Her Maverick M.D.

by Teresa Southwick

  “That you made yourself. And don’t forget the yard,” Dawn reminded her.

  “You helped.”

  “Oh, please. I fetched and carried while you worked magic. If I even look at a plant it threatens to shrivel up and die.”

  Glory laughed, and then amusement faded. “There’s so much I want to do. But—”

  “One step at a time. Right now we have a roof over our heads and walls around us. I know there’s a lot of work ahead, but it will happen. Your house-cleaning business is thriving, what with the new contract at the medical clinic. You’re a successful businesswoman.”

  “Which no one thought would happen when I was eighteen, married and pregnant—not necessarily in that order.”

  Dawn smiled for her mom’s benefit but she could remember her parents fighting and the night when Glory dragged Dawn and Marina, her older sister, into the local bar to confront Hank. He was drinking and flirting with a woman who worked there. After Glory divorced him he wasn’t around much but he hadn’t been even before that.

  He’d stood the girls up for scheduled visitations, rarely paid child support and hardly ever showed up for holidays or birthdays. Her mom had nothing but a high school diploma and two little girls to support. She was the one who nursed them, helped with homework, taught them about being a family and encouraged them to have a career and not rely on a man for money.

  Glory had no marketable skill except cleaning a house until it gleamed from top to bottom. But it was always someone else’s house. For years she’d dreamed of having a home of her own. Now she did.

  Dawn reached across the table and squeezed her mother’s hand. “You should be incredibly proud of yourself and what you’ve accomplished.”

  “I am.” Glory scooped her daughter’s hand into her own. “But more than that, I’m proud of my girls. Marina is a teacher. You’re a nurse. It’s so rewarding to see both of you successful.”

  In her mother’s blue eyes Dawn could see maternal delight and pleasure. She never wanted to see disappointment take its place. And that’s what would happen if Glory knew the main reason she’d quit her job at the hospital and taken the one at the clinic was because of the scandal. It hadn’t been her fault but that didn’t matter. He was a doctor and she was just a nurse.

  “Is everything okay, sweetie?”

  “Hmm?” Dawn blinked away the painful memories and put a fake smile on her face. “Yeah. Why?”

  “You look like something’s bothering you.”

  “Busy day.”

  “Anything exciting happen?”

  Glory asked her this almost every day when she came home from work. Mostly Dawn gave a generic answer. Even if there had been something medically electrifying, privacy laws prevented her from discussing it.

  But today something exciting had happened and not in a good way. It was the last thing she wanted to talk about but if she tried to dodge the question her mom would suspect something. She and Marina could never put anything over on this woman.

  Dawn took a deep, cleansing breath. “The new doctor showed up today.”

  “Didn’t you tell me he’s a pediatrician?”

  “That’s right,” she confirmed. “Emmet seems really impressed with him.”

  “What’s he like?”

  Gorgeous. Cheerful. Gorgeous. Good-natured. Did she mention gorgeous? And empathetic. The babies seemed to like him, but Dawn wanted to hide in the break room. She didn’t particularly want to discuss any of that, though.

  “It’s hard to know what he’s like yet.”

  “What does he look like?” Glory persisted.

  A movie star. A male model. He could play a doctor on TV. “He’s nice looking, I guess. Average. Probably wouldn’t have to walk down the street with a bag over his head.”

  “There’s high praise.” Her mother laughed. “Is he single?”

  A knot twisted in Dawn’s stomach. It was as if her mother could read her mind. She forced a nonchalance into her voice that she didn’t feel. “I don’t know. The subject didn’t come up.”

  “It really must have been busy.” Glory’s tone was wry.

  “Yeah.” Her mom was implying that the women of Rust Creek Falls Medical Clinic pried personal information out of people. That was probably true, but not today.

  “Is something wrong, sweetie?”

  Hopefully not; she wouldn’t let there be. “No. Like you said. I’m just tired.”

  “It seems like more. As if something’s bothering you.”

  She must look bad. That was the third time her mother mentioned it. “It was just a long day.” A change of subject would be good. “And an interesting first day for Dr. Clifton since Jamie Stockton came in with the triplets.”

  And he’d handled it brilliantly, she thought.

  “Those poor little motherless angels.” Glory smiled sadly. “The volunteers who help him out say that the babies are getting big and are totally adorable.”

  “All true.” Dawn was relieved that her mom was distracted, as she’d intended. “Jamie is very grateful for the help.”

  “It’s hard to imagine dealing with three needy infants at the same time.” Glory shook her head sympathetically. “I know how hard it is to be alone with one baby.”

  “You said Hank wasn’t around much.” Dawn didn’t call him dad. He hadn’t earned it.

  “That’s why I know about caring for a baby without help. But he and I were awfully young to be parents.” Suddenly her mother wouldn’t make eye contact.

  “Mom?” Glory wasn’t any better at hiding things than Dawn.

  “I heard from your father.”

  “When?”

  “I’m not sure exactly.”

  “That means it’s been a while and you just didn’t say anything.” The knot in her stomach tightened. “Does Marina know?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Okay.” There was no need to get upset. “So based on his track record it will be months, maybe years until he surfaces again to bug you. So, no problem.”

  Her mom looked up. “He’s got a handyman business in Kalispell. It’s doing really well.”

  The town was about a twenty-five-minute drive south of Rust Creek Falls. That didn’t matter too much, but the building-a-business part was different. “Did he want something from you?”

  “No. Only to help.” Glory tapped the paint chips on the table. “He dropped these off for me.”

  “A prince of a guy.”

  “I think he’s changed, Dawn.”

  “Please tell me you’re not going to make the mistake of counting on him, Mom.”

  “People make mistakes.”

  For some men that mistake was humiliating a woman by using her to cheat on a fiancée. Dawn’s experiences with men had left an impression—a bad one. Dr. Jonathan Clifton probably had some good qualities, but she didn’t plan to take a chance on finding out for sure.

  This time if she was forced to leave a job it wouldn’t mean commuting to another one. To find work in her field, she’d have to move away and leave behind everything and everyone she loved. And that was something she was not prepared to do.

  * * *

  Jon lowered himself into the chair behind his desk and let out a long sigh. It felt good to get off his feet. He loved being a doctor, couldn’t imagine doing anything else. But he was glad his second day was over. There’d barely been time to choke down a sandwich at lunch. How had the clinic staff managed to keep up with the patient load before he took over Pediatrics? Emmet, Callie and Dawn had been running all day, too.

  Dawn.

  Without her he couldn’t have done it today, but it was clear that she could do without him. And that was more than a little annoying. After his less than positive first impression, he’d made an effort to be nice to h
er, friendly, charming and that had made her even more standoffish.

  Even though he had a bunch of sisters, no one would ever accuse him of understanding women. But this one baffled him. She’d been very friendly at first, right up until finding out he was the new doctor. Then she backed off as if he was radioactive and he didn’t know why. More often than not he got flirted with so it was possible this acute curiosity about Dawn was the result of a banged up ego. But he didn’t think so.

  Maybe the time he’d worked at Thunder Canyon Resort had rusted out his ability to interact with coworkers. Although no one else at the clinic seemed to have a problem with him. It wasn’t as if he was looking for a life partner, just a work one. Friendly. Pleasant. Was that too much to ask?

  He heaved another sigh and turned on his laptop, preparing to work. Before he could start there was a knock on his door.

  “Come in.”

  A moment later Dawn stood there. Since he’d been expecting to see anyone but her, he did a double take, closely followed by a hitch in his breathing. There was a wholesome prettiness about her that suddenly made him feel like a gawky teenager. Then the frosty expression on her face checked it. Courtesy dictated he should greet her, but all day she’d given him the “back off” vibe and he was irritated enough to let this move into the awkward zone and force her to initiate a conversation. That would be a first today.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she finally said. She had pieces of paper and a notepad in her hands.

  “I haven’t started anything yet so technically you’re not interrupting.” He indicated the chairs in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

  “That’s okay,” she answered. “I’ll stand.”

  “Okay.” That ticked him off just a little more and he waited for her to state the purpose of this unexpected visit.

  “I have to return phone calls from patients. All of them involve questions about new babies from first-time mothers and Emmet said since we have a pediatrician on staff now we should ask him—I mean you. It’s all ordinary stuff but Emmet says we—I—need to know where you stand on these issues.”

  So, she’d tried to get her answers in a way that didn’t involve interacting with him. Okay, then. Battle lines drawn. “Right. Ready when you are.”

  She looked at one of the notes. “Chloe Thornton’s baby has a runny nose. He’s four months old and she has questions about fever.”

  New parents were understandably worried and overprotective. This wasn’t his first rodeo. “She wants facts because that will make her feel more in control. Tell her if his temp is ninety-nine degrees she can give him acetaminophen to keep it stable. A hundred and one or more, she should call me. Anytime of the day or night. The clinic has an answering service, right?”

  “Yes.”

  He met her gaze. “Next.”

  “Chelsea Dolan has red bumps on her face. She’s barely four months old and her mom read on the internet that it should be gone by now.” Dawn met his gaze.

  “Of course we know that if it’s on the internet it must be true,” he said wryly. “The pimples are perfectly normal and can last longer than three months, especially in breast-fed infants. She should baby the skin, no pun intended.”

  For just an instant the tension in Dawn’s expression disappeared and her lips twitched, as if she wanted to smile. “Anything else?”

  “She should keep it clean and dry. No cream or lotion. Next question.”

  She continued writing then looked up. “Alice Weber says her friend’s baby is sleeping through the night and has been since he was born. Her Finn is still waking up every couple hours and she wants to know if there’s something wrong or maybe she’s doing something incorrectly.”

  “She’s not. It’s hard enough being a new mother without comparing your baby to someone else’s.” He sighed and rested his forearms on the desk. “Some babies wake because they’re hungry. If she feeds the baby before she goes to bed everyone gets more uninterrupted sleep.”

  “Okay.”

  “There’s also the pacifier.” He gave her tips for using it more successfully and watched her taking notes, trying to keep up.

  Dawn flipped the page on her tablet. “Anything else?”

  He couldn’t resist giving her more information than necessary, only to mess with her a little because she refused to come any closer to him. “There are a lot of quirky fixes for restless babies from putting them in a swing all night to dad driving around the block or mom sitting on the dryer and cradling her infant.”

  She stopped writing and looked up, a little startled. “My sister did that with Sydney, my niece—”

  He held up a hand. “I’m not judging. Next question.”

  “There aren’t any more.”

  “Okay. It would be nice if all the questions were this easy to answer.”

  “I probably should have known this but most of my experience is in acute care. And the volume of questions seems higher but that’s probably because your specialty is children.” Her tone had a tinge of grudging respect.

  “Makes sense.” Maybe that was a break in the ice. Jon stood and walked around the desk, then rested his hip on the corner. “This place was rockin’ and rollin’ today. How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Handle the patient load with one less person?”

  She backed up a step into the open doorway. “We managed.”

  “Obviously. But it can’t have been easy.”

  “No.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I should go—”

  “That kind of pace makes downtime even more important.” He wanted to talk to her. About something other than work. “What do people in Rust Creek Falls do for fun?”

  “Fun?” Her eyes flashed just before the deep freeze set in again. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to return these phone calls, Dr. Clifton.”

  “That’s so formal. Please call me Jon.”

  “That’s all right. Formal works for me. Have a good evening, Dr. Clifton.”

  One second she was standing there, the next she was gone. She hadn’t wanted to talk to him at all and wouldn’t have if the questions were about adults instead of kids. Apparently with her, friendly and pleasant was too much to ask. What was her deal?

  Admittedly he’d always been more studious than social. He could talk to people; after all he had to communicate with his patients and their caregivers. But talking to a woman was different. Of course they were people, but there was often an undercurrent or subtext to the conversation that he didn’t get.

  Jon wasn’t sure how long he’d been contemplating the mystery of Dawn Laramie but he snapped out of it when Emmet walked into his office.

  Without invitation or conversation the other man sat in one of the chairs facing the desk. Why couldn’t a woman be more like a man?

  “You’re just standing here, Jon. Something wrong?”

  That’s what he’d been trying to figure out. “How long have you known Dawn?”

  “Let me think.” The older man contemplated the question. “She lives with her mom and is a native of Rust Creek Falls so I’ve seen her from time to time. But I didn’t really get to know her until she came to work here.”

  “After leaving Mountain’s Edge Hospital.”

  Emmet nodded. “Like I said, the commute must have been bad because she took a cut in pay leaving that job.”

  “Sometimes it’s not about the money.” If it was, Jon could have had his pick of lucrative career opportunities. Thunder Canyon Resort was what he’d needed at the time.

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “No. Guess my Zen just slipped out.” Jon straightened and moved behind the desk. “How well do you know her?”

  Emmet thought for a moment. “We work closely together. She’s conscientious and good-natured. Her pr
evious job was in the pediatric ICU at the hospital. Parents relate to her. Kids seem to love her. She’s efficient and knowledgeable. An invaluable asset to this place.”

  “So if adults and children like her she must be pretty easygoing?”

  “Real friendly. Callie and Brandy took to her right away.” Emmet studied him for a long moment. “Why?”

  Jon started to say no reason but knew that wouldn’t fly, what with his interrogation. He wasn’t sure how to answer. It would sound like a complaint and that wasn’t the case. Her interaction with him had been completely professional, but all the friendliness had been surgically removed.

  Finally he said, “I like to get to know my coworkers.”

  “Makes sense.” Emmet nodded thoughtfully as he stood. “And it occurs to me that when the rest of the reinforcements arrive, I should get everyone on staff together socially.”

  “To get to know each other better?” Jon asked.

  “Yes. In a relaxed setting where we can let our hair down. A friendly office is a happy office and everything runs more smoothly.”

  “Very forward looking of you, Doctor. Sounds like you’re open to suggestion.”

  “Yeah,” Emmet agreed. “Why?”

  Jon figured he had nothing to lose and this had been on his mind since yesterday when he walked into the clinic. “What do you think about setting up a separate waiting room for kids?”

  The other man met his gaze. “Because of the wedding babies?”

  “What?”

  “All the infants who were born as a result of the spiked punch from the wedding last summer.” Emmet’s eyes twinkled.

  Obviously he didn’t hold the adults’ behavior responsible for the population explosion. Jon wasn’t touching that topic, not after his run-in with Dawn.

  “Yeah, the wedding babies,” he said. “Infectious disease control would say that a waiting room full of sick people is a breeding ground for germs and it’s especially bad when folks’ immune systems are already compromised by illness.”

  “A catch-22. If they weren’t sick, they wouldn’t be there in the first place,” Emmet agreed.

  “And infants shouldn’t be exposed to all of that,” Jon said.