Carrie turned, her deep green eyes shining. Wisps of her shoulder-length red hair clung to her milky cheeks. “This place is amazing.”

“That’s certainly one word for it.” Presley scanned the yard. It was empty except for patches of deep yellow daffodils that seemed to have cropped up in the last few hours. The temperature had climbed but was still absurdly cool for June.

“Really! Everything is so green. And trees everywhere. It smells wonderful.”

Presley studied Carrie suspiciously. What could she say to that? Everything was amazingly green and golden and brilliant blue and ridiculously idyllic. And clearly, Carrie had already breathed too much of the intoxicating air. Hoping to bring her back to earth, she asked, “Have you been upstairs? Either one of the open rooms is yours.”

“I have. I took the one looking out the front. It’s an awesome view. Have you been exploring?”

“Ah, I haven’t actually walked around the place yet, but it seems like all the necessities are here.”

“What’s the hospital like?”

“About what you’d expect—better maintained than most places that aren’t even half as old, with a fairly steady census.”

Carrie pursed her lips. “I got the feeling Preston saw this as a quick turnover, maybe transitioning to long-term care or some kind of outpatient imaging center. Depending on the reimbursement profiles.”

That was SOP for small outlying places like this, but simply hearing that it had been part of Preston’s plan made Presley resistant. She doubted he’d done more than look at the financials for the last several years. He wouldn’t have had the patience to do a geographic or demographic analysis of the area. “Yes, well, we’ll know more when we’ve had a breakdown of resources and usage.”

“Yes, we ought to be sure we head in the right direction.” Carrie rose. “What about the staff? Any issues?”

Presley immediately thought of Harper. She could handle Harper—she just needed to remain firmly in charge and remember why she’d come. “Not so far.”

“Good. I’m ready to dig in, then.”

“Are you sure?” Presley wanted to return to the hospital, but strangely, her first thought wasn’t of work. She wondered if she might run into Harper again. She quickly pushed the thought aside.

“Totally. Can you give me fifteen to take a quick shower?”

“Don’t hurry.”

After Carrie disappeared inside, Presley sat on the stairs to wait. While she checked her mail, she half expected the rooster to appear to annoy her. After a few minutes he was a no-show. Maybe he slept in the barn during the day. She supposed she could go check while she waited.

The big barn door slid back surprisingly easily as she pushed it to one side. The interior was huge, with a row of empty stalls along one side under a loft still piled high with bales of hay. Light filtered through the metal-mesh-covered windows in the stalls and slanted through the cracks in the board walls. The hot, steamy air smelled sweet.

“Rooster?” Presley walked down the wide aisle and caught a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye. Her pulse jumped. Empty barns didn’t have rats, did they? “Rooster?”

The answering cry was distinctly un-Rooster-like. Stepping forward cautiously, she peered into a dim corner and shiny eyes stared back.

“Oh!” She jerked back as her brain deciphered the shapes. Little heads, little faces. Kittens. Four—no, five.

“Caw?”

Presley spun around. Rooster hopped up. “Oh no. This is not good.”

“What isn’t?” Carrie said from the doorway.

“Livestock everywhere,” Presley said.

Carrie joined her. “Look how cute! Where’s the mother?”

“Not too close, I hope.” Presley flapped a hand at Rooster. “Shoo. Go. Cats. Birds. Bad. Go.”

He cocked his head and didn’t move.

“Should we feed them?” Carrie said.

“No! Maybe they’ll go away.”

Carrie’s face fell.

“Fine. Why not!” Presley stalked toward the door and Rooster obligingly followed. “Why don’t we just give up business altogether and become farmers.”

“Ah,” Carrie said, unable to hide a smile, “we can probably manage both. Multitasking is our specialty.”

“Right.” Presley slid into her car and started the engine. Carrie jumped in beside her. Rooster watched as she U-turned around and roared away. Simply perfect.

Chapter Nine

Harper dictated Peggy Giles’s admission H&P and a procedure note, and headed for the ICU to make sure the baby was stable. She had no reason to go down the east corridor, although she wondered if Presley had gone back to her office and had to force herself not to wander over to check. What would be the point—they’d come to an impasse and they’d probably only argue. She wasn’t sure how things had unraveled quite so quickly. Presley had actually seemed interested and relaxed while they’d been making rounds, and Harper had enjoyed introducing her to patients and describing their care. Sharing her work came naturally, given that everyone in the family was part of it and always had been, but she’d rarely discussed it with anyone outside the family, not even the women she’d dated. There’d never seemed to be any need, when Flann or Carson or her parents were always around to bounce things off or share an exciting story with. Today had been different—showing Presley what the Rivers meant to her, to everyone within its walls, mattered on more than a professional level. Sharing her world with Presley had been satisfying in a way she hadn’t expected, at least until Presley had retreated into the alien landscape of budgets and cost-benefit analysis and other things that didn’t belong anywhere in the province of caring for patients. The thread of connection they’d been weaving had abruptly snapped, and that bothered Harper more than she wanted to admit. Fortunately, she had more important things to occupy her mind.

She walked through the ICU to the room at the end where they put the pediatric patients. Peggy was the only child in the unit. She lay in the center of the bed, her arms and legs outstretched and connected to IVs, EKG leads, a blood-pressure cuff, and a urinometer. The breathing tube ran to the ventilator beside the bed. She looked like a pale blond doll amongst all the equipment. The nurse who was charting vital signs smiled when she walked in.

“How’s she doing?” Harper asked.

“She’s been fine. We just sent a blood gas.”

“Great.” Harper listened to her chest. The breath sounds were clear and evenly distributed on both sides. She’d had to sedate her so she would tolerate the breathing tube and would need to keep her that way as long as the tube was needed. Hopefully, the steroids would kick in quickly, the swelling would go down, and the antibiotics would knock out the infection. As quickly as kids went bad, they bounced back too. “Did someone go to get her mother?”

“As soon as I get her cleaned up a little more, I’ll send Nancy down for her.”

“Thanks. Call me if anything changes.” Satisfied that everything was stable, Harper charted a few notes. She was done at the hospital and had no more reason to stay. She especially had no reason to drop by admin, but the urge to see if Presley had remained was still there, an annoying presence in the back of her mind like the throb of a sore tooth. Pushing the impulse aside, she left the ICU.

Flann, still in scrubs, sauntered down the hall in Harper’s direction. “I was just going to check on her.”

“She’s stable.”

“Good.” Flannery fell in beside Harper as she headed for the stairwell. “So how did our Ms. Worth come to be down in the ER during all of that?”

“When did she become our Ms. Worth?” Harper heard the crankiness in her voice. Every time the subject of Presley came up her hackles rose for no good reason. Of course, the woman herself was irritating enough to be the explanation. Flann’s obstinate refusal to recognize anything about her other than the fact that she was attractive and intelligent just added to her annoyance.

Flann grinned. “Well, I figured since we were sharing—”

“Knock it off, Flann.”

“Oh, sensitive. Is there something I should know?”

Harper stopped walking and jammed her hands on her hips. “It seems like you should already know without being told. Presley is not a member of your fan club. She’s here to take over the hospital, and we don’t even know what the plans are.”

“I didn’t know I had a fan club. Is there a website?”

Harper blew out a breath. “You know, sometimes you are a real pain in the ass.”

“Really?” Flannery raised her brows. “I never knew you thought that.”

Harper laughed. Flann could always make her laugh, even when she’d broken one of Harper’s toys, or gotten them both in trouble with one of her harebrained schemes, or drawn the attention of one of the girls Harper had given a thought to. She couldn’t stay mad at her. “Would you just think about something besides your hormones? Just this once.”

“I was,” Flann protested, the devil-may-care glint in her eyes at odds with her innocent tone. “I was thinking I’d go undercover, and when Presley falls victim to my charms, she’ll tell me everything, and I could report back.”

“Your charms notwithstanding,” Harper said, “I don’t think she’s going to fall victim to anything at all. If we’re not careful, we’ll be the ones picking ourselves up off our asses.”

“You’re really worried, aren’t you,” Flann said.

“Aren’t you?”

“I sort of thought I’d wait to see what was actually proposed before I got all doom and gloom about it.”

“Spend some time with her,” Harper said, and immediately regretted the suggestion. Why the idea of Flann and Presley together bothered her so much was just another irritation. Why should she care? “Listen to the questions she asks. I’m not getting the sense that she thinks the hospital’s all that necessary.”