by Brenda Novak
“He’s overqualified,” she said.
“—who is willing to step in and help us out here.”
“But there are only two months left of school,” she argued. “We can muddle through without him for two measly months.”
“You said yourself that your hands are full. Everyone else feels just as stressed.”
“But I didn’t know—I was wrong!” she said. “I—I can take on another class.”
“What about your kids?”
“I’ll arrange for an hour of babysitting after school. It’s temporary. Surely there’s someone else in this room who can make arrangements, too.”
“I will,” Beth said, raising her hand like a student.
Guilt stole Reenie’s pleasure from this small victory. The last thing her friend needed was more work. Beth was a single mom, too, with four kids at home. But Reenie couldn’t think about that right now. She had to make sure she protected herself from her enemies. “That’s two,” she said brightly. “See? Anyone else?”
Suddenly, no one except Madge would meet her eyes.
“Reenie, having Isaac on staff will be better for the students,” the history teacher said, glowering at the others as though disgusted with their reluctance to take a stronger stand. “We need a science teacher. And Isaac’s perfect.”
“Looking,” someone else volunteered, which was followed by a consenting, appreciative laugh.
Reenie thought it might have been Deborah who’d added this irrelevant detail, but she didn’t look over to find out. So what if Isaac was handsome? She didn’t want him working at the same school. “But we don’t need him,” she insisted.
“He’s a biologist. Did you know that?” Madge said.
Isaac had told her he used to be a scientist. But he’d also said he was writing a novel. Obviously, he couldn’t be trusted. “This is high school,” she argued. “We’re not teaching college-level classes. No one needs a doctorate to work here.”
“I don’t even have a doctorate,” Guy said as if examining the situation from a whole new perspective.
“Maybe Isaac will think he should be principal,” Reenie said. She knew she was grasping at straws, but at this point, she was willing to try almost anything. “Maybe Dr. Russell will take it upon himself to tell the rest of us country bumpkins how to do our jobs.”
“Isaac’s only filling in temporarily,” Madge said. “He’s no threat to Guy or anyone else. Come on, people. He’s spent months and months in the jungles of Africa. Think of the knowledge he can share with our student body. He’s agreed to take on the academic decathlon team, too.”
The oohs and aahs resulting from the announcement of a new academic decathlon coach brought Reenie to her feet. “We have books about Africa. And—and I’ll take on the academic decathlon team.”
“Really?” Guy said as if making a mental note. “I told him I’d find him a good assistant.”
“No! Isaac already works at the feed store,” Reenie said. “They need him. Heaven knows he seems to be the only one available to help me whenever I go in there.”
Reenie hadn’t meant to shout—but knew she’d gotten a little carried away when everyone blinked at her in surprise. “Come on, people,” she said, lowering her voice. “We don’t want him here, okay? Please?”
“I agree with Reenie,” Beth said, her expression full of sympathy. “Who cares if Isaac Russell is some single hotshot with a doctorate? We don’t need him.”
“Single?” Reenie said, catching that word amidst all the others.
“I mean—”
“We know what you meant,” Madge said. “You were as excited about having Isaac on staff as anyone—before Reenie walked in.”
Beth suddenly looked deflated. “I said I didn’t think it’d be a good thing,” she murmured weakly.
“Was that before or after you swooned?” Madge crossed her arms over her enormous chest. “Anyway, I practically had to beg him to take the job. I’m not going back to him now to say that we’ve changed our minds.”
“He’s already accepted?” Reenie said.
“I’m afraid so,” Guy replied. His expression was apologetic, but she could tell he wasn’t going to budge. “We can’t rescind the offer, Reenie. But having him teach for two months won’t be any big deal. You’ll see.”
Guy had to be joking, right? No big deal? Once Isaac started working at the high school, she’d encounter him every day. Ina’s room was right next to hers. God, there was even an adjoining supply closet!
* * *
THE MINUTE Reenie walked into the feed store, Isaac could tell that something had changed. He guessed she must’ve heard that he’d be teaching at the high school, and obviously she wasn’t pleased. What else could it be? Over the past several months, her attitude toward him had gradually softened into something more polite than hostile. As recently as last week, she’d exchanged a few formal pleasantries with him when he’d rung up her purchases and loaded her hay.
Today, however, she stood in the corner with Isabella at her side, waiting resolutely for Earl to finish helping Ray White, the foreman from the Running Y Resort. Isaac tried to catch her eye to see if he could get what she needed. There wasn’t any reason for him to be twiddling his thumbs while a line formed for Earl. But she wouldn’t even look at him.
When Earl noticed her hovering only a few feet away, he glanced at Isaac as if to say, Can’t you take care of her? I’m busy here. Then he seemed to realize who Reenie was, and sent Ray to Isaac instead.
Four months ago Isaac couldn’t have been much help to someone like Ray, who’d grown up on a ranch. When Isaac first started at the feed store, he hadn’t known enough about horses and cattle to do much more than run the register. But it hadn’t taken him long to learn.
Ray stopped halfway down the aisle to pick up a salt wheel. While waiting, Isaac breathed in the sweet smell of hay and grain that surrounded him, and realized that he was actually beginning to like Dundee. In a way, it reminded him of the jungle. Not the climate, of course. Because he had to step outdoors regularly, he wore long johns to work under his jeans and a heavy flannel shirt.
But things were simple here, and animals were an important part of life. In Chicago, he hadn’t taken the time to get to know a lot of people. The fact that he’d associated mostly with academics who, like him, spent all their energy pursuing their goals, made it more difficult to build deep relationships.
Here that sort of absorption and anonymity was virtually impossible. Everyone knew who he was and had something to say to him. At first they’d just wanted to express their indignation about what Keith had done, or appease their curiosity about the new guy in town. But soon they were sharing the problems they experienced with their animals and ranches—sometimes even their neighbors.
“Earl was telling me he thinks I should cut the starches and sugars in the feed for the dude horses,” Ray said, carrying the salt wheel under his arm as he sauntered closer.
“Why?” Isaac asked. “You still having trouble with laminitis?”
Ray nodded.
“Has the vet been out?”
“Once, but I knew what it was. You can see the inflammation around their hooves.”
“You’ll have to watch that, huh?”
“Wouldn’t want it to lead to founder.”
“Exactly.”
“So what do you suggest as far as diet?” he asked.
Isaac couldn’t help feeling gratified by the question. Slowly his opinion was coming to mean something, even to tough old cowboys like Ray. “Have you tried the high-fiber cube?”
“Not yet.”
“It’s got palm kernal, oat feed, wheat feed, grass meal, soya hulls, wheat. With the added vitamins and minerals, it’s a real good feed. It may help.”
“Worth a try, I suppose.” Ray took a can of chew from his back pocket and put a pinch of tobacco between his teeth and gums. “Give me a half-dozen bags, will ya?”
Isaac went after the feed while the
Running Y’s foreman talked about his latest hand-tooled saddle, which he was trying to finish in time for the rodeo this summer. Isaac responded appropriately, but he wasn’t paying much attention. He was too busy trying to hear what Reenie was saying to Earl.
“But I’m afraid she’s getting fat,” she said.
“Have you noticed changes in her crest, neck or shoulders?” Earl asked.
“It’s tough to tell. I haven’t had her long enough.”
“Do you have a measuring tape?”
“Yes.”
“When you get home, measure the length of her from the point of her shoulder to the point of her buttock.”
“Jemima’s buttock?” Isabella laughed. “Is that her butt? Her butt’s really b-i-g!”
Isaac grinned as he shifted one sack of Ray’s feed onto his shoulder and carried it to the register. He enjoyed seeing Reenie and her children’s excitement over owning a horse. But he thought she had to be crazy to take on the farm and so many animals when her life was so upside down. Judging from the way her clothes were beginning to hang on her, he doubted she was finding time to take care of herself. Maybe her horse was getting fat, but Reenie was losing weight.
He collected Ray’s money while Earl explained to Reenie that she’d also need to measure the heart girth of her horse in order to use the mathematical formula that determined body weight. “Once you know what she weighs, give me a call,” he said. “I’ve got a chart here that’ll tell us right where she should fall.”
“Do you think I should switch her to a leaner feed, just in case?” she asked.
“Not yet. Give her a little more exercise, if you can. Once you know her weight, we’ll determine if we need to change her feed.”
“Okay.” Reenie sighed as though the world rested on her shoulders, and Isaac couldn’t help glancing over at her again. He’d admired her when she was Keith’s wife. But now he respected her. As difficult as it must’ve been to have Liz, Mica and Christopher move to town, she’d behaved admirably. She hadn’t tried to make their lives miserable by encouraging her friends to turn against the newcomers. She hadn’t stipulated that Keith couldn’t see the children—though Lord knows Keith probably would have stayed away had Reenie held out any hope that she might come back to him if he did.
As far as Isaac knew, Reenie hadn’t done anything petty or mean. According to Mica, who sometimes saw her at school, she even waved occasionally.
For the most part, Reenie’s coping mechanism seemed to be avoidance. Which was most likely why she’d never responded to his e-mails. Even the one about Bailey.
“Look, Mom, there’s Christopher’s uncle!” Isabella said.
Reenie’s eyes met Isaac’s, then jerked away. Pretending she didn’t hear her daughter, she tried to pull the little girl along as she followed Earl to the pallet of feed she wanted. But Isabella managed to wriggle away. A moment later, she came running over to the register. “Hi!”
Isaac thought he saw real annoyance cross Reenie’s face, but he grinned in spite of it. Or maybe he grinned because of it. Certainly being in her town added a spark of excitement to his life. “What’s up?” he asked Isabella.
“My dog’s sick again.” The corners of her small mouth turned down in a worried frown. “He lies there all day. Mom says his joints hurt too much for him to move.”
“I’m afraid dogs don’t live as long as people do,” he said.
“I know.” Her voice dropped. “Do you think he’s going to die soon?”
Isaac didn’t want to upset her. But he saw no point in lying about something so inevitable. “He could. Maybe you should be prepared for it, just in case. He’s old, like your mother said.”
Instead of crying, she nodded sagely, and Isaac reached below the counter to retrieve one of the suckers they kept on hand for children. “How ’bout a treat?”
Her face lit up. “Sure.”
“Ask your mom first.”
“Mom?” she said, turning expectantly.
Reenie’s eyebrows knit together as she looked over. “What, honey?”
“Can I have a sucker?”
“Absolutely not.”
The answer, so quick and resolute, surprised Isaac and Isabella. “Why not?” Isabella asked indignantly.
“It’s too close to dinner.”
“School just got out.”
In truth, it was only four o’clock.
“I’ll buy you something at the grocery store,” Reenie said.
“But I don’t want to go to the grocery store,” Isabella argued. “That takes too long. I want to go home so I can play.”
“Ask her if you can have the sucker if Earl gives it to you,” Isaac suggested. He knew he was provoking Reenie, but he was tired of allowing her to ignore him. At least now he’d get a reaction.
“She’s my daughter, and she doesn’t need it,” Reenie snapped before Isabella could say anything.
“Yes I do!” Isabella said. “Puh-leeze?”
A muscle moved in Reenie’s cheek as she glared at Isaac. “You did that on purpose.”
He shrugged, still smiling. “Maybe. But I’ve done worse, right? Like moving here? And accepting a teaching position at the high school? It’s criminal, really. I should be locked up.”
“I’m glad we agree on something,” she said tartly.
“Aren’t you going a little overboard, Reenie?” Earl said. He glanced between them, but she ignored him.
“She can’t accept anything from you,” she said to Isaac.
“But Mom-my, why?” Isabella asked.
Earl brought the feed sack to the front and dropped it on the counter. “Reenie, it’s only a sucker. I would’ve given it to her myself had I thought of it.”
Faced with Earl’s support and her pleading daughter, Reenie finally seemed to realize she was letting her emotions tempt her into an unnecessary battle. “Fine,” she said. But she clenched her jaw as Isabella eagerly unwrapped her candy. Then she paid Earl, waited for him to load the sack, and spun gravel as she drove off.
“That has to be the only woman in town who doesn’t like you,” Earl said, shaking his head as he came back in.
And the only woman—in town or anywhere else—that Isaac couldn’t quit thinking about.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” Lucky said, her confusion revealing itself in her voice.
Reenie exited the horse site she’d been visiting on the Internet and switched the telephone to her other ear. “I just explained it to you.”
“You said Isaac had finally crossed the line.”
“He has!”
“By giving Isabella a sucker?”
“It was more than that,” Reenie said. “He—he knew I didn’t want her to have it.”
“I must be missing something,” Lucky responded. “I mean, there are worse crimes then trying to make your little girl happy.”
“You had to be there,” Reenie snapped. “Anyway, he made Earl, who I’ve known all my life, turn on me, too.”
“Earl turned on you?”
“Yes, he sided with Isaac.”
“How did Isaac make him do that?”
“He just did. Isaac’s good at winning people over. You know how much everyone likes him. You should’ve heard the other teachers at school on Monday. ‘He has a Ph.D…he’s a biologist…I can’t believe he’ll be working here…God, he’s so handsome…’ What does handsome have to do with teaching?”
There was a long pause. “Reenie?”
“What?”
“You’re too stressed-out for your own good.”
“I’m telling you he’s stealing all my friends!” Reenie knew she sounded like Isabella instead of a thirty-one-year-old woman. But she couldn’t help it. Although subtle, Earl’s defection earlier today had really stung.
“Isaac can’t steal your friends. Everyone loves you. You’re just overwrought. And you’re going to drive yourself into a nervous breakdown if you don’t relax.”
Reenie knew Lucky was right. She was traveling hell-bent for a brick wall. But she didn’t know how to stop her forward momentum. She already had more than she could do in a day, yet she kept adding more. She had to keep busy—the stress was killing her but saving her at the same time. “I’m managing.”
“Why won’t you take it easy?”
And give herself a chance to miss what she’d lost? Never. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re whipped. Maybe you should sell your horse and cow and forget about fixing up the farm for a while.”
Reenie rubbed her eyes. It was already after eleven. She should be in bed right now, getting a good night’s sleep so she could wake refreshed and eager to teach in the morning. But even as hard as she was working, she’d begun to dream occasionally. And when she dreamed, she sometimes felt a pair of strong arms around her. Then the memories would wash over her, reminding her how it felt to be loved by a man, to be desired and protected.
Pure fantasy, she thought. If there was one thing she’d learned from the past year it was that her own arms were the only ones she could depend on.
She bent over to pet Bailey, who’d come to lie at her feet, and tried not to notice how quickly his health seemed to be failing. He couldn’t die on top of everything else. Not now. “You’re okay, boy, aren’t you?” she said.
His eyebrows twitched as he looked up at her with his liquid brown eyes. “Don’t go anywhere,” she whispered to him. “Please?”
“Will you do me a favor?” Lucky asked.
Bailey affectionately nosed her bare feet as Reenie returned to her conversation. “What?”
“Take a few days off and sleep, okay?”
Running her toes lightly over the dog’s back, Reenie surfed through a few more horse sites. Her problems weren’t as easily solved as taking a vacation. But everyone seemed to give her the same advice. “Sure, good idea,” she said drily.
Lucky sighed on the other end of the line. “You’re really scaring me.”
“I told you, I’m fine.”
“Is Keith still calling?”
