In a few short months he would leave for South America and she’d be the person taking care of his home while he was away.
End of story.
They rode into the yard of the community center and the door opened. The man standing on the porch of the building smiled big and waved.
“Hey, you’re just the person I needed to see.” He walked down off the porch, taking the steps two at a time.
Jesse rode a little closer, his black horse pawing at the ground restlessly when he pulled back on the reins. “What’s up?”
“We have a few sick kids. Beth noticed it earlier and took the baby home to keep her from catching it.” The man she guessed to be Jeremy Hightree tipped his hat in Laura’s direction. “You must be Laura.”
She wished for a cool breeze to ease the heat from her cheeks, but it didn’t happen. “I am.”
“Good to meet you. I’m Jeremy Hightree.”
“Good to meet you, too.” Her horse moved forward, stopping next to Jesse’s.
“So what’s up with the kids?” Jesse took the conversation back to where it had been left.
“A couple of them have a pretty bad cough. One of them loses his breath every time it hits.”
“Where are they now and where are their parents?” Jesse swung his right leg over the back of his horse and landed easily on the ground. He reached for Laura’s horse and she attempted to do the same but when she came down, her left foot was still in the stirrup. Jeremy rushed to her rescue and held her shoulders as she pulled her foot free.
“Pull your foot out before you swing your other leg over. You wouldn’t want a spooked horse with your foot caught like that or you’ll go on a ride you weren’t expecting.”
“Thank you.” She stood next to the horse and waited for her legs to feel like muscles and bone again, not the jelly that they seemed to be made of.
“The parents don’t have any money, Jesse.” Jeremy had moved back to the front of her horse. “I called and told them the kids need to see a doctor. But they’re strapped.”
Jesse handed his reins and then the reins of Laura’s horse to Jeremy. “If you want to put these horses in stalls, I’ll take a look at the kids. But I’ll need for you to call their parents and have them come down here.”
“Sounds great. There’s a room downstairs that has plenty of light. I’ll get on the phone with the mom.”
Jesse led Laura into the church and to a door that led to the basement. She stayed close to his side, glancing around the building.
“Nice, isn’t it? We went here when I was a kid and then it closed down because they couldn’t get a pastor. Everyone started going to Dawson Community Church.”
The basement was a buzz of activity. A few adults and a dozen or more kids were settled around a long table doing a craft project. The woman at the head of the table smiled at Jesse. “Hey, we were just talking about you.”
“I heard.” His arm brushed Laura’s and she sidestepped the touch and the reaction. “Where are the kids?”
“Jeremy quarantined them in the other classroom with Peggy. He was going to call you.” She looked over the rim of her wire-framed glasses. “Did he call you, or did you just show up?”
“I just showed up. You know how us superheroes are.”
She laughed and shook her head before returning to the project and showing one of the children where to apply glue.
Jesse washed his hands in the sink and then motioned for Laura to follow him.
“This way.” Jesse led her to the room where the kids were being kept.
Laura watched as he took over, smiling at the kids and talking to them as they sat, wide-eyed, staring up at him. The worker handed him a bottle of antibacterial gel. He squirted a big glob in his hand and then handed it to Laura.
As she rubbed the gel over her hands Jesse sat down on the table and started talking to the children. She listened as he talked and the children lost their nervousness and began to tell him all about their cough and how they felt.
He did that with people, she realized. They trusted him, depended on him. Because he could be trusted? She watched him and smiled. Yes, he could be trusted.
* * *
Jesse didn’t have to wait long for one of the children to have a coughing fit. He sat back and listened to the wheezing sound and then rubbed the girl’s back as she continued to try to get her breath after the coughing spell. Her lips were slightly blue by the time she gasped that first breath of air back into her oxygen-starved lungs.
The parents walked through the door a few minutes later, followed by Jeremy. Good people—he’d known them for years. The dad, Bob Layton, farmed and did carpentry work when he could. The mom worked at the diner as a cook. They were concerned but didn’t quite know what to do.
“What do you think?” Jeremy planted himself next to the dad and looked to Jesse for answers.
“These kids are all about the same age? Maybe a few years difference?” Jesse ruffled the hair of a boy close to him and smiled to ease the panicked look on the mom’s face.
She nodded and told him the children’s ages.
Jesse wished he had his medical bag with him, but he had a pretty good idea what was wrong with the kids. “We’ve seen cases of whooping cough at the emergency room.”
The mom gasped and drew her daughter close. “But we had immunizations.”
“Yes, unfortunately the immunization for whooping cough loses effectiveness when kids are hitting the preteen age.”
“What do we do?” The dad mopped at his brow with a worn handkerchief, and Jesse had to agree—the room was warm.
“We’ll get them a prescription and take some other precautions. We’ll let Mom take the kids home and we’ll talk. But these aren’t all your kids, are they?”
The farmer nodded, his smile kind of vague. “We adopted my sister’s kids about a year ago. They’re ours now.”
Jesse watched the woman walk out with the brood of kids, all of them somehow tucked under her thin arms the way a chicken tucks chicks under her wings. He sat the dad down, gave him instructions on how to take care of the children, told him what warning signs to look for and then promised prescriptions for the kids would be waiting for them at a nearby pharmacy.
“What do I owe you?”
Jesse shook his head. “Not a thing, Bob. I’m glad I was here and could help.”
The farmer shook his hand for a long moment and then left.
Jeremy sat down on the table next to Jesse. Laura walked out with the dad of the kids, leaving them alone. He watched her go, wondering about her, about her quietness, her steadiness.
“Housekeeper?” Jeremy chuckled and shook his head.
“Don’t you start.”
“Okay, I won’t. Hey, did you ever consider that we need you here, in Dawson, not in South America? I mean, if you’re called to go down there, that’s great. But maybe you’re supposed to be here helping people like the Laytons?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it. Those are usually the people we treat at the E.R.”
“And that costs them hundreds of dollars they don’t have. If they had the money, they would have gone to urgent care or a family clinic.”
“I do know that, Jeremy.”
“I’m just saying—I would build you a clinic and I think people in town would chip in on supplies. We could have a fundraiser. Maybe people who could afford to pay could drop money in a jar. People who could pay more could give more for those who can’t afford anything.”
“Sounds amazing. I just don’t see how it would work.”
“Would you consider staying if I could make it happen?”
Jesse let his gaze head for the door, the door Laura had walked through a few minutes earlier. Open doors. He shook his head because a long time ago he’d thought about a clinic similar to the one Jeremy had proposed. He’d forgotten that idea and moved on to what he thought was a greater need.
“I don’t know, Jeremy.”
“Think ab
out it.” Jeremy pounded him on the back and stood to leave. “And thanks for helping out.”
“I’m glad you caught me. Whooping cough can be serious. A couple of those kids are pretty sick. If you see their parents, tell them to give me a call if they have questions.”
“Thanks.”
Jesse walked out the door and didn’t find Laura waiting. He wandered up the stairs to the sanctuary of the church. She was standing in front of the old pulpit reading the inscription. She smiled as she turned.
“It’s a lot of history.”
“Yes, it is.” He glanced at his watch. “And if we don’t head home, Mom will have the posse out looking for us.”
He touched her back to guide her down the aisle of the church, and the moment took him by surprise. Few things ever surprised him. When she stopped at the entrance to the church and turned back, the late evening sun catching her face and hair, he had to admit to being beyond surprise. She looked up and he knew without a doubt that she’d felt it, too. Whatever “it” was.
They were on the horses and headed back to Cooper Creek when she finally spoke. “Why work at the E.R. and not a family practice?”
He kept his horse next to hers. “I’ve always liked the freedom the E.R. gives me. I work three twelve-hour shifts. It makes for long days, but then I have time off for horses, a rodeo every now and then and mission work.”
“You’ve done mission work before?”
“A few short medical mission trips. One to Africa and another to a reservation in the Dakotas.”
“I thought that when I got my degree, I’d do something like that.” Her tone took on a wistfulness that etched into his heart.
“Why don’t you finish your degree, Laura? Who’s to say you couldn’t use it?”
“Would you hire me?”
“I don’t have that power, but I’d definitely help you finish your schooling.”
She smiled at him, another surprise moment. He wanted to ride a little closer, let his leg brush hers, maybe hold a girl’s hand the way he had when he was a teenager and he hadn’t given consequences or breaking a girl’s heart a second thought.
“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome. And think about getting that degree.” He let his horse pick up the speed a little and she kept up. “You’re doing a great job for someone who has never been on a horse.”
“I always wanted to ride.” She still held the reins tight, as if she expected the horse to take off with her. “When I was little I read all of the horse books. I dreamed of having ponies from Chincoteague Island or an Arab straight from the lines of the Godolphin Arabian.”
He smiled at the familiar names. He’d had to learn English, but those books had been among his first, too.
They reached the barn with the sun low on the horizon. Jackson walked out the front door of the stable.
“Mom’s been trying to reach you.”
Jesse dismounted and then held the head of the buckskin for Laura as she dropped to the ground.
“We were over by Back Street and phones are useless there. What’s up?” Jesse handed the reins to Laura and she took them and stepped close to the old gelding.
“Nothing. Supper is ready and she thought you were on your way back. She’s been on the phone today. I think she has news for Laura.”
“News?” Laura looked up, her eyes searching, instantly troubled.
“Good news.” Jackson pulled keys from his pocket. “I have to get home. Jade has a softball game tonight. See you all later.”
Jesse slid the double door of the stable and they led the horses inside. “You can go on to the house.”
Laura shook her head. “No, I’m good. I’ll wait for you.”
“You shouldn’t be worried. My mom knows how to move mountains. She has some amazing faith.”
“I know.” She smiled up at him, the gesture not so confident. “I’m trying to have faith of my own.”
The stable was shadowy and smelled of cedar, hay and horses. Jesse moved a step closer to the woman who tempted him the way no other woman had and in ways he hadn’t imagined. She tempted him to take a chance, to open his heart and to stop holding back.
She tempted him.
He closed the distance between them until she was close enough to tuck beneath his chin. She looked up and he had to think about what he was about to do. But he didn’t want to think. Her lips were parted and her gray eyes were luminous in the mixed light of the stable. Dust swirled on a beam of sunlight shining in from an open stall door.
His heart tripped on what he wanted and what he told himself he should back away from. The horse moved behind him and her horse pulled on the reins she held. Jesse touched her cheek and she closed her eyes.
He leaned, still touching her cheek, moving his fingers to her neck where her pulse fluttered.
A kiss could mean anything.
Or it could mean everything.
His lips touched hers. A kiss could make a guy think of forever. He moved his hands to the back of her neck where his fingers tangled in the luxurious softness of her auburn hair, releasing the scent of wildflowers.
She kissed him back and her hand had moved to his arm, her fingers light on his sleeve.
The door to the barn opened. They pulled apart and Jesse could do nothing more than stare at the woman who had just changed everything.
Chapter Nine
“Are the two of you coming in for supper or what?” Blake Cooper stood in the doorway, a massive man in a blazer, dark jeans and a cowboy hat. He grinned widely as he looked from Laura to Jesse.
Laura moved back, still trying to make sense of what had just happened and what it would mean to her future, her job, the security she had been starting to feel here in Dawson. Jesse stared down at her, and the only way to describe that look was shock. He took the reins she held and shot Blake a look.
It was easy to see him withdraw emotionally, as if the moment they had shared and what it could mean had just hit him. They both had too much at stake.
“We’ll be in shortly.”
Blake shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
The door closed. Jesse let out a long sigh and Laura wanted to echo the gesture but her lungs and her heart were frozen. She could barely get oxygen in, let alone sigh and let it all out.
“I’m sorry,” Jesse didn’t smile as he made the apology. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“It never happened.” She smiled, as if she could say the words and make it so. She had to keep the tone and the mood light and pretend it hadn’t mattered. They could go on as if it hadn’t happened.
She couldn’t lose her job. Not when everything was hanging in the balance. Her daughter. Their future. Everything depended on this job.
“Didn’t it?” Jesse asked as he led the horse away.
Let it go. Move on. Don’t make a kiss into something that it isn’t. Laura let the thoughts roll through her mind and she considered saying a few of them. Instead she shrugged it off.
“I’m not sure.”
Jesse tied his horse to a ring on the wall and moved in her direction. She knew he wouldn’t kiss her again. After all, it never happened. It fell under the category of huge mistake. He stopped in front of her, tall and relaxed but oozing power and confidence.
“Jesse, we should go inside.” Her hands trembled on the reins. The horse had moved close, resting his head close to her arm. She looked at the big golden animal with the sleepy eyes.
“We should.” He took the buckskin’s reins. “And I want you to know—I don’t typically do things like this.”
She laughed a little. “I think you should stop talking. I don’t know if you’re sorry, disgusted or ready to fire me.”
“None of the above.” He walked away and she leaned against the door of the empty stall, watching him cross-tie the horse he’d been riding and unsaddle it. “But we do need to get inside before the talk in there gets out of control.”
“Right.”
He glanced back as he removed the saddle. “That didn’t come out right. I’m out of practice, Laura. This has blindsided me.”
“I know.” She still held the reins. “Can I do something to help?”
He had the saddle and bridle off his horse. “Do you want to brush him while I unsaddle your horse?”
“I think I can do that.”
“Of course you can.” He walked back into the tack room and returned with a brush. He gave her a quick lesson in horse care.
It didn’t take long to finish up and turn the horses back into their stalls. Laura had been able to let go of the nerves tangling in her stomach, but as they walked through the door of the Cooper home, her heart raced ahead of her and her mind insisted on jumping to horrible conclusions.
“There you are.” Angie Cooper smiled big as they walked into the kitchen with its many windows and early evening sun casting everything in a yellow light. She left the sink of dishwater and hugged Laura.
“What’s up?” Jesse grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge and Laura took the one he handed her.
“I made a few calls.” Angie’s smile faded. “I hope you don’t mind.”
Before Laura could answer, an older man walked into the kitchen. She knew immediately that he had to be Tim Cooper, the father of the brood of Cooper children. His brown hair was touched with gray and his eyes were kind in his weathered but still-handsome face. He shot Laura a smile and shook his head.
“She isn’t sorry she meddled.” He walked to the sink and turned on water to wash his hands.
Angie smiled at him but then turned back to Laura.
“I called a friend and managed to pull a few strings. Laura, you won’t have to make any more trips to Tulsa to see Abigail. They’re going to move her here.”
“Here? To Dawson?” Laura’s heart tilted sideways. Her mind had a difficult time wrapping around what Angie Cooper had just told her.
The Cowboy's Healing Ways (Cooper Creek) Page 8
