A few minutes later, she returned with the rag doll that had meant so much to her and now meant so much to Megan. Tears were running down Bea’s cheeks as Jed spoke softly to her and her husband.
Brianne opened the glass door and stepped into Megan’s cubicle. She felt Jed’s gaze on her from beyond the window and knew he was wondering what she was doing.
After a squeeze to Lily’s shoulder, Brianne stooped low over Megan. “I have Penelope here, honey. She’s lonely without you and so are we. She needs you to take care of her. I’m going to snuggle her under this blanket with you. It would be great if you would open your eyes and talk to her and talk to us.”
“Do you really think she can hear you?” Lily asked. “I know we’re supposed to know these things, but we don’t. I’m wondering if talking will do any good.”
“She knows the sound of your voice. She knew the sound of your voice when she was in your womb. You have to believe that she can hear you. I do.” Brianne was certain in her soul about that. She remembered those last days with Bobby….
When she straightened, she knew Jed had slipped into the room and was standing at the foot of the bed. “I’m not sure both of you should be in here,” he whispered. “The neurologist said—”
“She needs our love, Jed. She needs all of us.” Brianne opened the glass door once more and motioned to Bea, Charlie and Doug. She saw the protest start to form on Jed’s lips, but she wouldn’t let any amount of protest make a difference—not right now. She might be younger than he was, she might be more naive, but she believed in the power of loving, and they had to use that power to help Megan.
“We all love her,” Brianne said, addressing them. “We have to believe our love can make a difference.”
After she took hold of Megan’s hand, she reached out and took Jed’s. He looked at her as if he had no idea what she was going to do, what they were going to do. Yet Bea and Lily caught on quickly, and Charlie nodded, along with Doug. Holding her daughter’s other hand, Lily linked her fingers with Doug’s. Doug hesitantly reached for Charlie, and Charlie in turn grasped his wife’s hand. Bea clasped Jed’s.
“If we tell her how much we love her,” Brianne said in a low voice, “and if we pray, maybe it will make a difference.”
She saw Jed’s eyes close. The expression on his face told her he thought it was hopeless. Yet nothing was hopeless. In fact, if she was courageous enough and stayed in Sawyer Springs…
That was a thought for another time and place.
Jed felt the warm, tight grip of Brianne’s hand. He heard her murmur, “I believe in the power of love.” Opening his eyes, he glanced at her and found her gaze upon him.
He didn’t know if he could believe with her. He didn’t know if all the love in the world could help Megan. Deep down inside, though, he knew if he didn’t try to help Megan in this way, too, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.
Giving Brianne’s hand a squeeze, feeling Bea’s hand holding his, he closed his eyes again and tried to feel the connection. Not only did he try to feel it, he tried to add to it. Whatever compassion and caring and hope he had locked away in his heart, he offered to Megan now. He didn’t know if he knew what praying was anymore, but he felt a stirring deep within that seemed to be an answer to his offering of everything good inside him. He thought he’d feel empty as he opened his heart, but he didn’t. He felt full…with more to give.
When one of the monitors beeped faster, Jed opened his eyes. Had Megan’s muscles flexed? Had she—
Suddenly the little girl’s eyelids fluttered. She looked down at her doll and at everybody standing around her. Then she reached out her arms to Lily. “Mommy.”
Bedlam erupted. Jed said to Brianne, “Quick, get Dr. Gibson.” And he went to Megan’s side, keeping track of the readings on all the monitors.
A few moments later, the neurologist was in the room shooing everyone out, including Lily.
After a thorough examination of the young patient, Dr. Gibson came out of the cubicle with a wide smile. To Lily, he said, “I want to keep her here another twenty-four hours and watch her carefully. But I don’t see any reason why she shouldn’t make a full recovery.”
Lily hugged Brianne tightly and then everyone else in the room, too, including Jed. After she released him, she hurried to her daughter’s side once more.
Jed’s gaze met Brianne’s, and what he saw there overwhelmed him. She had told him she loved him, but he’d denied that love.
How stupid could he have been?
Even after everything Brianne had been through, she had a powerful faith. She was a remarkable young woman. Suddenly he knew that all these weeks he’d been fighting the wrong battle. Instead of battling to keep his heart closed, he should have been forcing it open.
Trisha’s death had brought him grief and loss and pain and guilt. He’d become so comfortable with all of that that he’d held on to it, afraid to let go. It was his reaction to Trisha’s death that had kept him in limbo for so long.
Today he had saved a little girl. Was that part of the Master’s plan? He didn’t know. He did know that saving Megan had saved him.
He could no longer deny that he felt so much more for Brianne than desire. He loved her.
The love in her gaze today had convinced him that he might have love to give. Once he’d opened his heart, he’d felt a rush of joy and happiness he hadn’t felt in years. Brianne Barrington had taught him how to truly love again. He wanted her by his side every day. He wanted to see her pretty smile at the breakfast table, work beside her, sleep beside her and make love to her every night.
He had to tell her that right now.
“I need to talk to you,” he insisted, his voice deep and husky. Taking her hand, he pulled her down a corridor.
“Jed, where are we going?”
He didn’t take time to answer, but turned the knob on the door that led to the supply closet and pulled her inside. Switching on the light, he gazed down at her, hoping what he had to say wasn’t too late.
“Don’t take the job with Project Voyage,” he blurted out, trying to put some of his thoughts into order.
Brianne went perfectly still. “Why shouldn’t I take the job?”
This was it, and he had to get it right. “When I went to Alaska, I was a broken man. The work, the people and the life in Deep River helped put me back together again. But I didn’t realize part of me was still broken. When I returned to Sawyer Springs, I didn’t know what I wanted. After I met you, everything started to become clearer. Although I might be the older one…” he smiled wryly “…you’ve taught me so many things. I’ve put up every defense in the book, but somehow you managed to slip by all of them and rattle the cage I built around myself. You’ve shown me how love can heal. Yesterday when you told me you loved me, I should have gotten down on my knees and thanked you for it. Instead, I denied it. I thought I could be indifferent to it.”
Reaching out, he cupped her cheek with his palm. “I can’t deny what’s between us any longer. I love you, Brianne Barrington. I want you to be my wife. If you think we haven’t known each other long enough, if you need time to think about this…”
The radiance on her face stopped him. She came closer, circling his neck with her arms.
He embraced her as he’d wanted to embrace her for weeks. He was about to kiss her when she declared, “I love you, Jed Sawyer. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
As his lips met hers, his desire for her seemed to magnify tenfold, his love a hundredfold. He not only wanted Brianne, he needed her. All of that need drove his kiss as his tongue swept her mouth, and she responded with a passion and fervor that told him she felt the same. The kiss went on and on until he broke it and tilted his forehead against hers.
After their hearts had slowed a bit, Brianne said, “You’re a hero. Do you have any idea how scared I was when you stretched out on that ice to save Megan?”
“I did what I had to do, just as you did in that room a few minutes ago.”
>
“I didn’t risk my life.”
“No, you risked your love.” Holding her close, he whispered, “And that’s even more courageous.”
Then they were kissing again, promising each other their future and everlasting love.
Epilogue
Her hand in Jed’s, Brianne ran beside him under a shower of rose petals as friends and family called out good wishes. His SUV was parked at the curb, decorated with white streamers and a Just Married sign in the rear window. The door to the vehicle was open, and he scooped her up and lifted her inside. The straight skirt of her white suit didn’t allow much room for climbing, and Jed obviously had seen that. He seemed to know her wants and needs before she even asked.
When he gave her a long sweet kiss, her thoughts fled until he broke away, smiled at her and closed the door.
After he’d proposed, he’d insisted they wait at least three months to get married. He wanted her to be sure about their commitment to each other. She’d been sure and had told him that over and over again. But Jed was a protective man as well as an old-fashioned one. Tonight they would make love for the first time, and she was so excited. Her anticipation made her longing even greater.
When Jed slid into the driver’s seat, she eyed her new husband with all the pride and admiration she always felt for him. He was still wearing his tux and had never looked more handsome.
Sliding his hand under her hair, he brought her to him for another intoxicating kiss and then murmured, “There’s a stop I want to make before we drive to Madison.”
His kisses always left her in a daze. She blinked. “A stop?”
They were staying in Madison in a honeymoon suite for the next three nights. They really didn’t have time for a long honeymoon, with the plans for the plastic surgery center taking up most of their time and Jed’s involvement in getting a free clinic off the ground almost as exacting. They were both still working at the Beechwood Family Practice, having decided to stay there until the children’s center was completed. They would work side by side to make it a success and the best facility of its kind in the United States.
For the past week, they’d readied an apartment that would suit them until they could find a house they liked. They’d toured a few, but none quite fit the bill. They were looking for something with a large bedroom on the first floor in case Al needed to move in with them. Brianne wondered if Jed’s dad would ever give in and do that. He was so independent. When they’d broached the subject with Al, he’d grumbled that newlyweds didn’t need an old codger around. But Brianne and Jed did need him around. She missed her parents and Al was quickly becoming a surrogate father. She loved him and had told him so before the wedding, to his blushing dismay.
Now Jed started the SUV and explained where he wanted to take her. “I found a house I want you to see. If you think it’s right, we can put a deposit on it. I don’t want someone to steal it out from under us.”
Jed never took for granted that Brianne wanted the same things he did. When he asked her opinion, she truly felt like a partner.
To her surprise, Jed didn’t turn into one of the newer developments but rather headed for an older section of Sawyer Springs. They stopped before a stately brick two-story.
“Does it have a bedroom on the first floor?” she asked.
“It has better than that.”
Pulling into the driveway of the double car garage, he took a key from his pocket. “It’s a good thing I knew the real estate agent from our high school days. I convinced her to let us look at it by ourselves. Come on.”
When Jed led Brianne inside, she loved the older home immediately. It had been beautifully maintained. The hardwood floors were polished, the walls freshly painted, and the carved mahogany mantel was a highlight of the living room. Beautiful cherry-wood cabinets lined the kitchen. The appliances were new, down to the smooth-top stove. Colors from the spruce-green and off-white linoleum floor were picked up in the wallpaper above the sink and between the cupboards.
Jed crooked his finger at her, and she followed him down a short hall. They passed a door that led to the garage. She was curious now.
He opened a second door and said, “This was added onto the back of the garage a few years ago. I think this could solve the problem of convincing Dad to move in.”
When Jed opened the door, Brianne found herself walking into a sunny, spacious living room. There was a small kitchen area with an oven, space for a refrigerator, counter space for a microwave and a doorway that led into a bedroom.
“The bath even has a shower with one of those seats and hand-held units. And there’s an intercom system.”
Brianne crossed to Jed, slipped his arms under his coat and held on tight. “It’s perfect.”
“You haven’t seen the rest of the house yet,” he teased with a grin.
“We can look at that, too.”
“There are four bedrooms…plenty of room for kids.” Soon after Jed had proposed, they’d talked about having a family. Jed knew he could never replace Trisha, but he wanted more children to love. He wanted to be a dad again, and Brianne couldn’t wait to be a mother.
“We’ll fill this house with love and laughter,” she promised.
With that intense expression on his face that she knew so well, with desire flaming brightly in the depths of his eyes, he nodded solemnly. The strength of his kiss repeated every promise they’d made earlier in the day. Brianne knew that Jed believed in the power of a solemn vow. She returned his vow with her own, knowing their future would be filled with love, passion, commitment and family.
When Jed raised his head, he winked at her. “This is only the beginning.”
She lifted her face to his again, believing him, knowing their future had begun.
Many thanks to those who helped me with medical research: Dr. Steve Goldberg and his wife, Kristi, as well as paramedics Stephen Bernard and Roger Eib. Also, thanks to Edie and Mike Hanes, who helped acquaint me with ice fishing.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5411-7
THE MOST ELIGIBLE DOCTOR
Copyright © 2003 by Karen Rose Smith
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*Darling Daddies
†The Best Men
‡Do You Take This Stranger?
The Most Eligible Doctor Page 15