Sweet Mischief’s Rollercoaster Romance

When Maja heard what happened, her temper flared. "Why didn't you say

something before you went up there? Now you're just beating yourself up after the fall—what's that supposed to fix?"

Dean reached over to take her hand, hoping to calm her down. "In the end, I couldn't help much anyway. Someone else is fixing the house now."

Maja pulled her hand away, annoyed. Just great-now she had a patient to look after.

She wasn't exactly graceful, but with Dean's guidance, she managed to set his leg, more or less. "Well, looks like you're not going anywhere for a while. Guess it's your turn to save me. That makes us even after you took care of my sprained ankle. You think this is... destiny or something?"

Dean gave her a look. "Destiny's got bigger things to worry about."

Maja was grumpy for days. She hated that her plans were ruined. But every time she remembered how Dean had looked after her when she couldn't walk, she forced herself to keep it together.

Slowly, she started getting used to things.

Whenever someone came by for help, Dean would greet them at the door. Since he couldn't fetch the medicine himself, he'd call out, "Maja, can you get the herbs?"

At first, Maja had no idea where anything was. Dean started giving her directions like a code. "Fourth jar on the third shelf, that's crow-dipper. Second row, ninth jar, that's peony root..."

She'd fumble through the shelves and pass him what he needed.

Whenever someone paid, Dean would hand the money to Maja. "Put it in the drawer. When my leg's good, I'll go into town for supplies. If you need anything, just tell me—I'll bring it back."

Maja opened the drawer and grinned. "Not worried I'll run off with your money?"

Dean just smiled. "You've seen real money before. This little bit isn't going to tempt you."

"If it could save a life, I'd care about it," Maja shot back.

She shut the drawer, not a hint of greed in her eyes.

To save herself some trouble, Maja started memorizing prescriptions, reading up on medicine, and letting Dean teach her how to diagnose basic illnesses.

She quickly learned the common complaints in the area. Sometimes Dean would say, "Same as Uncle Gan's case-grab the usual herbs."

She'd get right to it.

At night, Dean would teach her more-how certain herbs worked, which ones you never mixed.

After a while, Maja found herself actually interested. She started to recognize the medicines and could even put together simple prescriptions.

One day, Dean told her, "This way, if you ever have to leave and get hurt, you won't be waiting around for someone to save you. You'll know what to do." Maja glanced at his leg. "Still not healed?"

"Nope."

She sighed. "At this rate, I'll have to learn how to cook, too."

"You might figure out how to wash rice, but you're a long way from making a meal."

She rolled her eyes but didn't argue.

Dean was still the one cooking most nights.

After his accident, whenever someone came knocking for help, Dean-usually so agreeable—would just stay quiet. Maja would go to the door herself. "Ma'am, where's your husband?"

"He's out in the fields."

"Then wait for him to come home. Dean's laid up—he can't just go running around for everyone."

After turning away a few more people, she looked at Dean. "You can't just keep helping everyone, especially when they've got healthy men athome. Let them handle their own problems-don't let them take advantage of you."

Dean didn't know why, but hearing her say that made him smile. He felt a warm, unfamiliar happiness settle in his chest.

Soon, everyone in the village was saying Dean had a woman at home now, and she was definitely in charge.

And she wasn't shy about showing her temper. She turned people away without batting an eye, and for a while, Dean actually got some peace and quiet.noveldrama

When word spread that Dean was sick, those who owed him favors

started dropping by-not with flowers or milk, but with eggs from their chickens, cucumbers from their gardens, baskets of apples from their trees.

It was the first time Maja realized that in a place like this, when people visited the sick, it wasn't with fancy gifts, but with whatever they could spare from home-a little kindness,

Sight from the heart.