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Slade.”
    “I know you can.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ll call you later.”
    “That’s good. And Slade, I’ll pray for her.”
    It took him by surprise, the softness in her voice, in her expression. It drew him in and he leaned to kiss her cheek. “Thank you.”
    She blinked a few times, then let it go. “Call me when you know something.”
    “I will. Tell Caleb his grandma is good. She even told me not to drive fast. He doesn’t need to worry.”
    “I’ll tell him.”
    She slipped back inside the church, closing the door softly behind her. Slade stood there, staring at the double doors for a few seconds before he turned and hurried down the steps and across the parking lot toward his truck. His better self took control, not letting him think too much about Mia and the decision to leave his son in her care.
    As he pulled out of the parking lot, his mind was fully planted on his mom and her health. Anything could happen. In the blink of an eye, the world could change. He’d experienced it. His mom had, too. Ten years ago when they lost his dad to cancer.
    The roads were quiet. A typical Sunday morning in Dawson. Most people were in church. There were only a couple of cars at Vera’s. He drove out of town, speeding up as he left the city limits behind. He hit his emergency flashers and punched the gas, forgetting the twenty-minute rule his mom had set.
    He had kissed Mia on the cheek. He shook his head and called himself a few names because kissing Mia had always been off-limits. He’d always been okay with that rule. What had changed?

Chapter Four
    A fter church, and after making a few excuses to avoid lunch at Cooper Creek Ranch, Mia led Caleb across the parking lot to her grandmother’s car. The child held tight to her left hand. His feet dragged.
    “You know, it’s easier to walk if you lift your feet.”
    “Is my grandma okay?” He looked up from the blacktop he’d been studying. His blue eyes narrowed on her as he waited for an answer.
    “She’s going to be just fine. She’s at the hospital and they’ll give her medicine to help her heart.”
    “Is it attacking her?”
    She hid a smile at the image he probably had in his mind.
    “It’s hurting.”
    “I’m going to your house?” He looked down again. She got it. He barely knew her. A few visits over the years wasn’t a lot.
    She sighed and then squatted in front of him to put herself at eye level. “Caleb, your grandma is okay and your dad is going to pick you up at my house. We’ll hang out together and maybe we can convince your dad to bring pizza later.”
    “Do you have toys?”
    She grinned. “I have a few trucks that my nieces and nephews play with at my house.”
    “Girls play with trucks?” He wrinkled his nose.
    “Yeah, they do.”
    “Okay.” He looked up and grinned, but not at her. “Hi, Jackson.”
    She glanced back and then up, frowning at her brother. “I’m going with Gran.”
    He raised his hands in surrender. “I know and I wasn’t going to try to talk you into going to the house. I wanted to see if I could keep a mare at your place.”
    “A mare? Because you don’t have room for one more?” They both knew that wasn’t the case. She held out a hand and Jackson pulled her to her feet.
    “I picked her up from a place north of Grove. The owners lost their farm and went to Tulsa. She’s been in a corral for a few weeks and needs to be stabled and have some weight put on her.”
    A broken horse to fix. She knew this game. When she’d first moved to Cooper Creek twenty years ago, she’d been given a sick goat to care for. She had kept that goat for years. That goat, crazy as it seemed, had probably saved her life.
    “Jackson, I don’t need a project.”
    His eyes widened. “Who said it was a project?”
    “I know you too well. You’re the guy who led me out to the barn and told me that the sick goat wouldn’t live if someone didn’t take care of it.”
    “It lived, didn’t it?”
    “Yeah, it