brother to their father’s obvious concern and started wailing, from fear or just sympathy, Caroline wasn’t sure. Soon the small bathroom echoed with loud sobs.
After a moment of that, Wade’s eyes started to look panicky, like he’d just found himself trapped in a cage of snakes—except she had the feeling he would have preferred the snakes to two bawling kids.
Finally Caroline took pity on him and picked up the crying toddler. He was heavier than she expected, a solid little person in a Spider-Man shirt. “You’re okay, sweetie. Your brother just has an owie.”
The curly blond cherub wiped his nose with his forefinger. “Tan-noh owie.”
“Yep. But he’ll be okay, I promise.”
“Uncle Jake will make it all better,” Wade said, a kind of desperate hope in his voice. “Come on, let’s go find him.”
He led the way out of the room. Once free of the bathroom’s confining space, Caroline could finally make her brain function again. She considered the ability to once more take a breath a nice bonus.
Wade carried Tanner toward the front door and she followed with the younger boy in her arms.
“Look, you’re going to have enough on your hands at the clinic,” she said. “Why don’t I stay here with Cody while you take care of Tanner?”
It took a second for Wade’s attention to shift from his injured son to her, something she found rather touching—until she saw suspicion bloom on his features.
“No. He can come with us to the clinic.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind watching him for you.”
She didn’t need to hear his answer—the renewed animosity in his eyes was answer enough. “Lady, I don’t know you from Adam,” he snapped. “I’m not leaving my son here with you.”
“Would you like me to come with you and then watch him in the clinic while you’re occupied with Tanner’s hand?”
He frowned, obviously annoyed by her persistence. Good heavens, did he think she was going to kidnap the child?
“No. He’s fine with me. I’m sure there’s somebody in Jake’s office who could watch Cody while we’re in the exam room.”
With Tanner in one arm, he scooped up the toddler in the other and carried both boys out the door, toward a huge mud-covered silver pickup truck parked in the circular driveway.
Not sure what to do next, Caroline stood on the broad porch of the ranch house and watched as he strapped both boys into the truck. Wade seemed to have forgotten her very existence. In fact, a moment later he climbed into the driver’s seat and drove away without once looking back at the house.
Now that the first adrenaline surge from the fire and dealing with Tanner’s burn had passed, Caroline was aware of a bone-deep exhaustion. She had almost forgotten her long night of traveling and the worry over Quinn’s whirlwind romance with one of her clients. Now, as she stood alone on the ranch house porch with a cool October wind teasing the ends of her hair, everything came rushing back.
Since she was apparently too late to stop her father from eloping with Marjorie, she should probably just drive her rental back to the airport and catch the quickest flight to California.
On the other hand, that kitchen was still a mess, she was sure. She could scrub down the smoke-damaged kitchen while Wade was gone, perhaps even fix a warm meal for their return.
It was the least she could do, really. None of this would have happened if her father hadn’t run off with Marjorie.
She wasn’t breaking her vow, Caroline told herself as she walked back into the house and shut the cool fall air behind her. She wasn’t cleaning up after her father’s messes, something she had sworn never to do again. She was only helping out a man who had his hands full.
She tried to tell herself she wasn’t splitting hairs, but even as she went back into the smoke-damaged kitchen and rolled up her sleeves, she wasn’t quite convinced.
“There you go, partner. Now you’ve got the mummy claw of death to scare Nat with when she comes home from school.”
Tanner giggled at his uncle Jake and moved his gauze-wrapped hand experimentally. “It still hurts,” he complained.
“Sorry, kid.” Jake squeezed his shoulder. “I can give you some medicine so it won’t hurt quite so bad. But when you try to put out a fire all by yourself, sometimes you get battle scars. Next time call your dad right away.”
“There won’t be a next time. Right, Tanner?” Wade said sternly. “You’ve learned your lesson about roasting marshmallows—or anything else—by yourself.”
Tanner sighed. “I guess. I don’t like havin’ a burn.”
Jake straightened. “You were really brave while I was looking at it. I was proud of you, bud. Now you have to be a big kid and make sure you take care of it right. You can’t get the bandage wet and you have to try to keep it as clean as you can, okay? Listen to your dad and do what he says.”
“Okay.” Tanner wiggled off the exam bench. “Can I go ask Carol for my sucker now?”
“Sure. Tell her a big brave kid like you deserves two suckers.”
“And a sticker?”
Jake hammed a put-upon sigh. “I guess.”
Tanner raised his bandaged hand into the air with delight then rushed out of the exam room, leaving Wade alone with his younger brother.
Unlike old Doc Jorgensen who had run the clinic when they were kids—with his gnarled hands and breath that always smelled of the spearmint toothpicks he chewed—Jake didn’t wear a white lab coat in the office. The stethoscope around his neck and the shirt pocket full of tongue depressors gave him away, though.
Wade watched his brother type a few things onto a slender laptop computer—notes for Tanner’s chart—and wondered how the little pest in hand-me-down boots and a too-big cowboy hat who used to follow him around the ranch when they were kids had grown into this confident, competent physician.
This wasn’t a life Wade would have chosen, either for himself or for his brother, but he had always known Jake hadn’t been destined to stay on the ranch. His middle brother was three years younger than he was and, as long as Wade could remember, Jake had carried big dreams inside himself.
He had always read everything he could find and had rarely been without a book in his hand. Whether they’d been waiting at the end of the long drive for the school bus or taking a five minute break from fixing fence lines, Jake had filled every spare moment with learning.
Wade had powerful memories of going on roundup more than once with Jake when his brother would look for strays with one eye and keep the other on the book he’d held.
He loved him. He just never claimed to understand him.
But there was not one second when he’d been anything less than proud of Jake for his drive and determination, for the compassion and caring he showed to the people of Pine Gulch, and
