Page 26 of Rescuing Baylee
Landon leaned back in his chair, his gut full. He folded his hands across his hips and watched her talk. Her eyes turned careful as she thought about his question.
“I wasn’t always in pediatrics. I was a regular RN in the Army. After I got out, I found a job in San Antonio. I…” she paused, looking down at her hands. “I struggled getting back into civilian life, and I had to take some time off. I flew home to Ohio and kind of withdrew from the world for a while.”
“I can’t even imagine what you went through on Nightshade.”
Her mouth quirked, and she looked away, into the middle distance. “Yeah. Very few people can.”
Landon waited for her to continue, but it seemed like she’d gotten a little lost. “So,” he said, interrupting her reverie, “you went home. Did you find what you needed there?”
Her pretty green eyes refocused, and she smiled. He loved the smile because it was natural and easy, making crease lines at the corners of her eyes and lifting her cheeks. “Yes. I went back to the basics. I helped my grandparents on the farm and forgot about nursing for a while. It gave my brain a chance to reset. Then I had a little nephew get sick, and it was while visiting him in the hospital I got the bug to be in pediatrics. I went back to school for a while on the Army’s dime and refocused. I was in pediatric oncology for a while, but it’s a hard specialization, for emotional reasons. I underestimated how hard it would be dealing with terminally ill children. I already have my own struggles, so I switched to regular pediatric nursing at Dell-Seton. I’ve only been there a little while, but I love every minute of it.”
She gave him a chagrined smile, like she was ashamed that she’d given up the harder job, and he didn’t like that look. “I don’t think anyone would blame you for prioritizing your mental health.”
She sighed, looking out the window, but she still seemed down. “It seems like that’s all I do, is prioritize my mental health.”
He nodded. “And you should. I know you’re a fantastic nurse, but after what you’ve been through, you’re allowed to be a little broken. The military is great about training their people to be machines, but they don’t take the same care in reintegrating them into civilian life or caring for their mental health.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I learned a long time ago to use my own healthcare, rather than go through the VA.”
Landon nodded. “I have a few buddies that do the same. There are a lot of cops that used to be military. I don’t know of any of them that came back completely unscathed, if you know what I mean.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”
She still looked down, and he didn’t like the thought that she felt guilt for taking care of herself. “So, what do you do on the farm? I’m a Texas boy. Explain the appeal of Ohio.”
She snorted, her lips tugging up at one side. “Well, it used to be a dairy farm. My grandparents milked cows for almost forty years. Then they let the dairy go and switched fully to beef, with my parents buying in to help out. We all built fence, moved cattle, doctored them. You name it, I probably did it. Delivered some babies in the middle of winter.”
“Seriously?” he laughed.
Baylee nodded. “Oh, yeah. Cows are not smart animals, and we had this one heifer that decided to wander off and have her calf in a mud pit in the middle of January…”
Landon watched her talk about life on the farm, her eyes bright with humor as she related stories. He peppered in questions to keep her talking. It was obvious she loved being there, and with her family. “Why did you come back to Texas?”
She gave him a considering look. “Well, my parents had taken over from my grandparents, and they went into semi-retirement. Sold off a bunch of cattle. And I had a community of friends down here that I’d served with. I love my family, but they don’t always understand what we did over there. It was important to me to be near my friends that did understand when I went back into nursing. Rex and Olivia are both within an hour of here, if I need them.”
“They were with you on Nightshade?”
She nodded, her eyes going distant. “Olivia and I went through boot camp together, and Rex joined us later. We just always seemed to be together, and they are my best friends.”
“Have you told them about what you’ve been going through?”
Sighing, she shook her head. “Not yet. I was kind of waiting for things to resolve themselves, if you know what I mean.”
“That makes sense. So, you settle into your new life here, things are going well, and then a gang banger rolls through your doors and fucks things up.”
She snorted wryly. “Yup. Doesn’t it figure?” She huffed out a breath. “Ready for a brownie?”
Landon blinked and grinned. “Well, yeah…”
Pushing up from the table, she crossed to the microwave and pulled a square dish out. She cut the confection into 9 pieces and pulled one out, setting it on a paper towel, then a second piece. Even though he was full from dinner, he took a huge bite of the brownie when she set it in front of him.
“Oh, man…” he sighed. “That’s fantastic. It’s still warm.”
She shrugged lightly. “It’s just a box mix.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s good and you made it.”
They chewed for a few minutes, enjoying the chocolate. In the past three days, he’d eaten more chocolate than he had in a long time. Suddenly, he frowned and let out a curse.