A Soldier's Return ; The Daddy Makeover

by RaeAnne Thayne

“She’s gorgeous,” Will said gruffly. “Like her mother.”

  He kissed Julia’s sweat-dampened forehead, running a tender hand down her hair. After Eli helped Will cut the cord with the sterilized scissors he had in his kit, Melissa took the baby and placed the naked, wriggling girl on Julia’s chest. She instinctively rooted around, and Julia laughed a little before helping her latch on. Will stood next to them, his somewhat harsh features relaxed into an expression of love and amazement and a vast joy.

  “Good job, Mama,” Eli said.

  His voice sounded ragged but he didn’t care. He had delivered babies before, into the hundreds, but he couldn’t remember when a birth had impacted him so deeply.

  He was emotional about Miri but about so much more. He wanted this, what Will and Julia had created here. A family.

  He had seen so much ugliness over the last five years of near-constant deployments. Pain and bloodshed and violence. Families torn apart, villages decimated, lives shattered.

  All of it stemmed from hatred, from power struggles and greed and ideological differences.

  He was so tired of it.

  Maybe it was time he focused instead on love.

  He had been doing important work overseas, helping people in terrible situations who had few options and little hope. He couldn’t deny that what he had been doing mattered.

  Justine had been doing important work, and some part of him would always feel a responsibility to try harder and be better because of her example and the tragic way she had died.

  But this was important, too, these small but significant moments. Helping to bring new life into the world. Caring for neighbors and friends. Continuing his father’s legacy in this community, where Wendell was so loved.

  “Are you all right?” Melissa asked a short time later, after the baby was bundled and the ambulance had been called. Both mom and baby were fine, but as soon as the road was cleared, Eli wanted them to be checked out at the hospital, where little Miri could have a full assessment and Julia could receive care while she recovered.

  He wanted to tell her some of the many thoughts racing through his head, but now didn’t seem the proper time.

  “I’m fine. It’s always amazing, seeing new life come into the world and remembering what a miracle it is, every time. I heard it said once that a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on. I think I needed that reminder.”

  Her features softened and she touched his arm again. The tenderness of the gesture made those emotions well up.

  He was so deeply in love with her. How had he ever been crazy enough to think he could go on without her?

  “I didn’t know about the name. They were still trying to decide, the last I talked to Julia about it. If I had known, I would have warned you.”

  “It’s a lovely name,” he said. “I hope she’s as sweet as the other little girl I once knew who carried it.”

  Before she could answer, Eli’s phone rang. When he saw his father on the caller ID, he quickly answered it.

  “Hey, son,” Wendell said. “How are things going there? How’s Julia?”

  “Good. Both the mama and baby girl are doing fine.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful to hear. I knew you could do it.”

  His father’s confidence in him warmed him. “Right now we’re waiting for the road to open so we can get them to the hospital in Seaside. The crews are saying about another half hour.”

  “Great news. Listen, I just got a call from Elisa Darby. A branch came through her teenage boy’s bedroom window about a half hour ago.”

  “Oh, no!”

  “He’s fine, just shaken up, but might need a couple of stitches. It’s not a big deal, not big enough to try getting to the ER in Seaside in this storm, but she called to see if someone could come by, check things out and maybe stitch him up. You up for another house call?”

  He assessed the situation with the Garretts. Will and Julia had things under control. Right now, their teenage daughter was holding the bundled baby and her siblings were waiting in line for their turn.

  “I can do that. Text me the address. I’ll wrap up with Julia and head there within the next fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  “If other people call, want me to start making a list? I can be your dispatcher.”

  “Sure.”

  He hung up from his father to find Julia watching carefully. “What’s happened?”

  “I’ve got a teenage boy with an injury from broken glass after a branch came through a window.”

  “I was worried about that very thing happening to me earlier. I fell asleep in the window seat while I was watching the storm and woke up thinking it probably wasn’t a good idea.”

  “It wasn’t. You should probably not do that again.” He wanted to be here to hold her during the next storm. The two of them could keep each other warm and watch the clouds roll over the ocean together.

  “Where did it happen?” she asked.

  “The house of Elisa Darby. Do you know her?”

  “Yes. She doesn’t live far from here.

  “Apparently, her son might need a few stitches.”

  “You’ll need help.”

  To give someone stitches? Probably not. He’d been doing that since his first day of med school, but he couldn’t deny the two of them made a good team. She seemed to know exactly what supplies he needed without being asked, and he definitely needed her amazing skill at calming any situation.

  “I don’t want to take you away if you think you’re still needed here.”

  Will glanced over, obviously listening to the conversation. “We’re fine. The ambulance should be here soon. You’ve done great work and I can’t thank you enough for our little Miri here, but it sounds like somebody else needs you now.”

  “If you’re sure.”

  Melissa seemed reluctant to leave, but she gathered up their supplies, gave Julia a kiss on the cheek and hugged Will. Then she kissed the baby’s forehead before following Eli out into the pearly light of predawn.

  The wind had finally slowed, though the rain continued. The sun was still an hour or so from coming up above the mountains to the east, but there was enough light for them to see some of the damage left behind by the storm.

  On this street alone, nearly every house had at least one tree branch down, and he could see a metal shed collapsed at the Garretts’ neighbors. This was only one small sample of what the storm could do. He had a feeling the rest of the region had been hit just as hard.

  He met Melissa’s gaze. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a busy day.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Eli’s words turned out to be prophetic. By the time they finished at the Darbys’ house, Wendell had called them to report three more people had phoned him looking for emergency medical care. They all had mild cuts and bruises, except for one man who sustained minor burns trying to start a malfunctioning generator. Eli patched him up as best he could but ordered him to the hospital as soon as he could make it there.

  They made house calls at first, but as they started to receive reports that the roads were slowly being cleared throughout the morning, he and Melissa were finally able to retreat to the clinic, sending out word to the real dispatchers and the paramedics that they would stay open to take some of the more mild emergencies where a trip to the hospital wasn’t necessarily warranted.

  She loved seeing Eli in action during a crisis. Over the last three weeks during routine office visits, she had observed that he was truly a wonderful doctor, one who spent as much time as each patient needed, dispensing advice and compassion.

  Observing him during an emergency situation was something completely different. He was focused, concise, with an uncanny ability to take care of whatever situation walked through the door with skill and care.

  No wonder he was so passionate about his military care
er. Eli was a man who truly thrived under pressure.

  She couldn’t expect someone with a gift like that to be content as a family physician in a small practice.

  The realization depressed her, though she was not sure why. Maybe she had been holding out some slim hope that Eli might be able to find a place to belong here on the beautiful Oregon Coast where he had been raised, exactly as she had over the last seven months.

  Around noon, she closed the outside doors after their last patient, a tearful eight-year-old girl who had stepped on a nail while helping her family clean up debris. When the family drove away, no cars were left in the parking lot. She locked the doors and turned the Open sign to Closed.

  At last report, the dispatchers assured them all the roads were clear now along the coast and people in need could make it to the emergency room or the urgent-care clinics in Seaside or Astoria, if necessary.

  “Good work,” Eli said when she walked back. “You’ve been amazing today. An army medic trained in battlefield emergency care couldn’t have done better.”

  His admiring words and expression left her flustered and not sure how to respond. “You were the one doing all the care. I’ve only been providing support.”

  “That’s completely not true and you know it. Every time I needed something, you were right there with it before I had to ask, and you are amazing at calming down every panicked mother or crying child.”

  “We make a good team.” For another week, anyway. The thought made her chest ache.

  “Do you have any idea of how necessary you are to my father’s practice? Why do you think I’ve tried so hard to...” He bit off his words, leaving her intensely curious about what he intended to say.

  “Why you’ve tried so hard to what?” She had to ask.

  His smile appeared forced. “Uh, make sure you know exactly how much you’re appreciated.”

  She had a feeling that wasn’t what he’d almost said at all, but he didn’t appear inclined to add anything more.

  “I was going to say the same to you,” she said. “It’s not every day you deliver a baby, sew thirty-six stitches in five different patients and give eight tetanus shots, all before noon.”

  He smiled. “All in all, a good morning. I’m glad we could help.”

  “If you hadn’t been here, I’m not sure what people in Cannon Beach would have done.”

  “My dad is not the only doctor in town. Someone else would have stepped up.”

  Wendell might not be the only doctor, but he was one of the most beloved.

  Eli was well on his way to matching his father’s popularity. Everyone in town loved Eli, after he had been here only three weeks to fill in for his father.

  Especially her.

  She pushed the thought aside. Not now. She couldn’t think about her impending heartache. He was leaving in a week, and somehow she was going to have to figure out how to go on without that slow, gorgeous smile in her life.

  She had to say at least a little of what was on her mind. It seemed vitally important that she let him know what she had been thinking all morning as she watched him work.

  “You’re an amazing doctor, Eli. You make a great family physician in the proud tradition of your father, but today, working together in an emergency situation with you, showed me you’re doing exactly what you need to be doing for the army. You obviously thrive in stressful situations. You care passionately about what you’re doing and you’re good at it—exactly the sort of person who can make a much-needed difference in the world.”

  He looked touched, his eyes warm, and he opened his mouth to answer, but his cell phone rang before he could say anything. He gave the phone a frustrated look that shifted to one of concern when he saw the caller ID.

  “I need to get that. Looks like it’s the Seaside hospital, probably the attending physician at the women’s center, calling about Julia and Miri.”

  “While you talk to the Attending, I’ll go straighten up the exam rooms we used today so they’re ready for Monday.”

  She was just finishing up when Eli appeared in the doorway, again looking dark and lean and so gorgeous it made her catch her breath.

  “Mom and baby are doing well,” he reported. “I figured you’d want to know.”

  “Yes. I was going to call her later. I appreciate the update.”

  “Everyone is healthy. The attending physician suggests keeping them overnight, but it sounds like Julia is eager to be home with their other children. I’ll go check things out, and if all appears okay she might be released by tonight.”

  “She’ll be happy about that.”

  He leaned against the door frame and scratched his cheek. “Better yet, I’ll pick up my dad and take him with me to do the honors. He’ll want to see the baby and check on Julia himself.”

  Her heart melted at his thoughtfulness, both on his father’s behalf and on Julia’s, and she fell in love with him all over again.

  “You are a good man, Eli Sanderson.”

  He made a face. “Why? Because I’m going to take my dad with me to the hospital to check on a patient?”

  “Because you know how important it is for him to make sure she’s all right and also how much it will set Julia’s mind at ease to have him there.”

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  “It is to me, just as it will be for Julia and your dad.”

  She smiled at him, and he gazed at her for a long moment, then growled something she couldn’t hear and lowered his mouth to hers.

  The fierce kiss came out of the blue and was the last thing she expected him to do, yet somehow was exactly what she needed.

  His mouth was hard and intense on hers, searching and demanding at the same time. She answered him kiss for kiss, taste for taste. Heat raced through her and she wrapped her arms around him, but the hunger contained something else, something deeper.

  This was goodbye.

  He was leaving in a week, and this likely would be the last chance she would have to hold him like this before he left. She tightened her arms, trying to burn the taste and the feel and the smell of him into her mind. When he was gone, back doing the work he loved, and she was alone here in Cannon Beach, at least she would have these slices of memories to comfort her.

  She tried to pour everything in her heart into the kiss. All her love and admiration and sadness, wrapped together and delivered on a breathless sigh. She had no idea how long they stayed locked together there in the doorway. She only knew the emotions in the kiss would leave her forever changed.

  She would have stayed forever, but she was aware, always aware, that someone else needed him, too.

  After long, heady moments, she finally pulled her mouth away and stepped back, her breathing ragged and her face flaming. Could he sense in her kiss all the love she couldn’t say?

  She looked away, hoping desperately that she hadn’t revealed entirely too much by that kiss.

  “Melissa.”

  His voice sounded raw, breathless. She could feel his searching gaze on her and forced herself to offer back a bland smile. “You should probably go check out Julia and Miri. The Garretts will be waiting for you.”

  “I... Yes.”

  She didn’t want him to offer any explanations or apologies or, worse, ask any questions. Any conversation between them and she was afraid she would burst into tears she couldn’t explain.

  “I’ll see you later. Drive carefully.”

  With that, she turned around and hurried out of the room, wishing with all her heart that things could be different between them.

  Though she was tired down to her bones, Melissa spent the afternoon working with Sonia to clean up the battered gardens at Brambleberry House. Rosa was busy doing the same at the gift store in town, which had suffered some water damage from a roof leak.

  The gardens looked sad, with broken lim
bs, crushed flowers, scattered leaves.

  She felt a little like the landscaping around the house—damaged, scarred. She had to hope she could be like a few of the shrubs around the house, which had been bent by the storm but were already beginning to straighten again.

  “I don’t think we can save this one.” Sonia sat before one of the brambleberry bushes, her lovely, perfect features creased with a grief that seemed out of proportion to a little storm damage.

  “Are you sure we can’t salvage some of the canes?”

  “They won’t be the same. I’m not sure they’ll be able to produce much fruit at all.”

  She seemed devastated by the loss. Maybe she had an extreme fondness for that particular brambleberry bush, or maybe her grief was for something else entirely.

  Melissa tried to choose her words carefully. “You know, my dad used to say that not everything that’s broken is worthless. It might not ever be what it was, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be something else. Maybe something even better.”

  She wasn’t sure if she had helped or made things worse. Sonia gave her a long look, nodded slowly, then went back to work.

  “That’s all we can do tonight,” Sonia said sometime later. “It’s going to be dark soon. You look very tired. You need to rest.”

  Her exhaustion had deepened, and she thought she might fall asleep right here in the cool, storm-battered garden.

  “I’ll just stay with Fiona for a moment, then we’ll come inside.”

  Sonia gave her a long look and she could see the concern on her friend’s features. She didn’t pry, though. One of the best things about Sonia was her ability to let other people keep their own secrets, too. After a moment, the other woman twisted her mouth into what other people might consider a smile and headed into the house.

  Melissa sat for a few moments more, heart aching. She needed to go inside but couldn’t seem to find the energy to do it.

  She wanted her daughter here. A Skye hug always went a long way toward healing her soul from life’s inevitable disappointments. Her daughter would be home the next day. They would have plenty of time for hugs then.