Ox slid his phone back in his pocket. Four texts to Emmie. No calls back.

Dammit.

She was probably busy. And she hated talking on the phone. Friday was one of her busiest days, and it wasn’t as if she ever sat around. If she wasn’t talking to customers, she was ordering books or contacting other local businesses or organizing book clubs or writing newsletters. Friday morning was story hour. The store was probably packed. He loved seeing her read with the little kids and usually made an excuse to be there even if it was before his normal hours. This rockslide was kicking his ass.

Cary backed up the loader with another bucketful. A sudden rainstorm in the mountains had brought a rush of mud and rocks down in the upper pasture, killing one of the steers while also taking out a good forty yards of fencing. They couldn’t fix it without clearing out the rocks and also shoring up the hillside. Melissa and Cary had taken the lead on the project, leaving Ox to juggle the rest of the ranch with his mom.

It was hard to remember his mother was in her late sixties when she still worked a ten-hour day. He’d been nearly out the door to Metlin that morning when she’d had a dizzy spell. His mom claimed she was fine, but Ox wanted her to go to the doctor. She’d refused so far, so Ox was trying to get his sister on board. He’d ridden Melissa’s horse out to the pasture since Melissa had taken the truck and the trailer with supplies to repair the fence.

Ox stood next to his sister as they watched their neighbor work the tractor. “Has Mom had dizzy spells before?”

Melissa frowned. “Every now and then, but you know mom. She’s always going ninety miles an hour. It’s probably just age. I need to hire someone to help around the farm.”

“I can help more.”

“You have your own business.” She glanced at him, wiping a smear of mud across her cheek. “Speaking of, why aren’t you there?”

“’Cause Mom practically fell over in the kitchen?”

“She says she’s iron deficient.”

“Bullshit, Lissa. The woman eats red meat five times a week.”

Cary yelled for Melissa, who went running across the field to find out why he’d stopped.

A few more minutes and they’d cleared enough of the rocks to repair the fence. Cary and Melissa started working, forgetting all about Ox, who mounted Melissa’s mare, Moxie, and headed back to the house.

His mom was taking a nap when he arrived. He checked in on her and closed the door to her bedroom before he went to put Moxie in the stable and collect the eggs his mom hadn’t had time to grab that morning. Melissa needed to put her foot down with Abby. When he was Abby’s age, he was doing twice as many chores.

Not your kid, Ox.

He had a sudden vision of Emmie cuddled under a blanket with a book and a little girl with red-brown hair, whispering as she read a story.

Fuck him, he was so gone for the chick. And he was completely fucking it up. He really wanted her to call him back. He didn’t want to text her that something was going on with his mom. He wanted to hear her voice. He’d been going to call the night before, but he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Then this morning, he’d been rushing to finish chores and get out of the house. Then his mom had fallen and he’d freaked out.

He was fucking it up. His clients would be cool, but Emmie?

She liked schedules and spreadsheets. She kept a damn time card for herself and didn’t close the shop until precisely eight on the dot. It was fucking adorable until he had to think about the ranch. Cows didn’t keep time cards. The weather didn’t shut down. Ranch life would drive Emmie crazy.

You’re not a rancher, remember?

He kicked the mud off his boots before he entered the barn. He sure felt like a rancher that morning. And four unanswered texts were taunting him.

Maybe he should back off. They were only starting out, after all. They’d gone on a couple of dates and they’d been amazing, but Emmie was a cautious girl, and he was supposed to be taking his time, right? As for the business, he was her tenant, not her partner. It was one of the reasons he wanted to work for himself. So that he could make his own schedule.

He’d wait for Emmie to text him. He’d be able to make it into INK tomorrow, and then he’d fill her in. If she called, she called, but he didn’t want to assume she was spending all day thinking about him. Not when she had a life. He wasn’t some inconsiderate fuck who expected his girl’s world to revolve around him.

Ox glanced at his phone again. He tried to convince himself that the unanswered texts didn’t mean anything. He and Emmie were fine. The shop was fine.

His mom… was not fine.

Ox paced in the emergency room of Metlin General Hospital with Abby sleeping on his shoulder, his adrenaline still racing from the drive into town. It was a fucking miracle he hadn’t been pulled over.

“Mr. Oxford, can you tell me when her symptoms started?”

He rubbed his eyes. “Uh… this morning?”

“Was that the first nosebleed?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. She didn’t have a nosebleed this morning. Her nose started bleeding at the dinner table. She had other symptoms earlier in the day. She was dizzy. Had a headache. Is that what you’re talking about?”

“Yes. You’re very lucky,” the nurse said. “I know it might not seem like that right now, but you are. Your mother had symptoms that brought her into the hospital to get checked out. Many people with high blood pressure have no symptoms at all.”

“Right.” He didn’t feel lucky. He felt fucking panicked. Melissa was back with his mom while he was out talking with the nurse and taking care of Abby. His mom’s nose had started bleeding at the dinner table. Her eyes had rolled back and she’d slumped forward. Abby had started crying, and Melissa had immediately jumped into action. They’d driven their mom into town in the truck, breaking every speed limit in the county while Melissa was on the phone with the hospital. Ox and Melissa both knew waiting for an ambulance to get to the ranch would take too long.

“Is there any news yet?” Ox asked. “Has her blood pressure stabilized?”

“I believe so, but this kind of attack spurs a number of different tests to check for related conditions. The doctors are going to want to check her heart especially and make sure there are no cardiac problems related to her blood pressure. She’ll be here for a while. Do you know when her last cardiac stress test was?”

“I don’t know.”

“Her last physical?”

“She never tells me about her doctor’s appointments.” He rubbed Abby’s back. “You might have better luck asking my sister.”

“Okay.”

Ox took a seat, giving his arms a rest. Abby was a little thing, but carrying her for hours hadn’t been easy. The little girl must have remembered more about her father’s death than they realized. She was shaking as soon as they entered the emergency room and hadn’t said a word since. Melissa was taking care of their mom, so Ox did the only thing he could think of. He held his niece like he had when she’d been a tiny girl and Calvin had been the one in emergency surgery.

Not the same. Not the same. His mom was going to be fine.

High blood pressure was common, right? Treatable. Hell, Cary had high blood pressure, and he wasn’t even fifty. It was genetic. His mom probably just needed to eat less eggs and stop using lard in her pie crusts.

Abby let out a huge sigh, and Ox felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He couldn’t reach it without disturbing Abby, so he ignored it. Cary would call Melissa. Ox wanted to call Emmie, but what could she do? He’d just be dumping a whole ton of worries on her when she had plenty of her own to deal with. She’d lost her grandmother less than a year ago. She didn’t need to worry about Ox’s mom. He’d explain later and she’d understand.

He was tempted to call and see if Abby could sleep at the shop, but it was after midnight. He didn’t want Abby waking somewhere where Ox wasn’t, and he didn’t want to leave Melissa and his mom. So he leaned against the wall, held Abby, and closed his eyes, hoping he could get a little sleep.

It was going to be okay. It was all going to be okay. He’d make sure of it.