The Doctor Returns

by Stella MacLean

  He was grating Parmesan cheese when he felt her arms wrap around him. She pressed her body into his. “You smell delicious,” he said, turning in her embrace and kissing her, feeling a wonderful sense of connection when she smiled and touched the hair on his forehead.

  “Thank you, and it’s so nice to have someone make dinner for me.” She gathered the plates, knives and forks and took them to the table near the window that looked out onto a small flower garden. “I’m thinking about converting my flower garden into a vegetable garden so that I can have fresh salad greens during the summer. I’m going to concentrate on eating healthy to stabilize my blood sugar.”

  “Always working on self-improvement. I remember that about you,” he said, realizing that his property had huge overgrown herb and vegetable gardens that he could picture the two of them working in on long summer days. “I’ve never successfully grown anything. Houseplants wilt at the sight of me.”

  Sherri laughed. “I could show you how it’s done, city slicker,” she teased.

  This was the woman he’d fallen in love with. “You’re on,” he said, feeling the tension ease from his shoulders at the prospect of what the evening might lead to.

  Once dinner was ready and they were seated, they ate in companionable silence. “I have another confession to make,” Neill said finally.

  “What’s that?”

  “I had this really special date planned. I was going to take you out to an expensive restaurant this evening, and then we were going to go dancing somewhere.”

  “In Eden Harbor?”

  “No, we were going to go to Portland. Really live it up.”

  Sherri placed her fork and knife beside her plate. “That was delicious. We can do your fancy date another time, right?”

  “Whenever you’re ready.”

  “I’ve started using the insulin pump you recommended, and it’s so much easier than before.”

  “Oh, that’s great,” he said, almost having forgotten about Sherri’s diabetes.

  “And you know, it’s not so bad. When I first started on insulin, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to give myself the injections, despite my years of instructing others how to do it. I know how silly that sounds. So I had a little talk with myself. How could I expect my patients to adapt to testing their blood if I couldn’t do it myself? It’s going quite well now, so you can drop that concerned look of yours,” she said, her eyes reading him like a book, something he’d never really gotten used to when they were together.

  “Sherri, I want to apologize for implying that you shouldn’t help Charlie. I didn’t realize how much you had to deal with during your marriage to Sam.”

  “There was no way you could have known. No one did. Not even my in-laws. They were just happy to have Sam married to someone they liked, and Sam never wanted them to find out about how bad his drinking had become. I’m sure they were aware that he drank socially, but that was the extent of it.”

  “It must have been really hard to come to the realization that you didn’t love Sam.”

  She sighed. “What’s so disheartening is that Sam never really had a chance at life. Sure, he had money and he had a good job, but he didn’t have many friends except Charlie. His parents were so determined to see both their sons be successful that they lost track of the fact that they both had their own dreams of what they wanted from life.”

  “You weren’t responsible for his unhappiness.”

  “No, but in a way I did the same thing to Sam. I was willing to accept his offer of marriage for the wrong reason, and he ended up paying the price.”

  “But you were willing to stay in the marriage out of loyalty to him.” Neill couldn’t stop himself from saying it.

  “My penance, you mean?”

  “No...well, maybe.” He pushed back from the table in an attempt to hide his remorse at his role in all of this. “Let’s talk about something else. I’ll get the dessert and make coffee.”

  She cleared off the table and loaded the dishwasher while he got the frozen yogurt out of the freezer. He was about to load a tray to take to the living room when his cell phone rang. “It’s Mom,” he said, hitting the button.

  “Neill, where is Morgan?” his mother asked without preamble.

  “Isn’t she at Kirsten’s?” he asked. “I thought she was going over there to study.”

  “She did, but once I got dinner ready and she hadn’t shown up, I called Kirsten’s house and neither of the girls is there. Kirsten’s mother didn’t seem particularly concerned and thought they’d said something about going to Tara’s. But they’re not there, either.”

  “She has her cell phone. Did you trying calling her?” he asked.

  “I did, but there’s no answer. Are you home?”

  Where could Morgan have gone this time, and why wasn’t she answering her phone? “I’m at Sherri’s condo. We’re having dinner.”

  “Sherri? You talked to Morgan about her, didn’t you?”

  “I talked to her about Sherri, and she was fine with it.” That wasn’t the complete truth, but something in his mother’s tone put him off. He felt as if he were sneaking around, and he wasn’t. Sherri’s arm snaked around his waist. He smiled down at her, glad she was there with him.

  “She didn’t give me the impression that she was at all happy about you dating someone.”

  What had gotten into his mother? She’d always been so supportive, but she was making it very clear that she wasn’t happy about Sherri being back in his life. “I’ll head over to the house and see if she’s there. I’m sure she just stopped off at another friend’s house and forgot to call,” he said as much for his own peace of mind as for his mother’s.

  “Neill, please understand I’m not trying to interfere, but at the risk of repeating myself, I think you need to give Morgan a chance to get used to the changes in her life. Your daughter misses her mother, and now she’s mixed up about where she stands with you.”

  “Did she tell you that?” Neill asked. It hurt him to think that Morgan had shared those feelings with his mother and not with him.

  He started getting worried. What if Morgan had had a seizure? What if that was the reason she hadn’t shown up at his mother’s? “Mom, I’m going to my house to see if Morgan is there. Will you call her other friends and see if anyone has seen her?”

  “Of course. Are you taking Sherri with you?”

  “Yes, Mom. If anything has happened to Morgan—”

  “You don’t think she’s had a seizure, do you?”

  Suddenly that was all he could think about.

  “Mom, I’ll call you when I get to the house.”

  His mother sighed before hanging up.

  “Where’s Morgan?” Sherri asked.

  “I don’t know.” He took a deep breath to ease the worry lodged in his chest. Nothing could happen to his daughter. Despite his feelings around his mother’s quiet condemnation of his involvement with Sherri, he certainly didn’t want his daughter to be harmed by his choices in life.

  “You’d better get over to the house to see if she’s there.”

  He ran his hand through his hair, his mind wrestling with his thoughts. “I can’t believe that she’s done anything more than taken off for home without telling anyone. She’s been so happy being able to visit friends and stay at her grandmother’s without having to be driven around like she did in Boston.”

  “You go, and call me when you get there.”

  His heart filled with worry, he said, “I need you with me. I’ve been alone these past two years trying to deal with my daughter on my own, and I’m so tired.” He rubbed his face, guilt and worry wiping out the evening of relaxation he’d needed so badly.

  She reached for him. “I’ll go with you.” As he held her, soaking in the scent of her, the warmth of her b
ody pressed to his, he wished... He wished for a lot of things lately. Most of them revolving around the woman in his arms.

  He looked down into her eyes. “I’m so glad you’re back in my life,” he said.

  “Me, too.” Sherri whispered.

  He reached behind him to where his keys rested on the counter. “Let’s go find Morgan.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  THE SUN WAS sinking below the horizon as they pulled into Neill’s yard. They both clambered out of Neill’s SUV, their eyes searching the shadows created by the trees near the back of the lot. Sherri had hoped they might see Morgan walking along the street toward home, but there hadn’t been any sign of her. If Morgan was her daughter, there’d be consequences for behaving this way, but she wasn’t the girl’s mother. It wasn’t up to her to decide.

  “She didn’t answer her phone, so she must have turned it off. She had better be in the house,” Neill said.

  “We’ll find her,” Sherri said, touching his arm as they stood at the back door.

  “Why would she not go to Mom’s when she knew I planned to pick her up there?” he asked, exasperation adding a sharp edge to his words.

  “Let’s check the house.”

  Just then, the door to the barn opened, and the girls came out, their heads close together. They were carrying a large red watering can.

  “Morgan! What are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell your grandmother or me where you were going?”

  Morgan’s face went white and her lips formed a big O. “Dad, I’m sorry.” She rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “We were done studying and decided we wanted to come here. I wanted to show Kirsten the barn.”

  He hugged his daughter to him, pressing his lips to the top of her head. Sherri’s heart lurched in her chest. The sight of the two of them made her long for the child she’d lost. Patrick would have been eleven this summer...

  “It’s okay, sweetie, but from now on you have to tell me or your grandmother where you are at all times. That’s why you have your own cell phone, so that you can call either of us whenever you need to.” He tilted her chin up. “Got that?”

  “Got it, Dad. I wanted to show Kirsten all the stuff in the barn, how awesome it is with the upstairs room and the funny little window that looks out into the trees. I want to clean out that room when we do the rest of the barn. Can we, Dad?”

  “What did you have in mind to use it for?” he asked.

  Sherri watched as Neill smoothed the long curls from Morgan’s face, his touch loving and gentle. She wanted to be a part of their world, a part of Morgan’s life. She missed not having a family of her own and the opportunity to enjoy moments like this, to experience a life that included a child.

  Kirsten came and stood next to Sherri. “That barn is amazing. Totally.” She glanced up at Sherri. “Could I get a drink of something? It was a long walk over here.”

  Sherri looked at Kirsten, at her straight blond hair and her big, round eyes, and smiled. Kirsten looked just like her father, Matt Seymour, one of the park wardens. “I’m sure you can. Why don’t we go inside?”

  She glanced at Neill, who nodded and linked his arm with his daughter’s. He led the way into the house. Morgan hadn’t looked in Sherri’s direction yet, which was a bit disconcerting to say the least. Covering her discomfort, Sherri got each of the girls a glass of apple juice from the refrigerator and was relieved to hear them talking in animated tones about the barn and making plans to hold a yard sale.

  Later, Kirsten and Morgan went upstairs to Morgan’s room and Sherri put the glasses in the dishwasher. “Would you like a cup of coffee?” she asked.

  “Sounds great,” he said, and she could feel his eyes on her as she filled the coffeemaker with water.

  She was getting the cups from the cupboard when she felt his body close to hers. He lifted the hair off her neck and pressed his lips to her skin, sending a cascade of need flowing through her body. “Neill.” She sighed, leaning back into his embrace.

  “I’ve missed this so much. Remember how we used to slip into your mother’s house after school and get a can of pop and sit on the back step? Do you have any idea how much I wanted to make love to you back then? How hard it was to sit on that step and keep a conversation going when the pressure of your hand on mine was enough to make me want to carry you off to your room?” His arms tightened around her.

  It all seemed so long ago. “I do,” she said. She turned in his arms and looked up into his eyes. He was looking at her the way he used to all those years ago when they were so in love, so completely in sync with each other. Feelings of need, of confusion and of longing for the past surfaced. “We were so close, so incredibly aware of each other back then.”

  “And now?” he asked, kissing her slowly while his hands moved gently up her back and came to rest at her collarbone. Her pulse leaped beneath his fingers. His dark eyelashes framing his hazel eyes stood out against his pale skin; freckles still topped the edge of his cheeks. Everything about him was so much what she needed, and she wanted to forget the past and simply be in the present moment with this man.

  She clung to him, her breath coming in short gasps, her head thrown back as he kissed her throat, the touch of his lips both demanding and tender.

  “Dad!”

  Neill’s arms released her. He stepped back, his gaze going to his daughter. “Morgan, I didn’t know you were there.”

  “No kidding!” She marched past them, over to the fridge, opened the door and got out two cans of pop. “Kirsten and I are making signs for the yard sale,” she said, staying as far away from them as possible. “My father kissing someone I don’t even know. This is so embarrassing!”

  “Morgan, wait,” Neill said. “I want you to come back here and apologize to Sherri. That is no way to behave.”

  Morgan stopped at the door, turned her angry gaze on Sherri and mumbled, “I’m sorry.”

  It was clear she didn’t mean it, but Neill didn’t say anything.

  “Morgan, I hope you and I can get to know each other better,” Sherri said in an attempt to make peace with the girl.

  “What for?”

  “Morgan, what’s gotten into you? We talked about this, and you were all right with it. What’s going on?” Neill demanded.

  Morgan’s face contorted, and she scrunched her lips together. “I wish she wasn’t here,” she said.

  Silence shrouded the room. Neill went over to his daughter and put his arm around her.

  Morgan stepped back, clutching the two cans of pop in front of her, shielding her from his touch.

  “You’re not being nice. We’ll talk about this later,” Neill said.

  They both watched as she left the room, her voice rising as she called out to Kirsten to come downstairs and go out to the barn.

  Neill sighed, his expression apologetic as he reached out his arms for Sherri. “I’m sorry.” He put his arms around Sherri and rested his forehead against hers. “Nothing cools things off faster than an angry kid,” he said, his hands moving back up to her neck.

  But the moment had been lost. “Neill, this isn’t working,” she murmured, easing out of his arms.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes telling her that he already knew. He joined her at the table.

  “You want Morgan to be happy. And it’s clear that she doesn’t like me or want me in your life.”

  He rubbed his hands on his thighs. “Does anyone ever get this parenting thing right?”

  Pain settled near her heart. “What do you mean?”

  “I feel so guilty about so many things where Morgan’s concerned—my divorce, her epilepsy. She’d been doing fine until we moved here.”

  “Has she had another episode since the one when we met?”

  “No, but Dr. Reynolds says that if
she does he wants to see her.”

  And if Neill went back to Boston with Morgan, and the doctor wanted them to stay...

  “Then there are all the adjustments she’s had to make since moving here. Mom’s been a great help. Still, I feel guilty that I maybe haven’t been around as much as I should have. And now there’s you.”

  “She isn’t happy about me being in your life. She thinks I’m trying to replace her mother.”

  “Possibly.” Neill sighed.

  “We can’t put our relationship on hold because of her, though. It wouldn’t be fair to us,” Sherri said, regretting the words as soon as they came out of her mouth.

  “And I don’t want to put us on hold. I love you, and I want us to be together. Please don’t ever doubt that, but I feel responsible.”

  Did Neill expect her to drop out of his life until he and Morgan resolved their issues? Old feelings of rejection, of having her feelings come second, flooded around her heart. She leaned back in her chair. “But that doesn’t mean you have to let Morgan behave so rudely toward me, or make your decisions for you, does it? She has to learn that you have a full life, a busy schedule, and that life includes being with someone who loves you.”

  “I know.” He rubbed his hands over his thighs. “But I’m worried about her. This is the second time she’s disappeared on me.”

  Neill couldn’t seem to see what was happening, that he was refusing to see the problem Morgan was creating with her behavior.

  “I realize how frightening that had to have been for you. But what did you say to her that first time to get her to understand that taking off is not acceptable behavior?”