“Your family thought of everything,” he said with admiration as he joined her.
Setting her palm to the door control, she allowed sadness to creep into her eyes. “Everything but an epidemic.”
The door opened soundlessly and Tamsyn preceded him into the cabin. It was an open floorplan design, kitchen, big dining table and sitting area all in one room. The chairs and a battered but comfortable couch were grouped in front of a fireplace. Stairs led to the second level. “Loft’s up there,” she said, pointing. “I had to sleep down here—there’s a tiny room off there with a bed. Used to be I had to sleep on the couch but then they built a room for me. Dad was adamant about me not bunking in with the hands and him.”
“Were there problems?” Cody asked.
She shook her head. “Never. Most of the hands I grew up with had moved on, except for Rasty the foreman, but they were all like uncles or big brothers to me when they were here. Drove me to school and shit. But guys get married or they want their own ranch or whatever reason makes a man move on. Anyone who even looked sideways at me or made an off-color remark was fired and booted off the spread. Dad and Rasty were highly protective. The men who worked for me when the apocalypse started had been on the Double Comets a long time and knew I was the boss. No funny stuff allowed. I liked them, good men to work with, but that was all.”
Cody didn’t doubt it. Tamsyn had an air of authority and resolve. “I don’t work for you,” he said with a smile. “Maybe the sleeping arrangements can be changed.” He caught her with one arm around the waist and drew her close. “I’m sure this place must be bringing up a lot of memories for you.”
She laid her head trustingly on his shoulder and a surge of protectiveness like he’d never experienced before rolled over Cody.
“I can’t deny it. Last year’s roundup we were all here, laughing and making jokes and working hard to keep the ranch successful. Expecting a good year of offworld sales and a lot of credits flowing in. Talking about improvements we’d make. And now there’s no one but me and I’m closing the damn place down.” Moisture on his shirt told him she was crying so he held her closer.
“You couldn’t prevent or stop what’s happened on Randal Four,” he said softly. “You’ve done the best you could under horrendous circumstances. I’m sure your ranch hands, if they were here, would tell you you’re doing the right thing. Set the cattle herd up to survive, which we’ll do tomorrow and then come with me, with us, and regroup. Work toward the future of this planet. Jeff knows what he’s doing and we’ve got a few surprises for anyone who gets in our way. Your friends would want you safe and I’m telling you now, sweetheart, I’ll do anything it takes to keep you safe.”
She took a few deep breaths and sniffed a couple of times. “You and I hardly know each other so why do I feel this way about you?”
“What way?” Tense, he waited for her answer.
“Like I’ve known you forever. Like my heart knew you were out there and I was waiting for you. I never met anyone like you before. I had boyfriends of course, including Jonny Fafield in high school.” she made a rueful face. “No one ever affected me the way you do. I’m afraid to trust myself on this because I swear to you it isn’t like me to fall so far and so fast for a guy I haven’t even known more than about a week.” She raised her face to his and managed to smile. “And half of the time you were out of your head sick.”
Outside one of the horses whinnied and they broke apart, Tamsyn wiping her hands on her jeans and heading for the door. “We’d better tend to them and get them safe in the barn. There are critters up here to avoid although most aren’t likely to tangle with two horses.”
Cody caught her hand. “All right but this conversation between the two of us isn’t over yet.”
“No, I agree, it isn’t.” She sounded encouraging and positive about the idea, which was reassuring to hear.
Satisfied, he let her go and followed her outside.
* * *
They kept the conversation casual while tending to the horses. The barn was little more than the lean-to Cody had been expecting the cabin to be but it would provide shelter for the horses and had room for quite a few more animals than Blaze and Mercury. Dinner was reheated casserole Tamsyn pulled from a stasis container she’d had in her saddlebags, with freshly baked cookies for dessert.
As they finished up the meal, Cody said, “I was a restless kid, trying to do a lot of things at once. I didn’t like school or concentrating on one thing for too long. But after I became a cyborg, it was a thousand times worse.”
“How so?” she asked, chasing the last cookie crumbs on her plate.
“I’ve got all this extra capacity in my head now. According to the briefings I was given, the idea was to make the cyborg corps even more efficient in battle. You know, instead of keeping my head on a swivel like soldiers are told to do, I could pick up intel from the 360-degree perspective with no effort.”
“You control that whole fleet of miniature drones with no problem,” she said in admiration.
“Yeah the problem is if I’m not in the middle of a combat situation or immersed in hacking a computer system or an AI, my brain goes into overdrive. Anxiety like you wouldn’t believe.” He grimaced. “It’s a flaw in the cyborg design. I don’t think the scientists ever got to refine it either before the program was shut down. I can’t shut off the flow of thoughts and they’re on a million topics and it makes me even more of a loose cannon. At least one of the guys who came after me couldn’t handle it and committed suicide. I wish I could have helped him but the sensations overwhelmed the poor man and he didn’t see any other way out of his pain.”
“That’s why you have all those fidget toys?” she asked.
“They help. I’ve learned to channel the mental activity to some extent and self soothe.” The pain of old regrets washed over him. Cody never spoke of these things, not even to Jeff, who was like a brother to him, but there was relief in sharing with Tamsyn. Part of her amazing effect on him. “He just wanted it all to stop.”
“Sounds terrible,” she said softly. “How could they do that to people?”
“Well, I wasn’t in a position to refuse what the doctors were offering and neither were any of the others. Combat can make a mess of a human being, beyond even what the rejuve resonator can fix. The scientists offered hope and a way back to being a normal man. Or as normal as a cyborg can be.”
Tamsyn reached across the table to put her hand on his. He turned his hand over to hold hers as she said, “You’re normal enough for me, Cody Wayne.”
“And you’re nothing short of a miracle to me,” he told her. “You quiet my mind. No one’s ever done that for me before. When I’m with you I can breathe. All the racing, tumbling thoughts and demands for my attention fade away and I can concentrate. Focus. But it’s more,” he went on, as she drew breath to speak. “You’re gorgeous, you’re smart, you’re feisty and independent and I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything in my entire life.”
“I feel the same,” she admitted in a low voice. “When Jeff said you’d been bitten and I thought I’d never see you again, the world closed in on me and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t see. The belief we wouldn’t have a chance to get to know each other crushed me. I was all in on you without even realizing it. And then when Jeff and Ryan brought you back and Dr. Jericho said there was a chance you could pull through, I prayed so hard for your recovery. And there was no way they were going to keep me away from taking care of you, from doing whatever I could to help you fight the virus.” Her eyes were shining in the firelight and he guessed she was close to tears.
