Page 120 of Back in the Saddle

He pushed the thoughts away. He didn’t know him, but he hoped he pulled through.

‘Well, moving across the pond is pretty drastic.’

Hunter shrugged. ‘It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. Might not even happen. The visa process is a bit tedious, from what I’ve found out so far. But I think I’m going to give it a try.’

‘So, you don’t want to go back to school, become a vet?’

Hunter shook his head. ‘No. I think I let that dream go a while ago. Now that I could do it, I’ve realised I no longer want to.’

‘Fair enough.’ Buck shrugged, looking at his brother with a small smile. ‘It’s a lot of money. Lorna couldn’t believe when I told her how much it was.’

‘Yeah. It is.’ Hunter ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at a tight knot he felt. He winced as the hair came out. ‘Meg is the happiest, I think. She was ecstatic when she announced she didn’t have to worry about taking out loans or working during medical school.’

The money they’d got from the sale of the ranch was beyond what any of them had imagined. After ensuring there was a tidy sum left for their mother to keep her comfortable, they had divided the rest into three. Hunter was worried about the ranch hands losing their jobs at first, and that had been his biggest concern when they were discussing if they should sell. But that conversation went much better than he’d thought. Before he told them, he had spoken to some other ranchersin the area and managed to find jobs for some of them. He vowed to help others, too, if that’s what they wanted.

‘At least one of us ended up with the brains,’ Buck said offhandedly.

Hunter chuckled at that. ‘I think you meant it as an insult, but I agree with you. I’m glad Meg can just focus on her studies. And that Mom will be taken care of for the rest of her life. She’ll never want for anything.’ He nodded to Buck, who raised his bottle in wordless cheers. ‘What are you and Lorna going to do with your part?’

‘Buy a new house, then set some money aside for Morgan and Cody. Whether they go to college or not, it’ll be there to give them a head start in life.’ Buck sighed. ‘Lorna told me that’s what responsible parents do. I was all up for investing in a baseball team or something.’

Their eyes met and they both erupted into laughter.

Hunter wiped a tear from his eye, trying to calm himself down. ‘A baseball team, honestly, Buck.’

‘What? I could’ve got some shares in maybe lower league or something.’ Buck shrugged. ‘We’re also taking the kids to Hawaii for Christmas.’

‘That’ll be nice. I’m sure you’ll have a great time.’

‘And how about you? Have you been having any good times lately?’ Buck looked at Hunter, suggestively raising an eyebrow.

‘What kind of question is that?’ he asked, pursing his lips.

‘Just trying to check on my little brother. Make sure you’re doing all right.’

Hunter bit the right side of his lower lip, taking a deep breath.

Caroline was meant to go back home last week. They would’ve had five extra months together. There were times,especially in the middle of the night when he was lying alone in bed, when he had wild ideas of packing his bags and jumping on a plane to Glasgow. But when the morning came, it all looked different. More rational. He didn’t even know her address. They had deleted each other’s phone numbers. He didn’t really have any means of contacting her.

Then, the desperate and stubborn part of his longing helpfully fed him the idea of overcoming every single obstacle with a single action.You can go to Anna and Gian and ask them.

But he couldn’t, not understanding all too well why she’d had to go. Why she needed to be there for Finn.

‘Of course I’m OK,’ he said, taking a very long swig from the bottle.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Caroline

Caroline was staring out of the large bay window in their first-floor Dowanhill flat. It was six months since she’d got back to Glasgow, and they had been the most gruelling time in her life. She hadn’t got back to work, hadn’t even started thinking about properly applying for higher speciality training.

Finn’s health had been the only thing on her mind.

The surgery was successful in fully removing his meningioma, and he had just finished the last course of radiotherapy two weeks ago. He would be getting follow-up imaging regularly to check for potential recurrence, but the doctors were optimistic.

And so was he.

Caroline had been there for every appointment, every bad night he’d had, and every doubt-filled early morning, answering questions like‘What if this is it? What if this is not going to work?’She’d bitten her tongue so often after Orlaith, Finn’s mother, swooped in from Dublin and rented an Airbnb around the corner from them.

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