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“Never thought this day was coming, did you?” Rhett teased, his smile deepening the dimples on his cheeks.

I chuckled. “I’m glad you actually show up to your yearly checkups. I thought I’d be seeing you here for a bull-riding injury or some other fall.”

Rhett laughed. “I never fall.”

“Uh huh.” I rolled my eyes, glancing down at his chart. All his previous checks had come back healthy as a horse, great blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. “Anything that’s been bothering you lately?”

“Yeah, there’s this girl at the bar who won’t go home with me... yet.”

I smirked at him. “I don’t suppose I could help you with that.”

“Don’t say that. You could come along and make me look better by standing next to me.”

“Ha ha,” I said.

Rhett shook his head. “I feel great. But this chick I was with this weekend said I have an ugly mole on my back. Can you cut it off?”

“Are you sure it’s not a third nipple?”

He pinned me with a glare before breaking out in a smile.

“Let me have a look,” I said, walking along the exam table.

He reached over his head, lifting his shirt, and my stomach sank.

“Is it a nipple?” he teased, not seeing my expression.

I swallowed, fighting the tightness in my throat. I was a doctor first right now. I needed to remember that. I stepped forward, saying, “Rhett, I’d like to biopsy this and send it in for testing.”

His permanent smile fell, barely lingering on his lips. “Is it cancer?”

“It’s hard to tell without a test, but it doesn’t look right.”

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving. Suddenly, the room felt tight, stuffy.

Because I wasn’t just a doctor and he wasn’t just my patient. He was one of my longest friends. Basically a brother.

“Hopefully we caught it early and it’ll just be a simple surgery to remove it,” I said to myself as much as him. “Don’t borrow trouble until we have any definitive answers.”

Rhett nodded, forcing a smile back on his face that didn’t look natural. “Whatever you say, doc.”

We were silent as I got the tools to biopsy the spot and then as I did blood tests to send in. I said a silent prayer that it would all come back normal, that the mole was nothing or that we’d caught it early enough for it to be taken care of without radiation or chemo.

But when we finished, my stomach was churning.

He pressed a cotton ball to the spot on his arm where I’d drawn blood and asked, “How are things going with the girls?”

“What girls? All I do is work and come home,” I said.

He smirked. “I meant your daughter and my sister.”

My cheeks felt hot. “We had a scare this morning. Coyote ran up to the house.”

His brows drew together. “They usually don’t approach people. Was it rabid?”

“I don’t know. Liv scared it off when she saw it close to Maya.”

His smile was back. “Atta girl. I bet that was scary for Maya though.”