Page 48 of Shared By the Mountain Men

“You know what that means,” I teased. “Four more weeks of recovery.”

“Hey!” she replied indignantly. “This isn’t a groundhog situation. It’s only water.”

She was sitting on the edge of my bed, so I knelt before her and peeled away the wrapping on her ankle. The swelling had gone down a lot. In fact, it looked pretty damn good.

A jolt of panic hit me. If her ankle was healed, it meant she would be returning to her hike soon.

“How’s it feel?” I asked, slowly bending it to the left, then the right.

“Tender, but not bad,” she replied.

“What about this?” I tilted her foot so that the toes were pointing at the ceiling.

She winced. “There. That’s where I still feel pain.”

Relieved, I nodded. “It looks good, but yeah, you’ll still need some more recovery time. That tilting motion is where you need to be painless, because you’ll be bending your foot a lot like that while hiking uphill and downhill. Let’s leave it off while we kayak, but I’ll want to wrap it again when we get back.”

As we prepared the kayak, guilt replaced relief. I was a doctor. I shouldn’t behappythat she was still injured. That was antithetical to everything I believed in.

But as I watched Melissa’s slender form placing our picnic in the kayak, it was easy to forget all about my Hippocratic Oath.

It was a beautiful day in Crested Butte, a little warmer than it had been in Ouray earlier this morning. The sun was bright but pleasant, and the sky was bluer than usual. I breathed in the fresh mountain air and sighed happily as we began kayaking up the river.

“Happy to be back?” Melissa asked over her shoulder.

“You have no idea.”

“Do you dislike Ouray that much? Ouray and Silverton were two towns I was supposed to stop in on the Colorado Trail, to sleep in a bed and replenish my supplies. I’d heard good things about Ouray.”

“It’s a great little town,” I replied. “The Switzerland of America, it’s called. But there’s no place like home, you know?”

She chuckled. “Honestly, Idon’treally know. I’ve lived in Toledo pretty much my whole life, but lately it hasn’t felt like home. Especially after my breakup. Being out here, seeing other parts of the country, makes me wonder if I should start fresh somewhere new.”

I perked up a little bit. “I can certainly understand. That’s why I moved out here from Denver when I got back from Afghanistan. I wanted a fresh start.”

“And are you glad you did it?”

“I’m happier than I ever thought I could be,” I replied honestly.

Melissa didn’t respond, but I could tell she was thinking about that. I began wondering if she was serious. Right now, this was just a fling with an expiration date. But if she was willing to move somewhere new when she finished the Colorado Trail…

I shook off the thought. I’d known this woman just a few days. It was insane to think about long-term plans.

But the thought stayed in the back of my mind.

We paddled along in happy silence for a while. That’s what I really liked about Melissa: I felt like I could be around her without needing to fill the silence with conversation. Our mutual presence was enough, a unique compatibility of shared activity.

After almost an hour of paddling, we pulled off at the same little riverbank as last time to eat lunch. I spread out a towel for us and sat down. Melissa immediately stretched her legs out across my lap like it was the most natural thing in the world. The physical touch, both casual and intimate, was soothing.

We chatted about my patients in Ouray, though I kept the details vague to protect their privacy. She told me about the ATV tour with Jack, and seeing Ash working at the barbecue place.

“He has a lot of jobs,” I said. “He’s never been the kind of guy who can work forty hours a week at the same place. He likes to spread it around.”

“Hmm.” Melissa chewed on her sandwich. “Hey, sorry about asking what he went to prison for.”

“No apology needed,” I quickly reassured her. “Thanks for accepting what I said. I can’t violate his trust.”

“I understand. I don’t like to tell people about my embarrassing traits. If I’d gone to prison, I would carry that secret to the grave.”

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