back in his mouth, he folded his hands across his stomach. “I don’t know what I want, Mitch.” Rubbing his hand down his face, he admitted, “I don’t know if I want to stay with this job or leave it.”
“You know what, Mark?” Mitch grinned. “Maybe this is exactly what you need. Time with Leah, who is so leery of police officials and men in general, will either convince you that you’ve got the right job or chase you away from it.”
“So many people come out here not wanting to talk about their past. She’s one of them.” He then continued, “She can be defensive all she wants. At least she’s protecting herself that way.”
Mitch cocked his head curiously.
Mark remained passive, refusing to allow his brother-in-law to see just how much Leah had affected him. Still, when Mitch nodded, with that speculative look filling his features, Mark had to wonder if he’d blown his cover.
“I think you’re right, Walker” was all Mitch replied. “Remember though, while you’re considering if you want this job, some people can simply walk away from it, but others are called. I think you’re called to this job, Mark. It’s in your blood and I don’t think you can turn your back on it, regardless of what you think. However—” pushing back from his desk, he stood “—six weeks’ leave of absence is granted.”
Mark stared, stunned. He hadn’t thought he would get that much when he’d requested it. He’d honestly thought Mitch would badger him into working half weeks or every other day.
“Six weeks,” he repeated, echoing Mitch.
Mitch nodded. “Yeah. Six entire weeks. I hope this is what you want and you’ll take time to find your heart while you’re out there, Mark. We’ll all miss you, but I really think this is God in the working.”
A spine-tingling sensation spread down Mark’s back at those words.
God in the working.
Those words echoed eerily inside him and as much as he wanted to deny what Mitch had said, he knew God’s ways were greater than his own ways.
“Whatever,” he said instead. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to run by the hardware store and then go make sure Leah knows I’ll be available starting tomorrow.”
Mitch grinned. “You do that. And give her my regards, too.”
Relieved the interrogation was over, Mark stood and strode toward the door. “You give your own regards, Mitch. I’ve got a job to do and that’s all I plan to do.”
Mitch’s deep rich chuckle followed him out the room, taunting him to keep that pledge of “business only” as he faced the sweet, gentle soul named Leah Thomas.
Chapter Three
“I hear you might have found someone to help you out?” Tessa said.
Leah glanced up at her best friend after shoving a camera into her backpack. “I suppose so. How’d you hear about Laura’s brother, though?”
Curiously she paused in the preparation of her knapsack to study the diminutive woman lounging on the couch, one leg lazily swinging back and forth over the arm of the cloth-covered sofa.
“The neighbor told me when I pulled up that Deputy Walker had been here the other day. I would think that was the only reason he’d be here, knowing how you like to keep to yourself.”
Leah sighed, understanding when Tessa was simply pumping her for information and that her dear gossipy neighbor wanted her to talk. “Mrs. Mulching tells all, doesn’t she?” Leah returned to stuffing her bag full of beef jerky, a full canteen and sunblock. She also tried to figure out just what to inform her dear friend Tessa.
Continuing to swing her leg as she reclined on the sofa, Tessa nodded, drawing Leah’s attention back to her. “From what I’ve seen, she does tell all. So, if you have someone to go with you and help you, why don’t you just wait and let him take you out to study the area instead of going on your own today?”
That was Tessa. She was pretty much to the point with Leah. Leah had obviously waited too long to tell her what she wanted to hear so she’d simply asked. Leah always knew where she stood with this woman. And Tessa hadn’t mellowed one bit now that she was married. “Where is Drake?” she asked mildly, trying to change the subject.
Tessa chuckled, giving Leah a knowing look. Running her fingers through her short brown hair, she shifted on the sofa and crossed her legs. “With his therapist. His limp is almost gone. When he’s done I’ll pick him up and give him the books I borrowed from you. Then I get to bully him into reading some more for me.”
Leah chuckled. Tessa’s husband, Drake, had been through an awful ordeal only a few months before. Many thought he wouldn’t make it, but he’d proven the town wrong. Systematically, day by day, Drake had pulled himself from the brink of death to where he was now. He’d met Tessa who was reteaching him to read after the accident that had caused so much damage. It had been love at first sight. Rarely did Tessa make it over to chat anymore. Except when something new was obviously in the air. Tessa seemed to feel so responsible for Leah.
She wondered if this concern was just natural for Tessa or if it was because Leah tended to be thought of as fragile by most people. “I can’t believe he is up to poetry by Burns,” Leah murmured before zipping the bag up.
“He sure is. Now, why don’t you answer my question, dear, and tell me why you’re on your way out to the desert when you have a perfectly good helper you’re going to be paying to do the dirty work for you?”
Leah lifted the bag and moved over across from Tessa. Seating herself on the sofa, she dropped the bag on her khaki-covered legs. Smoothing the pink top, she paused to push a strand of blond hair behind her ear. “I am perfectly capable of handling things myself, Tessa, and I can’t believe you said that,” she said carefully.
Tessa dropped her feet to the floor and leaned forward. “You know that’s not what I meant at all. I know how capable you are.”
Leah didn’t believe that. Her face said otherwise.
“I meant, get your money’s worth. Mark is a photographer and has been all over the area out there. Why not leave it to him and concentrate on the rest of the planning you have back here?”
Leah sighed. How did she explain that allowing another person to get close to her was not something she could accept? She’d thought she could, but in the end…
She couldn’t say out loud that she was afraid, without revealing too much of herself.
“He doesn’t know where I want the pictures. I thought I’d go out there and mark two or three of the areas I wanted, take some snapshots to give him ideas of the types of places I want and need, and then let him do the rest.”
Tessa nodded slowly. “That does make sense…. But you do realize there are snakes out right now? They’re especially bad this year.”
Leah interlocked her fingers, clasping her hands firmly. “They are always especially bad, according to everyone around here. Please, Tessa, I’ll be fine.”
Tessa nibbled her lower lip. “You’re sure?”
“If we can teach grade school, we can handle anything nature throws at us. You should know that.”
Tessa chuckled. “I do love teaching. Okay. Don’t forget, Drake said if you need to test wheelchairs and such out there, he’d be available to help out.”
“I’m surprised he is willing to get back in one of those things,” Leah murmured softly, with feeling.
Tessa’s gaze darkened a bit. “He still has his bad days when he has to use one. I imagine he will for a while to come. But I think…well…I think offering to help makes him feel useful. You know, he feels that being in the wheelchair gave him an opportunity to help someone else in need down the road.”