43
Gordon and those staying on the ranch watched as the others left to move the cattle the day after Talia left him.
It happened before dawn, when the world was still gray and quiet and the air carried that heavy warning that storms were coming.
Trucks idled near the barns. Horses shifted beneath their riders.
Men checked tack and gear one last time while Edye moved between the supply vehicles with a clipboard in one hand and that calm, commanding look that made people listen without having to be told twice.
Luke sat tall in the saddle, his gaze moving over the ranch like he was memorizing what he was leaving in the hands of the people staying behind.
Gordon stood near the main house with Earl, Elise, Eli, Rose, Nia, Malik, and a few others who would remain on the property. His boots were planted in the dirt, his hat low, his hands at his sides.
He should have been focused on the cattle drive.
He should have been thinking about the generator checklist, storm preparations, fence inspections, and all the responsibilities Luke had trusted him with.
Instead, he kept seeing Talia’s face.
Not the way she had looked in his bed.
Not the way she had looked in his kitchen.
Not even the way she had looked when he read her article and realized she had seen him more clearly than anyone outside this ranch ever had.
He saw the moment her eyes filled with pain and she told him her bags were in the car.
He saw her reaching for him.
He saw himself stepping away.
He saw her leaving.
By the time Luke gave the final signal and the drive began moving out, Gordon’s chest felt hollow enough for the wind to pass straight through it.
Eli came to stand beside him as the riders and trucks started down the ranch road.
“You good?” Eli asked.
Gordon nodded. “I’m good.”
Eli did not believe him.
Gordon could feel that without looking.
But Eli did not push.
The cattle drive rolled out, carrying Luke, Edye, and countless others across the land.
Dust rose behind them even in the damp morning air.
Nia waved until they were too far away to see clearly.
Malik asked twice if the cows knew where they were going.
Elise told him cows knew a lot less than they should and a lot more than people gave them credit for.
Gordon said nothing.
The ranch quieted after they were gone.
Not fully.
Stanley Ranch never really went quiet.
But the sound changed.
There were fewer engines, fewer voices, fewer boots on the porch. The absence of Luke and Edye settled over the place like a test everyone had agreed to take.
Three days passed.
In those three days, Gordon did not hear from Talia.
Not one text.
Not one call.
Not one email.
He checked his phone more than he wanted to admit. The first day, he told himself she was driving, then resting, then talking to her editor. The second day, he told himself she was busy, or ashamed, or trying to figure out what to say. By the third day, the excuses had turned stale.
She had told him she would leave.
He had been the fool for believing she cared for him at all.
No.
That was not fair.
Maybe she had cared.
Maybe that was worse.
Caring had not made her stay.
He kept busy because work was safer than stillness.
With Luke and Edye gone, Eli helped keep the ranch moving.
Rose stayed close to the main house, and Eli stayed close to Rose without making a fuss about it.
Earl handled what he could from the kitchen table, the porch, or wherever his cane allowed him to get without Elise threatening to hide it from him.
Elise fed everyone like the storm damage in nearby counties was a personal insult she could defeat with hot meals.
The storms that passed them by had done a great deal of damage in surrounding areas. Reports came in about downed trees, damaged roofs, flooded roads, and a tornado that had touched down south of Kranston. Stanley Ranch had been spared the worst of it, but not entirely.
A few hard wind gusts uprooted sections of fencing and knocked down a couple of old trees.
One access road had to be cleared. A gate on the south pasture twisted against its hinges badly enough that Gordon spent half a morning fixing it.
Branches littered the yard and pastures.
Everything smelled of wet dirt, splintered wood, and shaken leaves.
Gordon worked through all of it.
He repaired what needed fixing.
He checked generators.
He helped Eli coordinate hands.
He answered questions.
He let Malik trail him for ten minutes with a toy horse before Elise called the boy back inside. He let Nia tell him that he had to eat because Edye would ask when she came home and Nia did not intend to lie for him.
He tried hard not to revert to isolating himself.
It was harder than he wanted it to be.
The urge came naturally. Retreat. Go quiet. Make himself useful enough that no one could complain, but not present enough for anyone to ask too many questions. Keep moving. Keep his face blank. Keep his hurt tucked somewhere nobody could reach it.
But this ranch had ruined him for disappearing.
Elise noticed when he skipped coffee.
Earl noticed when he took the long way around the house to avoid the kitchen.
Eli noticed every time he went too quiet.
Even Nia noticed.
“You look like you swallowed a sad rock,” she told him at breakfast on the third morning.
Gordon had stared at her.
Malik, sitting beside her, nodded solemnly. “A big one.”
Elise had turned away too fast, pretending to stir oatmeal.
Gordon had eaten after that, if only to stop the children from diagnosing him further.
He hated the way Elise and Earl watched him to see if he was going to fall apart.
He hated the softness in their eyes.
He hated the way they gave him room but never let him get too far.
He hated it because he understood now that it was care.
And being cared for when he hurt was almost harder than hurting alone.
On the afternoon of the third day, Gordon came into the main house to grab water.
He had spent most of the day clearing limbs near the old equipment barn and checking a stretch of fencing that the wind had bent almost flat.
His shirt clung to his back. Dirt streaked his forearms. His hands were sore from tools and rough wood.
The kitchen was calmer than usual.
Earl sat at the table with a notebook open and his cane propped beside him. A cup of coffee rested near his elbow, long gone cold. Gordon nodded to him and went to the refrigerator.
“You get the south fence secured?” Earl asked.
“Enough until Luke gets back.”
“That means yes with room to complain later.”
“Pretty much.”
Earl smiled faintly.
Gordon pulled out a bottle of water, opened it, and drank half of it before lowering it.
Then the house phone rang.
Earl looked at it with a frown. “Now who’s calling the house phone?”
Gordon leaned back against the counter, still breathing hard from the heat outside.
Earl reached for the receiver mounted near the doorway. “Stanley Ranch.”
Gordon could not hear what was being said on the other end, but he saw Earl’s expression change. The easy lines in the older man’s face tightened. His hand shifted on the receiver.
“No, Luke and Edye are out on the drive,” Earl said. “They should be on their way back in a few days.”
He paused, listening.
“I can take a look at it.”
Another pause.
Earl reached into his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. “Send it to this number.”
He gave the caller his cellphone number slowly, then ended the call and held the phone in his hand.
Gordon straightened.
“What is it?”
Earl did not answer.
Before Gordon could ask again, Elise entered the kitchen with Malik following behind her. Malik held a small toy horse in one hand and wore a stubborn expression.
“I don’t need a nap,” Malik announced.
Elise looked down at him. “You announcing that does not make it true.”
“I’m almost four.”
“And almost four-year-old boys can still be cranky.”
“I am not cranky.”
“You argued with your sock.”
“It was wrong.”
Gordon might have smiled on another day.
Today, his attention stayed on Earl’s phone.
It chimed.
Earl opened the message.
For a few seconds, he stared at the screen.
Then he gasped.
Elise’s head snapped up. “Earl?”
Earl’s face had gone pale.
“That’s her.”
Gordon’s blood went cold.
“What?”
Earl pressed a button and lifted the phone to his ear, calling back fast.
“Where was she?” Earl asked.
Gordon stepped toward him.
Earl listened, his jaw tightening.
“Lord almighty,” he said softly. “I’d have to see if Luke still has the information he pulled for her background check. I’ll call you back.”
He ended the call.
The kitchen seemed to freeze around them.
Elise moved closer. “What is going on?”
Earl looked at Gordon.
Something in that look reached inside Gordon’s chest and twisted.
“Earl,” Gordon said.
Earl swallowed. “Brad got a bulletin. A woman was found in an abandoned house off Highway Forty-Five.”
Gordon’s hand tightened around the water bottle.
“The house was destroyed by the tornado that touched down two days ago,” Earl continued. “She didn’t have ID, so they’ve been trying to find out who she is.”
Elise pressed one hand to her chest. “Oh, dear Lord.”
“Brad recognized her,” Earl said. “He called here to confirm.”
“No,” Gordon said.
The word came out flat, almost soundless.
Earl turned the phone toward them.
The picture was hard to look at.
A hospital bed. White sheets. Harsh light. Tubes and wires. A woman lying unconscious, her dark curls spread around her head, her face bruised and pale.
Talia.
Gordon stopped breathing.
For three days, he had thought she had chosen silence.
For three days, he had thought she had walked away and never looked back.
For three days, he had let hurt turn her into someone cruel because anger was easier than missing her.
Now she was in a hospital bed, nameless to strangers, hurt somewhere between the ranch and the life she had said she had to return to.
Elise gasped. “That poor girl.”
Malik moved close to Elise’s skirt, his little face suddenly frightened. “What happened?”
Elise lowered a hand to his shoulder. “Go sit at the table, baby.”
“But Miss Talia…”
“Malik,” she said softly.
He obeyed, though his eyes stayed wide and worried.
Gordon could not look away from the photo.
“What hospital?” he asked.
Earl checked the message again. “St. Mary’s. A few counties south of Kranston. Or something close to that.”
Gordon turned for the door.
“Gordon,” Elise snapped.
He did not stop.
“Gordon Windgate, wait.”
He stopped only because her voice cracked in a way he had never heard before.
He looked back.
Elise’s face was pale, but her spine was straight. “You shouldn’t go alone.”
“I’m going.”
“I know you’re going. I said not alone.”
“I can drive.”
“I did not say you could not drive. I said you should not be alone with whatever is in your head right now.”
Earl was already pushing himself to his feet, reaching for his cane. “I’ll go.”
Gordon wanted to argue.
He wanted to say there was no time. He wanted to say Earl moved too slowly and the hospital was too far. He wanted to sprint to his truck and drive until the tires left the ground.
But Earl was already coming toward him, cane tapping against the kitchen floor, his face set in a way that said the discussion was over.
“You drive,” Earl said. “I’ll call Brad on the way and get what else he knows.”
Gordon nodded once.
Barely.
His whole body shook with the effort of standing still long enough for Earl to reach him.
Elise moved toward the phone. “I’ll let Eli know what happened.”
Gordon opened the door.
“Keep me updated,” Elise said. “Both of you.”
Earl nodded. “We will.”
Malik slid down from his chair. “Is Miss Talia hurt?”
Gordon froze.
The question nearly broke him.
He crouched, though every second felt like it was being torn away from him. “She is,” he said carefully. “But I’m going to see her.”
Malik’s lower lip trembled. “Will you bring her back?”
Gordon’s throat closed.
He could not promise that.
He would not lie to the boy.
“I’m going to try.”
Malik nodded, serious and scared.
Gordon stood.
Then he was out the door, moving fast toward his truck.
Earl followed as quickly as his cane allowed, and Gordon barely slowed down enough for the older man to catch up before he climbed behind the wheel.
His hands gripped the steering wheel.
He saw Talia driving away from the ranch.
He saw her car disappearing through the gate.
He saw the picture of her unconscious in a hospital bed.
Earl shut the passenger door and buckled in.
“Drive steady,” Earl said.
Gordon started the truck.
“I mean it,” Earl added. “Fast won’t help if we don’t get there.”
Gordon nodded, jaw locked tight.
Then he pulled out of the drive and headed toward the gate.
For three days, he had thought Talia had forgotten him.
Now all he could think was that she had been hurt, alone, and nameless to people who had no idea how much she was loved.
And if God had any mercy at all, Gordon was not too late.