Rescuing Baylee (Nightshade #3)

Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

Landon sat on the not-so-fresh smelling couch and listened to Baylee move around in the kitchen. He did not know what she was doing, but he hoped she was making them something to eat. It had been a while since he’d eaten anything, and there had been nothing in the fridge to snack on.

He could have cooked them something, but he’d seen her face light up as she looked down into the plastic bags. Being staked out was hard to do, and she’d certainly never been trained for it. At least he was used to being bored when he needed to be.

His eyes drifted shut and he kicked his heels out a little further on the carpet, then folded his hands over his stomach. Hearing the little clinks and sounds in the kitchen was kind of relaxing.

Landon wasn’t sure at first what woke him, but he took a deep breath and stretched. Oh, man, it had to have been the smell. Garlic and herbs, and crusty bread. Following his nose, he pushed up from the couch and wandered to the kitchen doorway.

Baylee stood leaning over a pan of garlic bread in the open oven. A few tendrils of hair curled near her cheeks from the steam, and there was a satisfied look on her face. Landon smiled despite himself.

“Okay,” he rumbled. “That smells amazing.”

Moving into the kitchen, he leaned to look over her shoulder. “Is that fettucine? With chicken breasts?”

A broad smile on her face, Baylee nodded. “Blackened chicken breasts. And broccoli. And garlic bread.”

“Oh, man,” he groaned, resting a hand on her shoulder to lean even deeper over the steaming pan of creamy noodles. “That looks and smells amazing.”

Baylee had stiffened under his touch, then seemed to relax. “Well, if you grab a plate, we can eat some of it. I waited a little while because you seemed to be sleeping so well, but I was hungry.”

Landon looked at her, surprised. “You delayed dinner for me to sleep?”

She shrugged lightly and pulled away from his hand, going to a cupboard to retrieve a couple of plates. “It was no big deal. I just made the brownies first.”

Landon looked around. “You made brownies,” he asked, scanning the counter.

Baylee laughed at his search. “Yes. We’ll have those after.”

Landon helped her retrieve plates and insisted she go first. Baylee made a plate and set it on the table, then retrieved two glasses. “What would you like to drink? We have water or water.”

Landon snorted. “Guess I’ll have water, then. Thank you.”

He piled food onto his own plate, then grabbed a couple of pieces of garlic bread. His mouth was literally watering as he sat down in the chair across from her. The tiny table was more apartment size than house size, but it would hold his food long enough to eat.

Twirling noodles around the tines of his fork, he blew for just a second before taking a huge, slurping bite. She shoved a paper towel at him, laughing as Alfredo sauce dripped down his chin. Landon grinned and took the towel, happy that he could make her laugh. “This is amazing,” he mumbled around the mouthful of food.

“I think you’re just hungry,” Baylee said, golden brow cocked.

Landon shook his head. “No, it’s good.”

He plowed through the first plate, then filled his plate again. Her eyes widened as she watched him methodically demolish the food.

“You don’t understand,” he said, wiping his tattered napkin over his face when he was done. “Cops have to make do with anything we can get. Some of us can cook if we have to, but usually we don’t have time. When I was out on the road, it never failed that you would stop at some fast-food joint, order your food, and you’d get a call. You can tell dispatch you’re going on lunch or break or whatever, but Austin never rests. You would have to try to inhale your food before you get to the call.”

“I get it,” she nodded. “Nurses are the same sometimes. Some days, the floor is quiet. Other days, it’s like someone is testing you or something and every emergency you can imagine happens. And with the nurse shortage the past few years, it’s been even worse.”

“How long have you been in pediatrics?”

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.

“What?” she asked.

“The rest of my cookies are sitting on the counter at home,” he groused, making her laugh.

“I’ll make you more. So, tell me about being a cop,” she said, popping the last bite of brownie into her mouth.

Landon stared at her mouth, knowing that she now tasted of chocolate. He looked down at the table, trying not to get too lost in thinking about her. What had she asked? Oh, about being a cop.

Yeah, he supposed it was fair. He shrugged. “It seemed like a natural thing to do when I was old enough. They helped us out when I was a kid, and I wanted to make sure other kids didn’t have to deal with the same thing I did. I know there’s no way I can save them all, but I do what I can. And I love putting away the bad guys,” he said, grinning.

“Seems like kind of a never-ending job.”

He nodded, tossing the last piece of brownie in his mouth. “It is, but so is nursing. Right? You just try to do what good you can and move on to the next person.”

“Yeah,” she sighed.

Reaching out, she started cleaning up the dishes, but Landon took them from her hands. “You cooked. I’ll wash up. Why don’t you go through those magazines, or something?”

Baylee blinked, then put her hands up, relinquishing control of the dishes to him. She wandered over to the bags Morgan had brought and sifted through them, pulling a couple of magazines out. As the hot water heated in the sink, Landon watched her leave the kitchen, three magazines in her hands.

He really didn’t mind doing the dishes. Mouth pursed, he looked for a plastic container to put the leftover noodles in, but he didn’t find anything other than plastic bags. It was a little messy, but he got a quart bag loaded with Alfredo noodles and in the fridge. He had no problem eating leftovers that good.

Baylee was a fantastic cook, and he wanted to make it easier for her to cook more, he thought with a grin.

“What are you smiling at?”

Landon hadn’t even heard her come back into the kitchen. She peered around him at the bag of noodles and giggled. Then she smacked a hand over her mouth, like she was surprised that the sound had come from her own mouth.

“You put them in a bag?” she snickered.

“Hey,” he said, enjoying seeing her laughing. “It was all they had in this damn house.”

She was shaking her head, and he really wanted to lean down and drop a kiss to her lips.

What the hell…

They were on a stakeout. She was in a huge amount of danger. But he wanted to kiss her pink lips and taste her laughter.

This was such a bad idea…