Page 108 of One Last Rodeo

She smiles, practically bouncing in the bed despite being hooked up to different monitors taking her vitals. "I'm doing good! I had the coolest visitor yesterday who brought all these with him!”

“Oh, you did?” I pull out my tools, starting my assessment—listening to her heart, checking the incision that’s already healing beautifully even though I’ll have to regrettably reopen it one last time in an hour.

She nods enthusiastically. “It was a real cowboy!”

My hands pause over her heart.Jensen came here to visit her?Jensen bought these flowers, yes, but Jensencame here with the Catalinas?

My eyes flick to Jordan who's leaning against the doorway watching us. I loop my stethoscope around my neck.

“A real cowboy came to visit you yesterday?”

She nods again, even more excited. “Yes! He told me all about how he rides bulls that try to kill him every night in front of a big arena. He showed me videos too. It was so silly.” She giggles. “Who would do something like that for fun?”

A crazy man. A wild man. A man I never would’ve picked for myself if he hadn't forced me to get to know him. To see past the playful grin, rough exterior and to the heart of the best person I’ve ever met.

“That does sound funny,” I manage to get out. My throat is thick with emotion.

She keeps smiling as I gently check her neck for swelling and try to focus on the examination.

“He said he’s met you before,” she adds.

I pause again.

“He said you fixed his heart,” she continues, proud and not the least bit aware of the way my pulse is stuttering. “And that you're the only reason he can keep doing what he loves every night because you gave him a second chance. He also said that you’ll fix mine too this time. So, I can grow up and be a bull rider if I want someday.”

“Olivia,” her mother says gently from next to her.

My chest tightens so hard it almost hurts.

I crouch down beside the bed, bringing myself level with her, and look straight into her hazel eyes. They’re wide and unguarded. Full of trust. Full of hope in me. And that’s what this was all about, wasn’t it? Jensen came here to give Olivia hope, because he believes in me, and he wanted me to believe in myself.

The thing that’s always lived in Jensen’s eyes when he looks at me has been hope, hasn't it? The thing that was there the last time we talked—when his voice went quiet and careful and he asked if there was a chance that I could forgive him someday. If there was any chance at all that we could try again.

Hope.

It’s the last thing any of us have when we’re standing on the edge of a disaster we never saw coming. The one thing that keeps us from letting go.

And now I have it—forus. For Olivia. For the impossible way Jensen showed up here, wedged between finals and flights and expectations, just to give a little girl the same hope he once asked me for.

I don't need hope; I have something better. I have forgiveness. For him, for myself, and for Davis. And I need to tell him that.

I smile at her, even as emotion tightens in my throat. That burn has never spilled out in front of patients before and I won't start that today.

“I did fix that cowboy’s heart,” I tell her softly.And he fixed mine.“And I’ll fix yours too if you want to ride bulls someday.”

She grins like she’s been waiting for me to say exactly that and leans back against her pillows. “I’m ready now, Dr. Alba. Take me to surgery.”

Her parents and Jordan laugh gently from the doorway. I rise to my feet, smiling down at her, then nod to her parents. When I turn, Jordan is watching me with a smug little tilt to her mouth.

“We’ll wheel her back in about thirty minutes,” Jordan tells the parents as I step into the hallway. She follows me right on my heels. When the door closes, I turn to her.

“You saw Jensen yesterday and you didn’t say anything?"

She nods. “Didn’t know he was the reason for the smile, but I started connecting dots quickly.”

I turn the corner, far enough that no one else can hear us, and lace my hands together, rubbing them like I’m trying to warm myself.

“I feel like I was just finally getting over what Davis did to me when Jensen burst into my life. Now I'm realizing, I wasn't entirely over the pain he caused, and I passed that hurt onto Jensen. I think I hurt him pretty badly.”