Taylor opened the door. He was surprised by how 
different Rory looked outside of work.
Her long, reddish-gold hair was pulled back in a thick ponytail, which was pulled through the opening of the back of her Colorado Rockies baseball cap. She wore a heavy purple sweatshirt, and her white thermal underwear was visible through the holes in the knees of her obviously love-worn jeans. She had on a pair of well-broken in cowboy boots that also looked like they had seen better days. She wore no makeup, but the brisk Tulsa air had reddened her cheeks. She looked freshly scrubbed and very pretty.
“Hi,” Taylor said. “I just have to grab a jacket. Come on in for a second.”
Rory stepped into Taylor’s apartment. She looked around at the freshly polished and vacuumed place.
“Wow,” she called to Taylor, who had gone down the hallway to retrieve a jacket from the closet. “This place is really nice. When you said you and your brother lived here alone, I really expected it to be the typical bachelor pad.”
Taylor located his brown leather jacket. He returned to the living room.
“Don’t give us too much credit,” he said with a chuckle. “It was a complete dump until last week. Zac just came back from school to move in with me when all this started, and the place was pretty much trashed. My sisters and my niece came over and completely overhauled it. When I came home and it was spotless, I had to go back out into the hallway and check the number on the door. I totally thought I was in the wrong apartment.”
Rory chuckled. “So you’re normally pretty messy?”
“That’s being generous,” Taylor confessed. “I’m a complete slob.”
Rory looked down at Taylor’s feet. “I don’t suppose you have a pair of boots,” she said.
Taylor raised his eyebrows. “Boots? No. Why?”
Rory cocked her head at Taylor’s feet, studying them intently. “Because if you get stepped on the wrong way wearing those, you’ll get your feet broken,” she said. “But it’s okay. Dane’s feet are a lot bigger than yours, but Patrick or Mark may have a pair that will fit you.”
Taylor shook his head. “I don’t do boots,” he said.
Rory pulled a face. “No one’s going to see you, Mr. Cool,” she said. “Besides, you’d look a whole lot more stupid with your feet in casts.”
Taylor shrugged. “I guess you’re right,” he said. “But you have to promise to never tell anyone I wore cowboy boots.”
Rory chuckled and gave Taylor the scout sign. “I promise.”
Rory’s mode of transportation turned out to be a newer-looking, dark blue pickup truck. Taylor grinned as he climbed into the passenger seat beside her. “I see you can take the girl out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the girl,” he said.
“You’d better watch yourself, city boy,” Rory warned. “I’m the one responsible for choosing the 1,500 pound animal that’s going to be between your legs here shortly. You may want to be nice to me.”
Taylor settled back in his seat and watched the scenery go by as Rory drove. “How long have you been at Ferndale Woods?” he asked.
“Ever since I got out of college,” Rory said. “I started out as an assistant to the director. When he left a year ago, I got promoted to his position.”
Taylor smiled. “I wasn’t sure about it when they ordered me to go there,” he said. “But I have to confess I’m really starting to like it. I love the residents. They’re so great. It’s just hard not to feel sorry for them.”
“That’s not what they want,” Rory said. “They want you to treat them just like you would anyone else. It’s hard enough for them to have to give up their homes, which in essence is them giving up their lives. They’re trying to maintain some normalcy. The best thing we can do for them is to just act like it’s their home and we’re there to help them only if they need it.”
Taylor nodded. “That’s good advice,” he said. “So, what’s Molly and Frank’s story?”
Rory sighed. “It’s sad,” she warned.
“Why?” Taylor asked. “What happened?”
“Well, when Frank had his last bypass, they nearly lost him,” Rory said. “Molly was having a hard time caring for him by herself, but they really didn’t want to leave their house. Their granddaughter came to stay with them so they could stay there.
“Anyway, they were doing okay, but last winter the granddaughter … her name was Joanna, I think … went to the grocery store for them. The roads were icy, and she hadn’t even made it off the street where they lived and she was broadsided by another car. She hung on for a few days in the hospital, but she died.”
Taylor let out a deep breath. “God,” he said. “How awful. How old was she?”
“Twenty-one, I think.”
Taylor felt a pang.
“Molly was really bad off when they first got there,” Rory said. “She felt so guilty. She was killing herself with what-ifs … you know, if I hadn’t asked her to come here, if I hadn’t said I needed this or that from the store right then. It was tragic. It really was.”
Taylor’s blue eyes wandered out the truck window. “Everyone’s life is a domino effect deal,” he mused. “You ever notice how you can trace any event in your life back to everything else?”
Rory looked at Taylor quizzically. “How do you mean?”
“Well, I just have this feeling that Molly and Frank are going to be really, really important to me,” Taylor said. “And I can trace their coming into my life back to my drug problems and my getting arrested. And if I’m as important to them as they are to me, they’ll be able to trace getting to know me back to Joanna’s death.”
Rory looked thoughtful. “Why Taylor Hanson,” she said. “You have a soul. I didn’t know famous people were allowed.”
Taylor smiled slowly. “There’s so much to me that no one knows about,” he said with a sigh. “I’m more than my name, Rory. I can care about people. I really can.”
Rory turned down a dusty back road. In a matter of minutes, she had pulled the truck into the driveway of a large, white farmhouse. The circle driveway wound around a huge walnut tree with a wooden swing hanging from its lowest branch. Two corncribs, a huge silo and a bright red barn sat behind the house, and beyond them were sprawling wheat fields as far as Taylor could see. Four horses, all obviously different breeds, were in the fenced barnyard. They lifted their heads to peer questioningly at Taylor.
Taylor stepped out of the truck and looked around in amazement. “Wow,” he said. “This looks like something out of a storybook.”
Rory smiled softly. “Nope,” she said. “It’s for real. Welcome to my world.”
“This is so cool,” Taylor said. “It’s so … serene.”
Rory nodded. “It is that,” she said. “So, Taylor, how much equine experience do you have?”
Taylor smiled shyly. “Um, I think I went on a pony ride at the fair when I was like four.”
Rory raised her eyebrows. “You’re kidding.”
Taylor shook his head. “Nope.”
“And you want to do this?” Rory asked.
Taylor grinned. “Remember the bedpan crack the first day at Ferndale Woods? I told you I liked a new challenge.”
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