Crashing Into Love: Wilderness Romance (Wilderness Rescue #1) by Harmony Noble

Author:Harmony Noble [Noble, Harmony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nature, Wilderness, Lesbian Romance, Outdoors, Opposites Attract
Goodreads: 197876650
Publisher: TrueLoveWriters
Published: 2023-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12: Elder Mary

“Are you next, Mary?”

I smile at Riley, waving for me to join the students’ noisy lunch table, presently converted into a makeshift hairdressing station.

The students' compliments of her twisted hair morphed into a pop-up hair salon. And hair bands and a brush materialize as she styles the student’s hair while discussing the university and city life with them.

I don’t want to disrespect the nurse, but fussing over my hair isn’t my thing. The school kids turn to me, judging and adding pressure to my response to the new nurse.

“Of course,” I say, sitting on the floor since I tower over her petite frame with my five-foot-ten height.

In the village school, I towered over the boys, and although my family’s statuesque height makes me proud, I wish I wasn’t the tallest girl growing up in our small school. It was another glaring difference which set me apart.

Riley brushes through my hair with her fingertips, then pulls back and parts my thick mane. Her fingers dance lightly over my forehead and scalp. She removes a few strands to land softly around my face and runs her fingers slowly through the back.

“Your hair is beautiful,” she whispers.

Her breath warms my neck, igniting a passionate fluttering in my chest.

“Thank you,” I respond.

Somehow she answers the student’s unending questions about city life: where she eats, what her Starbucks coffee order is, what American Eagle’s mall window is displaying, and she pivots, describing starting university in Anchorage. She shares her struggles to fit in, learning to study for her classes, and suddenly becoming qualified to care for patients as a nurse.

The students laugh when she tells them about buying a nightgown she mistook for an elegant dress. They hang onto her every word as she talks about her university time, a roommate who didn’t flush the toilet, how she attempted to start an IV upside down, and when she accidentally took a final exam in the wrong class.

Riley’s openness is what the sheltered village kids need to hear to relate to outsiders and maybe someday leave our village. She senses their unasked questions and worries about the unfamiliar, bigger world outside of Portlock. She answers their silly questions by telling them how she overcame her fears. Her empathy for the village youth makes me smile inside. She is not the average outsider. She listens and cares about their future and their day-to-day life.

The students react to her enthusiasm in meeting them and ask more questions about the city as she braids and brushes through their hair. Even the boys are sporting Riley’s braids and buns, to their delight and Gary’s horror.

She explains to the boys, “You can keep your hair long in the city, too. Stylish city guys let their hair cascade to their shoulders or sport a man bun for work.”

Her hands glide through my straight, black hair. Her fingers are hot and light, giving me chills. I smell her lavender soap, and her lithe body touching and resting against my back gives me chills.

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