“Ever think that maybe, by sharing in each other’s sorrow, it’s helping us deal with the pain?” she asked. “Did you talk to counselors or therapists about Dineo?”

Cody shook his head. “I was sent to London and Dad needed me. I’m a doctor, for God’s sake.” He stood up and took his empty mug to the bathroom to wash it. “I lost patients before Dineo and probably will again. I shouldn’t need therapy every time I lose someone.”

“No, but this was a special little boy to you,” Stevie said. “Sometimes, like with that little guy and with my mama, we don’t bounce back like we want to.”

“When did you get so smart?” Cody asked.

“Always been smart,” Stevie said. “You just didn’t recognize it.”

“I deserved that smart-ass remark,” Cody said.

“Yes, you did,” Stevie said. “Would you have ever believed that the two of us would be stranded together like this?”

“Nope,” Cody answered.

“Me either.” Her grin got even bigger. “Yet, here we are, and with just a little help, we might even learn to be friends.”

“Now wouldn’t that be a miracle,” Cody said.

Cody hadn’t had time for friends in college, and he’d been moved so often that he hadn’t bonded with many folks—not like he did with Bodi and Dineo. He wasn’t sorry for his decision to put his own personal wants aside to give back to others. Pearl and Sonny had been amazing parents, but there had always been the idea in the back of his mind that he owed a debt to society for all that he’d been given. He had to do something to help others, and from the time he had seen a documentary on television about Doctors Without Borders, he had set his mind to devote his life to that.

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The next morning Stevie took stock of the food they had left. She had a can of tuna fish in one hand, and a can of chicken in the other, trying to figure out what to do with either of them for breakfast.

Mama, you got any recipes that only use what I can rustle up from almost nothing?

A reflection of light bounced off the can of tuna.

“I get the message. Start with that, right?” Then she realized sun rays were coming through the single window. Sun meant she and Cody might get rescued before too many more days. “Cody! Open your eyes!” she yelled across the room.

Cody sat up with a jerk. “What? What’s happening?”

Stevie pointed across the room. “The sun is shining. Look!”

He tilted his head to one side and frowned, then got up, put on his boots and coat, and headed out into the barn. “Do you hear that? Am I imagining things?”

“What?” She followed him to the door. “Is that what I think it is?”