style="font-size:15px;"> “Thanks, son,” Buck told him as he allowed one of the EMTs to help him into a wheelchair and roll him out of the lobby.
Cori and Gage stood, and at once she caught a whiff of cinnamon mixed with citrus. Nothing heavy. It was more aromatic than anything else. She gazed around the room, wondering if there was a candle burning or if perhaps there was a plate of cookies on the front desk, but she couldn’t see anything.
Gage took her hand in his, running his thumb over the back of her hand. His touch sent a shiver through her.
“Are you always this amazing?” he asked.
“Your grandfather’s the one who’s amazing. I merely did what I was trained to do.”
“Thank you.”
She glanced out the front window. The ambulance was getting ready to leave.
“You better get going.”
“Will you be here when we get back?”
“All five days.”
“Great.”
And he took off out the front door, leaving Cori to wonder what exactly he meant by that. Cori hadn’t come on this trip with her gram looking for anything other than some time to heal and rethink her chosen profession. Meeting a pseudo cowboy hadn’t been part of her idea of healing, and she certainly didn’t want to add any complications to her already taxed life.
But still...
As it turned out, Doctor Cori Parker had been right about Gage’s grandfather collapsing from acute hypoglycemia. Other than a low iron count and some arthritis in his joints, Gramps was in excellent health for a man in his seventies. All those years of cowboying had done well by him. Of course, they hadn’t done much for his ornery disposition.
“I don’t need no rest up in the room,” Gramps told Gage in no uncertain terms as they entered the hotel’s front lobby once again. “We got ourselves an opening talk and a barbecue to attend. There ain’t nothing short of death that’s gonna stop me from enjoying every part of this here conference.”
Gage decided it was easier to simply roll with the program than to continue arguing his point. “Whatever you say, Gramps. You know best.”
His grandfather gave him a little harrumph and moved on ahead of Gage in the direction of the Henry Strater Theater where the event had been planned. By now everyone would be in line for what was sure to be a Western treat with some fine Colorado beef, chicken and all the trimmings for a real down-home kind of meal, something Gage hadn’t experienced in too many years to remember. His ex-wife’s parents had come close several times, but a pot roast was little substitution for a rack of ribs and grilled chicken.
Gage tried to keep up, but his grandfather seemed to want to prove that he was “fit as a fiddle,” a saying his gramps liked to use, and had already disappeared around the corner of the lobby. In truth, now that his gramps was feeling better, with no side-effects from his collapse, all Gage could think about was Cori Parker. She’d been on his mind ever since he’d met her, and despite all his efforts to shake her free, he seemed to be stuck wanting to see her again, if for nothing else but to thank her for taking such good care of his grandfather.
But that had to be it.
He’d thank her and let it go at that.
Nothing more.
There would be no getting involved no matter how intoxicating her eyes were, or the sultry curve of her lips, or the way she had soothed his worries when his grandfather was in crisis.
He reminded himself that she was merely doing her job. Something she’d been trained to do. His grandfather could have been any number of people in need and the treatment would have been exactly the same. Sure, she’d been extra kind and compassionate when she learned about his grandmother’s passing, but weren’t all doctors trained to be empathetic to the elderly?
He tried to think of her as just another doctor when he spotted her standing in front of the open doors to the theater. With one glance, his breath caught in his throat, and his stomach was clenched.
“What the—” he said under his breath, angry that he’d had such a visceral reaction. He shook the sensation free, and forced his now-tense body to relax as he watched his grandfather give her a tight hug. One thing was for sure—the men in his family sure took to her like bees to honey.
He stopped walking and chided himself for the analogy. He hadn’t been in the west for more than a day and already his thoughts had gone all folksy.
“You saved my life,” Gage overheard Grandpa Buck say when he and Cori separated. His face glowed with appreciation.
“Hardly,” Cori told him, a slight blush on her cheeks. “All I did was help you get through a challenging time. Your grandson did much more than I did.”
Gage walked up alongside them and immediately his pulse quickened, as if her mere presence caused a physical reaction, which he knew couldn’t be the case. They barely knew each other. He blamed his response on the tensions of the day. There could be no other reason...at least none that made any sense.
“It was a good start,” Gramps teased, leaning in closer to Cori as if they had a secret bond. There was a time when he and his grandfather had their own secret bond, when his grandfather had a dry sense of humor that Gage always got, and most times added to the joke. Now he questioned almost everything his grandfather said. Nothing seemed funny and everything seemed like an attack.
“Was that a compliment?” Gage asked, hoping his gramps would lighten up.
Grandpa Buck turned to face him. “No. It was a fact.” Then he turned and walked into the theater where he met up with some of his male friends, each giving him a strong handshake and a pat on the back. Gage watched as his grandfather’s face lit up with each touch, with each recognition, and he longed for that light to be directed in his direction.
“He’ll come around. These things take time,” Cori said in a low voice.
It was as if Cori could read his mind. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a little spooky?”
“How so?”
“Do you always know what a person’s thinking, or am I one of the lucky ones?”
“You have an expressive face.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind whenever you and I are conversing.” Gage purposely relaxed the muscles in his face and tried to look deadpan.
She pointed her index finger and made little air circles around his face. He loved being this close to her and seeing her smile. He really worked at remaining expressionless, but as her smile spread, and her perfume engulfed his senses, he couldn’t keep a straight face.
“See, right there.” She pointed to his eyes, then to his forehead. “And right there. I can tell you’re happy to see me. And you want to sit with me during dinner.”
“Yes,
