He winced like she’d slapped him, as hedamn well should.
She hadn’t meant to be quite so sarcastic, butdang,this was not some minor thing he’d forgotten to mention. She didn’t like that he’d put her in the position of helping him break his vows, either.
She said, “Auggie, you don’t evenlooklike a Maxence. A guy named ‘Maxence’ should be effete, skinny, and blond.”Not shredded with muscle and with thick, dark, curling hair and a face like a movie star.“And I don’t know how I’m ever going to get used to calling you that.”
He glanced at his reflection in the ornate mirror above the fireplace mantle, and so two gorgeous men were looking at each other. “I don’t think I look like an ‘Auggie.’”
Dree said, “So, that whole story about you being aprincewas to cover up the fact that you’rea priest,or you’regoingto be one, or youwantto be one. Bravo, Father Deacon Maxence, bravo.” She slow-clapped, and for some stupid reason, her heart felt like it was cleaving over and over into a million slices and fluttering as it fell around her.
“It doesn’t matter what we call ourselves, and it doesn’t matter how we got here. The most important thing now is to figure out what we’re going to do about it.”
“I think that’s obvious.I’ma nurse practitioner, andI’mgoing on a Catholic charity mission to help save the lives of newborn preemie babies by building tiny little NICU clinics all over the Nepali countryside. I don’t know whatyou’regoing to do.”
He frowned and shook his head. “I’ve done many of these charity missions all over the world for eight years, from Rwanda and The Congo to Argentina and Nicaragua to West Virginia and the Appalachians. The problem is that we usually slate all-male groups of volunteers for these missions, and I had planned for this group to be the same.”
“So, you’re saying,what?You don’t think there’s going to be any women’s bathrooms where you’re going?”
“There aren’t going to beanybathrooms where we’re going. We were planning to stay in rectories with other priests when we can, but there is camping gear that has been rented, and we will be roughing it in the extreme out in Jumla province. A woman would not becomfortablein those conditions.”
“Augustine,I meanMaxence,you are a city boy who lives in gussied-up Europe. I am a country girl who was born and raised on a sheep ranch in southern New Mexico. I can guarantee that any ‘roughing it’ that youthinkyou have done is whatmy peoplewould call an ordinary weekend. Donottell me that I don’t know how torough it.”
He frowned at her. “I’ve been on charity missions in some of the most destitute parts of the world, where I lived with families while I built their wells or schools or whatever else it was that they needed. Nobody was slaughtering the fatted calf for me on those trips.”
Dree crossed her arms across her chest and looked away from him.“Still,I am a hardened country girl, and I can tell you are nothing but a greenhorn, city-boydude.”When she used the worddude,it did not have the friendly connotations that surfers have when they say it. “You would get bucked off of a broken-down, hoof-draggin’ nag in five seconds flat.”
He said, “I can ride a horse.”
“Maybe one of those docile, Saddlebred geldings they keep atduderanches.”
“This is unproductive. We need to contact Father Thomas Aquinas and tell him to send a different medical professional for this trip.”
“I am notquitting.Icannotgo back to Phoenix. If one of us can’t go,youquit.”
“I will not back out of this mission.Youshould quit.”
“I’m not going to quit.Youquit!”
Maxence clenched his fists and looked away from her. “Imustgo on this mission. Besides the fact that I have a great deal of experience in leading complicated projects such as this one, these kinds of missions arewhyI am a deacon and want to be a priest.”
Dree gasped and pointed at him. “Youdowant to be a priest!”
“Yes!I would’ve taken Holy Orders years ago if they’d let me. I havechosenthis life because I want to do good work in the world, because I’m recognized for this because I do good work, and Ithrivehere. When I am out on one of these missions, a sense of purpose fills me like no other time in my life. This is what I wasmeantto do.”
She pointed in the general direction of France. “Then, in Paris, why did you—”
“I don’t know!”
Dree sucked in a deep breath like when an ER noob resident got hot under the collar at nurses who had far more experience than they did.“Okay.We just need to figure this out. So,okay.So, this work means a lot to you, butIneed to go onthismission.”
“If it’s just that it’s not safe for you in Phoenix, I can send you back to Paris. I will pay for you to stay at the Four Seasons or a rented house in the French countryside or whatever you want for two months, the same amount of time that you would have spent on this mission. I’ll put money in an account for you to spend. You’ll be safethere.You just can’t behere.”
“I won’t accept charity like that. Iworkfor my money. I’ve worked all my life, first on the ranch and then to pay my way through college, and I won’t accept your money to sit around and eat bonbons and fritter away two months.”
“You could orderMerveilleux de Fredevery day,” he said.
“Oooo, that’s playing dirty. ButIwant to make a difference,too.When I heard about this mission, it made the rest of my life seem like I’ve wasted it. Even though when I was in Phoenix, I was working in an inner-city hospital and helping people and saving lives every day, this is evenmoreimportant. I could do something that I’m really proud of here.”
He sat in a chair across from her and braced his elbows on his legs, his hands clasped between his knees, a pose that Dree knew was taught to therapists and dorm resident assistants to signal, I’m non-judgmentally listening.“We both want to go on this mission.”
