Cal, listening to every word, smiled.

* * *

A few days later, the Smyth family paid a visit, expressing gratitude and giving Maggie great peace of mind. As it turned out, the scruffy, felonious twins had a long list of priors, including sexual assault and battery. The county was delighted to hold them without bail and the prediction was that they had reached the end of their criminal careers.

Cal made a secret pledge to follow up on those two, make sure they were securely locked away.

The crossing was teeming with people, some on vacation and others stretching out their weekends. Maggie and Cal had to insist that Sully go easy, knock off early. He was inclined to do too much.

The garden showed the first sprouts of summer vegetables, wildflowers bloomed along roads and trails and Cal became a well-known fixture. He still maintained he was just helping out while Sully got back on his feet, yet his hours had become long and duties varied.

In addition to working in and around the store, he also took plenty of time to sit on the porch or hang around the counter inside the store because warmer weather brought out the locals as well as campers. Neighboring ranchers or their wives paid visits even though they rarely needed supplies of any kind. There was a lot of hanging around the back counter or bulletin board. Gavin, the local ranger with the US Forest Service, dropped by a couple of times for a beer after work; the volunteer search-and-rescue unit had exercises nearby and most of the crew stopped at Sully’s on the way home. Tom was part of that team. And Tom managed to drop by most days, either in the morning for a cup of coffee to start his day or in the afternoon to check on Jackson or Nikki at the end of their day. Tom and Cal seemed to spend more and more time together, talking and laughing like old friends.

Cal was friendly with the campers and when they asked him if he owned the store he said, “No, it belongs to Sully. I’m just cheap help. But if there’s anything you need, just let me know.”

Maggie took Sully to Denver to see the doctor for his checkups. Sully wanted to drive himself there and home but Maggie wasn’t having it. She wanted to hear everything the doctor said. Rob Hollis gave Sully an A+. “You’re cleared to lift twenty-five to thirty-five pounds, and stretching and bending is approved, as tolerated. Walking is good, as much as desired. Meds stay the same. See you in a month.”

Sully peered at Maggie. “Bet that just drives you crazy, hearing that I’m fine.”

“I’m delighted,” she said.

“You don’t have to stay to take care of me anymore,” he said.

“Can I stay if I want to?” she asked a bit sarcastically.

“Long as you want, Maggie. But, don’t you miss the hustle and bustle of the operating room?”

In fact, she did. The cases, especially the most challenging—she missed them. The related complications, not so much. She was keeping up with the emails and snippets of news she got during regular calls with Jaycee, not to mention being in touch with her lawyer. He said she’d be deposed in a couple of weeks and she’d have to go back to Denver for that. “The excitement of Trauma 1 calls to me,” she confessed to Jaycee, the only one of her friends she kept up to date on her legal issues. “But lawsuits, complex insurance disputes and the politics of medicine does not.”

“Oh, I hear you there,” Jaycee said. “OBs are almost as pursued as neurosurgeons. One of our practice has stopped delivering for that reason. What were we thinking?”

“We were thinking we could save the world, or at least a nice big chunk of it,” Maggie said.

“I hope you think hard on this decision to hang around the store, Maggie,” Sully said. “You went to school for a lifetime to do what you do. You saved lives. I think it would be a terrible waste to spend all that training and education handing out picnic supplies.”