In a Doctor's Arms

by Lisa Mondello

  No, Karen wasn’t asking. She was pleading. And Teresa couldn’t help but sympathize with her.

  “I can’t make any promises, but I’ll think about it.”

  A smile split Karen’s face, and in that instant, Teresa could see the family resemblance between Dennis and his sister. “That’s all I’m asking. Thank you.”

  As Karen walked away, Teresa thought about yesterday’s disaster. But today was another day. A child needed her help. She had to put her own failures behind her at least enough to be of some use to someone. Maybe Benny. Maybe not.

  “Sorry I’m late.”

  Teresa blinked hard and pulled herself from yesterday’s events back to the café as Vanessa Kaufmann slid her impeccably dressed body onto the bench on the opposite side of the booth.

  “You know, we could have met for coffee in your condo or at the lodge,” she said, peeling her coral mohair wrap from her head, revealing platinum hair only a hair-dresser could love. Despite the glowing hair, the woman was stunning, Teresa thought without any envy. It wasn’t that Vanessa was particularly beautiful. Without the glitter and pamperings to keep her nearly fifty-year-old face from looking her true age, no one would pick her out in a crowd.

  But Vanessa Kaufmann was stunning. She knew how to dress herself up, and she knew how to work a room of people so that if they didn’t notice her when she first walked in, they knew who she was mere moments after her arrival.

  In a way, Teresa envied her for that but not like many other women would. It was the surety in which Vanessa moved through life that Teresa found intriguing. She wondered if the fifteen years that spanned between them would enable her to possess that same confidence. Right now, Teresa wondered if Vanessa had ever had a moment’s doubt in her life.

  “If you want to hang out with me, you’re going to have to develop an appetite for simple foods instead of all the rich stuff that chef of yours serves at every meal. I swear I gain five pounds just looking at the menu.” As the co-owner of the ski resort along with her husband, Vanessa usually suggested that they eat at the lodge’s restaurant, but Teresa had called a stop to that. She was on a budget now—and a diet.

  Vanessa laughed in a way that turned heads in the small café. It drew attention but didn’t annoy any of the tourists happily eating their steak and eggs.

  “Jacques and I have an understanding. Rich is only good if it keeps me neatly tucked into my ski pants. He would have made a simple spread for us and sent it up to your condo personally. You’d like Jacques. He’s a doll.” She laughed again and then gave Teresa a knowing grin. “But then, you’ve got your eye on Dr. Harrington, don’t you?”

  “How would you know?”

  “I saw you with him New Year’s Eve. You looked like quite the item if you ask me. And I loved every minute of it, too. For the past month you’ve been hanging out at the lodge with all these incredibly hunky guys on the ski slope and you don’t even look at them. It’s about time someone caught your eye. And I’m happy for Dennis, too. He needs to see more than the walls of that clinic.”

  “We were just dancing and talking.”

  “It wasn’t the dancing that was a dead giveaway, honey. It was the way you were looking at each other.”

  “Is that so?”

  “I wasn’t the only one who noticed.”

  “Well, I won’t be staying much longer,” Teresa said just as the waitress dropped a mug of coffee on the table in front of Vanessa. She silently motioned to the waitress to warm her cup as well.

  When the waitress left, Vanessa leaned forward, a concerned glint in her eye. “What do you mean? Did you and Dennis have a fight that I didn’t see? I noticed he didn’t stay till the end of the party.”

  “You must live in a bubble, Van. Dennis was called away because of the accident.”

  Vanessa slouched back against the booth. “That’s right. Amazing, huh? One of the biggest nights around here for ages and then something like this happens. But I don’t believe for one minute that Dennis leaving the party early is what’s driving you away.”

  What could she say? She hadn’t known Vanessa for more than a month, even though she’d been one of the first people Teresa had met in town. Since then they’d struck up an immediate friendship that Teresa had come to enjoy.

  “I’m either going to have to start waiting tables at the lodge or lower my standard of luxury.”

  “Money.” Vanessa practically spat out the word. “It’s at the root of all heartache, I tell you. It’s all Hal can talk about. It’s not as if there isn’t a fortune on that mountain over there, but each year he’s always worried the tourists won’t come. They always do.”

  She poured some cream in her coffee and then leaned forward. “Don’t worry about your bill. I can take care of it.”

  Teresa gasped. “You will not. I won’t take advantage of our friendship that way.”

  Vanessa eyed Teresa wickedly. “Being the co-owner should have some perks. Beside, Hal charges too much for those condos anyway. So, are you going back over to the clinic later to make up with Dennis after you stormed out of there yesterday?”

  Teresa’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know about that?”

  With a shrug, Vanessa said, “You don’t keep secrets in Stockington Falls like you do in Hartford, dear Teresa. People talk. A lot. I should know. There’s been plenty said both to my face and behind my back about Hal and the way he looks at other women.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Vanessa waved her off. “Don’t be. I came to terms with my husband years ago. He loves me. Look but don’t touch—that’s what I say.”

  Teresa couldn’t imagine being in a marriage where love and respect weren’t at the core. Vanessa was too confident a woman not to be hurt by what her husband was doing, especially when there was talk around town. But she respected her friend’s feelings enough to let the topic drop.

  “So?” Vanessa pressed.

  Glancing at the steam rising from her coffee mug, Teresa said, “I haven’t decided yet.”

  It surprised even her that she’d gone from flat-out refusal to return to the clinic to indecision in the span of twenty-four hours. But it was true. She wasn’t sure she could face Benny again. But something inside her questioned if fleeing from Benny and the challenge he represented—like a child hiding from her punishment—was the way she wanted to keep things. She’d been a coward. And that didn’t sit well with her.

  “That poor boy,” Vanessa was saying, somewhere in the distance, as Teresa thought back on Benny’s face…and Mariah’s, and Mariah and David. “Now he’s without a mother.”

  She snapped her gaze back to Vanessa, and for the first time, she realized she was talking about Drew, not Benny.

  “Ah, I know,” Teresa said, dragging in a deep breath.

  “They say he was spared from the explosion, then somehow managed to escape the car and get to the river bank. I’m sure his father is thanking the Lord right now for his blessing. To lose a wife and a child… God was with little Drew for sure.”

  Teresa hadn’t read the papers yesterday. And she was sure there were lingering articles in today’s edition, but she’d avoided reading those as well. She’d seen enough the night of the accident.

  The poor child. Teresa could only imagine what he’d seen, what he was experiencing now with the loss of his mother. Between Drew and Benny, no wonder Dennis was so insistent that she come to the clinic.

  Teresa made a mental note to ask Dennis about little Drew. In that instant, she suddenly decided to stop fleeing like a child and look in on one or two of them instead.

  “Am I being too presumptuous in saying I knew you’d be back?”

  Teresa stared up at Dennis’s face. It wasn’t smug. That really wasn’t his style. He was just too handsome with the little lines that creased his eyes when he smiled and the way he cocked his head to one side just so when he was looking at her.

  Memories of New Year’s Eve crashed around her. She liked Dennis, more than
she suspected she should if she had half a brain. He was a good man. The fact that she was still single at thirty-five was because she’d come to the conclusion there was a shortage of good men in the world. And here she was looking at one of them.

  But the thought of anything remotely resembling a relationship right now made her heart go into a panic.

  Teresa crossed her arms. “Let me guess. Your sister called you?”

  “About twenty minutes ago. Karen asked if I could give her a ride just in case she couldn’t get the family truck.”

  She nodded. “I thought it’d be a good idea to check in on Drew and Benny.”

  “I’m glad.”

  Teresa had learned from Louise, the waitress at the Twin Falls Café, that Benny had been released yesterday afternoon after she’d met with him and that Karen Dulton had pleaded with her stubborn husband, Frank, to take Benny to St. Johnsbury for some help. But the answer was still no. Why any parent would refuse help for their child, especially when that child was so desperately in need, was beyond Teresa’s comprehension.

  That was when Teresa made the decision to call Benny’s mother herself and let her know she would be at the clinic if Benny was open to coming in. Karen had jumped at the opportunity to have Teresa meet with Benny again.

  Now that she was standing in front of Dennis, the weight of unfinished business crashed in around her. “Can we talk a minute before Benny and Karen get here?”

  Dropping a clipboard into place, Dennis turned to face her. “Things are quiet here. We can talk more privately in my office, though.”

  The smell of the clinic was a familiar one. Teresa followed Dennis through the reception area along the corridor she’d raced down yesterday toward a set of offices in the back. Dennis’s name was on his office door.

  He dropped down on the small sofa instead of in the seat behind the worn-looking metal desk. Teresa noted that while most of the clinic looked clean and new, Dennis had clearly placed new office furniture low on his list of priorities.

  “I expected you to be long gone from Stockington Falls after what happened yesterday. But when Karen called…”

  Teresa shook her head. “What happened…that was wrong of me. There were a thousand different ways I could have handled that situation, and I chose the absolute wrong one. I apologize for that.”

  “What makes you think you aren’t human?”

  She feigned shock. “You mean I am?”

  “Oh, yes, ma’am. You most definitely are a creature of the human race. You’re allowed to make a mistake or two.”

  She cleared her throat. She wasn’t ready for this easy banter. She’d been fully prepared to just be professional again.

  Gratitude filled her heart. “You’re too kind, Dennis. You let me off the hook much too easily.”

  “It’s not easy dealing with teenagers. Especially Benny. So it’s no trouble to cut you a little slack. You’re going to need it.”

  She chuckled. “I wanted to clear things up about Benny and to talk about how things will be handled with him and anyone else I work with.”

  Dennis leaned forward and pulled a paper from the top of his desk. “I spoke with the insurance company and added you. It’s not uncommon for medical staff to do per diem work in small towns, and you can do that while you’re here in Stockington Falls. Work as much or as little as you want and be paid through the clinic. I know you’re on vacation but—”

  “No, that’s perfect. I don’t want a full schedule. I’ll just come in a few days a week if that’s good.”

  “Perfect.”

  “I told your sister that it was better to meet someplace neutral rather than at her house where Frank might interfere and Benny might feel intimidated.”

  “I agree. Karen was worried about that. There must be some space at the resort—”

  “That won’t be an option. I won’t be there much longer.”

  “You could meet at the church community center. Benny’s comfortable there. He’s on the basketball team that Fred Ducombe and I coach. I don’t think Pastor Balinski would mind giving you the use of one of the rooms for a private session.”

  “His friends will be around. I’m not sure he’ll open up to me if he’s afraid his peers will know he’s seeing a psychologist. Even if you tell them I’m just a friend, kids have a way of digging up information. They might rib him about it and then I will have lost him, especially in light of how his father feels about him seeing me.”

  Dennis nodded in agreement.

  “Besides, a neutral location would give him a place to truly be himself, without worrying about other people around, expecting him to behave a certain way. Benny seems so confused about a lot of things. He feels guilty and is punishing himself.”

  “That’s not uncommon after an accident.”

  “No. But the root of his problems started long before the accident.”

  “True.”

  “I’m afraid that having the pastor close by may prevent him from opening up, too. Is he close to Pastor Balinski? Do you think talking with him will help?”

  “I’m not sure. Karen has always had a strong faith in God, and I know she’s done her best to instill those beliefs in Benny.”

  “Then it’s best to be somewhere where there are no outside influences. I was hoping I could meet with Benny here. If that’s okay with you and there is room, of course.”

  “It’s fine,” he said quickly. “In fact, it’s great. I would have offered the clinic initially, but I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about it after yesterday. I don’t want you to feel intimidated, either. I pushed you pretty hard to come here.”

  She shook her head. “It wasn’t you, Dennis. It was me. I overreacted. It’s not going to be a problem again. And I think here is actually the best place for Benny to come. Since you’re his uncle, his friends won’t necessarily question why he’s here, and it’ll be easier to get him transportation to and from sessions.”

  “He also won’t feel like all eyes are on him.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Good. We can convert the spare room into an office so you can meet with Benny and Drew, if John’s agreeable to bringing him in.”

  “There may not be any signs of problems with Drew for a while. Kids deal with death different than adults, especially at that age. But I’ll talk to John and let him know what he can expect from Drew in the coming months.”

  “I know I only asked you to talk to the boys, but there may be a few other people in town, especially the kids in Benny’s class, who may feel like talking.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “I know,” Dennis replied. “That’ll be a bigger challenge and definitely not what you signed on for.”

  “Weren’t you the one who said you weren’t expecting me to heal the world? I did say per diem.”

  “Yes. But can you blame a guy for trying? And since you’re here… Anyway, the office is just filled with some boxes now. But we can move them into the storage area. You decide how much of a load you want to take on.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Teresa,” he said, pausing. “I’m really glad you’re here for my nephew.”

  She didn’t answer, and Dennis quickly changed the subject. “So what’s this about you leaving your condo?”

  Teresa cleared her throat. “I won’t be staying at the resort anymore, or I won’t be as soon as I can find

  another place. You were right about one thing. The school system pays well but not nearly enough to keep me in such luxurious accommodations as the condo I have at the resort. As much as I like it there, I’ll end up draining my retirement fund if I stay much longer. As it is, I’d only planned on staying a few weeks, and I’ve already gone past that plan.”

  “Well, we can’t have you going broke. So you’re looking for a house to rent?”

  “I don’t know that I need a whole house. Maybe a small apartment that’s furnished. There must be something like that around here. It’s just me, and I don’t have much wi
th me so it won’t need to be fancy.”

  “I have room at my place,” he said quickly and without reservation.

  She glanced at his face and saw that Dennis was serious. That much she had learned to recognize. This wasn’t the flirtatious Dennis who she’d met around town in the past month who was easy to banter with. This was the professional, no-nonsense man who bandaged her foot without any emotion and told her in no uncertain terms to stay off a pair of skis until her foot healed.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m not really looking to rent a room in someone’s home.”

  He shook his head slightly. “Not in my house. I have a small guest cottage behind the house. It’s not much, but the rent is cheap—free—and it has all the essentials. Most importantly, you’ll have your own space and privacy.”

  “You aren’t renting it out?”

  “I’d planned to, but I’ve just been too busy to even think of it this winter. Besides, the only thing available this time of the year in Stockington Falls is ski rentals, and you’ll pay an arm and a leg for a weekly rental unless you sign a full year’s lease.”

  “Really? I didn’t realize renting a place would be that expensive.”

  “This is our busy season. Housing is in high demand. It’ll be cheaper in the summer, but that won’t help you now. You won’t be able to find a better deal than what I’m offering. Between my work at the clinic and with the church community center, I’m hardly ever at home. When I’m not there you’ll have all the privacy you want, and you won’t be locked into signing a lease.”

  Dennis leaned back against the love seat and shook his head slightly. “Benny is almost eighteen years old. He’ll be graduating in a few months. I want to make sure he makes it long enough to wear that cap and gown. Besides, you’ll be comfortable at the guesthouse. It’s quiet, almost too much so for me sometimes,” he said, a sadness deepening his voice.

  Biting her bottom lip, she said, “I don’t know.”

  His dark eyes seemed to bore into her, and she had to remember that his offer was simply a way for him to show his gratitude. After all, Benny was his sister’s son. If she was able to make ends meet by staying in a guesthouse for free, she could stay longer and make sure Benny was okay before she went home. The offer didn’t have any strings attached and didn’t need to be complicated by her attraction to Dennis.