by Robin Gianna
“Yeah, a few bruises.”
He glanced down at his clothes and brushed off some of the clinging sand, clearly avoiding looking at her, before he began picking up the groceries that had been flung all over the kitchen.
“Don’t worry about the milk,” she said, hurrying to grab a kitchen towel to mop it up, even though it looked like Toby’s happy licking was going to take care of it for her. “Or anything else. I’ll put it all away. Thanks for bringing it.”
His eyes met hers again, grim now. Probably he could tell she was beyond anxious for him to leave—but wouldn’t he want to get away from her just as much?
“No problem. Also, even though neither of us wants to hang around each other, we need to do what’s best for your mother.” He shoved a few things in the fridge, then set the rest on the counter. “Which means you bringing her in to see me in a few days. Just let me know when.”
Unexpected tears clogged her throat as she watched his long legs take him from the kitchen in fast strides, despite the risk of slipping, and she angrily swallowed them down. It shouldn’t make her want to cry that he didn’t want to spend time with her. Why would he? If she were him she’d keep as far away as possible from the woman who’d wrecked their dreams. And hadn’t figuring out ways to avoid him been at the top of her mind the minute she’d bought her plane ticket?
But the quiet tears slid down her cheeks anyway.
CHAPTER TWO
“I’M GOING TO up your dose another twenty-five milligrams, Wilma,” Jake said as he wrote a prescription for his elderly patient. “Your blood pressure is better, but still a little high.”
“Okay, Dr. Hunter. I’ll take it every day if you think I should.”
He paused and glanced up at her. “You told me you had been taking it every day.”
She took the paper he handed her and made a sheepish face. “Maybe not every day.”
“If it’s hard for you to remember I can have Ellie get you a pill box that helps you keep track. Are you going to Fairbanks soon, so you can fill this? Or do you need one of us to get it for you?”
“I want to get supplies before the snow comes, so my son’s taking me tomorrow.”
“Good.”
He helped the woman down from the examination table and gave her a few more instructions. After she’d left the small room he wrote a note to himself to talk with her son to make sure she both got and took her medicine, then started typing his exam notes into the computer.
Ellie, who’d been office manager of this place for as long as he could remember, poked her graying head in the door. “Your mom’s here with Mika.”
“Already?” He glanced at his watch, wondering how it had gotten so late. “Have her come in here while I finish this up.”
The gleeful shriek that had been part of his world for the past eight months had him smiling before he even looked up from the computer. “I see he’s in a happy mood. Thanks for watching him again, Ma.”
“He’s such a good boy.” His mother beamed down at the baby in her arms. “He was cranky before his nap, but he’s been all smiles since.”
“I just need to finish up these notes, and then I have one more patient to see. Can you take Mika to my office to play until I’m done? Shouldn’t be long.”
“You still have things for him in there? Your dad bought him a new toy in Fairbanks today, but it’s at our house for when we’re babysitting. I told him he was going to spoil the child to death, since he’ll be getting all kinds of toys for his birthday. One-year-olds deserve a special party, don’t you think?”
“I don’t think he cares if he gets a party, but I do know he’ll love the attention.” He glanced up and smiled. “As for the spoiling—you were both good at that with all three of us, growing up, but I think we turned out okay.”
“Yes, you sure did. Two doctors and a lawyer? Not bad at all.”
“Yeah, except Timothy always said I’d be the doctor, Grace would be the lawyer and he wanted to be the Native American chief. I think he still kind of wishes that had happened, instead of planning to come work here next year when he’s finished with his residency.”
He finished the notes and stood. The serious look his mother sent him was a surprise, considering their light conversation.
“What?”
“Have you invited Rory over for dinner yet?”
“No, and I’m not planning to—which I already told you.”
Seeing her in the office when she brought in her mother was going to be difficult enough. The last thing he wanted was hours of small-talk with the woman he’d thought would be with him forever—the woman who’d crushed his heart into tiny pieces, then stomped on them for good measure.
“She’s busy with her mother, and I’m busy with work and Mika.”
“Then I’ll invite her. I want to catch up with all she’s been doing since she moved to LA.”
“Go ahead and invite her, then. Just don’t expect me to come, too.”
“Jacob,” she said in a disapproving voice. “It’s been a long time. I know things were...bad for both of you. But can’t you two just be friends now, since you went through the same heartache together? You were such good pals for such a long time.”
Good pals. That had been true for what seemed like nearly his entire life—until they’d become lovers. And then had come the happy surprise...before the horrible shock and the heartbreak. The fact that his mother wanted him to be friends with Rory now told him she had no clue how bad it had really been.
He wished he didn’t still feel the bitter resentment and hurt. But seeing her for even a few minutes last night had proved he still wasn’t ready to move on from that.
Maybe he never would be.
The moment he’d walked in through her mother’s front door a storm of emotion had swarmed up and strangled him. Far more than he’d expected, considering it had been seven years since he’d last seen her at her dad’s funeral, and they’d barely spoken then.
But he hadn’t forgotten the amazing deep green of her eyes—like moss on a hillside in the summer. The honey highlights in her silky brown hair. And when he’d slipped and fallen on that damned floor, and she’d leaned over him, he’d been stunned that she smelled exactly the same as she always had. She obviously still dabbed grapefruit oil on her skin—something her mother had encouraged her to use as a child, claiming it boosted the immune system and made people feel more cheerful.
Rory had always rolled her eyes at her mother’s conviction about all the things herbal oils would do for a person, and he’d sometimes wondered why she used it when it she claimed she didn’t believe in it. Obviously she liked the stuff, no matter what she said about it.
If he closed his eyes he swore he could still smell her. But he wasn’t going to tell his mother about all those memories and the discomfort—damn it, the anguish he’d felt when Rory left. Or that it was careening around inside of him all over again.
Before he could come up with some kind of answer that would satisfy her, Ellie poked her head in the door again.
“Rory Anderson is on the line. She says she thinks her mom has a urinary tract infection. She’s having trouble passing urine, and it’s cloudy. She’s wondering if she can get an antibiotic from you.”
He hesitated, then opened his mouth to say he’d write it and Ellie could call it into the pharmacy in Fairbanks. He forced himself to close it again. His policy was never to prescribe medicine—especially antibiotics—over the phone. He had to see the patient first, make sure it was really what they needed.
But maybe this time he could make an exception, since Rory was a doctor. He could leave a prescription at the front desk for Rory to pick up, and he wouldn’t have to see her—except for the day after her mother went to her surgeon for a follow-up.
No. Much as he didn’t want to see Rory, he couldn’t let his feelings urge
him to violate good medical practice. Rory dealt with bones in her job. Who knew when she’d last had a patient with a UTI? Not to mention that a lot of surgeons called in antibiotic specialists for post-op infections. Truth was, there was no way around it.
He grimaced. “Tell her to bring Wendy in right now. We’ll fit her in before the day’s over.”
* * *
“I feel fine, Aurora. I mean, yes, it really hurts to go to the bathroom, but my stitches hurt, too. I don’t see any reason we have to go see Jacob. Can’t I just take more pain medicine?”
“A urinary tract infection isn’t something to mess around with, Twinkie. Not when you were on a catheter post-op and are having fever and chills now. You don’t want it to get worse and result in a kidney infection. Plus, you’ll be more comfortable when an antibiotic gets rid of it.”
“I just hate going to doctors.”
“Who doesn’t? Except this doctor is one of your favorite people, so quit complaining. He already said he’ll squeeze you in this evening.”
Which had her feeling relieved that her mom would get the meds she needed, but totally dreading having to see Jake again, even though her mother would love it.
“Okay. I guess it’s true that seeing Jacob is always fun. But why can’t you just get me an antibiotic, if that’s what you think I need? Isn’t that why you went to doctor school?”
“I went to doctor school for a little more than that.” Trust her mom to make her laugh, even as Rory was a ball of nerves. “But I can’t prescribe medicine here. I don’t have a medical license or privileges in Alaska.”
“Well, that makes no sense. You were born here, for heaven’s sake! Can’t you just show them your birth certificate?”
“It doesn’t work that way. I’d have to apply and take a test.” Which she wasn’t going to do, even though there had been a time when she’d thought she’d work here forever. Now the goal was to get that position at the hospital in LA and make her move away from here permanent.
She stroked her mother’s wavy blond hair that barely showed any silvery threads. It still hung nearly to her waist, as it always had, and Rory wondered if she could convince her to let her cut it, at least a little, so it would be easier to take care of.
Then again, it was such a part of who her mother was that it was probably worth the extra work, so she gently twisted it and secured it into a semi-tamed ponytail.
“Then just take the test.”
“Maybe someday.” Meaning never. “But until then the only way for you to get an antibiotic is to go to a doctor here, and Jacob is close by.”
“Well, if that’s what we have to do,” her mother said, shaking her head in clear disbelief of the protocols involved in medical care. “When do we leave?”
“Right now.” Her stomach squeezed, but she stiffened her shoulders and helped her mom get her coat on. The sooner they got there, the sooner it would be over with. “They’re closing his office soon.”
It was just a ten-minute drive from her mother’s house to downtown Eudemonia—if you could call it downtown.
At the age of eight Rory had been amazed when she’d gone to Fairbanks for the first time, to do some clothes shopping. Before then her mother had sewn or knitted all of it—until her dad had decided they should stop homeschooling her, and send her to the public school instead.
She’d stood out like a sore thumb at that school for a while, until she’d learned how to fit in, and one of those ways had been wearing off-the-rack clothes. She’d met Jacob Hunter at that school, too—the boy who’d become her hero.
She’d had no idea that a real downtown had more than a post office, a few stores, a medical clinic and multiple bars. Bars being the most important things in a town, as far as many residents were concerned. But, hey, something had to help everyone get through the nearly twenty-four-hour darkness of winter and the bitter cold and isolation of those months, right?
No doubt the bars were still the places where Eudemonians and others from nearby towns got together to listen to local musicians, play cards, checkers or poker and socialize.
Memories of those days had her smiling for a split second—until she remembered she wasn’t a part of this place anymore, and sure wouldn’t be doing any of that while she was here.
A couple of cars were parked behind the clinic, and as soon as she spotted a gleaming black pickup truck, with big, knobbly wheels ready to tackle the snow when it came, she knew it was Jake’s. He’d always loved black cars and manly trucks, saying how he’d have one someday, when he was a doctor like his dad.
A vision of his first beaten-up car, which he’d bought in high school with the money his dad had paid him to keep the clinic clean and take care of the medical waste, popped into her head. He’d still been driving it when all hell had rained down on their heads, and she was glad it wasn’t still around so she didn’t have to see it and remember.
Not that she didn’t remember it as if it were yesterday anyway.
“No need to hurry in, Twinkie,” she said as she helped her mom from the car. “Take your time.”
“I know I’m a pain, marshmallow girl. I’m walking slower than Grandma Lettie did when she was ninety-five. But my belly still hurts a lot, darn it.”
She grinned up at Rory, and the tightness of her chest eased at her mother’s upbeat attitude toward life. Wendy Anderson had always been an odd little thing, but she was special in so many ways. Rory knew she was blessed to have her as a mother, even though she had often been more like the parent and her mother more like the child.
“You could never be a pain. I love you.” She kissed her mother’s cheek, then opened the clinic door for her.
Ellie Sanders stood there, ready to take them back to the examination room, and Rory smiled at the woman who’d worked in the clinic for as long as she could remember. “Hi, Ellie. Thanks so much for fitting Mom in.”
“No thanks necessary, Rory. Besides, it’s thanks to Dr. Hunter, too, not just me. I’m never in a hurry to leave all the excitement of this place and be all alone at home.”
The twinkle in her eyes showed she didn’t really feel lonely, and Rory nearly asked about her kids and grandkids but decided not to go there. She didn’t want to reconnect too much to this town she’d be leaving again soon.
“He’s waiting for you in Room two.”
Rory’s heart seemed to skip a beat with every step down the hallway until they finally reached the room. The door was partly open, and inside she could see Jake’s mother standing there, talking to someone out of her line of vision.
Her heart gave another unpleasant kick. She didn’t really want to make stiff and uncomfortable small talk. But then she started to get annoyed with herself. Was she going to hide away like a child the whole time she was in town?
She pushed the door fully open and there was Jacob. She blinked, and for a second her brain couldn’t quite grasp what she was seeing. Then her heart shook hard, before diving straight into her stomach at the realization that he was holding a baby close in his arms...smiling and kissing its cheek.
Had he married and had a child? He might have. Why wouldn’t he? Growing up, all he’d wanted was to take his dad’s place as Eudemonia’s doctor. To marry, have a family and put down even deeper roots than his partly Alaska Native family had generations ago.
She gulped, trying to get air. Maybe the baby was a patient. Except there was no one in the room except him, his mom and the infant. It wasn’t likely he’d be taking care of a child without any parent around, cuddling it and kissing it and looking at it adoringly.
“Hello, Rory. I haven’t seen you in forever,” Beth Hunter said with a tentative smile. “I was worried I wouldn’t get to see you while you were in town.”
“Hi. I’m... I’m only here for a short time. Until Mom’s sister comes to take over.”
Jake glanced up from the baby an
d his smile faltered. The effort he put into shoring it up again was obvious as he moved his gaze to her mother.
“Twinkie, I’m glad you’ve come in. If you do have a UTI we definitely need to get it taken care of so it doesn’t make you sick while your body is already working so hard to recover.”
“I hate to bother you, but Aurora insisted.”
Her mother walked closer and gave the baby a couple of gentle pokes in its tummy. It grinned.
“He’s getting so big! My goodness, I can’t believe it. Then again, I haven’t seen him since the party your mom gave to celebrate his adoption. How old is he now?”
“He’s almost a year, Wendy. Can you believe it?” Beth said. “We’re having a birthday party for him next week—I’ll be sure to send you an invitation, if you’re feeling up to coming.”
“Oh, I think I will be—with my Aurora here to help me get well and my sister Patty’s coming soon. How are you doing, Beth?”
“Doing very well, thanks. My grandson keeps me hopping, that’s for sure.”
Rory watched everyone beaming at the child and it took her a herculean effort not to pass out, she felt so woozy.
Adopted? The baby was really his? Did the baby belong to a lover, too? Someone he was committed to? Had he wanted to adopt for that reason? Had he married the baby’s mother and her mom just hadn’t thought to tell her?
The baby reached up his little hand to grab a wad of Jake’s hair and he turned, chuckling, to extricate it from the chubby fist. “Ouch! I don’t tug on your hair, now, do I?”
The baby gurgled and laughed in response, and the sound, along with the sweet, loving smile on Jake’s face as he looked down at the baby, made Rory feel physically sick.
This was what they should have had together. She should have had this baby and the life they’d always planned. Instead it had been stolen after one catastrophic decision, changing both their lives forever.
“Twinkie, why don’t you take a seat on the exam table?” she somehow managed to croak. “I’ll meet you out in the waiting room.”