Page 35 of His First Baby Rodeo

Dr. Logan misread the expression on his face. “Don’t worry,” he said, hefting a little saw that Mac hadn’t even noticed was sitting beside him. “I do these all the time, and I’ve got a very steady hand. We’ll have that thing off in no time.”

Mac nodded and held out his arm. “Let’s get to it, then,” he said.

The saw was loud and unpleasant to listen to, and if he had been a different kind of man, Mac could tell he would have been made anxious by the whole business. As it was, he had always been good at setting aside his nerves. In the rodeo business, you had to be able to have ice in your veins from time to time. And so it was that he sat quietly, his mind on other things entirely, as the cast was removed from his arm.

“Now, I don’t want you to worry about this,” Dr. Logan said as he cracked the plaster open and pulled the cast away from Mac’s arm. “This isn’t going to look great, but—”

Mac looked down. His eyes widened.

He had worked hard to develop the muscle in his forearms. It was necessary if one wanted to be successful in the rodeo circuit. And yet, the arm he looked at now was weakened — diminished. Just a few short weeks in the cast had robbed him of his strength.

He might be free of the plaster, but he was nowhere near being competition-ready. It was going to take a lot of training before he could get back in the ring.

That fact should have made him a lot more unhappy than it did, and yet…

“Am I going to be able to get back to my life pretty quickly?” he asked.

Dr. Logan shot him a sharp look. “If this is about your rodeo career, my opinion hasn’t changed, Mr. Palmer. I know I can’t tell you what to do here, but I have to give you my opinion as a medical professional.”

“You’ve given it,” Mac said. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that I haven’t heard what you have to say on this subject.”

“All right,” Dr. Logan said. “That’s fair enough. You’re right. I’ve had my say. Well, in answer to your question, I think you should take it easy for a while. I imagine you’ll want to start working to regain the strength in your arm, but I would advise you to let that happen gradually — and it will, as you resume normal use of it. If you try to go into the gym tomorrow and start a heavy weight routine, you could damage the muscle and draw out your recovery even longer — and you wouldn’t want that, I know.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Mac agreed.

“So I’d stay out of the gym. For a while, at least.”

“I wasn’t really thinking about the gym,” Mac said. “I’m more concerned with ranch work. I’ve had someone covering for me — a temporary hire — but do you think I’ll be able to manage things on my own moving forward?”

He held his breath, not sure what answer he was hoping for. If Dr. Logan said he could handle things on his own, there would be no excuse not to send El away. He wanted to return to being self-sufficient, but he was nowhere near ready to see her go.

Dr. Logan pressed his lips together. “You don’t seem to want to take my advice,” he said. “But since you’re asking, I’d say you ought to keep your hired help around a little bit longer. You can start to ease back into your ranch duties, but you shouldn’t take on everything yourself just yet. You should let someone help you while you regain your strength.”

Mac nodded, flooded with a relief more intense than he had anticipated. “All right,” he said. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Oh, now you listen to me,” Dr. Logan said, shaking his head. “I don’t mind telling you, Mr. Palmer, you’re one of the most hardheaded patients I’ve ever had. Is it really so trying for you to prioritize taking care of yourself?”

“I really appreciate what you’ve done for me, Dr. Logan,” Mac said. It was all he was able to offer. He couldn’t promise that he would do what the doctor was asking of him. He wasn’t ready to retire. Even if he was older than he had once been — older than most of the other competitors in the field — rodeo was the most important thing in the world to him.

At least, it always had been before.

Now he thought of El — El, who in spite of the moment of alarm he’d felt today, was going to be able to stay a bit longer. He would go home without a cast on his arm, but he would be able to tell her he still needed her.

He wouldn’t be able to be quite honest about just howmuchhe needed her, or about why. But even so, he could admit to his need, and she would stay a little longer. And for today, that would have to be enough.

But anxiety gripped him the whole way home.

The day he would have to give her up felt closer than it ever had before.

CHAPTER16

EL

“You got the cast off!”

El heard the false cheeriness in her own voice. Neither one of them had expected that Mac’s cast would come off so soon. She thought of her suitcase upstairs with a sense of dread — was this the moment he would tell her it was time to pack? Had they already been naked together for the last time? She didn’t think she could reasonably ask him for an encore performance, much as she might have liked to.

“Yeah.” Mac stretched and flexed his arm. “Earlier than we thought. But the doctor doesn’t want me to do anything too strenuous right away. He says I have to ease into using my arm again.”

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