The Pines Of Winder Ranch. RaeAnne Thayne

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      Though her movements were slow and careful, Jo still opened her eyes when Tess put the blood pressure cuff on her leg.

      “I’m so sorry to wake you. I wish I didn’t have to,” Tess murmured.

      “Oh, poof,” Jo whispered back. “Don’t you worry for a single moment about doing your job.”

      “How is your pain level?”

      Jo was silent. “I’m not going to tell you,” she finally said. “You’ll just write it down in your little chart and the next thing I know, Jake Dalton will be increasing my meds and I’ll be so drugged out I won’t be able to think straight. My Brant is coming home. Should be any day now.”

      As Jo whispered to her, Tess continued to slant careful looks in his direction.

      “Easton told me earlier that he was on his way,” she said in an undertone.

      “They’ll be good for Easton. The four of them, why, they were thicker than thieves. I can’t tell you how glad I am they’ll still have each other.”

      Quinn swallowed hard, hating this whole situation all over again.

      Tess smiled, relentlessly cheerful. “It’s a blessing, all right. For all of them and especially for your peace of mind.”

      He listened to their quiet conversation as Tess continued to take care of Jo’s medical needs. He was still trying to figure out how much of her demeanor he was buying. She seemed to be everything that was patient and calm, a serene island in the middle of a stormy emotional mess. Was it truly possible that this dramatic change in her could be genuine?

      He supposed he was a cynical bastard but he couldn’t quite believe it. This could all be one big show she was putting on. He had only been here a few days. If he stuck around long enough, she was likely to revert to her true colors.

      On the other hand, people could change. He was living testimony to that. He was worlds away from the bitter, hot-tempered punk he’d been when he arrived at the Winders’ doorstep after a year in foster care and the misery that came before.

      He pushed away the past, preferring instead to focus on today.

      Tess finished with Jo a few moments later. After fluffing her pillow and tucking the blankets up around her, she dimmed the light in the bathroom again and moved quietly toward the door out into the hallway.

      He rose and followed her, careful not to disturb Jo, who seemed to have easily slipped into sleep again.

      “I’ll walk you out,” he said, his voice low, just as she reached the door.

      She whirled and splayed a hand across her chest. She glared at him as she moved out of the room to the hallway. He followed her and closed the door behind him.

      “Don’t do that! That’s the second time you’ve nearly scared the life out of me. How long have you been awake?”

      “Not long. Here, let me help you with your coat.”

      He took it off the chair in the hallway where she had tossed it and stood behind her. Her scent teased him, that delectable peach and vanilla, that somehow seemed sweet and sultry at the same time, like a hot Southern night.

      She paused for a moment, then extended her arm through the sleeve. “Thank you,” she said and he wondered if he was imagining the slightly husky note to her voice.

      “You’re welcome.”

      “You really don’t need to walk me out, though. I’m sure I can find the way to my car by myself.”

      “I could use the fresh air, to be honest with you.”

      She looked as if she wanted to argue but she only shrugged and turned toward the door. He held it open for her and again smelled that seductive scent as she moved past him on her way out.

      The scent seemed to curl through him, twisting and tugging an unwelcome response out of him, which he did his best to ignore as they walked out into the night.

      The moon hung huge over the western mountains now, the stars a bright glitter out here unlike anything to be found in the city.

      The October night wasn’t just cool now in the early morning hours, it was downright cold. This time of year, temperatures in these high mountain valleys could show a wide range in the course of a single day. Nights were invariably cool, even in summer. In spring and fall, the temperature dropped quickly once the sun went down.

      His morning spent in the garden soaking up sunshine with Jo seemed only another distant memory.

      “Gorgeous night, isn’t it?” Tess said. “I don’t ever get tired of the view out here.”

      He nodded. “I’ve lived without it since I left Cold Creek Canyon, but something about it stays inside me even when I’m back in Seattle.”

      She smiled a little. “I know I’m going to miss these mountains when I move to Portland in a few weeks.”

      “What’s in Portland?” he asked, curious as to why she would pick up and leave after her lifetime spent here.

      “A pretty good basketball team,” she answered. “Lots of trees and flowers. Nice people, from what I hear.”

      “You know what I mean. Why are you leaving?”

      She was silent for a moment, the only sound the wind whispering through the trees. “A whole truckload of reasons. Mostly, I guess, because I’m ready for a new start.”

      He could understand that. He had sought the same thing in the Air Force after leaving Pine Gulch, hadn’t he? A place where no one knew his history in the foster-care system or as the rough-edged punk who had found a home here with Jo and Guff.

      “Will you be doing the same thing? Providing end-of-life care?”

      She smiled and in the moonlight, she looked fresh and lovely and very much like the teenage cheerleader who had tangled the hormones of every boy who walked the halls of Pine Gulch High School.

      “Just the opposite, actually. I took a job in labor and delivery at one of the Portland hospitals.”

      “Bringing life into the world instead of comforting those who are leaving it. There’s a certain symmetry to that.”

      “I think so, too. It’s all part of my brand-new start.”

      “I suppose everybody could use that once in a while.”

      “True enough,” she murmured, with an unreadable look in her eyes.

      “Will you miss this?”

      “Pine Gulch?”

      “I was thinking more of the work you do. You seem...very good at it. Do you give this same level to all your patients as you have to Jo?”

      She looked startled at the question, though he wasn’t sure if was because she had never thought about it before or that she was surprised he had noticed.

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