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At the stable where he usually kissed her and told her to have a good day, he pulled her against his chest and touched his lips to hers. After a slow, meandering kiss, he pulled away and whispered, “Have a good day, baby doll.”
She held onto his shoulders, his arm in the sling sandwiched between them. “I am not out of your league, Michael.” She looked up at him, her eyes somber but just as fierce as when she got mad and let the blue fire burn in them. “Promise me you don’t really think that.”
“I promise,” he whispered.
“That’s a weak promise.”
He rubbed his nose against hers. “I like it when you use my full name.”
“Michael,” she said, this time a chastisement.
He grinned anyway. “Gerty, I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re fine.” He pulled back and studied her. “Right?”
“I’m going to call Opal and give her a piece of my mind.” Gerty stepped out of his arms, the fire in her eyes.
“Gerty, don’t do that.” They couldn’t seem to get on the same page today, and Mike didn’t know what to do about it. Maybe nothing. Maybe this was just how relationships were. He hadn’t had too many serious ones, and never with anyone as headstrong and capable and talented as Gertrude Whettstein.
“We’ll have dinner tonight,” he tried. “I’ll pick you up like a gentleman, and we’ll go to Hilde’s.” He reached out and touched her chin with two fingers when she kept her gaze out in the pastures instead of on him. She swung her head toward him. “All right? Hilde’s tonight?”
“All right,” she agreed with a heavy sigh. “Have fun at the office.”
“Baby doll.” He grinned and shook his head. “There’s never any fun in offices.” He kissed her again and went back to his cabin, where his new truck waited in the dirt driveway out front.
“Lord,” he prayed. But no more words would come. He had no idea what to talk about, and it felt like God had already leant him an angel in Gerty, so how could he ask for more?
“This is hard,” he whispered as he backed out of the driveway. “I’m trying to be brave. I’m trying to lean on my faith, but I feel lost. How can I still feel lost?”
He’d been given so much. His life, when others had lost theirs. An amazing surgeon, when others couldn’t afford it. An opening in the schedule, when others waited months for treatment. A good family, friends, a job.
He had nothing to complain about, and yet pure misery streamed through him as his shoulder continued to throb while he drove off the farm and onto the highway. Another wave of helplessness crashed over him, and Mike gripped the steering wheel as tightly as he dared.
“Help me,” he begged, and in that moment, his phone rang. He glanced over to the screen in the middle of the dashboard, and it said “Daddy” there. Mike pulled to the side of the road, because he couldn’t see through the instant tears in his eyes.
God had answered his prayers, and he didn’t care if he was late getting to HMC. He needed to talk everything through with his father. He swiped on the call and said, “Daddy,” in a broken voice.
His father didn’t hesitate for one second before he said, “I’ll be there by three.”
* * *
“And that’s Mister Ellory,”Hunter said from the doorway of his office. His smile hadn’t hitched in the last two hours since the stuffy corporate lawyer had come in, clutching an armful of folders and making an email from a company in China sound like the biggest deal on the planet.
Hunt had known what Mr. Ellory was talking about, and he’d asked heaps of questions. Mike had no idea—absolutely no idea—what most of it had been about, and he didn’t want to ask. Exhaustion tumbled through him, and he really just wanted to go home.
His head ached, and he hadn’t found any time to call Collin and ask about the physical therapy.
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for this job,” he blurted out.
Hunter turned back from the doorway, took one look at Mike, and closed his office door behind him. “Sure, you are,” he said with plenty of confidence in his voice. “You were born to do this job.”
He gave Mike a hearty smile and instead of clapping him on the back and continuing to his desk, Hunter pulled him into a hug. “It’s a lot to take in, I know that. That’s why you’ll come to work with me over the next several months, and you’ll start to take on tasks of your own while I’m still here.”
“Hunter,” Mike said into his cousin’s shoulder, but he didn’t have anything else to say.
The older man stepped back, wisdom and laughter in the lines around his eyes. “Michael, I don’t care what anyone says, and I know how you feel about yourself.Youare the man for this job.”
“You should call Easton,” Mike said miserably. Since he’d broken down on the phone call with his father that morning, his tear ducts had thankfully stayed dry.
“This office would eat Easton alive,” Hunter said with a laugh. “Nope. It’s you, and I’ve known it since last year.” He did move over to his desk then, but only to stand behind it and look out the floor-to-ceiling windows.
