revert to the developer and half our boys will lose their places at the ranch.”
Wyatt cringed in sympathy for his friend. Talk about a tough position to be in. He wouldn’t want to be in Gabe’s shoes right now, with the entire future of the boys ranch now dependent on his ability to find a man who had disappeared off the planet years ago.
Harold’s steady gaze met Gabe’s. “I’m not saying ’tis or ’tisn’t. We won’t know until I open the letter on the day of the party.”
“At which point it will be too late for us to try to change things,” Bea said with a groan, swiping a tired hand down her face.
“And that is exactly why we can’t let that happen,” Gabe said determinedly. “We’ve come too far to see this endeavor fall apart now. Somehow, I’ve got to find my grandfather and make this right.”
“I know I’m new to all of this,” Carolina said hesitantly, “but please feel free to call upon me if I can be of any assistance. I don’t know what, if anything, I can do to help you, Gabe, but you’ve got my support any way you need it.”
“Yeah,” added Wyatt. “Same goes for me.”
Wyatt’s eyes met Carolina’s and their eyes locked. They had their own set of problems to wade through, and the water was deep and murky.
Bea knocked her fist twice on the desk and stood, effectively ending the meeting. Folks started shuffling out of the office. Wyatt lingered so he could walk out directly after Carolina.
“I want to get to know my son,” he said as soon as they cleared the building. “Spend some quality time with him.”
The gaze Carolina flashed him was a combination of annoyance, frustration, hesitation and panic.
It was the hesitation that hit him hardest.
What? She didn’t think he could handle Matty? That he didn’t have it in him to be a father?
He frowned, all of his muscles tensing in response. He pressed his own fears aside in favor of feeling downright insulted by her attitude.
She didn’t trust him with his own son? Granted, he knew nothing about children, but he’d been caring for animals all his life. He could be gentle.
If anything, she was the one who’d proven herself untrustworthy.
“Look. Not today,” she said at last.
He clenched his fists to keep from barking out a rebuttal. At the moment, she was holding all the cards, and he felt entirely powerless.
“When, then?”
She sighed deeply, sounding bone weary. “I don’t know, Wyatt. I just got into town. I haven’t even set up house yet at my uncle’s cabin, just a bunch of boxes in the living room and mattresses on the floor for Matty and me. It’s going to take a while. And I’m still looking for a job.”
“You’re a registered nurse. You ought to be able to find employment around here easily enough. Have you checked at the hospital yet?”
Her eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips for a moment before answering. “Like I said—I’m looking. I’ll let you know when I’ve found something suitable.”
She sounded as if she doubted her own training and competence. Which was ridiculous. He might not be too thrilled with her personally right now, but he knew her to be an excellent nurse. She’d taken the very best care of his gran in her time of need, so much so that Gran had refused another nurse after Carolina had left.
Several other nurses, actually. No one could live up to the bar Carolina had set.
Surely any nearby medical facility would pick her up in a second. Nurses were always in shortage, especially good ones.
Maybe she was just trying to throw their conversation off track. He wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Fine. I understand that you need to have the opportunity to work out all the details of your move to Haven. But I want an exact date and time when you will bring Matty to meet me, and it has to be soon.”
“I said I don’t know,” she shot back, sounding thoroughly exasperated.
His dander rose. If she was irritated, that was all on her. He wasn’t being unreasonable in asking for time to get to know his son.
Carolina blew out a breath. “I promise I’ll call you just as soon as I get settled in. I suppose we can plan to set up a playdate at the park or something.”
His eyebrows rose.
A date? Really?
If she thought he’d be going on any kind of date with her, she was sadly mistaken.
She looked at him questioningly and then burst into nervous laughter.
“I’m not asking you out, Wyatt. A playdate is when kids get together at the park. In this case, it will be you and your son. You can push him on the swing or play in the sandbox.”
“Oh.” He felt deflated, somehow. What was up with that? He knew he would have a great time with Matty, but—
“I have to go get Matty. I’m sure that Katie is rethinking her offer to watch him right about now. He can really be a handful when he gets excited, and I’m guessing he’s over the moon about his first introduction to horses.”
That should have been him. Yet another first that got away from him. Wyatt was determined it wouldn’t happen again.
“But you’ll call me, right?” Wyatt reiterated, knowing he was pushing her but beyond caring. “Soon?”
He wasn’t sure he was ready to take on a handful of two-year-old energy any more than Katie was, but he would have to be ready. He would make himself ready.
He was a father now.
* * *
This was pointless.
Why was she even bothering to fill out an eight-page employment application at Haven’s local nursing home and hospice? Carolina already knew she wasn’t going to get the job. Probably not even an interview. She barely dared hope, and yet she had to try.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to worry about Matty while she searched in vain for employment in the medical field. She and Katie were becoming good friends, and Katie had offered to watch Matty at the boys ranch office while Carolina went job hunting, as futile as it no doubt would be.
When had she become a cup-half-empty type of person?
Probably when her cup drained to its dregs and she hadn’t seen a drop of liquid to fill it again.
No amount of previous background or additional skill sets could overcome the thorn in her side—or her knee, to be more accurate. She’d already been turned down by every other medical facility in the area, for the same reason she’d lost her job at the hospital in Colorado.
The need to be able to catch a fainting patient or respond to a slip and fall never even used to be a consideration for Carolina, much less a problem. She’d always kept herself in good shape with a gym membership that she actually used.
But then she’d made the mistake of going on a weekend ski trip with her roommate, Geena Walker. In hindsight, why she’d thought she ought to learn how to ski was beyond her comprehension. To be honest, she hadn’t even really been all that interested in the sport. At the time it had seemed like a good idea, a fun way to take a short vacation and spend a weekend trying something new. She was living in Colorado, after all. Snow meant skiing, right?
She’d taken an hour’s worth of quick instructional lessons, even though it was humiliating to be in a class of half-pint children who effortlessly picked up the necessary skills ten times faster than she did.
Afterward, she’d successfully skied the bunny slope a couple of times and thought she was ready to tackle a beginner’s run.