Home on the Ranch: Wyoming Cowboy Ranger Read online

  Again he was surprised that exercise hadn’t made him sore. When he’d accomplished what she asked, Lily said, “Now back up with your hands and slowly rise up on your knees.” She kept her hands tucked into his belt. “Ready?” she asked when he was in position. “I’m going to help you stand.”

  Using the technique of bending his legs and not relying on his back, he got to his feet, virtually free of residual pain. She held on to the belt until he’d situated himself in the wheelchair.

  “Good job! Mission accomplished, Porter.” Her full smile lit up his universe.

  “Your magic has made a believer out of me.”

  She cocked her head, causing that luscious black hair to swing back and forth. “It’s the pure science of movement. You thought this was all going to be foolishness?”

  “No. But when Ace landed on top of me, I feared I might end up in a wheelchair for life.”

  She wheeled him over to the desk. “As you can see, you’ve already moved on your own without crying out in pain. In another day or two your strength will have returned and you won’t need the belt. If you’ll undo it, I’ll put it away.”

  Porter didn’t want this session to be over, but she was waiting. He unfastened it while she reached for the ends and lifted it from his body. Next she phoned for someone to come for him.

  “Ron will be here any minute for you.”

  “Do you have more patients coming?”

  “No. You were my last one. I’ll see you again in the morning at ten.” That good news would help him get through the night.

  To his frustration she sat down in her swivel chair and started putting information into the computer. Maybe he was wrong, but he had a feeling it was on purpose and secretly hoped his nearness disturbed her, too. He wasn’t about to let her ignore him no matter how hard she tried.

  “Yours is a very physical job. I would imagine there are evenings when you go home exhausted.” Was she involved with someone?

  “There are times.”

  Another half minute passed before he said, “Are you going to leave me in suspense?”

  She turned in her swivel chair, looking startled. “What do you mean?”

  “This morning you told me you survived a crash. I’ve been curious ever since. Did it happen at the White Pines ski area?” It was where he and his buddies liked to ski during the winter when they could get away.

  “No. Whistler, Canada.”

  That surprised him. “Were you there on vacation?”

  “No. I was racing in the Olympics.”

  He took a quick breath. “You were on the Olympic team? How old were you?”

  “Eighteen. But I crashed during the Super G and it put me out of commission.”

  Porter shook his head, utterly blown away. “How long ago was that?”

  “Eight years back.”

  So that meant she was twenty-six. “How did it happen?”

  “Surely you don’t want to know.”

  “Actually I do. I happen to be crazy about skiing myself. Normally I watch the Olympics, but eight years ago my parents were going through a painful divorce. As a result, I missed it.”

  Compassion filled her beautiful violet eyes. “I’m sorry for that, Porter. I can’t imagine anything more painful than watching your parents break up.” She sounded like she meant it.

  “It was awful, but I’m the one who’s sorry for your accident that ended years of training to become a part of the team. What went wrong?”

  She let out a little sigh. “About thirty seconds into my run, I made a left-footed turn and arced my skis to the right, but I had to manage a jump at the same time. At that point I was off balance and had an unstable landing. The minute I hit the snow, my left leg skidded to the left and my knee hyperextended.

  “I pitched forward and began to tumble. My boot came off before I slammed into the barrier. I was airlifted to the hospital and learned I’d broken my leg. My tibia bone pierced through the skin and my leg still has screws. But the worst part was the jarring of my spine joint. The surgeon warned me that if I injured it again, I’d be paralyzed. So I gave up skiing.”

  Porter was horrified by what she’d told him. She’d been forced to give up skiing. But at what cost to her, mentally and emotionally?

  “No one would ever know your story of survival or your heartache by looking at you.”

  “Heartache is right. Once I was stable, I was flown to the university hospital in Salt Lake City. The doctors there took marvelous care of me and I recovered. Because of their expertise, I decided to become a physiotherapist, like the people who’d worked on me.” Lifting her chin ever so slightly, she said, “I hope that has answered all your questions.”

  He hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface, but he would have to wait until tomorrow because Ron had just come in the room. Porter eyed her solemnly. “Thank you for today’s workout, Lily, and for sharing with me. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  He turned to Ron in a completely different frame of mind than when he’d been wheeled down for this session. Lily had overcome a tragedy that could have ruined the life of someone who wasn’t a warrior.

  Later that evening after his friends had eaten with him and left, he opened his laptop, logged onto Wi-Fi and searched for video clips of the Vancouver Olympics on YouTube. There were dozens of them. He narrowed his search to the alpine events until he came to the Super G.

  Spectacular Crash Sends Lily Owens to the Hospital

  Bingo. He clicked on the video and heard a short history about the young and attractive, new alpine sensation from Wyoming. Porter was riveted and horrified all over again as he watched what happened exactly the way she’d told him. He cringed to watch another video showing her being helped off the piste to an ambulance.

  The announcer mentioned she’d lost consciousness for a few minutes, a detail she hadn’t told Porter. That meant she’d suffered a concussion, among other things. Lily had been rated seventh in the running for the Super G event before her spectacular crash only thirty seconds out of the start gate. What a terrible loss to the ski-racing world.

  He watched some of the racers in her event before closing his laptop. To have survived that crash and live to tell about it was a miracle in and of itself. But to see her in person today, moving and functioning so normally to help others with injuries, he thought she epitomized human triumph in his eyes.

  After the nurse came in to check his vital signs and get him ready for bed, he took some ibuprofen and put his head on the pillow, but he knew sleep wouldn’t come for a long time.

  * * *

  Lily’s day at the hospital started at eight thirty every weekday morning except for Wednesdays, when she did the afternoon shift and stayed through to seven o’clock for emergencies.

  This Tuesday morning shouldn’t have been any different from all the others, but for a reason she didn’t want to admit, she’d had trouble deciding what to wear while she got ready. It was the ranger’s damn fault. After all her years of training, she didn’t dare get involved with a patient. Lily shouldn’t care what he thought about her.

  After her shower she decided on a pale blue short-sleeved top and matching denims. Silly really for her to even think about it since she wore a lab coat over her clothes and technician’s nonslip shoes. But when she looked in the mirror to put on her tiny flowered blue earrings, she frowned.

  The side part of her layered bob gave her a slight bang, a boring style she hadn’t bothered to change in a couple of years. Maybe it was time for a new style, something a little shorter, possibly a windswept look that would be easier to take care of. Later today she’d call Millie at Style Clips and make an appointment.

  Millie Edwards, her closest friend from grade school, was now married and expecting a baby. Before Millie had to cut down her hours in preparation for the blessed event, Lily needed to get over there
. Her friend would know exactly what style would suit her. Maybe they could go to lunch today.

  After applying lipstick, she left her second-floor bedroom at the rear of the ranch house and hurried out to the garage to her silver Volkswagen Passat convertible. Lily had bought it as a present to herself from the money she’d been earning. She sped off and left the top down, loving the breeze against her face and hair, a holdover from the days when she stepped out of the blocks to fly down the mountain.

  There was no way she could ever reimburse her parents for everything they’d done for her. But since working at the hospital, she’d insisted on buying the things she needed and paid her parents rent for living there. Those were some of the things she could do to justify her existence.

  Halfway to the drive-thru where she often bought breakfast, it dawned on her that she hadn’t checked on the new foal, or gone to the barn to walk Trixie out to the corral. That was a first, which wasn’t very nice to her horse.

  Of course, Stuart, the man who managed the ranch, would take care of her mare, along with all the other horses. But it surprised her that her mind had been somewhere else this morning. Thinking about her newest patient went against all the rules. She could get fired from her position by the higher-ups and needed to fight her attraction with all her might.

  Lily grabbed coffee and a breakfast burrito and headed to the hospital, where she put on a fresh lab coat. Her first appointment was Judge Jenkins, who’d been in a recent car accident. He’d been T-boned by a truck. Luckily no bones had been broken, but he was in a lot of distress.

  “Hi, Judge! How’s it going?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  Lily laughed. “Oh, but I do. How else will I be able to help you? Let’s get you down on the pad so we can work out the kinks.”

  “What I need is a new body.”

  She helped him get settled. How many hundreds of times had she wished for the same thing after her crash? “There’s nothing wrong with this one that a little more therapy won’t make better.”

  “Who made you such an optimist?” he asked good-naturedly.

  “It goes with the business.” But only after years of deciding she had to become one if she was going to make it through the rest of her life.

  While she worked with him, her mind was counting down to ten o’clock, something she’d rarely done before the arrival of the ranger. This had to stop.

  When her patient finally left, she heard him talking in the hall with another man who called him “Judge.” The next thing she knew, Sharon wheeled in the ranger. The mere sight of him made her pulse race.

  “Hey, Lily. Got another one for you. See you later.”

  “Thanks, Sharon.”

  This morning her handsome patient was already dressed in hospital pajamas. As her eyes wandered over him, she realized that he’d shaved. Above his chiseled jaw she also noticed that the lines of pain had faded somewhat from around his mouth.

  “Good morning, Lily.” His deep voice penetrated her senses the same way it had yesterday, but she detected a difference in his demeanor. “I didn’t realize Judge Jenkins was a patient of yours.”

  “Do you know him?”

  “Only in the sense that one of my best friends is working with him to put a killer in prison. The judge is a good man.”

  “I agree.” She stood up. “From the looks of it, I’d say you slept well last night. Are you ready for another workout?” She pulled the gait belt out of the drawer.

  “I’ve been looking forward to it.”

  So had she, though she’d tried hard not to. “All right, let’s get started.” She pushed him over to the floor pad and set the brake.

  “Why don’t I put that around my waist myself?”

  “If you feel you can.” She handed it to him. “But stop the second it hurts too much. Of course, knowing you, I’m afraid you won’t admit to pain, but there’ll be other ways I can tell.”

  His dark eyes searched hers. “How?”

  “That’s my secret.”

  A slow smile broke out on his face before he leaned forward and used his left arm to push one end around the back of his body. Then he used his right arm, the one with the bruises, to grab it, and fastened both ends.

  “Bravo, Porter. I know that hurt when I saw the lines around your mouth deepen for a moment, but I’m convinced it didn’t do any damage.”

  Their eyes met and held. “Yesterday I couldn’t have done that, which means I’m getting better under your care.”

  “You keep up that attitude, Porter, and you’ll be back at the fire lookout in no time.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were anxious to get rid of me.”

  “I am,” Lily responded. “I know you’re itching to return to work so you can catch that culprit who left you to die in the dark.” She paused. “Now remember what we went through yesterday. Lean forward a little. Make sure your feet are firmly planted on the floor and bend your legs.” As she took hold of the belt, she detected the scent of lime, probably from his shaving gel. “Okay. Here we go.”

  He was up a little faster than yesterday, and moved into position before getting down on his knees. Without her giving him instructions, he did everything right and turned over on his back.

  She looked down at him before getting on her knees to take hold of his left leg. “I think you’re a fraud.”

  He chuckled, a low, rumbling sound that excited her. To her dismay she found everything about him enticing. This attraction to him was all wrong. After her involvement with Steve Louter during the Olympics, she’d sworn off men.

  They did a workout that was ten minutes longer than yesterday. She pushed him, but his body didn’t tense.

  “What’s the prognosis, Lily?”

  “Your body is healing, otherwise we couldn’t have gone this long. But you’ve done enough for this morning.”

  “Will I be seeing you later today?”

  Yes. She got to her feet. “You’ve been scheduled for three o’clock. Are you ready to get back in the wheelchair?”

  “Whenever you are.”

  “Your stamina is remarkable.” So remarkable he might not take as long to go back to his full-time duties.

  He turned over carefully and got into position for her to help lift him. She leaned down to grasp the belt. By accident her cheek brushed against his, sending an electric current through her body. This time when he stood to his full height, she knew that by tomorrow he wouldn’t need the belt.

  Once he was settled in the chair, he removed it without her asking. She took off the brake and rolled him to her desk. After calling for an orderly to come and get him, she put the belt back in the drawer.

  “Do you have another patient before lunch?”

  “Yes. A teen who collided with another player at his high school’s last game of the season in February. He fell hard on his left hip and needs occasional therapy so he can go out for training in August.”

  “Did they win?”

  His sense of humor made her laugh. “As a matter of fact, they did.”

  “Then he’ll get better faster.”

  “So speaks Dr. Ewing. I didn’t know you were a psychiatrist, too.”

  “More a student of human nature. Some injuries have to be harder to overcome than others.” Clearing his throat, he said softly, “Last night I watched some videos of you on my laptop. I hope you won’t be offended if I told you my heart came close to failing me when I saw you come down that course and crash. I admire you more than you know for what you’ve endured and become.”

  Shocked that he’d looked at the videos—let alone that he’d said those things to her—she turned to him. “There are millions of athletes in every field who go through the same thing year in and year out. Some of them have suffered injuries so much worse than mine. Don’t make me out to be a sain
t, Porter.”

  “I’m not, but I believe in giving credit where it’s due. What I’ve been asking myself is that if something that death-defying had happened to me at the age of eighteen, could I have pulled myself out of it the way you did? But naturally, it’s uncomfortable for you to talk about. I promise I won’t bring it up again.” He looked at her through shuttered eyes. “Forgive me?”

  She took a deep breath. “There’s nothing to forgive. It’s my fault for talking about myself when we were discussing painkillers. You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t curious. The internet exists for humankind’s successes and failures to be revealed.”

  “Do you wish there weren’t such a thing?”

  Lily smiled. “Not at all. It beats doing things the old-fashioned way, like going to the library and looking up information in the card catalog.”

  “You’re not old enough to remember that far back.”

  “You’re right, but I heard my nana talk about the times she did research for a local radio show. She hosted it from Jackson Hole about the Old West after my grandfather died. He’d been a big hunter and had a lot of information for her from his family memorabilia.

  “The one thing I remember was that she complained about only being able to take ten books home from the library to read at a time. Worse, half the ones she’d been waiting for to come in hadn’t been returned on time. But somehow she did it for five years.”

  “She must have been popular to stay on the air that long. Is she still alive?”

  “I’m afraid she passed away when I was sixteen. My nana grew up on her parents’ Jackson Hole ranch and became a champion barrel racer in the rodeo. She reigned supreme for a long time. We did a lot of riding together. I loved her to death.”

  “What about your mom?”

  “She preferred skiing and became an Olympian. She met my father, who was also an Olympian. When I was two, they started teaching me.”

  Porter was quiet for a moment, then said, “Dare I say I’m more impressed than ever. Greatness runs in your family.”