First Comes Marriage

by Sophia Sasson

  She stared at him. “I don’t understand.”

  “The chemical compound you found is incredible, but it counteracts with sodium. If, as you suggest in the article, you develop it into a medication to treat heart disease, how would you deal with the sodium issue?”

  Meera didn’t know where he was going with this. He had obviously read the article, and it was clearly explained in there.

  “The patient would have to cut salt from their diet.”

  “And you do think someone could effectively do that?”

  “If their health is important to them, they should. As I suggest, they can easily reduce salt intake by not adding any table salt to the foods they eat.”

  “I ask you again—who would eat saltless, tasteless food day in and day out?”

  “It’s for their health.”

  “If someone asked you to eat red meat every day for your health, would you do it?”

  “I’m a vegetarian.”

  “Exactly. You couldn’t make such a drastic lifestyle change, and yet you’re suggesting that it’s perfectly plausible that patients will.”

  “If there was a health reason to eat meat, then I would consider it.” Dr. Thurm had brought up a similar point, so she had calculated the typical sodium intake of an adult and factored in things that couldn’t always be controlled, like salt in natural and processed foods in a typical diet. She had figured out the probability of patients “cheating” on the diet. She had accounted for patient behaviors.

  She sighed. “So you’re saying Derek won’t stick to the treatment.”

  “I’m saying his treatment is not just medical. He has to face an entire football team calling him a sissy boy for not playing. He has to face everyone in town who’s placed significant bets on the game. Without Derek, Hell’s Bells is certain to lose.”

  “I can understand that, but if you agree he can’t play, what can I possibly do to make the situation better?”

  “He needs you to be the bad guy. He needs you to go tell everyone in town that playing could kill him, that even though he’s walking around like nothing’s wrong, his injury is serious. You need to go talk to Marty, Derek’s coach and his teammates.”

  Meera groaned. I miss London. Patients came into the clinic, received a diagnosis and left with a treatment plan. That explained why Marty had kicked her out of his inn, and why the town was so hard on her.

  Dr. Harper stood. “I think you’ll find that medicine is far more satisfying when you can actually treat the whole person rather than just the ailment that bothers them.”

  Meera left his office and went to the little corner desk in the waiting room that had been set up as her workstation. She put down her purse, fully aware of Rose glowering at her. She would not dignify the older woman’s petulance with a response.

  “When is my first patient?” she asked calmly.

  Rose snorted. “You’re not going to be getting any patients.”

  Meera stepped toward her. “Listen, Rose, I’m only here for a month. Surely, we can find a way to work together.”

  “Only a month! Ha! And how do I know you don’t have your sights on Dr. Harper’s practice? We all know the old coot’ll be retiring soon.”

  “Stop talking about me like I’m not here, Rose,” Dr. Harper mumbled as he went into an examination room.

  The front door chimed and a woman walked in. She was wearing short shorts and a red halter top. Her auburn hair was perfectly styled in waves. An image of Jessica Rabbit popped into Meera’s head.

  “Gloria!” Rose walked around the reception desk to give the new arrival a hug.

  Gloria eyed Meera. “Is she the one who...”

  Rose nodded. “Can you believe it? Three days before the big game. I don’t know why Dr. Harper hasn’t told her to go home.”

  Meera seethed.

  Stop talking about me like I’m not here! “Do you think it has anything to do with Jake?” Gloria asked.

  Jake? What does Jake have to do with this?

  “I wouldn’t put it past her. Who wouldn’t want the town’s number-one bachelor.”

  I should set them straight. Meera would never date an American because she didn’t plan to stay in America. Her parents, her research, her entire life was in England, and she couldn’t leave them. Besides, she was most definitely not interested in Jake.

  “If she goes after him...”

  “I have a fiancé in London,” Meera blurted. “My entire family is in London, and my father has a very successful medical center that I’ll be taking over. I do not plan to live in a town like this. After my rotation, I’m going home.” She looked pointedly at Gloria. “And I don’t fancy Jake—he’s not my type.” She didn’t need to know what her type was. With Raj in the picture since childhood, she’d always had everything she needed in a life partner.

  Rose grunted. Gloria’s pout disappeared, and she raised an eyebrow, appraising Meera anew.

  “Like I said, I’m only here for a month. What do you say we find a way to work together?” Meera held out her hand to Rose.

  Rose wrinkled her nose. “The people who live in a ‘town like this’ don’t want to see a doctor like you.”

  Dr. Harper came out of the examination room just as Rose huffed past her. Meera looked at him helplessly.

  He shrugged. “You did say you enjoyed a challenging work environment.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  MEERA GRIPPED THE steering wheel. After the day she’d just had, this was the last thing she needed. I could step on the accelerator, just ram right through. She had purchased the extra insurance on the rental car. She dropped her head onto the steering wheel. Why can’t anything go according to plan?

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  She looked up as Jake stuck his head through her open window.

  “Think about what?”

  “About driving through that gate.”

  “I wasn’t serious about it,” Meera said guiltily.

  He opened her door. “Come on, I’ll show you how it opens. It’s a guard gate to keep the cattle from getting out, so it’s a little tricky.”

  After he was done showing her how the gate worked, he hopped in the passenger seat. “Drop me at the house, will you?”

  He smelled like he had yesterday—sweat, dirt and something...Jake. Great. Now her car smelled like Jake.

  She drove up the gravel road.

  “How was your day?”

  Was there amusement in his voice? “It was fine.”

  “Did you find another place to stay?”

  “You know very well I didn’t.”

  She couldn’t see his face, but she knew he was grinning.

  “The guest cottage is still available.”

  “And I’m thankful for that.”

  “What about bad karma?”

  She took a breath. If her parents were here with her, or Raj for that matter, they would tell her it was wrong to stay. They would remind her that she couldn’t in any way support the killing of animals. She looked ahead as the house approached.

  If she didn’t stay, Jake would continue his business. Her presence was of no consequence to him, but to her it was the difference between finishing her research degree and having this month of freedom or starting all over again with a new rotation.

  She chewed her lip. “Do you kill them on the premises?”

  He snickered. “You’ll be happy to know we don’t. We take them to a slaughterhouse.”

  She breathed out. At least that was something.

  “Does that mean your karma is safe?”

  She smiled. “I’m pretty sure this life is ruined, but you may have saved my next one.”

  Meera pulled into the carport next to the house and turned to look a
t him. “Why cattle ranching?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “This is such a beautiful property. You could do so much with it—why do you raise cows?”

  He bristled. “You ask too many questions.”

  “I’m a naturally curious person, and surely it’s not a personal question. Have you always raised cattle here? I thought I saw horse stables earlier.”

  He sighed. “Every generation has made its own mark on this land. My dad boarded and trained horses. Wasn’t very profitable, so I went into cattle ranching. I like cows and steers—they’re good animals, just need to be fed, and they do that mostly by themselves, grazing in the fields during warmer months. Horses need to be groomed and brushed and exercised and on and on every day. I do have a few horses left over from my father’s days. Mostly, I lend them out to the town for events or when we need to get a tractor out of a ditch.”

  He stepped out of the car, then came around the other side and held the door open for her. The British were known for manners, but Raj had never held a car door open for her. She was surprised and pleased at the gentlemanly gesture.

  “Do you want to come inside and have dinner? We made some delicious steak and cheese.”

  There you go again. She shot him a look of daggers. He was grinning.

  “Oh, just go ahead and have a good laugh at my expense.”

  “What’d you expect?”

  “How about some courtesy and kindness to a visitor? This is my first time in America, I’m all alone and I can barely remember which side of the road to drive on. Why must you be so unkind?”

  “You do know we Americans threw the British out of the colonies.”

  Aaarrghh! This was useless. Her shoulders sagged; it had been a long day and she was tired. Why was she trying so hard? This was a bad plan. Perhaps Raj was right and my expectations are too high. Tears stung her eyes, and she turned to walk to the cottage. She didn’t want to give Jake the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

  She felt him grab her hand as she passed him. A jolt sizzled through her arm, and she froze, unable to explain the energy vibrating through her.

  “Listen—come inside, have a cup of tea. I bought you a box of English breakfast when I went into town earlier.” His voice was soft, somewhat apologetic.

  A cup of tea did sound good. She could come up with a new plan, a way to salvage her ruined trip.

  As she walked into the kitchen, Meera noticed the warmth, the smell of food mixed with dish soap. Pots and pans were laid out to dry on the butcher-block counter. Noisy clanks came from a dishwasher. She ran her hand over the large wooden dining table, where everyone had been eating breakfast earlier. It was scratched and dented in several places.

  “I need to sand and restain this old thing.” She looked up to see Jake’s eyes following her.

  “I like it—the table has character. Mum’s kitchen is always polished, not a pot or pan in sight. Her appliances are those quiet ones that make this really eerie vibrating sound. We have a formal dining room where we eat, which feels a little sterile sometimes.” She touched the dents in the table, enjoying the sensation of the little dips in the wood. “This feels like a home.”

  He smiled. “It is home, at least for the month you’re here.”

  She felt as if someone had wrapped her in a warm blanket on a cold day. She liked the sound of a noisy, cozy home.

  He walked into the pantry and came out holding a kettle and a box of tea bags. He handed them to her, and she noticed his lips curve shyly at her thanks. He could be a sweet man, when he wanted to be.

  She went to the sink and poured water into the kettle. She would take a private moment to drink tea and think about what to do. To her surprise, Jake sat down at the table. She set the kettle to boil and pulled out two cups.

  “I have a teapot somewhere, but I couldn’t find it.”

  She gave him a small smile. “I can make do.” She steeped the tea in the mugs then poured some milk and a little sugar into both, the way she liked it. She handed him a cup, and he took a tentative sip.

  “This isn’t half-bad. I think my mother took her tea this way.”

  His mother? She wanted to ask but decided not to.

  “Listen, I know I’ve been giving you a hard time, but don’t worry. The town will come around.”

  She shook her head.

  “That’s what I thought this morning, but I don’t think they will. Dr. Harper had me go talk to Marty Jenkins about why Derek couldn’t play. Marty just told me he hit his head all the time when he played and nothing happened to him. Then I went to see Derek’s coach, who said Derek had to toughen up and that if I didn’t clear him, he’d make sure I couldn’t show my face anywhere in Bellhaven.”

  Jake’s eyes crinkled, turning an interesting shade of green.

  “The icing on the cake was when I walked into a locker room full of half-naked teenagers and had to cover my eyes while they snickered at my explanation.” She took a breath. “I had no patients all day. All my appointments canceled, and everyone who walked in refused to even let me be in the room while Dr. Harper examined them. I sat around doing nothing.”

  He laughed. “Oh, give it a couple of days and something else will rile everyone up.” He looked at her with warm, reassuring eyes, tempting her to believe everything would be okay.

  “Hardly. When the town loses the football game, it’ll start all over again.” She ran her finger around the rim of the cup, feeling the cracked edge. “The grocer wouldn’t let me buy tea. The diner was all out of veggie burgers and any other nonmeat items, and I got a ticket even though I was parked legally.” She sighed wearily. “They hate me.”

  He pushed his chair back and stood up. She turned to see him put a pan on the stove and take food out of the refrigerator. “I’m still a vegetarian, you know.”

  He laughed. “I’m making you a grilled cheese sandwich, your highness.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. She wasn’t used to someone taking care of her. Growing up, she’d had an army of servants at her beck and call, but she never asked them to serve her. She’d often gone without a snack when hungry, too ashamed to ask the cook to make her something. “Thank you. I appreciate it...you have no idea how much.”

  He cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, I don’t want you fainting on me.” She sipped her tea and watched him sizzle butter in the pan. She felt herself relax as the warm liquid went down her throat. “On top of it all, Rose seems to think I’m going to take over Dr. Harper’s practice.”

  “Well, Dr. Harper has been talking about retiring. His wife is getting worse, but there’s no other doctor in town.”

  “I told her I don’t have my sights on his practice—I plan to go back to London to run my father’s clinic.”

  “Yeah, they think you’ll like it so much here, you’ll stay. I mean, who would leave the good old US of A to go back to colonial times.”

  She pursed her lips to bite back a retort. He was trying hard to keep up the pretense of being a surly rancher; she wouldn’t engage in his ribbing.

  “Besides, if you haven’t noticed, I’m the town’s most eligible bachelor and they figure you’ll fall in love with me and never leave.”

  She couldn’t help but scoff. He thought a lot of himself. “Well, she has nothing to worry about. I’m getting married a few weeks after I return.” She winced. Her marriage wasn’t a secret, but for some reason she didn’t want to discuss it with Jake.

  Crash! Startled, she turned and saw the pan on the floor. Jake recovered quickly.

  “Sorry...handle slipped from my fingers. Don’t worry, I saved your sandwich.”

  He set a plate down. She picked up the sandwich and took a bite. This is the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. She let the buttery bread and soft cheese melt in her mouth.

  “Mmm. Thank you!�
�� She saw him staring at her, his green eyes darkening to brown. She felt herself blush and looked down at her plate.

  Jake sat down and splayed his fingers over his half-empty mug.

  “I heard something about a fiancé, but this town has a way of embellishing.” He gazed pointedly at her hand. “You don’t wear a ring.”

  She chewed slowly. “In Indian culture, the engagement is part of the wedding festivities. My parents wanted it to be the first party of the two-week celebrations.”

  “Two weeks?”

  “I’m their only child—they’ve always spoiled me.” She kept her eyes on her plate. Her mother had been planning this event for over a year. She was quite upset at the timing of Meera’s trip, but Meera hadn’t wanted to put it off. She needed to do this before the wedding.

  “So tell me about your fiancé.” His tone was casual, but there was something new in his voice. She searched his face, but he was studying the table.

  “Raj is a family friend. We’ve known each other since we were children. He’s also a physician, and his family is also from India originally, but we both grew up in the UK. We have a lot in common.”

  “Is he also a vegetarian?”

  She laughed. “Yes, he is. We are very well suited to each other.”

  A shadow flittered across his face. “Well suited. That’s an interesting way to put it. Do you love him?”

  She frowned. What a strange question. But suddenly her mouth was dry. She took a sip of her tea and rubbed her temples.

  “As I said, I’ve known him for many years and we’re quite fond of each other. We’re research partners—we run a research project together, and after I finish my research doctorate, we’ll open our own lab.”

  He raised his brows.

  Suddenly, she didn’t want to talk about Raj anymore. “Are you married?”

  Was it her imagination, or did he flinch? He shook his head. “I was engaged once.”

  “What happened?”

  “She left me.” His voice was devoid of emotion, but she sensed bitterness and pain behind the words.

  “Is the fertility tea hers?”