Page 58 of The Cowboy Who Stayed

Vivica Murphy’s not the kind of woman that lets you in easily; she’s the type that gladly drives herself to the ER even when in intense pain. That recovers by herself without accepting a helping hand.

This woman dealt with a tumultuous divorce in the middle of a cancer battle.

The fact that she was asking me to go with her tonight—that she insisted I stay by her side even now as we wait for results—tells me all I need to know.

I haven’t pushed her since. I’m offering comfort by letting her know I’m here.

That’s what you do when you love someone, and I’ve come to realize that I’m in love with the forty-six-year-old veterinarian.

“I’ve known about the sore spot for a few days,” she murmurs. Releasing a slow sigh, her shoulders lose some of their rigidity. “I felt a twinge the other day when I was getting dressed at your place. I brushed it off because… I was afraid. I’ve been trying to settle in here and process my feelings for you and then dealing with Craig showing up out of the blue. The last thing I needed was… this.”

“No need to justify why you’ve brushed it off, Vivica,” I say. “Anybody would be overwhelmed.”

“The last time I felt something like this… it was the beginning of the worst period of my life. I found a lump in the shower on Tuesday, and by Thursday I was sitting in an oncologist’s office hearing the word malignant.” She slumps slightly in the chair, resting her head against the top as if about to go to sleep. “Craig took two hours to get back to me. Claimed he was busy doing a showing. I accepted the excuse, but I didn’t know it was the first of more bad things to come.”

“Your divorce…” I supply in a low tone.

She sits back up and nods. “When I was married to Craig, I learned love has a limit. Sickness is where most people find theirs. I don’t ever want to go back to that. It’s taken a lot of work to pull myself up from the bottom. I didn’t know if I could do it a second time. It made me worry about what was to come.

“But then… I realized this won’t be like last time. I’m stronger than I was before. But I also realized I don’t necessarily have to close myself off either. I trust you, Rhett. That’s why I asked you to come here tonight. That’s why I knew it’d be okay to let you see this side of me. I’m not going to hide from this… or us.”

I get exactly what she means as she peers at me, her dark eyes gleaming in earnest.

I can’t keep myself from reaching out with my other hand and thumbing her cheek.

Her confession lands deep, tapping a place inside myself that I locked away long before I ever met her.

It’s the same place where I learned early that parents come and go, vanishing in and out of your life like the seasons. The same place where my career was ripped away due to a serious injury and my whole life was sent into a tailspin.

…where nobody stays and nothing lasts forever.

But for once in my life, this time’ll be different.

I take one look at Vivica Murphy as we sit in the ER waiting room at three in the morning, and I know that to be true.

Call it instinct. A sixth sense of sorts.

It doesn’t matter what you’d label it; I just know.