Chapter 27
L enore sensed movement around her, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to full consciousness. She recognized the scent of Brandon’s skin and feather-light touch of his fingers across her forehead. He murmured something, but she still lingered too deep in unconsciousness to hear the words.
Something cool touched her forehead, causing her to wake further.
“You need to drink,” Brandon said, and Lenore’s eyelids fluttered open.
Everything felt too hot. She kicked the blanket off her legs in a desperate attempt to find fresh air. “I don’t feel good.”
“No, you’re not doing too good,” Brandon said, his voice low and tender. “I need you to drink this, though. Zona’s here, putting together a concoction she insists will help.”
Lenore let him slide partially behind her, holding her up. He pressed something gently to her lips, and she drank. The taste was somewhat medicinal but also flavored like orange cream. The coolness of it across her tongue and down her throat made Lenore want more.
“Mm, okay,” she said, and drank and drank until the liquid was all gone. She sighed in relief, sinking back against Brandon’s chest. “How long have I been asleep?”
“A while,” Brandon said, and Lenore detected a tone of caution in his voice.
Arizona said something, but her voice was out of reach, too far away. Lenore couldn’t focus on it. Her neck felt floppy, like she couldn’t hold up her head.
“Don’t go back to sleep, sweetheart,” Brandon said.
Everything hurt—from her head to her shoulders to a massive, quiet ache in her legs. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked.
“Eat this, honey,” Arizona said. “It’s a little spicy. But Brandon, she’s got to eat the whole cracker.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said.
Something that contained the scent of lemons and salt filled Lenore’s nose. A moment later, the rough edge of a cracker touched her lips, and she opened her mouth—because she trusted Brandon.
“I’m gonna put the whole thing in, Lenny. Eat it all, please.”
She closed her mouth around the food, her top lip almost capturing the tip of Brandon’s thumb. She took the first bite, and fire flowed through her whole soul. She yelped as a cough followed and she thrashed, ready to spit this poison out.
“Tilt her head back,” Arizona said. “Brandon, she needs to eat it.”
Brandon placed one strong arm across her chest to hold her in place. “Eat it, Lenny,” he said in the most commanding voice she’d ever heard.
She managed to chew and swallow, the fire flowing down into her stomach as tears ran down her face.
“Drink again,” Brandon said. This time, he offered ice-cold water, and Lenore drank and drank, finally feeling the flames in her mouth, throat, and stomach go out. She relaxed, sighing back into his body.
“It’s okay if she goes back to sleep,” Zona said. “But if she’s not up and better in the morning, you need to take her to the emergency room.”
An alarm sounded inside Lenore’s head. The emergency room?
She was sure she asked the question out loud, but neither Brandon nor Arizona answered her. In fact, they continued to talk, their voices fading into blurry blobs of sound until they faded into absolutely nothing.
The next time Lenore woke, it happened violently. She sat up straight in bed, trying to figure out where she was. Her eyes took in her surroundings, but it took her brain an extra moment to catch up and realize she was in her bedroom.
She struggled to recall the last thing she’d been doing before waking up here…where she hadn’t come herself.
“The pepperoni pizza quesadilla,” she said out loud.
Sunlight streamed through the open blinds over her windows, and that alone made her pause before getting out of bed. She never opened her blinds, because she didn’t like the idea of anything being able to see into her cabin at night.
Silly, she knew. She’d lived on this land alone for a long time, but she still didn’t open her blinds, especially not here in her bedroom.
Footsteps came down the hall, and Lenore recognized the gait.
She managed to throw the blanket off and scoot to the edge of the bed before her wonderful, gorgeous boyfriend filled the doorway.
He wore a dark gray, long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans.
He carried a bottle of water in one hand and a bottle of something else in the other.
When he saw her, the pure concern on his face got replaced with surprise, and then happiness.
“You’re awake.” He rushed toward her, kneeling in front of her. “Thank God you’re awake.” He put the bottles on either side of her, where they rolled into her hips, and ran his hands up her arms, gently across her shoulders, and then to cradle her face. “How are you feeling?”
“I don’t think I’m going to die,” Lenore said, trying to assess all the parts of her body at one time. “What happened?”
“Do you remember when I came over after you’d passed out?”
“Yes.”
“I gave you a pepperoni pizza quesadilla and the water with your electrolytes. Then you fell asleep. I kept the fire going all night because it was cold, and the next morning, you were on fire. High fever and a rash over parts of your body.”
She picked up the bottle on her left side, because the chill of it was seeping into her skin and she didn’t like it.
“You need to drink that,” Brandon said.
She looked at the label. “Pedialyte?” She looked at him, confused as to why he’d brought her this.
“It has all of the essential nutrients you need,” he said. “I managed to give you some fever reducers, but they did nothing. So I called Zona. She brought Pedialyte and more meds. We monitored you all day yesterday afternoon.”
“Yesterday?” Lenore asked. “How long have I been asleep?”
“From about eight o’clock on Wednesday night,” he said. “Today’s Friday. It’s about ten-thirty in the morning.” He offered her a smile, and the relief in his expression sank through Lenore as well.
What if he hadn’t been here to take care of her?
“Come on, Lenny,” he said. “You gotta drink that. Please.”
She twisted the cap on the Pedialyte bottle, which had already had the seal broken, and took a careful sip of the orange cream liquid that she suddenly remembered. “You gave me this before.”
He nodded. “Last night,” he said. “Arizona gave you a bunch of herbs and meds as well. And she’ll be really happy to hear that you’ve woken up.”
“Is she still here?” Lenore asked.
Brandon nodded. “Yep. She’s been outside to feed the chickens and take care of the strawberries and the dogs.
Your phone kept going off, and she finally checked it.
She said a couple of people want to come look at the lumber you apparently listed for sale.
” He raised his eyebrows, his head tilting slightly.
“She scheduled appointments for them to come this morning.”
Lenore took another long drink simply to buy herself a little bit of time. “I was going to tell you about that,” she said. “ Talk to you about it, actually.”
She recapped the bottle and set it on the nightstand, then picked up the second one from her other side—it was plain water. She set that aside too, her eyes flying around until they finally landed on Brandon.
“I know this homestead can support me now. I can grow my own food. I can heat my house. I have power. While my rain catchment system isn’t enough to sustain me permanently, I know I can get and keep more water eventually. But not if I don’t have money.”
Brandon got to his feet and offered her both of his hands. “I want you to stand up and walk around,” he said. “You can keep talking.”
She wore her soft, worn yoga pants and a T-shirt with an American flag on the front.
She remembered that this was what Brandon had dressed her in after he’d found her soaking wet and passed out in front of the fire.
She put both her hands in his and relied on his strength as she tested her own weight on her feet.
She managed it, but a certain weakness still trembled in her legs.
“Just go to the front door and back,” Brandon said. “And you can keep talking.”
He took her hand and gently led her toward the door and into the hallway. With every step and every breath Lenore took, strength returned to her muscles, mind, and lungs.
“I’ve been brainstorming ways that I can get the money I need for a bigger water tank,” she said. “Or to drill a well. I’ve been selling eggs, but I only make a couple hundred dollars a month from that. I have to use that for gas and insurance and water. I can’t save much.”
Brandon hummed, not really committing to saying anything outright.
When they reached the front door, he opened it and stepped onto the porch.
Lenore followed, because the fresh air revitalized her further.
The storm from a couple of nights ago had completely gone, and everything on the homestead seemed exactly as it had been before.
“I can keep selling eggs,” Lenore said, her eyes landing on the chicken palace across the street. “But I thought of all that lumber that we’d cut and planed. I thought if I could sell that, I might be able to buy myself a fridge and a bigger water tank.”
“It’s a good idea.” Brandon turned around and led her back into the house. She went with him, grateful for his steadiness and security and the strength of his hand in hers.
Lenore could admit that she had started falling in love with Brandon. Not only because he’d come to help her, but because of who he was.
She noticed the papers on her table had been organized and stacked back where she normally kept them. The kitchen was spotless, and nothing in the living room would ever suggest she’d passed out there, he’d moved the couch, or they’d spent the night together in front of the fire.
“My dad used to sell turkeys,” she said. “I think that’s a big goal of mine. I think I could raise bees and sell the honey. And maybe with honey and turkeys and eggs and lumber, I could have a way to make enough to buy new shoes and clothes and maintain the homestead in a better manner.”
She drew in a breath, trying to calm her thoughts and slow her tongue.
When they reached the back door, she was the one to twist the knob and open it.
Somewhere around the corner, Arizona sang softly to herself.
She watched as Susie Q ran after a bird before it took flight and left her on the ground.
Lenore smiled at the simpleness of her life.
“It wouldn’t be much,” she said. “I know I can’t cut down every tree on my property.
But the lumber we already have would give me a good start.
I even thought about going to the bank to get a loan to get the water done.
But I need to show them that I have a way to repay it. ”
“Yeah,” he said. “You could probably use the homestead as collateral. The land itself.”
Lenore swallowed, because that idea terrified her. If she couldn’t pay back the loan, she’d lose the land.
Brandon took her down the steps, and Lenore tilted her head back toward the sun, the warmth of it glorious and life-giving.
“Hey, Zona,” Brandon called, lifting his hand.
Zona came around the side of one of the wagon wheel beds, saw them, and rushed forward. “Lenore! You’re awake!” She came right into Lenore’s personal space and hugged her.
“I am so happy to see you.” She stepped back, her face bright and full of smiles. “I sold your lumber. I hope that was okay.”
The idea of someone else going through her phone unsettled Lenore, but she figured Zona had been throwing her off balance since the moment Brandon had come to the homestead.
She grinned at Zona. “I suppose it depends on how much you got for it,” Lenore said.
Zona laughed. “I am a super tough negotiator,” she said. “Come with me.” She took Lenore’s hand, and the three of them went back into the cabin.
Zona went over to the stacked filing trays where Lenore kept her very important documents. From the one on the bottom, she pulled out a nondescript, plain white envelope, turned, and beaming with all the joy and goodness in the world, extended it toward Lenore.
“See for yourself.”
Lenore took the envelope, surprise running through her at the thickness of it. Hope began to build beneath her tongue, but she really didn’t want to let it out.
Hope crushed so many dreams.
She drew a breath and closed her eyes and whispered, “Whatever it is will be enough.”
She hadn’t been able to attend church with Brandon on Sunday, mostly because her pride wouldn’t allow it.
She’d pulled out her dress and found that something had chewed through it.
And the only skirt she owned had been too small.
Brandon had insisted she could wear pants and that no one would care at all.
But her embarrassment had kept her home.
Maybe with some of this money, she could buy a new skirt and attend church with him in a couple of days.
She flipped back the flap and reached inside. She pulled out the wad of money, gasping when she saw twenties and fifties and hundred-dollar bills. With wide eyes, she looked at Zona.
“How much is this?” she asked.
“Thirty-three fifty,” Zona said.
“Three thousand , three hundred and fifty dollars?” Lenore looked down at the money again. This was life-changing money for her. Tingles moved up and down her body, from skull to soul, as she felt the complete love of God fill her.
He had not and would not abandon her here.
Then she did what Lenore always did when she became overwhelmed, whether it was something good or something bad.
She cried.