Christmas Comes to Dickens

by Nancy Fraser

  He’d also been the first man her heart had broken over.

  Oh, well. All that’s in the past. He probably hasn’t even thought about me since I left town.

  When she signed off on her last chart, the beeper attached to her lab coat vibrated.

  ~Keith Mills is here.

  Dragging in a calming breath, Sage mentally prepared herself to see the man she’d left standing in angry and emotional tatters eighteen years ago.

  She heard him before she ever laid eyes on him.

  “Where’s my grandmother’s doctor?” he bellowed from the nurse’s station. “Get him up here right now.”

  “I already paged Dr. Hamilton,” Deb said, her voice staying calm and controlled.

  Sage stopped as she turned the hallway corner and spotted Keith.

  He was impossible to miss.

  From his impressive and imposing six-foot-three height he towered above the diminutive nurse as he stood, arms akimbo, glaring down his nose at her.

  An annoyed scowl twisted his mouth, but the memory of how seductive and alluring those full lips could be when pulled into a wicked grin burned bright in her mind.

  “Where’s Doc Martin? He’s been my grandmother’s physician for decades. Who is this Hamilton person?”

  “Keith.”

  No amount of preparation could have prevented the full effect of Keith Mills’ gaze from shooting through Sage when he turned to her.

  As a teenager he’d been all gangly arms and monkey hands, bony shoulders and narrow hips. His face had yet to fill out, but even back then his features hinted at a classic, movie star handsomeness to come.

  As a man now, he’d outgrown the teen gauntness and his body had settled into perfect male proportions. Those bony shoulders spanned a yard and dropped into arms bulging underneath a fitted shirt. That hint of good looks had blossomed into a face sculpted by the gods of gorgeous. Cheekbones cut from glass sat over a square and powerful jaw. All in all, he’d grown into one magnificent man.

  Damn him.

  Whatever he’d been about to say died before he gave it a voice. In the span of a heartbeat his expression went from annoyed to confused, his eyes widening, then the corners pulling into a squint, his lips lifting from their frown to form a wide O of surprise.

  “Sage?” Incredulity graced his voice – a man’s voice. Rich and deep; hard and commanding. A shiver of intense and unexpected longing zipped down her spine at the timbre.

  She swallowed and beat back the panicked nerves tumbling through her system. “It’s been a long time.” She walked toward the nurse’s station, her gaze steadier than her trembling hands.

  Indecision blasted through her the nearer she came. Be professional and shake his hand, or hug him like a long lost friend?

  “What are you doing here?”

  The irritation behind his question decided her response. She clasped her quivering hands in front of her and said, “You wanted to speak to me about your grandmother. Why don’t we go down to the cafeteria to talk? Corrine’s still in surgery and it’s going to be a bit before you can see her.”

  Slipping her hands into her lab coat pockets, she tilted her head, indicating for him to follow as she began walking toward the elevator bank.

  “Wait.”

  She stopped, mid stride, and turned back around.

  “I don’t understand.” He shook his head, his eyebrows lifting to his hairline. “You’re my grandmother’s physician? You’re...Dr. Hamilton?”

  Chapter 2

  SHE NODDED.

  “But your last name is Timm.”

  “Hamilton is my married name.”

  Married?

  Well, of course she was. Why wouldn’t she be? It’s not like I ever expected her to pine away after dumping my ass. Wished for it, sure. But, apparently, she’d moved on with her life. Gotten married. Probably had a house full of kids, too.

  “Come on,” she said, breaking through his thoughts. “Let me buy you a cup of coffee and I can update you on Corrine.”

  He wanted to challenge her, be contrary and make her speak to him right here, right now. But that was from the shock of seeing her again. And shock it was. She was the last person he’d ever expected to see walking toward him in Dickens Memorial.

  Sage Timm – no, Hamilton – was back in the town she couldn’t leave fast enough and was, unbelievably, his grandmother’s physician.

  Just when the hell had this happened? And more importantly, why hadn’t Corrine told him?

  After receiving the tearful and jolting call from his grandmother’s maid informing him Corrine was on the way to the hospital with a suspected broken hip, Keith had bolted out of the meeting it had taken him two months to arrange with a potential client, ordered his assistant to charter a plane, and then jumped into a waiting limo.

  Not less than an hour later he was in the air. The flight took a mere twenty minutes, just a quick up and down. Once he landed he was met by another limo and taken directly to the hospital where he’d gotten the second jolt of his day. The only women he could claim he ever truly and completely loved, was now his grandmother’s physician.

  Talk about unpredictable days.

  Silently, they rode the crowded elevator.

  Once they alighted, Sage led him to a table in a corner of the almost empty cafeteria.

  “Would you like anything? Coffee? Something to eat?”

  “What I’d like,” he barked, “is to know what the hell happened to my grandmother.” He knew he sounded condescending and overbearing, but he couldn’t help himself. Worry flooded through him. Corrine was all that mattered, not the manners she’d drilled into him as a boy. If he were being honest with himself, though, he could admit his rude behavior was a mask to hide how unnerved he was at seeing his old love again.

  Sage ignored his tone, nodded, and sat. He took the chair across from her.

  After drawing in a breath, she folded her hands and rested them on the table in a gesture he remembered well. She’d always taken a moment to center her thoughts before speaking. He’d been impressed with the move as a teen since it was such an adult thing to do.

  “What did Maria tell you?”

  “Corrine fell, was unresponsive, she called EMS, and then me. Why? Is there something I don’t know?”

  “A few details. Your grandmother complained of having a headache after lunch and was about to go in for a nap. When she got up from the table, she said she felt dizzy, then collapsed. Maria couldn’t catch her in time, so she fell, awkwardly, and landed on her hip. Brittle and aged bones had it breaking. When she got to the emergency room her blood pressure was through the roof. You know she has hypertension, right?”

  He nodded. “Doc Martin diagnosed it about four, five years ago. Gran takes a bunch of pills to control it. Have they stopped working? Is that the reason her pressure was elevated?”

  “I’m not certain. I want to get an MRI once she’s out of surgery to rule out a stroke. Her pressure dropped some in the ER. This may have been a singular hypertensive event that’ll respond to treatment, but I need to know why she fainted. The broken hip, although an immediate concern, is secondary.”

  He tilted his head and peered at her, trying to determine if she was sugar coating her words. He’d always known Sage to be a straight shooter.

  Had that changed after all these years?

  She’d certainly changed. Outwardly, at least. If possible, she was more beautiful than he remembered. At two years younger than himself, she was thirty-six, but her unlined skin was more like a woman in her twenties. Even in the corners of her eyes.

  And those eyes. He’d never seen their color anywhere, or on anyone else. A blue so vibrantly deep, warm, and enticing, he’d tried once to replicate it on a building design for a celebrity client. Frustration had devoured him because no paint combination came close to their likeness.

  She’d worn her hair almost to her waist when they’d been younger. Shorter now, it still framed her face and drifted beyond
her shoulders. Fresh honey with a splash of cocoa was how Corrine had described the color. It was still as alluring as it had been when she was sixteen.

  “Did she come around once her pressure started to fall?” he asked.

  “No. I ordered several panels of blood work including cardiac enzymes to see if this was heart related. Her EKG—that’s a—”

  “I know what it is.” Her eyes widened and her left eyebrow quirked upward at his tone. He drew in a deep breath as embarrassment overcame him. “Sorry. This entire situation is upsetting, but it’s no excuse to be rude. Corrine would nail me to a cross if she heard how I was speaking to you.” He shook his head. “Anyway. She’s had EKGs before, when Caleb Martin was her doc.”

  Sage nodded. “I did one in the ER and it didn’t show any signs of electrical malfunction. I have another one ordered for when she’s out of surgery.”

  She reached down and pulled a beeping pager from her pocket. “Excuse me.”

  Keith sat back in the chair, watching, as her gaze ran across the display screen. Memories sprang to his mind of another trait she hadn’t shed with the years. Whenever Sage read anything, be it a book, a letter, heck, even a note he managed to pass her in the hallway between classes, she routinely clamped down on the middle of her bottom lip with her top teeth. Depending on what she was gazing at, she either held her lip prisoner, or gently chewed on it. When she began nibbling after shoving the pager back into her pocket, he asked, “What’s going on?”

  “Corrine’s electrolytes are a little out of whack but her cardiac enzymes are fine.”

  “And that means, what?”

  She stared over his shoulder, her eyes ping-ponging, indicating she was gathering her thoughts. Another memory, this one quick and powerful, shot through him of her doing the same thing the first time he’d confessed his love. Her gaze had darted back and forth between his, searching for the truth. Knowing how insecure she was, he’d done his best to convince her he wasn’t lying.

  It had taken him quite a few tries before she believed him.

  Her pager went off again, startling them both.

  “Your grandmother’s in recovery,” she said, reading the screen. “Let’s go see her.”

  “My God. She’s so pale.” A hard ball of pain choked the back of his throat when they came into the recovery room cubicle and he got his first look at the woman who’d raised and loved him unconditionally. In his entire life he’d never seen her sick, even for a day. Never a cold or flu during the horribly long and frigid winters in their tiny New England town, or the hint of an allergy during planting or harvesting seasons. The diagnosis of high blood pressure had been a complete surprise because she’d never had one symptom before the day Doc Martin’s nurse told her it was elevated.

  And now, here she was, hooked up to machines, medications dripping into her veins, an oxygen mask over her face. He swallowed and hit back at the terror wanting to unleash itself.

  “She’s fresh out of surgery,” Sage said, placing her stethoscope under the top of Corrine’s generic hospital gown. “Being pale is expected and isn’t a concern right now.”

  Her voice betrayed no fear, not a whit of uneasiness. How could she be so calm? So in control, when his insides felt as if a detonation device had exploded within them? Sage had adored his grandmother as much as he had. To be able to keep a cap on her emotions was astonishing.

  After a few moments she stood upright and ticked her head for him to follow her outside. In the hallway, when she folded her arms over her chest, his gaze dipped to her hands. Nary a freckle, age spot, or even a protuberant vein marred the perfection of her skin. The one, small vanity she’d had as a teen were her nails. Bitten to the quick at times, she’d finally resolved to combat her horrible nail gnawing habit when some girls in middle school teased her to no end. Sage had taken great pride in her ability and dedication to cease biting her nails and had vehemently vowed to never go back to the habit. To ensure it, she’d kept her fingernails trimmed and polished, never accepting a chip of color or a jagged tear.

  Keith blinked a few times when it dawned on him she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring as he pulled his attention back to her face.

  Why was his mind conjuring so many memories of her when he should be focused on his grandmother?

  “I want to schedule a few more tests and I need consent to do them because some of them are invasive.”

  She explained why they would help isolate the cause of Corrine’s elevated blood pressure.

  “I saw her in the office last month and I know her hypertension was under control then, but I need to determine why it spiked and if it’s related to her syncopal episode. When I do, I can treat it. For now, she’ll be started on various meds to keep lowering it and prevent any more damage from, hopefully, occurring.”

  Keith considered what she’d told him. “I’m her power of attorney. If you think she needs these tests then I trust your judgment and expertise. Get me any forms and I’ll sign them.”

  Surprise dotted her cheeks. “You can, as your right, call in a second opinion, you know.”

  For the first time since turning and watching her walk toward him in the corridor, Keith saw the Sage he remembered so well: shy, hesitant, and not quite sure of herself, even though she was typically the smartest person in any room. For some strange reason it went a long way in calming his nerves and anxiety about this horrible situation.

  “My grandmother trusts you with her medical care. Since she’s one of the most savvy people you, or I, have ever known, I would be foolish not to do the same.”

  When her shoulder’s relaxed and her chest rose and fell with one deep breath, he felt a ridiculous urge to gather her into his arms and hold her as he had so many times in the past.

  Ridiculous? It’s insane. She’d probably knock me into next Tuesday if I even attempted to touch her.

  Or her husband would.

  On that sobering thought he excused himself and went back into his grandmother’s cubicle, dragged a chair next to the bed, and pulled the hand without an intravenous attached to it into his.

  Leaning down with his lips close to her ear, he said, “I’m here, Gran. Your favorite grandson. I can hear you chiding that I’m your only grandson like you always do when I say that. You’ve probably guessed you’re in Dickens Memorial. You fell and did a number on your hip. Really, old girl, if you’d wanted me home for the holidays all you needed to do was call. No cause for all this commotion. Quinn and I were planning to surprise you on Christmas Eve and stay for a few days.”

  He squeezed her hand, drew in a deep breath, then continued talking to her for the next hour, nonstop.

  Chapter 3

  WAS THERE ANYTHING as wonderful as shucking your bra at the end of a long day?

  Sage tossed the undergarment into her laundry basket along with her work wear. An old pair of medical school sweat pants and a butter-soft flannel shirt she’d had since college replaced the discarded clothes. She removed her contact lenses, shoved her glasses up on her nose, then pulled her hair into a messy bun.

  Another exciting night, all alone at home; just me, leftovers for dinner, and a medical journal. It’s a good thing I don’t imbibe because this scene has all the earmarks for depression drinking.

  Her grandmother’s voice burst through her thoughts: Stop feeling sorry for yourself.

  Wise words.

  Sage had left the hospital after spending the better part of the afternoon arranging for Corrine’s care and testing. With instructions to the nursing staff to call her directly should anything change in the woman’s status, she then trekked back to the clinic to put out a few fires from patients who’d demanded to be seen, despite being told of Sage’s emergency. One of the problems with having only a handful of family doctors in town was the need to be available to deal with her patients at any time they requested. Wagging tongues filled with negativity were a part of small-town life. Sage didn’t want to do anything to cause a patient to badmouth her to the com
munity.

  The last thing she’d seen before leaving the hospital was Keith sitting next to Corrine’s bed after she’d been admitted to the med/surg wing, one of her hands tucked between both of his as he spoke quietly to her sleeping form.

  The physical changes over the years in him were huge. But the one thing she’d loved more than anything else about him all those years ago had been his utter devotion to his grandmother. That, apparently, hadn’t changed one iota.

  Corrine and Able Mills raised Keith from the age of eight when his parents were both killed in a freak home fire initiated by a lightning strike. Flames engulfed the old wooden farmhouse before they could flee to safety into the hot and stormy summer night. Thankfully, Keith had been at a camping event with his Cub Scout troop. He’d come to live with his maternal grandparents immediately after his parents were laid to rest.

  Just as she finished pouring herself a glass of water, the front doorbell chimed.

  Surprised was too tame a word for what flew through her when she found Keith on her doorstep.

  “What are you doing here?”

  His brows pulled together and he tilted his head to one side. “When did you start wearing glasses?”

  She blinked a few times behind them. “Medical school.”

  He glanced down at the pewter wine goblet in her hand. “I’m sorry. That was rude. It just took me by surprise. Anyway, I know you’re done for the day and I’m intruding on your family time, but do you have a few minutes? I’ve got some questions and I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to ask them.”

  “Oh, um...sure.” She pulled the door wide. “Come on in.”

  “Again, I’m sorry for intruding.”

  “It’s fine.” She swiped her free hand in the air. “How did you even know I was here?”

  He startled a bit as he regarded her, then shook his head. “You know, it never occurred to me you wouldn’t be.” He shrugged and shook his head again. “I guess I didn’t think that through, did I? You could have been living anywhere in town for all I knew.”