by Jadyn Chase
Her eyes widened. “You did?”
I suppressed a smile. “You have nothing to do now but lie back and convalesce.”
That same glorious grin broke across her face. “Convalesce, huh?”
“What’s the matter?” I teased. “Didn’t you expect a redneck like me to use a big word like that?”
The smile vaporized off her face. “I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s all right. I was just teasing, just so you know you’re not the only person around here who went to college.”
She shook her head down at her breakfast, and that beautiful color swept over her cheeks. “Good to know.”
That subtle blush sent a squirm of fire through my insides. Was she blushing like that for me? I hardly dared believe it.
I slapped my hands onto my thighs and climbed out of my chair. “Well, you’ll want some time to yourself to get your breakfast eaten, so I’ll leave you to it. Just so you know, there are people all over the house. Just call out if you need anything and someone will hear you.”
“Hey, wait!” Her head shot up. “Don’t leave.”
I turned around to discover her gazing up at me with those mind-blowing dark eyes of hers. A curious mixture of disappointment and anxiety darkened her features. Could she be that anxious about me leaving? Another twist of agony gnarled my guts. God, I could look down into those eyes forever and never see the bottom.
She glanced toward the window where my empty chair yawned for me to sit down in it again. Her fingers tightened on the bedspread once. Then she shrugged. “I don’t want you to…to leave.”
For a second, I couldn’t make up my mind what to do. I didn’t want to leave. I’d been sitting by her bedside for the last three days, just gazing at her still face. She fascinated me, even when she was asleep.
I couldn’t get that picture out of my head of her standing up to Sam Lynch when all her friends cried and cringed and whimpered. Maybe she froze in terror. Maybe that’s why she didn’t react, but I still couldn’t forget it. She wasn’t like other people. No woman I ever met faced him down that way before. That was what drove him around the bend to attack her the way he did. He couldn’t stand anybody standing up to him.
On the other hand, I couldn’t let myself relax around this woman. She was a stranger, an outsider. She would heal from her burns and go back to her own world where she belonged. I couldn’t allow myself to get attached to her when she would probably leave in a few days.
Then the wall came crashing down. Who was I kidding? I didn’t want to be anywhere else but right here talking to her for as long as it lasted. I was the only person in the Smokey Mountains that she knew, so what the hell, right?
I slunk back across the room and sat down again. When I returned to looking at her, she fidgeted in the bed and looked everywhere but at me. I had to be the one to break the ice.
“So…you’re a medical student,” I began. “What do you specialize in?”
A light flashed across her face and her eyes snapped to me. “Well, I don’t specialize in anything right now because I haven’t graduated yet, but after I finish med school, I plan to specialize in trauma and emergency medicine. It’s always been a passion of mine. I worked on the Search and Rescue Team in Memphis before I came to Chattanooga. That’s where I’m from—Memphis.”
I nodded and started to say something when the bedroom door burst open and my Ma rushed in. “I thought I heard voices in here. Why didn’t you tell me she was awake, Ezra?” She rounded on Nora. “I’m so glad you’re awake. You gave us such a scare, I can tell you.”
“Thank you for taking care of me,” Nora managed to say.
“This is my mother, Caroline Kelly,” I told her. “Ma, this is Nora Price.”
Nora nodded to her. “It’s very nice to meet you. Thank you so much for your hospitality. I’m very grateful.”
Ma flapped her hand at her. “It was nothing, sugar. I’m just so thrilled you’re finally awake. How’s your back? Does it hurt a lot?”
Nora cast a sidelong glance at me. Then she shifted against the pillows. “It itches, now that you mentioned it. I guess I was so surprised waking up here that I forgot all about it.” She checked over her shoulder. “I thought it would hurt more.”
Ma beamed at her. “That’s the honey poultice. It’s a godsend for burns. No one knows that better than the Kellys.” Her smile faded. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but we have to change the bandages. You’ve been out so long we never had to worry about hurting you before. It might get uncomfortable, but once we get you bandaged up again with fresh poultice, the pain will go away. Can you handle that?”
Nora slid her eyes sideways toward me again. A hint of fear crept into her eyes. “I guess so.”
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “It really does ease the pain. There’s just a few minutes when the burn is exposed to the air when it will hurt. Once the honey covers it up, it won’t hurt so much.”
She nodded, but her eyebrows stayed raised in the middle. Her eyes kept darting around the room. Poor kid. The Lynches really did a number on her. Now she couldn’t relax. She kept waiting for someone to leap out and grab her.
“Out you go, Ezra,” my Ma told me. “You can see Nora after we finish.”
“No!” Nora’s hand shot out. When Ma raised her eyebrows in surprise, Nora shrank in on herself and looked down at her hands. Her knuckles whitened clenching the bedspread in her fists. “Can he stay…. please?”
Ma cast a questioning glance at me.
“It’s just….,” Nora stammered, “I only just woke up. He’s the only one around here that I know.”
Ma’s features cleared. “Oh. Well, as long as you’re all right with it, it’s fine with me.”
I lowered myself into my chair. What could I say? I settled myself in for the long haul.
Ma went into drill-sergeant mode. She sliced her finger through the air. “Get out of bed and lie down on your front, honey. That’s it. Nice and easy.”
She took away the breakfast tray and flipped back the bedspread. She guided Nora out of bed and down onto her face on the mattress. Then she eased the nightdress over her head. She left Nora naked except for a large bandage covered her back from neck to waist. More bandages covered the backs of both legs.
I’d like to tell you that was my first glimpse of her naked body, but I never got a look at her. She kept her face buried in the fitted sheet while Ma went to work. She peeled off all the tape holding the bandages in place. “You tell me if it hurts too much. We have painkillers if you need them.”
Nora’s muffled voice came from the mattress. “I’m all right.”
Ma balled up all the tape and threw it aside. She went out of the room and came back with sheets of gauze, a big role of wide medical tape, and a large pot of thick brown tar with a wooden paddle sticking out of it. She set up all her equipment next to the bed. Then she took a deep breath.
“All right, honey, here we go. I’m going to take the bandages off, put on a new layer of poultice, and redress the burns. Spreading the poultice on is the worst part, so I’ll get it over with as fast as I can. All right?”
“All right,” Nora mumbled.
My nerves stretched to the breaking point. I tensed all over bracing myself for what came next. Every Kelly on the Ridge had seen enough of this to know it was no cake walk. Nora might be strong and brave. She might be smart and beautiful, but no one could get through this operation without cracking.
I took hold of both chair arms to steady myself. Ma’s face took on a hard, determined cast. She set her jaw and took hold of the wide bandage on Nora’s back. She peeled it off and laid it sticky side up on the floor. Then she took up her poultice pot.
She got to work spreading it over the large, ugly burn on Nora’s back. Nora sucked air between her teeth. She twisted in pain, but she didn’t move off the bed. She kept her face buried in the mattress to stifle her moans.
My heart ached to watch this. Ma worked fast. She smeared
the poultice up and down Nora’s back and down to her waist. When she got near the small of Nora’s hourglass hips, Nora cried out louder. She gasped and groaned with every sweep of the paddle.
Ma dropped the paddle into the pot and picked up the biggest piece of gauze. She laid it carefully over the burn. “There. That part’s done. I’ll tape it into place, and the pain will start to go away.”
Nora’s shoulders shook. Her ribs heaved with sobs and she clawed at the sheet with her fingernails. Ma taped the bandage down as fast as she could before she stood back. She ran her wrist across her forehead. “Now for your legs.”
Nora bawled into the mattress. The sound stabbed me in the chest. I couldn’t watch this magnificent woman tortured. Without thinking, I shifted over to the bed and sat down next to her.
I ran my fingers around the back of her neck under her hair and squeezed. I gave her neck a little rub and murmured in her ear. “It’s all right. You’re all right. It’ll be over soon.”
Ma descended on her legs. She worked a lot faster now. She ripped the tape off in grim resolve. She didn’t look up, not even when Nora lifted up her head and howled in pain.
Nora didn’t even try to keep quiet anymore. She screamed and cried for the whole house to hear. Through it all, I kept stroking her neck and telling her, “It’s all right. Let it out. You’re doing great. Just a little longer and you’re finished.”
Don’t ask me what came over me. I had to help her in any little way I could. I didn’t know if I was helping her or making it worse, but I couldn’t sit back and do nothing. I caressed her hair back from her tear-streaked face.
Ma dropped the tape roll onto the bedside table. “All done.”
Nora collapsed on her face, her body wracked with sobs. Ma cast one last fateful glance at the poor girl before she gathered up the used bandages and carried everything out of the room.
As soon as she left, Nora twisted over on the bed. She pressed her face against my knee in a pathetic movement of agony and defeat, and she burst into loud sobs. I couldn’t move except to keep rubbing her neck and running my fingers through her hair.
I would do anything to help her through this. I would have taken all that pain in a heartbeat. I would rather lie there and have Ma inflict that pain on me if I could spare Nora this.
Ma came back and tapped Nora on the shoulder. “All right, sweetie. Sit up, and I’ll put your nightdress back on. Go on, Ezra. Get out of here. She’ll want to rest for a while.”
Every particle of my being told me to bend down and kiss Nora on the head or on the cheek before I left, but I couldn’t do that in front of my own Ma. I trailed my fingertips over her shoulder for one last touch of her skin. Then I walked out.
5
Nora
I gazed through the upstairs window at the dense foliage outside. From the second story of the Kelly house, I could see a magnificent view over the southern Appalachian Mountains. Smokey Ridge. That’s what they called this place.
After five days stuck in this bed, I ached to get up and stretch my legs, and today was the day. In a few minutes, Ezra would walk through that door and take me downstairs for the first time since he found me in the forest.
Ezra. Ezra Kelly. The guy looked like a combination of a mountain man and a biker. He always wore faded jeans and heavy, steel-toed boots. He wore white t-shirts in various states of destruction, depending on what he was working on that day.
He spent a lot more time hanging out with me than he probably should have, but he never made me feel like he ought to be somewhere else. He made a policy of always sitting next to me when his mom changed my bandages. Caroline came to accept him holding my hand or rubbing my head and neck while she smeared that foul poultice of hers on my burns.
My heart skipped a beat thinking about him walking through that door in a few minutes. Every time he walked into the room, I found myself wondering if his broad, muscled shoulders would get stuck in the door frame.
His enormous back formed a triangle down to a narrow waist where he kept his t-shirt tucked into his jeans. Every muscle showed under his clothes in crisp, chiseled detail. His massive arms ended in huge hands gnarled with work and dirt.
Even with the rough outdoorsman look he was gorgeous. I couldn’t remember a single day when I’d seen him clean shaven. I couldn’t distinguish between the sideburns, the rough goatee around his mouth and chin, and the spaces in between where he let it go wild.
His startling blue eyes caught me in their sway every time I looked at him. They caught me that night when I collided with him in the forest, and they continued to work their spell on me every time I saw him. No one could call him strictly attractive, but something about him wouldn’t leave me alone.
I should have given a passing thought to his mother, too. Caroline came to visit me multiple times a day and she was always unfailingly kind and attentive. Tall, trim, and stunningly beautiful with long chocolate-brown hair, she represented what I would like to grow into when I get older. She brought me my meals and even sat and talked to me for long hours into the lazy afternoons, but I still couldn’t get Ezra out of my mind.
I counted down the seconds until I saw him again, and every time he left me alone, I started counting all over again. For some reason, sitting and talking to him about nothing in particular meant so much more than talking to his mother.
Someone tapped on the door and I jumped out of my skin. I twisted around in bed, and that vision I just replayed in my mind unfolded before my eyes. The door breezed open and Ezra walked in. His shoulders brushed the doorframe on either side. He didn’t duck to get inside, but he looked for all the world like he should have.
He cracked a huge grin when he saw me looking up at him. Sunbeams radiated out of his face and all his teeth showed. I couldn’t help but grin back. “Are you ready to go paint the town red? Come on, baby. We’re burning daylight here.”
He clapped his hands, but it took me a few seconds longer to ease my way out of bed. I swiveled my legs over the side and set my bare feet on the floor. “I’m coming, Sarge. Give me a minute.”
He waited while I inched my way into a standing position. I wore the loose baggy white cotton pants Caroline gave me, along with a similarly floppy shirt. I couldn’t tolerate anything more constricting over my burns.
Since they took the bandages off, I had made three short trips up and down the hall outside this room. That was as far as I could go before I had to stagger back to bed. My burns hurt like mad, but Caroline and Ezra both insisted it was time for the scars to toughen up. They assured me the burns would stop hurting so much when the skin thickened, but that didn’t help me much when the pain overwhelmed me.
I managed so far to avoid using painkillers. Caroline’s home remedies dulled the pain enough that I could survive it, but it still took all my strength and concentration just to get through the day.
Ezra offered me his hand. “Here. Lean on me.”
I grasped it gratefully and shuffled out of the room. Instead of turning right to go down the hall, we turned left toward the stairs. I stopped on the landing to catch my breath.
“It’s all right,” Ezra murmured. “You can do this.”
Still holding my hand, he descended three steps and looked back up at me. His head came to my chest level and I peered straight down into his eyes. When he looked at me like that, I could believe I could really do this, even when I didn’t fully accept it myself. I lowered myself onto the next step.
One torturous step at a time, I worked my way down the stairs. Bending my knees to lower myself each time hurt worse than I expected, but I kept at it. Ezra let me stop as often as I needed to. He never tried to rush me.
I bowed my head and closed my eyes in agony. I panted and puffed through my lips to get my breath. “Just three more steps,” he whispered. “You can do it. You’re doing great.”
“Yeah.” I snorted. “Great.”
A slight smile touched his lips. He massaged my fingers in his and waite
d in impenetrable patience. His patience irritated me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I could lean on him. He was always, always there, no matter how bad it got.
From that first day when he rubbed my neck while his mother changed my bandages, I fell into a habit of relying on him. He got me through the worst, and he never left me to face it alone.
“One more step,” he told me. “Then you’re done.”
I gritted my teeth and snarled through my locked jaws. Sweat stuck my hair to my forehead. I realized I was crushing his fingers in my fist, but I couldn’t let go. I dropped the last step and almost collapsed in pain.
“You did it!” he exclaimed. “I knew you could. You’re a champ.”
On an impulse, he squeezed my head. He ran his hand down the side of my face once before he let his hand fall. He was always giving me little reassuring pats and strokes like that. I should have resisted a stranger touching me that way, but for some reason I couldn’t understand, I didn’t seem to mind it. I never would have put up with Ethan touching me like that, but it meant more coming from Ezra.
He took my hand once more. “Come on. Let’s get you outside. You need some sun.”
I raised my eyes and found myself in a living room. Couches and recliners and armchairs surrounded a large wood-burning stove. Books and magazines lay scattered around with bookmarks sticking out of their pages. A kitchen occupied the far end of the house, and an enormous dining table stretched along one wall.
The whole place exuded family. I knew a lot of Kellys lived in this house, but I never really pictured them sitting around the living room together—until now. The living room brought the whole scene to life, even with no one around.
Ezra steered me to the front door. “There are a few steps leading down from the porch, but you’ll manage those just fine. Then we can go for a walk around the Ridge.”
He threw open the door and blazing sunshine blasted into my face. I didn’t realize being cooped up in that room affected me so much. I’d turned into a vampire, and I shrank from the light.
