“So I guess I’ll put my things up and get settled. Seth and Cole told me the temporary trailer was set up and ready for me. Is it out back somewhere?”
“By the barn. I’ll show you,” he said, his words clipped.
“That would be great.” She turned and headed back to her car, not even considering telling him that she could find it on her own. The last thing he needed was to be treated like he was helpless. There was a ramp that had been built off the side of the old porch and the ground was level all about the house. That top-of-the-line motorized wheelchair would have no trouble maneuvering the landscape. The man exuded energy, even in a wheelchair. It was a miracle that he was alive, though. During the small-engine airplane crash he’d pulled and stressed nearly every muscle, tendon and ligature on the left side of his body. Even the fact that he had no broken bones other than a hairline crack in his hip was yet another miracle. She suspected surviving sitting still on a porch might kill him, though. She completely understood how he was feeling.
Running with the rising sun was more her style. She wondered if he’d run in the mornings prior to the crash. She had a feeling he was a runner, too. One who liked to run outside. Then again, he might be a treadmill runner—too white-collar to run outside…not that that was a bad thing. She just preferred to do her running outside.
“Did you bring much?”
“I have a car full of things. Not all luggage, though.” She laughed. “Most of it I’ll be setting up in the therapy room. But all I want now are my suitcases.” They’d made it to the SUV and he waited, watching her as she opened the glass window and then lowered the tailgate of the SUV. For some reason his watchful eyes made her self-conscious. She tucked her hair behind her ears before she reached for the first suitcase and hefted it to the ground.
Without speaking, he reached with his good arm and took some of the weight from her by grabbing the bottom of the case. “Thanks,” she said, knowing that every little thing he did that was positive would help him move forward.
“You’re welcome,” he said as she grabbed the slightly smaller one. He helped with that one, too. She’d loaded it all up herself and was quite capable of removing all the luggage herself but still she appreciated the fact that Wyatt Turner was—behind his poor manners earlier—a gentleman. This was instinctive on his part. She wondered if his mother had drilled the manners into him as he grew up.
“You’re looking at me like I’ve surprised you,” he said as she shut the tailgate.
Grinning, she stepped out of the way as she lifted it. The movement brought her closer to him than she’d been. “I guess I’m a bit shocked you’re a gentleman,” she answered truthfully. He’d asked.
His lip actually twitched! “My mom would have skinned me and my brothers alive if we weren’t.”
Bingo. “I thought so.”
“You’re thinking, otherwise I wouldn’t be?”
“It crossed my mind when you booted me off your property,” she said drily. “And that was after I’d driven three hours to get here—with no lunch!” She looked at him ruefully as she extended the pull arm of the large suitcase and set the overnight bag on top of the big one, fastening them together for transport.
His eyes crinkled around the edges. “I’d apologize—”
“But…” she drawled slowly. “You wouldn’t mean it.” She knew it was true.
“I did what I thought best at the time.”
“That’s exactly what I thought you did. And that’s why I’m just teasing you.” She winked at him, picked up the smallest suitcase with the hand on the same side as her prosthetic. The action balanced out the weight as she grabbed the handle of the other case and started rolling it behind her across the lawn.
The thing about Wyatt was exactly that—he did what he thought he needed to do. After Seth and Cole had left the diner to return her message to Wyatt, the ladies had told her that he’d pulled out all the stops when it came to finding wives for his two brothers. He’d seen women he thought fit them and made certain they came in contact with each other. It was really sweet! The man was a romantic—who would have thunk it?
It did her broken heart good to know there were men like him in the world looking out for those they loved. It was a very admirable quality in a man. But even if she hadn’t known all of that, she’d already figured out that he was an honorable man just by the way his brothers talked about him.
“You could roll that second one,” he said, driving up beside her. “Or better yet I could carry it.”
She glanced at him. “You don’t need to carry it. You’re absolutely right—I could roll it if I wanted to.”
“But you won’t.”
“I wouldn’t get any kind of workout from rolling it, and besides—” She’d almost said it helped her keep her balance. Instead she said, “I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I harp on my patients about keeping their strength and agility up and I wasn’t practicing it myself.”
“True,” he mused.
They walked around the old homestead in silence. The large travel trailer came into view and the size startled her.
It was sitting out under a giant oak tree, not far from the low-slung barn. It was huge compared to some she stayed in while on-site. But then again, looking at Wyatt, she wouldn’t put it past the man to have had a double-wide mobile home sitting back here for her. There was just something about him—even if she hadn’t read his profile and didn’t know that the man was worth a bundle—she’d still have the feeling that only the best was good enough for those around him.
“I hope this will do,” he said. “Cole and Seth assured me that your boss said a small one was all you needed.”
“I don’t call this small. Believe me, this is more than enough.” She smiled. “I’ll feel like a queen in there compared to the tiny place I had on the last job. Don’t get me wrong, though, it was great. It was one of those little round jobs that had only room for a bed, a small television and a table for my books. I have to admit taking a shower in a three by three space also occupied by the sink and toilet was a bit of a chore, though.”
He looked aghast. “How long did you do that?”
“Six weeks. I wish it had been longer, but the insurance ran out…” She’d hated leaving. Shawn, the teen, needed more help with his new prosthesis. She was still in contact with him, checking on his progress—or at least she had been until three weeks ago. Joyce was checking on him now and told her he was getting along pretty well, doing everything she’d instructed him to do. She had confidence that he would be fine. He was a totally determined teenager. Just like she’d been. It was the younger kids she’d worried the most about. They needed services longer to acclimate to their prosthetics and she’d hoped—at least she had before she’d walked away—that someday she could do something to help them more. Now she wasn’t sure if she could ever go back to working with young patients.
“You obviously like what you do to put up with that sort of thing that long.”
Wyatt’s words broke into the wandering thoughts. “Oh, I love my job.” Even now, moving from children to adults, she did love it. “Not many people
