Chemistry Lessons

by Rebecca H Jamison

  “She would be the first one to agree with you.” Rosie grabbed her purse and pushed open the screen door. “You take care of yourself. Don’t go walking around.”

  Grandpa huffed and rolled his eyes. The older he got, the more he reminded Rosie of the sixteen-year-old boys she taught at school.

  As she walked down the front steps, Tanner stood holding the passenger door open for her—a gesture he’d adopted over the past few days. He was dressed professionally in a black-checked Western Shirt with black slacks. His lips twisted into a half-smile, and he tipped his cowboy hat as if Rosie were an acquaintance, not the woman he was going to marry. Why did he seem so formal?

  Standing on tiptoes, she kissed him, tasting a hint of spearmint. “Good morning.”

  “I brought a gift,” he said, pulling a ring box from his breast pocket. He popped it open to reveal a plain gold band. “I didn’t think you’d mind if I got it by myself. What you wanted wasn’t all that complicated.”

  It was the ring she had asked for—the slim yellow-gold band Tanner hadn’t wanted to get. Tanner took the band from the box and slipped it on her finger. As usual, he had done his homework. It fit perfectly. She threw her arms around his neck, and he pulled her in until his belt buckle pressed against her stomach. He smelled of soap and corral dust. She lifted her lips to his, knowing he was exactly what she wanted—a man who rose before daylight and labored until after dark.

  She sank into the steady comfort of his arms, hardly believing he had caved to her request for a simple ring when he had worried so much about people calling him cheap. “I love it. And I love you for getting it for me.”

  As she got into the car, she tried to imagine the two of them living on the ranch together. Tanner was a man who loved the extremes of ranch life—feeling the slap of wind in the winter and the sting of sun in the summer. He knew how to care for sick cattle and how to give himself as a living sacrifice to the land. In him, she had found a companion for life.

  She scooted closer to him on the truck bench. “I keep thinking of that line in your letter, how it says, ’you’re the missing piece of my heart, the sweetest melody in my ears, the drop of sweet nectar on my tongue.’ It’s beautiful. Did you make that up?”

  Tanner reached for her hand and took his eyes off the road for a moment. “The whole letter came straight from my heart.” Of the two of them, he always seemed to be the one who gave. Had he noticed how unequal their relationship had become?

  She squeezed his hand and spoke in low, serious tones. “I hope I can write one for you that’s just as beautiful.”

  He placed his hand back on the wheel as they rounded a curve. “Don’t worry about it, Rosie.”

  She twisted the ring around on her finger. One thing she hadn’t thought of—this was a wedding band. People might assume she was already married. Did he expect her to wear it before they were married? “How come men don’t wear engagement rings?” she asked Tanner.

  Tanner gave her one of his indiscernible looks—the kind that could be anger or amusement. This time she guessed amusement. “If you want me to wear one,” he said, “I’d be happy to.”

  “It was just a general question. I’m not complaining.” She didn’t have the money to buy Tanner a ring yet—not when she was still saving for a down payment on the ranch. Since she had promised to save money, she had spent nearly all of her paycheck. The fact that she had needed to restock the tank with heating oil had not helped.

  “It’s probably better if we save the money instead of buying another ring,” Tanner said. “While I was in town, I stopped by the bank. Now, don’t get upset, but the woman there said it might be better if I apply for the loan by myself.”

  Rosie whipped her head toward him. “What?” She didn’t like the idea of the ranch being only in Tanner’s name.

  “It has something to do with credit scores. She also told me we’ll probably need a bigger down payment than we talked about.” He huffed in frustration, as if he might want to give up on the whole idea of buying the ranch.

  “Really?” Rosie fought the urge to groan. It was a disappointment, but having the ranch in Tanner’s name was still better than not having it at all. She needed to convince him that she had faith in their plans, that they could come up with a bigger down payment. “I posted the llama and emus for sale online. I haven’t heard from anyone yet, but I’m sure I will soon. People just need time to recover from the flood.”

  “That’s good,” Tanner said, as if he wasn’t really listening. He drove the next two or three miles in silence before he spoke again. “I don’t suppose your grandpa would be willing to sell for a lower price?”

  Rosie shook her head. “Uncle Jeff would never let him. He wants to make sure Grandpa can remain financially independent for the rest of his life, and I agree. It wouldn’t be fair for Grandpa to sacrifice his own security for us.”

  “Well, what would you think of dividing up the property? It’s not like we need all two thousand acres. One of the neighbors might be willing to buy five hundred of them?”

  That meant they wouldn’t be able to run as many cattle as Tanner had hoped. Rosie pressed her lips together, trying to remain positive. “That could work.”

  Tanner pulled into the school parking lot and circled around to the entrance. He brought the car to a stop. “Is it okay if I talk to Mr. McFerrin, and see if he’s interested?”

  She supposed asking wouldn’t hurt anything. “Sure.” She hadn’t brought up Destry’s name since the fight, but it seemed unavoidable now. She leaned to kiss Tanner’s cheek, keeping her hand on his. “Destry once told Grandpa he’s interested in buying more property. Why don’t you talk to Mr. McFerrin? I’ll talk to Destry after school.” Today was Tanner’s first meeting of the debate team, and Rosie had already asked Destry to drive her home.

  Tanner shook his head. “The more I learn about Destry, the more I despise him.” He pulled her in for a hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. “Do you know that resort he’s building is going to be a rehab center?” Clearly, Tanner didn’t see Destry’s plan as a service to the community. He saw it as a danger.

  She lifted her head to look at him, speaking in quiet, calm tones. “It’s not a rehab center. The people who go there will have already gone through rehab.”

  She felt the muscles in his arms tense. “I’m not going to stand for it.” His voice boomed out, as if he didn’t mind that people could hear him outside his truck. “I drove past there yesterday. He’s got construction workers breaking ground already.”

  Rosie looked at her watch. She had only two minutes before she needed to be inside the school. “It won’t hurt to ask him.”

  He seemed to be holding his breath as she watched, waiting for his reply.

  Finally, he exhaled. “You’re right.” His voice had come down a few decibels. “It might be the only way we can keep the ranch.” He paused and then set his jaw. “But I still won’t allow him to bring drug addicts next door.”

  Rosie smiled. “It might not be that bad. He’s really trying to help people.” She raised her lips to his, imagining that they stood in the middle of Grandpa’s ranch, surrounded on every side by land that extended to the horizon. This time, she allowed Tanner to be the first to pull away.

  She opened her door, stepping out into the cool of the morning. She guessed Destry would agree to buy their land. What she hadn’t told Tanner was that she hated the idea of selling any of it. Giving up the land now could mean giving it up forever. She tried to think of a better solution as she gathered the papers from her inbox.

  Other concerns took over as she entered her classroom and started to prepare for the photosynthesis experiment in her first-period class. In second period, she thought only of her health class’s discussion of body image. In third period, it was back to photosynthesis. While she ate lunch with Jade in the teacher’s lounge, she pulled out a piece of paper to list the pros and cons of selling five hundred acres. In the end, the pros won out. “I
think I’m going to ask Destry to buy part of my ranch,” she told Jade. “We can’t afford a mortgage for the whole thing.”

  Jade wrinkled her nose. “I can see selling your ranch, but are you sure you want to sell to Destry? There’s got to be some truth to those articles I found about him.”

  “Those articles didn’t include the whole story. They never gave him a chance to defend himself,” Rosie said, giving each word the weight of iron. “I trust him, and he’s the only one of our neighbors with money to spare.”

  Jade folded her arms, leaning back in her chair and scrutinizing Rosie’s expression. “It’s seems to me that you’re walking on thin ice. You’re going to lose Tanner if you’re not careful. He’s a good man, Rosie. I’m not sure you appreciate how hard it is to find someone like him.”

  It wasn’t normal for Jade to give her this kind of lecture, and it shocked her like a bucket of cold water thrown in her face. She had never considered that she might ever lose Tanner, but the thought was ridiculous. He had always been there. Always.

  Chapter 19

  After school, Rosie walked to Destry’s classroom, where he sat on top of his lab table. Five students had lingered after school to talk to him. That was one thing she had noticed since school started—Destry always had a crowd around him, and he seemed to attract the at-risk students.

  She waited while he told the teens about his experience running an Ironman marathon in Hawaii. It must have been a triathlon-type thing, because it involved swimming in monstrous waves and bicycling up the side of a volcano. He showed them a scar on his arm where he’d hit a rock.

  She was staring at the star-shaped scar when he looked up and saw her. “Oh, hey Rosie, er Ms. Curtis. Is it time to go home?” He stood up and turned to the students. The bruise on his upper lip had faded and the swelling on his nose had gone away. He looked like his old self. “I guess that’s all for study group. I’ll see you tomorrow.” The students scattered. “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “Fine.” There it was again—that teenage crush sensation that tingled along her skin and made her forget what she had planned to say. She kept her arms straight at her sides, trying to take on a more professional appearance.

  Destry went to his desk at the front of the classroom and started packing his laptop into his leather briefcase. “I’ve been meaning to tell you about StainMaster. He’s like a new dog. The antibiotics have healed his eye problems. Plus, he changed color after I gave him a bath.”

  “What color is he?”

  “Light grey. You should come see him.”

  She did want to come see the dog. There was nothing that made her as happy as seeing that kind of transformation in an animal. Now that she was here, though, she needed to introduce the topic of selling the land. If she didn’t talk to him about it now, she might never get up the courage. She approached his desk. “I have a proposition for you.”

  He set down the briefcase and raised his eyebrows, his lips crooking into a smile.

  Maybe proposition wasn’t the right word. She rolled her eyes. “I meant a business proposition. Do you remember how you once said you’d like to buy my grandpa’s ranch?”

  “Sure.” He moved closer to her, lowering his voice. “But I’m not going to get in your way if you want to buy it.”

  She remembered how it had felt when she hugged him on the day of the flood, and the warm, tingling sensation returned. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears, and she reached to touch the engagement ring on her hand. “Tanner applied for a loan to buy the land, but he can’t qualify to buy the whole thing without a bigger down payment. I thought maybe my grandfather could sell part of the land to you . . . if you’re still interested.”

  Destry shook his head and looked away for a second before he returned her gaze. “As much as I want the land, I care about you too much to take it.”

  Rosie froze. That wasn’t what she had expected him to say at all. He cared. Even after Tanner punched him out. Something caught in her throat. She swallowed and forced herself to return to the topic. “But there’s no other way I can buy the land.”

  He stared at her with wide eyes as if he could read her thoughts. She hoped he couldn’t. She could feel the heat rising to her face. That was all she needed, for Destry to see her blushing.

  “Let’s think about it some more,” he said. “We can find a better solution for you.”

  She sank into a student’s chair and clasped her hands. She needed to focus on getting the ranch. “Please, say yes. It’s what I want.”

  Destry crouched beside her. “Let’s give it another week.” It sounded like a rejection, but his wide eyes and soft gaze offered hope.

  She would have preferred a definite answer. “Okay.”

  He looked at her for a moment longer and then stood. “I should probably tell you how my classes have been going.”

  “Yes.” She had skimmed through the lesson plans he e-mailed. They were the kind of lesson plans she could have created herself if she only had more money. And that was a problem—he seemed to be spending way too much of his own money.

  He leaned against his lab table. “I’m sorry if it’s been a little noisy. My chemistry students liked the periodic table tag more than I thought they would.”

  At least the tag game probably hadn’t required any extra expense. “I didn’t hear anything.” She glanced around the classroom. A long wooden ramp ran along the wall. “Is that the race track you used to teach about acceleration?”

  “Come see it.” His voice brightened. “Alan helped me build it.”

  “Huh. Good for him.” She followed him to the ramp, which consisted of a rubber conveyer belt on a wooden frame. “How much did this cost?”

  He shrugged. “Not much. Alan used discarded materials. I just paid him for his labor.” He pointed to a cardboard box full of Matchbox cars. “Do you want to race? Pick a car.”

  She picked the biggest car she could find—a flatbed truck. “I’m concerned that you might be spending too much money—setting the students up to expect more than what teachers are allotted to spend.”

  Destry plucked a fire engine from the box and then paused. “I see your point. I’ll try to keep to a budget.”

  They placed their trucks behind a lever at the top of the track. He flipped a switch to release the cars, and they plunged downward. From the beginning, his truck had an edge, and it continued to outpace hers, finishing a full second before the flatbed.

  She reached for the fire engine. “What did you do to it?”

  He snatched it away, holding it behind his back and grinning. “We’ll have to race again tomorrow. What do you say?”

  Rosie grabbed for his arm. “Tomorrow’s Saturday. I just want to see how heavy it is.”

  He laughed. “I’m afraid it’s a trade secret.” He walked to the front of the classroom and opened his desk drawer to put the toy inside. Rosie reached him just as he shut the drawer. “I’m your mentor teacher. You have to show me that fire engine.” It wasn’t at all professional of her. He had every right to keep a secret.

  He turned the key in the lock and wiggled his eyebrows. “Isn’t it about time we were going home? We both have a lot of work to do.” It was the first time she’d ever heard him talk about having a lot of work, and it felt like a game. He grabbed his briefcase and headed for his classroom door.

  As they walked down the hall, he pulled the truck from his pocket and handed it to her. He had only pretended to put it in the drawer. She laughed. “You tricked me.” They passed Mercedes Santiago, the school secretary, as they approached the front doors of the school.

  “Oh, Destry,” she called out, chasing after them. “I copied the recipe for those cookies you liked.” She placed a square of lavender cardstock in Destry’s hand. Mercedes was one of those crafty women who made everything look good. Her house could probably qualify for a spread in Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

  While he thanked her, Rosie felt the weight of the Matchbox car in her hand.
It was much heavier than it should have been. After Mercedes left, Rosie asked, “What did you put in this?”

  He held the door open for her. “We used fishing weights,” he said. “It was Alan’s idea.”

  She estimated how much the ramp and cars had cost as they walked out into the sun. It was more than she had in her budget.

  His truck stood alone on the far side of the parking lot. Most of the other teachers had already left. He had to move a box of stuff off the front seat and onto the floor before she could get in. She couldn’t help looking at its contents after she climbed into her seat. It looked like a teacher’s confiscation pile from thirty years earlier. There was a wind-up monkey, two remote control cars, a package of water balloons, some Ping-Pong balls, three tins of breath mints, and a u-shaped piece of metal attached to some tubing.

  “Is that a slingshot?” she asked as Destry pulled out of the parking lot. She had always wanted to use a slingshot.

  “Yeah.” He didn’t seem at all worried.

  “You could get in a lot of trouble for having that in your truck. It could be considered a weapon, and you have it out in plain sight.”

  He glanced her way as he drove. “This from a woman who owns a coyote.” Rosie continued to look at the slingshot as they turned onto the road where her car had washed away. “You can pick it up now. We’re off school property.”

  Had she been that obvious? “I’ve never used one before.” She slipped her hand into the slingshot, gripping the plastic handle and stretching out the rubber tubing.

  “I was going to use it to teach about acceleration, but then I thought better of it.”

  She laughed. “It’s a good thing you did.”

  As they reached the place where Rosie’s car had stalled in the floodwater, they both grew silent. Destry pulled his truck to the side of the road.

  “Why are you stopping?” she asked, wondering whether to tell him that the police still hadn’t found her car.