
“What do you mean by that?
“I’ll have to get the licensing for the state of Colorado, but in the State of Washington, I am a licensed physical therapist, a doctor of chiropractic services, and I had a certification and extensive training in prosthetics. I was over in Fool’s Goldyesterday and delivered Jake Cogburn’s new leg.” He turned and looked at Julie with a grin. “One like yours. Withallthe bells and whistles.” He turned back to Erin, and laughed. “The thought I had when I first met you was that I wondered if you had a prosthetic hand, if not, would you like one. I can work with people to get you one where the fingers would actually move.” He watched Erin’s expression, and looked at Clark in concern when she stared off into space and seemed to turn white.
“Rin? Are you okay?” Clark asked at the same time Caleb said,
“I didn’t mean any offense.”
“No, it’s just that it’s been so long since I had a hand, six years, that I got used to not having one. See, after I woke in the hospital after the accident, I was basically told that I was disabled and couldn’t do anything with the rest of my life. I was twenty-one at the time. I felt sorry for myself, until a man that has worked on this ranch with our parents came to me and threw a journal I had been reading at me, and yelled at me. It took roughly six months to a year since the accident, but I was able to start Riceman Stallions. I looked at the loss of my hand as a challenge, not a disability. Once Riceman Stallions was established, I didn’t look back. I started looking into horses that had been abused and thrown away when their owners didn’t want to deal with them any longer. That’s how The Broken Wheel was started.” She looked at Clark with a sappy smile.
“It’s thanks to Clark here that I was able to get the employees I have now. The men are from his former unit. They were in the military together, and after Naomi, I hired women that had been in the service with the same challenges as me. Oh, not the exact ones, because Julie has both hands, but missing a leg. The others are missing a limb, has severe fears, or TBI, but working with the horses has gotten us all through it.”
“Wow, I like that. I would love to see what the rest of the ranch is like.”
“Clark can give you the tour.” Erin and the others turned at the knock on the doorjamb, and Erin smiled at the man standing there. “Yes?”
“You rang?”
“No.”
“I was told you wanted to see me.”
“Wasn’t me,” Erin said, and turned to her brother.
“Not me,” Clark said, and watched as Caleb stood, turned to the man standing there and grinned.
“It was me.”
“Okay, but what do you need, and who are you?”
