“She what? I thought she planned to work through next winter. What happened to change her mind? She wanted to pay her folks off before quitting.”

Wyatt held up his hands. “What happened to Jenette was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She’s been unhappy with her job for a long while, and this just pushed her over the edge.”

Kennedy folded his arms and closed his eyes. “She thinks Jen is going to die, then?”

“I didn’t say that. The last I heard, she’s still hanging on.” Wyatt curled a hand over his brother’s shoulder. “Why don’t you take the day off and drive to Crystal Falls? Her parents are probably at the hospital in a waiting room. Maybe you can find them, and they’ll tell you more. I don’t know if anyone at the sheriff’s department is being kept in the loop, but if they are, they may not tell us anything because of patient privacy laws.”

“But I’m supposed to work. I don’t have classes today.”

“I’ll cover for you. Just go. The boss will understand.”

Wyatt watched his brother race to the bunkhouse like the place was on fire and he had the only water bucket. He smiled slightly and shook his head. At twenty-two, Wyatt had still been a virgin, and he had never been in love until now. As difficult as it was for Wyatt to stick to his guns and resist Erin, he was kind of glad of the misery. It helped him to better understand how Kennedy must be feeling. His brother might fall in love a few times before he found his forever lady, and it would be nice to understand the range of emotions he might experience each time.

Wyatt worked all morning, took a break for lunch, and then hit it again. On a ranch, there were always chores, and the two fellows Slade had hired as spring help were still in training. Normally, Wyatt was teaching new guys the ropes when there was still snow in the pastures. Getting married and being blissfully happy for the first time in over forty years had messed with Slade’s usual schedule. They weren’t technically shorthanded, but right now the new hires still didn’t know their asses from holes in the ground.

As a result, Wyatt was tired when he resumed work after lunch. With Kennedy gone, he had to do his brother’s chores as well as his own. The spring grass wasn’t yet nutrient-rich enough to sustain the herd, so they were still throwing hay. Kennedy often did that, but today it was Wyatt’s ball game. He didn’t trust the two new guys to do it right. And it was vitally important that the lactating cows got plenty of nourishment. Water troughs also had to be checked, and on a ranch so large, that alone took a couple of hours, because there was often a water leak to fix, and it sometimes took a trained eye to notice something was wrong.