Page 18 of 15 Summers Later

Had she ever danced with him? Yes, she remembered. Three years earlier at his brother Owen’s wedding. It had been one of those organic things, everyone dancing with everyone else, though, and he had only been a year out from losing Johanna, so she hadn’t thought anything of it.

The band’s slow, sweet notes swirled around the dance floor, where a dozen other couples already moved together, including Nicki and her clearly besotted river guide, who looked as if a genie had popped out of his beer bottle and granted him his fondest desire in the form of a tall, dark-haired nurse with vivid blue eyes.

This was not a good idea, Madi thought. For one wild instant, she wasn’t sure where to put her hands. Around his neck, like Nic was doing? That seemed far too intimate under the circumstances.

He solved her quandary by placing one hand at her back and using the other one to grip her fingers.

He was a good dancer. She wasn’t sure why she was so surprised. Luke was athletic and strong. She had worked with him for years and had seen him outmuscle even the most obstinate of patients.

Still, the graceful way he moved across the dance floor left her feeling awkward and ungainly in contrast.

“So,” he said, gesturing toward his sister. “Looks like Nic has picked her summer guy. What about you?”

She looked over at her friend, who was now resting her head on the guy’s considerable chest.

“Not yet.”

“What’s stopping you?”

She frowned, not liking that she was so predictable to him. Maybe she had fallen into a lazy pattern. “I’ve been so busy, I barely had time to come to the Burning Tree tonight. I don’t know if I have the energy right now to put into a relationship, even a casual one.”

“You can’t devote your entire life to the sanctuary. That’s not healthy.”

“So says the man who has done nothing but work since the day he returned home to practice veterinary medicine in Emerald Creek.”

“That’s different.”

“Why is it different?” she asked, genuinely confused.

“Maybe it’s not that different,” he conceded. “We’re both passionate about what we do. But I have the added complication of Sierra, trying to fill the role of both parents for her.”

“That’s true. Lucky for you, she’s a good kid.”

“Fingers crossed that continues. She’s only thirteen. Or she will be next week, anyway. I’m afraid I’m not out of the woods yet.”

“You don’t have to worry about Sierra. She’s amazing.”

“She misses her mom so much sometimes,” he admitted. “It breaks my heart.”

She had always liked Johanna, though they had never been precisely friends. The other woman had been a professional as well, a physical therapist with a busy career working out of the regional hospital and in her own practice.

It had been through her work that she caught COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic, before much information was known about the virus. Johanna’s underlying medical diagnoses of both asthma and type 1 diabetes had led to complications and she had spent two horrible weeks in an intensive care unit in Boise before succumbing to the disease.

That had been such a horrible time for all of the Gentry family. Luke had seemed...numb for a long time and Madi’s heart ached when she remembered how devastated Sierra had been at her mother’s death.

As Madi had lost her own mother when she was twelve, that shared experience had helped cement her close relationship with his daughter.

Did he still grieve his wife? she wondered. Most of the time, he seemed fine. Kind, generous, well-adjusted. Maybe he was hiding his pain on the inside.

Was that why Luke never dated, at least as far as she could tell? Maybe his heart was too scarred to ever think about letting another woman in.

The idea left her depressed, somehow.

“Sierra is fine,” she said to him. “She’s turning thirteen. In a few years, she’ll be driving, and a few more after that, she’ll be heading off to college.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“I’m only saying you should think about getting out there.”

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