Muscle
Chapter 1
"Well, you're making good progress – very good progress," the doctor said. "I think another couple of weeks and you can get back onto a horse."
"A couple WEEKS?!" Nick blurted. "I feel good! I feel fine! And I need to get back to work!"
"You may feel better than you did, but get up on a horse, galloping around the countryside, and you're going to set yourself back another month," the doctor warned. "Haven't you found other work to do around the ranch, things that don't stress your back?"
"Doc, you can only mend so much tack and rework the books only so often before you go crazy," Nick said. "I need to get back to work. Maybe if I ride a wagon – "
"Are you going to go running a wagon where you've been running cattle or horses? It'll be just as hard on your back. Listen to me, Nick, and listen to me good. You have had a back injury that could have paralyzed you except that your family took excellent care getting you home."
Nick had to admit that, and he had to admit that his entire "engagement" to Hester Converse, from the moment he brought her home to the moment he went crazy jealous and fought with Heath to the moment she walked out of his life – well, just thinking about that was probably the biggest embarrassment of his life. Now add on weeks of not being able to work in the field and every day became more and more piling his foolishness onto him.
At first he'd been heartbroken that things fell apart with Hester. Then, after she'd gone, he felt more and more ashamed of how he had acted with Heath. More and more like he deserved the beating and the injuries he got. The shame had been turning more and more into embarrassment lately but now, hearing he needed to baby himself for another couple of weeks, the embarrassment was turning into aggravation.
Then the doctor said, "I'll see you again in two weeks, and we'll re-evaluate then."
"What do you mean, re-evaluate?" Nick asked.
"I mean that if it looks like you need a couple more weeks after that to recover enough to go back to work, that's what I'll recommend. You're always free to ignore my advice, Nick, but you already know that I'm not that understanding with patients who do and then complain when things go bad."
Nick had been in that position himself, just after he began to heal up completely from that bullet wound in the leg he got before the big drive right after Heath arrived – the drive Heath took over and managed very well. Nick's patience for recovering ran out even before Heath and the hands got home from the drive, and he set himself back because he didn't listen to the doctor and give himself more time and rest. And the doctor was never going to let him forget it.
"All right, all right," Nick finally gave in.
The doctor said, "All right. Let's see how well you're getting down the stairs."
Nick got up from where he was sitting on the bed, grabbed his cane, and went out of his room ahead of the doctor. Nick had been navigating the stairs for more than a week and felt very confident in doing it, the cane in one hand and the other hand on the rail. The doctor followed him, watching. Down at the bottom of the stairs, Victoria and Audra appeared from the living room and met them.
"Very good," the doctor said. Then said to Victoria, "Nick is coming along very well but he needs to give it another couple of weeks before he tries to sit a horse."
Audra gave Nick's look of discouragement a little smile. "Nick will behave himself," she said, mostly to Nick.
"Can I at least take a buggy into town?" Nick asked.
"I think so, but no farther, and once in and once out a day at the most," the doctor said. "And don't overstress yourself while you're there. Do more sitting down than moving around. In fact, I'll see you again in two weeks and I'll see you in town at my office. How's that?"
"It's something," Nick said, his mood not really improving.
The doctor headed for the door and Victoria walked him there. As she thanked him and bid him good-bye, Jarrod came into the foyer from the library, looking Nick over, saying, "I heard the end of that. No horse, but a buggy into town a back once a day is all right, right?"
Victoria came back to them after closing the door. "How about we all share some more coffee together in the living room?"
It was only ten in the morning. Jarrod said, "That sounds good. I could use a break."
"Sure," Nick grumbled, headed into the living room leaning on his cane, and sat down in the chair next to Jarrod's favorite "thinking chair" where Jarrod sat down.
"I'll have Silas get some coffee together," Audra said and headed for the kitchen.
Victoria sat down on the settee, facing her two sons. Nick looking miserable, Jarrod looking between sympathetic and amused. Just as Victoria got comfortable and was about to say something, the front door opened and Heath came in.
"Boy, howdy, what a way to start a day," Heath was saying as he came into the living room.
Nick couldn't turn to see him but he could hear him loud and clear. "What's gone wrong?" he asked.
Heath did not sit down but stood at the edge of the coffee table where Nick, Jarrod and Victoria could see him. "Nothing exactly wrong," Heath said. "Just that herd of new cattle trying to settle into new range and not knowing where they're going."
"You put them on the summer range, didn't you?" Nick said.
"Yeah, but they don't like the grass we got very much," Heath said. "They'll get used to it, though. I saw the doctor outside. He said you weren't too happy, Nick."
"The doctor suggested he not sit a horse for at least two more weeks," Victoria said.
"And no, I don't like it one bit," Nick said.
"We still got some tack that needs attention," Heath said.
"We always have tack that needs attention," Nick said.
"That's just not Nick's favorite job," Jarrod said. "But you know what, Nick? I think maybe I can help you shake the cobwebs out of the monotony, since the doctor will let you come to town in a buggy."
"Oh, no," Nick said. "I'm not about to be a lawyer's assistant for two weeks."
"I've got a lot of work to be done that won't tax you – "
"I am not gonna work a typewriter!"
"I'm not asking you to," Jarrod said, "but I could use some help, what with Esther out of town tending to her mother in Merced. I'm borrowing Ted Kramer's secretary in the mornings to do the typing. I could use you to proofread, just to correct spelling errors and the like."
"I'd rather run a pickle factory!"*
"I'd just need you in the morning when Candace is there. I know you'd find it tedious, but you'd have time in the afternoon to hit the saloon before we head home, take in a poker game and a glass of beer," Jarrod said with a soft smile.
Suddenly, Nick got interested. He hadn't been to a saloon or a poker game in town since he was injured. Victoria and Jarrod smiled at each other a little.
"McColl and I got everything in hand out in the field," Heath said. "Heck, Nick, enjoy a little poker and a little beer and you might heal up faster."
"As long as you stay out of barroom brawls!" Victoria warned.
"I'll want him to wear a suit and tie," Jarrod said. "Even Nick won't wreck a good suit in a fight."
Nick grumbled.
Jarrod said, "Come on, Nick. I'll even pay you, so you won't even mind if you lose it in a poker game."
Audra came back in then, carrying a tray of with a pot of coffee and cups. "I heard Heath come in and brought enough for all of us," she said. "And I heard you talking. I think helping Jarrod in town is a wonderful idea, Nick. It will keep you from being bored around here, and it will help you get back into the swing of your regular life."
"As long as that swing doesn't get aimed at anybody in town," Jarrod said.
"I can stay out of a fight as well as the next man," Nick said, feeling a little put-out that the people who knew and loved him best thought he couldn't. "If I need somebody to take a swing at somebody, I'll send over for Jarrod."
"I don't think he'd want to get his suit messed up either," Heath said.
"Jarrod's been known to topple a bar or two in a fight," Nick said. "And he has more than one suit."
"Let's both try to stay out of a fight for at least two weeks," Jarrod said. "So you're up for this? You'll come help me out?"
Nick heaved a big sigh. "As long as you cut me loose early for a poker game every day."
"I'll even be paying you every day so you have something to bet with," Jarrod said.
"All right, you're on," Nick said.
Audra started pouring coffee, saying, "Who knows, Nick? You may decide you want to go to law school yourself."
"Let's not get carried away," Victoria said. "Nick may or may not decide he's ready for law school, but law school is not ready for him."
*Note – I really don't know whether there were any pickle factories in 1876 but the line got into me like an ear worm and I had to use it.