“All they need is someone to play quiet table games with them,” Dan said, sounding wistful. “According to my brother, our dad was a whiz at making them up. Of course, I don’t remember.”
“What does your brother do now?” she asked, genuinely curious because Dan’s face had lit up with he mentioned the phone call.
“Teaches high school science.” His features softened, and she could tell he was genuinely fond of his brother.
Service was slow, but Amy was fascinated by Dan’s memories of growing up with a widowed mother.
“I never would’ve become a doctor without her encouragement,” Dan said. “She worked her way up from a temp job to a museum curator’s secretary, so I figured I could get through med school one way or another. At the time, I thought help from Heart City was a miracle.”
“And now?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
“Two years seem like a long time. I’m eager to get back to California and get settled for good.”
She knew that already, but the way he said it touched her heart. It couldn’t be easy to hit a roadblock after so many years of work and study. The best she could hope was that the town would appreciate his work the way they should.
“Dr. Prince?”
A dark-haired woman Amy knew by sight as a customer at the drug store stood beside their table with a little girl who mirrored her mother’s good looks.
“Yes.” Dan’s smile melted Amy’s heart, and she knew she was in danger of caring about him too much.
“Jennie met you at the day care today. She wanted to give you her cookie to thank you for coming.”
An engaging little girl about four years old held out a big, round frosted cookie, a specialty of the restaurant.
“It was her own idea,” the mother said as Dan took it.
“Thank you, Jennie. This is so kind of you,” he said with a winning smile. He took a bite and chewed with gusto. He couldn’t have been more charming if the president’s wife had presented him with a medal. “You drew that pretty picture of the flowers in your garden.”
The little girl was beaming as her mother led her away.
“You remembered her drawing?” Amy said in awe. Doctors had to be smart, but how could he recall one child’s picture in a room full of kids?
“I have to confess,” he said grinning. “All the children were drawing flowers.”
“Well, you’ve made a fan for life — for as long as you’re here.”
“It’s hard to treat children when you have to hurt them to do it,” he said thoughtfully. “I don’t want them to be afraid of me, so I’ll probably visit elementary classrooms when school starts.”
“That’s a wonderful idea if you have time,” she said.
“I’ll make time,” he said in a determined voice.
The meal wasn’t memorable. Her lamb chops were dry, and the medley of garden vegetables was steam-table limp. Dan didn’t mention his grilled fish, but he spent a lot of time extracting little bones. If the success of the evening depended on the food, it was a flop.
Instead, her heart was singing as they walked to his van. Dan was fun. He loved to tease, but there was no meanness in it. Even though he didn’t want to be in Heart City, he seemed to like the people, especially the young children he’d gone out of his way to meet.
“What do we do for an encore?” he asked, opening the door of the van for her. “We can make the nine o’clock movie.”
“There’s only a fifty-fifty chance the projector will be working,” she said, a little embarrassed by the lack of a good movie theater. The antiquated Cinema Palace was more a hobby than a viable business for the owners, a semi-retired couple known to have inherited a fortune from a bachelor uncle.
“I thought it was a little jerky when I went to a Schwarzenegger rerun last week. Classy theater, though. I love the effect of a starlit sky and the fake balconies.”
“It’s been renovated since I was a kid. Now all they need is a major technological update and some first-run movies. Of course, now you can see almost anything on DVDs,” she said.
“I have a copy of True Grit the John Wayne version, I haven’t seen. My brother gave it to me for my birthday.”
Amy wrinkled her nose, but not at his brother’s taste in movies. Watching a movie in his apartment seemed a little too cozy for a first date that couldn’t possibly go anywhere.
“If you want to get a true taste of Iowa, let’s go to the gravel pit,” she suggested, tongue in cheek.
“A gravel pit?” For once, he looked totally puzzled. “Do we look for fossils or something?”
“Not unless you’re into diving. There aren’t many natural lakes in Iowa, at least not around here. Local kids swim in a flooded gravel pit. The parking area is sort of a hang-out too, but not this early in the evening.”
“I’m game,” he said in a teasing voice, “so long as the new doctor doesn’t get arrested for skinny dipping.”
“Believe me, that’s not going to happen!”
She slipped out of her shoes as soon as she was belted in, wiggling her toes in relief. As soon as she got home, they were going in her charity bag. Why torture her feet for a date that was going nowhere?
Dan followed her directions through a twisting maze of back roads and parked in a level area east of the gravel pit. As expected, the young crowd wasn’t there yet, which made it a pleasant place to watch the sunset.
Gorgeous shades of orange and pink streaked the western sky as Dan came around to her side of the car, catching her with her feet bare.
“I thought we could walk a little, but if your feet hurt … ”
“Oh, no, I’m fine,” she lied, not wanting to seem like a silly female who wore uncomfortable shoes. She slipped her protesting feet into the too-high heels and took his hand to get out of the van.
Two steps away, she stepped into a depression in the uneven ground and stumbled, saved from a fall by his quick reflexes. His arm shot out to catch her, and she ended up with her face pressed against the soft cotton knit on his chest.
“Sorry,” she stammered, unhurt but embarrassed.
“Take my arm,” he said, dismissing it so casually she felt at ease immediately. I can see why you brought me here. I really miss the sunsets over the Pacific.”
For the briefest of moments, he sounded like a homesick boy. Then he laughed at his own flash of nostalgia and led her to the waterside.
“Kids swim here?” he asked, more in wonder than doubt.
“The big ones do. There’s no lifeguard, so they do it at their own risk. No one’s ever drowned, but there’ve been some bruises and breaks when kids get rowdy.”
“Is this where you went when you were a kid?” he asked, keeping a tight grip on her hand.
“Sometimes. New cheerleaders had to skinny dip before they were considered part of the squad. It sounds raunchy, but once you’re in the water, it’s — I don’t know how to describe it.”
“Sensual,” he purred in a voice so low she might have mistaken the word. “I don’t suppose … ”
“No.”
“Bad idea. I apologize for even thinking it,” he said, not sounding the least bit sorry.
The air was cool after a long, hot day, and Amy wasn’t sorry for bringing him here, even though she may have sent him the wrong message. It seemed a long time since she’d held hands with a boy at the edge of the gravel pit. Maybe it wasn’t romantic by anyone else’s standards, but the solitude and the quiet in the surrounding woods gave the setting a special charm.
Dan was quiet, but she suspected he wasn’t thinking about her. Only Hannah believed Prince Charming would come into her life and transform it into the stuff of fairy tales.
“I guess we should go and leave the place to the kids,” he said when only a slive
r of the great orange ball still showed on the horizon. “Don’t want to cramp their style.”
The parking area was darker and more treacherous, but he led her back to the van without incident. They didn’t seem to have much to talk about on the way back to town, or maybe he was as lost in thought as she was.
When he parked by her apartment building, she quickly got out of the vehicle, ready to end the evening as smoothly as possible. This was probably their first and only date, and she didn’t want him to think she expected more.
“I can make it from here,” she said with an unintended giggle.
“I don’t know how they do it in Iowa, but we California men see a lady to her door.”
He hurried to take her arm, perhaps concerned she might take a header in her heels, but she’d taken the precaution of dangling them from her hand. A little rough cement on her soles was preferable to skinned knees or worse.
“This is what I call the awkward moment,” he said when they were standing outside her door. “A kiss is called for, but may not be welcome. On the other hand, it has connotations neither party might not welcome.”
“What are you talking about?” she teased to cover her own discomfort.
Of course, she wanted him to kiss her. Little girls too young for kindergarten courted his attention, and she was, after all, a warm-blooded female. But locked lips could lead to complications. She didn’t want him to think she was a predatory female out to snare the town’s hunky new doctor. A little pride wasn’t a bad thing.
“Thank you for the dinner,” she said in a deliberately formal tone.
“My pleasure. Thank you for sharing your lover’s lane with me. I enjoyed watching the sunset with you.”
Lover’s lane? What an old-fashioned expression. Before she could comment on it, he bent his head and planted a soft kiss on her forehead.
“Good night, Amy.”
He’d kissed her forehead. She unlocked the door and quickly closed it behind her. What kind of message did a kiss on the forehead send? One thing was sure: It was about as romantic as shaking hands.
The evening had been fun. She’d had a good time, and that was that. The less she saw of Dr. Dan Prince in the future, the safer she’d feel. If she allowed herself to have any expectations about him, she was open to heartache.
Her forehead still tingled where his lips had touched it. She rubbed the spot, as though she could erase the memory of his kiss. The sooner she put him totally out of her mind, the better it would be for her.
CHAPTER 7
“What are you compounding?”
Amy watched with curiosity Monday afternoon as Bert Warner vigorously ground a mix of dry ingredients. Pharmacists rarely had to use a mortar and pestle these days when every imaginable remedy came pre-packaged.
“It’s my secret horse liniment. I’m mixing it for Gil Brown. His favorite horse, Briny, has gone lame, and he swears by it.”
“What’s in it?” Amy wrinkled her nose at the pungent odor, only made worse when he added a huge dollop of a greasy substance.
“Ah, that’s a secret I won’t part with until I’m retired for good,” he said, his voice teasing but his expression earnest.
“Not even to your number one pharmacist?” Amy asked with a grin.
It was a running joke because she was his only professional employee. Until he hired her, Bert had worked long hours without another pharmacist. He still had the husky build of a University of Iowa linebacker, but he admitted his knees weren’t what they’d once been. If their working relationship continued to be as congenial as it was now, Bert planned to gradually reduce his hours. Amy knew he hoped to make it possible for her to buy the store eventually, although his full retirement was still some time in the future.
“The formula is locked away with my will. It goes to the person who takes over the store.” He added another ingredient and pounded vigorously.
Amy thought he must be kidding, but his expression belied that. Bert was as serious about his concoction as Gil Brown was about the horses he bred.
“Would you mind running this out to Gil’s place?” Bert asked. “My car is in the shop, and my wife is visiting her sister in Dubuque with hers.”
“Sure, no trouble,” Amy said.
Bert was her ideal boss, always requesting she do things instead of giving orders. He was one of the reasons she liked her job so much and appreciated the pace of life in Heart City.
“Better leave as soon as I get this ready,” he said. “We’re under a tornado watch, but you should have plenty of time before it turns into a warning — if it does.”
“No problem. I’m an Iowa girl, you know.”
Amy had learned in kindergarten how to take cover from a tornado, and she still knew exactly where to go when a warning was issued. She’d only rented her apartment after she was sure there was easy access to a cellar.
While Bert scooped the liniment into an empty plastic jar, she grabbed her purse and got ready to go. The Brown farm was seven or eight miles from town, but she knew the way because Gil’s daughter Gayle had been her friend all the way through school.
“I’ll put this on Gil’s account,” Bert said, handing her the bag containing his remedy. “Hurry back before the storm gets here.”
“Sure thing, Pops,” she said, smiling at his concern. Sometimes he did sound like a father, which, of course, he was. But his only son had chosen the military over pharmacy, a major disappointment to Bert since the drug store wouldn’t stay in the Warner family.
Although she wouldn’t mention it to her boss, Amy was grateful to leave for a while. Every other customer was curious about her date with Dan. In fact, some invented excuses for their trip to the store, asking bogus questions in hopes of getting details about her dinner with the doctor.
Josie was the worst of all. Even when she wasn’t asking questions, she gave Amy snide little grins, as though she were privy to some great secret.
“The doctor and I are not an item,” she’d emphatically told her friend, but she might as well protest to a brick wall.
Of course, she wasn’t naive. People had waited a long time for a resident doctor, and they didn’t want him to leave after two years. What better way to ensure he stayed than to pair him with a local woman? What no one realized was that prying eyes and gossip only drove a bigger wedge between them. Amy wouldn’t feel comfortable saying hello to him on the street with so much attention focused on their nonexistent relationship.
“By the time you get back, it will be nearly closing time,” Bert said as she was leaving. “Take the rest of the afternoon off. I’ll lock up.”
“Thanks, Bert,” she said, happy to make the delivery.
In fact, she was glad to leave the public eye and have some time alone with her thoughts. She didn’t try to kid herself. Dan was the first really interesting man she’d met since leaving college, and it wouldn’t be hard to become enamored of him. She already had a little crush on the doctor, but then, what woman wouldn’t find him special? He was sexy without flaunting it, the most dangerous kind of sensuality. Not only that, he was kind, an underrated attribute, but one she prized.
Obviously she couldn’t spend two years avoiding him in a town as small of Heart City, but she absolutely could not let their friendship develop into anything more: no more dates, no more sunsets at the gravel pit, and no more chaste little kisses on her forehead that left her yearning for more.
“That’s settled,” she said aloud as she turned off the county road on her way to Gil Brown’s farm. “Dr. Prince can find someone else to kill time with.”
• • •
Dan marveled at the variety of services he was called upon to perform in the small town. The last thing he’d expected was to fill in for the town’s only large animal vet. He’d met Dr. George Granger, a robust fifty-year-old, at
a service club lunch where he’d been invited to meet the town’s leaders. Now he found himself trying to find a farm out in the boonies to look at a horse with a bum leg.
Of course, Dr. Granger didn’t expect him to diagnose animal ailments while he was enjoying a rare vacation in Las Vegas. But apparently Gil Brown was a friend as well as a horse breeder, someone he couldn’t put off when he got an urgent call in his Vegas hotel room.
“I really appreciate this,” the vet had said on the phone to Dan after giving him detailed instructions about applying a compress to the horse’s injured leg. “Gil knows almost as much as I do about his mare’s problems, but it will ease his mind to have a medical man check it out. There’s some bad blood between him and the vet who stands in for me, so I really owe you one on this.”
After Dan processed what he’d been asked to do, he was actually excited about his visit to the horse farm. As an undergraduate, a friend at school had invited him home for the winter break since it was too far — and too expensive — to go to California. It was a mild December for Iowa, and Dan had learned to ride one of the farm family’s horses. He was a little intimidated about working with one now, but at least he wasn’t a complete stranger to an animal that large.
Fortunately, Granger’s directions to the farm weren’t too difficult to follow, although the countryside was still a maze in Dan’s mind. The sky was overcast, and in his eyes threatening, but the call shouldn’t take long. Hopefully he could get back to town before a storm broke.
He turned onto a long gravel driveway leading to a complex of buildings, the largest of which was a long metal stable that looked nothing like the traditional red barns in calendar art.
As he pulled into a parking area, he had a rude surprise. Unless he was very much mistaken, the small blue compact car beside his van was Amy’s. What was the pharmacist doing on a horse farm?
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