Stella Bagwell - Taming a Dark Horse

“Well, I’m not going to be underfoot,” Linc grumbled. “You and Bella are still newlyweds, you need to be alone.”

“Tell that to Marina,” Victoria wryly interjected.

Marina had been the cook-housekeeper for the Ketchum family since Linc and his cousins had been born. The large Hispanic woman knew more about all of them than they did themselves. She had an extra soft spot for Ross and didn’t make any bones about showing it. Nor did she worry about speaking her mind. And no doubt she would demand to help care for Linc.

“That’s another thing,” Ross quickly put in. “In the big house Marina will be available to the nurse and—”

“No!” Linc interrupted. “Marina already has too much to do. I’ll not be piling more problems on her old shoulders.”

“Damn it, Linc, you’re acting like a child.”

Since Linc couldn’t use either hand or elbow, it took some doing for him to lever himself off the mattress, but he finally managed to sit up and glare hotly at his cousin. “All right, you cocky bastard. If you think—”

“Stop it! Stop it right now!” Victoria shouted at the two men. “There’s no need for all this arguing.”

“You’re damn right, there’s not,” Ross said flatly. “Linc is going to do what I say!”

“Like hell!” Linc muttered.

Victoria interceded once again. “That’s enough. Nobody is going to make Linc do something he doesn’t want to do,” she said to Ross and then resting her hands on the footboard of the bed, she leaned toward Linc and smiled encouragingly. “I have the solution, Linc. Your parents’ old house is empty. Grady, the foreman on the fence-building crew moved out a week ago. He bought a place of his own. So we’ll have the house clean and ready for you by tomorrow.”

Relief washed over Linc’s face. “Victoria, you’re a real darlin’.”

“My husband tells me that very same thing everyday,” she teased, then walked to the head of the bed, where she bent down and placed a kiss on Linc’s clammy forehead. “Don’t worry, cuz, I’m not going to let anyone badger you. Especially my mean ol’ brother.”

“Aw, Victoria, quit babying the man,” Ross complained, but there was a half grin on his face to soften his words. “You’ll have him so spoiled by the time he gets well, he’ll be worthless to all of us.”

This time Linc didn’t let Ross’s jabs rile him. Now that he knew where he was going to go once he was released from the hospital, there was another pressing problem on his mind.

“Sounds good, Victoria, but what about a nurse? I can’t imagine any woman wanting to stay out at the ranch. Especially not round the clock.”

Victoria frowned at him. “Why not? The ranch is beautiful. And even though the house isn’t anything fancy, it’s very nice.”

Linc shrugged as memories of his mother pushed at the edges of his thoughts. Darla had hated the ranch. The dust, the livestock, the isolation and the constant work it took from her husband to make the place go. He could still remember her arguing fiercely with his father and constantly throwing in his face threats to leave him and the whole mess behind.

Eventually his mother had left the ranch. But not until his father had died from the heart disease that had slowly debilitated him. Linc had been a young teenager when his father had finally passed away and at the time he’d often wondered why Darla bothered to hang around. She’d obviously not given a hoot for her husband. And she had not shown much more concern for Linc. She’d been content to let him run loose on the ranch and more or less take care of himself.

Darla had remarried quickly after his father’s death and to his amazement, she’d demanded that Linc move to the east coast with her and her new husband. If the idea hadn’t been so ludicrous it would have been laughable. Linc had lived his whole life on the T Bar K. He’d grown up with cousins who were his own age. The place was his home and would always be his home. He wasn’t about to move to some city, away from everything he loved. So he’d chosen to stay behind and his mother had walked away without a backward glance.

“Well, yeah,” he finally said to Victoria. “But some women—”

“I’m not going to hire just some woman,” Victoria assured him. “If she isn’t nice and reasonable, dedicated and completely qualified, then she isn’t going to step foot on the ranch. Understand?”

Linc wanted to tell her that there wasn’t any such woman of that sort who’d be willing to live under the same roof with him, even in a nurse/patient situation. But he kept his mouth shut. He’d already done enough arguing and complaining and Victoria was doing the best she could. At the very least, he was grateful.

“Where are you going to find a woman like that?” Ross questioned his sister. “They don’t grow on trees around here, you know.”

She made a face at her brother. “I am a doctor, remember? I do have sources. Trust me, I’ll find one.”

Quickly skirting the bed, Ross looped his arm through Victoria’s and tugged her toward the door. “Sounds like a big job to me. You’d better get out of here and get started on it. Linc and I have important things to discuss.”

“I hope it’s horses,” Linc said from his seat on the bed. “Because I’m sure sick of discussing nurses!”

“Oh, all right, I’m out of here,” Victoria said with a helpless shake of her head. “But just remember, Linc, you can’t get back to work until you heal. And you’ll need a nurse to get you there.”

“Yeah. Well, I guess a man can stand most anything if he has to,” Linc muttered.

***

Later that afternoon, Nevada Ortiz was in the middle of trying to immunize a baby boy, who was displaying a whale of a screaming fit, when her boss, Dr. Victoria Hastings called to her.

“Nevada, as soon as you’re finished there, I want to see you in my office.”

Nevada swiped the baby’s thigh with an alcohol square and tried to still his kicking foot.

“What about Mr. Buckhorn?” Nevada called to her. “He’s in the waiting room and Joyce says he already went outside twice to smoke a cigarette.”

Clearly frustrated, Victoria let out a sigh. “All right. I’ll finish up with him and then I’ll see you in my office.”

“She sounds like she means business,” the young woman holding the baby said. “What have you done wrong, Nevada?”

Since Aztec, New Mexico, was a small town, almost everyone was acquainted with each other. And since Nevada had worked as a nurse in Aztec for six of her twenty-five years, she’d met lots of people, including the young mother holding squalling Henry.

Nevada shrugged and smiled. “Not too much today. But little Henry may disagree.” She rubbed the spot on the baby’s thigh where she’d injected him, and after about two seconds his cries were replaced with a dimpled smile. “Now see there,” she told the boy, “that wasn’t so bad, was it? And look what you get now.”

Reaching into her uniform pocket, she pulled out a red lollipop, removed the cellophane and handed the treat to the baby. Grabbing it, he let out a happy coo and Nevada patted his cheek.

“Be sure that you watch him for any signs of fever or rash,” she told the mother. “Since this is a booster, I don’t expect him to have any problems, but if he does, go ahead and give us a call.”

“I will. Thank you, Nevada.”

Once she was sure mother and baby were on their way out of the examining room, Nevada hurried to the front of the building to retrieve Mr. Buckhorn’s chart from the hundreds that filled the shelves on a wall behind the receptionist’s desk.

Leaning down, she whispered in Joyce’s ear, “Has he been outside again? Or just having a cussing fit?”

The receptionist didn’t have to be told that Nevada was talking about Mr. Buckhorn. He was the only patient left in the waiting room.

“Neither, thank God,” the receptionist answered. “I turned the television on to the Western channel. Sunset Carson is keeping him occupied.”

Smiling, Nevada picked up the elderly man’s chart and walked to the door of the waiting room. “Mr. Buckhorn, you can come back now,” she called to him.

The old Navajo slowly turned his head and leveled an annoyed look at her. “I’ve already waited too long, young lady.” He jabbed a finger in the direction of the television. “I gotta see what this cowboy is gonna do with this gunslinger.”

“He’s going to shoot him, that’s what,” Nevada told him. “And Dr. Hastings is going to shoot you if you don’t get back here. She doesn’t have time to wait around on old men like you.”

Mumbling what sounded like Navajo curse words, the old man slapped a beat-up cowboy hat on his head and slowly rose to his feet. By the time he made it to Nevada, though, he was in a better mood and his wide, wrinkled grin made his dark eyes sparkle playfully.

“I’m not so old, missy. I have a girlfriend. See her every day, too.”

“Smells like you have a cigarette every day, too. You know that Doc is gonna be angry with you.”

His chuckles were full of mischief. “She’ll get over it.”

***

More than thirty minutes later, Nevada was finally able to meet with Victoria. The day had been long and both women were exhausted. Nevada practically fell into the stuffed armchair sitting near the doctor’s wide desk.

“What a day!” Nevada exclaimed. “How many patients did we see anyway?”

Victoria tried to smile. “I quit counting after we hit twenty.”

Reaching up, Nevada began to pull the pins from the braided black bun at the back of her head. Once the last one was removed, the long silky strands fell to her shoulders, and she gave the heavy mane a shake.

“So, what have I done now?” Nevada asked her boss. “Made a patient angry? I know Mr. Tallman complained about the shot I gave him. But honestly, Victoria, the man is a wimp.”

Leaning back in her chair, Victoria chuckled tiredly. “You haven’t done a thing wrong, Nevada. And you’re right, he is a wimp. But none of that is why I wanted to talk to you this evening.”

Nevada looked at her boss with interest. “Oh? What’s happened? Are you going to take off work or something?”

Victoria slowly shook her head. “Actually, I probably should take off work. But right now it’s just not feasible. Dr. Martinez is out of town on vacation and won’t be back for one more week. I have no one to replace me. At least, no one that I would trust with my patients.” Folding her hands atop the desk, she leaned up and looked intently at Nevada. “You see, I’m having a problem. I’m hunting a dependable nurse. Someone I can really count on.”

Shocked, Nevada stared at the other woman. “Oh. You mean, uh—you think I can’t handle all the work around here? I thought you and I worked well together.”

Victoria quickly waved a hand at her. “Nevada, my dear, I couldn’t do without you. You’re my right arm. And I really don’t know how I’m going to get through the next few weeks if you agree to this.”

“This?” Nevada asked carefully. “What is this?”

Massaging her forehead, Victoria said, “I need you to do me a favor. A big favor.”

“Of course. Anything,” Nevada quickly agreed.

“Wait a minute,” Victoria said as her hand fell away from her face. “You’d better hear me out before you agree. This might be a project you won’t want to get yourself into.”

Nevada scooted onto the edge of her seat. “You’ve got me curious now. And you know how much I love challenges.”

Chuckling, Victoria said, “Well, I have a feeling this will be one. You know my cousin Linc was burned badly in the barn fire at the ranch.”