only to catch Grady looking directly at her. She gave him a wan smile, then carried on. She had one more patient and then she was done for the day.
And where was she supposed to go after that? How was she going to take care of her child on her own? Jeremy had disappeared after he found out she was pregnant, disavowed any interest in her or her child, and she hadn’t been able to find him. Nor did she have the energy right now.
Help me, Lord, was all she managed as she made her way to the next patient’s room.
* * *
“Boy, does it smell bad in here.”
Grady cringed as Vanessa’s shrill voice echoed down the hallway of the barn.
“You in here, Grady? I need to talk to you. I’m not coming in.”
“Will you excuse me a moment?” Grady said to the three young girls standing by the doorway of one of the horse stalls. “I need to speak with Vanessa.”
Maddy Coles, Lynne James and Christie Markham were part of the Future Ranchers program his brother, Ben, had initiated to help high school students get extra credit. They came to the ranch whenever they could to work with the horses and to assist with their training and care.
“Do you want me to clean out the stalls?” Maddy asked, grabbing a fork from the wall.
“That would be good. Start with Apollo. Lynne and Christy, you can go outside and get Bishop, Shiloh and Chief in. Saul said he wanted to check their hooves when he comes here. I’ll be right back.”
The girls nodded and Maddy, eager as ever to work, stepped into the first stall.
Grady hurried down the alleyway, the thump of his crutch on the wooden floor echoing through the cavernous horse barn. A chill wind whistled toward him as he neared the open door where Vanessa stood, her winter coat wrapped around her, her mouth turned down in a grimace of disgust.
“I don’t know what’s nastier, the weather out here or the stink in there.” She waved her hand delicately in front of her face as if to dispel the scent.
“What can I do for you?” Grady asked.
“First off, Mamie wants you to come to the house. She’s not feeling that great and Cody has been crying the past half hour.”
“And you can’t take care of him?”
“I told you. Hire that nanny back. I’m headed to Austin. I’ve got a fitting for a dress I ordered. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Grady could only stare at her, the suspicions that had been hovering in the back of his mind growing stronger each moment he spent with her. “So you’re leaving your son with his great-grandmother?”
Vanessa shrugged. “I don’t have time for this. I have to go.” She turned and hurried off, her high-heeled boots slipping in the snow that had fallen overnight.
Grady watched her go, heaving out a sigh. He shouldn’t have pushed her. He blamed his lapse on the steady pain in his leg and the headaches he’d been fighting the past two days. He took a deep breath and worked his way back to Maddy and the other girls. After giving them instructions for work that would keep them busy for the next hour, he hobbled back to the house to help his grandmother.
Cody’s heart-rending wails were the first thing he heard when he stepped in the house.
He shucked off his coat, banged the packed snow off the bottom of his crutch, then, moving as fast as he could, followed the little boy’s cries. He had trouble negotiating the stairs, Cody’s distress adding to his own growing panic. He burst into the nursery, hurried to the crib, his ears hurting from the noise the little boy emitted.
Where was his grandmother?
He set aside his crutch and grabbed the tiny, upset bundle of baby. Cody arched his back, his fists batting the air, screeching with eyes scrunched shut as Grady tried to lift him out of the crib.
Grady wobbled on his feet, trying to hold the squirming child. Cody turned away again, screaming even louder, and Grady lost his footing.
He was going down.
He twisted, shifting his center of balance so that Cody would land on top of him.
Excruciating pain drilled through Grady’s thigh, up his back and into his head as he landed hard on his bad leg. Cody let out another squawk.
Grady rode out the waves of agony, breathing slowly, then he lifted his head to see Cody staring at him, finally quiet. Thankfully he was unhurt.
“Grady. What happened?” Grandma Mamie burst into the room and hurried to Grady’s side, taking Cody from him. “How did you fall? Are you okay?”
Grady sucked in another breath, the pain slowly subsiding. “I’m fine,” he said, though he felt anything but. His leg felt as though it was on fire and his head as if someone had pounded a nail through it.
Mamie cradled Cody on her hip and hooked her arm through Grady’s as if to help him up.
“Please, don’t,” he protested, gently pulling away. “I need to get up on my own.” Besides, he didn’t want to pull Mamie down with him in case he lost his balance again.
He rolled to one side, got his good knee under him and, using the bars of the crib, pulled himself upright. A red-hot poker jabbed him again and he faltered.
“You’re not okay. You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine,” he ground out as the pain subsided, leaving in its wake the residue of humiliation and embarrassment. Couldn’t even pick up a baby out of his bed. How was he supposed to keep up the workload created by the ranch? Not everything could be given to the hired hands. He carefully got his balance and reached for his crutch.
“You look pale,” Mamie murmured, still hovering, her hand raised as if to help him again.
“How’s Cody?” He turned the attention to the little boy.
Mamie shifted her gaze to the little boy, now lying still in her arms. “He seems okay.”
“Should we bring him to see Dr. Tyler?” The pediatrician would have a better idea if Cody was sick or not, Grady figured.
“You’re the one I’m worried about.”
Grady grabbed his crutch, wishing he didn’t feel so helpless. “You don’t need to worry about me. Vanessa should have been here to take care of the baby.”
“I think we need to confront her,” his grandmother said, a note of steel in her voice that Grady remembered all too well as a child. Mamie Stillwater might come across as easygoing but when push came to shove, she could be as immovable as half of Texas.
“When she comes back we’ll deal with this once and for all,” Grady said, massaging the back of his neck with one hand, trying to ease away the tension that seemed to be his constant companion.
Mamie looked down at the baby reaching for her glasses. “We know for sure he is a Stillwater. I think we need to know for sure if he is a Vane. I
