Don’t look. Her fingers plucked at a nearby wildflower. Twirling the tiny flower between her fingers, she contemplated the job she could have taken in the Rockies until Levi’s shadow touched her.
“Dog already tuckered out?” He paced the words indicating the dog wasn’t the only one feeling it.
Melody leaned back on her arms to look up at Levi. From this position, he went on forever rather like a tree. The sun’s angle lengthened his shadow allowing it to cover her. It felt intimate. Shaking the strange thought off, she answered, “Apparently.”
Charmer hearing his name, opened one eye, gave a tail thump and closed his eye again. It didn’t look like the dog was going anywhere. His failure to bark or growl didn’t say much for his guard dog skills, but then again they both knew Levi was behind them. Strangely, the bitter veteran somehow endeared himself to the headstrong mutt.
Just my luck. I adopt the dog on death row and he prefers someone else over me. The story of my life. Her sign was audible attracting Levi’s attention.
He nodded indicating the ground next to her. “Mind if I sit?”
“Suit yourself.” Melody tried for a casual smile that signaled both a carefree attitude and a certain flippancy she never possessed. Levi’s beetled eyebrows assured her she’d achieved neither.
Using his cane as a tripod, he kept his artificial leg straight as he lowered himself to the ground beside her. His biceps bulged as he concentrated the majority of his weight onto the cane. Her eyes went to the tip in the cane buried into the loamy ground.
Thanks goodness for that, if it had been on a rock it could have slipped. Concern and experience working with patients whose bodies had failed them caused the words to slip out without thinking about the consequences.
“Your prosthetic leg bends too and can carry your weight.”
His body an inch or two above the ground dropped suddenly as his swiveled to pin her with a glacial glare. “Do you think I don’t know how to use my own body? “