Baby, Drive South

by Stephanie Bond

  “We hope we can count on your input to the clinic we’re planning to build.”

  Her eyes communicated supreme annoyance, but under the pressure of an audience, she finally gave a curt nod. “Of course.” Then she gestured toward the rooming house. “I need to get back.”

  He smiled wide. “I’ll walk with you.”

  Porter made his way over to her, but could tell from her body language she wasn’t pleased. She walked ahead of him, but he managed to catch up.

  “Your group had us on pins and needles back there.”

  “It’s not my group,” she said in a clipped tone.

  “We’re glad you’re all staying.”

  “You know I’m not staying,” she admonished.

  “But they don’t, do they?”

  Her mouth tightened. “No. Not yet.”

  “So until your van is ready, will you help us get the clinic underway?”

  “I guess I don’t have anything better to do,” she said without enthusiasm.

  “Meanwhile, we’re going to move all your supplies into one of the empty bedrooms on the first floor so you’ll have privacy to see patients.”

  “Speaking of which, I heard some workers were injured this morning. Why wasn’t I called?”

  He didn’t want to tell her the men hadn’t wanted her to be called and had instead asked Doc Riley to tend to their cuts and bruises. “Their injuries weren’t serious—just some scrapes.”

  “Right,” she said in a disbelieving tone.

  “These men are strong, and they’re accustomed to sucking up small injuries.”

  They had reached the rooming house. She paused at the door, obviously expecting him not to come in. Her nose wrinkled. “How’s that evergreen oil working for you?”

  He felt contrite. “Not as well as the painkillers you gave me.”

  Her eyebrows arched. “Imagine that. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to make a list of the basic items this new clinic of yours will need.”

  “Can I help?”

  “No,” she said bluntly.

  As she started to turn away, he said, “Dr. Salinger, I’m sorry for putting you on the spot.”

  The look she gave him said she didn’t forgive him. It made him wonder again what situation she’d left in Broadway, the situation she now wanted to get back to.

  Nikki gestured to his cast. “You really should take your weight off your leg.” She walked into the boardinghouse and closed the door behind her.

  On the way back to the dining hall, Porter passed Rachel, who stopped to give him a flirtatious smile. “Would you like to accompany us on our shopping trip to Atlanta tomorrow?”

  For a moment, he was happily distracted by the woman’s sunny beauty. He’d like nothing better than to spend the day with a pretty woman who wanted to spend time with him. But he had to keep an eye on Nikki in case she decided to make a run for it.

  “Thanks, but I’m not particularly mobile at the moment,” he said with a little laugh. “Rachel, how well do you know Dr. Salinger?”

  She frowned slightly. “We’re friends, I guess. Broadway isn’t a big place, so everybody sort of knows everybody.”

  “What’s her story?”

  “Nikki wasn’t even planning to come with us until the last minute. She was engaged.”

  Porter was surprised. “Engaged?”

  “To an attorney. Seemed like a nice guy. Then she found out he was cheating, so they broke up. I think she just wanted to get away from all the gossip, you know?”

  So she’d come to nurse a broken heart…and now was having second thoughts. Had she talked to her ex on the water tower yesterday? Had he asked her to come back?

  “Thanks,” Porter said absently.

  “Do you have plans this afternoon?” Rachel asked, touching the front of his T-shirt. “I thought maybe we could get to know each other.”

  Two minutes ago he would’ve said yes. So why was the idea suddenly less appealing? “Maybe some other time,” he heard himself say. “My brothers and I have a lot to discuss.”

  She pouted. “Okay, some other time then.”

  Porter watched her walk away, admiring the swing of her rounded behind. The woman had more curves than a mountain road. When he got things under control with the doctor and got rid of this cast, he’d like to take that trip. He sighed. For now, duty called.

  The women were dispersing, leaving his brothers standing alone in front of the dining hall. They looked utterly defeated.

  “Cheer up,” he said, limping up to them. “They’re staying, aren’t they?”

  “At a pretty price,” Marcus snapped, pointing to the lists.

  “It’s the cost of doing business,” Kendall said calmly. “It has to be done.”

  “Is our doctor staying?” Marcus asked Porter.

  “She’s balking,” Porter hedged. “But she agreed to help with the plans for the clinic until her van is ready.”

  “So the longer we deceive her,” Kendall said drily, “the more work we can get out of her.”

  “Or the longer I have to convince her to stay,” Porter added.

  Marcus jabbed his finger at Porter. “You work with the doctor, get her invested in the clinic. If we put a crew on it, we should be able to get the footers dug and poured tomorrow. Kendall thinks he can get the modular units delivered by the end of the week. Maybe once she has a building to practice in, she’ll be more inclined to stay.”

  Porter made a rueful noise. “If she has patients. She asked why she hadn’t been told about the men who were injured this morning.”

  “So you have another job,” Marcus said. “Finding her patients.” Then he turned to Kendall. “And you are going with the women tomorrow to round up supplies. Make sure they don’t bankrupt us buying hair spray and tofu. You two got us into this drink. Start swimming.”

  15

  Nikki was in the room on the first floor that had been designated as her office, sitting at a small desk and tapping on her laptop keyboard, adding to the growing list of supplies needed to put together a basic medical facility. The few supplies she’d brought with her had been arranged to her satisfaction on bookshelves. A twin bed had been brought in and chairs for patients sat out in the hall.

  Not that she had any patients.

  Which was, she kept chiding herself, a good thing. But she felt so antsy.

  The house was relatively quiet this morning since the contingency of women who’d left to purchase supplies also constituted some of the most boisterous residents. Nikki had considered hitching a ride with them to Atlanta, then getting a rental car to drive back to Broadway.

  But she’d be adding eight hours to the already long drive, and then how would she reclaim her van? Plus, she’d given her word that while her van was being repaired, she’d do what she could to help get the clinic off the ground.

  And this morning something occurred to her—what better way to assuage her guilt of leaving Sweetness without a physician than to find her own replacement? She wished she knew the way to the water tower because she needed to make a private phone call.

  She glanced to Porter’s worn denim work shirt folded over the back of a chair and impulsively picked it up. She shouldn’t have kept it. It made her curious about what caused the jagged tear on the shoulder and the greenish stain on the cuff. It was a lived-in shirt. There was something very sexy about a man who wasn’t afraid to get dirty and work with his hands. By comparison, Darren had been pristine.

  A beeping sound filtered through her thoughts. It wasn’t a car horn, but similar. And it was insistent. She went to the window and peered out to find Porter sitting on the four-wheeler, waving to her. He gestured for her to come out.

  Nikki’s stomach did a little flip that made her hesitate. Last night she’d lain awake thinking about Darren, aching with loneliness…and then her thoughts had crept to Porter Armstrong and that misplaced kiss, his mischievous smile and how he seemed so eager to make up for his careless words. She didn’t want t
o like him so much, so soon.

  He beeped again and gestured that he’d meet her out front. She looked back to her laptop and decided a ride on the four-wheeler was preferable to being shut in her office working on such a pretty summer morning. So she closed her computer and grabbed her phone, hoping he’d give her a ride to the water tower.

  She hurried into the hall, locked the door, then checked her pace and walked outside.

  Porter gave her a big grin. “Thought you might like a tour of the town.”

  “You mean there’s more than this?” she asked, gesturing to the two buildings and the first-aid shack.

  “There will be,” he said, extending his hand to help her on.

  “Do you have helmets?”

  “We’re going to the clinic site first—it’s just around the bend.”

  She settled onto the seat behind him, putting her arms around his waist loosely. He felt so…familiar. And the man could wear a T-shirt.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked him.

  “Fair to middling,” he said breezily. “How about you?”

  “I’m…fine,” she said, suddenly realizing how few people asked her how she felt. She supposed everyone simply thought doctors were okay all the time. “But I had to take an ice-cold shower this morning.”

  “I’m working on that,” he said lightly. “Isn’t it a beautiful day, little lady doc?” He goosed the engine and they took off.

  His enthusiasm was contagious. It was a shimmery June morning, with birds singing and insects chirping and flowers blooming. Mother Nature was bursting with vitality, giving the impression that every living thing was having sex. From the lush surroundings, it was easy to see how the term “the birds and the bees” had evolved. There was something very sensual about the pervasive foliage and the steamy humidity. Her friend Amy’s remark about the mountains’ power of seduction came back to Nikki.

  But her friend had also said it was a deceptive seduction.

  Nikki smirked. Was there any other kind?

  As Porter had promised, the ride to the site that had been staked off for the clinic was just around the curve of the road, on the same side as the dining hall. At least two dozen men swarmed over the site operating machinery and using shovels to dig a trench for the building footer and foundation. Nearby another group of men added water to a concrete mixer whose drum was spinning slowly.

  When they climbed off the ATV, Porter retrieved blueprints from the storage compartment and spread them over the seat. “I know it looks pretty uninspiring at the moment, but it’ll go up quickly. We’re bringing in prefabricated units for the individual sections.”

  He pointed to the plans. “There will be a waiting room, exam rooms, procedure room, lab, pharmacy, secure drug room, offices for staff, a filing room and a small lounge. Oh, and your office, of course.”

  Nikki was impressed with the efficient layout, but felt compelled to add, “Not my office, Mr. Armstrong. But this does look like a workable layout.”

  “Porter,” he corrected. “Here’s the front elevation,” he said, turning to a computer-generated rendering of what the finished building might look like. For a utilitarian building, it was rustic and homey.

  She lifted her head and visualized the building on the site. It would sit in a natural curve of foliage. Nearby was a huge tree with a giant trunk. It would be picturesque…a beautiful place to come to work every day. She couldn’t help but compare it to the family practice she’d left in Broadway that occupied an abandoned strip mall.

  “We’re situating the building here because there’s a nice plateau a few hundred yards behind this site that will accommodate a helipad for a Medevac.”

  They were thinking ahead, she conceded. “How does modular building work?”

  “The sections are built in a factory, then shipped here on trucks and assembled on-site. There’s a factory two hours away, so we can do business locally. It’s faster, and there are fewer building materials to discard. Kendall worked with modular buildings in disaster recovery efforts overseas when he was in the Air Force, and in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.”

  “Will it be obvious that the structure is basically boxes set in place and welded together?”

  He smiled. “You tell me—the boardinghouse is a modular building.”

  She pursed her mouth. “No, I can’t tell. It looks…traditional. Is it as strong as a conventionally built structure?” She thought of the destruction in the pictures of the aftermath of the tornado. Lightning usually didn’t strike twice, but…

  Porter nodded. “Since they have to withstand being transported from factory to site, the framing is actually sturdier than building codes require.”

  She was impressed, both by the process and by the men’s dedication to new construction techniques. “You’ll have to recruit trained professionals to work in the clinic—a pharmacist, for example, and at least one nurse.”

  “We want to apply to join the Federal Rural Health Clinic network, which requires us to have certain personnel on hand. Kendall’s been reading the women’s bios. He said someone in the group is a recruiter?”

  “Regina Watts,” Nikki confirmed.

  “He’s going to work with Ms. Watts on getting the word out about any job we can’t fill from current residents. But I’m hoping you’ll help us get started with the paperwork for certification and licenses to operate in the RHC network.” He rolled up the blueprints and returned them to the storage compartment, then removed a fat accordion folder. “I have the federal manual for getting started, and all the forms.”

  Nikki blinked. She’d underestimated the Armstrong brothers. And how could they know that she’d dreamed of being a part of this very kind of medical establishment ever since she’d graduated med school? “I’ll do whatever I can while I’m here.”

  Porter’s grin made her tingle. The sensation jarred her—like the road leading into Sweetness, that direction was a dead end. Darren had once made her tingle like that. She averted her gaze.

  “Ready for the tour?” he asked.

  “Would it be possible to take me back to the water tower first so I can make a phone call?”

  “Let’s go,” he said, stowing the folder and retrieving the helmets.

  The ride to the top of the mountain was invigorating. Nikki closed her eyes and inhaled the grape-soda scent of the mountain laurel Porter had identified yesterday. Two rabbits jumped into their path and hopped ahead in a zigzag pattern before bounding off into the underbrush.

  When they reached the base of the water tower, Nikki dismounted the four-wheeler, handed Porter his crutches, and made her way to the ladder. She jumped up to grab the bottom rung, telling herself she didn’t enjoy the boost Porter gave her to send her on her way.

  But she did, darn it. Which was ridiculous, considering he probably didn’t think twice about it.

  The climb to the top was sweeter than the day before because she was more relaxed, had more time to take in her surroundings. When Nikki reached the platform, she allowed herself a few minutes to take in the spectacular emerald-and violet-hued view before pulling out her phone to check email and voice messages. She had none, a fact she digested with a pang of loneliness. Then she dialed Dr. Hannah’s office, relieved when her mentor answered, delighted when the woman seemed pleased to hear from her.

  “How are things in the country, my dear?”

  “It’s…different,” she said, trying to sound cheerful.

  “What was the name of the town again?”

  “Sweetness. Sweetness, Georgia.”

  “Sounds quaint.”

  “It’s that,” Nikki agreed.

  “We miss you here.”

  She toyed with the idea of telling Dr. Hannah she was coming back to Broadway, then decided to hold off. It might be difficult to attract other medical professionals to Sweetness if she admitted she was leaving. “I miss the pace,” Nikki finally said. “This isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity.”

  “It sounds lik
e a vacation. I’m envious.”

  “Speaking of which, do you know of a physician who might be willing to come here and help run a Federal Rural Health Clinic?”

  “They have an RHC?”

  “Not yet,” Nikki said. “But they’re applying for certification and a clinic is underway. They’ll also need a Physician’s Assistant, a Nurse Practitioner and a Certified Nurse Midwife.”

  “I’ll put out feelers,” Dr. Hannah said. “Do you have an address for this place?”

  “Not in front of me,” Nikki stalled. It didn’t sound good to say the town didn’t yet have a zip code, so she gave Dr. Hannah basic directions from the nearest interstate and told her if she found anyone who was interested in the positions, to call her.

  “How’s the scenery?” Dr. Hannah asked, her voice singsongy.

  “It’s picturesque,” Nikki said with a little frown.

  “I meant the eligible men. I read the ad in the newspaper, too, you know.”

  Nikki’s face burned. Dr. Hannah knew Darren from the times he’d stopped by the office to pick her up for lunch or bring her flowers. Deceitful cad.

  “I wouldn’t know about that,” Nikki said breezily.

  “Darren was in the office today,” Dr. Hannah said, her voice quiet.

  Nikki’s pulse jumped. “Oh?” Maybe he’d been asking about her.

  “He and his new honey came in to get blood tests.”

  For their marriage license…at the place where everyone knew her. Her heart crimped and her eyes filled with tears.

  “I’m sorry, Nikki. I always thought Darren was a nice guy, but he’s obviously lost his mind.”

  Nikki couldn’t speak. How many more hits could she take? As she stalled, a loud whistling noise floated up to her.

  “Oh, I’m a birdwatcher,” Dr. Hannah said. “What is that in the background?”

  Grateful for the change in subject, Nikki made her way around the platform back to the ladder and glanced down, wiping her eyes. On the ground Porter Armstrong was puckered up, warbling, while dropping something from a paper bag into a bird feeder. To her amazement, a pair of brilliantly colored blue birds appeared and swooped down to pluck something out of the feeder, uncaring that Porter was close enough to reach out and touch them. Nikki gasped in awe. The man could literally charm the birds out of the trees.