by Liz Isaacson
She grinned at him. “You’re just saying that because I told you to.”
“Not at all.” He licked his lips and dropped his eyes to her mouth. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
She pressed into him and touched her mouth to his. “My house,” she whispered against his lips. “My first kiss.”
Todd didn’t care how she classified it. He was just glad he got to kiss her wherever he—or she—wanted.
As he watched her bring in the few boxes of her belongings and they went to lunch, Todd couldn’t help thinking when he’d told her he loved her that he was absolutely speaking the truth.
No, he hadn’t given much thought to the words at the time, and that had been a mistake.
But that didn’t mean they weren’t true.
The following day, Vi pulled into his driveway ten minutes before she’d said she’d be there. Todd was already standing on the front porch, because he felt more like himself outside than in, and his patience for this cast was so thin he thought it would snap at any moment.
She talked about how her neighbors had come over last night, bearing cookies and then bread, and how nice they were. Todd liked the sound of her voice and that she sounded happy, so he just let her talk.
They pulled into the church and went inside. Some of the seething unpleasantness inside him settled down with the sound of the choir practicing, but he certainly didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
Unfortunately, Vi seemed to be the center of attention, and person after person stopped by to say hello. Todd wanted to leave before the pastor even got up to say anything. Finally, he did, and Vi put her hand in his and squeezed.
The tension in his muscles released slightly, and he further relaxed when Pastor Franklin started talking about trials and tests, and how they could be weathered and overcome with the help of the Lord.
Maybe that was what he’d been missing for the past few weeks. He’d spent a lot of time relying on his own body and Vi—and not the Lord.
A sense of shame blanketed him, and he kept his attention on the dais, hoping the preacher would tell him how to rely on the Lord more.
Even in the rodeo, he’d send up an occasional prayer, but he’d relied on his training, his dad’s lectures, and the tapes he’d watched over and over of the bulls he’d drawn. He’d attributed his half-dozen wins to the long, relentless hours he’d dedicated to his training and practice. But maybe he should’ve put more emphasis on the Lord.
Starting today, he told himself. He was going to look for the hand of the Lord in everything he did, and acknowledge the blessings he got.
“Look for the simple things,” Pastor Franklin said, echoing Todd’s thoughts. “And write them down if you have to. If you look for the little things, you’ll find them, and you’ll feel more gratitude and peace.”
Gratitude and peace. Todd needed a lot more of both in his life. He knew how to work hard, and he could figure out how to get these things in his life too.
As the next few days passed, he read about boats and studied a bit more about being grateful. And before he knew it, Vi had arrived to take him to the hospital to get his cast off.
Hopefully.
“I’m so nervous,” he said as she pulled into the parking lot. “What if Doctor Sett won’t clear me for removal?”
“He will,” Vi said with conviction. “Let’s go.”
His arms hurt. His shoulders. His back. He really needed to get his posture back and start walking normally again. His heart didn’t seem to understand that he hadn’t just run a marathon, and he checked in and took a seat in the waiting area.
He really didn’t like this place and never wanted to come here again. He’d been here once before and that had gone okay. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but desperation crowded beneath his tongue, making swallowing and breathing difficult.
Vi stood and took a few steps before she turned back to Todd. “Are you coming? She called your name.”
Todd hastened to get to his feet, a prayer streaming through his mind as he positioned the crutches and started toward the nurse standing at the door. He went down the sterile hallways, which were at least wide enough for him to walk beside Vi and the nurse.
“How’s it feeling?” she asked, indicating a room only a few doors down.
“Good,” Todd said. “Great.” He hadn’t felt any pain in his leg for a while now, probably a couple of weeks.
Jenna moved around him, taking his temperature and asking more questions about his pain level, the last time he took meds, and basically kicking his anxiety into a new gear. By the time she left, Todd was ready to rip the cast off with his bare hands. But he knew he couldn’t do that. The sound of the saw from last time still haunted him in his most quiet moments, and he wanted to ask Vi to stay.
But she hadn’t last time, and she wouldn’t this time either. He didn’t want to pressure her, and he knew the sound of the loud saw bothered her too.
Doctor Sett entered with a clipboard in his hand. “How are you Todd?”
“Great,” he said. “Just great.” He shook the man’s hand.
“Ready to get this cast off?”
“So ready.”
“Well, let’s take a look.” He put the clipboard down and started probing around the edges of Todd’s cast down by his ankle. “No pain?”
“None,” Todd said.
“Think we need an x-ray?”
“I don’t know,” Todd said.
Doctor Sett met his eye. “Legitimately no pain? No little twinges from time to time?”
“No, sir,” Todd said.
“Have you been walking on it?”
“Not even once,” he said.
“No pressure? No weight?”
“None.” Todd felt like he was being interrogated, but he kept looking at the doctor. “Right, Vi?”
“I’ve never seen him put weight on it, Doctor.”
“I want to do an x-ray to make sure.”
“Let’s do it.” Todd would do whatever he needed to in order to get this cast off. So he let himself get loaded into a wheelchair and pushed down the hall. He held very still as the machine did it’s work and then he waited back in the small room, Vi’s hand clenched in his.
Finally, Doctor Sett came in with the film and stuck it to the light box on the wall. He flipped a switch and said, “It looks as good as we could’ve hoped for.” He pointed to the thighbone. “The pins will stay in, but the bone growth looks great, and it should be able to bear weight now.”
He turned back to him. “So let’s get that cast off.” He grinned and switched off the light box. “Are you staying this time, Miss Everett?”
Vi looked at Todd, and he said, “You do what you want, sweetheart.” So much about her soothed him, and he wanted her to stay in the room with him, hold his hand, and kiss him as soon as the doctor left the room with that wretched cast.
“I’ll stay,” she said, something sparking between them. “Okay?”
Todd nodded, her two simple words meaning so much to him. “Okay.” He looked at the doctor. “I’m so ready for this cast to be off.”
“I’ll bet you are.” Doctor Sett glanced at the nurse and the tools on the cart she wheeled in front of her.
Todd clenched his teeth, knowing he’d have to endure the next several minutes of torture and then he’d finally be free.
Chapter Fourteen
Vi plucked along the banjo on her back porch, the twang of the strings like a balm to her soul. She’d been getting her fingers back in shape to play the instrument, and her favorite spot to build up the calluses was in this beautiful backyard.
She had a fence back here, but it was a chain link and the neighbors could see everything if they wanted to. But no one seemed bothered that she played back here, and Todd was picking up his puppy and should be here in a few minutes.
Her chest vibrated with the strings, as she hadn’t played or sang for him before. He’d been asking her for a few weeks, and she’d promised
she would.
But her solo album had been a big disappointment, and she didn’t have the same confidence in her singing and songwriting ability as she once had. She’d worked on the next Everett Sisters album just fine, because Rose and Lily erased her doubts whenever they cropped up.
But she wanted to play for Todd. She had a song she’d been working on for a while, since she’d decided to stay in Coral Canyon and buy a house, date a handsome man, and see if she could make a new life for herself that didn’t involve country music.
Music, yes. But this was a gospel tune, and she hadn’t decided if it would be considered blues or bluegrass. Probably bluegrass, especially if she used the banjo.
She hummed in the back of her throat, the tune effortlessly in her head. The words had come slower, and she still didn’t have all of them worked out. But it didn’t matter. Todd just wanted to hear the banjo, and she could play that.
Rose had come around and asked her how the new house was. Vi had admitted that she really liked it. The house was just so normal, and she hadn’t realized how much she’d been craving that. She had four bedrooms and three bathrooms, and while she’d hired a gardener, she kept the place clean herself.
It was about four times smaller than anywhere else she’d lived—except for the hotel rooms when she and her sisters toured. And she loved the house. Loved the open air, and the yard, and the neighborhood.
She just felt like an average woman, and she’d never felt like that before.
“Hey,” Todd said, walking through the gate along the corner of her house. “Look who’s here.” He had a leash in his hand, and finally the little sheepdog came into the yard too. His nose was pressed right to the grass, and Vi grinned at his huge paws.
“Oh, wow.” Vi set aside her banjo and went down the few steps from the porch to the lawn. The sheepdog had an all-white head, with dark gray hair along his left side and flank, and a band of black around his front right leg.
He was the most adorable thing Vi had ever seen, and she instantly regretted passing up the opportunity to adopt one of Allison’s dogs. “I should’ve gotten one.” She swept Jetstream into her arms, and he weighed more than she’d anticipated. “He’s going to be so big. Look at those paws.”
She looked at Todd, a glow streaming from her body. “I love him.”
Todd chuckled and unclipped the leash from the pup’s collar. “He’s not potty trained. So you probably won’t be saying that in the middle of the night.”
Vi nuzzled her nose into the puppy’s fur. “Probably not.” She set him back on the lawn and watched him tromp off to find something else to sniff.
“How are you?” he asked, sweeping his arms around her and pulling her close. “I’m so much happier without the blasted cast.”
“So I’ve heard,” Vi said, receiving his kiss as he pressed his lips to hers. She giggled, and he swung her around.
“Should we take Jetstream out to meet the other dogs tomorrow? Park at the lodge and walk down the road?” He’d been sticking to paved trails since he’d gotten his cast off, just as a precaution.
“Sure.” She wandered back toward the porch, and she knew the moment he’d spied the banjo.
“Oh, are you playing for me today?”
“I was thinking about it.” She went up the steps first, and he joined her a moment later. She picked up the stringed instrument so he’d have room to sit next to her on the bench. He did with a loud sigh, and she asked, “What else have you done today?”
“I mowed my lawn,” he said. “Haven’t done that since I was a kid. I actually liked it.”
“And your leg was okay with the uneven ground?”
“Did okay, yeah.” He massaged his knee, something he did all the time. Sometimes Vi thought he didn’t even know he was doing it.
The past couple of weeks since he’d gotten his cast off and they’d both been living in their own houses had been like a dream come true. She wasn’t his nurse. His caregiver. Or his mother.
She was his girlfriend, and she really liked it.
He’d relaxed since the cast had come off, but he’d admitted to not sleeping well in the big house alone. But he had Jetstream now, and Vi didn’t think for a moment the dog would be sleeping in a kennel. Oh, no. Todd would have that puppy in his bed that very night.
And Vi didn’t blame him. The little sheepdog was adorable.
“Have you been working on something?” He picked up her notebook, and Vi resisted the urge to lunge across him to take it.
She reached for it calmly, and he handed it to her. “A little something.”
He looked at her with keen interest in his eyes. “What is it?”
“Just…nothing.” She closed the notebook and set it on the cement at her feet. Her self-consciousness couldn’t be helped.
“Vi,” he said, a pleading note in his voice.
“So I had a solo album once,” she said. “I mean, I have an album. It came out a couple of years ago, and it didn’t do very well.” There, she’d said it. Her blood felt like someone had poured bees into her veins. Buzzing even sounded in her ears.
Todd gazed at her evenly for several long moments. “I got thrown off the calmest horse in the world, after riding bulls successfully for two decades. Broke both of my legs. It was ridiculous.”
Vi blinked and then burst out laughing. He joined her, and all the bees and the buzzing and the self-blame disappeared.
“Point is, Vi, sometimes we’re just human.”
She balanced the banjo against the house and snuggled into him.
He groaned and shifted his leg, and Vi sat up. “Is your leg bothering you?”
“Only a little.”
She stood up. “Then we should go see Doctor Sett.”
He shook his head. “I’m fine.” He kept his eyes on Jetstream, who was happily sniffing the fence on the left side of the yard.
“But what if there’s something wrong?”
“He did an x-ray.”
Vi’s patience really wasn’t what it used to be. “Come on, Todd.”
He sat on the bench, refusing to look at her, for several long moments. Then he got to his feet. “Fine. But what am I going to do with Jetstream?”
“You have no kennel, right?”
“No.”
Vi had pegged him exactly, and she shook her head. “Can’t he just stay out here? Surely we won’t be long at the ER.”
Todd looked at the puppy again, and then he limped down the few steps to the lawn and crossed it to the dog. He picked up Jetstream and said something to him before setting him back on the grass.
It looked like he could barely walk by the time they made it out to his truck. He paused and then asked her to drive. So they detoured to her car and she drove him back to the one place she knew he didn’t want to go.
Heck, she didn’t want to be there either. But they checked in and sat down to wait. It didn’t take long, as there wasn’t anyone else in the waiting area, and Todd groaned once again as he stood.
Vi reached out to support him, quickly yanking her hand back when he glared at her. “Sorry,” she said. He didn’t like feeling weak or injured, she knew that. Still, he’d been doing so well for the past month or so. Getting in and out of cars and trucks alone, navigating the stairs into the church, moving around his place.
In the tiny room, he sat on the bed, his legs hanging off the edge while he stared at the wall. He did not look happy, and Vi didn’t know what to say.
The doctor came in and lifted his eyebrows. “What’s going on, Todd?” He glanced at Vi and nodded.
“My leg hurts,” he said.
“Well, that could be some phantom pain.” Doctor Sett took another step forward, his eyebrows furrowed now. “Let’s take a look.” He started probing along the scar on Todd’s leg, which looked a bit red to Vi.
But she wasn’t a doctor, and she kept her mouth shut. Doctor Sett asked questions, and Todd clipped out answers. Vi wanted to leave so badly, but she stayed right a
gainst the wall, her arms crossed tightly against her chest.
They took Todd to x-ray, and Vi stayed in the room. When he came back, the tension in the air was as thick as quicksand.
“What did they say?” she finally asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “They never say anything, remember?” He tossed her a glare like his leg pain was her fault.
“Where does it hurt?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Vi.”
“Well, I do. We go walking every day. How long has it been hurting?”
“I don’t know.”
But he did. He just didn’t want to say, which meant it had given him problems before today and he hadn’t mentioned it.
“So.” Doctor Sett came blowing back into the room with films, which he stuck to the light box. “There’s another fracture here.” He pointed to a tiny, white line on the film. “It’s so close to the original break that I didn’t see it last time.”
“What does that mean?” Todd asked.
“Does he have to wear another cast?” Vi didn’t know what she’d do if he had to be casted up again. It had been so miserable for him, and he really hated getting help.
“I’m afraid so,” Doctor Sett said, and Todd made a sharp hissing sound. “But it won’t cover the knee this time, so it should be much easier to get around and do all you need to do.” He smiled like that was great news, which Vi supposed it was.
“And I think this fracture came before the last cast came off,” he said. “It looks lateral, from moving the leg left and right too much.”
Todd’s eyes flew to Vi’s, and she saw the accusation there. But how in the world could this new fracture be her fault?
“So let’s take you back,” Doctor Sett said, nodding to the nurse, who moved forward with the wheelchair.
Todd hopped off the bed as if to prove he could and glared at the nurse. “I can walk.”
“Todd,” Vi said at the same time Doctor Sett did.
“We don’t want you to get hurt worse,” the doctor continued while Vi flinched away from the growl in Todd’s throat.