Taken by Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens #7)

by Melissa Foster

  Kitty Carlington, who owned the florist shop in town, came through the front door, carrying an enormous vase of red roses.

  “Lover boy strikes again,” Kevin said.

  “No way. Luke’s not a roses type of guy. Daisies or wildflowers, maybe.” Daisy stepped forward to greet Kitty.

  “Darlin’ these are for you.” Kitty was plump, forty-something, with a dark bob and pink cheeks. She smiled as she waddled across the floor and handed Daisy the vase. “Three dozen,” she whispered.

  “Wow. Thank you.” She looked for a card. “Who are they from?”

  “Oh gosh. I was afraid the card would fall.” Kitty pulled a card from her back pocket. “Here you are, Daisy. Um…Dr. Honey.” Kitty scrunched her shoulders up and smiled. “Wow, little Daisy Honey is a doctor. So hard to believe. Funny how you got older and I stayed the same age.” Kitty laughed at her own joke on the way out the door.

  Dr. Honey. Things really had changed.

  “So? Who’re they from? My bet is on Luke.” Kevin peered over her shoulder.

  Daisy read the card.

  Daisy—

  Success is always the best retaliation. Heard you came back to help the very people who drove you away. That’s the mark of a good woman and a great doctor. I always knew you had it in you.

  Love, Doc W.

  IT WAS NEARLY eight o’clock in the evening when Kari pulled Daisy aside between what was supposed to be the last of her patients, but she was running behind.

  “We have a problem.” A few tendrils of hair had come loose from Kari’s ponytail, framing her face.

  “What is it?” Daisy signed off on the file she’d been holding.

  “Look in the waiting room. I mean the front of the library.”

  Daisy hadn’t gone out front since they began. She peered around the corner and saw a handful of people milling about. Elderly couples she recognized and mothers holding infants, who were definitely not there for school physicals.

  “What are they doing here?”

  “They figured that you could fit them in. Winona Wade’s baby has a cough. Mr. Jacob hurt his leg. He thinks it’s just a pulled muscle or something. The list goes on seven patients deep. What do you want me to do?”

  “We can’t see everyone. We’re supposed to be closing, and I still have two physicals to do. So does Kevin.” She felt awful. A sick baby? A hurt leg? How could she turn them away?

  “That’s what I thought. In fact, that’s what Tracie has been telling them, that you had no free slots and the clinic was just for school physicals.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “But they’re still here.” When she continued, she spoke normally again. “Winona brought you one of her dried flower arrangements as a thank-you. Oh, and your dad came by about an hour ago. He said not to tell you, but, Daisy, he was so proud. I swear he had tears in his eyes. Don’t tell him I said that.”

  Daisy looked up at the ceiling to quell her own tears. Dad. “Oh my God. What am I going to do?” She peered around front again. “I can’t just turn them away.”

  “Well, think of it this way. One way or another you’re leaving in a week or so, right? So they’ll be upset for a little while; then you won’t have to see them again until the holidays when you come back to visit your family.” Kari shrugged. “And if you plan it right, you’ll be in and out of Trusty over a weekend. You probably won’t have time to see anyone anyway. I’ll get rid of them.”

  Daisy grabbed her arm. “Wait.” She couldn’t turn them away. How could she? Mr. Jacob had been her sixth-grade teacher. He’d stayed after school to help her with a science project for a full week, and she’d gone on to win the science fair competition, which might not have happened if he hadn’t helped her. And Winona’s baby? No, she couldn’t walk away and leave her in need. Winona had been teased in high school, too. More common ground. She was beginning to see that she’d been so wrapped up in how much she loathed the small town because of what had happened during high school that she had forgotten the good parts. The community.

  They saw their last patients at ten o’clock, and by ten fifteen Daisy had sent everyone home. Kevin fought her on it, wanting to stay to help organize the charts, but Daisy needed time to think. They’d seen forty-three people today. She was exhausted—and completely, one hundred percent fulfilled. And she hadn’t seen any unusual diseases. She hadn’t met with specialists to learn about a new procedure. Heck, she hadn’t even done the physicals in an actual medical office. But she’d seen neighbors and friends. She’d helped parents gain their own peace of mind about their children, and she’d saved them having to drive forty-five minutes for a physical. It wasn’t rocket science, but it was every bit as important.

  After organizing the day’s charts and double-checking signatures, Daisy finally headed out to her car. She locked the library doors, and when she turned around, she found Luke standing against the light post, ankles crossed. He pushed from the post and opened his arms. Daisy fell willingly, blissfully, into them.

  “What are you doing here?” He felt so good she didn’t want to move.

  “I missed you.” He kissed the top of her head. “How did it go?”

  “Amazing. Sorry I’m so late. I would imagine next weekend will be just as bad. People are showing up with sick babies and aches and pains that have nothing to do with school physicals.”

  “And you saw them all.” He kissed her, and Daisy relaxed against him. “I’m so proud of you, Dais.”

  She looked up at him, thinking of the emotional ride they’d both gone through over the last week. “How was your day?”

  He smiled. “Great. Shaley’s back out in the pasture, and…I missed you.”

  It was a balmy, starry night, and as Luke took her hand, Daisy couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do than take a walk with him…well…almost anything. She could kiss Luke all night long, but that could wait.

  “I know it’s late, but can we take a walk?” They walked down Main Street beneath the streetlights. The shops were closed, and the sleepy town was quiet and peaceful. She’d forgotten how serene the town felt at night, and how pretty Main Street was with the old-fashioned streetlights illuminating the sidewalks.

  “You know, without the veil of rumors clouding my vision, Trusty isn’t such a bad place.” She loved the crinkles that formed at the corner of Luke’s eyes when he smiled and the way he exhaled a breath as his lips spread.

  “It grows on you.” Luke pulled her against him. “I know you don’t have much time to decide about where you want to live, but have you given it any further thought?”

  They came to the corner of Main Street and Old West Court and turned onto Old West. Brick office buildings with big-lettered signs hanging above green awnings lined the right side of the street. At the end of the cul-de-sac, set against the backdrop of Trusty Town Park and with a glorious view of the mountains, was Dr. Waxman’s vacant home. It looked out of place, but it was another hallmark of Trusty, and Daisy was glad it had never been torn down or renovated into a brick office building.

  “What do you think of this place?” The idea had come to her as they were walking, and standing before Dr. Waxman’s office with Luke, she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

  “This particular piece of sidewalk, or Trusty in general?”

  She turned to him, her hands pressed flat against his chest. She felt his heart beating evenly, and when he gazed into her eyes, it kicked up a notch.

  “If you had your choice of living anywhere, where would it be?”

  “Wherever you are.” His answer came easily, and she could see in his eyes that it came honestly, too.

  “Would you want to go to New York or Chicago? Or would you want to stay here?” She could envision herself walking into Dr. Waxman’s office as her own. Stopping in at the diner for lunch, walking through the park with Luke at the end of a long day, before returning home. Together.

  “If you chose to work in those places, sure.”

  She noticed a differe
nce in his voice as he answered. “I’m asking about you, Luke. Not where I’ll work. If you had your druthers.”

  “Dais, none of that matters, because what matters to me is being with you, and you’ve put years into your career, far more years than I’ve put into mine.” He ran his hand through his hair and began to pace the sidewalk.

  “Talk to me, Luke. Because I love that you’re supportive of me and my career, but I also feel something else, and whatever that is, hesitancy or something else, I think I feel it, too.”

  Luke took her hands in his. His eyes grew serious, then softened. “Babe, I love you, and I want to support you, but honestly, I’m having trouble thinking about moving so far away from family.”

  “Me too.” She exhaled and swore an invisible elephant had just jumped from her shoulders.

  “You too?” He searched her eyes, and as he did, his lips curved up into a smile. “You’re thinking of staying?”

  She couldn’t help but smile and hold his surprised stare. “Once I let myself see past the old stuff, I started seeing things more clearly, and when I think about pouring my heart and soul into a business…” She shrugged, that good old universal shrug that she knew he understood. “I want to do it here, where I’m caring for the people I know and the people I love, and if I ever start a family, I know that my mom and dad are nearby.”

  “But you said you wanted to be on the cutting edge of medicine, and…you’re working in a library. Not exactly cutting-edge.” He wrapped his arms around her again. “Daisy, this is why I didn’t say anything. I don’t want you to make your decision because I want to be close to my family. This is your life. I’ll stand behind you, and if you’re saying all of this because of what happened with my dad—”

  “I’m not. I’m saying it because of what’s happened with my dad, and with Janice, and Mr. Mace, and Winona Wade’s baby, and Dr. Waxman, and…yes, because of you, too. I love you, Luke, and I want to be with you. But I want to be with you in a community where I know if you get hurt, or I need help, people who care will be there for us. And if I need to make a house call, I won’t have red tape and guidelines holding me back. I want to know that in May there’s a stupid parade through the center of town, and at Christmas everyone sings around the tree in front of the library. I want to trick-or-treat with my kids on the same streets I grew up on. I want to know that if Shaley gets hurt, Ross is nearby, or if you want to change your mind about a renovation, your sister will yell at you and do it anyway. I want to know that you can zip to your uncle’s ranch for an afternoon and that I can walk out my back door and inhale crisp, clean mountain air.”

  He brushed her hair from her face and pressed his hands to her cheeks. “Daisy Honey, look me in the eye and tell me you’re not doing this just because of me.”

  She stared into his dark, serious eyes. “Luke Braden, I am not doing this because of you.”

  He searched her eyes, and as understanding dawned, his eyes widened. “Babe. You’re really thinking about this.”

  “I’m really thinking about this.”

  He looked at Dr. Waxman’s house. “You want to be the next Trusty doc? Jesus, Daisy. Really? You’re sure?”

  She laughed a little. “Yeah. I am. I feel like it’s the right thing to do.”

  “Do you want to sleep on it? Think it through and see how you feel in a few days? Giving up those positions is a big deal.”

  “I’ve made my decision, and as far as sleeping goes, it’s totally not what I had in mind to celebrate.”

  He lowered his mouth to hers, and she closed her eyes, letting the concerns fall away for a few precious moments. His body was warm and hard—oh, so gloriously hard. When his hand slid to the small of her back and he pressed his hips to hers, she wasn’t thinking about offices or job offers. There was only now, this moment, and the love that carried them back toward home. Together.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Five months later…

  DAISY STOOD IN the lobby of her new medical office. Dr. Waxman’s placard above the door had been replaced with a wooden sign in the front yard that read, Dr. Daisy Honey, Family Practice. She’d finally unpacked her boxes when she’d moved in with Luke, and the shelves in Dr. Waxman’s old office held her medical books. It was a good feeling. The renovations had taken time, but Emily had handled the whole process, making the living areas into exam rooms and offices, and Daisy was pleased as punch with the outcome.

  Daisy smoothed her lavender dress and looked at her reflection in the window. The street and sidewalk were packed with residents. Even the local news team had come out to cover the grand opening of her practice. The residents had begged, pleaded, and practically insisted on a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a small-town tradition Daisy used to roll her eyes at and now welcomed. Luke had strung a giant yellow ribbon across the yard, and in a few minutes, she would cut the ribbon and officially open the practice. Her practice—in her community.

  Luke wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and kissed her cheek.

  “You look gorgeous.”

  “I’m so nervous.” She turned and clutched his T-shirt, drawing strength from his ever-present calm and confident demeanor. They’d been living together for months, and she still fell deeper in love with him every day.

  “Let me kiss that nervousness away.”

  He lowered his lips to hers—and sure enough, even after months of kissing his delicious lips several times a day, he still had the ability to turn her brain cells to mush. And she loved it.

  “Better?”

  “Much. But now my knees are weak.”

  Emily came through the front door wearing a black shift and heels. “Okay, lovebirds. You’ve got a ribbon ceremony waiting to happen out there, and I’ve got a meeting to get to.” She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “Wow, Daisy, with your hair blond again, you’re even prettier than before. That’s not really fair you know.” Emily placed her hand on Daisy’s arm and led her toward the door. “I can’t believe my baby brother fell in love before I did. I swear, life is looking super unfair on so many levels right now.”

  “Em, give her a minute.” Luke blocked the door. “Dais? Are you sure you’re ready?”

  Daisy’s heart squeezed. Luke was so protective of her feelings. How did she get lucky enough to fall in love with the best man on earth? She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I think so.”

  “I’m right here, okay? If you get nervous, just find my eyes.”

  “Yeah, and then my knees will go weak again.” She touched his chest. “I love you, but as much as you make me stronger, you also turn me to Jell-O.”

  “I want to turn to Jell-O.” Emily pouted.

  Luke shook his head, murmuring something about women, and opened the front door. Applause sent Daisy’s stomach into a tumble and drew her through the doors to the wide porch, where Kevin, Kari, and the girls who had helped them at the clinic had tied balloons to the railings and the limbs of the tree in the center of the yard and hung a banner that read, CONGRATULATIONS, DR. DAISY HONEY!. Daisy’s father stood front and center beside her mother. He was up and around, out of the house, and though he wasn’t back on his tractor, he was managing the farm with the same firm hand Daisy had always remembered. Her mother waved with a cheesy, proud mother’s smile and tears in her bright blue eyes.

  Luke and Emily descended the porch steps and stood with Catherine, their mother, and Wes, Ross, and Pierce. Jake, one of Luke’s older brother’s who was a stuntman in Los Angeles, had Skyped earlier in the day to congratulate them, but he was on a movie shoot and unable to come home for the event.

  The crowd filled the street, and Daisy lifted a hand to wave at Alice, Margie, Betty, and Kari. Lynn and Jerri waved with wide smiles, and Tracie and her daughter clapped and smiled, their matching red hair blowing gently in the fall breeze.

  Kevin gave Daisy a thumbs-up. She drew in another deep breath as she slid her gaze to Janice, holding a healthy and smiling Michael. Darren stood beside them lo
oking clear-eyed and sober. He’d spent two months in a rehab facility in Denver and was attending weekly AA meetings. Daisy was glad for them.

  She looked over the community from which she’d once felt miles apart, and she swelled with love for it. It had become her community. The people had become her friends, and among the transition from Dr. Honey, big-city girl, to Dr. Honey, Trusty family doctor, she’d managed to find love and become part of Luke’s family. The whole turn of events still stunned her, though she’d become a believer in fate. Yes, even without scientific evidence.

  “Speech!” Kevin yelled, reminding her she was supposed to do more than just look dumbfounded.

  She smiled and cleared her throat in an effort to gain control of her nerves.

  “Thank you for coming out in support of my grand opening. I grew up with most of you, and...” Oh boy, here comes the honesty. “And it wasn’t always easy.” She met Janice’s gaze, then shifted her eyes to Lynn, Jerri, and Tracie, and finally, she met Luke’s soulful, confident eyes. True to his word, it was his strength that found her and spurred her on. She looked at her parents, and the words came easily.

  “I had almost forgotten how wonderful Trusty was, but I learned and I remembered. There’s a reason people tend to stay in Trusty. Trusty is the sheer definition of small-town living. We have hay farms and horse ranches. Everyone knows where to go for the best iced tea in town.” She smiled at Margie. “We have silly parades and gossip that runs thick as rivers. But to those who really know Trusty, they realize that this small town is also known for forgiveness, and community, and I’m proud to be back and part of such a wonderful town. Thank you.”

  She descended the steps, and Luke handed her a pair of giant scissors. With his arm protectively on her lower back, she cut the ribbon, and the crowd cheered. In the next breath, Daisy was passed from one person’s arms to the next.

  Her father held her close in a tight hug that brought a tear to her eye. “I’m so proud of you, darlin’.”