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would keep a close eye on them both.
    Tinch checked on the other horses, each damaged in some way the vet couldn’t fix, and others about to go through a hard birthing that would need someone close to help. When he walked out the barn door, he noticed the lights were on at the Rogerses place. The angry doctor was home. If she could call it home? Except for a few clothes scattered around, the place looked exactly like it had the night the Rogerses were killed. They’d been in a bad car accident last winter. As far as he knew, the daughter didn’t take anything but a few pictures out of the house after the funeral. She wanted to sell the place as is. When that didn’t work, she had a leasing company rent it out. No one had ever driven out to look at it until the doctor moved in.
    Tinch had always thought some farmer would buy the property.He would have bought it if he’d been able to scrape up the money. The land was good and water ran through it all year round. There were even a few fishing holes on the spread that he used to love going to as a kid. The house was small, but it would make a good starter place.
    If all Addison Spencer wanted was somewhere to crash between shifts, why hadn’t she rented an apartment in town? Why come all the way out here?
    He answered his own question. “She is someone who wants to be alone.”
    All the anger toward her left him in one exhale as it occurred to him that maybe the blond lady had something in common with the palomino. Her scars didn’t show either, but he’d bet they were there. She reminded him of an animal who’d been mistreated. She hadn’t come out here to work. She’d come to Harmony to hide. That might explain why the mail truck never stopped at her box by the road. If the woman was hiding, she’d have a box in town so no one would bother her. That could be the reason why his showing up at her door had riled her so much.
    He didn’t see her for three days, but she was on his mind. When he went in to have the stitches checked, Georgia took care of him and didn’t say a word about the doctor.
    Tinch went into town a few days later for supplies and found himself parking in the hospital parking lot.
    He wasn’t interested in her as a woman, or a doctor for that matter.
    So why was he parked watching people come and go in the rain? If she noticed him, she’d think he was stalking her. It wasn’t that at all. If he had to come up with a reason, Tinch would have to say it was because he thought she was hurt. For as long as he could remember, he’d never been able to stand to see an animal frightened or in pain. Maybe that was why it was so hard to watch Lori Anne as the cancer took her piece by piece. The last few years before she died, no matter what he did, no matter what the doctors did, she was always in pain.
    Climbing out of his pickup, he walked into the hospital.Someone told him an old friend of his father’s had suffered another heart attack. The least Tinch could do while he was here was pay his respects.
    Fifteen minutes later, he cut through the waiting area of the emergency room on his way out. He’d about decided something was wrong with the air in hospitals because he couldn’t seem to draw a deep breath. Lost in thought, he was almost out the door when Dr. Addison Spencer crossed his path.
    He stepped sideways. “Excuse me,” he said, and would have continued on, but she stopped in front of him and raised her chin slightly.
    “Tinch, isn’t it?” she said, as if she barely remembered him.
    He smiled. “Yeah, your closest neighbor.”
    “How’s your head?”
    “Healing.” He realized what she must think. “I’m not checking in. I just dropped by to see a friend, Jeremiah Truman.” He figured he’d better give details or she might not believe him. “He’s not doing so well. I fear he’s counting out what’s left by the clock and not the calendar.”
    “Your diagnosis may be right.” She relaxed a bit. “I check in on him several