“I told you, I’ll call next week.” Dottie bent to lift a crate full of old tap shoes and ballet slippers wrapped in plastic and sorted by size.
Jolyn’s father beat her to the punch, attempting to take the crate away from her before she got a firm hold of it. “You shouldn’t be overdoing it.”
“I’m not an invalid, Milt.”
“Dottie.” He scowled at her until she relinquished the crate. “Where do you want it?”
“Over there.” She pointed to a shelf. “Careful of the makeup cases.”
“Jolyn’s right.” Steven pulled a three-legged stool out from beneath the workbench and set it near his mother, then gestured for her to sit down.
“What’s with you and your father?” Dottie asked, frowning.
“They’re worried about you.” Jolyn guided her mother toward the stool. “Me, too. You haven’t been sleeping well for weeks.” And she wasn’t eating well. Clothes had started to hang on her already trim dancer’s figure.
“You probably need a rest more than me.” Dottie stared fixedly at Jolyn’s knee.
“I’m doing better. Mostly because I’ve been following my doctor’s orders. Unlike someone else.”
Her mother grumbled. “If I sit for a few minutes, will you—all of you—quit pestering me?”
“We will about taking it easy. Not about rescheduling your appointment.”
“Fine.” Dottie plopped down onto the stool and hooked one heel on the bottom rung. Her mother usually didn’t give up so readily. She must really be sick or scared or both.
“I wish you’d quit ganging up on me.” Dottie squirmed under her family’s scrutiny. Without intending to, Jolyn, Steven and their father had formed a circle around her. No wonder she felt like the subject of an intervention.
“We love you, Mom,” Steven said. “And we don’t like that you’re ignoring what could be a serious health condition.” He’d taken the news of his mother’s medical problems as expected. He felt angry that he wasn’t informed sooner, concerned for her health, and, like the rest of them, frustrated at her perpetual stalling.
Dottie compressed her lips into a thin line. She didn’t, however, cry as Jolyn thought she might. Instead, she hopped off the stool and pushed between Jolyn and her brother. “I have a lot to do.”
“What’s so important?” Jolyn struggled to maintain her cool.
“Final costume fittings are tonight at six-thirty.”
“For what?” Steven asked. The three of them stared at Dottie’s back while she rummaged through boxes.
“Red, White and Blue Ridge Days,” Jolyn answered.
Every year on the weekend before the Fourth of July, the town put on a two-day celebration that included a horse show and gymkhana, craft fair, bingo tournament and a barbecue chicken dinner in the community center, followed by a dance. Before the band took the stage, Dottie’s advanced students performed a selection of their best numbers. It was one of the highlights of the celebration and something the students and Dottie worked on for months beforehand.
“Is that why you canceled your appointment, Mom?” Jolyn asked. “Because of the performance this Saturday?” It wouldn’t surprise her if her mother had put her students’ needs ahead of her own.
Dottie shook her head.
“You sure?”
She nodded, her shoulders shaking slightly.
Jolyn suddenly realized her mother was crying. “Mom? Are you okay?”
Dottie sniffed.
Jolyn’s father rushed forward to envelop his wife in a hug. “Sweetheart?”
She broke into tears, blurting, “I’m sorry. So sorry.”
“For what?” He tenderly stroked her hair.
“I didn’t cancel my appointment.” She buried her face in her husband’s shirt. “My doctor did.”
“Why?”
Fear swept through Jolyn. She reached for Steven’s hand. He returned her urgent grip.
“The lumps appear suspicious,” her mother said between tiny sobs. “Rather than waste any time, he wants to admit me to Pineville General right away and perform a biopsy.”
Chapter Ten
“’Bye, honey. You be good for Mrs. Payne, okay?” Chase accepted a sticky kiss from his daughter, who went right back to picking at her pancakes.
“I will. I love you, Daddy.”
A little more enthusiasm would be nice but unlikely given SherryAnne’s phone call the previous night.
“Love you, too.” He tugged on Mandy’s earlobe until she finally cracked a smile, unable to take his eyes off her. What had he ever done to deserve such a rare and beautiful treasure? He vowed to do anything, take on an entire army of SherryAnnes and Dotties if need be, rather than lose her.
“What’s wrong?” Mandy asked. “You look funny.”
Chase snatched a napkin from the holder and wiped her chin. “You’re the one who looks funny.” That earned him a giggle, albeit a small one. He’d take what he could get. “Gotta go. Be good for Mrs. Payne.”
He went out the kitchen door and, since Anita had yet to arrive, walked around the side of the house to the clinic. Jolyn and her crew had been making excellent progress, and he should tell her so.
Chase immediately suffered a twinge of regret. He’d been avoiding Jolyn as much as possible since Monday when he’d driven by her parents’ house, and it was now Friday. Four whole days. He was admittedly miserable, but still convinced he’d made the right decision. Though Dottie had yet to show her hand, he wasn’t taking any chances where Mandy was concerned.
SherryAnne’s call last night had sent his daughter into an emotional tailspin. Apologizing again for postponing her visit—she had some rodeo to attend—SherryAnne promised a big surprise for Mandy that would arrive on her birthday. Rather than making Mandy feel better, the announcement had the opposite effect.
There were times when Chase wished his ex-wife would drop off the edge of the earth. Then, he’d come to his senses and remember Mandy needed even the small amount of attention her mother paid her.
At the clinic entrance he stopped briefly to smile again over the hand and paw prints in the concrete step. Pushing open the door, he stepped inside and was immediately accosted by an overpowering smell. Noting the newly painted walls and recently installed ceiling lights in his reception area, he followed the sound of voices and clatter to his examining room.
A trio of workers, two men and one woman, were applying a fresh coat of paint to the bare walls using long-handled rollers. Blue masking tape covered the doorjamb and windowpanes, protecting them from accidental splatter. Wires protruded from square holes in the walls that light switch, electrical outlet and phone jack plates would eventually cover. Flooring and cabinets had not yet been installed and wouldn’t be until the first of the week. The timing was a bit tricky as the bulk of Chase’s equipment was due to arrive a week from today and construction had to be done before then.
“Morning, Doc,” one of the painters greeted Chase. “How’s it looking?”
“Nice.” Chase nodded approvingly. “I like it.”
Jolyn had been right about the color. The pale green not only made the room look bigger and brighter, but the soft hue also had a soothing quality his patients’ owners would appreciate.
“We’ll finish the walls today,” the painter informed Chase. “And be back in the morning for the trim.”
“You’re working on Saturday?”
“Yeah. Jolyn found a place fo
r us to stay the night and told us if we finished by noon, we could bum around town the rest of the weekend. Been told you folks got quite a deal going on here.” He dipped the roller in a pan of paint and carefully scraped off the excess.
“We do. Red, White and Blue Ridge Days.” Chase would be at the community center most of Saturday morning. He’d entered Matilda in several of the horse show classes and planned to stick around for any veterinarian emergencies. Mandy would be there, too. She couldn’t wait for the dance performance later that evening. “Where you staying?” Chase had heard the local inn was booked to capacity.
“Cots and sleeping bags in Jolyn’s garage but we don’t mind, do we?” the painter asked his coworkers. “Long as we get to stay.”
“Are there going to be any fireworks?” the woman asked. Shorter than average and built like a fire hydrant, she handled the roller with uncommon confidence and grace.
“No, it’s too dry this summer. The Forest Service won’t permit it.”
Chase’s cousin, Gage, and the rest of the volunteer fire department would be at the celebration just in case any youngsters got the bright idea to put on their own fireworks display. Mike Flannigan had done just that when they were kids, burning about a quarter acre of pasture out behind the community center before the volunteer fire department finally extinguished the blaze. The irony that Mike was now a firefighter himself wasn’t lost on him or anyone in town.
“Your office is done if you want to have a look at that,” the first painter said. “Came out real nice.”
Chase checked his watch and saw that he had a few minutes before Anita arrived. “Think I will. Thanks.”
They were heading back to the Double S Ranch for another round of semen collection. His new assistant hadn’t exaggerated her charms. She’d handled the owner’s Brahma bull, Peaches, as if he was a toy poodle and not the size of a small elephant. Ranchers in the vicinity, whose initial reaction to the diminutive female was to scoff, were being won over, though not as fast as Peaches. Last weekend Anita had moved into a rented room until she could locate something more permanent, becoming Blue Ridge’s newest resident.
Chase’s plan was coming together like clockwork. The clinic was almost complete and should be open for business within the next two weeks. His new assistant displayed great promise. And, most importantly, he’d spent more time with Mandy recently than he had in the last two years.
He should be ecstatic. Delighted, at the very least. Instead, his feet dragged as he went down the tiny hall to his office.
Jolyn.
Somehow, without him really noticing, she’d gotten under his skin. Problem was, he liked having her there.
Give it time, Chase told himself. Sooner or later you’ll forget about her.
Yeah, like in another fifty or sixty years.
Careful not to touch the walls with their wet paint, he entered his office—and drew up short at the unexpected sight of Jolyn sitting on the floor, unpacking fluorescent lightbulbs from a cardboard carton.
“Oh, sorry,” he mumbled, then realizing how stupid he sounded, said, “How’s it going?”
“Hey, Chase.” She spared him a quick glance before returning to her task, but it was long enough for him to spot the hurt in her eyes.
He bit back a curse, berating himself for being such a jerk. She had no idea why he’d suddenly distanced himself from her, knew only that he’d pulled a Houdini for no apparent reason just when they were growing closer.
Dammit! Could he have screwed up any worse? Jolyn had always supported him when it came to Mandy. He’d been wrong not to explain his recent behavior.
Maybe it wasn’t too late.
“I didn’t realize you were here.” The instant the words were out of his mouth he wanted to retract them. Jolyn’s ramrod-straight spine told him she’d misconstrued his remark and probably thought he was unhappy at finding her there. “I didn’t see your truck outside,” he said, trying to amend his blunder.
“Mike took it over to Ace’s Auto this morning,” she said tightly. “The alternator’s been acting up.”
“Need any help with that?” When she didn’t tell him to take a hike, Chase inched closer.
“I can manage, thanks.” She crawled to her feet and, with a bulb in one hand, positioned the aluminum stepladder directly beneath the ceiling light.
Chase got his first good look at her in days and was shocked at her appearance. “Jeez, Jolyn. Are you all right?”
Dark circles shadowed her eyes, lines of fatigue bracketed her mouth and she moved as if every joint in her body ached.
Chase was suddenly furious with himself. How could he have been so insensitive and hurt her like he obviously had? She couldn’t control her mother any more than he could his.
“I’m okay,” she said, and climbed the first step of the ladder.
“Jolyn.”
She stopped in place and with her back to him, said, “Look, I’m sorry for being so scarce this past week.”
“What?” She’d been scarce?
“I’ve had a lot going on and don’t want you to think I was avoiding you.”
“How did your CAT scan go?” he asked, wondering if her knee was responsible for her weary appearance. Jolyn hadn’t mentioned the procedure to him, but she had to Mrs. Cutter, so most of Blue Ridge probably knew by now.
“Good. Everything’s normal.” She continued up the ladder and inserted the bulb into the light fixture. With a flicker and a series of tiny pings, the bulb came on, filling the room with light.
Before she could climb back down, Chase said, “Wait,” and handed her another bulb from the carton. She might have refused his help but was going to get it nonetheless.
Hesitantly, she took the bulb.
He bit back another curse. Talk around town was that the Sutherlands were having some kind of big trouble, though no one knew the exact nature of it. Chase made an educated guess. Since Jolyn’s knee was fine and business was going well—he’d learned from Mike that she’d landed a job building a solarium—it must be about him and Mandy. Were the Sutherlands divided over Dottie’s attempt to prove Steven was Mandy’s biological father?
It seemed that Chase and Jolyn had avoided each other all week for the same reason—her mother. Damn Dottie and her meddling. She had to know how much grief and misery she was causing people, including those she loved. Chase’s resolve to steer clear of Jolyn weakened. When the second lightbulb flickered to life, he reached down for another one.
“Are you going to Red, White and Blue Ridge Days this weekend?” Casual conversation, he decided, might help.
“Not in the morning. I have too much going on. I’m planning on dropping by in the afternoon and maybe on Sunday.”
“What about the dinner tomorrow night?”
Chase picked up the last bulb. As he stood, Jolyn shifted and he found himself staring at her curvaceous backside.
His hormones evidently hadn’t listened to all those talks he gave himself about cooling it with Jolyn, because his libido behaved like one of those fluorescent bulbs she’d just inserted, flickering to life in an instant. When she raised her arm to wipe away a smudge of dust, he followed the long, luscious line of her body. Dangerous ground on which to tread, but Chase was powerless to resist.
“Can’t miss that,” she said.
“Huh?” He shook his head to clear it. “Oh, yeah, the dinner.”
“Could you pass me the cover while you’re at it?”
Chase responded automatically, handing her the pliable plastic rectangle. He was rewarded with another great view of Jolyn stretching.
When she finished snapping the cover in place, he retreated several steps, giving her room to climb down the ladder. He should have closed his eyes or, better yet, left the room. Watching her hips move back and forth at such close range was pure torture. Reaching the floor, she spun to face him. Chase wasted no time closing the distance between them.
“Oh! Excuse me.”
That was his cue to move away, only he didn’t take it. He’d missed her these last four days, wanted her more than he could remember wanting a woman. And if sharing the same tiny space for a few brief moments was all he’d ever have of her, fine. He’d settle for what he could get.
“What about the dance after the dinner? You going?” His hands itched to hold her almost as much as his mouth craved the taste of hers.
“Yes.” She stared up at him with liquid hazel eyes that destroyed the last vestiges of his willpower. “Of course.” It was on the tip of Chase’s tongue to ask her to save him a dance when she said, “Mom’s advanced students are performing. I can’t miss that.”
Her mother. At the mention of Dottie, Chase’s ardor waned.
Just as well. Anita had arrived.
“Chase? Where are you?”
“In here,” he answered flatly, and did what he should have done five minutes ago—put a respectable distance between him and Jolyn.
Wordlessly, she moved the ladder and positioned it under the second light fixture. By the time Anita joined them in the office, she’d climbed up the ladder, and Chase was holding a bulb out to her.
“This is great!” Anita gushed, her wandering gaze taking in every detail. “It’s really coming along.”
“Thanks,” Chase said. “But my contractor deserves all the credit.”
“Hi, Anita,” Jolyn said over her shoulder.
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