Hawks Mountain - Mobi (6 page)

Contrarily, as he’d related to Granny what needed to be done for her dog, his deep, velvet smooth voice had smoothed some of the rough edges from the nerves his unexpected arrival had brought to life in
Becky.
Against her will, she’d found her gaze drawn to his dark good looks. But she hadn’t missed the sadness that lurked just behind what he showed to the world, or the loneliness. What had caused it? Granny said no one knew anything about him. That he kept to himself.

Grampa
Earl had told her once that when a man shies away from socializing and doesn’t talk about himself, it
’
s because he doesn’t want people to get close enough to see the darkness inside him. And she had an unmistakable feeling that Nick made very sure that no one passed the barrier he
’
d set up to guard
himself .
 . . just like she did.

Nicholas Hart had something inside him that was eating him alive. He might be able to hide that from others, but she recognized that invisible shield for what it
was .
 . . self-protection. After all, hadn’t she erected her own walls to keep out more disappointment, pain and hurt?

“Keys?”

Becky jumped. Nick was holding his hand out. Embarrassed at being caught wool gathering, especially considering he’d been the subject of her musings, she dropped the keys into his outstretched palm.

Nick stared at Becky for a scant moment, then dragged his gaze away and inserted the keys in the ignition and started the car. She was just as disturbingly lovely as he remembered from their last meeting. And just as much off limits. But with her sitting so close, the flowery aroma drifting from her made it very hard to concentrate on anything but her.

He gripped the wheel harder and backed the car out of the driveway. Bad enough he’d been forced into a situation that he’d avoided for months. Adding her to the mix by getting all heated up over a woman he didn’t even know, nor did he want to, was not going to make this any less problematic.

But that was easier said than done. He had to fight to keep from stealing sidelong glances at his passenger.

The woman was truly a part of the mountains that she seemed to love so much. Hair the color of a dawning sun, eyes that reflected the unbroken blue of a spring sky, skin the texture of the cream skimmed from the top of the raw milk he got from
Lem
Jenkin
’
s
farm, body movements that mirrored the graceful sway of the pines. Becky Hawks
was
the mountains.

Looking at her now and recalling the duffle bag she’d carried the day they’d met, he had to wonder why she
’
d left something she apparently adored to the very soles of her feet to begin
with?
It would seem he wasn’t the only one who had come to this mountain looking for something the outside world couldn’t provide.

Following Becky’s directions,
it wasn’t long before Nick pulled up in front of a small white building south of town with a sign out front that read
Paws and Claws Clinic: Walk-ins Welcome.
Several other buildings stood close by, two of which were a garage and a house where the vet must live. A bit removed were a couple of cement block structures with fenced in yards behind them.

After parking the car, Nick climbed out and scooped Jake off the back seat. The animal whimpered, and Nick adjusted his hold, trying not to hurt him. The four of them went inside. Nick looked around for the receptionist, but the outer office was empty.

Granny immediately went to the counter and pounded several times on a small silver bell on the desk. “Hunter! Hunter Mackenzie!”

A few moments later a tall, good looking, thirty-something man in a white lab coat stepped from a back room. He smiled at Granny. “Sorry for the wait, Jo. My assistant chose this week to run off and elope. I’m afraid I’m running the store alone until I can replace her. How are you?”

“Not here to socialize,” she announced crisply, although her voice shook with emotion.

“Yes, ma’am.”
The vet’s expression sobered.

Nick smiled secretly at how this little gray-haired woman demanded respect and got it, simply by the tone of her voice.

“Jake’s been hurt.” She pointed at the dog cradled in Nick’s arms.

Dr. Mackenzie hurried around the desk and looked Jake over.

“I think he’s got a broken leg,” Nick supplied. “He’s also got a pretty bad gash that may need stitches.”

The vet continued to examine Jake. “I think you’re right. Can you carry him into the back?” He looked at Granny. “I’m sorry, but without my assistant, I’m going to need help with him.”

Nick looked down at the dog, but what he saw was not an injured animal but the body of a maimed child cradled in his arms. His mouth went dry, and his stomach did an unsettling lurch. Sweat beaded his forehead and cold chills chased up and down his spine. He couldn’t do this.

Nick stopped dead and tuned to Granny and then Becky. Both their faces were drawn with worry. Granny was wringing her hands so hard it’d be a miracle if she left any skin on them. She was certainly in no shape to help the vet and neither was Becky. That left him.

As before, when he’d found Jake, he’d been left with no choice.

“I’ll help you.”

Nick laid Jake on the stainless steel table and stood back. He held out his hands and cringed at the blood covering them. Crazy, horrific images of a time he thought he’d left behind flashed through his mind. His stomach lurched again. He gripped the edge of the table to steady his suddenly weak knees.

I can’t do this.

Casting a glance at Dr. Mackenzie, he took a step back.

“You okay?” Mackenzie had been washing his hands, but he stopped to stare at Nick. “You’re as white as a sheet.” Nick said nothing. Mackenzie dried his hands, and then started donning a set of scrubs. “It’s okay. Lots of people can’t stand the sight of blood. If you’d rather not—”

“No.” Nick roused himself. He had to do this, if for no other reason than to prove to himself that he could. “No, it’s okay.
Just a bit dizzy for a moment.”
He smiled weakly at the vet. “That’s what I get for skipping lunch.”

Get a grip, Hart. You’re not on a battlefield
.

If he didn’t help then either Granny or Becky would have to do it, and he refused to subject them to this. Keeping them away from the sight of their beloved pet’s suffering took precedence in his mind. He’d just have to suck it up and do it.

Mackenzie continued to study him for a second or two. “Well,” he finally said, “if you’re sure you’re
okay .
 . . ”

Nick gritted his teeth, determined to show himself as well as the vet that he could do this, nodded and grabbed a set of greens and hauled them on. Then he pulled a pair of plastic gloves from a box on the shelf behind him and snapped them over his hands with no-nonsense professionalism. “Let’s do it. What’s first?”

“X-ray, but we’ll have to sedate him for it.”

Without asking, Nick looked around and found a tray with sterile syringes.

Becky and Granny waited
impatiently for word of Jake’s condition. Every time she glanced at the clock it seemed that the hands had frozen in place. Then the door to the back opened, and Dr. Mackenzie came out. Nick followed. He looked even paler than he had been earlier, and he avoided eye contact.

Becky’s heart sank. Jake must have been worse than she’d thought.

Then the vet smiled. “His leg was broken, but it was a clean break that should heal nicely. He’s not as young as he used to be, so it’ll take a bit longer. The gash on his leg bled a lot, but wasn’t deep enough to suture.”

Granny’s shoulders sagged, as if the vet’s words had opened the flood gates to her tension, and it all drained out at once. Becky put her arm around her grandmother’s shoulders.

“Thank the good Lord,” Granny whispered.

“Well, Ms. Hawks, some thanks goes to Nick here. If he hadn’t found him, no telling what would have happened to old Jake.” He put a hand on Nick’s shoulder, but Nick shrugged it off. The vet frowned at the reaction and started to walk away, but paused in front of Nick. “Thanks for the help. You were better than my assistant. I’d say you’ve done this before. Am I right?”

Nick turned away. “Some,” was his noncommittal answer.

Becky stared at his back. This man had to be one of the most closed human beings she’d ever met. Even a simple question like Dr. Mackenzie’s shot up Nick’s protective walls.

“Can we take him home?” Granny was on her feet.

Dr. Mackenzie walked behind the receptionist’s desk and took out a folder. He made a couple of notations, and then looked at Granny. “Not today. I want to keep him here for a few days, just to keep an eye on him. Make sure there aren’t any injuries we didn’t notice first time around. I’ll give you a call when you can pick him up.”

While Granny paid the bill, Becky and Nick went outside to wait for her. Becky stopped and leaned against the porch railing. “Thank you for all you did with Jake. He’s been Granny’s companion ever since
Grampa
Earl passed. I’m not sure what she’d do without him.”

Nick hunched his shoulders. “Anyone would have done the same.”

“But anyone wasn’t there to find Jake. You were.”

Again he shrugged. “Yeah,
well .
 . . ”

Before Becky could say more, Granny came out. “Well, we best be getting home. Nick, you’ll be staying for dinner. It’s the least I can do to repay you for all you’ve done today. I’ve got some nice pork chops I can fry up.”

Nick blanched, as if just the thought of food upset him. He threw a quick glance at Becky. His complexion was still pale, his expression wary and plainly uneasy. Then that invisible wall came up again. “That’s nice of you, Mrs. Hawks, but I got things I need to do at home.
Maybe some other time.”

Becky hung back as the two others walked toward the car. Had helping the vet with Jake upset him that much? And if it had, why had he volunteered to do it? And what did he mean when he’d said he’d had
some
experience with this?

The questions surrounding this man just kept piling up. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any answers forthcoming from their silent
neighbor .
 . . yet. Becky wasn’t one to let a mystery go unsolved or a need go unfulfilled. And Nick Hart was steeped in both.

By the time Nick stopped
by the creek and retrieved his fishing gear, then climbed up the ridge to his cabin, his stomach had begun to settle down. He’d known Mrs. Hawks was just being neighborly with her offer of a meal, but he also knew what the result would have been if he’d tried to put one bit of food in his stomach.

While he’d been assisting the vet, he’d slipped back into corpsman mode. He’d aided Mackenzie mechanically, knowing instinctively what to do and when. But when it was all over and he was washing the blood from his hands, the memories of the hours he’d spent patching up wounded soldiers on the battlefield had hit him full in the face. For a few moments, he’d been thrown back to
Iraq
, back into the stinking, hot hellhole of war, back to the IED that had given birth to his nightmares.

Now, those same memories came rushing back again. His stomach began to churn. He swallowed several times, trying to fight off what he knew by now to be inevitable. It always was after a particularly strong reminder of his days in the Navy and working with the Marines on the ground.

He rushed into the kitchen and got a glass of water. Gulping it down, he followed it with another and another, until the threat of sickness abated.