“Away she goes,” Lem said as he and Mitch watched Lauren bump and plod along the road and then to a field.
Lauren eventually circled back around and peered expectantly at Mitch and Grandpa from beneath sun-shielded eyes. “One of you handsome gents care to join me?”
Grandpa muttered something about needing to water his vegetable garden and shoved Mitch forward, causing Lauren to laugh. Mitch loved hearing it and seeing the deep-seated tension leave her face.
He climbed on behind her. Lauren pivoted to face him, yet nodded to Grandpa. “He has no vegetable garden this year.”
“I know.” Mitch grinned like the tractor grill as it bumped across the road and into the track she’d carved in the field and, as fast as she gunned it, into the wind.
Comfortable silence fell between them. She didn’t startle when he rested his chin on her shoulder as she maneuvered Bess around fields that probably hadn’t felt tractor tread in years.
To Mitch, it just felt like the right thing to do. Maybe he was right because her back relaxed into him in a way that made him hopeful he could earn her full trust. The tractor bounced over a rock and jostled them. Alarm screamed through him.
She’d almost bounced off the seat.
Pulse returning to normal, he surveyed the coming landscape and brought his thighs in, snug against her hips. Stiffened, she peered over her shoulder, eyes asking his intention.
He grinned and raised innocent hands but kept his legs against her like buffers. “To lessen the likelihood of you sliding off the seat when we jolt over big ruts.”
Kind of like in life.
Lauren must’ve felt safe with his answer because she relaxed again. Even when he took the next step of planting his palms atop his thighs in order to brace his arms around her like a shield. Better yet, she let herself lean deeper into him, proving he’d earned another measure of her fragile trust.
“Lauren, your hair smells like strawberries and sunshine.”
She smiled. The curve to her mouth became all too inviting.
So he looked away.
You never liked strawberries much anyway, he tried telling himself. Yet the essence of her appeal never fully went away.
Chapter Nine
She shouldn’t be enjoying this as much as she was.
Lauren peered around to find Mitch’s eyes averted. His grin elicited hers and left her with a contented feeling.
It wasn’t every day she got to wreak havoc in Lem’s fields with an irresistibly handsome rider.
Lauren steeled herself against silly notions and simply enjoyed the sun’s warmth.
Sure, he was cute and this felt a little cozy for comfort. But being out here on Bess was so relaxing, she couldn’t bring herself to end the peaceful ride.
However, she could bring herself to make the moment last as long as possible.
She drove Bess up a perfectly inclined hill and cut her engine. It ticked to a stop. Every sound became absorbed by the silence around them.
“Those are his old pastures?” Mitch asked her.
Lauren figured he already knew the answer but was being polite. There was little about Lem that he didn’t know. He didn’t tout it today, however.
She had to give him credit. He was trying. She should, too.
She pointed to the land their hill stood over. “His horses used to chase escaped rabbits back to their hutches.” Lauren took it all in. If she squinted, she could almost see where the hutches had been. She climbed down to get a better look.
“Lem always warned me not to get attached to the rabbits. That they were for eatin’, not pettin’. But he never butchered a one. The next summer I came back, we had another fifty rabbits.”
Laughing, Mitch got off the tractor and tossed a dirt clod. “I took care of those rabbits one winter. The hutches were wooden and they had chewed through the walls to get to one another.”
“I know. Those critters multiply faster than a fourth-grade math class.” She walked alongside him on the ridge. A gentle breeze brushed hair into then out of her eyes, beating Mitch to it.
His hand lowered. “Lem’s land is filled with beauty.”
Mitch was right. She sighed as she looked around at what Mitch must be seeing. Crape myrtles, her favorite Southern Illinois shrubbery, painted the perimeter with bright fuschia flowers. Crabgrass danced between the house and barn. Wild trees dotted sporadically over purple-and-yellow-wildflower-strewn fields.
“It’s breathtaking,” he said in a voice octaves deeper.
Lauren pivoted to find Mitch’s eyes on her, not the landscape. He quickly looked away and cleared his throat.
Silly girl. You’re imagining things.
She climbed back on Bess and refocused on her surroundings, not including a certain distractingly cute doctor.
“You must have memories that rest on every square mound of earth that makes up Lem’s property.”
“I do.” There wasn’t an inch she hadn’t traversed as a child and young adult.
The familiar landscape afforded her the ability to look back and remember good times. Being with Mitch afforded her the ability not to delve into the hard stuff that led her to spend every summer at Lem’s.
“Grandpa will wonder where we are.”
For some reason Mitch snickered. “I doubt that.”
She smiled against her will. “You’re probably right.”
They chatted companionably until Lauren lost herself in telling Mitch stories of her and Lem.
She eventually eyed her watch. “Oh! I lost track of time. We should head back or the mosquitoes will carry us off.”
“I suppose so.” He chuckled. “I had fun, Lauren. After the few hectic days I’ve had, I appreciated how relaxing this was.”
“Hectic how? As in at the trauma center?” Guilt nibbled.
He raked a hand at the back of his neck as though he regretted saying anything. “I’m used to it, though,” he backpedaled.
“I should have gone to help.”
“Nah. You need to be spending time with Lem. Especially if you end up leaving early. For the record, I hope you don’t.”
While he surely meant that only for Grandpa’s sake, her face heated as his eyes bore into hers. She averted them to the crazy circle eights they’d carved into fields. “This was fun and relaxing for me, too.”
Yet he didn’t say they should do it again sometime. Probably for the best because of how giddy being with him today was making her feel. Especially when they remounted Bess. Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed as if he sat closer than before. Kinda scary—felt odd not to be sparring with him.
Yet every time Mitch moved or said something interesting or insightful, her ears and heart melted toward him.
The last thing she needed was to feel conflicted over a man who lived too many miles away.
Especially not the one she felt she had to fight for her own grandfather’s affections.
Their lovely day was merely a joint effort to get along for Grandpa’s sake—despite Grandpa being nowhere in sight.
They just needed the practice for when he was.
Yeah. That was it.
* * *
Wow. Mitch couldn’t get over her switch from rude to nice. While he didn’t like sparring with Lauren, he’d prefer that to fighting with the errant thoughts striking his brain every ten minutes.
When he got immersed in her facial expressions as she told him stories, ones he’d mostly already heard from Lem, he had to remind himself of all the reasons he shouldn’t be interested. She began telling stories of Lem’s antics.
Mitch laughed. “Lem probably never would have pushed me on this ride if he’d known.”
“What? That I’d tell stories of his more ornery moments?”
&nb
sp; “Yeah.” Mitch chuckled again, remembering some of them.
“Serves him right for trying to set us up.” Lauren smirked.
“Definitely. Plus now I have new ammo.”
Her eyes rounded. “To go back and tease him about?”
“Sure,” Mitch agreed.
She giggled. “Make sure I’m there when you do. I wanna see him squirm. Fess up. You probably already heard most of the things I told you.” She swallowed as though she hoped he hadn’t.
So he shrugged and adopted a dense expression. “Nah.”
Only partly true. Some stories he hadn’t heard before. Or at least not her version of them. Mitch appreciated her opening up. It was beautiful to watch. Like flowers blooming around them. Only flowers evolved in slow motion. She’d opened up far faster than he expected. Not that he minded. Just surprised him. Maybe she struggled with loneliness like Lem?
Any time flowers and female came together in his mind, his heart ended up in trouble. “We should start back. He might worry.”
“Yeah.” She fired up Bess and they trudged a less-forgotten path.
After they ran out of field and excuses to ride around together, Mitch eyed his watch. He needed to get cracking on Lem’s long to-do list again. In fact, Lem had added a few more items. Mitch wondered if Lem really wanted that stuff done, or if his additions to the list were chores to keep him and Lauren together.
Lauren drove to Lem’s yard and cut the engine. Bess sputtered down in protest.
The seat creaked when Mitch shifted. “I know the feeling, Bess. I’d love to ride around in fun, carefree circles all day, too.” Especially what felt like a carving of new tracks, not only in Lem’s latent fields, but in all of their lives.
Strange. Yet he couldn’t shake the sensation.
He patted the tractor. “Bess, ole girl, it’s been fun, but work awaits.”
Lauren smiled sweetly at Mitch’s interaction. “I feel a personal connection with her. Bess was Mom’s favorite tractor.”
“That explains why Lem added her to the top of his to-do list.”
She pivoted. “Did he really?”
“Yeah.” He leaned in to whisper, “But don’t tell Bess she didn’t appear on the list before you got here. She might be mad and quit on us because she didn’t make the original cut. I’d hate to have to walk all the way back from some remote field.”
Lauren laughed, and the sweet sound swept through him, brushing the week’s stress away. Felt good to be a little silly. They peered at the expanse of Lem’s property. Nostalgia danced in the air alongside dandelion particles. Their tiny parasol-shaped feathers whirled and swooped like little ant-size parachutes, whisked by a refreshing breeze.
Mitch shifted. They rested on Bess’s sun-cracked seat out of respect for the moment. Basked in the warmth of solar-kissed skies and fond memories, distant in time but close to the heart.
A slight breeze whispered from nowhere and rustled strands of Lauren’s hair. So silky. Mitch became instantly afflicted with the urge to touch it. His fist clenched against the compulsion. His mind recoiled. His unruly imagination could take a hike…off a one-way cliff.
“I’m rounding at the trauma center tomorrow. Care to join—”
“Not on your life.” She aimed a wrench at his nose that she pulled from under her seat. “Nice try.”
Undeterred, he smiled. “Just checking.” He climbed off the tractor and lent Lauren a hand down.
When her feet planted squarely on the ground, Mitch tugged her close enough to widen her eyes. Her gaze skittered to his hand, holding hers firmly. Intentionally. To keep things affable. He didn’t want hostility to return. She couldn’t give in to envy again because frankly, Lem didn’t need the worry.
“See you tomorrow, Lem’s table?” he said as a heads-up so she wouldn’t feel as though he was barging in or intruding.
Lem invited Mitch. Mitch never invited himself.
Her face masked. “See you tomorrow.”
“I regret that I won’t also be seeing you at my operating tables.”
She groaned. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I’m seriously short staffed tomorrow.”
Her expression sobered. “Dangerously so?”
“Depends on what comes in.”
She nibbled her lip. “Can’t you hire someone?”
“My director is scrambling with interviews. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting slammed.”
“I wonder why? It’s not like this is a big-city E.R.”
“No, but our trauma center sits straddled between two major interstates. Eagle Point is also home to one of the Midwest’s largest recreational state parks with tempting caverns, climb-friendly rock faces and hiking trails that are magnets for extreme sports fanatics.”
She nodded. “And we’re at the height of hiking season.”
“The center’s become busier than anyone anticipated.”
“Proving you were right to build it.”
“I could really use more nurses familiar with where things are.” He let his shoulders slump and feigned a fatigued yawn.
The moment her face softened, he knew he was winning. Maybe.
Him and God.
At least for the moment.
Chapter Ten
“Carrottop, I’m gonna ask you to do something for me.” A long zzzssshing sound broke predawn stillness on Eagle Point Lake the next morning as Lem zipped a fishing line over his head. The lure plunked in the water thirty feet from where their boat bobbed leisurely on glassy sapphire water. “It might be tough.”
Excitement welled in Lauren like the sunrise about to break over the lake. Maybe he’d let her tackle some of the items on the to-do list he’d given Mitch. Then she’d have more time with just Grandpa. And lighten Mitch’s load. “Anything. Just ask.”
“Anything?”
“I’m pretty handy with a hammer, and I wield a mean wrench.”
He chuckled. “I know. But the only kind of hammer you’d need for what I’m gonna ask of you is one of those little rubber ones you bang on people’s knees with.”
Her heart thumped hard, paused then thudded back into rhythm. She cast her fishing line. “Oh?”
“I want you to seriously consider taking up nursing again.”
“Wow. You drive a hard bargain.”
“I know you have it in ya. You’re a good nurse. Mitch even calls you exemplary, and he’s a man of sky-high standards.”
Hearing that did not help matters. “Grandpa, why do you care about his opinion so much?”
Grandpa reeled in his line. “Because he cares about me.”
Well. What could she say to that?
“I suppose he does. Do you care about him more than me?”
A scowl came across Grandpa’s face. “Of course not. That’s not a fair question to begin with. And it’s silly for you to assume.”
“Sometimes it seems like you do.”
“Lauren, you mean the world to me. All these projects I’m having him do, all this maintenance and upkeep, is for you.”
Dread filled her stomach. “Why? What do you mean?”
“We both know my pa and grandpa died soon after seventy.”
She stood. The boat wobbled. She promptly sat. “You’re not gonna.” Tears flooded forth. “I forbid it.”
He chuckled then grew serious. “Carrottop, if anyone could stop it, you could. But stubbornness and love aren’t enough to keep a person here if God thinks it’s their time to go.”
“I think you should stop assuming He does.”
“I’m just planning for your future.”
“My future won’t mean anything without you in it. Grandpa, I promise I will come see you every few months from now on.” Her voice had been re
duced to begging, but she didn’t care.
She needed him. Who else on earth did she have? Her business partner and best friend, but that was a tough one since she was also sister to her ex.
“I won’t be here forever. I want to make sure you’re left all right. I’m leaving part of the property to you. The house’ll be yours, too. I hope you never sell it because the memories won’t mean anything to anyone else. I never could change my cabinet doors because you cut your teeth on them, and the itty bite marks are still there.” Now he blinked tears.
Overcome with emotion, Lauren set aside her pole and knee-scrambled across the boat to hug the stuffing out of him.
Tears flowed freely down both their faces. Emotion welled to the point that hiccups tried to convulse her throat.
Never in her life had she felt so confused and dismayed.
She’d planned her future all out to be in Texas, with plans to simply visit Grandpa. But more and more, the thought of leaving him caused panic, depressing thoughts and profound sadness.
How had she gotten her life in such a mess?
Rash decisions. That’s how.
“I don’t want to come to this lake, your house, your property if you’re not here, Grandpa. That’d be too hard.”
“Which is why I’m willing part of the property to Mitch.”
She gasped. “He’s not family. Your sister’ll throw a fit.”
“Let her. She never treated you right and you know it.” His eyes looked about to boil, and his false teeth clacked like a war drum.
She slowly sat. “You know?”
“Yes. Your cousins filled me in. Had I known how miserable you were and how she never treated you kindly, I’d have fought for full custody and raised ya myself. But in my blind grief, I didn’t see the whole picture. I will always regret that. I wouldn’t have been a half-bad dad, ya know.”
“You were a dad to me, Grandpa. You were everything I had. I always felt loved and secure with you.”
“Then come back. Live here. Work as a nurse with Mitch.”
“I wish I could. But even if I did, Mitch and I aren’t compatible.” To her dismay, she discovered she really meant what she said about wishing she could stay. Furthering that dismay was her sudden dislike for how incompatible she and Mitch were.
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