“I’m a licensed therapist,” Ember said after a moment. “If you wanted to talk about it—”
“No,” Mr. Vern said with a bitter laugh. “I appreciate the offer, young lady, but I don’t need to be asked how I feel. I know how I feel, and I don’t want to talk about it. I’ll go visit my wife. She’ll be sedated, but I think there will be a part of her that will know I’m there.”
Ember fell into silence, and Casey met her gaze for a moment. She needed to understand that people out here were different. Tougher, maybe, and more self-sufficient. She was right that everyone had their personal issues, but not everyone wanted to talk about it. Sometimes, a man just needed enough dirt under his boots to soak up the pain.
“I’m sorry—” Mr. Vern stood up. “I hope you’ll understand if I head down to the city now. It’s a long drive, and I need to see Linda for myself—know that she’s okay. You stay and eat. Just lock up on your way out, if you don’t mind, Casey.”
Casey pushed back his chair. “Absolutely, sir. Do what you need to do.”
That kind of love was a precious thing, and while the price was this kind of heartbreak at the end of that love story, it made a life deeper and more meaningful for the years of devotion.
Casey had two little babies waiting for him back at his house, boys he’d determined to raise, and he wondered if they’d creep into his heart like that...become his meaning for all the hard work. Because that was what a family was, wasn’t it? And he was doing his best—taking care of the babies, trying to arrange things so that he could give them the best childhood possible. He’d be their dad—or at the very least he’d be the only dad they’d remember. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take before they truly felt like his.
Chapter Five
They finished eating after Mr. Vern left, then wrapped up the leftover food and put it in the fridge. Mr. Vern would be hungry eventually, and Ember wondered if there was any way she could help this man in his time of need. Except he didn’t want her help—that seemed to be a theme out here. Even Casey didn’t seem to want her well-intentioned offering of a job. Would it be so miserable to work with her for a little while until he sorted out something better? She didn’t want to turn his life upside down. She was trying to be reasonable here.
Before they left to go back to Casey’s house, Ember made some phone calls to two different local historical societies. She’d asked them to look into the records to see who owned this plot of land going back as far as possible. So far, they had owners going back seventy-five years, but back in 1981, there was a big flood that had damaged a lot of the antique records. She’d hoped that coming out here might give her access to records that weren’t readily available online, but that didn’t look likely right now.
“Any news?” Casey asked her when she hung up after her last call.
“No,” she admitted with a sigh. “But I’m not giving up quite yet.”
“Didn’t think you would.” He smiled ruefully. “Let’s get back to the house.”
Once at the ranch manager’s house, Bert left for his own shift at work, leaving Ember and Casey alone with the infants. Ember ruminated over her challenge to find some evidence about who settled this land while she focused on the tasks at hand: diapers, bottles, sleeping. Casey put in a load of laundry, and Ember set to washing a sink load of baby bottles. She’d known it wouldn’t be easy to track her family’s holdings, but it seemed like every time she had an idea, she hit another roadblock.
And while she agonized over her own problems, that old rancher was off visiting his ailing wife. She felt a pang at her own selfishness. Was that the Reed in her?
“I feel for Mr. Vern,” Ember said, raising her voice a little so that Casey could hear her in the other room.
“Me, too,” Casey said, and he ambled over to the doorway of the kitchen. “This is a tough time for him.”
“How long have he and his wife been married?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Since they were about 18, I think. He told me once that he met her in high school.”
“That’s sweet... I come across couples who have been together since high school in my practice. It used to be a regular occurrence. Not anymore.”
“You mean marriages lasting that long?” Casey asked.
“Marriages that started that young that last so long,” she amended. “But when it lasts, there is a really beautiful bond that only comes with time together.”
“But the ones you’re seeing are coming for therapy,” Casey pointed out.
“I never said it had to be marriage counseling,” she said, shooting him a rueful smile over her shoulder. “The last couple I met with who had been together that long were working through grief over the loss of—” She swallowed, biting off the words.
“Loss of what?” Casey prodded.
“Family land,” she finished, and a wash of guilt came over her. Land could mean something to various different people, but only one person could actually own it. It didn’t matter who won this—someone else would lose.
Even in adoption, in order for Pastor Mitchell and his wife to adopt her son, she’d had to give him up. And they’d been trying for a decade to get pregnant, they told her. Nothing had worked. The wife—Sue—had told Ember a little bit about her struggle. She said that all she’d ever wanted was a big family...
Ember’s mind continued to wander as she plunged her rubber-gloved hands into the hot, sudsy water. In order for Ember to gain some feeling of connection to her biological father,
