by Robin Gianna
“I don’t know, marshmallow girl...” A frown dipped between her mother’s brows before she turned away to look out the side window. “This is where I belong. I grew up here. My friends are all here. All my memories are here. You as a little girl...me and your dad.”
“I’m not asking you to move there, Twinkie.” Though if it were up to her that would be the perfect scenario. “Just to have an extended vacation. With me. Until you feel better. How bad could it be?”
Her mom finally turned back to look at her. “I just don’t think it’s for me. I’d miss my house. I’d miss everyone, everything that’s here. Though I do miss you so much.”
Familiar guilt chewed at Rory’s gut, since she knew all too well that she should come back to Eudemonia more. Now, with the years of training behind her, she’d have a little more vacation time. But the deep ache from all the reminders of her past mistakes made her hate being here. Not to mention the horrible discomfort of seeing Jake again, which was even worse now that he had his own little one. His clear statement that he didn’t want to try to be friends anymore.
Thinking about all that made her feel like she was suffocating from the pain of it all—which told her loud and clear that she still couldn’t handle it.
“Will you at least think about coming back with me? Trying it for maybe a month?”
“All right. I’ll think about it.”
Rory couldn’t recall her mother ever agreeing to do even that, so that was a small step forward, right? Now she needed to ponder on what might convince her mom to move past just thinking about it to doing it, because she wanted to be near her so much, but staying in Eudemonia just wasn’t an option.
She glanced at her watch, realizing that since her mom’s appointment had run long she didn’t have much time before she was supposed to be at Eli’s house to check on his arm.
When Ellie had called her, confirming their Thursday appointment in the office, her chest had tightened with that suffocating feeling again and she’d offered to go see Eli at his home a day earlier before she’d thought twice about it. Maybe Jake would be mad about her not including him, but that was too bad. She’d see the child, pass her opinion on to Ellie and Jake could follow up if he wanted to.
“I need to check on the boy I saw in the clinic the other day—do you know Pooky’s son, Eli? I told him I’d swing by the house to make it easy on him. You want to come along and talk with Pooky? Or would you rather go home first?”
“I think I’ll go on home. If that’s okay? Walking around more than usual and then the doctor poking and prodding me has tired me out.”
“Of course that’s okay. Listening to your body and when it’s telling you to rest is an important part of getting stronger.”
Ten minutes later she had her mom tucked into her chair with an ancient knit throw over her knees and the small dog happily curled on top of it. With a snack on the table by her side and the television on, she should be good until Rory got back.
“I shouldn’t be gone long. See you in just a bit, okay?”
“Don’t worry about me. Toby and I will probably take a nap.”
Her mother’s eyelids were already drooping, and Rory smiled as she leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Get some rest.”
She crept out through the front door and managed to find Pooky’s house about twenty minutes later, despite her GPS getting totally confused. The outskirts of Eudemonia hadn’t changed much in the years she’d been gone, and the simple directions and landmarks he’d given her made it pretty easy to remember her way around.
As she approached the hill where the worst decision of her life had begun, her throat thickened with unwanted memories.
“What do you mean, I shouldn’t come along? Part of what I do, what we both do, is go on rescue missions, Jake. There’s no physiological reason for me not to get on that snow machine and help, and you know it. It’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. I promise.”
She worked to haul in a few deep breaths. Somehow she had to shove down the horrible emotions clogging her chest—because what was the point in reliving the past? Thinking about it, crying about it, reliving it over and over, couldn’t change a thing. It hadn’t before, and it sure wouldn’t now.
In a hurry to put that hill behind her, she pressed the accelerator nearly to the floor. The danger in navigating these curves forced her to focus on the road instead of on all the other things she didn’t want to think about.
A wooden board appeared next to a gravel drive, an address written on it in thick black ink, and she nosed the car up the slope, glad to finally be there. She drew a few deep, calming breaths before knocking on the door. In mere seconds it swung open, and a slightly worried-looking Pooky stood in front of her.
“Thanks for coming, Rory. Really appreciate it. Especially since my truck’s still not working right and I’ve got it up on jacks to try and fix it.”
“Happy to.”
Maybe Jake wouldn’t be so annoyed if he knew about Pooky’s car problems and how he couldn’t have made it to the clinic anyway. As soon as the thought came, she asked herself why she cared if Jake was annoyed or not.
“How’s Eli doing?”
“Been hurting a lot, to be honest. Doesn’t like me taking the splint off to ice the arm, but I’ve been doing it anyway.”
“That’s good. Keeping the swelling down as much as possible will help it heal. It’ll also help with his mobility when it’s time to start using it again.”
“He’s back here, feeling a little grumpy,” Pooky said with a small smile as he led her to a small living room. “He’s not happy having to sit around until it’s better.”
“Can’t blame him. Sitting around is a drag—especially for a kid.”
The boy’s glum expression showed his dad hadn’t been exaggerating about how he was feeling.
“Hi, Eli. How’s the pain?”
“Hurts. But not as bad as when I first did it—that was the worst.”
“You were really tough and brave, though. A dislocated elbow is no joke, and you did so well through the whole reduction. Let me take a look.”
She crouched down, concentrating on getting the splint off without jarring his arm. The knock on the door didn’t get through to her brain until Pooky moved to answer it.
“That’s probably Jake.”
Her heart gave a quick thud before she lifted her head to stare at him. “Jake?”
“Yeah. I told him you were coming here today, instead of keeping to the first plan we had to meet at the clinic tomorrow, and he said he wanted to be here, too.”
She bit back a groan. Why couldn’t she get away from the man for more than a day?
She heard the murmur of the two men talking, then all too soon Jake was standing right next to her. It wasn’t hard to avoid eye contact, since she was concentrating on Eli’s arm and asking him questions, but that didn’t help her hyperawareness of his closeness, his broad form, the scent she realized she’d never forgotten even after all this time.
“Looks good,” she said to both Pooky and Eli, studiously ignoring Jake. She reached to pat the child’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. “I know it probably doesn’t feel that way to you. Bruising isn’t pretty, I know, but your elbow is definitely in the right position. Just keep icing it and elevating it and be patient.”
“We need to get another X-ray at the clinic in a few days, when your car’s up and running,” Jake said. “I wish Dr. Anderson had told me she’d decided to take a look at his arm here today. I would have picked him up and taken him to the clinic myself.”
Even if he hadn’t called her Dr. Anderson she’d have known he was beyond irritated, as the vibration of anger in his voice was more than clear. Without knowing she was going to, she stole a look at him. Yep, those beautiful lips of his were pressed tightly together and the eyes that met hers weren’t even close to warm. Instead, they glit
tered with an edge of anger she’d seen on only rare occasions, and she knew that a blowup just might follow.
It didn’t matter, she told herself, even as her heart beat a little faster. He could be upset and disapproving all he wanted, because her coming here today for a follow-up with the boy had made it easier for Eli and Pooky. And for Jake, too, because she knew he felt as uncomfortable around her as she did him. Except here he was anyway.
“Probably in a couple weeks you should find an orthopedic surgeon in Fairbanks, to take one more look before you take the splint off for good,” she said.
“You’re not going to be here then?” Pooky asked in obvious surprise.
“No. I’m leaving in just a few days.”
“Which is why it was important for me to be here today—even though you obviously didn’t think so,” Jake said. “Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Her fluttering heart kicked hard. His words obviously referred to a lot more than just this moment. They were a statement about nine years ago when, devastated and consumed with guilt, she’d fled this town, refusing to look back.
“So.” Somehow she forced herself to sound relaxed and professional as she stood to her full height and managed a smile. “Call me if you have any concerns over the next couple days, and get a referral from Jacob to whatever orthopedic doc he recommends. If I don’t see you before I go, best of luck, Eli. I’ll see myself out, so Jake can talk with you a little more.”
She reached for Pooky’s hand, noticing the way he glanced at her and Jake, clearly sensing the strange vibe going on between them. Then she patted Eli’s shoulder one more time, slid on her coat and hurried toward the door.
It was ridiculous to feel she needed to escape conversation with Jake, but for some inexplicable reason she did. Finally in her car, she was nearly free and clear when she heard Pooky yelling her name.
She turned to see him running out through the door with a huge shopping bag in his arms, and wondered what in the world was in there.
“Rory! Wait!” He came up next to her car door, a little out of breath.
She wound down the window, and had opened her mouth to ask what he needed when he started talking again.
“All of a sudden I realized I need to pay you something.”
“No, you don’t. No need at all—I promise. I’m not working. I’m just here to see my mom. I was happy to help.”
“I want to. Please.” He held out the bag, and the way it listed toward the car told her it weighed a ton. “I’m sorry I don’t have cash to give you, but I want you to have this.”
“Seriously, Pooky, you don’t—”
“I went hunting a week ago and bagged a caribou. It’s already butchered. Fresh and good, I promise.”
She opened her mouth to protest some more, but by now Jake had come up behind him. The expression on his face reminded her of how things went around here, with everyone helping others and sharing what they had when they could. If she didn’t accept Pooky’s payment it would probably be upsetting to the man, so it was the only polite thing to do.
“Thank you. It’s really unnecessary, but I appreciate it. I haven’t had caribou in a long time. Mom will love it.”
“Great! Makes me feel good to think I can help your mom get well.”
His wide, pleased smile as he opened the back door of the car and set the bag on the seat made her glad she’d accepted the meat, even as she wondered how long it would take her mother to eat it all by herself. It would probably be in the freezer for the next couple years.
“Well, thanks again—and best of luck to you and Eli. Take care.”
“Come back and see us soon, Rory. It’s been way too long.”
She didn’t answer because, yeah, it had been too long, but seeing Jake standing there with his arms folded across his chest, looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes, didn’t exactly make her want to book a flight back next month.
Pooky headed into the house and Jake wrapped his hands over her car door and leaned forward. It probably wouldn’t be nice to wind the window up, even though she wanted to, so she sat there trying to look relaxed.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“About...?”
“About us.”
Her heart lurched. “Us?”
“Yeah. Us. We’ve agreed we can’t be friends anymore, that we’d go for civil and respectful. But what happened today was neither of those.”
“I don’t know what you mean. When Ellie called me about the appointment I figured it would work better for me to come here to see him, and then you could follow up as you wish. It doesn’t seem to me that it was uncivil or disrespectful to have us see him separately. So what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that I’m the kid’s primary doc, and you’ll be waltzing out of here any minute, without a goodbye to a single soul, just like before.”
His voice was filled with that vibration of anger again, and he leaned through the window, practically nose-to-nose with her.
“You can’t disappear for years and then, when you show up for a few days, try to take over the place before you take off again. I don’t want you seeing anymore patients while you’re here. It’s not good care for them when I get left out of the loop then have to play catch-up, trying to figure out what you might have said or done when I wasn’t around. You understand?”
“Who elected you King of Eudemonia?” She planted her palm against his chest and gave it a shove, but he didn’t budge. “I was doing Pooky a favor, since his car isn’t running right now.”
“Which I’ll bet you didn’t even know when you talked to Ellie, because I sure didn’t.”
She never could put anything past Jacob Hunter.
She sucked in a breath, which unfortunately dragged his scent into her lungs, and she leaned back the few inches she could to get a tiny bit of distance. “I didn’t want to see you again, okay? I admit it. I admitted it before. Hopefully there won’t be any reason for us to have to talk at all before I leave. But, fine. I see your point about you needing to know about me examining Eli and my recommendations.”
“So it won’t happen again?”
“No. I’m leaving soon anyway, so I won’t be here to make your life miserable anymore.”
“Miserable? You don’t know the half of it, Rory. And you know what? I’ve changed my mind. Before you leave, we do need to talk about all you did back then.”
His temper had spiked further; his eyes were snapping with it as he closed the inches between them. Mixed in with that temper was something else, and shock skidded through her veins when she saw it.
Desire.
Her heart pounding against her ribs, she watched him spin away, clasp the back of his head for ten long seconds, then turn around again.
He leaned in close once more, his hands balled into fists. “Miserable? Yeah. Confused, furious and a whole lot of other things that made me wish I could hate you. Do you have any idea how—?”
Her cell phone shrilled in interruption, and she’d never been so glad to hear it in her life. No way did she want to have this kind of upsetting conversation with Jake, and she dug into her purse with shaking hands.
“Hello?”
“Rory? It’s Linda. I’m at your mom’s house, with some cookies I baked, but the door’s locked. When I knocked I could hear her calling from inside, but she’s not coming to the door. I’m really worried that something’s wrong. Are you close by?”
Her heart felt like it had stopped in her chest. “About twenty minutes away. I’ll be there as fast as I can.” She tossed her phone on the seat and started the car.
“What’s wrong?” asked Jake.
“Linda’s at Mom’s but she can’t get in. Says she can hear Twinkie’s voice, but apparently she can’t get to the door for some reason. God, why did I decide I had to lock the door when she never do
es?” She gulped back the panic rising in her throat. “I gotta go.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“No need. I—”
She stopped herself. There was nobody better in an emergency than Jacob Hunter, and she realized that she wanted him there with her, no matter what had been boiling between them seconds ago.
“That would be good. Thanks.”
Shoving her car into Reverse, she swung it down the driveway and saw Jake jumping into his truck. Once she hit the paved road she jammed down the accelerator, trying to fight the fear gripping her.
If Linda could hear Twinkie calling out, that was a good thing, right? Maybe it wasn’t something terribly bad. Maybe she’d fallen and couldn’t get up because she wasn’t very strong yet. That seemed unlikely, but still...
She pushed harder on the gas, and this time driving by the dreaded hill didn’t cause even one second of bad thoughts and emotions. All those were concentrated on her sweet mother, and the fear that had her heart beating double-time.
CHAPTER FIVE
JAKE WAS RIGHT behind Rory’s car as she tore up the grassy slope toward her mother’s house, and he was beyond glad to finally be there. Not only because Wendy might need help, but because Rory had driven like a maniac on the steep curves of the road—to the point when he’d feared she’d lose control and crash.
He didn’t want to think about how it would feel to see that happen...to see her get hurt. He pulled up behind her car as she practically leaped out, running up to the uneven front porch, where Linda stood clutching her hands together and looking anxious.
“Can you still hear her?”
“Yes. I yelled to her that you were on your way with the key, but I don’t know if she could understand what I was saying. She must be somewhere in the back of the house, because all I could hear was the sound of her voice, but not the words. I walked around back, calling, but still couldn’t understand her.”
“It was stupid of me to lock the door,” Rory said. “A habit from living in LA, I guess.”
Jake could see her hand shaking as she fumbled to get the key in the door, and gently took it from her to get it unlocked. “You want me to go in first, since we don’t know what’s going on?”