“I tell you what. I’m having dinner at my brother and Harris’s house tonight. How about you join us there? It’s nothing fancy. I think we’re having grilled foods. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s always good.” She asked him what the catch was. “Catch? I’m not sure what you mean by that.”
“I’m not stupid, you know. And I would appreciate it if you’re going to be treating me that way if you just keep your mouth shut. In fact, just shut up.” Rodney told her he’d never thought that. “We’ll see. You’re something to me. Mate, I’m thinking. I didn’t know what it was until I came here today. The other day, you didn’t say anything when we touched. You’ve known for a while.”
“I didn’t really. I thought as much, but your scent was covered by all the others in the room. And your touch, really, was very brief.” He looked at the X-rays, then back at her. “I don’t know what you have against being my mate, but you can already—at least I hope so—tell that I’m not going to pressure you into anything you don’t want. It looks like Aaron has two broken ribs, as well as a clean break in his arm. There is a little bruising on his head that is concerning, but nothing I don’t think a little rest will take care of. I’d like your permission to give him something for the pain now.”
He didn’t wait for her to reply. Instead, he stepped out of the room, closed the door, and leaned against the wall for a minute. Rodney felt like he’d been running a marathon. It hadn’t been but a couple of minutes, but he was sure he wasn’t going to be able to be in the same room with her if she was forever going to be taking shots at him. Standing up, he went to ask Adaline to fix him up a shot for pain for Aaron.
“You all right?” Rodney told her he was fine, just a little overwhelmed. “I know she’s your mate. But I’m telling you right now, if she’s going to talk to me like she did you, I’m going to take her down a few notches. I’m just putting that out there.”
“I’ll have a talk with her.” Adaline told him she’d do it if it came down to it. “Just, for me, go easy. I know you will, but I’m working through some shit here, and I don’t care for it.”
When he had the syringe ready to give to Aaron, he went back into the room. Rebel was missing again, but he didn’t ask this time. After giving Aaron the shot, he watched him as he seemed to mellow out and close his eyes. Well, he thought, at least I’ve made one of the Walsh family happy.
~*~
Rebel hated herself. She wasn’t usually so snappish to people, especially people she didn’t know that well. But there was something about his calmness in the face of all this stuff that was going on that irritated her to no end. When she’d come out here for a few seconds of relief from her own mouth, she called and left a message on her sister’s phone.
“We’ve been invited to have dinner with the Marshall family tonight. If we play our cards right, perhaps we can have leftovers.” She thought about that and told Sheila she was sorry. “I’m going to go into practice with Rodney Marshall, and I’d like you to give your notice there and be my nurse. We’ll work out the rest of the details later.”
The Marshalls were very wealthy. She didn’t know how much they were worth, but she was positive it was a great deal more than she and her sister had made in their entire lifetime—probably several hundred lifetimes. Sitting on the little bench right outside the offices, Rebel looked around the little town.
She’d only been in this country for about two years total. Once when her brother had married, she’d stayed for about six months. Then when her brother had died, she’d packed up everything she owned and came here. He’d been living here with their father since the divorce from their mom, whom she’d been living with. It had been several years since she’d seen Thomas since his marriage, and she was heartbroken when she’d come home for his funeral.
“Doctor Walsh, there is a phone call for you.” She looked at Adaline and told her she was sorry. “I am too. I was ready to bite your head off for talking to Rodney that way, but he told me you were stressed out. It’s been hard on him, trying to make all this work on his own. He loves it, don’t get me wrong, but the schools are in worse shape than anyone wanted to believe.”
“I’ve been volunteering there one day a week, and I canna believe no one has done anything before now.” She followed the older woman into the building and picked up the phone. It was her sister. She was crying and screaming at someone else, and Rebel waited on her. “Can you see what I need for Sheila Walsh to be able to come here as my nurse?”
“Rebel? Where are the kids?” She told her what had happened and that she was at the doctor with them. “I came home to find someone here shutting off our power and no kids. I was worried more than I could—”
She was cut off. More than likely, the power had been cut. They’d been expecting it for several days now, and apparently, their time had been up. Putting the phone back in the cradle, Rebel wanted to find a nice dark room and sob. Things couldn’t get any worse, she told herself, then amended that to
