“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few days.”
“I don’t know if we have a few days.”
“I’ll have to drive, Dad. My field truck has all the supplies I will need while I’m there. In the meantime, I’ll call Doc and have her get samples to send in to my team.”
“It’ll have to do, I guess. Thanks, Sutton. I really appreciate it.”
I start throwing things into a suitcase while also looking for an Airbnb in the area.
I’ll be damned if I’m staying at the ranch with my dad.
Maybe I’m crazy for doing this insanely long drive to the East Coast, but taking all of my supplies with me is far better than ordering them and risking them not arriving on time.
I don’t want to prolong this trip any longer than necessary.
As I’m going through the motions of checking off what needs to be done, I call Doc Lucy’s cell phone. She’s been the veterinarian in Hicks Creek for as long as I can remember. She used to let me help her when she’d make house calls.
“Sutton,” she greets me on the other end. “I didn’t actually believe your father when he said he’d call you.”
“I’m a little shocked over here myself,” I chuckle drily. “Why didn’tyoucall me?”
“I offered. Honestly, I should have listened to him from the start—as soon as the first course of treatment didn’t work and the other ranches started having similar issues. He kept telling me that I needed to call you or that he would.”
“That’s surprising.”
“I thought so, too. I thought it was a little premature, but he was right. I think we have an outbreak on our hands, and it’s way beyond my scope of expertise. They’re threatening tosend in a health officer. I’ve heard horror stories about what they do when they get to a ranch. It could ruin your father and these other ranches. I get that they’re trying to protect the cattle and…” She blows out a long breath. “But they don’t care about the consequences of those actions.”
“I’ve heard the same horror stories, although I’ve never met any of the officers. I can reach out to my boss, too, to see what he knows. I’m packing now. I’ll be there in a few days. I still want you to send samples to my lab. I’ve already emailed you the protocol and what I need. If you could do that today, it would be great. Then by the time I get there, maybe I’ll have an idea of what’s going on. Can you email me what you’ve tried and tested for so far? I don’t want to repeat anything and slow this down.”
“Absolutely. I’ve got it in a Google Drive, and I’ll send it over. I think your dad and the Callahans have been hit the worst. Wade has not slept in days as he’s trying to do as much research as possible on this.”
Wade Callahan. It’s been a while since I’ve heard his name out loud.
It’s not been a while since I’ve thought about him, though.
Our little sexscapade is on a loop in my brain a lot. I haven’t found another man who could fuck me like that in the last ten years.
Sad, really.
“My friend is in North Carolina, and she said they’re having a similar outbreak of sorts. I’ll reach out to her for her research, too. Maybe we can get ahead of it.”
“Perfect. I’ll reach out to more colleagues to see if they’re having the same issues. In the tri-county area, we’re the only ones. I’ll be in touch with you, but do let me know when you’re close, and I’ll meet you out at your dad’s ranch.”
“Perfect, thanks, Doc.”
I hang up the phone and start packing while multitasking to let my work know I’ll be out in the field indefinitely. I find a nice little guest house on the Airbnb site that’s not far from my dad’s ranch and book it before calling my boss—and ex-boyfriend. I still don’t know what I was thinking when I started dating him.
“Hey, Ronnie,” I say into the phone.
“Hey, Sutton, to what do I owe the pleasure of a Sunday morning phone call? Are you missing me?”
“No,” I say a little too quickly. “It’s strictly business, Ronnie. That’s all it can be.”
I’ve said those words a dozen times since I broke off our two-year-long relationship. He still doesn’t listen.
“Why are you working on a Sunday?”
“I just got a call from my dad. He’s had some sort of outbreak with the cattle on his ranch. I talked to the local vet and it’s not just his ranch either. It’s most of them in the area. I’m going home to figure it out. Put me on fieldwork for the foreseeable future.”
