Page 67 of Tumbleweed Temptation
The sky grew dark outside the windows as she waited, and she checked to make sure her text had gone through, that he knew where she was. Her battery was dying rapidly, and she didn't have a charger.
By the time Austin came to find her, her battery was dead, and the football game was probably well underway, and an hour and a half away, in any case.
Austin looked beat. She jumped to her feet and smoothed her palms down her jeans.
“How is he?”
“In surgery. I didn't want to leave him alone, you know, since he doesn’t have anyone else, at least not yet. I called his daughter but she’s in Dallas and wouldn't make it before he went into surgery. I’m sorry to leave you alone, to ruin your evening.”
A little stung that he thought she was shallow enough to be upset about that, she stiffened. “What was it?”
“There was some blockage, but I didn’t catch it with the stethoscope.” He shook his head and looked back toward the ER. “I should never have sent him home.”
“But aren’t you glad you came back?” He never would have forgiven himself if Mr. Canales had suffered a heart attack alone, she knew that much about him.
“More than you know.” Finally his shoulders relaxed a little, and he smiled at her mum. “I don't think we could make halftime, even.”
“I think don't worry about it. There’s always next year.”
Something in his face changed then, and he turned toward the door. “Let’s go get something to eat. We’re in the big city. We should be able to find some place open on a Friday night.”
By mutual agreement, they settled on Chinese, something they couldn't get at home. Before they went in, Ginny hastily unpinned her mum and laid it out on the dashboard where it wouldn’t get crushed.
“I can’t thank you enough for driving, for getting us here so quickly. You didn't even think twice, just stepped up.”
“Of course, Austin. What was I going to do? Say no?”
“I don't know, but it let me focus on him, and I’m grateful for that.”
“I guess I never thought too much about medical emergencies, what happens without a hospital in the area. That’s a long way to drive in an emergency.”
“Yeah, well, they don't call it a desert for nothing,” he responded with a grim smile. “I mean, we don't even have enough people in town to have our own high school, much less our own hospital.”
“Yeah, but between us and Kimmel we should at least have a small hospital.”
“Gin, they had to pay for my college in order to even get a doctor out here.”
She sighed. “And for years we didn't even have that, so at least it’s a step in the right direction.”
Their food arrived, and Austin pulled the chopsticks from the paper wrapper. She watched, wide-eyed, as he effectively manipulated them to pick up grains of rice. She looked at her own chopsticks, and reluctantly picked up her fork.
“How did you learn to use those?”
He smiled. “My mom liked to do fun stuff, you know, and one year we studied a different culture every month. One month was China, so we learned a lot about their history and their food, and we learned how to eat with chopsticks.”
“Oh, that sounds fun.” But of course. Mrs. Driscoll had a really smart kid. She needed to stimulate his mind. Or maybe she had a really smart kid because she stimulated his mind.
“Here, get your chopsticks out. Take the first one and set it between your thumb and index finger, like this.” He demonstrated with his own. “You hold this one still.” When he was satisfied she had it, he nodded. “Then you take the second one between your thumb and index finger, higher up. This is the one you’re going to move.” Again, he wiggled his, tapping the tip of the top stick against the tip of the bottom one. “Here, make sure they’re even.” He reached over the table and adjusted her grip, his hand warm and strong on hers. “All right, now, open and close, open and close.” He showed her with his own.
The second chopstick rolled between her fingers, and she had to set it right with her other hand. The feeling was so alien. “Your food is getting cold while you show me.”
“Don't worry about it, it will be fine. Maybe move your grip to the center of the sticks, give yourself better leverage. Then move them to the plate at an angle, try to pick up a bigger piece.”
She tried to pinch a piece of the pepper beef, but her sticks crossed and the beef fell to the tablecloth in front of her. She felt her face heat in embarrassment, but he reached over, corrected her grip, and urged her to try again.
“Seems like this would be a good way to lose weight,” she laughed when she finally got the first piece to her mouth and was considering which piece would next be easiest to maneuver.
“There’s something to be said for slowing down to eat,” he agreed.
