Cowboy Doctor

His eyes smarted.

“I bet that right now they’re all standing in line to see her again. It’s possible that, at this very moment, she’s talking to them in her loving voice, commiserating with them about the ailments they’d suffered on earth.”

He heard gentle laughter from the audience and saw a lot of people wiping their eyes. The church was filled with animal lovers from western Montana who knew exactly what he was talking about.

“We’re all going to miss her and the great blessing she was to this community. Her family has to be so proud of what she accomplished on this earth.

“If we were all as good as Hannah, what a beautiful world this would be.”

When he took his seat, the pastor stood before them once more. “We’ll now sing our parting hymn—it was known to be Hannah’s favorite—‘Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd.’”

During the singing, one line stood out to Roce: “Dear are the sheep of His fold.” That sounded like Hannah.

After the prayer, everyone followed the funeral procession to the cemetery. Roce rode with his mother and Toly. His youngest brother had a rodeo to get back to in Omaha and was in town for only a few more hours. His other two brothers, Eli and Wymon, trailed them in their cars with their wives. Hannah had touched all their lives.

Roce hadn’t felt this lost since his father had died. With Hannah’s death, the time had come for him to go his own way and make decisions, whether he wanted to or not. This was a day he hadn’t thought would come for several more years. If Roce didn’t buy the veterinary hospital and take over, Hannah’s family would put it up for sale and someone else would be in charge. They might not want to keep Roce on. In order for him to buy the practice, he would have to take out a big loan.

But in his heart, his secret hope had been to open his own hospital on the Clayton Cattle Ranch outside Stevensville, Montana. Besides serving as vet to the ranch, as well as the people in Ravalli County, he could help out his mom and brothers with ranching activities. To do that, he would have to discuss it with the family, and he didn’t know how they would feel.

Even if it were possible, he had to consider that moving to the ranch would mean he’d lose clients who lived in Missoula, a half hour away. To start a new practice on the ranch would take time. And there was the question of where to build a new structure that wouldn’t impose on the family.

Whatever happened, he would have to put his small condo in Missoula up for sale. The location near the hospital had made life easier when there’d been emergencies that had called him out in the middle of the night. It wasn’t fully paid for, but he needed as much money as he could put together no matter what direction he chose to go. All these thoughts bombarded him as they drove away from the cemetery.

Later, after they’d dropped Toly off at the airport and he was alone with his mom on the drive back to the ranch, she turned to him and said, “Roce—your talk had everyone in tears. I’m so proud to be your mother. But now that we’re alone, I can tell there’s something serious on your mind, so let’s talk about it.”

He smiled. “What do you think you know?”

“That you’ve come to a fork in the road. Your dad hoped you’d become our ranch veterinarian. When the time came, he had a spot all picked out for you.”

Roce’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. This was the first he’d heard about it. “What area would that be?”

“The old sheep station house.”

His thoughts reeled. “The bungalow right off the highway?” Long ago there’d been no road there, only trampled ground from bringing through the sheep.

She nodded. “When they built the highway, the house was boarded up, and blocked off by the fencing.”

“Why didn’t Dad do something with it?”

“He wanted all our homes and outbuildings to be centered together, higher on the mountain. But when you became a vet, he told me he hoped to make renovations on the station so you could open up your practice on our property. As you can see, it would be the perfect place for a hospital, with easy access to the highway. Let’s take a look at it.”

Roce was in shock. He’d almost forgotten it was there. A bank of trees camouflaged most of it. At her urging he drove past the entrance to the ranch and on to the boundary of their property. After parking on the highway shoulder, he got out with his mom and walked over to the fence.

Roce rested his arms on top and took a good, long look at the one-story log house they could see through the leaves. His mother stood next to him. “All you’d have to do is remove part of this fencing and a few trees. Then a new road into the parking area could be constructed, with a sign that says Clayton Veterinary Hospital.”

While his mother kept talking, Roce’s heartbeat began to pick up speed.

“Besides equipping a new surgery, you’d have to put in new plumbing, and the building needs new paint. Your brothers and I have been talking. With their help, you could be in business in no time.”

He cleared his throat. “I couldn’t ask them to do that.”

But all the time she was talking, he could see adding an office next to the surgery. He would have to install electronic locks for the front and back doors because of the drugs he would have to keep on the premises.

“Your family has volunteered, Roce. Remember when you helped Wymon build a second story on his house? Now they want to pitch in for you on a second story. A bedroom and bathroom upstairs? I’m thinking you could live here a long time, and still keep your horse in the barn with ours. And at a future date, you may want to build your own ranch house for the family you’ll have one day.”

After all these years his mom was still holding out that he’d find the right woman for him, but Roce feared the woman of his dreams didn’t exist. He hated to shatter his mom’s hopes of that happening, though, especially when she’d just offered this gift out of the blue. So many emotions overwhelmed him. He pulled his mother into his arms and gave her a long hug.

Two months later

THE SATURDAY DRIVE from Polson to Hamilton, Montana, turned out to be beautiful. It was June 2, and the warm weather had arrived in Bitterroot Valley. Tracey Marcroft opened the window of her white Honda, drawing in a deep breath of pine-scented air.

As she took in the vision before her, she didn’t care that the breeze tangled her hair. After the last nine months, she was finally free from the responsibilities of teaching school, and was looking forward to her summer job at the Rocky Point Dude Ranch. She loved her sixth graders, but couldn’t wait to work with families who’d come out here on vacation to horseback ride, another one of her passions.

During spring break, she’d interviewed with John Hunter, a man who’d made it big in oil and owned the dude ranch. The patriarch of his large family had been a close friend of her grandpa Ben’s before moving from Polson. He’d been the one to show her the facilities and he’d made her feel very welcome. The stories he’d told about him and her grandfather in their younger years riding around Flathead country had fascinated her.

She liked John and his wife, Sylvia, a lot, and was thrilled when they offered her the job, along with her own little cabin. Besides the fact that John praised her for the way she rode and handled the horses during their ride, he’d seemed especially pleased to hear that she taught school and understood kids. They had plenty of families with younger children who could benefit from her expertise.

Tracey was indebted to her grandfather for suggesting she get in touch with John for the job. She’d always been close to her grandpa, who’d been living with her family for the last two years since her grandmother had died. Tracey wanted to be an asset to the dude ranch and make him proud. Hopefully, three months out here in a different part of Montana would give her a new lease on life.

A year ago this past Christmas, she’d expected her boyfriend, Jeff Atkins, to return from his deployment overseas so they could plan their wedding. They’d met in college at the University of Montana in Missoula.

But he’d been killed in an ambush, along with two other men in his platoon. Since then, she’d been trying to get over the pain. Her parents and her older brother, Max, had done what they could to comfort her. But time had to do the rest.

It was two in the afternoon when she reached Stevensville. She felt hunger pains and pulled into a drive-through behind a line of tourists to grab a hamburger and a soda.

While she waited, she phoned her best friend, Barb, who was married and worked as a paralegal in Polson. Tracey hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye to her. During their talk, Barb promised that she and her husband would come visit over the July Fourth holiday. Pleased that she’d be seeing her friend next month, Tracey hung up after getting her meal.

She drove out to the highway again for the last twenty-minute leg of her trip. While munching on her fries, Tracey rounded the long curve in the road, marveling at the sight of the magnificent Sapphire Mountains flanking the valley. In her mind’s eye, they were filled with heaps of dazzling blue gemstones. When she’d been a child, that image had delighted her imagination. It still did.

A little farther on she saw a sign for Clayton Veterinary Hospital, and slowed down while she finished off her fries. Funny that she hadn’t seen it in the spring, when she’d first driven this way. To her recollection, there’d been a bank of trees all along the highway.

Set against a backdrop of pines was a small, yet charming log cabin. There weren’t any cars in the parking lot, but she glimpsed a horse trailer at the side of the house before she sped up.

The setup reminded her of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book Little House in the Big Woods, one of Tracey’s favorites in the series. She’d always been an avid reader. Throughout her young years she’d imagined herself as Laura, riding around on her own horse.

Tracey had gone through several horses in her life, her current one being Spirit, her gelding, who was getting very old and needed regular checkups with her family’s vet in Kalispell. Her mom and dad were taking care of him while she was gone this summer.

When she reached Hamilton, she took a left. She’d learned that the Hunter family lived in their own homes in town when they weren’t on duty at the ranch. It was only a two-mile commute to the dude ranch sitting on five hundred acres of prime land.

The large foyer with its office and check-in counter divided the big Western ranch house into two parts. One side contained the common areas, consisting of an activity room, dining room and kitchen, plus a great room with a fireplace that rose to the vaulted ceiling. The other side had been remodeled into bedrooms to house forty people at a time.

Tennis courts and a swimming pool with a cabana had been built at the side of the ranch house. The stable, barn and corral lay behind the whole facility. To the side of the corral were a dozen small cabins for the summer staff.

There were sheds housing fishing gear, white-water rafts—everything the vacationer could ask for. As John had explained, the Bitterroot River offered rafters and floaters a trip down one of the most scenic waterways in Montana, traveling through the Bitterroot and Sapphire mountains. From those vantage points, the view of the wide, lush valley was unforgettable.

The ideal setup appealed to Tracey, who pulled up in front of the ranch house to let John know she’d arrived. It wouldn’t be open for summer vacationers until the day after tomorrow. That gave her time to get more acquainted with the facilities, particularly the horses.

She got out of the car and walked inside. A cute brunette woman in her early twenties was manning the front desk. She broke out in a smile when she saw her approach.