Chapter Ten
Reese knocked and entered the back door to Noah’s home. “Hey,” he called, sticking his head in the door, “how’s Dair doing?”
“Come on in,” Noah invited. “Dair is doing okay. I just made a fresh pot of coffee.”
The rancher nodded and stomped off the dirt on his boots in the mudroom. “Shay told me an hour ago she was meeting Kira over here and they were going to help Dair get a shower and help wash her hair,” he said, entering.
Noah nodded, pouring him a mug. “Yeah, the girls are still in the bathroom,” he noted wryly. “Lots of laughter and giggles are floating down the hall every once in a while,” he said, smiling a little. “I think they’re having a lot of fun.” He gestured to the table. “Have a seat.”
Reese nodded, taking off his Stetson and setting it on a chair before taking the cup. “How bad is her injury?” he asked, sitting down opposite Noah.
Noah filled him in. “Dair’s worried you’re going to be disappointed in her because she’s laid up for six weeks.”
Shaking his head, Reese rumbled, “No way. Things like this happen. Ranch work isn’t for the weak. Someone’s always getting hurt. It’s just part of the job.”
“I agree, but she’s worried. Maybe later, you and Shay can convince her she’s still got a job here?” And then Noah added, “Otherwise, she’s gonna be restless and lose the sleep she needs in order to heal.”
“I hear you,” Reese murmured. “We’ll take care of it. She’s done fine training, and is making the ranch and herself money.”
“No disagreement,” Noah said. “She keeps asking about that damned horse, Champ.”
Shrugging, Reese said, “The vet came, said he’d broken his cannon bone on the right leg when he tried to jump that arena pipe fence. They took him in their trailer and the vet was going to put him down at his clinic.”
“I should have told Dair not to take him into training. I had a really bad feeling about that stud, Reese.”
“No one’s fault. From what Shay said, the little girl was out there crying and begging Dair to ‘fix’ her new horse so she could keep it.” He gave Noah a wry look. “Which one of us can say no to a crying child?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, sitting back, his hand around the mug, “I know. But next time? If I get that feeling, I’m going to refuse. I’ll say no to anyone who wants a bad horse trained. I’m not making that mistake again.”
“It’s okay. Things like this happen when you’re growing a training business,” Reese said, giving Noah an understanding look.
“She’s got a great ortho doc,” Noah said, filling him in on Dair’s healing schedule. He saw Reese’s face relax.
“Ligaments take six months to heal,” Reese said, “but if the tear is small, which it sounds like it is, she could start getting mobile sooner than that, with a new prosthesis and gym work.”
“I’m going to call Mike Barton at his gym in Wind River tomorrow morning. I want to set up a schedule for taking Dair in every other day so she can do Dr. Radke’s exercises to strengthen that left knee.”
“Good. We’ll pay for that gym time, Noah. Our health insurance probably won’t cover it, but we will. Tell her that, okay? I don’t want her thinking her whole life has been suddenly upended again and she’s lost everything. In Shay and my eyes, she’s here to stay. This is just a pothole we all have to deal with, but we will.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, “that’s pretty much where she’s at right now. But I think if you and Shay could sit down with her, and tell her she still has her assistant horse training job, that will go a long way toward her getting better faster.”
“We will,” Reese promised.
Women’s laughter floated down the hall. Reese grinned. “Sounds like the three girls are having a good time in that bathroom together.”
Chuckling, Noah said, “It’s been a party since they all crowded in there.”
“Still, it’s nice to hear them laugh,” he mused, smiling.
“Much preferred to tears, that’s for sure,” Noah agreed.
“How do you think Dair is going to take Champ having to be put down?”
“Personally,” he said. “She’ll feel partly responsible when none of it was her fault.”
“Horses can spin on you so damned fast that you don’t have a chance to move or dodge them,” Reese growled, frowning. “I didn’t see Champ, so I didn’t get to size him up.”
“You probably would have had the same reaction I did. Even Dair felt something was ‘off’ about Champ, but the girl’s tears made her say she’d try to retrain the damned stud. I should have stepped in and just said no.” Noah scowled.
“Don’t go there, either,” Reese warned. “You’re still getting to know one another in this work arrangement. Things happen, that’s all.”
“Well, I’m going to take over the training of the horses for Dair, for now.”
“And I’ll go muck out stalls for you. Shay has another military vet, a Special Forces sergeant, coming in tomorrow for an interview. He might be a fit for the Bar C. We need to hire at least two more wranglers.”
“That’s good to hear. Hope he’s a fit.” Noah grinned a little, holding Reese’s gaze. “You’re gonna trade in your accounting job for a pitchfork and wheelbarrow for a while, huh? Helluva change for you.”
Giving him a sour smile, Reese said, “Garret’s out in Jackson Hole on a big construction job. If he was here, he’d pitch in and help, too.”
“Ask Harper.”
“Yeah, I’m going to. I figure if he and I do the mucking out of the stalls, it’ll go twice as fast as one wrangler doing it. Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it fixed.”
Noah heard the door to the bathroom open. He saw steam escaping from it, moving down the hall along the ceiling until it dissipated. “Uh-oh, here come the girls,” he teased Reese.
* * *
Dair felt so much better as Shay and Kira supported her, her arms over their shoulders as she used her one leg to move slowly down the hall toward her bedroom. Their arms were around her waist. They had washed her hair, added a conditioner, and then dried it. Even better, they’d gathered up that thick, dark mass into two cute pigtails. Kira thought it made her look like a young college-age woman. It was wonderful to have all the dirt and sand of the arena scrubbed off her body. Kira had gone and gotten her a soft gym top and loose trousers. They’d put a thick, warm sock on her right foot and then placed her tennis shoe over it. The lower left leg of the trouser flopped around because she no longer had on her prosthesis.
They took her into her bedroom, where they halted in front of her sleek ergonomic wheelchair. Kira had the brake on it, but placed her hands on the handles of it to keep it steady while Dair turned and then carefully set herself down into it.
“Dair? You look tired. Do you want to lie down for a while?”
“No, I’m starving to death. I’ll take a nap after I eat.”
“Woman after my own heart,” Kira said. “I’m going to put on that knee brace. Then, let me wheel you out to the kitchen?”
Dair wanted to do it, but she loved their maternal nurturing, too. She remembered Noah’s conversation about letting others help her right now. “Sure, that would be nice. Thanks, Kira.”
“How’s the knee feeling?” Shay asked later as they walked down the hall toward the kitchen.
“Much better. That warm water really helped.”
“We need to get some ice on it, too,” Kira reminded her.
“Maybe when I lie down for a nap,” Dair said. She saw Reese and Noah at the table, drinking coffee. Her heart took off because she missed him being close to her right now. Noah fed her something no man had ever given her before: genuine care. The other relationships she’d had were all based on wanting sex. How different Noah was from her other experiences. At odd moments when she’d glance at him, she’d see that look in his eyes: a man wanting his woman. That didn’t frighten her though; Noah didn’t flirt with her, nor did he do anything inappropriate to make her feel as if she were being stalked for the sake of wanting sex from her.
Noah stood, and he smiled at her as they came into the kitchen. Reese also stood, nodding toward her, concern in his expression.
“Hey,” she said to them, “I’m starving to death.”
“How about I make you a turkey sandwich?” Noah asked, pulling out two chairs and removing them so she could sit at the table in her wheelchair.
“Sounds good,” she said, giving him a grateful look.
“Make four?” Shay asked. “It’s past noon and we haven’t eaten either.”
Noah grinned. “I got enough to go around,” he assured them.
Kira joined him. “Mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise?” she asked, going to the fridge.
“All the above,” Noah said. “People can tell you what they want on their sandwich.”
“Grab sweet pickles?” Shay called, sitting down next to Dair.
“I’d like a slice of cheese on mine,” Reese added. “How about you, Dair?”
“Noah knows what I like on mine, so I’m set, thanks.”
Kira brought over mugs and the pot of coffee. “You’re looking better, Dair. More color in your cheeks now,” she said, sliding the filled mug into her hands.
“I’m feeling better,” she said, relief in her tone.
“That’s good news about the doc giving you a new prosthesis,” Reese said.
“Don’t I know it,” Dair said, sipping the hot coffee. “When I saw how busted up my other one was while I was in the ER, my heart dropped. I knew the VA would take months and months to get a replacement for me.”
“Well,” Noah called over his shoulder as he quickly put the sandwiches together, “Dr. Radke is taking care of you now. He’s a helluva lot better than the VA.”
Shay gave her husband a loving look. “Despite everything, you have some good luck on your side, Dair. From what you were telling me and Kira about that prosthesis, it’s going to be a top-of-the-line model. The latest generation. That’s exciting!”
“It is,” she said. “And I’ll be able to flex the foot, which will help me to move around. It will give me a lot better balance and I won’t have to compensate so much with the rest of my body, like I did before.”
Noah brought over two plates, sliding one over in Dair’s direction and the other one to Shay. Kira brought the other three plates. Soon, they were all sitting at the table enjoying a late lunch together.
Dair was glad Noah took the chair at the end of the table, their elbows near one another. He winked at her at one point and she smiled, warmth flowing strongly through her.
“How’s the knee doing?” he asked her.
“Better.”
“She needs an ice pack put on it later,” Kira reminded Noah.
Nodding, he said, “Will do.”
Dair missed Garret’s company, but he’d be home on Sunday morning to cook their Sunday afternoon dinner, which everyone looked forward to. “Kira? Did you let Garret know what happened to me?”
“Yes, I called him earlier, a bit before you guys got home,” she said.
“Where’s Harper?” Noah said, lifting his head.
“Candy, one of our quarter horse broodmares, is just about ready to foal,” Reese told them. “He wanted to stay with her at the foaling stall for a bit, see how she’s doing.”
“Couldn’t you make him a sandwich, Noah?” Dair asked. “Take it out to him when we’re done?”
“I will,” he said.
“He won’t like that he missed having lunch with all of us,” Shay said.
Dair knew Harper was just as family oriented as everyone else here at the table.
“He loves foaling,” Shay said. “He’s a midwife and the horses know it.”
They had three quarter horse broodmares who were due to foal in March and April. Candy, who was a seven-year-old bay, was due at any moment. And Harper was a true nurturer, good at mothering the broodmares. Many times, a mare waited until the human had left her stall to drop her foal. But not with Harper around. They usually dropped their foal when he sat on a low stool in a corner of the stall, just keeping the mother quiet company.
“I wish I could go out there and be with him,” Dair said to no one in particular, finishing off her sandwich.
“I’ve been thinking,” Shay said to everyone. “We need to build a wooden sidewalk from the homes here, down to the arena. At least until we can put in a concrete one after the weather warms up in June. That way, Dair, while you’re in the chair, you can go up and down to the barn and corral areas as you please. The inside of the arena is all concrete, so that would be easy for you to navigate. Then you could go visit the broodmare section any time you wanted.”
“That’s a great idea,” Reese told his wife.
“We’ve got plenty of two-by-fours stacked in the other barn,” Noah added. “The weather is supposed to be good the next two days.”
“Heck,” Kira said, “we could all roll up our shirtsleeves and have that sidewalk built in two days. I’m great at measuring and cutting wood.”
“And I’m deadly with a nail gun,” Shay volunteered, suddenly enthused.
Reese nodded. “Noah and I could lay the framework out for it today. We’ve got five hours of daylight left. How about it, Noah? You doing anything else?”
He grinned and gave Dair a warm look. “Yeah, I’ll help out.”
“Harper will want to stay with Candy, though,” Kira said. “I’m sure the group of us can make quick work of getting a sidewalk built.”
Dair wanted to cry, and she gulped several times, deeply touched by their idea, their enthusiasm, and their caring for her. Noah laid his hand on her lower arm and she looked up at him. There was something so beautiful and intense in his gaze at that moment, it stunned her. And then it was gone. She felt his fingers close gently around her lower arm in a caress.
“What do you think, Dair?” he asked, his voice thick with feelings. “Does that sound doable for you? Would you use it?”
Clearing her throat, she gave all of them a grateful look. “Yes . . . that would be wonderful. I could feed and water the horses in the barn, you know. I could cut open a bale of hay, use my chair to take the flakes to the horse stalls. Give them their ration of oats. That would take off some of the load all of you are carrying because I can’t do my normal job for a while.” She needed to feel as if she could do something, anything, to be of help to the team.
Reese nodded. “Sounds good to me, Dair. You let us know what you can do once we get that sidewalk in place. We’ll all pitch in to help, and that way, no one gets a sixteen-hour day out of this.” He grinned over at her. “We’ll use whatever help you can give us. Okay?”
It was more than okay with Dair. “I-I just feel so bad that I’ve put everyone into this position,” she told them, her voice hoarse as she looked each of them in the eyes.
“Don’t even go there,” Shay warned, shaking her head. “Getting injured wasn’t your fault. That was a mean stallion. No one is upset with you. We’re just glad he didn’t kill you. You could have been hurt a lot worse.”
Dair frowned, feeling Noah’s hand leave hers. She so badly wanted constant contact with him right now. She was still in shock; that’s what made her feel like that. “What happened to Champ? How is he?” she asked everyone. Instantly, she saw their expressions close.
“When he tried to jump out of the arena, Dair, he didn’t make it. He broke his right cannon bone,” Reese offered, regret in his tone.
Staring at him, her mouth dropped open. “Y-you mean he’s dead?”
“We had the vet come out with his trailer to examine him. The vet said he broke that leg. He took him back to his clinic,” Reese said. “He had to put Champ down. There’s nothing that can be done for a horse with a broken leg. I’m sorry.”
Wincing, Dair closed her eyes, tucking her hands in her lap beneath the table. “Oh,” was all she managed to choke out. Tears burned beneath her eyelids, but she refused to allow them to fall. Finally, getting a handle on her stunned feelings, she opened her eyes. “He was a badly abused horse,” she whispered. “I thought I could slowly bring him out of it, turn him into a useful animal.”
Noah shook his head, giving Reese a grim look. “Dair, in my experience, Champ was too far gone. He was at least ten years old. He had an ingrained pattern of distrust of humans in him for his entire life.”
“I feel so sorry for Joy, the little girl,” Dair whispered, distraught. “Does she know what happened?”
Reese said, “Yes. I called her parents earlier and spoke to them. Frankly? They sounded almost relieved, because both of them worried about Champ. They aren’t even horse people, but they picked up on the stud’s mean disposition. They worried for their daughter.”
Grimacing, Dair said, “I sensed that.”
“We all did,” Noah added gently. He held Dair’s watery stare. “I’m really at fault here. I knew the stud was big-time trouble. Like you, I allowed a little girl’s tears to sway me from what I knew to be true.” His voice turned heavy. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d tell the parents no, that we wouldn’t try to train Champ, and explain why. By not doing that, I got you hurt.” Reaching out, he squeezed her hand resting on the table. “And I’m damned sorry about that. It was my responsibility to make the final decision on this, and I screwed up.”
Dair started to protest, but Kira said, “Look, we live on a working ranch. Stuff like this happens, Noah. You did the best you could. I’m sure Dair isn’t blaming you for this.”
“God, no,” Dair said, giving him an anguished look. “I had a part in this, too, Noah. I begged you to let me try to work with Champ for a week to see if he’d come around.”
Reese said drily, “Noah, when you’ve got two females, one crying and the other pleading with you? You’ll always defer to what they want, no matter what you think.”
The table broke into knowing laughter, everyone’s head bobbing in unison over that classic comment.
Noah removed his hand, giving Dair a sad look. “Never again will I do that. If I sense something about a horse, you and I will discuss it in private. We’ll both make the determination together, and not be swayed by a little girl’s begging and tears.”
Nodding, Dair said, “Yes, I completely agree.”
* * *
Noah tucked Dair into her bed with a pink afghan that had been knitted months earlier by Shay. She’d given it to him as an after-Christmas gift. “There, are you comfy?” he said as he straightened. Dair lay on her right side so that her left knee and residual leg were resting on a supportive pillow.
“I am, thank you,” she said, holding his stare. “What a day, huh?”
“Yeah, one we’ll be glad to see go.” He smiled a little. “I’m meeting Reese down at the barn to look at those two-by-fours we’ve got stacked in that one barn. If they’re good, we’ll start laying them out, measuring, and get you a nice sidewalk you can spin your wheels up and down on.”
She smiled tiredly. “You’re all incredible. I wish I could help you make it.”
“No,” he said, leaning over, moving a few dark strands away from her cheek, “you need to rest. You’ve had a tough day, Dair.”
The brush of his fingers, roughened but warm, grazed her skin. “I’m just glad Reese and Shay are going to give me a second chance.”
“They always will,” Noah assured her. “Listen, I have to run. I’ll come in once an hour just to check on you. Okay? In case you need anything?”
“You don’t have to do that, Noah—”
“But I want to,” he told her, his hands on his hips, holding her stare.
“Okay,” she whispered, closing her eyes. “But don’t wake me if I’m asleep.”
“Wouldn’t think of it. Rest. Sleep as long as you need.” He stood there, watching her thick black lashes rest against her pale skin. What Noah wanted to do was slide in behind her, curve himself around her body, and hold her, warm and safe. There was so much he wanted to tell her. His hands dropped from his hips and he felt a powerful urge to kiss that cheek of hers.
Unsure of where they stood with one another, Noah cautioned himself to remain patient. They were getting along well until this happened. And now her focus was torn back to her rehabilitation. Thanks to him for not following his own damn instincts, he’d put her life in jeopardy. Guilt-ridden, he couldn’t resist and leaned over, using his index finger to lightly graze her high cheekbone. Dair was already deeply asleep because she didn’t move. She was exhausted.
He stood there, torn, not wanting to leave her because he’d seen the effect he’d had on Dair since the injury occurred. With every contact, she relaxed a little more. He could see the look in her eyes, that fear of being once again rejected because she was an amputee. Noah couldn’t imagine all the hellish emotions she’d gone through since the accident. Dair was more worried about losing her job than the damage done to her knee.
Everything within him wanted to protect her, give her happiness instead of the rough life she’d had. She was a vet, and deserved better. The fact that the VA would not be able to replace her badly damaged prosthesis in a short amount of time made him more than angry. If not for Dr. Radke, Noah was very sure he’d have done something—anything—to get her prosthesis back to her a helluva lot sooner. Noah had his own issues with the VA, among them, the long waits. When he’d gotten out of the military, it had been a six-month wait time for him to see a doctor about his PTSD. He’d learned very early on not to trust the VA or rely on it for anything because it didn’t care. While he’d heard good things from other vets in other states, he’d experienced the other side of the VA. It was upper management and the federal government that was making life incredibly harder on vets who deserved far more than this. Only people like Shay and Reese, vets taking care of vets, who were essentially putting out a hand to help them.
Forcing himself to move, he took one last, long look at Dair. She had one hand beneath her cheek, the other peeking out from beneath the pink afghan. She lay curled up, almost in a fetal position. The pigtails made her look so young, and his heart mushroomed with so many emotions that he kept closeted away from her. Was there something between them? Sometimes, Noah thought so.
He quietly closed the door to her bedroom and made sure his boots didn’t echo down the hallway toward the kitchen. The sun was out and he could see the blue of the sky through the kitchen windows. It was a good day to build that wooden sidewalk for Dair’s wheelchair. Something good and clean flowed through him as he pulled on his thick sheepskin vest, settled the Stetson on his head, and picked up his leather gloves.
Outside, he could see Reese coming from the barn with a huge wheelbarrow load of those wooden two-by-fours. Kira and Shay were already down at the main barn, getting the sawhorses set up after they measured the length of each piece of wood planking. Harper was probably enjoying the sandwich Noah had made earlier for him, delivered to him by Shay. He was happy being allowed to babysit Candy. Smiling to himself, Noah opened the door and went outside.
The air was brisk and just above freezing. It felt sharp, clearing his mind. Hoping that Dair would sleep long and hard, allowing the shock to leave her body, Noah looked forward to dropping in once an hour just to look in on her. No longer did he want Dair to think that no one cared about her. Because it was clear to her this afternoon at the kitchen table, everyone did care for her. And he’d seen the softening in her gold-brown eyes, the acceptance that she was important and counted in all their lives. That she was valued. Noah was sure that realizing the Bar C wranglers were here to support her return to health had helped her drop off to sleep. It would begin a long healing process, but he’d be there with her, every step of the way.