My Cowboy, My Hero

Chapter Eight

Joe's Point of View:

24 Hours Later:

Joe looked up and smiled as his friend Samuel walked into the cafeteria of the hospital.

"How are you doing?" Samuel asked him as the men embraced.

"Tired and old." Joe replied with a laugh.

The older man shook his head, but smiled. He knew what it was like to be old; Joe had a ways to go.

"So you mentioned you needed help?"

Joe nodded. "I need some detective skills."

Samuel raised his eyes. He was surprised. In all the years the men had been friends, Joe had never asked for a legal favor.

"What can I do for you then?"

"My boss Rhye found a young woman in Alabama. She was living in a group home and terribly neglected. Her mother was killed by a drunk driver when she was young. It would have been the year 2005. There was no other family. I need you to do some research on her."

"The woman or her mother?"

"The woman."

"I need a name."

"Katrina Davis." Joe answered.

"Why the interest in her?"

"I don't know. It is the magnetic pull that I can't describe or explain."

"I can see what I can do, but with limited information it may take me a while." Samuel warned.

"No problem. I can wait."

"You're used to waiting huh?" Samuel asked as he took a sip of his sweet tea.

"Yeah."

"Hold long has it been this time?"

"I saw Jenna last summer. Rachel last Christmas and I haven't seen Skyla since Christmas of '09." he admitted sadly.

"Do you talk to them?" he asked.

"I try. I send messages and E-mails, but I never get replies."

Samuel shook his head. "I am sorry Joe. Every man should get to see his daughters."

Joe shook his head. "I deserve this. I made horrible choices that lead to my divorce and a hard life for them. I lost my practice, my license- eight years of medical school down the drain. I lost my marriage and their respect. I am not angry with them. I just miss them."

Samuel swallowed the lump in his throat as he fingered the key chain his daughter had made him. "I know what missing them feels like." he said with a sad smile.

"How long has it been?"

"Saturday was four years."

Joe shook his head. "I don't know how you manage."

"God. I manage because of God and the promise he gave us for eternal life."

Joe nodded. "Where you going by the cemetery?"

"I am. I bought some pink roses."

Joe nodded. "Need some company?"

"I do."

Joe accompanied the older man to the cemetery. His daughter had died of an autoimmune disorder a few years earlier. It had been very hard of Samuel.

The men took a seat on the bench by his daughters grave. Samuel removed the old flowers off the grave and placed the new pink ones there. They sat in silence a few moments, before he turned and looked at Joe.

"Davis?" he questioned.

Joe nodded, knowing what his friend was going to ask.

"Davis was the last name of the nurse you..." he trailed off, unsure of how to continue.

"The nurse I had the affair with."

"Katrina could be your daughter Joe."

Joe nodded. "I believe she is."

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