Chemistry Lessons (24 page)

 “What’s going on?” Rosie recognized Jade’s voice and her red cowgirl
boots approaching.

“Rosie hurt her back,” Destry explained. He stood motionless beside
Rosie as she stared down at that last bale of hay that needed to go onto the
trailer.

“Can I help you get up?” Jade asked, holding out a hand. “It might feel
better if you’re standing straight.”

“No.” The word squeaked out, barely audible. Every movement knifed
through her. She already knew what happened. She’d lifted and twisted. A deadly
combination.

“The same thing happened to my brother once,” Destry said.

Rosie remembered how Cody’s back pain led to his addiction, and right
then, she wanted pain killers too—strong ones.

“If Tanner were here,” Jade said, “I’d tell him to carry you back. We
can’t leave you here.”

Destry didn’t hesitate to respond. “I can carry her.”

That was a bad idea. A very bad idea. Not just because Tanner would
see, but also because of what she might—no, not might—what she
would
feel, in spite of the pain.

Rosie groaned. “I can walk.” She made an attempt to straighten and
gasped.

After a minute, Jade spoke again. “Maybe Destry should carry you.”

Rosie made another attempt to get up.

“Let’s just try it,” Destry said. “Tell me if it hurts.”

She felt him lifting her, cradling an arm under her knees and another
behind her shoulders as she held her breath. Slowly, she wrapped her arms
around his neck. Her back still hurt, but it felt better than it had before he
picked her up. “Thank you,” she said. As he began walking, her pain faded to a
dull throb, overwhelmed by the sensation she felt every time they touched—how
had he put it? Like she was coming home. Like she belonged next to him.

Jade walked beside them. “What happened to Tanner?”

Rosie turned to face Jade and cringed, her pain thundering back into
consciousness. “He went to find his water bottle.”

Jade opened her eyes wide and stared at her, unblinking. Rosie could
tell she had questions about her relationship with Tanner. Rosie had some of
her own that she had been asking herself. Was Tanner mature enough for
marriage? Was he simply marrying her because they had been together for so long?
Would he always clam up instead of working things through? So far, she had no
answers, and she didn’t want to discuss it, especially not while Destry was
carrying her across the field.

“We should talk about something that takes your mind off the pain,” he
said, in a tone that made her suspect that by pain, he meant Tanner.

Jade didn’t even pause. “It was downright sinister of the Moores not to
bale your hay.” She had changed the subject, but this one was just as bad. “Are
the Moore kids still giving you a hard time at school—recording your lessons
and all?”

“Yes,” Rosie said, drawing out the word.

“I feel bad you’re going through all this trouble,” Destry said, his
voice showing no sign of strain, “especially since I encouraged you to tell
your students about your car accident.”

As they walked, Jade stayed right beside Destry. “It doesn’t take much
to get on the Moores’ bad side,” she said. “A few years back, they called my
parents right before spring break, wanting to book some last-minute rooms at
their bed and breakfast. There weren’t any rooms available, so my father
apologized and told them to please try to reserve their rooms sooner next time.
Well, it wasn’t a day later that three negative reviews popped up online.”

Destry shook his head. “That’s brutal.”

 “The Moores can be controlling and mean-spirited, but they’ll forget
about it after a while,” Jade assured him. “They always do . . . once they
think you’ve been punished enough.”

They went on talking, telling stories about the Moores’ various
vendettas against people in the town. By the time they approached the house,
Destry sounded slightly out of breath. As he carried Rosie up the front steps,
she braced herself for Tanner’s reaction, but when they entered, he wasn’t
there.

 “What happened?” Azalea cried, holding a hand to her mouth as she saw
Rosie in Destry’s arms.

“I hurt my back again,” Rosie explained. “It’s nothing the chiropractor
can’t fix.”

Destry paused next to the living room. “Do you want me to put you on
the sofa? Or maybe the recliner would be more comfortable.”

“Can you take me to bed?” Rosie answered.

 “I’d be happy to.” Destry said in a smooth, low voice, a smile
catching the edge of his mouth. He chuckled, and she realized what she had
said.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” she stammered, feeling the blood rise to
her cheeks as Destry maneuvered her past Grandpa in his wheelchair.

Grandpa swiveled his head around, watching them. “The lengths some
women will go to get attention from a man.”

She wished she could have swatted Grandpa for making her blush even
more. “It’s just a little farther,” she told Destry. “Third door on the left.”

“I’ll bring you some food,” Azalea called as they turned down the
hallway.

He laid her down on top of her sand-colored comforter next to a napping
Wile E, who woke to lick her face. Destry pushed the dog away, but did not
straighten, his face only inches from hers. She could see the flecks of gold in
his deep, blue eyes. With his hand, he brushed the stray hairs from her face,
and for a moment, she wondered if he might kiss her. “Are you comfortable?” he
asked. “Do you need anything else?”

“No. Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“That’s what I keep thinking.” He didn’t say anything more, but
straightened, pulling a treat for Wile E from his pocket, and the gesture
triggered a rush of memories in Rosie’s mind. There was the way he ran his hand
over the top of his head, smoothing the curls that inevitably appeared. The way
he kept getting back up on that ill-behaved horse. The way his voice carried
down the hall when he was teaching so that she always had to keep her classroom
door shut. Sometimes, even with the door shut, she could still hear him.

Jade and her mom came in with food. “Go on and get something to eat,
Destry,” Azalea said. “We’ll take care of Rosie.”

After he left, Azalea shooed out Wile E, and Jade set a tray on the
bed. There was a generous helping of pot roast, along with a roll, a salad, a
glass of water and some pain medication. “It looks fabulous,” Rosie said,
reaching for the pain pills.

“Can I get you anything else?” her mom asked.

“No, but can you send someone to find Tanner? He hasn’t answered my
call.” She needed to talk to him, and he had walked off before she could
understand his perspective.

“I can go,” Jade said.

“But you haven’t eaten,” Azalea countered. “Tanner will be along soon
enough. He’s not one to miss a meal.”

“I don’t mind looking for him,” Jade said. “All I’ve done this morning
is sit on the tractor. I could use a walk.”

“Would you?” Rosie asked. “I’d appreciate it.”

After Jade left, Azalea lingered in the doorway. “A couple of us can
come in to eat with you, if you like. I hate for you to be all alone back here.”

“It’s okay, Mom. I just want to rest.”

Her mom let a beat pass before she answered. “Holler if you need me,
okay?”

“Okay.”

Once she was alone, Rosie picked at her food, straining to hear the
conversation at the dinner table. Grandpa was telling the infamous story of how
he’d caught a giant catfish—a story Rosie had heard multiple times. Every time
the fish got smarter and larger.

As the men went on talking about their favorite places to fish, Rosie
replayed the argument with Tanner in her mind. Copying the words in a love
letter wasn’t so different from embellishing a fun fish story. Maybe she was
overreacting and expecting more from Tanner than he could give. He just wasn’t
the type to write a flowery love letter.

He wasn’t like Destry.

The clock moved slowly, ticking at a snail’s pace over each number.
Would Tanner ever get there? Her back throbbed and she couldn’t get comfortable
as she listened to the others finish their dinner and begin washing dishes. She
tried Tanner’s phone again, and of course he didn’t answer. Jade didn’t answer
hers either. Somewhere in the other room, Grandpa told a story about fighting
forest fires up on Mount Morris. That led to a story about the Korean War and
another about a fire in the McFerrin’s barn.

Five minutes later, Destry appeared in her doorway. “How’s your back?”
he asked, his voice quiet, so as not to be overheard by those in the other
room.

The bones in her spine crackled as she turned to face him. “It feels
better. Resting helped. I think I can probably drive the tractor.”

 He raised his brows. “Mike offered to sub for you. He and Alan are
already headed to the barn.”

“But it’s my responsibility.” She knew she was stupid for even saying
it. There was no way she could drive the tractor, let alone walk to it. But the
thought of sitting here while everyone else finished her chores made her feel
absolutely powerless. After all this time trying to prove she could run the
ranch on her own, she had to admit that their help was necessary.

“You’ll be doing us all a favor if you take the rest of the day off to
heal. The last thing we want is for you to injure yourself even more. We don’t
want to be stuck doing your chores while you have back surgery.” He smiled and
winked at her.

He had a point. She needed to recover. Still, she wasn’t going to lie
in bed all day. She could at least keep Grandpa company. After Destry left, she
managed to get herself off her bed and walk, stooped, to the front room. “If it
isn’t Old Mother Hubbard.” Grandpa said, pointing to Wile E in the corner, who
was chewing on a rawhide. “The dog’s already got his bone. You best follow the
advice of your future husband and get on back to bed.”

Rosie reached a hand to the small of her back and thought through what
Grandpa had just said. “What do you mean, ‘follow the advice of my future
husband?’” she asked in her loudest voice. “Tanner doesn’t even know about my
back.”

Grandpa laughed. “You’ve got that right.”

She narrowed her eyes at the old man and his cryptic messages. “I hope
you’re not suggesting that
Destry’s
my future—you know better than to
joke about something like that.”

Grandpa folded his arms and looked at her in that stern way he had. “Who
says I was joking?”

She pointed a finger at him. “You better quit talking that way. You’re
going to get me in trouble.” As she spoke, she looked out the big window in the
living room and saw Tanner and Jade approaching from the back of the house.

It was the first time she had seen her fiancé and Jade alone together.
If she didn’t know better, she would have said they made a picture-perfect
couple, so deep in conversation that they didn’t notice Rosie until they walked
past the window, where she stood.

Tanner startled when he saw her and shifted his eyes to look toward the
side of her face rather than directly in her eyes.

Jade hurried off in the direction of the barn, as if she already knew
the whole story. Had Tanner told her about their argument?

He entered the house without hesitation, glancing at Grandpa to see
that he was asleep. “We need to talk.”

“Don’t you want to eat first?” Rosie asked.

Tanner sat down in Grandpa’s armchair, his elbows on his knees. “I don’t
have much of an appetite.”

Rosie bent to rest her hands on the side of the sofa. Her spine felt
like a rusted chain, stiff and immovable. “I guess Jade told you I hurt my
back.”

He nodded with his eyes focused on the carpet. “She did.”

Rosie waited for him to express sympathy or concern—anything. He didn’t.

“That wasn’t all she told me,” he said, his tone carrying a hint of
martyrdom. “She said she saw you and Destry holding hands near the river a few
weeks ago.”

What kind of friend would tell Tanner such a thing? A traitor. She
couldn’t believe Jade would betray her when she didn’t even know the details. “I
wasn’t holding hands with Destry near the—” She stopped, remembering what Jade
must have seen. “Oh, wait—there was that time Destry showed me how to use a slingshot.
I couldn’t get back up the riverbank, so he offered me a hand up. I wish Jade
had asked me about it herself. I could have explained what was going on.”

“So you were alone with Destry?”

“Yes. He gave me a ride home that day. He had a slingshot, and I’d
never shot one before. I wanted to try it out. It was no big deal. Seriously.”

“And you held his hand?”

Rosie blinked. “I already told you. I couldn’t get up the hill on my
own. You’re making too big of a deal out of nothing.”

“If it wasn’t a big deal, why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“Because it
wasn’t
a big deal! There was nothing to tell.” Rosie
gritted her teeth, trying not to lose her temper which was teetering perilously
close to the edge.