Mountain Mystic by Debra Dixon Read Free Book Online

cautioned.
    She crossed her arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “They’ve had a belly full of people coming in to ‘help’ them over the years. You might have noticed the number of tiny missionary churches spread out in the mountains. A lot more than that tried and failed because they were too busy patting themselves on the back for being do-gooders.”
    “Are you telling me that these women might refusemy help because they’re suspicious of my motives?”
    “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. By nature, we’re a suspicious lot. Maybe it’s the isolation. Maybe it’s our Scotch-Irish ancestry. Maybe it’s experience. Whatever the reason, we don’t trust people,
outsiders
”—he amended—“to have our best interests at heart.”
    Victoria didn’t miss the fact that he included himself in that group. “Grenwald said you lived away from here for years. That you traveled everywhere.”
    “I did.”
    “And you still think of people who weren’t born on the mountain as outsiders?”
    “Yeah, I do,” Joshua told her, realizing that he’d never lost his identification with the place of his birth. As an archaeologist, he had spent years immersing himself in civilizations and cultures long gone. He’d lived in huge cities, college towns, and deserts. Yet he never once forgot he was born on a Tennessee mountain, or who he could count on should the need arise. “Old habits die hard. It’s the way some of us were raised. Another generation or two and things will be different.”
    She shook her head as she recognized the problems she faced. “I don’t think I can wait that long. If I don’t try, the women who can’t get to an ob-gyn will do what they’ve always done, which is ignore prenatal care and arrive at the hospital in the late stages of labor, totally unprepared and at higher risk for poor birth outcomes. That’s if they get to the hospital at all. Home birth is legal in Tennessee. I don’t see that Ihave any choice but at least to make the offer and let them decide how to manage their pregnancy and delivery. If they want to reject me because I have green rocks in my ears, so be it.”
    “You’re dead set on this?” Joshua asked, knowing he couldn’t refuse even though he wanted to. She made it sound too important. Made him believe it was too important.
    “It’s either that or sit around waiting for the mountain to come to Mohammed.”
    “Don’t believe in miracles?” Joshua folded his arms across his chest and leaned a hip against the grille of the car.
    “I don’t believe in sitting around, waiting for someone else to change. People rarely do.”
    “That sounds like the voice of experience.”
    “It is. Are you ready?”
    He resigned himself to a day of raw emotions rubbing against his consciousness. Maybe if he waited on the porch each time, it wouldn’t be so bad. “Give me the keys.”
    “What for?”
    “It’s hard to start the truck without them.”
    “I’m driving,” she said in a tone that clearly indicated he was foolish to suggest otherwise.
    “You don’t know where we’re going.”
    “That’s why I have you. I’ll learn my way much better if I’m driving the truck.”
    “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Joshua said, and held up an index finger to stop her from opening the driver’s door, “but didn’t you tell me that when youcaught me, you were going to put me behind the wheel?”
    “Figure of speech.”
    “Is this a gender thing? A statement about women being better drivers?”
    “No, it’s a captain-of-the-ship thing. It’s my ship, and I get to steer.”
    “Ever heard of sharing?”
    “I may have.” She raised one eyebrow. “Isn’t that where you get to play with my toys and I can’t get mad when you break them?”
    Joshua fought a grin. “How do you know I’ll break anything?”
    “I’ve seen you drive that sleek black motorcycle around curves that were not meant for sixty miles an hour.” Victoria began folding the