If Darcy had worried that the Goederts might object to the expansion of her job duties to match her job description, she escaped their notice over the next two weeks. Dr. Goedert only cared that Teagan showed up for group therapy. Rachel only cared that his checks cleared the bank. It was a really good thing he had Darcy on top of things.
It was only Kristin who expressed any misgivings about Darcy’s new project, and then not until Darcy skipped down to the kitchen to pick up snacks on the day that they were to finish grading the portion of the waterfall loop which had washed out that spring. They’d discussed the necessity of water bars that morning, and this afternoon they were going to split some treated lumber left over from the new fence. Darcy wanted to get extra provisions for that work.
Although Kristin’s only responsibilities were related to cooking, the kitchen was still a disaster three hours before dinner, with dirty smoothie jars still piled in the sink.
“Bitch, you live like this?” Darcy asked.
Kristin flipped her the bird without taking her eyes off her phone. Darcy was surprised she’d even gotten the smoothies out without Darcy there to prod her. Darcy had been off in the woods with Teagan most of the day.
“Can you make me two more smoothies?” Darcy asked.
“I could, but why would I?”
“Because you love me,” Darcy said winningly.
“I do,” Kristin acknowledged, but she still didn’t look up from her phone.
“And I’ll clean this all up tonight?”
Darcy would end up doing that anyway, but the chance that Kristin might clean up was a polite fiction that she and Kristin maintained. Kristin popped her head from side to side, considering. “Yeah, okay. What do you want in it?”
“That one you make with bananas, peanut butter, spinach, and two scoops of protein powder.”
“Ah, yes, the Chunky Monkey Hiding in the Shrubbery.” Kristin’s face softened in a proud smile. It was one of her favorite creations. A couple thousand calories in a jar.
“Yeah. Put extra immune stuff in it. Vitamins, whatever.”
“Sure. Who’s it for?”
“Teagan.”
Kristin put her phone down, round blue eyes narrowing on Darcy. “Who?”
“Teagan. Van Zijl. You know who he is. He’s been here for weeks.”
“What’s he look like, again?” Kristin asked.
Darcy considered it, summoning the man in her mind. The messy blonde hair and big sad golden eyes. He looked like a grown-up version of the little boy prince who lived on an asteroid with a fox and a flower, she thought.
She couldn’t say that.
“I don’t know. Tall, I guess?”
“Oh yeah, I know the one. Pretty good-looking, isn’t he?” asked Kristin, who was as sapphic as the trees were tall.
Darcy elaborately shrugged, feeling judged. Probably there were some women who liked their men tall, blonde, and rich, but she wasn’t shallow like that. It was hurtful that Kristin would imply anything to the contrary. Darcy’s motives were very pure.
“I haven’t noticed,” she lied.
“But you noticed he needed a smoothie.”
“He had a rough time before he got out here. And he’s been working hard,” Darcy said, still studiedly casual. For all the yard work and forestry he’d been doing with Darcy, he needed more calories in his diet than the spa food Rachel ordered from the vegan caterer in Bozeman.
Darcy caught herself studying the sharp edges of his cheekbones sometimes, worrying that she was working him too hard, trying to picture what he might look like after he recovered.
“Darcy.”
“What?” she replied innocently.
“You know what. No horny mistakes with the guests. It’s wrong.”
“How would it be wrong? I’m basically the maintenance guy! That’s an entire category of porn,” Darcy protested, even though she had in fact parsed this fine ethical dilemma herself, without coming to a definitive answer. Not that it mattered. She hadn’t been doing anything with Teagan but forestry, and she wasn’t going to.
Kristin gave her an arched eyebrow. “Of course. Porn would never steer you wrong, morally. Hey, you’ll never guess what I’m giving my hot stepsister for Christmas.”
“Not gross porn,” Darcy objected. “I’m talking about porn that’s like—” Darcy put on her best leer and wiggled her shoulders. She dropped her voice an octave. “Hey. I’m here to have a look at your pipe. Oh no, I see what the problem is. I’m gonna need a lot more caulk. Bam, bam, bam.”
Kristin snickered but relented, opening the blender to toss in the pea protein. “1975 called. It wants its erotic energy back.”
Darcy scoffed in faux outrage, sticking her thumbs through her imaginary belt loops and swiveling her hips. Teagan should be so lucky. He wouldn’t be.
“You’ve got the wrong idea,” Darcy said. “Teagan is not a horny mistake. I am not going to lay his pipe, even though I totally could, and that would probably fix all his substance abuse issues, add five years to his life, and show him the very face of God. No. I’m helping him. Therapeutically.”
Kristin bit her lip as she poured the smoothie into a mason jar. She shook her head, face turning more serious.
“Don’t you think he should be doing, like, real therapy? Because it kind of looks like you’re just messing around in the woods all day.”
“We’ve got wilderness education and forest bathing right in the brochures!” Darcy insisted. “It is real therapy. And he goes to group.”
She didn’t see how it could be any less effective than watercolors or rock gardening. And Teagan was doing better every day. Sloane had said so too.
Kristin gave her a dour look until Darcy broke first and looked at her feet.
“I know, I know,” Darcy said. “I’m being careful with him, I swear.”
“You be careful with yourself too,” Kristin warned her. “These guys aren’t reliable, and I don’t want to be telling you I told you so when he goes back to Drunktown. You have the world’s worst taste in men, I swear to God.”
“What? I don’t need to be careful. I’m good at my job. I could be good at this job, if the Goederts would give me half a break. I’m not planning a threesome with a guy in a long-term relationship with Johnnie Walker Blue. I’m a professional.”
“Okay, lady,” said Kristin, passing her the finished drink with a roll of her eyes. “You know best.”
Darcy let the note of sarcasm fly off her starboard bow and nodded conclusively. She took the smoothies and marched back down to the woodpile where she’d left Teagan, pleasantly anticipating several more hours on the trail before she had to get started on her long list of places that needed cleaning and repair.