Page 16 of Barbed Wire Fences
After the long drive I just made from Richmond, and dealing with Bentley’s bone incident, I think I deserve one. Plus, if my mom realizes that it’s missing, I’ll just blame Rhett since it sounds like they’re buddies now.
“Oh, and like nursing doesn’t require you to encounter some shit?”
I laugh to myself, thinking about one of the last patients I had before I moved here. They managed to pee on meandsoil the bed at the same time while I was trying to insert a catheter. Too drunk to even notice. The next morning, though, they surprisingly apologized, profusely, like they’d woken up with a flash of shame. Most don’t. Honestly, I don’t even think twice these days. Comes with the job.
“Wait, how do you know what I do all day?” I ask, narrowing my eyes at him.
He shrugs casually. “Do you think I’d forget all those summers spent with you rambling on and on about nursing school? Also, have you forgotten how much Meredith talks?”
I laugh despite myself. My mom and I might not keep in touch, but somehow, she always manages to find out just enough about the positive aspects of my life to keep her gossip material fresh.
She’s the queen of small-town bragging rights, spinning tales to make herself look like the perfect, doting mother. It’s not likeshe ever cared about protecting me when I actually needed her. No, my mom was all about maintaining appearances—acting like everything in our family wasn’t unraveling at the seams instead of addressing the fact that her husband needed some serious help with his addictions, and her daughter deserved to be protected.
I take another slow sip of my beer and let myself look at him. Rhett Miller. My old neighbor, friend, classmate… and for one messy, brief second, my boyfriend. He hasn’t changed all that much. Broad shoulders, easy posture, that face that’s way too handsome for its own good.
I think I’m being subtle about staring until I realize I’m biting down on my bottom lip. His mouth curves into that lazy, knowing smile, the kind that makes it clear he’s caught me in the act.
“Take it all in, Jael,” he drawls, stretching like a cat basking in the sun. The hem of his shirt rides up slightly, revealing what looks like are some serious abs he didn’t have when we were younger along with a deep V. “I was always a strong boy, but I’m all man now.” He winks, and I snort, rolling my eyes even as a reluctant smile tugs at my lips.
Rhett had always been attractive—piercing green eyes, tall frame, muscular build, tanned skin. He was the kind of boy everyone noticed back in high school, and time has only sharpened those features, matured his looks in all the good ways. There’s something different about him now, though, something rougher, earned.
His muscles aren’t gym-polished these days, they’re carved by manual labor. His hands look strong and capable. And for the first time, I’m realizing that I like a man in work boots and dirty jeans.
Am I… into blue-collar men?
Maybe it’s the implication of what those boots represent. A man who works hard, who isn’t afraid to get his hands messy to provide. Someone solid, grounded, reliable. Someone completely unlike my father who was an accountant prior to quitting his career and spending all my mom’s money, or my ex-fiancé who worked at the hospital with me.
My thoughts flicker to Christopher, my ex-fiancé who’s still back in Virginia last time I checked. A Nurse Practitioner with a god complex that liked to remind me that he was more educated than me.
Christopher wouldn’t be caught dead in ripped jeans, let alone work boots. If I’d suggested something like role-playing as a plumber, he’d have rolled his eyes and lectured me about how he had more important things to do than indulge in my “juvenile fantasies.” And anytime we needed anything fixed around our apartment, he would call for help versus trying to figure it out on his own like Rhett always did as kids.
And maybe that was part of the reason things between us never worked out. Maybe we were less compatible than I originally thought when I’d accepted his proposal.
I bite back a laugh, trying to imagine Christopher in work boots and a tool belt. The image is so absurd that I can’t help but shake my head. And yet, the thought of Rhett wearing just that—dirty boots and nothing else—sends a rush of heat coursing through me.
Stop it. Stop thinking about Rhett naked.
Easier said than done when he’s sitting across from me looking like aCalvin Kleinmodel who moonlights as a ranch hand andwhen I have seen him naked before.
“So,” he says, breaking me out of my spiraling thoughts. “Who had you staring off into the distance with a dreamy smile, flipping through our old yearbook, while listening to Backstreet Boys? Let me guess—Was it Brian or Nick?”
“Hey,” I say, pointing my beer bottle at him. “They’re agreatband. Timeless, if you ask me.”
He snorts.
“And I wasn’t looking at anyone in particular. I was just... reminiscing.”
“Sure, you were.”
He doesn’t press the issue, but there’s something in his gaze that tells me he knows exactly what—or rather,who—I was looking at. My cheeks flush but he changes the subject again, saving me from admitting that I was staring at his senior year photo.
“How long have you been back in town?” he asks.
“I just got in today. I took a traveling nursing assignment with Whitewood Hospital’s emergency department so I could be here to help my mom with settling my dad’s will. Apparently, the ICU unit here is non-existent and they’re desperate for someone with the skills and experience I have to help upskill their nurses.”
He nods. “Sounds like a good opportunity for you. Sorry to hear about your father.”
I don’t bother answering because Rhett knows neither of us are actually sorry that he’s gone. If he wasn’t ignoring me or draining my mom’s wallet, he was throwing her around or turning his fists on me.
