A few days later, Hayden was feeling well enough to venture out of the protective bubble of Austin’s apartment and start to properly introduce herself to his family. He’d left early that morning to help out with a fencing project that required all the ranch hands out in one of the pastures. He thought they might be done before lunch but hadn’t reappeared yet, so she decided to explore on her own.

She wrapped the last of the brownies she’d made in parchment paper then borrowed a pen from Austin’s desk. She grabbed two sticky notes and wrote Thank you! on one and Went to see your sister. Don’t worry, I saved the best ones for you. on the other. Then she drew a smiley face and an arrow. She set the second note on the counter and left the smaller packet of treats at the tip of it for Austin. Hopefully he liked the corner pieces as much as she did.

With a pat, she secured her note onto Hope’s parcel, checked her hair and lip gloss in her distorted reflection on the refrigerator door, and left her sanctuary.

She’d studied an aerial shot of the ranch on an online satellite map. Between that and the stories Austin had told her, she was almost certain she knew which direction to head for Compass Girl Row, where Hope lived with her husbands. Maybe she should have made a double batch of brownies.

Ah well, she figured the guys had learned to share long ago.

Hurrying, she kept her head down as she weaved between sheds and vehicles parked in the ranch lot. When she noticed the doors to the giant horse barn were flung open, she couldn’t resist a peek at the place so central to many of Austin’s tales. It seemed most everyone else was out and about, doing whatever it was their job to do on the ranch. At midday, no one was here.

So she tiptoed inside, planning to cut through the structure on her stroll to Hope’s house.

Hayden placed her palm on the central pillar as she looked around in awe. There had been weddings here. Fights. Hookups. Ranch meetings. Dances. All sorts of important moments.

Could this be a pivotal point in her own life?

Finding Austin had already altered her future. But how much exactly?

Over the past week they’d become inseparable. He’d encouraged her to concentrate exclusively on getting better. Now that she was moving in the right direction, it wouldn’t be long until she had to make some tough decisions and start the next phase of her life, whatever that might look like.

Would it be wrong to make the most of their limited time together? Though they’d slept together the past several nights, nothing improper had happened despite her less than subtle hints that she’d be up for it if it did.

Tonight, she would attempt to be more persuasive.

What was wrong with blowing off steam with a man she was extremely attracted to? One who wouldn’t tangle her in strings, and one she wouldn’t ever see again after this too-brief intermission was over? He’d proved over and over that he would never hurt her. Intimacy with him would be unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Not that that was saying a lot since Bobby Joe was the only guy she’d ever been with and, well… Right.

Hayden drew a deep breath, then patted the support beam holding everything up. Holding it together. Right now, Austin was that solid structure in her life. What would happen when she didn’t have him to rely on anymore?

“Hey, is that you?” Speak of the cowboy.

Hayden spun toward the back door. An enormous smile stretched her cheeks. It seemed like her face did it automatically whenever he was around. “Hi. I hope it’s okay for me to be in here.”

“Of course.” He sauntered to her then wrapped her in his arms. “Is it everything I made it out to be?”

“Hmm…I’m not sure. I heard it’s a pretty good spot to fool around. Why don’t you show me the hayloft?” Hayden couldn’t believe she’d been bold enough to ask.

“Did you mean that like it sounded?” His eyes darkened.

She nodded. “Uh huh.”

Austin lunged for her. He tossed her over his shoulder then strode toward a ladder. She never did get to find out exactly how he planned to climb it while carrying her, though.

A groan stopped him in his tracks.

As they froze and listened, a shuffling came from a stall nearby.

Though it would have been wise to run away from whatever was causing the disturbance, Austin set her down gently then crept closer instead. She followed, coaching herself not to scream if a rat ran past.

It wasn’t a rodent causing the disturbance.

A pair of weathered boots peeked out from an open door beside a pitchfork that looked as if it had fallen haphazardly. One of the boots slid against the dirt floor as if the person was attempting to stand or at least gain some traction.

“What the fuck?” Austin hissed as he bolted into the shadowy area.

Hayden ran after him, alarmed by the pitch of his voice.

“Shit shit shit!” Hearing the alarm ringing through his shout injected ice into Hayden’s veins. If Austin, who wasn’t afraid of anything, was scared…something was really wrong.

A strangled grunt was the only response. So she rushed in beside Austin, only to discover an elderly man lying on the ground. He’d obviously fallen there since his cowboy hat had flown off his head and landed a few feet away. His left hand clutched his skull. He moaned again.

Not the sort of moan you make when you’re having a nightmare or the kind she’d sometimes heard from herself when her ulcers had been in full force. This was a horrible sound she’d never quite get out of her brain now that it had attacked her ears.

“Oh my God. Is he okay?” It was a stupid question since he writhed in agony. His long silver hair and beard along with the deep grooves in his leathery face made her pretty sure she knew who he was, too. “Jake?”

His eyes opened, unevenly. His mouth drooped on one side as he tried to talk.

Austin skidded to his knees beside the man. Leaning over him, she could barely make out his garbled question when he asked, “Who that? Angel?”

“I’m nobody.” She crouched on his other side, grasping his hand. It was freezing. “Hang on. I’ll get help.”

“Don’t go.” His steely grip surprised her given the ashen cast to his face and his labored breathing. “Not dyin’ alone.”

“No, you’re not doing that at all.” Austin shook him slightly. “You’re going to be fine. I’ll call for Hope or someone. Viho. Anyone.”

Hayden looked over her shoulder. There wasn’t a single person in the shady interior of the barn or outside its doors, in the bright sunlight.

“Give me your phone.” She stuck out her hand in Austin’s general direction and curled her fingers toward her palm a few times.

He tossed the device to her and she concentrated on stilling the violent trembling of her fingers long enough to dial 911. Was this how Austin had felt the other day?

Jake smiled softly at Austin before a grimace mangled half of the gentle curve of his lips. “Tell them all…I love them.”

The man jackknifed up from the ground, his spine crimping as he dropped their fingers to clutch his head in both hands. He gasped. Flopped around some, scattering hay around him. Then went limp with his mouth cracked open. Eerily still.

It was his eyes that would haunt her. She saw them dilate as the life went out of him.

“Help!” Austin screamed despite the fact that no one would be able to change what had just happened. “Someone please help us!”

“Austin? Is that you?” A booming voice Hayden didn’t recognize was followed by the thuds caused by someone running toward them.

Meanwhile the phone connected. She did her best to calmly relay pertinent information to the operator despite the chaos and confusion swirling around her.

“Viho! In here!” Austin hugged Jake tight, pressing his ear to the still man’s chest. “I can’t hear his heartbeat! Damn it. Jake! Come on!”

Hayden’s own chest ached as she watched her rescuer fall apart.

It only got worse when a man with long, straight black hair and the most gorgeous, rich complexion she’d ever seen joined them. It was his eyes, though, that made her sure. This was Jake’s biological son.

She made room for the man, who took cues from Austin. He put his hand in front of Jake’s mouth, then groaned. “He’s not breathing.”

The men blinked utterly in shock. Seeing two such capable guys powerless, at a loss for what to do, killed her. She filled in the emergency responder, spelling out what she had seen as Viho ripped his father’s shirt open and started administering CPR.

Austin helped as best he could. His motions were wooden and jerky.

Hayden didn’t stop them. Didn’t want there to be any doubt in their minds later.

The outcome wasn’t about to change, though. They were cowboys, not miracle workers.

“He had a massive stroke. He…”

“No, don’t say it!” Austin nudged Jake lightly. His surrogate grandfather’s arms wiggled like the dead weight they were. “He can’t be gone!”

Hayden turned her attention from Jake to Austin, who needed her a hell of a lot more right then. She stood behind him with her hand on his shoulder as he began to gasp. His back heaved. She thought he might get sick.

“The ambulance is on its way. I’m sending the coroner also,” the operator informed her. “Do you need me to stay on the line until they get there?”

“Thank you, no.” She hung up then, her sole focus on helping Austin survive the next few seconds, then minutes.

When Viho abandoned his efforts, Austin dove over Jake’s body as if he was going to take up where his friend had left off. Viho stopped him with a firm grip on his forearm.

“He’s gone, Austin. Stop.” Viho’s monotone command held no anger. “I…I swear I felt him leaving. That’s why I came over here. I just had…a feeling. One I never want to have again. Like he was calling me.”

“He said he loves you. All of you.” Hayden’s gaze wavered between Viho and Austin. She wished her arms were long enough to hold them both at the same time from opposite sides of the stall.

“Shit, no. No!” Austin bent in half, his forehead resting on Jake’s shoulder, his fists pounding the ground until she feared they’d leave bloody streaks in the dirt.

Viho, on the other hand, bowed his head and began to chant in a native language that Hayden couldn’t understand. Whatever he kept repeating sounded like a beautiful though heartrending sendoff for Jake’s spirit.

One by one, other ranch hands trickled into the barn as they got wind of something happening.

Soon they crammed shoulder to shoulder behind Viho and Austin. Every last one of them took his hat off and stared as they said a silent farewell. Respect and sorrow oozed from each of the tough workers. Hayden’s heart cracked more and more for Austin and his family.

The loss would be as devastating to their community as chopping down the center post of the barn would be to this building.

Austin looked up to meet her stare directly. He rose slowly to his feet. It freaked her out even more to see him blank out than it had when he’d erupted with motion. “Can you please go find my dads? There’s a four-wheeler in the shed out back. The keys are in the seat. They’re finishing up in the field near the ridge to the north. Drive along the fence line straight toward it. You won’t miss them.”

Though she hated to leave him, she’d do anything to get him through this. If he needed his family, she would bring them. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

Hayden flung her arms around him and tried to hold him as tightly as possible. He hugged her, too. Briefly, before he made a circuit around the tiny room. He kicked a bucket which made her jump when it clattered down the hall between the stalls. Then he returned to Jake’s side as if he might suddenly think of something else to try. He didn’t.

There wasn’t anything a mere mortal could do. Jake’s time had run out.

Hopefully Vicky and JD were there to welcome him, wherever he’d gone.

Austin spread his arms wide, grabbed the bars on the stall door, and let his head hang toward his chest. He croaked, “I can’t believe this is real. Did this really just happen? What do I do now?”

He uttered words she’d thought herself often over the past week. First after her fight, the wild ride in Austin’s truck, her performance at the Crispy Biscuit, learning her father had passed away, and now this. The blows kept coming.

“Austin.” She raced to him and rubbed his back. It seemed to calm him some. “It did. I’m so sorry. I’m going to get your parents. They’ll know what to do. Okay?”

She couldn’t even give him the comfort of saying Jake hadn’t suffered. Instead, she touched his face lightly and promised. “I’ll go as fast as I can. And when I get back, I’m not leaving your side. Just like you never left mine. I’m here for you. Completely.”

He would survive like she had, with the love and support of his family and friends, Hayden included. She turned to go.

Austin clasped her hand and lifted it to his mouth, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

It broke her heart when his glassy stare met hers and he nodded. “Hurry.”