Page 6 of Runaway Bride For The Rancher

“Sir…” one of the men called out, stuttering. I paid attention to hearing him out. “We… We found out… this… this morning that some of the cows have respiratory infections.”

Shocked, I ran in to see it for myself. I took some vital signs from various cows, and it was true. “How’d this happen?” I asked.

“We don’t know, sir.” The men chorused.

“We just found out this morning.” Carl, one of my ranch hands, said. “Mr. Ben, what should we do?” he asked.

I stayed mute for a few seconds, then I broke the silence. “Stay here and take care of things. I’ll get to the nearest clinic and see what help I can find.”

I stood up, dusted my knee, and jumped on my truck headed to the local clinic. On my way, I tried surfing the net for thenearest vet clinic, and the closest place was about ten hours away.

I resorted to stopping by the town’s general clinic a few blocks away. I was going to ask a couple of questions and see what I find.

I got inside and met a nurse in the clinic. “Hello, good morning.”

“Good morning, sir. How may I be of service to you?” she asked.

“Uhm… I know this is a hospital for people…” I stuttered a bit, trying to get the words out and not sound stupid. “But I just want to ask if there was something I could get for my infected cows? Quite a few of them have respiratory infections and need urgent attention if you can help.”

I stopped and waited for a response.

The nurse gave me a weird look. I could tell that she thought I was crazy, but I was too worried to care about what she thought. My breath was shaky and my fingers repeatedly slammed her tables.

“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t help you. There’s no veterinarian here. I don’t know of anyone close enough to help.” Her voice was calm, but her words were disappointing.

My eyes rolled down in disappointment. “What am I going to do now?” I asked myself.

I gave myself hope again and started making my way out of the hospital.

“Ben?” A familiar female voice called out. I wasn’t sure who it was, so I turned to check.

“Aunt Nelly!” I wore a surprisingly wide smile on my face.

“I wasn’t sure it was you. I just called your name to be sure.” She said.

“Look at you. You’re glowing.” I didn’t lack teasing words.

“Stop it. You know I’m getting old already.” She responded.

“But you don’t look it.” I started. “Tell you what, you look like you’re celebrating your 16th birthday.” I winked at her.

“Oh, Ben. You always have your way with words.” She closed that part of the conversation and started another. “What are you doing here?”

I sighed. “I got to my ranch this morning and found out some of my cows had respiratory infections. So, I hoped I’d find a veterinarian here.”

“This town’s not known to have numerous ranches like yours, so the vets around decided to set up shop somewhere more cow-like, you know.” She smiled to reveal the sarcasm at her conclusion. “But, what I’m saying is usually, one might have to go outside the town to find one.” She shrugged.

“That’s what I thought, too.” I agreed with her. “I was about to leave for the neighboring town to see if I could be lucky enough to find one,” I added.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary now, though.” She shoved the idea off. She had a smile on.

“Why’s that? Do you have something in mind?” I asked. I questioned her smile. It looked mischievous, but I knew Nelly wasn’t that person, so I decided to hear her out.

“Indeed, I do.” She kept on smiling.

“Nelly!” I called her out with a suspicious tone. “Spill.”

She placed her hand on my shoulder and patted it. “Don’t worry, I’ll send one to you.”

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