Choosing You

by Stacy Finz

  But once the surgery was over and Henry recovered, she’d take over the helm of the Barnes Group and find herself in the work that had once been her obsession.

  Her tea was cold, so she went inside for a warmer. The cupboards were well stocked with drinks and a few canned goods and dry provisions. But she really needed to load up on the foods she and Henry liked. They couldn’t eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Ponderosa, though the prospect of not cooking sounded nice.

  In New York, they had a home chef come in four nights a week. The rest of the time, they either ate out or did delivery. Between Henry, her volunteer work and social commitments there wasn’t time for her to cook, not that she’d ever been particularly proficient at it.

  On Monday, Henry had his pre-op tests. So anything she couldn’t find in Nugget, she’d buy in Reno.

  Brynn refilled her mug with hot water and while the tea bag steeped, she dashed off a quick email to her mother and then one to Lexi, her best friend since they were freshmen in college. Lexi had offered to come to California with them but Brynn knew she was in the middle of closing a big real estate deal. Lexi’s clients owned yoga studios all over Manhattan and were branching out to the Upper East Side. Lexi had found them a former dance studio on Third Avenue. If they negotiated the lease without a hitch the clients would hopefully use her as their agent again.

  As far as Brynn’s parents, February was a bear for her father, who had a performance nearly every night. So she’d come alone. She’d grown so used to handling everything on her own that it wasn’t a hardship, though having company would’ve been nice.

  She quickly perused her inbox and opened an email from Layla.

  “Hope everything is going well with Henry. Don’t worry about us, the Barnes Group is in good hands. Talk to you on Monday.”

  Right, the meeting. She’d almost forgotten it and quickly went to add it to her calendar when she saw that Zena already had. What would she do without Zena?

  Just as she closed her laptop, Henry came into the kitchen. “I’m hungry.”

  She went over to him and smoothed his hair. “The bad news is I forgot to buy groceries. The good news is we could try that burger joint and hit the market after we eat. But first, I need you to bundle up.” The temperature had dropped since their first trek into town. According to Brynn’s cell phone, it was thirty-five degrees out.

  Henry put on his shoes and jacket and sat in the car while Brynn loaded his wheelchair into the trunk. They followed the same route they had that morning. This time, the trip seemed shorter.

  She found the drive-through, which was at the end of the square. The Bun Boy, she laughed at the burger joint’s graphics, a chef with a hamburger bun butt. Ad-wise, there was a lot there to work with.

  “We’ll have to eat in the car. It’s too cold for the picnic tables.” She joined a short line of vehicles waiting to pull up to the order window. “Do you know what you want?”

  Henry leaned over the driver’s seat to read the menu posted on the side of the building. “A cheeseburger, french fries and a vanilla shake.”

  The line moved at a snail’s pace. Brynn unrolled her window and craned her neck outside to see what the holdup was. She saw a middle-aged woman standing next to the pickup that was at the head of the line, gabbing with the driver. If they didn’t move it along she was going to toot her horn. A few minutes later, the woman greeted the next motorist in the cue. They too had a lengthy conversation. Brynn noted that the pickup drove around to the front of the drive-through without any food.

  “I don’t know what’s going on here, Henry.” They were no longer in Manhattan that’s for sure. Apparently in Nugget they took “service with a smile” to a whole new level.

  Eventually the woman got around to Brynn, who unrolled her window.

  “The speaker is busted. We’re taking orders inside. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

  “Oh . . . okay.” Brynn didn’t know why they didn’t just put up a sign. The poor woman wasn’t wearing a jacket and was probably freezing.

  The car in front of her pulled around to the front like the pickup, and Brynn followed suit.

  “You want to wait in the car while I get our food?” It was only a few steps from Brynn’s parking space to the door but why not make it easier on Henry?

  “I want to come.” He unfastened his seatbelt.

  She rushed around back, got his chair and helped him out. By the time they got to the counter, they’d lost their place in line. The lady was back, taking orders while one of the kids in the kitchen went out the door with a piece of construction paper and a roll of duct tape.

  The guy from the pickup was wearing a cowboy hat. Brynn poked Henry and whispered, “I like yours better.”

  “Mom!” He gave her a look. These days anything she did or said embarrassed him, which according to her friends would last for the next twenty years.

  “Sorry for the wait,” the woman said when she finally got to them and handed Henry and Brynn a cup of hot chocolate. “It’s on the house today.”

  Henry’s eyes lit up. “Thank you.”

  “Would you look at that, a young man with good manners. What’s your name, sweetie?”

  “Henry,” he mumbled.

  “And where are you from, Henry?”

  “New York City.”

  “Well we won’t hold that against you. What’ll you have?”

  Brynn rattled off their orders and they huddled in the corner, sipping their hot cocoa while waiting for their food. The woman—everyone called her Donna—seemed to know all the customers at the counter.

  An older man came through the door and called to Donna, “What the hell’s wrong with that speaker of yours? You got traffic backed up to the other side of the square.”

  “Oh shut up, Owen.”

  Brynn and Henry exchanged glances.

  “Get the damned thing fixed.” And just like that the man sauntered out the door.

  Their number was called and Brynn grabbed the white paper bag with their order. They tore into the food as soon as they got in the car. The smell of the grill, a combination of fried onions and sizzling meat, made Brynn ravenous.

  “Why was that man so mean to the lady?” Henry asked.

  Brynn shrugged. “He certainly seemed grouchy, that’s for sure. I suspect there is some kind of rivalry there.”

  “What’s rivalry?”

  “Friendly competition. Like when you and Asher play video games.”

  “Oh.” Henry continued to nurse his shake. Under normal circumstances she would’ve insisted that he finish his meal before ice cream. But at this point she’d take whatever sustenance he got.

  “Tomorrow we eat vegetables,” she reminded him.

  He scrunched up his nose. “Do I still have to go to the doctor tomorrow?”

  “Yes, you know that. It won’t be so bad, just a few easy tests. And Dr. Daniels will tell us what to expect on Wednesday.” Throughout the ordeal, Henry had been so brave that she worried he sometimes held too much in.

  Shortly after the crash, she took him to see a child therapist, but Henry was too closed off for it to do any good. When they got back to New York, she planned to set up another appointment. Now that eight months had passed, he might be more willing to open up. For now, though, she didn’t want to heap too many doctor visits on him. He’d already gone through more than any eight-year-old should ever have to.

  She collected all their wrappers, dumped them in a trash can next to the parking lot and headed to the Nugget Market to pick up enough provisions to hold them for the week. It was a small store but well stocked with everything they’d need, including a decent produce section.

  When they got to the Circle D Ranch, Dr. Daniels’s old truck was in his driveway but all the other vehicles from earlier were gone. She passed the big house, parked as close to the cottage as
she could get without running over the lawn.

  Balancing an armful of grocery bags, she raced to the front door to unload before helping Henry in. That’s when it dawned on her that she’d never taken the key. She could still picture it on the kitchen counter where she’d left it from this morning.

  Hoping that it wasn’t a self-locking door, she turned the knob.

  Uh-oh.

  Chapter 5

  Dr. Daniels came down the hill holding a casserole dish in one hand and little Veronica’s hand in the other.

  “I am so sorry,” she said, mortified. “Our door lock in Manhattan is one of those code key deals, so it completely slipped my mind to take the key with me when we left. This time I’ll put it on my car key chain.”

  “No worries.” His mouth hitched up in the corners and she immediately thought of one of those silly nicknames from Grey’s Anatomy. McDreamy. McSteamy. Either applied.

  He handed her the covered dish, pulled a spare key from his jacket pocket, and unlocked the door. Scooping up her grocery bags off the patio table, he carried them inside and put them down on the kitchen counter.

  “Those are enchiladas.” He motioned at the still-warm covered dish in Brynn’s hand. “Alma made them and the only thing better in this world is her sopes.”

  “My goodness, they smell delicious.” She sniffed the pan. “That was so kind of her.”

  “She figured you’d be busy the next few days, too busy to worry about dinner.”

  Brynn rested the casserole on top of the stove. “Let me just help Henry out of the car.” She hadn’t wanted him to wait outside in the cold while someone came with the key.

  Dr. Daniels followed her down the walkway but Veronica beat them to the punch. She was standing in the doorway, offering a miserable looking Henry her hand while trying to coax him to come out.

  “Roni, give Henry some space.”

  Veronica shrugged and moved away from the car.

  “Hey, buddy. How’s it going?”

  Henry’s face flushed and Brynn wanted to go to him and hold him in her arms the way she used to when he was a baby. But she feared that would only compound the situation. Henry had been an independent little boy and having to rely on her . . . and strangers . . . in conjunction with everything else only made matters worse.

  She was about to call everyone away when Dr. Daniels discreetly hoisted Henry to his feet in one swift motion. Brynn got the wheelchair out of the trunk and Henry took it from there, Veronica dancing around him.

  “You want to see the horses, Henry?”

  He wanted to; Brynn could see it in his face. But he held back from saying so. Dr. Daniels also picked up on Henry’s ambivalence because he offered to get his truck so they could ride.

  “We could go in the Outback,” Brynn suggested.

  “That works. What do you say, Henry?”

  “Okay.” He nodded.

  “Let me just put the groceries away. Anyone want something to drink?”

  “Do you have soda?” Roni hopped up on one of the bar stools.

  Her father grabbed her around the waist and swung her down. “What did we say about soda?”

  Roni let out an exasperated breath and Brynn smothered a laugh.

  “What do we have here?” Dr. Daniels zeroed in on the Resistol hat box that Brynn left on the kitchen table after their first shopping excursion.

  Brynn slid the enchiladas into the fridge. “Show him what we got at the farm store.”

  Henry’s cheeks turned red again and he shook his head.

  The doctor didn’t wait for Henry. He lifted the lid, took out the hat, and eyed it. “This is one good looking Resistol.” He popped it on Henry’s head and spent a little time adjusting the brim. “Let’s get a little steam on it.”

  Brynn wasn’t sure if that was some sort of cowboy euphemism. When she continued to stand there, he pointed to the tea kettle.

  “Oh, you want me to boil water?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  When the kettle whistled, Dr. Daniels removed Henry’s hat from her son’s head. Using the steam from the tea pot, he began to shape the rim.

  “Come on over here, Henry.” He called him closer and fitted the hat on Henry’s head. After examining the fit for a few seconds, he took it off again and played with the sides some more, molding the rolls. “No cowboy’s head is the same. When I’m done with this, it’ll be just for you. Let me see. Put it on.”

  Henry gingerly fitted the hat on his head, afraid to ruin the new crease in the crown.

  “You won’t hurt it, just handle it by the front or back brim. And when you take it off don’t put it down right side up. It’ll ruin the brim. Do it like this.” He demonstrated by turning the hat upside down and placing it on the counter on its crown. Then he put it back on Henry’s head and eyed it from every angle. “Yep, looking good. Real good. Take a look in the mirror over there.”

  There was a small mirror on the wall over the coat rack, next to the door. It was probably there for exactly the purpose of adjusting a hat before leaving the house. The best part was it was wheelchair height.

  Henry made his way around the counter and stared at his reflection. A grin the size of the Grand Canyon split his face. And in that moment Brynn fell a little in love with Dr. Daniels.

  “We better get if we want to beat daylight,” he said and turned off the heat under the kettle.

  Brynn grabbed her keys, both sets this time, and they were on their way. The horse barn was only five minutes down the driveway in a small valley at the bottom of the hill. It was as pretty as the cottage with a triangular shaped roof, log siding, windows and a lean to under the left eave. Three horses grazed in a corral off the side of the barn, which opened to a larger pasture.

  They got out of the car and Dr. Daniels let out a loud whistle. Two more horses trotted out of the stable and came up to the fence, where they hung their heads over the top rail and snorted. Roni climbed up, patted one of the horses on the head, then swung her legs over to perch on the fence. Without saying a word, Dr. Daniels swung Henry up and sat him next to Roni so that his legs dangled onto the horse side of the corral.

  It was at least six feet up and Brynn’s chest clutched. “Hold on with your hands, Henry.”

  “He’s fine,” said the doctor who fixed bones for a living.

  She moved closer and even though she knew she was hovering she couldn’t stop herself.

  The horses crowded around the two kids and pushed their noses into their hands. Henry giggled. Brynn’s heart nearly came out of her chest. She hadn’t heard that sound in so long that it was like music, like Mozart’s “Sonata No. 17” with her father conducting.

  Dr. Daniels tugged a baggie full of apple slices from his pocket and gave them to Roni. “Show Henry how to do it.”

  “You put your hand flat like this.” Roni demonstrated with one of the apple pieces, then shared some of the fruit with Henry so they both could feed the horses.

  It was about the sweetest thing Brynn had ever seen. She grabbed her phone from her purse in the car and snapped a few pictures.

  Roni told Henry the name of each horse and various stories about them. He listened raptly, petting a big brown horse with a white mark on its forehead that had taken a shine to him.

  Her son’s surgeon leaned against the side of the barn, a whisper of a smile playing on his lips.

  “Thank you, Dr. Daniels,” she said in low voice, her eyes filling.

  “Everyone just calls me Ethan.” He held her gaze, then glanced at the brown horse that had become Henry’s new best friend. “Maybe after the surgery, when Henry’s had a little time to heal, we’ll get him up on Choo Choo there. It’ll be good therapy.”

  As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t see that far ahead. Today, she was focused on Monday’s tests, hoping Henry was healthy enough for
the procedure. So she simply nodded and changed gears.

  “I met your wife today. She’s lovely.”

  “Joey?” He slanted his head. “She’s my ex-wife.”

  She pursed her lips in confusion. Someone wasn’t telling the truth.

  “She lives in Reno and visits Roni here.” He stared out over the paddock as if he was searching for something. “We divorced a year ago.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, embarrassed that she’d raised the topic. Clearly, the situation was complicated. “I must’ve misunder—”

  “No worries. What did you think of town?”

  “I loved it. Everything about it is so quaint. The square, the Ponderosa, the fact that you can find parking.”

  He chuckled. “We’ve got plenty of that. I like the sense of community here. We used to live in Reno, in one of those planned divisions where all the houses look the same because it had lots of kids Roni’s age. But it never really felt like home. I wanted my daughter to grow up like I did. Lots of wide-open spaces, neighbors who look out for one another, and a place for the animals.” He glanced at the barn. “Good schools without the hour-long bus ride that I had to take on our ranch in Nevada. How about you? You like Manhattan?”

  “I do, then again it’s all I’ve ever known. I grew up a few blocks from where I live now. We have a lovely place but it’s an apartment.” A five-thousand-square-foot apartment but it was an apartment just the same. “No yard other than a rooftop garden and no pets because my husband was allergic. My folks have a weekend home in the Hamptons. That’s about as close to the country as we ever got.

  “But this place,” she twirled in a circle, holding her hands wide, “is wondrous. I love sitting on the patio, watching nature unfold.”

  His lips tipped up in that signature grin she was coming to recognize. It probably made him the most popular doctor at Renown. “Maybe you should get yourself a cabin in the country.”