He’d been running from life just as she had accused him of doing. That had led him to Golden Shores in the beginning but now he knew without a doubt that was where he belonged, especially with China. It was time to stop and face his monsters. Try to make his parents understand. Was his relationship with them any less dysfunctional than China’s was with hers?
In its own way, no. He’d deal with whatever problem he had physically then speak to his parents in the hope he could get them to understand. No matter how that conversation went, he would have made the effort to offer the proverbial olive branch. That was all he could do.
Even if cancer had returned, he wanted China in his corner, helping him fight. And she would, if he hadn’t hurt her so completely that she refused to have anything to do with him. That he might never make love to China again worried him more than what his tests might reveal. As the wheels of the plane touched down at O’Hare airport, he had his plan in place and the resolve to see it through.
Later that afternoon Payton pulled out his phone as he waited to have an MRI. He had to let his mom know he was in town. She would expect him to stay with her and his father. Payton would agree to stay with them, more in order not to hurt his mom’s feelings than from need. When he’d spoken to John earlier that morning to let him know he’d be coming in, John had offered him a place to stay at his home.
Payton touched his mom’s number and waited through the rings until her familiar voice came on the line.
“Hi, honey. It’s nice to hear from you.”
“You, too, Mom. I just wanted to let you know I’m in Chicago.”
“You are? Why didn’t you let us know you were coming?” She paused then asked in a rush, “Are you coming home?”
She would think he was moving back but his home was now Golden Shores and China. “No, I’m here for some tests.”
“I thought you weren’t to have them until next month.”
“My white count was high and John wanted me to come up for a look-see. I’m at the hospital now.”
“Why didn’t you call me sooner? I’m on my way.”
Payton leaned forward in the waiting-room chair and propped an elbow on a knee. “No. I’m fine. Please, don’t come to the hospital. I’ll see you later this evening.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Mom.” He used a firm tone. “Do not come here. I appreciate your concern but I’m just having tests done. I won’t know anything until tomorrow or the next day.”
“I still think—”
“I know you care and I love you for that, but it’s time we do it my way.”
Her huff of resignation came over the phone. “You’ll be staying here, won’t you?” It was less a question and more a statement.
“Yes, if you’ll have me.”
“I’ll be waiting. Your father will be glad to see you, too.”
Payton wasn’t as sure about that. “Nothing has changed. I’ll be returning to Golden Shores.”
“I know, honey. I know.”
Payton hung up. For once he’d managed to get his mom to back down. She’d taken his requests far better than he’d expected.
A step toward real change. Not the hyperstimulating changes he’d sought when he’d moved south but the solid, life-altering ones that brought true happiness. China had improved his world. Guilt washed over him. Instead of supporting her, he’d criticized her family, her life. His parents had certainly had expectations and aspirations for him. Payton could understand where China was coming from. He’d dumped on her about her relationship with her parents when his hadn’t been much healthier. Making it up to her was going to take more than flowers.
That evening the taxi circled the drive of his parents’ home and stopped in front of the door. Before Payton could finish paying the driver, his mom was on her way down the steps.
“Hi, honey,” she said, with a bright smile, but her eyes carried the worry he’d seen so many times during his battle with cancer.
He wrapped her in his arms. She and China were a similar size. What was the saying? “Marry someone like dear old Mom.” Marry! Did he want to marry China? He smiled. Yes, he did, if he could convince her to have him.
“So how are you doing?” his mom asked, studying him closely.
“I feel fine. Never better, actually.”
“I have to admit you do look wonderful. The tan, the smile on your face. Living in Golden Shores looks like it agrees with you.”
“It does.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her toward the house. “Why don’t we go see what Ruth has planned for dinner and I’ll tell you all about it.”
“I think there may be more than sand and sunshine to talk about.”
Payton hugged her to him. “Mom, you know me too well.”
Dinner was a formal affair, nothing like the spirited ones that he and China had shared or even those around the picnic table behind the clinic. Changes had occurred in him that had nothing to do with living in a new house or learning new things. They went soul deep.
It had happened. Something he’d resisted. He was in love. He’d promised himself he wasn’t going there again, then along came China. He’d not been running for her sake but his. Fearing he might get hurt, he’d turned into a coward where facing up to his feelings were concerned. He was no different than his parents not wanting life to change, but it had on so many levels.
His father was present but outside of surface-level conversation he had little to say. His mom carried the conversation by asking about his new house, Golden Shores and the clinic. When she specifically asked about the people he worked with he told her about everyone, including China.
“You like this China, don’t you?” she asked.
He should have known that his mom would pick up on the inflection in his voice when he spoke of China.
“So you’ve found a local.” His father made it sound like Payton was hanging out with criminals.
“Yes, and I intend to marry her, if she’ll have me.” That thought brought a warm feeling in his chest.
“She’s from a good family?” his mom offered.
“Mom, don’t you want me to have a wife I love and who loves me, instead of just someone with the right pedigree?”
His mom didn’t have time to respond before his father said, “Your position at the hospital is still open.”
Payton pushed back from the table. “Dad, I know you were hurt and disappointed by my decision to leave the hospital and move to Golden Shores. I can appreciate that. I made a drastic change, shocked you and Mom. I realize that. I don’t think I would have made such a decision if I hadn’t already been unhappy with the direction my life was headed. I was going through the motions. Janice leaving me when I needed her most shows that I wasn’t making solid choices. I never wanted to be on the board of the hospital. What I wanted and what I still want is to help people and be happy. I’ve found that in Golden Shores.”
“But you had a good position. A chance to make a difference here,” his father said.
“I still have all of that in Golden Shores, plus time to sail, enjoy the beach and cook for friends.”
His father huffed.
“You don’t have to like my choices, and that’s fine. I would just like you to respect that they are mine to make. I would like you to be a part of my life and hopefully my family’s life. Having cancer did change my outlook on how I want to live. That I can’t deny. I just want different things now and I’m sorry that they’re not what you had planned.”
“You weren’t happy here?” his father asked in little less than a growl of disgust.
“Not like I am now. I hope you can come to terms with that. If you can’t, I’m sorry.”
During the rest of his stay things were cool between him and his parents. He’d done w
hat he could to get them to understand, now it was up to them to decide what they wanted from the relationship. He hoped for the best but would accept what they decided.
Crossing the Bay Bridge into Golden Shores brought him back to the present. He had to get China to listen to him. His first instinct was to drive straight to her place but she probably wouldn’t even allow him inside. He needed to think. On the water was where he could do that best.
* * *
“China, there’s a man on the phone who wants to speak to you,” Doris called from the front of the building as China was stepping out of the employee entrance. It had been the longest week of her life and all she wanted to do was to go home and try to get some sleep.
With a sigh she turned around and walked back up the hall. Reaching the desk, she asked Doris, “Who is it?”
“I think he said Pete.”
Pete. She didn’t know a Pete, yet the name sounded familiar.
China picked up the phone, “This is China. How can I help you?”
“This’s old Pete. You were with the doc when he got the hook out of my finger, weren’t ya?”
“Yes, I remember you.”
“I can’t find the doc and me finger is the size of a net buoy, and all red.”
Great. The man had an infection. Would at least need an antibiotic. It had been over a week, almost two. It should have healed by now but that dirty boat... “You need to go to the emergency room. The clinic is closed now.”
“I don’t have the cash. Already can’t pay the bill from last time. Can you come by and give it a look? I can’t find the doc.”
A stab of pain hit in the area of her heart. She didn’t know where Payton was either. “You’re going to need medicine for the infection. I can’t give you that. You’re going to have to go to the hospital.”
“I can’t do that. Sorry I bothered you.” He hung up.
China placed the receiver in the phone cradle.
“What was that all about?” Doris asked.
“Just a fisherman with a hook in his finger.”
Doris twisted up her face. “Ooh. That doesn’t sound like fun.”
“It wasn’t.” But Payton had been wonderful. “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.”
China only made it as far as the car before she’d made up her mind to go to the marina and check on Pete. She’d worry about him until she saw the finger for herself. All the memories of the time she and Payton had spent on his sailboat came flooding back as she turned into the parking lot of the marina. The urge to circle around and leave filled her but she couldn’t let Pete possibly lose a finger or worse.
She pulled out the emergency bag she kept in the trunk of the car and started down the long pier. Passing where she thought she remembered Pete and Ralph’s boat being moored, she kept walking. Her feet faltered. Soon she would be passing Payton’s boat. Squaring her chin, she planned to walk by it without looking but at the last second she couldn’t help but do so.
Her heart thumped against her ribs and her knees went weak. She stopped short. The bag slipped from her hands to plunk against the wooden boards beneath her feet. The stern of the boat faced her and printed on the transom in large, gold script letters was “China Doll.” Payton had said that people named their boats after someone they loved.
A man stepped off what looked like Pete and Ralph’s boat further down the pier. He stood silhouetted against the sunset. That physique she would know anywhere. Payton.
He started toward her.
Her stomach fluttered. “Uh, Payton, I didn’t expect to see you.” She glanced toward Peter and Ralph’s boat but saw neither man. “Pete called and said something was wrong with his finger.”
Payton stopped within touching distance.
She glanced at the boat. “Why?” she finally got passed the lump in her throat.
He said in a solemn voice with a tone of conviction, “Because I love you.”
She stared at him. He looked wonderful, better than that, perfect. All she wanted to do was throw herself into his arms but she had her self-respect.
“China, you’re starting to make me nervous. Say something.”
“I have to check on Pete’s finger.” She made to move past him.
Payton caught her hand, stopping her. “Pete’s finger is fine. I asked him to call you. I didn’t think you would talk to me so I thought maybe if I got you out here—”
“You could soften me up.” She glared up at him. “You knew I’d come when Pete called, didn’t you?”
“Yes. You have a soft heart. That’s one of the many things I love about you.”
She made a sound of annoyance in her throat. “How dare you talk to me about love. I don’t even know where you’ve been for the last week. I saw your lab work. I’ve been worried sick. You just left. Someone who loves you doesn’t do that.”
* * *
Payton pulled her into his arms and brought his mouth to hers, effectively halting her tirade. His heart swelled when her arms slipped around his neck and she opened to greet him. She wouldn’t make it easy on him but at least she wasn’t immune to him.
He wanted her, had to have her, but on the pier wasn’t the place. Payton broke the kiss but not the desire-filled fog China had wrapped around him. “We need to go aboard.”
She looked at him with wide and dreamy eyes as if she’d forgotten everything but their kiss. He need to get her aboard before she came back to reality, which she would with a vengeance, he had no doubt. He wanted her relaxed and willing to listen when he explained.
Guiding China toward the boat, he let her go just long enough to hop onto the deck and then help her aboard. She came willingly. It wasn’t until the clapping and wolf-whistling from the direction of Pete and Ralph’s boat filled the air that she jerked out of her daze.
Payton swore under his breath. He pulled her close and dipped his head to distract her. She pulled away. It wasn’t going to work this time. He would be paying the piper first. The talking would come before any lovemaking. “Let’s sit here.”
China waited until he sat on the bench and then she took a spot out of touching distance.
“Okay, go ahead and let me have it. I know I deserve it,” he said, waiting.
“I have things to say but first I need to know about you. How you are feeling? What about your lab work?”
Payton reached to take her hand, which lay on the seat, but she placed it in her lap. “I’m fine. I’m sorry that I scared you. I shouldn’t have run off like I did or lied to you about the phone call you overheard. You deserved better than that.”
“So you went to Chicago?”
“Yes. I got back this afternoon. John, my doctor, wanted to run some tests just to make sure no cancer had reappeared.”
Fear filled her eyes, which reassured him that she cared.
He smiled. “I got a clean bill of health. Apparently I had a sinus infection. While I was there I spoke to my parents, more specifically to my father.”
She turned toward him, bringing one leg up to rest on the bench. “How did that go?”
Encouraged by having her full attention, he said, “I told him that I was sorry that I couldn’t be who he wanted me to be and that I wasn’t going to move back to Chicago. That I would be staying here and hopefully marrying you.”
China’s startled intake of breath filled the space between them.
“I told my parents that they’d have to accept that I had changed. They could be a part of my life or not, it was their choice.”
She touched his arm briefly then removed it.
Skin that had suddenly been summer warm was abruptly winter cold.
“That had to have been hard to say.”
“It was, but it needed to be done. And this needs to be said also. I shouldn’t have
jumped on you about your relationship with your parents. Family dynamics are difficult enough, without someone who isn’t a part of the family giving a commentary.”
* * *
China wasn’t sorry. “No, I’m glad you did. It made me see things I hadn’t realized. I actually told my mom I wouldn’t be cooking dinner the other day and said no when she asked me to go to the store for her. A small start but a start.”
“I’m proud of you.”
His words of praise added to the joy of seeing him. “I had tea with my sister, too. I asked her about how I acted around my parents to see if you were right. She said she’d seen it for years. It was one of the reasons she had stayed away. She hated what they had and were doing to me. Best of all, she has agreed to start meeting me more often. It’s the chance to get my sister back. I have you to thank for that.”
He grinned. “Is there a possibility I might get a thank-you kiss out of that?”
“Not yet. I’m still mad at you. You tricked me into coming down here.”
Payton looked contrite but not repentant. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d see me if I came to your place and I sure didn’t want to have this discussion in front of the three musketeers at the clinic.”
“Hi, Doc. I see she showed up. Looked like she wasn’t so mad at you a while ago,” Pete said with a huge smile from the dock. Ralph was standing beside him with an equally large smirk on his face.
China jolted at the sound of Pete’s voice and looked away in embarrassment.
Payton chuckled. “Yeah, she did seem happy to see me.”
“Well, we’ll let yoz get back to what yoz was doing.”
The burly men chuckled like two teenage girls and walked off, slapping each other on the backs.
Payton looked at China as the two men left. “Let’s go for a twilight sail. We could use some privacy.”
Half an hour later Payton had maneuvered them out into the middle of the bay and turned off the engine. While he dropped anchor China took a seat on the bench and placed her hands in her lap. Payton gave her a curious look as he passed her. Did he recognize how nervous she was? Seconds later the running lights came on, glowing red and green.
The Doctor Who Made Her Love Again Page 17