The demon of doubt whispered in her ear. Why get involved one way or another? This is between Mark and your cousin.
It was, and she would stay out of this as long as possible. But she couldn’t let her cousin sweep this under the rug. If anything happened to a patient as a result of his dependency, she would never forgive herself.
The only thing she could do was hope Ned would see the light. Hope that his counselors would convince him that her plan was the right way to go. Hope that she wouldn’t have to say a single word to Mark.
Meanwhile, she would try not to think about upholding her end of her threat and what it would do to her relationship with her family. That, however, was easier said than done.
On Thursday, Mark stopped her in the hallway. “Jared and Annie invited us over to their place for drinks before the Valentine’s Day dinner and dance. Is that OK with you?”
She’d completely forgotten about the Valentine’s Day festivities. “Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun.”
He studied her through slightly narrowed eyes. “Is something wrong?”
Dixie pasted on a bright smile. “What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. You’ve seemed preoccupied the past few days.”
Her laugh sounded forced. “Preoccupied?”
“Yeah. I know you’re concerned about not finding this Larissa Grayson—”
“No,” she denied. “Not really. Like you said. Hope is a small town. She’ll turn up eventually.”
“If you’re worried about Ned—”
“I’m not,” she answered quickly. “You haven’t heard from him, have you?”
From his expression, she knew she’d surprised him with her question. “No. Did you think I would?”
She shrugged. “I’d hoped. He’s been gone nearly, what, four weeks?”
“Four plus.”
“I truly expected him to contact you.”
“Then you’re the only one,” he said.
Which meant that her seven-day ultimatum would end tomorrow at noon. If she gave Ned a grace period, she could stretch it until five p.m., but either way he had approximately twenty-four hours to meet her conditions. Although her stomach knotted at the prospect of going to Mark, she would.
At the same time, she hoped she wouldn’t have to explain why she’d held this information to herself for a week.
Neither Ned nor her aunt probably expected her to show any backbone because it was so completely out of character. They both knew how important the idea of family was to her.
This time, however, she’d stand firm. She might have done everything they’d asked of her out of respect for Aunt Cora being her mother’s sister, but if she didn’t do the right thing now, she’d lose her self-respect.
And that was more important because she had to live with herself.
Suddenly aware of Mark’s curious scrutiny, she injected a light-hearted note into her voice. “If I seem a little distracted, it’s because I’m thinking about going back to Chicago in a couple of weeks.”
He frowned. “You’re staying for the fourteenth, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve worked that out.” Her boss had been concerned about her knee, but she’d simply assured him that she was healing nicely. She wanted a few more days of vacation and because she had plenty of accrued leave she had decided to cash in a few more days now, rather than later.
His gaze grew intent. “You don’t have to go back. You could stay here.”
She’d love that more than anything, but making plans right now was foolhardy at best.
“I’m not a family practice physician,” she pointed out.
“You’ve been covering in the ER.”
“Only as back-up. I need to work more than one night a week.” She smiled a grateful smile that he’d even suggested it. “I’m not independently wealthy, you know.”
“Fairview is only forty miles away. They have a hospital and an ER.”
The town he’d mentioned was half the size of Hope. She knew, because several of their patients lived in Fairview and commuted to Hope for their jobs.
“It’s something to consider,” she said noncommittally.
“Something else to consider is for us to pool our resources.”
Pool their resources? “Meaning what?” she asked, not wanting to misunderstand. “Moving in together?”
“Yeah.”
She would have preferred something more permanent, but his failed engagement had obviously made him a little gunshy. The fact that he’d asked this of her when they’d only known each other such a short time was more than she’d allowed herself to dream.
“I’ll have to check into my job prospects before I can answer,” she said honestly. “Speaking of prospects, what time is your interview with Dr Bennington this afternoon?”
“Four o’clock.”
“His résumé looks promising.”
“I think so, too. It helps that both he and his wife want to raise their three kids in a relatively small community.”
“I hope he’ll be a good match.”
“That makes two of us.”
At three forty-five, Mark introduced Dixie to his newest applicant. Dixie was immediately impressed by the doctor’s calm manner and easy smile. His reply to Mark’s announcement about their overworked practice only sealed her opinion.
“Don’t let this gray hair fool you,” John said in obvious reference to the silver at his temples. “Having three kids in four years is to blame. If I can run after them, I can handle whatever workload we have here.”
While the two men closeted themselves in Mark’s office, Dixie continued with business as usual. By the time she’d sent the last patient home at five-thirty, the men had come out wearing pleased smiles on their faces.
“I’m taking John and his wife to dinner,” Mark told her while John went to another room to use his cellphone. “Can you join us?”
“I’m not sure if I should. I don’t want John to think that he needs to impress me, too, in order to get the job.”
“He won’t. I want you there because I value your opinion.”
“If I’m wrong, you’re the one who has to live with him,” she warned.
“True, but what do you think of him so far?”
“No fair,” she protested. “I may have read his curriculum vitae, but I barely said hello.”
“Would it help if I mentioned that I offered him the job?”
“You did?”
He grinned. “Yeah. He’s going to talk it over with his wife and let me know in the next couple of days. Tonight is just a pleasant dinner between colleagues.”
“Then I accept.”
By the time they’d ended the meal and the Benningtons had returned to their hotel for the night, Dixie knew that Mark had chosen well in John Bennington.
While she told herself that hiring John didn’t affect Ned’s position, she still wondered what the future held. She’d been tempted to ask why Mark didn’t wait for Ned’s return so that he could be involved in the decision, but she stopped herself. Mark believed he faced weeks of working alone. Under those circumstances, he couldn’t let a qualified physician slip through his fingers, neither did she want him to.
Mark had promised to listen to Ned’s story and she trusted that he would. What Ned’s story would be posed her next question because, depending on the answer, her cousin could draw her into the middle of a very nasty situation.
Shortly after they both arrived at the practice on Friday morning, Miranda handed Mark a message.
“Dr Tremaine called from the ER. One of our patients is there with a suspected miscarriage. He wanted to let you know.”
Mark glanced at the clock. He had forty-five minutes before his first appointment. “Did he say who it was?”
“He hung up before I could ask. I got the impression he didn’t have time to chat.”
“All right. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
The ER was as busy as Saturday at midnight. “An ear
ly morning MVA,” a harried nurse explained. “Dr Tremaine has been busy with the two involved. He hopes you don’t mind looking after your patient.”
Mark didn’t. This was how small community emergency departments worked. “Where’s the chart?”
“Here.” The nurse handed it to him. “Room three.”
He glanced at name and his pulse raced. Larissa Grayson!
“Larissa,” he said as he entered her cubicle. “I’m Doctor…” He stopped short at seeing her familiar face lying against the white sheets. “June?”
This was even better. He knew that Ned had dated this woman because he’d met her.
“Hi, Mark,” she said weakly.
“I must have the wrong room. I’m looking for Larissa Grayson.”
“I know. That’s me.” She smiled weakly. “I use my middle name with my friends.”
He smiled. “No problem. Is it all right if I call you June?”
“Please.”
“The nurse says you think you’re miscarrying?”
Suddenly June’s face crinkled and she burst into tears. “Yes. It’s all my fault. I’ve been so upset and now I’m bleeding…”
“Let’s back up a minute. Tell me exactly how much?”
“I can’t tell for sure. It alternates between moderate and light. I’m losing the baby, aren’t I?”
He patted her arm. “Don’t panic yet. We’ll run a sonogram and blood tests. After we have those results, we’ll have a better idea of what’s going on.”
Now wasn’t the time to quiz her about Ned—the baby demanded her concern and his. Other questions could come later.
After the lab technician drew June’s blood sample and the radiology tech ran the sonogram, Mark sat beside her bed. “The sono films still show your baby is right where he or she should be. As soon as I get the beta-HCG report from the lab, which is a hormone that is produced by the developing fetus, I’ll either admit you or send you home on bed rest.”
She nodded.
“You mentioned earlier that you’d been upset. Are you—?”
“Oh, Mark,” she moaned before her face crumpled. “I’ve made such a mess of things.”
“What things?”
“The baby is Ned’s.”
He didn’t know what to say. “Ned’s?” he echoed.
“Yes. He wasn’t very happy when I told him, especially when I said that our baby deserved a father who didn’t crawl into a bottle every night.”
“Crawl into a bottle?” he asked, aware that the phrase usually referred to someone who drank heavily.
Her story poured out and Mark could only listen.
“At night, he would drink constantly. I never saw him drunk, but I was worried about him. I told him that he was an alcoholic, but he denied it. How could he believe that he didn’t have a problem when he’d disappear for several days to hole up in a hotel and drink? Normal people don’t do that.”
That explained Ned’s three-day vacations. But if Ned drank heavily, how could he himself not have noticed? Had he missed some sign, or had the indications stared him in the face and he’d subconsciously refused to believe?
“I finally convinced him to prove he wasn’t an alcoholic by going to a drug treatment facility in Seattle that caters to physicians. He was only supposed to stay there for a few days for an evaluation, but once he was there they wouldn’t let him leave. They said if he left, they’d take away his license.”
She wiped her tear-streaked cheeks. “I just wanted him to straighten himself out. Not lose everything he’s worked for.”
“Did he stay?”
She shook her head. “Yes, but he was furious with me. He hasn’t talked to me since he called to say he had to complete the program.”
“Those facilities aren’t free,” he said, already guessing where Ned had found the money.
“I know,” she said miserably, “which only makes it worse because he can’t afford it.”
“He couldn’t afford not to go there,” Mark said kindly.
“I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid you’d be angry for my part in all this. With Ned gone, I know you’ve been working yourself to death. And then when I found out that Ned’s cousin, Dr Albright, was here, I was even more scared to tell anyone.”
“Did you look after Ned’s house?” he asked.
“Yeah, until I learned that Dr Albright had moved in.”
June had cleared up the entire mystery. “You did the right thing,” Mark told her. “If Ned has a problem, treatment is the best thing for him and for his patients. Remember that, no matter what he says or does. If you need help with anything, let me know.”
She sniffled. “Thanks, Mark.”
He rose. “Do you know when they’ll release him?”
“Any day. Monday at the latest.”
Which meant that he only had a day or two alone with Dixie. A day or two when Ned wouldn’t complicate their relationship.
No, that wasn’t right. Mark simply wouldn’t allow Ned to complicate his relationship with Dixie. As for his professional association with Dixie’s cousin, that remained to be seen. He’d promised Dixie that he’d listen to Ned’s side of the story, and he would.
In the meantime, he couldn’t wait to tell Dixie where her cousin had been all this time. The lost had been found.
The cubicle door opened and a nurse handed over a report.
“This just came in,” she said before she slipped away as quietly as she’d appeared.
He read the figures. “Good news,” he said with a smile. “The numbers are where they should be for the gestational date indicated on the sonogram.”
June sighed with relief.
“To be on the safe side, I want to repeat this test on Monday. From now until then I want you to go home and stay off your feet.”
“And the bleeding?”
“I suspect that you’ve experienced some spontaneous bleeding due to the changes your body is undergoing. If it doesn’t get any worse, we’re OK. If it does, come back in.”
“I will.”
Mark rehearsed his announcement all the way back to his practice’s offices. Dixie would be so relieved to know that her wayward cousin hadn’t been lying in an intensive care unit in some godforsaken place. On the other hand, he couldn’t deny that he felt somewhat responsible for not noticing Ned’s problem.
On the heels of that thought, he wondered if Ned’s drinking had ever affected his judgment. Mark hadn’t heard of any complaints, but word didn’t always get around. Nor had he made a practice of looking over Ned’s shoulder.
The repercussions of Ned’s habit hit him like a sledgehammer. Yet what was done was done. His next order of business was to protect his practice and his patients.
“Where’s Dixie?” he asked Jane as soon as he arrived.
“Last time I saw her, she was in the med room.”
Mark strode in that direction like a man with a mission. In his experience, the best way to handle bad news was to simply spell it out.
“Mark!” Dixie’s face lit up as soon as she saw him. “You’re back. How’s the patient?”
“Larissa Grayson is doing fine. She’s not losing the baby.” Shock replaced her smile. “Larissa? Oh my goodness. Did you get a chance to—”
“She’s pregnant with Ned’s baby,” he said wearily. “I knew her and didn’t realize it. When I met her last November, Ned introduced her as June.”
“That’s one question answered.”
“So is the one of where Ned’s been for the past month,” he said flatly.
Her expression grew wary. “Oh?”
“He’s in a drug treatment facility. Apparently June knew he drank too much and talked him into going for an evaluation. Once he was there, they wouldn’t let him leave.”
Mark didn’t know what sort of reaction to expect, but he certainly hadn’t anticipated her lack of surprise or relief.
“June said he’ll be coming home some time this weekend.”
Again
, her lack of response bothered him, especially the way she avoided his gaze and the way her cheeks flushed with embarrassment or…guilt? If he didn’t know better, he’d suspect…
Playing his growing hunch, he added, “But you probably knew that already, didn’t you?”
Unable to lie to him, Dixie could only nod. “Yes.”
He paused. “For how long?”
“A week.”
“A week?” His shocked puzzlement gave way to anger. “When were you going to tell me, or didn’t you think it important enough to tell me?” he snarled.
“My aunt told me last Friday when she telephoned. She didn’t want me to say anything—”
“A suggestion you obviously obeyed,” he interrupted.
“She didn’t want me to say a word,” she went on, “but I informed her that Ned simply had to tell you everything. He didn’t want to, but I insisted.”
He crossed his arms. “Yeah, well, he plainly doesn’t care what you insist on.”
“I gave him until noon today to call you, at which time I would tell you myself.”
“So you say.”
“It’s true,” she persisted. “According to my aunt, he didn’t plan to discuss his alcohol problems with you at all. I was just giving him time to work up the courage.”
“Time to think of a way to cover for him more likely.”
“No!” She was aghast. “That wasn’t my intention. I knew you’d be fair if you heard his side of the story. I only wanted him to be the one to give it to you. You didn’t want me to fight his battles, remember?”
“You should have told me a week ago. I still would have listened to him. Or didn’t you trust me?”
“Of course I did,” she said hotly, furious that Mark was so quick to believe the worst. “You said yourself that I shouldn’t get involved. What happened between you two was your concern, not mine. I was trying to follow your own instructions by staying out of the middle.”
“You’ve been in the middle since you arrived, though, haven’t you? Coming here, determined to hold his job for him.”
“At first, yes. Was it so terribly wrong to ask you to give him a second chance?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment, but when he spoke his voice was cold. “I only have one question. Was everything between us a lie? Were you only acting as Ned’s insurance policy? Playing me like a fiddle?”
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