It's a Love Thing (35 page)

Blanca stared up at him, overcome by
the genuine concern in his eyes. Was she sabotaging any hopes of a
future with this man, or any other, out of fear? Or was it habit?
Had she become so accustomed to failure in her personal life that
she no longer believed in happy endings? What becomes of a
fairytale that has no hope? Almost certainly, it withers and dies,
she thought sadly.

“
I’m leaving for Nevada in
the morning,” Longbow said, slowly. “Our crew is being sent to the
fires on the Sierra. I don’t like leaving you this way . . . but
then again, maybe it’s for the best. It’ll give you some time to
think. Some time alone. Who knows, when you find your true self, it
may end up being me who gets left behind.”

She shook her head, not wanting him to
go, not wanting him to think she could ever forget him. He cupped
her face in his hands and kissed her gently, a whisper over swollen
and bruised lips. She sighed and melted into him, holding his hands
against her face at first and then she reached to pull him
closer.

He devoured her. Tenderness forgotten,
he pulled her against him and gripped her bottom with both hands.
He lifted her to sit on the back of the couch as he ran his hands
up her back and through her hair. His mouth was hot and consuming,
like he was an oven and she a delicate pastry rising to his heated
demands.

He broke off suddenly, a look of
regret on his face, as if remembering how he’d found her battered
and beaten in the dirt not long before. He released her and she
slid back into the cushioned protection of the couch.

They stared at each other a moment,
both breathing hard and fast. His long hair had come undone and it
dangled across his face making him look rugged and wild. Her scrub
top hung to one side exposing a bare shoulder and part of her
chest. Her lips were even more swollen and a trickle of blood ran
from under the butterfly stitches onto her chin.

Longbow shook his head and smoothed
back his hair. “Try taking care of yourself as well as you do
everyone else while I’m gone, will ya?” He took one last smoldering
look at her before he walked to the door and let himself
out.

Blanca slumped back into the couch,
holding a finger gingerly to her split lip as it briefly curved
upward and then tears spilled down her face into her
hands.

*****

Blanca knew when Longbow woke,
showered, and left his apartment. The beep of his alarm going off,
the groan of the hot water pipes filling, and the creek of his
screen door as he quietly shut it behind him, all led to the moment
she knew she was truly alone.

It could have been worse, she thought.
He could’ve come to say goodbye, looked at her with those sorrowful
brown eyes, and made her cry all over again. This way was better.
She had the bittersweet taste of him on her lips and the smokin’
hot memory of all those taught muscles pressed up against her
instead. Yes. Saying goodbye could’ve been worse, much
worse.

She suddenly found the inside of her
apartment to be too dark and moody. She grabbed a blanket and
dragged it onto the back porch where she curled up on the swing and
waited for the sun to rise. Birds sang, crickets chirped, and even
a bull frog added his voice to the mix, but none of it fazed her.
The sun came over the apartment from behind her and quickly the
shadows of the night began to fade away. Still Blanca sat, dazed
and lost to it all. Nothing was going to lighten the load Longbow
had placed on her the night before.

Her eyes drifted to his side of the
yard where the garden was. Moisture on the plants sparkled like
miniature crystals, but there was something wrong. The plants were
sagging, bent over and nearly touching the ground. They looked how
she felt, like she was dying inside.

She tossed off the blanket and walked
barefooted into the garden. The soil was moist. There’d been plenty
of sunshine. A few weeds had popped up, but surely the presence of
a few measly weeds couldn’t stunt the growth of an entire garden,
could they? She dropped down on her knees and began pulling the
weeds by their roots. If one broke off in the ground she dug in
after it until she was sure she had cleared its presence from the
garden. Once the weeds were gone she sat back on her haunches and
considered what else the plants might need.

Blanca spent a good part of the
morning at Ward’s Greenhouse finding the right combinations of soil
boosters and plant food. She thought back to what Longbow had
taught her the day they’d planted the garden—

A good base of soil is
critical, but the upkeep is just as important. Water and rain can
wash away the nutrients in the soil and leave the plants starving.
It isn’t enough to start with a good foundation, one must be
diligent with the upkeep, and anticipate the needs of the plants,
replenishing what has been lost, thin what isn’t necessary to the
heart of the plant, and give them plenty of opportunity to
grow.

—
She grabbed a couple of
tomato trellises, a backdrop of wire for the green beans, and some
tarp to cover the plants in case of frost. She would be prepared
for anything. She wasn’t letting the garden die. If it was all she
accomplished this summer, she was going to have fruit and
vegetables to show for her labor.

Upon leaving the greenhouse, Blanca
overheard a couple talking about Jax Reynolds.

“
It’s too bad he refused to
stay at the Elk’s Rehab,” The elderly lady said. “I hear it’s one
of the best in the nation. Up here in the mountains, as isolated as
we are, they’ll never find a physical therapist to help
him.”

The younger man, holding onto the
lady’s arm, said. “Now, mother, you know as well as I do how
stubborn the men in that family are. They could no more keep Jax
away from his family and friends than a ranger can keep a raccoon
from ransacking an open cabin.”

The woman nodded her frosty head.
White curls, tightly pressed to her temples, bounced with the jerky
motion. “I know Doctor Phelps will find someone to help his nephew.
That man is unstoppable when it comes to the welfare of those boys.
He practically raised all three of them after his wife and sister
died in that car crash. Those boys are more like brothers than
cousins, and Doctor Phelps is more a father to those twins than his
own brother-in-law has been.”

Blanca finished unloading her cart
into Daisy and quickly drove home. She had an idea. It may not be
the best idea she ever had, but it was most definitely the least
defensive one she’d had in a long time. She left her gardening
supplies on the front porch and called Nikki.

“
Hey, girl, how are you?”
Nikki said upon answering the phone.

“
I’m good, thanks. I’m a
little sore but no worse for the wear. I was—”

“
I heard about Forest
shipping out to Nevada first thing this morning. I’m sorry. You
gonna be ok?”

“
Yes, strangely, I think I
am. I was calling to ask you how I get a hold of Doctor Phelps. I
need his number . . . actually his address would be better. I
assume that’s where Jax is recouping until he’s back on his
feet.”

“
It is, but what do you
want with old man Phelps? Didn’t he threaten to have your license
taken away? Didn’t you say he barged into the clinic and walked
right in on you while you were treating a patient?”

“
He did, but I think I may
have overreacted. I had no idea he practically raised the Reynolds
brothers after his wife and his sister died. He could have been
acting out in fear for Jax’s life, not really anger toward me. And
when he barged in on me, he asked if he could have a word with me
and I went all cold and formal on him. I told him to call you and
make an appointment. I think he may have been coming to ask for my
help with Jax’s therapy.”

“
Why would Doctor Phelps
ask you to help with his therapy?”

“
He must’ve looked me up
online, found my multiple licenses and learned I mastered in
physical therapy before I went on to become a nurse practitioner. I
still keep my license up to date. You never know when you’re going
to need a bargaining chip. And I think my being a therapist just
might be what I need to get in good with the Doctor.”

“
Ok. I guess I understand.
But why do you care? The old man is done overseeing the clinic. You
don’t need his approval or backing.”

“
No, but I could sure use
his expertise, his years of experience with rural health care. He
would make a valuable ally, a good resource in times of
uncertainty, and if I’m going to be working closely with all of his
boys, it would just be good practice to get to know him for the man
he is despite whether or not he chooses to see me as a
colleague.”

“
Wow, that’s pretty mature
for someone so young, Doc, very neighborly of you, too. Are you
sure you weren’t born in Idaho?”

They laughed and Nikki put her on hold
so she could find the address to the Phelps’s ranch.

When Blanca arrived at the ranch, she
pulled off the gravel road and parked beside the stables. She
crossed herself, a silent prayer for help from above. This was
going to be tough, but she could do it. No matter how much Doctor
Phelps yelled or threatened, she was going to offer her services
and apologize for her behavior at the clinic. After that, it would
be up to him whether she stayed or went, but at least she will have
given it a shot.

“
Here goes,” she said,
looking at herself in the rearview mirror. She touched her lips
remembering the kiss. “I wish you were here Longbow, so I could
tell you were right, again. I should’ve heard Doctor Phelps out
when he came to the clinic, not chased him away.”

Something rapped on her driver’s side
window and she jumped. Max Reynolds stood at her door, smiling in
at her. She rolled down the window.

“
You always drive out to
other people’s property to sit and talk to yourself in the mirror?”
he asked. Then he leaned down and studied her face. “I heard about
last night. Are you doing all right? Did you need my uncle to check
you over? Is there something broken?”

She chuckled at the thought of asking
Doctor Phelps to be her doctor. “I’m going to be fine. I’m not here
about me. I’m actually here about Jax. I wonder if I could have a
word with him and your uncle?”

*****

She left the Phelps’s ranch sailing
high on a cloud of adrenaline. Doctor Phelps had accepted her
apology and apologized in turn. She was going to be Jax’s therapist
for the summer, three times a week, for an hour each session, just
like it would be in a real outpatient clinic. Only she would be
seeing Jax at his uncle’s ranch, and working with him there, not
the clinic. It was the best case scenario since her DNP license
didn’t cover her as a therapist and she didn’t want it to become a
conflict of interest. Best to keep the two separate, and this way
she would get to know the man behind the doctor, and hopefully the
two of them would form some sort of bond, if not professional
courtesy.

Jax had hit on her of course, the
scoundrel. Even bedbound and half out of his mind on pain pills the
man still had charm. Apparently, he remembered everything he’d said
to her in the helicopter and wasn’t a bit ashamed. He even asked
her if she liked the gift he’d sent. Blanca was quick to explain to
Jax that as his therapist she could in no way get involved with a
patient. He took it well, laughing at her quick comeback and
promising to give Longbow a run for his money when he was no longer
her patient.

It was late by the time Blanca
returned to her apartment. She’d driven around the valley,
sight-seeing and taking pictures. Garden Valley was just that, a
garden of greenery and wildlife nestled between the mountains. And
her little town of Crouch, the dip in the road just outside of
Garden Valley, had some serious potential of becoming her forever
home. She loved rural Idaho, and with the help of her friends, she
would learn to love herself as well.

Then who knew, come the end of fire
season, when the leaves turned and the frost began to settle on the
ground, maybe she would get to experience the Forest she’d missed
the first time around. If one truly does reap what they sow, then
maybe Longbow would return to see the fruits of her labor and be
inspired to do a little harvesting of his own.

The End