These Ties That Bind

“There will be two of us caring for Nell,” Sara explained. “You’ll have one full-time nurse, and I’ll be working part-time.”

“We’ll see.”

Free of yesterday’s emotional overload, Rem got his first good look at Sara.

She never changed. The conservative clothing did nothing to brighten a dull landscape. With her brown hair pulled back hard enough to draw tears, she looked all business. Would a little lipstick hurt?

Her legs, though… Her legs were her best feature, not long, but damned perfect. Her slightly pigeon-toed walk, that minor vulnerability in a capable woman, had always charmed him, as had her hint of an overbite.

She watched him with a solemn gaze in that unremarkable face. “I’ll try to stay out of your way.”

She climbed the steps to the veranda and gestured with her head toward the hallway. “May I see her?”

Rem stepped aside and she brushed past him.

“Ma’s in the dining room,” Rem said. “You remember where it is?”

She nodded. Of course she would. She’d been here last summer to nurse him after the stabbing at Chester’s. That had been a rough time. He hadn’t forgotten a thing that had happened between them in those days while he recovered.

On the day that Timm had driven him home from the hospital, Sara had arrived to take care of him. After Timm had left, Sara had crawled into bed beside Rem and had held him while he’d slept.

In those days that Sara had nursed him, Finn had stayed with her mom. Rem’s own mother hadn’t said a word about Sara being on the Caldwell ranch and spending so much time in Rem’s room. He suspected that Nell would have loved for them to have married. Maybe last summer she’d hoped it was finally going to happen.

Anyway, Rem had needed a caregiver. Ma had already had a stroke and couldn’t have nursed him back to health.

Then there’d been that night a week or so after the stabbing when they’d made love, carefully so he wouldn’t hurt his healing wound. And tenderly, because they’d both known how easily that biker’s knife could have killed him.

Getting close to him had scared her, though, and she’d packed up, had taken Finn and had run away to Bozeman. The woman was a coward.

When Sara passed him to walk into the house, something scented with lily of the valley swirled around her.

She used to smell like sunshine, fresh air and kid sweat. Now she simply smelled feminine.

Just inside the dining room door, he pulled up short, Ma’s new appearance catching him off guard again. He kept expecting to see her old self, but she looked like she didn’t weigh much more than a handful of green beans.

He felt his eyes water and blinked hard. Shoot.

When Sara saw his mother, her face lit up and she looked younger.

Sara bent forward and wrapped Ma in a hug. “I’m going to be one of your caregivers.”

When she pulled away, Ma’s pleasure in seeing her was obvious. She loved Sara, and wasn’t that a kicker because it meant there was no way Rem was going to boot Sara out as one of Ma’s nurses. Ma’s joy would make having to put up with Sara worthwhile.

It also made him sad, made him rue that horrible day when Timm had been burned. If that accident hadn’t happened, would Sara be living here now as his wife? Would he have been a father to his son all along?

What-ifs weren’t worth a hell of a lot, though, were they? They just left a person regretful.

“I’m going to make you better,” Sara said, smiling and rubbing Ma’s hands.

Really, Sara? You do that and I’ll kiss your feet.

When Sara pulled a nightgown from a stack of clean laundry Rem had put in the room last night and then started to remove Ma’s clothes, he rushed outside.

The nitty-gritty of having Ma home overwhelmed him. He didn’t have a clue how to take care of a sick woman.

His cell phone rang.

“Rem, it’s Max Golden. Got a problem with a horse. Can you take a look at her today?”

“I can come now.”

Rem ended the call and went to the kitchen to rummage in the fridge for a carrot or two.