It's a Love Thing (33 page)

“
Not so fast, my friend.
You’re not done yet. I’m going to give you a shot of antibiotic and
some pills. When’s the last time you had a tetanus
shot?”

He tilted his head and looked at her
with those dark hooded eyes. “You aren’t big enough to hold me
down, Doc. Best leave well enough alone.”

Blanca considered him a moment. Could
this big bear of a man truly be afraid of shots? She’d put twelve
stitches in him, surely needles weren’t the problem. “Have you ever
received a tetanus shot?”

He shook his head and moved closer to
the door. “Nope. And I don’t plan on starting now.”

“
How’s that possible? The
type of work you do, you must get burns and scratches all the time.
How is it that your employer has never checked your records and
found you to be at risk?”

“
Just lucky I
guess.”

Blanca blocked the door with her body
and stared up at him, her arms crossed over her chest. It took
every shred of decency she had not to laugh at the man. She’d heard
of tough guys having silly phobias, but this one took the cake.
He’d allowed her to take a scalpel to him, but was afraid of a
shot. “I may not be big enough to hold you down, but I’m not
letting you tarnish my medical reputation by leaving here and
developing lock-jaw or an infection. We’re going to have to come to
some kind of an agreement.”

“
What kind of agreement?”
Longbow asked, crossing his arms, mirroring her.

“
You can get by without the
antibiotic shot if you take a larger dose of the pills for the
first twenty four hours. The tetanus shot, however, there’s no
getting around that.”

He shook his head. “Not good
enough”

She threw her hands up in
exasperation. “What then? What will it take to get you to do what’s
good for you?”

He considered her a moment, tilting
his head slowly from side to side as if studying a rare species.
“Tell me your greatest fear.”

“
What . . . Why . . . What
does that have to do with you getting your tetanus
shot?”

He flashed that scorching smile of
his. “You want to help me overcome my fears, and I want to help you
overcome yours. It’s a fair trade, wouldn’t you say?”

“
No. I don’t say. I don’t .
. . tell others my fears. It’s what gets you kicked in the teeth
later.”

He shrugged and reached around her for
the door. His face was so close to hers she could see the muscles
of his jaw flexing. He wasn’t pleased with her cowardice. He’d told
her before he wasn’t the kind to take advantage of a girl. So far
he’d been nothing but kind to her. And he obviously trusted her.
What man would let a woman take a scalpel to him if he didn’t? If
she didn’t reciprocate that trust, he probably wouldn’t bother with
her again. The last four days of not speaking with him, not seeing
him, had affected her. She didn’t know why, but she felt safe when
he was near, and calm, like she hadn’t felt in years.

“
Well, what’s it going to
be?” Longbow asked, pinning her against the door with one
outstretched arm on either side of her.

She closed her eyes and jumped. At
least to her it was the mental equivalent of jumping off a cliff.
“I’m afraid of not being accepted, not finding my niche, not having
a place to call my own.” She breathed in and out several times
before opening her eyes and looking at him.

He narrowed his eyes, “Go on, that’s
not all of it, not the heart of it anyway. Tell me the very crux of
your fear.” She started to close her eyes again, but he stopped
her. “No. Don’t. I want you to look me in the eye and tell me the
truth, the truth you’re not admitting even to yourself.”

She stared into his dark, earthy eyes
feeling as if they could swallow her up and take away all of her
fears. And that was a problem for a girl like her, who was
determined to face her fears on her own. “I’m afraid of being
alone. I’m not sure I know how to act, or think, or do anything on
my own anymore without someone else leading the way.”

Longbow straightened up and stepped
back, giving her some space. The look on his face matched how she
imagined she’d looked upon learning he was afraid of shots.
“Someone afraid of being on their own doesn’t usually pack up and
move cross-country all by themselves to start a new
job.”

“
Yeah, well, someone who’s
afraid of needles doesn’t usually let someone cut on them and
suture them up afterward either.”

They both laughed and the tension in
the room dropped a couple notches. Longbow propped himself against
the end of the treatment table as she moved away from the door and
plopped down on the rolling stool.

“
That wasn’t so hard was
it?” he asked. “It couldn’t have been nearly as hard admitting it,
as it was actually moving out here on your own.” He rubbed his hand
over his face trying to conceal the humor of it all. “You’re one
heck of a woman, Doc. You may have fears, but a lack of courage is
not one of your weaknesses.”

“
Neither is it yours,” she
said, smiling back at him. “And since we’re both brave enough to go
up against the very things that frighten us, you need to prepare
yourself for a tetanus shot.” She stood and walked to the door
before turning to see if he understood her. He had his arms crossed
again, looking like a big kid who’d just lost a bet and had to
forfeit his favorite toy.

“
Oh, come on. It’s not that
bad. A little poke in the arm isn’t going to kill you,” Blanca
said.

He squinted as if considering what
she’d said. “Not in the arm,” he finally said. “I can’t afford for
anything to interfere with my response time or reflexes. If I’m
favoring an arm it could get me killed.”

“
Fine,” Blanca replied.
“Have it your way. I’m going to go get your antibiotic pills and
prepare your tetanus shot. By the time I get back, you need to have
assumed the position over that table and have dropped your
drawers.” She pointed a finger at him in mock-threat. “Don’t make
me call in the Troopers.”

Her hands shook as she lifted the tail
of his bright yellow shirt and found the land-mark of his hip bone.
She spanned her fingers out over the lateral side of his buttocks
and closed her eyes as she applied pressure with an alcohol wipe to
the area she was going to poke. At first she thought he’d
mistakenly lowered his briefs or boxers in addition to his jeans,
but when she looked at the floor, there were none there. Lord, have
mercy. He would have to be the kind to go commando.

She darted the needle in and was
finished before the burn of the medicine hit home. She caught
Longbow rubbing at it from the corner of her eye as she left the
room.

“
Will I see you tonight?”
he asked, after getting his discharge instructions and medicine at
the reception desk.

“
You promised Nikki a
dance,” she reminded him. “And I promised, just moments before you
entered the clinic, that I’d learn how to line-dance. So yes, I’d
say we both have a date with the same girl tonight.”

*****

The Dirty Shame was slightly better
than its name suggested. The long-house style log structure catered
meals on one end and booze on the other. A long wooden counter ran
the full length of the building and there were built-in stools
underneath it. Tables and chairs with checkered cloths filled the
rest of the building and there was an attempt at a barrier wall in
the middle of it all, where the bathrooms were housed. The barrier
had two open entryways, one on either side of the bathrooms
allowing the noise from the bar to filter into the eating
area.

Blanca decided to play it
safe and found an empty stool along the counter. She had just
ordered a burger and fries when Nikki spotted her and waved her
over to the bar. The table had a reserved sign sitting on it
with
F.L. Party
,
written in red, but Forest Longbow was nowhere to be found. The
antibiotic dose she recommended he take in lieu of the shot was
known to cause nausea. She hoped she hadn’t ruined his
night.

Nikki motioned for her sit and then
yelled over the music of the jukebox, “Your order will be brought
to the table. Don’t worry, they know me around here.”

The bar side was already packed.
Tables full of men with sunburned faces lined the walls. Raccoon
eyes, and burned ears and necks were a common theme among the
patrons.

Nikki motioned to her own eyes and
yelled, “It’s the goggles they wear to protect their eyes from
debris. Otherwise their corneas would be getting scorched instead
of just their skin.”

Longbow didn’t look like these men.
She wondered what it he did to keep his skin so well protected.
She’d seen handkerchiefs dangling around his neck and from his
pockets when she’d given him a ride the other day. Maybe that’s
what he used.

Nikki kicked her from under the table
and pointed to the back door of the bar. “That’s who you were
thinking about just now wasn’t it?”

Longbow entered with a couple of men.
The three of them were laughing and talking, and Blanca figured
they must be part of Longbow’s crew. The man stood out no matter
who he was with. His long hair was pulled back in a single braid
and he wore one of those handkerchiefs she’d been remembering, but
this one was black with bright neon designs all over it. It wasn’t
until Longbow pulled up a chair next to her that she realized the
circles of the design were made up of geckos eating their own
tails. Interesting man, she thought.

Nikki introduced her. “Guys, this is
the clinic’s new doctor, Blanca Islas. Blanca,” she said motioning
toward the other two men who’d sat on Nikki’s side of the
table.

“
This is Emanuel, and
Jesus. We work on the same crew, locally anyway,” Longbow
explained. “These two homeboys don’t like to travel as much as I
do, so I rarely see them once fire season really kicks in.” He
nudged Jesus from across the table with his long reach and nearly
sent the man tumbling out of his chair.

“
Hey!” Jesus said. “Don’t
be throwing around your weight in here, Compadre, you might end up
with more than a baby tree on your chest the next time, and I might
not be there to save you.”

“
Save me?” Longbow said
with sarcasm. “You’re the knucklehead who felled the tree without
warning anyone first. Don’t you Compadre me. I see how it is.
You’re trying to kill me off so you can be crew chief, aren’t
you?”

The men laughed companionably, but
Blanca couldn’t help but wonder why Longbow hadn’t mentioned that
the injury had been caused by one of his crew members and not just
a random accident. She studied him as he ordered a meal and a soda.
He didn’t act like he was having any stomach upset. Knowing him,
his stomach was made of steel like the rest of him.

After they’d finished eating and
getting to know one another, Nikki pulled Blanca out onto the dance
floor and began walking her through some dance moves. Blanca had
never country-line-danced before, but she’d taken dance classes all
through college and even minored in dance.

Soon, there was a crowd boot-scootin’
alongside them. Longbow and the men at their table eyed her and
Nikki as they passed them by, but soon she found they were lost in
conversation, no longer paying any attention to the dance floor.
When the live band showed up, the juke-box was turned off and the
floor cleared so the band could set up.

“
The band is here,” Nikki
said, sliding onto her chair and sipping on her drink. “You
promised me a dance, Forest, and I have a witness to prove
it.”

By this time, Blanca was getting a
little uncomfortable with Nikki’s insistence on dancing with
Longbow. Was her friend really hitting on him? She didn’t
understand why Nikki would encourage her when it came to Longbow
and then hit on him herself? Was she missing something?

The band finished
warming-up and started into a lively rendition of
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
. Blanca may have been raised on classical music and opera,
but like everyone else she’d heard of Charlie Daniels and his band
of evil demons. In fact, she rather liked the song. She jumped up
and motioned for Nikki to join her in a line. Nikki motioned to
Longbow and shook her head.

Blanca took her place in line and
watched as Nikki pulled Longbow onto the floor. Blanca had to bite
her tongue to keep from going to his rescue and telling everyone
how bad his injuries really were. It wasn’t her place to stick up
for him, and if he was going to allow Nikki to force him to dance
with her, that was none of her business either.

She shuffled along with the group and
watched as the couple took hands and Longbow began spinning Nikki
around like a top. She was beaming from ear to ear as he swung her
around and maneuvered her across the floor. He was amazing! Blanca
had never seen anything like it, well except on TV, of course. It
wasn’t ballroom dancing like she’d performed in high school dance
competitions, but more fun, wild, and free.

A lady collided with Blanca when she
failed to make a turn in the dance. She hadn’t even realized she’d
stopped. She'd been standing in the middle of the floor staring
after the couple like a child seeing a Ferris-wheel for the first
time. She excused herself and walked back to their table. Emanuel
and Jesus nodded their heads and smiled at her, but it was too loud
for any measure of real conversation. She sipped on her long-island
iced tea and tried not to be obvious as she watched people
dance.