Nicole’s appetite for the fried chicken in a waffle cone had fled about the time Boone had asked “You don’t date?” in such an incredulous tone.

As if she were lying to him. As if she had men beating down her door every night.

The very idea was laughable. Most men in this town didn’t even know she existed.

And no, she hadn’t been nice to him, and she needed to do something about it. An apology. An explanation. Maybe she should even beg for his forgiveness.

Problem was, she didn’t want to admit to him that she’d tried to buy the clinic and couldn’t get the funding. It was a blow that still hit her hard in the lungs, making it hard to breathe and talk normally.

So she squeezed his hand and said, “I’ll tell you soon.”

He inched forward in the line, and it was almost their turn. “Does that mean you’ll maybe come to dinner at my place tonight?”

“Tonight?” She looked fully at him, which was probably a big mistake. His eyes were so dark and so dreamy, and she couldn’t look directly at him without getting stunned. “I don’t think I can tonight.”

“What are you doing?”

“Just going to see my parents.”

“After that then.”

Nicole looked at him, wondering if he really was interested in her. He certainly seemed to be. She reached up with her free hand and cradled his face.

“You really want to?” she asked.

“Why is that a surprise to you?”

She’d already told him she didn’t date. “It just seems odd, don’t you think?” she asked. “We’ve worked together for a year, and there’s never been this—” She silenced her voice before she could give validity to the very strong and hot spark between them.

“This what?” he asked, half a frown sitting between his eyebrows.

“This…thing between us.”

Boone shrugged. “Sometimes God works in mysterious ways.” He stepped up to the window and ordered two of their cones, paid, and moved aside.

She went with him, enjoying the width of his shoulders and steadiness of his character. What she used to find annoying, she now found attractive. What she’d once found irritating, she found exciting.

And what had changed? She’d worn her hair down to the dog park and spoken kindly to him?

“You still running?” she asked.

“Every day.” He met her eye and added, “I hope my family will come watch me run in the Amarillo marathon.”

He’d said his father wasn’t happy with him for leaving his hometown but that his siblings and mother supported him. “You don’t think they will?”

“I haven’t told them about it.”

“It’s coming up, isn’t it?”

“Oh, I’ve got time.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. Nicole knew what he wanted. He wanted her to share something real about her life with him, the way he’d done with her.

She’d told him about her parents. But she’d said nothing of her siblings, or how she’d felt overlooked her whole life, or her extreme phobia of singing in public.

“What are you scared of?” she asked, drawing another surprised look from him.

“Scared?” he repeated. “Oh, okay. Let’s see. Rattlesnakes.” He held up a finger for each item he listed. “Drowning. Making a mistake in the operating room.” He stilled and looked at her with a measure of vulnerability she hadn’t seen before.

“Boone,” the girl called out of the window, and he moved to collect the two chicken cones from her. He returned to Nicole with a massive smile and handed her one.

Her own excitement at the new meal had her smiling too, but she knew it was more because of the man she was with than anything else.

They didn’t exactly fit in the park, him wearing his white shirt and tie, a pair of slacks and those shiny black shoes and her in her pink scrubs. But no one gave them a second glance as they wandered over to an available bench and sat down with their food.

Nicole wondered when her life had become this. Become more than dashing out to pick up a salad from the grocery store and eating it alone at her desk. Become something she dreamed of having instead of something she survived.

And she wanted to tell Boone why she’d been mad at him and maybe a little bit nasty to him when he’d come to Three Rivers and the animal hospital.

She dipped a piece of fried chicken into the mashed potatoes and gravy and took a bite, a moan coming out of her throat at the salty, crunchy, meaty flavor.

“Oh, yeah,” she said around her mouthful of food. ‘This is good.”

He laughed and took his own bite, his eyes rolling back into his head. She swallowed and joined her laughter to his, vowing to tell him why she’d been a beast to him later.

Nicole arrived at her parents’ house by five-thirty, like clockwork. She heaved herself from her sedan and gave it an affectionate pat as she went around the hood. The smell of something burnt met her nose before she’d even reached the steps leading to the front door. She increased her pace.

“Daddy?” she called as she entered the house. Different scents assaulted her, from the burnt toast to vomit to old plastic. She covered her nose as she gagged. “Mama?”

Her mother hadn’t moved from the living room in months. Nicole tried to get her up and walking at least once a week, but her pain had grown and her dementia worsened so that she usually just sat in her recliner and watched game shows. At night, Nicole would tell her about the animals at the clinic, how her mother’s friends were doing, and anything else she’d heard around town. It wasn’t like her mom listened anyway.

But now the house was empty. Frantic, Nicole scanned the living room. The vomity, bodily fluid smell came from the recliner, and she gagged again as she passed it. The evidence of the burnt toast still sat in the appliance in the kitchen. “Dad?” she called again.

She checked the three bedrooms, and the bathroom, the backyard, and the basement. They simply weren’t there.

She pulled out her phone and dialed the only doctor in town. No one answered, but an on-call number was given. She recited it under her breath a couple of times before hanging up and then punching the number in.

No one answered. Desperation clogged her throat. What was the point of an on-call number if the doctor wasn’t going to answer?

She turned in a circle, trying to think. Could she call one of her siblings? What would they even do? They’d abandoned her here—the youngest sibling who didn’t know any better—to take care of their aging parents.

Anger built with the panic in her chest, flooding her head and making thinking almost impossible.

She was so, so angry she was here alone, dealing with this alone.

It made everything hard, and maybe some of that anger had transferred over to the clinic…and to Boone.

But her siblings could wait. Her anger had to be shelved. Her reasons for treating Boone badly would have to wait to be sorted out.

Right now, she needed to find her mother. Her eyes landed on the house next door, and she practically ran in that direction.

Her parents had lived on this street for over fifty years, and so had a couple of other people. Bonus of a small town, she thought as she mounted the steps at the Bates’. She knocked, her fist sounding so loud in the summer evening quiet.

Right when Nicole was about to beat the door down, Mrs. Bates finally opened it. “Oh, Nicole. There you are. I was watching for your car, but I must’ve missed you.”

“My mom?” Nicole asked, her heart racing and not only from the running.

“She got sick this afternoon, and your dad took her to the hospital in Amarillo. They said they’d call.”

Nicole started nodding, little short bursts of head movement. “Thank you, Mrs. Bates.” She turned to go, barely able to see more than five feet in front of her. Her mind raced. Her parents often went to the hospital in Amarillo instead of the one here, because her mother’s specialists were there.

It was just so far from Three Rivers. Could she take tomorrow off work? Should she call Boone now and tell him? What about her dogs? They needed to be fed and taken out. Her stomach roared for food, but she didn’t think she’d be able to eat anything right now anyway.

“Hey, are you okay?”

She froze at the deep, sexy, familiar voice. She swallowed and everything came into focus—including Boone standing next to her car.

“What are you doing here?”

“I went to your place to see if you were home and would go to dinner with me.” He reached for her. “What’s wrong?”

She let him gather her into his strong arms. She let out a few tears though she wished she could hold them back, be strong. She’d never felt so alone as she had thirty seconds ago, and there was Boone, telling her it would be okay, that he’d help her.

“What do you need?” he asked. “Is your mom okay?”

Nicole drew in a deep breath and put some space between them. He kept his warm hands on her arms as she shook her head. “She’s in the hospital. I need to go find out what’s going on. Neither of my parents have a cell phone.”

“I’ll drive you,” he said.

“I need someone to go take care of Valcor and Taz,” she said.

“I’ll do it,” he said. “And then I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

“You don’t—”

“I’ll bring you something to eat.” He turned and opened her car door but hesitated before stepping back. “You sure you’re okay driving?”

She honestly wasn’t sure. And would it really matter if she arrived at the hospital thirty minutes later? A fresh set of tears stained her face, and Boone closed her car door. “I’m driving,” he said in that authoritative, bossy voice she hated.

“I’m fine,” she said, a bite to her own voice now.

“Uh huh.” He steered her toward his much nicer truck. “We’ll swing by your place and take care of the dogs. We’ll grab something to eat on our way out of town. It’ll take ten extra minutes.”

“Boone, I said I was fine.” She pulled her arm away from his hand, everything in her igniting. “You’re not the boss of me. Not right now.” She glared up at him with anger coursing through her. It felt unreasonable, but it was there, burning, boiling, bubbling through her.

“You’re not fine to drive almost an hour by yourself.” He glared right back, the danger in his eyes surely much more impressive than hers. “I want to help. Why are you fighting me on this?”

She had no idea. “Fine.” She marched around the front of his truck and climbed in the passenger side. She clenched her arms across her middle and scowled when he got in.

“Fine,” he said in a much softer tone and started the truck. “What do you like to eat?”

She remained silent, her emotions clashing and coiling every other second.

Boone didn’t push her. He simply drove to her house, went inside and came out with both dogs tucked under his arm. She took them from him, drawing some measure of comfort from them as he once again put the truck in drive.

He pulled into an apartment building in the ritzy part of town before she said, “Where are we?”

“Dylan’s going to take the dogs for the night,” he said. “He already has Vader and Leia.” He reached for her pets, but she cradled Valcor close to her throat.

“Sweetheart, we can’t take the poodle to the hospital.” He spoke in such a gentle voice, that she passed Valcor over to him, wishing she could tell him that the little dog was a security blanket for her.

She said nothing as she passed over her two dogs and watched as Boone disappeared into the building.

She closed her eyes and prayed. Prayed that Mama would be okay. That her father could be strong. That she could provide the support they needed.

That she could be strong enough to tell Boone the truth about why she hadn’t liked him.

Something snaked through her, clearing out all the panic, the fear, the desperation. Peace descended and for that brief moment, Nicole knew that God was with her. That He cared about her, and that whatever happened was in His hands.

Boone returned, and Nicole scooted over on the bench seat to sit right next to him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I was freaking out.”

He threaded his fingers through hers and held on tight. “It’s okay.”

She shook her head, trying to make her thoughts align. They moved so quickly from Boone, to her siblings, to her parents, she couldn’t make heads nor tails of them.

“I think I blame you for things I shouldn’t.” The quaking returned to her chest as the words she needed to say built up inside.

And she didn’t think she could hold them back this time.