“Ember, I’ve got to head back. There’s a calf that needs tending. Bert’s wife can stay with the babies for a few minutes. Did you...want to come with me and see the barn? Or stay longer here at church? Should be a good potluck...”
“I’ll come,” she said, and he felt a funny wave of comfort at those words. He shouldn’t be getting attached—she was certainly not a permanent fixture in his life. If anything, she’d be the one to push him out of this little church he loved so well and into another county with another ranch to be managed.
And yet having her at his side was strangely comforting. He’d need to get his head on straight with that.
The sky was overcast as they stepped outside. Two hours had made all the difference, and now the day looked gray and chilly. The cloud cover hung low, and Casey was confident they’d have rain before the day was through. Good. The land needed it. There were vast fields of crops and pasture depending on spring showers, and he’d never been one to be depressed by rain. Rain meant farming success, and the promise of a downpour always cheered him right up.
They got the babies back into their car seats and within a few minutes they were heading down the highway again, back toward the ranch.
“Does Mr. Vern normally attend that church?” Ember asked.
“Yeah, normally,” he said. “He must be wanting some time to himself, what with all the hard stuff with Linda lately.”
“He came back late last night. It was past midnight.” She looked out the window, and her face was shielded from his view. “I was already in bed, but I wasn’t sleeping. I think he wanted to be alone anyway. He made it pretty clear before that he didn’t want to talk about it.”
“It’s a tough time for him,” Casey said.
“I know.” She glanced back and cast him a small smile. “And not every man likes to talk. That’s okay. I can slide into work mode pretty easily, and I don’t take it personally. It’s the therapist in me that wants to help. That’s all.”
Work mode. Yesterday, that talk they’d had that had made him feel so much better about raising two boys on his own had felt more personal. She had her own pain, too, and she’d been opening up to him little by little. It didn’t feel like a professional divide between them. But maybe that was just him not used to therapists and the like. This mess of feelings—that was all part of the job for her.
“So how do you separate that out?” he asked. “The work mode versus, I don’t know, like, real human connections.”
“When I’m working, people come to me for my unbiased perspective,” she replied.
“Like I did,” he clarified.
“I suppose.”
“And when it’s more personal?” He glanced over at her, and he realized he cared about this answer a whole lot.
“They want my bias,” she said with a small smile, and he couldn’t help but smile back.
“Okay.” Casey turned onto the road leading up to the barn. Professional—that was what this was, and he had to remember that. Even if having this woman so close the last couple of days was starting to make those lines feel blurred. It was the childcare—that was the great equalizer, it seemed. Add to that, she was beautiful in the most disarming way...
Casey stopped at his house, where Bert’s wife, Fiona, was already waiting. She happily took over with the boys and waved Casey back out of the house.
“The sooner you sort things out, the sooner you’ll be back,” she said with a good-natured smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’m happy to snuggle some babies.”
Casey got back into the truck where Ember was waiting, and the gravel crunched under his tires as he turned again out onto the road that led down toward the cow barn.
“I haven’t given you a tour of the cow barn yet,” Casey said as he steered around a pothole and stepped on the gas.
“That’s true...” She glanced over at him. “Not that it will matter much for my purposes.”
Casey was silent for a moment, but something had occurred to him...something he could choose to conceal. That would be more convenient for his own goals. Still, he’d promised honesty. “There might be some better-preserved records in Cascade County,” he said. “I knew a guy who was researching his ancestry, and he found some information that way. No promise that they’ll have what you’re looking for, but it’s something.”
She brightened. “Thanks, Casey. I’ll try that tomorrow morning. I can send some emails and make a few calls. Sunday should be rest...technically.”
“Yeah, not for a cowboy.” He shot her a smile.
“What happened with the calf?” she asked after a beat of silence.
“I’m not sure. We’ve got an orphaned calf is all I know.”
She was more relaxed out here in the truck, away from everyone else. She seemed different alone with him, and he wondered if she shared his affinity for quiet and for the fresh afternoon air coming in through the partially opened window. Was it petty of him to hope that her search in Cascade would end up in his favor? He was supposed to be on the side of truth, not just on his own side.
They drove in silence the rest of the way, and Casey pulled to a stop outside the barn then put the truck into Park. They both got out, and Casey glanced up at the sky. A chilly wind was blowing, and the clouds were moving at a pretty good rate overhead. Maybe that rain would come faster than he’d thought.
“So this barn was built about twelve years ago,” Casey said as he came around the truck and met her on the other side. “The original barn that was in
