Page 32 of A Cowboy's Claim
“But I need you to think long and hard about anything in your past that might come back to bite us. Anything that could blow up in our faces, like that shaft at Silver Stone. We caught that in time. But an innocent kid still got hurt.” Declan spoke clear and sharp, gaze fixed on Logan’s white face. “You don’t want to be the reason someone like Jinx gets hurt.”
Logan didn’t move, didn’t say anything.
Declan turned on his heel and walked away. Sometimes you had to light the fuse and let it burn for a while. He had a gut feeling Logan would be ready to unpack that baggage pretty damn quick.
Sydney got backfrom the hospital late Sunday night after being pulled in to help with a few emergencies.
After a Monday spent catching up on everything she’d been putting off for a week, Sydney was more than ready for company by the time she arrived at the clinic Tuesday morning.
Lexie had beat her to the clinic, the older woman efficiently lining up the days’ health charts, although she did look up with a smile when Sydney walked in the door. “There she is. Our cliffhanging wonder.”
“Hopefully I’ll be yesterday’s news by the end of the week when something else more interesting turns up. You know, like a sale on ground beef at Independent Grocers.” Sydney pulled on her lab coat. “How did things go yesterday?”
“First day with the new hours? It was smooth,” Lexie said before laughing. “It was repetitive.”
“My goodness, you can say that again,” Edison announced as he slipped in the door and overheard the last bit. “Where is Dr. Jeremiah? I thought I’d be seeing Dr. Jeremiah. Dr. Jeremiah told me I needed to speak to her as soon as possible.”
“Nonsense. You’re exaggerating.” Sydney smiled as he made his usual air dance across the reception area toward the staff room. “I’m sure at least one of them called methe General.”
That got a laugh out of Lexie. “No one straight up said it, but I did have somebody tell me that they got marching orders from you, and they were following them to the letter.”
“Mr. Simms, yes?”
Lexie’s brows shot skyward.
“He refused to take the meds he needs for his high blood pressure, so I challenged him to a game ofBattleship. If I won, he took his meds. If he won, I had to tell his wife he was allowed to have steak once a week.”
“Oh my.” Edison covered his mouth with his fingers. “Good thing you won.”
“Of course I won. I cheated,” Sydney deadpanned before dancing out of reach of his flickering fingers. “Okay, let’s figure out what’s happening this morning, because if everything goes well, I thought I’d do some house calls this afternoon.”
They worked together smoothly, but in the few minutes when they interacted, Sydney sensed something wasn’t quite right with Lexie. A tiredness lingered in her eyes that hadn’t been there the week before.
“How are things, really?” Sydney checked when they paused in the quiet of the noontime shut down.
Lexie answered quickly. “With the job? Everything is great.”
“I meant with you.”
The woman hesitated. “Just feeling a little homesick over the move, I suppose.”
Which made sense, but didn’t seem as if that was the whole story. Sydney laid a brief hand on Lexie’s arm. “If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know. I appreciate the work you’re doing, and I’d like for you to enjoy it enough here to want to stay.”
“Thanks. I’ll be fine.” Lexie assured her. “Where are you headed this afternoon?”
“Hutterite colony south of town to start. The ladies are really good about coming in and keeping themselves and the children up-to-date, but some of the elders keep trying to pull a fast one and skip their checkups.”
Lexie nodded. “That should be fun and diplomatically challenging. Oh, another thing. Someone mentioned that the grapevine is buzzing about Rodney Greenlee. He hasn’t been seen at the coffee shop for over a week.”
“That isn’t like him,” Sydney said, dipping her chin slowly. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll swing by his place before I head back to town.”
She headed out, thoughts lingering on Lexie’s discomfort.
It wasn’t just homesickness. Something darker had flickered in her eyes. Sydney made a mental note to check in with her again in the next couple of days.
After nearly three hours of checkups at the colony, it was close to five by the time Sydney turned down the gravel road toward Rodney Greenlee’s homestead. The house, neatly tucked into a dip where the foothills met the Rockies, was usually immaculate—like everything in the old bachelor’s life.
So when she spotted the front door swinging in the breeze, unease prickled her spine.
