by Ciara Knight
Rocky Mountain Faith
By
Ciara Knight
Chapter One
The Rocky Mountains hugged Chase Robert’s hometown of Silver Springs and snuggled him in comfort. He looked through the Italian Bistro window at the nearby peaks. They were rugged, like the ones in Jordan, but more comforting with glorious, snowy tops. Across the street, a man hung lights and he couldn’t wait until nightfall to see the twinkling Christmas lights he knew would decorate the city come night fall.
“It’s a culture shock at first, right?” Rex, his childhood buddy, pointed to the outside world. Cars passed, people passed, life passed.
“You could say that.” Chase scooped up his pizza, thankful he didn’t have to use a fork and knife to cut his food. Nothing worse for a one-handed man than fine dining.
The explosion of fresh, gooey, cheese and meats blending together with rich sauce firmly planted him home. He chewed and savored every hint of oregano and basil until he had his fill. “Hey, man. Thanks for letting me crash at the house. Can’t believe you own the Kelley mansion. That thing’s a beast.”
“Yep, and after David headed back to finish his last couple of months in the Marines, it’s been quiet. Ally is working a lot, Frank isn’t much for conversation, and Mia is busy caring for Frank. The house is too big for us, especially since Ally’s online business started booming. No one travels to see antiques anymore, they just have them shipped. Not sure what we’ll do with so much space, but none of us wants the house to fall to ruin.” Rex waved to a guy across the room that looked familiar. “Anyway, stay as long as you want.”
“Thanks, I can’t handle the family sympathy thing. I know you’d knock me upside the head if I asked you to bring me coffee in bed.”
“No doubt.” The man Rex had waved to crossed the room with a woman. It took a second, but Chase realized it was his cousin, Spike. But he didn’t know the girl he was clinging to.
“Hey, good to have you back home in one piece,” Spike offered his hand, but he flinched when Chase lifted his stump.
“How’s 9 and nine-tenths pieces?” Chase offered his left hand instead and did an awkward hand grip. “It’s the gimp shake, you’ll get used to it.”
Spike laughed, Rex laughed, the girl laughed. Chase exhaled with relief. It was all fun and games until someone got sympathy eyes and then that just made him mad.
“This is my girl, Amy Sanderson. Amy, this is my cousin, Chase.”
She smiled, but kept her hands around Spike’s arm. She was sporting a simple, but bright engagement ring. Yep, they were a thing all right. Too bad Chase didn’t have a hand for a girl to cling to anymore. Of course, everyone kept telling him at the VA that at least he had his life.
“We’re headed out to meet Mike and Zach for a double ski date. Hey man, you should join us when you get settled.” Spike said, but Amy squeezed his arm as if to warn him to be sensitive to the one-armed man. He covered her hand with his own and gave a lopsided smile. “Anyway, good to see you. I’m sure we’ll run into each other soon. It’s not that big of a town.”
“Good to see you, too. And it was nice to meet you Amy.”
Amy did the head-tilt acknowledgement thing. “Nice to meet you too.”
Rex grabbed the check. “Ready to head over? I need to get to the to-do list that Ally created for me.”
“Still can’t believe you two got back together. Is she still as crazy as when she was younger? Her and that Melinda girl?”
“Watch it, that’s my wife you’re talking about.” He stood and headed for the register. “But yeah, she’s still crazy. Brilliant, beautiful, and crazy.”
“At least you know what you’ve got.”
“What about you? Any woman in your life? Some pen pal or something that you wrote to from Jordan?”
“Nope, not me. No woman has snagged my attention. The only woman that I’ve corresponded with is old nurse Mia. The woman that you told me to email my questions to. Thanks for that man, it’s weird asking the men at the VA how to button my pants with one hand.”
Rex quirked a brow at him. “Let me get this straight. The only woman that has captured your attention the last few years is the hospice nurse caring for my father?”
“Yep, that’s why you gave me her email, right? As a resource?”
Rex handed the girl behind the register the bill and a card. “Sure, that’s why I hooked you two up.”
“I’m actually looking forward to meeting her. I mean, that woman lost a brother when she was a kid to an explosion. She put herself through nursing school. It couldn’t have been easy back then. You know, women not marrying and going to school and stuff.”
“Yep, women back then had it tough.” Rex signed the receipt and slid his card back in his wallet. “Let’s head to the house to meet old nurse Mia.” They hopped in Rex’s truck and headed to the Kelley house. “So, what else do you like about old nurse Mia, qualities you wished women today possessed.”
Chase shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess the way she writes out emails instead of abbreviating everything. Women today always abbreviate to the point where I need some acronym chart to keep up. And she signs it Sincerely, Mia. That has a ring to it, right? It’s such an old-fashioned name.”
Rex bit his bottom lip as if he had something to say, but thought better of it.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just that you’ve always made an excuse when a woman tries to get close to you. You got momma issues or something?”
“No.” Chase adjusted in the seat. Relationships and truck seats always made him uncomfortable. “If I found the right girl, I’d commit, but they don’t exist anymore.”
“Only women like nurse Mia are worth knowing, so if she was your age you’d keep her around?” Rex asked.
“Yeah, you bet. I’m telling you man. I bet in her day she was beautiful. A real catch. Of course, she chose career over a man to take care of her, which I can respect. She’s got to be a strong willed, challenging woman. Of course, she’d have to be to put up with your pops.”
Rex lowered his head and sighed. “He’s sober, and he doesn’t have much of a fight left in him I’m afraid. It’s getting to the late stages.”
“Sorry, man.” Chase glanced out the window at their old haunts on Main street. Many of those places had stayed the same, but new businesses had popped up too. Things had changed, yet it still felt like home. “You ever struggle with guilt about making it back?”
Rex nodded three times. “Not so much since I married Ally. I’ve let a lot of that guilt go. Of course, I came home without any real injuries. You sacrificed for your country. In a weird way, I think I would’ve felt better with some sort of mark that I carried with me for my men.”
Chase shook his head. “Afraid it don’t work like that.” A flash of the explosion, and then a vision of waking in the hospital, shook him. A flashback. A warning that part of him was still fighting in the desert. As quickly as it came it was gone, life returned, and he changed the subject.
“You really don’t mind me crashing with you? I mean, you guys are still newlyweds. Seems like everyone in this town’s got someone.”
Rex turned up the hill and parked in the driveway. “Oh, I have a feeling you’ll fit right in soon enough.”
They hopped out of the truck, and Chase tugged his coat tight to stave off the bitter wind coming down from the mountains. Rex opened the front door into a warm, homey front entry, and a parlor straight out of an antique show off to the side with a roaring fire.
Chase stepped into
the room and found a young woman with beautiful blue eyes and hourglass frame next to a crippled old man.
At second glance, he realized that was Rex’s father. The woman at his side was breathtaking. A stop you in your boots kind of beauty.
Rex dropped Chase’s duffle onto the floor and joined them. “Chase, you remember my father.”
Frank half-smiled up at him. “Heard you got your hand blown off.”
“Frank, you behave.” The beautiful woman at his side said. She rose to her tiny height of maybe five feet two inches tall. But what she lacked in height, she made up for in figure and beauty. Rex cleared his throat. “Oh, and this is old nurse, Mia.”
Chapter Two
Mia offered a warm smile of greeting. The man from the other side of the world and their emails stood in the parlor in front of her. He was nothing like she’d pictured. She glanced at Rex. “Old nurse Mia? Should I grow a wart on the end of my nose?” She teased before stepping forward with her left hand and offering it to Chase. She recalled it was his right arm that had been amputated above the wrist and below the elbow. But his jacket covered it, so no one would even know.
He didn’t move, not even to close his mouth. Not at all the eloquent man from their correspondences. Perhaps he was the shy kind that would wilt away when face-to-face. Too bad, he was good looking. Okay, if he closed his mouth he’d be about the most handsome man she’d ever seen. “It’s nice to meet you.” She lowered her hand to her side.
Rex smacked Chase in the back of the head, and he jolted back to the moment. Perhaps he suffered from PTSD. It wouldn’t be surprising, considering he’d been nearly blown to bits from an IED. “Oh, yeah, um…I’m um Chase.” He cleared his throat, and quirked his head to one side. “You are not what I was expecting.”
Rex shook his head and crossed between them to sit with his father. “Why don’t you take a break? I’ll stay with my father.”
“I ain’t dead yet. You don’t have to sit over me like you’re watching for my last breath. It’s not like you have an inheritance coming from me or anything.” He smiled up at his son.
Chase knew about all the years of substance abuse, so seeing Rex’s father slumped over in a wheelchair didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was the way Rex touched his father’s shoulder and sat with sorrowful eyes. Somehow, they’d mended the massive valley that had always separated their two mountains. Both stubborn, both determined, one addicted to alcohol, the other addicted to life.
“Is it okay if I want to spend time with my father?” Rex asked.
Frank grumbled. “Guess so, if you’ll play checkers with me, I’ll sit with you.”
“Nice to see you again Mr. Snyder.” Chase nodded his head and looked at Mia. “I see he still has to get the last word in.”
“I heard that,” Frank said.
“You want something to drink? I was about to make some hot tea.” She held out her hand to direct him to the kitchen.
“Sure. I’m not used to the cold here yet. Something warm would be nice.”
She walked ahead, but overheard Chase mumble to Rex. “You’re a jerk for not telling me.”
In the kitchen, she put the tea kettle on the stove. “What didn’t he tell you?”
The fire starter clicked a few times and then the flame ignited. For several moments, he stood still, and she wondered if he even breathed. He was an odd one for sure.
“You said your brother died in the war. What war was that?” he asked with a matter of fact tone.
She took in a long breath, and steadied her emotions before she could speak. “The invasion of Iraq. He was older than me, so I was only thirteen when he died.”
Chase shook his head. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive. It’s just you said he’d died in the war, so I thought…”
“Thought what?” Mia asked.
Chase rubbed the back of his neck. “Never mind.” He strummed his fingers on the Formica counter top for several seconds before he leaned in and whispered, “You know all this personal stuff about me. You know I might not be able to have children. I wouldn’t have told you…if I would’ve known.”
“Would’ve known what?” She tried to follow his path of conversation, but she’d apparently made a wrong turn. He was so much easier to talk to in email.
He pushed from the counter and paced. “That you were young and beautiful and stuff.”
“Ah, thank you. I think.” She opened the tea box. He was confident, awkward, adorable, and handsome as any man she’d seen, all rolled together. “Do you want chamomile, lemongrass, peppermint, or Christmas blend?”
“What?” Chase stopped and stared at her in that open-mouthed way again. “Tea? You’re asking me about tea? That’s like your brain surgeon asking if you like to knit.”
The tea kettle whistled as if warning her there was something she was missing. “I’m afraid I’m not following.”
“Never mind, not important.” He slipped from the room without another word leaving her standing with two tea cups in her hands.
Rex entered a few moments later and leaned against the door jam. “Maybe I should explain.”
Mia set the tea cups down and nodded. “I wish you would. One minute he’s tossing compliments, the next he’s throwing jokes, then he storms out of here. Is he okay?”
Rex crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure if this crosses friendship lines, but he thought you were an old World War Two nurse or something. I was razzing him on the way here, because he’s never given a girl a chance. The minute they get too close, he breaks it off. He was telling me how amazing Old Nurse Mia was, and I might have led him to admit that if you were younger he’d go for you. I guess I took things too far.”
She dropped tea bags into the cups, poured steaming water over them and tsked at him. “You’re serious? Rex, how could you? The man just returned from war, and you of all people should know how disorienting that is, and he thought he was coming here to meet a grandmother kind of figure.”
Rex bowed his head. “I’ll go talk to him.”
Mia grabbed the mugs. “I think you’ve done enough. I’ll take him his tea.” She walked out the side kitchen entrance into the hall and through several rooms until she found Chase in the sunroom.
Chase stood at the window, holding onto the top of the frame. He leaned over and pressed his head against the glass. He was hurting. This handsome, strong man had been wounded in war, and now by his embarrassment over a nurse. She scooted into the room, “I brought your tea.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I promise you, I don’t normally…walk out on people like that.” He clutched the frame tighter. “Guess I’m just tired from traveling so much.” He pushed back from the window and took the mug from her hand with an awkward grip.
“You still have problem with hand grip on your left?” Mia asked, but when his lips pressed together she instantly regretted it.
“I think it’s best I find a different medical professional to speak with. I mean, there’s all sorts of resources at the VA.”
“But you don’t like dealing with the people at the VA, that’s why we started talking.”
Chase took a sip, and then lifted the cup as if to toast. “Thanks for the tea. I think I’ll go unpack.”
She wanted to ask him if he needed any help, but knew it wasn’t a good idea. The man had pride and determination based on what she’d learned about him from Rex and from his emails. With a heavy heart, she returned to the parlor to check on Frank. “I may have made things worse.”
Rex offered his father another sip of water through the straw, but he wouldn’t take it. He held up his hands in protest. She hoped Rex was prepared for the next few days, or at most, weeks. “It’s not your fault.”
She sat in the chair at the other side of Frank. “I’m afraid it is, but I didn’t mean to hurt him. First, I never knew I’d meet him in person until you told me he was going to live here, and I never meant to indicate that I was older. I never even thought a
bout it. I guess we invent our own image of someone when we only have email correspondence with them. I had a completely different image of Chase than what he looks like, too.”
“Look, I know you didn’t mean to mislead him. I’m the one who didn’t set him straight. He read what he wanted to into it. I think you were what he needed at the time. He needed an older woman to turn to, to comfort him, so he saw a different version of you.”
Mia sighed and eyed the amazing house that had become her home over the last few months. She’d never found a place like Silver Springs before and certainly never knew families like the Roberts existed.
Frank grunted and pushed the game away. “I’m done with Checkers. I want Mia to read to me.” He set his old, worn bible on the table.
Rex held up a finger to Frank, leaned back in his chair and smiled. “What was your image of him before you saw Chase?”
Mia tended to Frank’s oxygen tank and picked up the bible to read. “I didn’t really think about it.” How could she tell Rex that she’d found him attractive before she’d ever seen him? He could quote of old literature, he loved classical music… But when he stepped into the room, she’d realized he was more than just sophisticated, he was as handsome as God had ever made a man on Earth.
Chapter Three
Darkness encroached on the already dimly lit room. The wall color was burgundy, which only added to Chase’s feeling of being closed in.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Chase, it’s me, Rex.”
Chase shoved from the bed and opened the door. “What’s up?”
Rex plopped down into the chair by the fireplace. “We need to talk.”
“About what?” Chase shut the door and walked over to the embers that were nearly out in the fireplace.
Rex leaned over and rested his elbows on his knees. “I was wrong to play that trick on you. It’s just that you’ve always been the jokester. You played pranks on us constantly when we grew up, and laughed at yourself better than anyone. I guess I hit the wrong button with you. Sorry.”