Page 27 of Love on the Run

“Mmm nn motng,” she muttered through the thermometer.

“Yes, you are.” He smiled.“But go ahead and do it if you want, even if it looks silly.”

The thermometer beeped and Callie pulled it out, squinting at the number.“It says one hundred.”

“That’s too high,” said Jake, a worried expression crossing his face.

“I’m sure it’s not a big deal.I just had some coffee, so I’m a little warmer than usual.”

He looked unconvinced. “Take it again in a half hour. If it’s not down, we’re going back to the doctor.”

“It’s not necessary.”

“We’re not going to argue about this, Callie,” he said firmly, in what Callie had already begun to think of as his “no compromise” voice.He’d make a good father, she thought irrelevantly, and then immediately blushed at the image her mind created: Jake with a child, her child. Why had she thought of that? Callie closed her eyes. What was she doing?

“You look flushed,” Jake said. He’d noticed, but thank God he’d misunderstood the cause.

“Give it a half hour, please,”she begged him.“I don’t want Murphy to think I’m a hypochondriac.”

“Of all the things to think, I doubt anyone would figure you for someone who jumps to seek out medical treatment,” he said.

“Yes, thank you, I think you’ve made your opinion pretty clear on that,” she said tartly, perhaps more tartly than she should have, due to her embarrassment at her wandering thoughts.

Jake didn’t reply, instead choosing to walk back to his office. If he stayed in here, he figured, he wouldn’t keep glancing at Callie.She was too pretty for comfort, drawing his eye like a magnet.He reminded himself why she was here, and of the fact that she had not been truthful with him so far. He had to stay focused.He sat down to take care of some paperwork that he’d been slacking on, hoping that the busy work would distract him.

A knock on the door made him look up.Callie was there, the thermometer in her hand.“It still says one hundred.”

Jake blinked, looking at the clock.He’d lost track of time. It was forty minutes since he’d sat down to work.

“We should probably go to Dr. Murphy’s, right?”

Jake stood up. “Yeah.”He stepped around the desk and reached for his holster, which he’d kept in the office since Callie’s reaction previously. She quickly stepped out of the room. The presence of the gun still unnerved her, although she reminded herself that she would much rather see Jake with a gun than Malcolm.

“Ready, honey?”Jake’s voice startled her.

“Ready,” she responded.

* * * *

The ride to Hazelton was a quiet one this time. Jake seemed preoccupied, and Callie felt awkward making small talk. So she watched the landscape pass by her window.The land was arid, though beautiful, with large stretches of grassland punctuated by patches of scrub pine and juniper, and always with the mountains rising up behind.She spotted cattle grazing in the distance, and the occasional horse. Both were far outnumbered by the little mule deer, which seemed to thrive in this wilderness.A wire fence traced the highway, and every few miles, she could see signs on it, saying “Double L Ranch”. It occurred to her that the ranch must be huge, considering all the miles that had ticked by so far.

“Isthatreally all one person’s property?” she asked, gesturing out the window.

Jake looked over briefly, before returning his eyes to the road. “Yeah. Spreads can get pretty big out here.Depending on what you raise, you might need a square mile per head.My property is actually small, just a tiny slice of the family’s ranch.But I don’t raise anything.A lot of places out here are larger than whole counties out east.”

“That’s crazy to think about.”

“No crazier than packing thousands of people in a square mile, like a lot of cities do. It’s just the other end of the spectrum.”

“I guess. I’m used to cities. This seems like it could get lonely here. You have to go so far just to see a neighbor. And what if you don’t like your neighbor?”

“Then you can be grateful they’re not so close,” Jake said reasonably.

Callie laughed.“Do you have an answer for everything?”

“If I don’t, I try to get one.” Whether or not the comment was intentionally double-edged, it made Callie recall that she had lied to him before.What was worse was that she knew he knew it.Unfortunately, it was impossible for her to explain why she couldn’t tell him the truth. A sigh of frustration escaped her lips.If only it wasn’t so complicated.Jake was a good person. He shouldn’t be involved in the mess of her life.

“You okay?” he asked, hearing her sigh.

---