Neil’s first reaction was to say “No,” but then he gave her words some deeper consideration and wound up surprising himself.
“Oddly enough,” he admitted, “it kind of does.”
Maybe whatever the pilot had was catching. His brain felt as scrambled as her words had sounded, he couldn’t help thinking.
Maybe something else was at fault. “Just how high is the altitude up here?”
She laughed. “Not high enough to play havoc with your brain, Doctor, I promise. You know,” she continued, “it’s nice that you’re open-minded like this.”
“Why’s that?” he asked, curious to understand what she was going to come up with. He didn’t expect actual logic.
“Because it’ll help prepare you for dealing with Miss Joan—at least as much as anything could when to comes to the woman.”
“You make her sound like some sort of a rare enigma,” he said, then realized that he was probably talking over the pilot’s head.
It surprised him that he wasn’t. “Oh, she’s that and much more,” Ellie assured him. “A lot more.”
He thought of all the characters he had encountered during his hospital residency in the ER in New York.
“She can’t be that bad,” he told Ellie.
“Trust me, she is,” she assured him. “Miss Joan is...well... Talk to me after you’ve had a chance to meet her and tell her something that she doesn’t want to hear.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” Neil told Ellie.
“Oh, it is,” she agreed. “All that and more.”
He couldn’t really explain it, but for the first time in years, Neil suddenly caught himself looking forward to the encounter.
Chapter Seven
The moment Addie saw Ellie land her plane and then taxi it into the renovated barn, she stopped doing what she was doing. Tossing aside her pitchfork, she ran to the barn so that by the time Ellie got out of her tiny Piper Meridian, Addie was right there inside the makeshift hanger, waiting for her older sister.
“So?” she asked expectantly the second that Ellie emerged.
Ellie dusted herself off. “So?” Ellie echoed quizzically. She had no idea just what her sister was asking her about.
“So what’s this new doctor like?” Addie asked impatiently. “Is he young? Is he cute? Is he easy to talk to? What did you two talk about? Do you think he’s planning to stay in Forever? Dr. Dan wasn’t planning on it when he came, but you know what happened there, so maybe this one—”
Oh, Lord, Ellie thought. Addie had a habit of drowning anyone close by in a sea of words. She held up her hands. “Breathe, Addie. Breathe!” she ordered her sister.
Addie pretended to go through the elaborate motion of drawing in a deep breath and then said, “Okay, so answer this for me—”
Ellie was busy getting her carryall out of the cockpit. Finding it, she slung the strap over her shoulder.
“Yes, he’s cute. Very cute,” she emphasized truthfully. “But I have no idea if he’s planning on staying. I don’t think he is—”
“But you could be wrong,” Addie interjected. It was obvious to Ellie that, sight unseen, Addie had taken an interest in this supposed “new doctor in town” whether he actually was that or not.
“I could always be wrong,” Ellie allowed.
Addie nodded as she walked out of the hanger with her sister and into the open space. “So what did he talk about?”
Recalling, Ellie smiled to herself. She’d had better conversations with strangers.
“Mainly, he wanted to know when we were going to land and did I think the landing was going to be a safe one,” she told her sister. Slipping her hand into her pocket, her fingers brushed against the pills Dr. Dan’s nurse had given her.
Pop’s prescription, she thought. She wanted to get it to him before she forgot.
Ellie began walking fast toward the house.
Addie was still on the doctor’s last conversation with her sister. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing.” Ellie tried not to take offense at Addie’s insinuation. “The man obviously isn’t used to planes that make loud, rattling noises when they fly,” Ellie said with a shrug. “That was probably his first experience with a small passenger plane.”
“Poor guy, maybe he needs to be comforted.” Addie obviously felt she was just the one for the job. The boys in town who were around her age were all just that—boys. A young, well-to-do doctor was just what she needed to spice up her life. “Where did you say he was staying?” Addie asked, glancing in the direction of town. She gave every impression of being ready to rush right over there.
“What Neil Eastwood needs, Addie,” Ellie told her sternly, “is to be left alone. He’s going to be dealing with Miss Joan and that’s more than enough for anyone to have on their plate at the moment.”
But Addie saw it differently and wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. “Maybe he needs to have someone offer him a hand when it comes to having to deal with Miss Joan,” Addie suggested. “You know, I’m sure he’d be pretty grateful to someone who knew how to deal with Miss Joan—”
Ellie stopped walking and stared at her sister. “And what—that would be you?” she asked, surprised by what her sister was thinking. As far back as Ellie could remember, Addie had been intimidated by the tough-as-nails Miss Joan.
“Sure, why not?” Addie asked, tossing her head and sending her thick, straight black hair flying over her shoulder.
“‘Why not?’” Ellie repeated incredulously. It took everything she had not to laugh at the image Addie was attempting to project. “Because the woman would eat you for breakfast and not even notice that she swallowed anything, that’s why not.”
“Oh, she’s not an ogre,” Addie insisted, waving her hand at the image Ellie was suggesting.
“No,” Ellie agreed, “she’s not. But Miss Joan likes to make people keep their distance—unless she actually wants them to get closer.”
Addie disregarded the point that Ellie was trying to make. “Maybe Neil would appreciate having a buffer,” she said, refusing to give up on creating an “in” for herself with this new doctor.
Addie couldn’t really be serious—could she? Ellie wondered. Where was this need to connect with a rich, handsome doctor coming from?
“He’s a doctor, Addie,” Ellie said, attempting to talk some sense into her sister. “I’m sure he deals with crabby, difficult people all the time. He won’t need to have a buffer.”
Addie looked at her, pity in her eyes. “Ellie, what happened to your heart?” she asked.
Okay, she’d been patient enough, Ellie thought. Time to stop trying to be diplomatic.
“Nothing happened to it. It’s right where it’s supposed to be. In my chest. As for you, you’re just interested in meeting and cultivating an eligible doctor.”
Addie didn’t bother denying it. Instead, she raised her chin. “And if I was, what’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” Ellie told her. “If you’re attracted to him and not to the idea of him. Besides, how do you know he’s not married?”
The mere suggestion—something Addie hadn’t even thought of—had her looking stricken. “Oh, El, he’s not, is he?”
Ellie sighed and rolled her dark blue eyes. “No, Ad, he’s not.”
“How do you know?” Addie asked suspiciously. “Did he ask you out?” Were they going to be competing against each other? she suddenly wondered.
“No, Addie, he didn’t ask me out,” she told her sister. “When Dr. Dan made arrangements for me to pick up his friend at the airport, I asked Dr. Dan if his friend would be bringing his wife with him because, in that case, I’d need to clear an extra seat in the plane.” She knew Addie would like this. “Dr. Dan said his friend had just recently broken up with his fiancée.”
“Nice
going,” Addie said, impressed by the way Ellie had managed to get the information. She grinned, the dimples in her cheeks springing to life. “He just broke up, eh? The poor man needs comforting.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Lord, Addie, doesn’t your plane ever land?”
Addie stared at her sister. “You’re the one with the plane, Ellie.”
Ellie shook her head. She was wasting her time. “Never mind. I’ve got to give Pop his pills,” she said, holding up the medication.
Both sisters had always agreed that their grandfather’s health was always their first priority.
“Okay, but don’t forget that after that, you promised to help me pitch fresh hay in the stalls,” Addie reminded her.
But Ellie had to bow out. “Sorry, Ad. I can’t. I’ve got a couple of errands to run and then I have to get ready.”
Perfectly arched dark eyebrows drew together as Addie gave her sister another questioning look. “Ready for what?”
“Dinner,” Ellie replied innocently. “I’ve been invited out for dinner,” she said, knowing that it wasn’t going to die there.
“With who?”
“With ‘whom,’” Ellie corrected.
“A grammar lesson?” Addie asked. “You’re giving me a grammar lesson? Now? Seriously?”
“Seems appropriate,” Ellie told her sister.
Addie’s patience was swiftly evaporating. “An answer would be appropriate, El.”
“I guess we’ll just agree to disagree on that point, little sister,” Ellie said cheerfully. “Now, if there’s nothing else, let me go and give this to Pop so I can get on with my errands.”
Addie made a sharp, guttural noise under her breath. Was Ellie attracted to the visiting surgeon or not? “Damn it, Ellie, you can be so very infuriating at times!”
Ellie flashed Addie a complacent smile as she passed by her sister. “Then I guess my work here is done,” she said, her eyes sparkling with humor.
“C’mon, Ellie, who are you having dinner with?” Addie called after her, but Ellie managed to put a lot of distance between them very quickly as she headed toward the ranch house.
Walking in, Ellie found her grandfather in the kitchen, sitting at the table and nursing a cup of coffee that was swiftly disappearing.
Not his first, or his second, of the day, Ellie was willing to bet.
The man looked up when he heard his granddaughter enter.
“Did you find your doctor?” Eduardo asked.
“Not ‘my doctor,’ Pop,” she corrected, thinking of Addie and how much her sister would have liked to have fielded that question. “But yes, thanks to that sign you made for me, I did. And here—” she dug into her front pocket and took out the prescription she had picked up for him “—I also got these for you.” She handed the packet to her grandfather.
He frowned at the offering and didn’t attempt to take it from her. “I told Dr. Dan that I didn’t have the money for that right now, Ellie.”
He could be so stubborn, she thought. “You didn’t pay for that, Pop.”
“I’m not having you pay for it, either, Ellie,” Eduardo insisted. How would it look to the men if he had her paying for things? Or to Ellie, for that matter?
“I’m not,” Ellie assured her grandfather.
“Oh, so then you stole it,” Eduardo said loftily.
She knew that the thought of accepting charity rankled her grandfather. He thought nothing of doling it out, but the man balked when it came down to accepting it.
“No. Dr. Dan said to think of it as a way of thanking me for going out of my way and bringing his friend to Forever to examine Miss Joan.” She paused, looking at her grandfather. “Pop, you are the dearest person in the world to me—and to Addie,” she added seriously. “And neither one of us is about to have your pride be responsible for putting your life in any sort of danger.” She couldn’t read her grandfather’s expression. “And if that’s being disrespectful, then I’m sorry, but there you have it. So please take your medication and stop giving me a hard time about it. I’ve got more than I can handle with Addie driving me crazy all the time,” she told her grandfather. “Now, is there anything else?”
“No, not at the moment,” Eduardo answered, the corners of his mouth curving affectionately. “You’re a good girl, Ellie.”
Ellie grinned at him. “You’re just finding that out now, Pop?” she asked, pretending to ask the question seriously.
The gray-haired gentleman waved her off. “Go, do whatever it is you have to do. I’ll have a couple of the boys pick up your slack. Oh, one last thing...” he said as another question occurred to him.
Ellie paused, waiting. “Go ahead.”
“This specialist that Dr. Dan managed to get to come out,” he began.
“What about him?” she asked, doubting her grandfather’s questions were on the same level that Addie’s had been. He, undoubtedly, had legitimate questions.
“Do you think he’ll be able to get Miss Joan to listen to him, provided that what he has to tell her isn’t something she would actually want to hear?” he asked, curious.
Eduardo wasn’t saying anything that Ellie hadn’t already wondered herself. Miss Joan wasn’t exactly the easiest person to handle.
“Well, if he doesn’t turn out to be forceful enough to get her to agree to getting treatment—and I think that there’s probably a good chance that he will have to—there’s all the rest of us around to gang up on the woman and make her listen to reason.” She paused then said, “At bottom, Miss Joan is a reasonable person,” Ellie insisted.
Eduardo smiled, nodding. “While that is true,” her grandfather agreed, “there’s something that you have to understand.”
Ellie wondered if this was something her grandfather was relating to himself and that she wasn’t going to want to hear.
“What?” she asked cautiously.
“As a person begins to grow older, fear has a way of interfering with common sense. Maybe Miss Joan is afraid to let those scary thoughts in because, if she does, then they might just stand a better chance of coming true.” He looked at her, trying to gauge her reaction to what he’d just said. “Does that make any sense to you?”
“Too much, actually,” Ellie admitted.
He smiled at his older granddaughter. “What that means is that we’re all going to have to be there for her, like you said. Just the way that you were for me.” His eyes narrowed. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what a bully you can be when you want to be.”
She put on an innocent expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told her grandfather with a laugh. And then she brushed a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll see you later on tonight, Pop. And do me a favor, tell Addie that I’ll make it up to her.”
“Make what up to her?” Eduardo asked, curious what she was talking about.
She merely smiled at the man. Ellie didn’t want to get into it because she was fairly sure that her sister wouldn’t want their grandfather teasing her about the possible infatuation Addie might be harboring, sight unseen, for Dr. Dan’s friend.
“She’ll know,” Ellie told her grandfather. “Now I’d better go before I wind up being late to the Davenport house for dinner.”
Eduardo smiled to himself, pleased that his older granddaughter was actually taking a little time out for herself to socialize instead of just working around the clock. Heaven knew that Ellie deserved a little “me” time. She certainly was more than entitled to it, Eduardo thought.
* * *
Ellie had barely had enough time to take care of the handful of chores she had promised herself to do before she left the ranch house.
Avoiding Addie had been trickier, but somehow, Ellie’d managed to accomplish that, as well.
At the last minute, before she headed toward the Davenport house in town, Ellie swung by the Murphy
brothers’ saloon. She wanted to pick up a bottle of Pinot Grigio. Personally, Ellie didn’t care for the taste of wine, but she knew that other people did. Even if the bottle wasn’t opened at the table today, she was fairly confident that it would be put to good use somewhere down the line. She didn’t feel right about showing up for dinner empty-handed.
Standing at the doctor’s front door, she rang the doorbell. Several seconds went by and Ellie began to wonder if she had misunderstood the doctor’s invitation and it had been for a different day. But then the door began to open.
She’d expected to see Dan or his wife on the other side of the entrance. Or, just possibly Dan’s stepson, the little boy who had initially been the reason Dan’s wife, Tina, had gone through Forever and why her older sister, the sheriff’s wife, had come out here looking for Tina in the first place.
It occurred to Ellie that it had been a while since she had seen any of those people. She really needed to find a little time to catch up, Ellie thought. Addie was right, she was much too busy working at one thing or another to stop and enjoy the company of old friends. That needed to stop, Elli silently lectured herself as the front door finally opened.
It wasn’t any member of the Davenport family who’d come to the door. Instead, the person she was looking at across the threshold was Neil.
Chapter Eight
It took Neil a second to process the fact that the woman who had flown him from the Houston airport—and was responsible for an unsettling amount of turmoil in the pit of his stomach, thanks to that flight—was standing right in front of him.
“Did we make arrangements to have me fly back to Houston?” he asked Ellie. “Because if we did, then it was premature. I haven’t had a chance to meet and examine Miss Joan yet.”
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