“Dr. Hart.” She made a slight nod, gripping the handle of her bag.
“I was wondering if you’d like to accompany me to check on Mrs. Tatum. Seeing as you’re the one who oversaw the delivery and all.”
“Don’t you have more pressing calls in need of your attention?” The last thing her foolish heart needed was to be alone with him again.
He fingered the rim of the Stetson in his hands. Today, he seemed more ranch hand than doctor. Light blue shirt, gray vest, tan trousers, and sturdy boots. “Not right now. I thought it prudent for me to have a look at things, seeing as the delivery was complicated.”
She was going to have to start treating him as her colleague, and she might as well begin today. “Very well, then. I just need to saddle my horse.”
“No need. I brought my buckboard. I thought it might be a nice change.”
“Won’t returning me home take up too much of your time? I don’t have all day to waste tagging along on your calls.” She lifted her chin a notch.
He didn’t even blink. “I’ll bring you back in plenty of time to do whatever it is you need to do.”
She waited for him to precede her out the door, but he gestured for her to go first. “After you.” Another steady smile.
Soon they were driving away from the Parker ranch, heading in the direction of the Tatum residence. The warm May air teased her senses, clean and pure. This was the Texas she had missed, endless blue skies, grazing cattle, dusty roads. Memories lived here, as crystal clear as if she’d written them in a diary. Memories that danced between apple-pie sweet and crabapple sour. Memories of two men…
Both didn’t bear thinking about right now.
“I didn’t get the chance to meet Robbie. Mind if I do when we get back?” Travis shifted the reins in his hands.
“I guess not.” What did it matter if he met her son? Hadn’t she wished during her confinement that Travis had been the father? A wicked, evil wish she’d long since banished from her thoughts.
“There’ve been a lot of changes around El Regalo lately. Hays is married. Fell in love with a nice young lady by the name of Emma Longley. Guess he liked the idea of settling down better than flirting after every skirt that comes along.”
She remembered Hays Hart. Josie had always thought him extremely handsome and devastatingly charming.
Annie had eyes only for Travis.
Travis kept his gaze on the road. His Stetson tipped a bit, obscuring his eyes. “Then there’s Chisholm. He recently returned with his new wife, Caro. I’ve never seen him so happy. I think he’d sit and stare at her all day, if he could. I guess love has a way of bringing even the most determined wanderers home.”
Annie fixed her gaze on the pale blue sky, on the hard-packed ground, on anything other than his face. She didn’t want him talking about love, not when their own past lay so raw between them.
So she merely said, her tone rather tart, “The younger Harts are putting the older ones to shame. When Austin and Bowie decide to follow their example, the ranch may very well go to rack and ruin, what with all that love going around, and no one having a mind to work.”
She expected her words to make him angry, but he only chuckled. “My father would see the ranch run, even if everyone else stayed starry-eyed. He loves that place. Loves it more than anything else on this earth, except his children and his wife. Bit by bit, he’s sharing it with us, our part of his legacy.”
They reached the Tatum farmhouse. Travis jumped down and tied the horses to the hitching post. Annie grabbed her bag and moved to descend. Before she could collect herself, he wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her down. Though she wore both jacket and corset, the warmth of his hands seared her like twin coals.
She headed toward the house.
Love has a way of bringing even the most determined wanderers home.
She’d come home, there was no denying that.
But love would have nothing to do with it.
Either he’d offended her in some way, or Annie Lawrence had changed more than a chameleon. She didn’t chatter. She scarcely smiled. She behaved as if Travis’s very existence was a bane to her.
And here he’d thought their flame of a romance might catch tinder once more.
“Mrs. Tatum seemed to be in fine health.” He had to say something to fill the silence. Some of his brothers—Bowie particularly—might be content to sit like a corpse while in the company of a lady. To Travis it seemed impolite.
“As well as can be expected, given the circumstances of her labor.”
There. Finally some words. She didn’t meet his gaze though, fixating instead on the trees and hills they drove past.
“I still can’t believe that was your first breech delivery. You handled it well.”