“My gut tells me you’ll do just fine, Lily. I’m well acquainted with the challenges you face every day. Thank you for your honesty. I cherish that in people. I don’t think caring for Jenna will be a stress on you. From what Jake, her son, tells me, she’s very easy to get along with. May I tell you about the job?”
“Please . . .”
Maud heard the relief in her tone. “My foreman, Jake Murdoch’s mother, just broke her hip. Well, actually, she broke her left femur, to be medically correct.”
“Yes, they call it a hip, but it’s actually a femur fracture of some kind,” Lily agreed.
“Correct. Jenna Murdoch is sixty-five years old, a recently retired high school teacher who lives over in Casper, on the eastern side of the state. We’ve just swung into grass lease season, so Jake can’t take off two months from his job to drive home to help his mother. The surgeon said Jenna will have to undergo rehabilitation, and someone who is medically qualified needs to work with her. I suggested to Jake yesterday that if we could find the right person, Jenna could be brought here to his house. He lives a mile away from the main ranch area. He has a two-story cedar log cabin. There are two bedrooms on the first floor and his room is on the second floor. I figure Jenna could be in one of the rooms downstairs because she won’t be able to climb stairs at all.”
“That’s correct,” Lily said. “There’s a very detailed, daily rehab she’ll have to go through and someone does have to be there to help her. And she wouldn’t be able to climb stairs for a minimum of six weeks, if everything goes well.”
Nodding, Maud said, “We figure the caregiver could live in the house as well. You could have the other bedroom on the first floor.”
Brows raising, Lily said, “You mean, I’d live there for the duration of Jenna’s rehab?”
“Yes, and I’d like to know if you’d mind making three meals a day for the three of you, plus doing light housekeeping.”
“Oh. I thought I’d be going back to my place at Kassie’s every night.”
“Well, I suppose you could, but it would be rent-free if you stayed at the cabin for the duration.”
“I’d like that. It makes sense to stay at Mr. Murdoch’s home to take care of his mother.”
“Good. I see here on your résumé that you were trained in orthopedics as an RN?”
“Yes, I was.”
“So, you’re familiar with Jenna’s type of injury?”
“Absolutely.”
“And can you drive Jenna to Taylor Douglas’s office when she needs to see a doctor?”
“I can drive with no issues at all. I love to drive. I find it calms me.”
“Interesting. Jake has a rocking chair in the two first-floor bedrooms. He also has one up in his suite.”
“That’s nice to hear. The rocking motion calms me, too.”
“Good. Does this sound like something you’d like to take on?” Maud picked up a photo and stood, handing it to Lily. “This is Jenna Murdoch.”
Studying the photo, she saw a black-haired woman with silver among the strands, smiling, her green eyes sparkling. Jenna was wearing a summer frock of white with a bright red scarf around her neck and shoulders. “She sure doesn’t look sixty-five,” Lily said, looking up, smiling.
“Good genes?”
“Really. She looks very nice, Maud.”
“She is. I met her a year ago, when she came for a visit and stayed with her son for two weeks. She’s very athletic, loves hiking and being out in nature.”
“All the things I love. That’s good to hear. I’m sure fracturing her femur has put her into a depression of sorts.”
“She’s not too happy about it,” Maud admitted dryly. She took the photo back from Lily. “Now, as to the salary, we’d like to offer you three thousand dollars a month.” Lily’s eyes widened. “Our ranch insurance covers that amount. Are you comfortable with that salary?”
Gulping, Lily croaked, “Why . . . yes!”
Suppressing her smile, Maud said, “I’m sure it will help you. If Jenna requires more than two months, would you be willing to stay on, Lily?”
“Absolutely. But I need to keep my job at the shelter, too. It’s fifteen hours a week. I love animals and I don’t want to quit. I don’t believe Jenna needs twenty-four-hour care. Maybe the first couple of weeks will require more time, but I’m sure I’ll be able to do the fifteen hours a week at the shelter.”
“Wonderful,” Maud replied, adding, “I want to get Jake in here to meet you, Lily. You’ll be living under his roof and he might have some questions for you. And you can certainly ask him about his mother, too.”
“That’s fine. I’d like to meet him.”
* * *
Lily got up to move around while waiting for Jake Murdoch to arrive. Maud had excused herself and would return when she found him.
Her anxiety had amped up during the interview. Often, she would silently predict things would go badly, that she wouldn’t get a job or the interviewer wouldn’t like her. She crossed her arms, walking slowly around the office, stopping to look at the many photos in frames hanging from the gleaming gold and red cedar logs. The floor shone with the same colors, the sunlight glancing through a window, scattering the golden light across it. Her mind was frantic, running on hyperspeed, as it did when she was caught up in anxiety. Trying to appear relaxed, measuring her footsteps, she wished she was outdoors, on a trail, where her symptoms settled down and sometimes left her completely, which was a godsend.
So far, she’d won Maud over, convinced her that she could take care of Jenna Murdoch. But what about her son? What was he like? Would he hate her on sight? Be disgusted with her because she had PTSD? It was true, she was underweight. When anxiety hit, she lost her appetite. Since returning home from the Army, Lily had forced herself to eat. She’d gained ten pounds in those two months home. Her clothes still hung on her, though. Now, she wished they fit a little better. What would Jake see in her when he walked into this office? Fear took chunks out of the confidence that had been built during Maud’s kind interview. Now, she felt like an animal in the sights of a much larger predator. Her anxiety heightened. When this happened, she had to devote so much time and inner resources to controlling the monster inside her, not allowing it out to kill her.
Lily knew from her therapy that it was the hormone cortisol soaking into her bloodstream that caused this hyperalertness, this feeling of dread that she was being stalked by something that was going to destroy her. Ordinarily, her therapist told her, cortisol played a key part in helping a human survive during a life-and-death event. But in PTSD, the hormone never shut off, so a person remained in this heightened state of awareness, their hearing amping up, looking for real or imagined shadows stalking them. That left her exhausted from an episode, and it took a while to start to relax again.
The door opened and closed. Lily was down at the end of the long, rectangular room and turned on her heel, her heart thudding heavily in her chest. Her arms were crossed, and she tried to remain calm, which was virtually impossible, so much cortisol flooding into her.
The man standing inside the office was huge. Or at least he appeared that way as her gaze swept over him. A pair of leather gloves was stuck in his pocket, and he wore a blue chambray shirt, the sleeves rolled up to show his hard, muscular lower arms. She could tell he worked hard. The way he stood, those broad shoulders pulled back with pride, his wide chest stretching the cotton fabric across it, relayed nothing but a sense of not-so-subtle power.
Her throat grew dry as she lifted her lashes, meeting his forest-green eyes, which were large, hard with intelligence, missing nothing. Lily felt momentarily stripped as his gaze swept her up and down, as if sizing her up. She liked his mouth and his strong-looking nose, softened by broad cheekbones. Those black eyebrows lay straight over those X-raylike eyes. Shaken by his stature, the power swirling around him, she wanted to take a step back but forced herself to remain where she was.
“Ah, thanks for coming so quick
ly, Jake,” Maud said to him, entering the office behind him. She headed for her desk. “Lily Thompson, meet Jenna’s son, Jake Murdoch. Jake, this is Lily, who I feel will be the perfect person to help your mother in her recovery.”
Paralyzed for a moment, she watched him move toward her with a boneless male grace. As his callused hand moved forward, she stared down at the squareness of it, his long fingers, short-cut nails, the many small white scars. As their eyes met, she saw the hardness leave them. In its place was a softened gaze laced with what she was sure was curiosity. That one change broke her paralysis and she stepped toward him. Without thinking, simply reacting, she slid her much smaller hand into his. Ripples of pleasure surrounded her damp fingers as she felt him squeeze them gently. There was another look in his eyes as she stared up at him, something she couldn’t interpret, but she swore she felt it in his handshake.
“Ms. Thompson, nice to meet you,” he said, releasing her hand almost reluctantly.
Gulping unsteadily, she quickly reclaimed her hand, which sizzled as if it had been in a warm mitten, the tingles still bubbling up through her skin where he’d touched her. “Call me Lily?” She watched his eyes thaw, sending a tremor through her chest. It was the oddest feeling, but it was a warm sensation that filled her with something she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Happiness.
“Call me Jake.”
“Come and take a seat,” Maud urged the two of them, gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk. “Jake, I think Lily is a good fit. I told her about Jenna and showed her a photo of her. She has orthopedic RN experience and that’s exactly what your mother needs.”
He grunted and walked at Lily’s side. “That’s good to hear.” He halted and moved Lily’s chair out for her, inviting her to sit down.
Trying to swallow her shock over his gentlemanly gesture, Lily couldn’t quite reconcile his weathered, unreadable face. He wasn’t pretty-boy handsome. That square face and nose and chin all spelled toughness. Murmuring a thank-you, she sat down. Jake took the chair at the opposite corner of the large desk. Forcing herself to move her gaze from the foreman, she found herself shaky inside, but it wasn’t from fear. Lily didn’t know what her reaction to him was all about. Maud looked pleased as she clasped her hands on the desk.
“Let me share with you our talk, Jake.” She launched into it with enthusiasm.
Lily sat with her hands in her lap, feeling how damp they were becoming. She had thought she already had the job, but Jake was the unknown factor. She knew she wasn’t a glamorous or beautiful woman. Was Jake a Neanderthal? Stuck on the way a woman looked? She had mouse-brown hair and never liked wearing makeup because it made her skin stretch and feel weird. As an RN, there was no using fingernail polish or long nails because they could harbor bacteria beneath them, ready to infect a sick patient or infant. For a moment, she unclasped her hands and turned them palm up, studying her long, slender fingers. Jake had thick calluses across his palms. She had none. Her skin was soft in comparison. But their jobs were different, so Lily didn’t see that as a negative.
“That’s it in a nutshell,” Maud told Jake. “Do you have any questions for Lily?”
He turned, studying her. “Have you ever taken care of older people?”
It was a fair question. Lily said, “Well . . . over in Afghanistan. We frequently went out to the villages around our firebase, and I took care of patients from newborn babies to eighty-year-old women.” She saw his eyes flicker with an undefined emotion.
“You were in Afghanistan?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Three different deployments in Helmand Province.” Again, she saw his eyes narrow slightly.
“That’s where she got her PTSD,” Maud said. She handed Jake her résumé.
Fear nibbled in her chest as she watched Jake take her résumé, his full attention on it. Literally, Lily could feel a shift of energy around him.
Maud had mentioned that Jake was a recon Marine. Lily knew they lived behind enemy lines, their lives always in danger. And she was sure Jake’s focus was finely honed like a razor blade as a result. Anyone not focused wouldn’t be sitting here. Instead, they’d be dead.
“Helmand is a hellhole to this day, riddled with Taliban,” he muttered, glancing in her direction, giving her a look of admiration as well as respect.
“Yes,” she answered softly, “it is.” She watched as he flipped to the second page. That contained her hospitalization, her honorable medical discharge and that PTSD had been the reason for her separating from the Army. She saw his lips thin and compress. What did that mean? She used to be able to sense other people quite well, read them, which was helpful when working with her patients. Her symptoms had dulled that skill, and right now, Lily wished she had it fully online. Would it ever return?
Jake handed the résumé to Maud. He studied Lily. “My mother is a pretty easygoing lady, unlike her son. And she’s not demanding.”
“Unlike her son,” Maud said, giving him an evil grin, teasing.
One corner of Jake’s mouth barely lifted. “Guilty, but then, that’s what foremen do: manage. And not everyone likes to be managed.”
“True,” Maud agreed. “I feel very good about pairing Lily with Jenna. Do you, Jake?”
Instantly, Lily’s heart banged hard in her chest. Her fingers tightened momentarily, and she forced herself to relax. Staring at his harsh profile, Lily found herself really wanting this job.
“You a good cook?”
Lily was taken aback. Was that what was important to Jake? Was he satisfied she could take good care of his mother? “I haven’t poisoned anyone yet.” She saw a faint lift of the corners of his mouth. She got the sense he rarely smiled. And if then, only grudgingly. Why? So many questions and no answers.
Maud chuckled, rocking back in her chair. “Well, I can see this is a marriage made in reality.”
Jake raised a brow, holding Lily’s gaze. “My mother has a huge garden where she lives. We don’t have any here because we don’t get a ninety-day growing season, but she loves a lot of vegetables in her meals.”
“That’s good to know. I’m kind of a garbage can myself,” Lily admitted. “I’ll eat anything that doesn’t move first. It sounds like Jenna is something like that?”
“Yeah, she is. But she likes things that are fresh, not canned.”
“With your help, I can make a list of her likes and dislikes. Yours too, Jake.” Lily was intimidated by him when it came to her care of Jenna, but she’d speak up and be forthright. For a moment, she thought he was amused, but that look quickly dissolved.
“Good enough,” Jake growled. He stood up. “She’s hired, Maud.” He looked over at Lily. “Do you have an apartment in Wind River?”
“No. Kassie and Travis Grant were allowing me to stay in the apartment behind the café until I could get a job.”
Nodding, he said, “Then you’ll need to move things into my house. First, I’d like you to drive with me to the cabin to check it out. Then,” he looked at the watch on his hairy wrist, “I’ve got to get out and work with my wranglers. I’ll give you a key to the house and you can get your gear and move in. There are two bedrooms on the first floor. You choose one and the other will be for Jenna.”
He was brusque, no nonsense, and Lily liked that about him. “Sounds good.” She stood up and gave Maud a grateful look.
“Skedaddle, you two kids,” she said, making a shooing gesture.
Jake moved to the door and opened it for Lily. “You can follow me in your car.”
“I have a truck.”
“Even better,” and he pulled the door open and eased the screen door aside for her.
Lily couldn’t get over how tall a bulwark Jake was physically. As she slipped past him after waving goodbye to Maud, she wondered if he had a woman in his life. Of course that was a silly thought, and she quickly banished it as she took the stairs to the sidewalk. Jake was too good-looking, the right age and a man of authority. Many wom
en were drawn to men for those reasons.
The morning sun was bright, casting fingers of sunlight against all the log buildings in the area. She saw wranglers on horses trotting by. There were several barns and corrals farther down from the office. The place was like a beehive. Off in the distance, she saw what she thought was a herd of buffalo.
Jake joined her on the sidewalk. “I’m in the parking lot,” he said, waving in that direction.
“So am I.” She watched as he walked on the outside of her, closest to the asphalt two-lane road. Squelching a smile, Lily said nothing, but the gentlemanlike behavior shouldn’t surprise her. All the cowboys she’d ever met were just like Jake Murdoch. She noticed he had a wide, dark brown leather belt around his narrow waist and a Buck knife. On the other side, he had a much longer knife in a scabbard. Leather gloves stuck out of his back pocket. The bright red kerchief around his thick neck was partly hidden by the chambray shirt he wore. He automatically shortened his leggy stride for her benefit. She wasn’t a short person, but at five-foot-seven, Lily would have had to race to keep up with him. She appreciated his thoughtfulness toward her.
“You’re a little thing.”
Startled, she lifted her chin, meeting his gaze. “Me? No, I’m not.”
He made a sound of disagreement.
“Are you saying that because you don’t think I could lift or help your mother?”
“No, I think you can manage her just fine.”
Her brows dipped. Then why had he said that? Lily cautioned herself not to let whatever came to mind fly out of her mouth before she gave it serious thought. “Then why did you say that about me?”
He stepped into the parking lot and halted, placing his hands on his hips as he stared down at her. “Just a fact,” he admitted. “You feel fragile to me.”
Her heart sank as she put a few feet between where they stood. The morning breeze was chilly. She knew he’d read her medical issues. “There are times when I feel that way.”
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