Shayne nodded, straightening the collar on his lab coat. "He's branching out."
Following Shayne into the main reception room, Ben shook his head. He never thought progress would come to Hades, a place that had seemed frozen in time when he'd lived here. "I've missed a lot, haven't I?"
"Yeah, you have. But you can catch up." Shayne realized that he shouldn't count on his brother so soon. Ben had a long way to go before he proved himself dependable. "If you're serious about staying."
"Very serious." Whatever else Ben was going to say was temporarily placed on hold as he looked out the window that faced the front of the clinic. He saw a willowy-looking blonde holding on to two little girls. The twosome seemed determined to pull as far away from each other as possible, taking their mother with them. He glanced at his watch again. A shade before seven. "Looks like you've got patients."
Shayne glanced at the appointment book that Alison had left opened for him on her desk. Right beside it was a computer tower holding the exact same information. Sydney teased him and called him her lovable dinosaur, but he'd always preferred paper and pen. It made him feel more hands-on and in control of a situation. Software could whimsically swallow up all the information just when he needed it most.
"That would be Heather and her two girls, Hannah and Hayley," Shayne told him.
"Heather?" The instant he repeated the name, bits and pieces of memories came flying back to him. Memories he realized he had all but forgotten. Memories that made him smile.
She looked thinner, he thought. And prettier, although definitely more harried.
"Heather Kendall. Ryan," Shayne clarified. He couldn't remember if Ben had left Hades before or after Heather had married Joe Kendall.
Ben stepped away from the window but continued to look at the woman and her daughters. All three were unaware that they were being observed.
"I know who she is."
Ben's quiet tone caught Shayne's attention. He vaguely recalled that there'd been something between Ben and Heather, but then, at one point or another there'd been something between Ben and every female under the age of fifty in Hades. Never mind that the men outnumbered the women in Hades by seven to one and any woman had her pick of men. Every female Shayne knew of had chosen Ben at one time, and he had chosen them.
About to unlock the front door, Shayne paused, looking at his brother. "You okay?"
Ben shook off the memory of one exquisite night by the lake and skin softer than silk.
"Like I said, I'm fine." He flashed a grin. "Nothing more coffee won't help."
"Coffeemaker's in the back," Shayne told him. "Feel free to pitch in. Alison hates making coffee." Flipping the lock, he opened the double doors and smiled down at the two energetic little girls. "Hello, Hannah, Hayley." He looked up at Heather. "You're early."
As she struggled with her daughters, who were now tugging harder, not just to avoid each other but to get away altogether, Heather offered Shayne a smile that was just a little weary around the edges.
"I know. Lily's giving me the morning off, but Beth just called me to say that she's not feeling well and won't be coming into the restaurant. That leaves Lily juggling the breakfast crowd on her own." Lily had been good to her, coming to her rescue when Joe was killed in the cave-in and offering her a job. She'd been the world's worst waitress, but Lily had stuck by her. Leaving her in the lurch was not the way to repay her. "I hate doing that to her."
Shayne shook his head. "If I know Lily, she'll get Max to wait on tables."
Max Yearling was Hades's lone law enforcement officer. He was also Lily's husband. Like Jimmy Quintano, Lily had come to Hades by way of Alison, who in turn had found her way to Hades because of Luc. Luc had gone to Seattle on vacation and on his first day there, had come to her rescue when someone had attempted to mug her. It was because of Luc she'd learned about Shayne and his clinic. Eager to make a difference, she'd come up to the tiny town to work. Her siblings had come to visit. And one by one, each had lost their hearts, not just to the land but to the people bound to it.
Shayne smiled to himself. In a way, the town's history was like one long, intricate nursery rhyme, with one family member following another. Hades now boasted of four Quintanos, three of whom were married to Yearlings, while Alison, who had come to him originally to become an accredited nurse practitioner, was now married to Jean Luc.
"I'd rather she didn't. I need the job," Heather told him, only half joking.
Hannah, her six-year-old, was struggling to break free and make a dash for the front parking lot. "I don't want a shot," Hayley protested vehemently, her lower lip quivering as tears began to fill her eyes.
"No shots today," Shayne promised. "Just a check-up to see if that nasty rash you and your sister have been passing to each other has finally cleared up."
"A nasty rash?" Ben repeated in mock disbelief as he came forward. He looked from one girl to the other, appropriately wide-eyed. "You two girls don't look as if you'd have a nasty rash."
"We did," Hayley, the more outgoing of the two, declared. She pointed a finger at her older sister. "Hannah got it first because she was playing in the bushes Mama told her not to."
Fear faded as Hannah took offense, embarrassed in front of the stranger. "Was not."
Hayley fisted her free hand at her waist the way she'd seen her mother do. "Was, too."
Ben got down on one knee, refereeing. "I bet that old bush just jumped up at you and grabbed you, didn't it, honey?"
The excuse clearly appealed to Hannah, who nodded her blond head vigorously, sending her curls bouncing up and down. "Uh-huh."
"Gotta watch out for those magical bushes," Ben agreed. "They're fast. Where did it grab you?"
Hannah never hesitated. She pushed her sleeve up immediately, exposing her right arm. She pointed to an area that had been an angry pink only a couple of days ago. "Right here."
Still on his knee, Ben examined the area carefully. "Looks like it's gone to me."
"Mama rubs this yucky stuff on us," Hayley told him, moving aside her own sleeve to show him that her skin was clear as well.
"That's because she loves you." Ben looked up at Heather. "Right, Mama?"
Heather forced herself to nod her head, her eyes almost glued to the man talking to her daughters. Her voice had deserted her around the same time that the temperature in the room had gone up twenty degrees and the lights had suddenly dimmed to the point where she had to struggle to keep from slipping into darkness herself.
She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, its cadence echoing the refrain that kept repeating itself in her head: He's back.
Ben's back.
Chapter Three
"Looks like both your girls are doing very well," Shayne told Heather. Or the woman that had been Heather until a couple of minutes ago, Shayne thought as he glanced at the shell-shocked expression on her pretty face. Apparently he wasn't the only one who'd been caught off guard by his brother's sudden reappearance in town. "Heather," he added for good measure.
When the girls' mother gave no indication that she had even heard him, he repeated her name, a bit more forcefully this time. From all appearances, Ben had lost none of his magnetic pull nor any of his effect on women.
Shayne shifted until he was directly in front of her. Almost amused, he passed a hand in front of her face. It was a beat before she even blinked.
"Heather," he deadpanned, "how long have you had this hearing loss?"
It took all she had to pull herself out of the mental abyss into which she'd unexpectedly sunk. Shaking off the mental cobweb as best as she could, Heather looked at Shayne.
"What? Oh, I'm sorry, Doc Shayne, it's just that, well—" Words deserted her.
"Yes," Shayne said, glancing toward Ben, "he has that effect on all of us." There was only the slightest hint of sarcasm in his tone.
"No, no, I mean—" Flustered, Heather struggled to get a hold of herself. "I'm just surprised to see—to see Ben back, that's all." Tryi
ng to address Shayne, her eyes were still drawn to Ben as she spoke.
Damn, she was doing it again, tripping over her own tongue. But then, as her mother had enjoyed pointing out, she'd never been one of those women for whom composure was second nature. Composure wasn't even remotely residing in her neighborhood at the moment.
Heather made another attempt to collect herself. She wasn't that wide-eyed twenty-three-year-old Ben had made love with by the lake that last summer before he abruptly disappeared. She was years older than the seven that had passed. Life's requirements had done that to her. They had made her a mother twice over, as well as a wife, then a widow.
These days she found herself being a caretaker, her mother's keeper, in addition to being the sole support of her little family. Most of the time, she was also her mother's chief source of money, as well.
Her mother.
Oh, wow. Martha Ryan was going to have a lot of choice things to say once word of Ben's return reached her. Even if she said nothing to her mother herself, and she didn't really intend to, the woman would find out. Word always spread in Hades.
Anticipation coursed through her veins. Her mother had never liked Ben. Whenever she did mention his name, Martha Ryan always compared him to the husband who had first deserted her and then divorced her through a lawyer he'd retained in Wichita, Kansas. As she grew older, Heather ceased to hold her father's disappearance against him. Instead she began to understand why he'd gone. It had a great deal to do with self-preservation.
She felt Ben's deep-green eyes on her and did her best not to squirm. Not to react at all. She succeeded marginally. But then, she'd heard that stone statues reacted to his gaze.
Heather cleared her throat. "Are you back?" she managed to ask, fervently praying she'd sounded at least a little aloof.
Her cool demeanor, if attained, was spoiled by Hayley's very plaintive and accusing wail. "Mama, you're squeezing my fingers off."
Heather instantly loosened her grip. "Sorry, baby," she murmured under her breath. Even as she uttered the words, she could feel several shades of pink dash up the sides of her throat. The colors spread even more rapidly to her cheeks.
"No need to hold on to her so tightly," Ben told her genially. He looked down at the younger girl. "She's not going anywhere, are you, Hayley?"
Hayley, like every female over the age of twelve months, instantly responded to both his tone and his smile. She shook her head madly from side to side, her eyes never breaking contact with his.
"Uh-uh."
The next moment she was tugging her hand away from her mother's grasp. The second she was free, she slipped her hand into his, accompanying the action with a huge smile aimed directly at him. Unknown to her five minutes ago, the man had suddenly become the center of her universe.
That's the way it usually was, Heather thought ruefully. Every girl she'd gone to school with had a crush on Ben.
He didn't remember her being this pretty, Ben thought. Or this silent. For a moment he forgot that Shayne was her doctor. "Do you have time for a thorough exam?" he asked her. When he saw Heather's eyes widen in surprise, Ben realized that he had left off a few crucial words that might make the difference. "Of the girls," he added. "Just to put your mind at rest."
Beside him, he heard Shayne's impatient intake of breath. He'd stepped on toes again. But no one else was in the clinic and there was time to be thorough. What he recalled most about practicing here with Shayne was that they'd always been rushed to see as many patients as they could within the space of a day.
"That's okay. You don't need to bother. The rash was only on their arms." It took everything she had not to turn and run, clutching her daughters to her. Her own voice sounded almost breathless to her as she answered.
C'mon, Heather, get a grip.
Heather tamped down an onslaught of erupting nerves. She needed to calm down before she made a complete idiot of herself.
Very carefully Ben examined the arms of first Hannah, then Hayley before making his pronouncement. He addressed his conclusions not to Heather, but to her daughters, who appeared to absorb his words as if they were tiny little sponges. Their eyes shone at being treated like adults.
"I'm happy to tell you girls that there's no rash here now. Guess the yucky medicine made it go away."
"Guess so," Hayley agreed, solemnly nodding her head.
Hannah said nothing, only looked at him with her wide green eyes. When he returned her gaze, she suddenly turned shy, shifting closer to her mother. Though part of her face was buried in Heather's shirt, Hannah kept one watchful eye on him.
Heather pasted a smile on her lips as she turned to Shayne. "I guess this means I'm not going to be late after all." She glanced at her watch. "If I hurry to get the girls back home."
"Need a ride?" Ben offered. He was aware of the sharp look that his brother gave him. But it was too late to gracefully rescind his offer.
Heather was already edging her way over toward the front door, drawing Hannah with her. Hayley was another story. "I have my car."
"I'll go with him," Hayley volunteered eagerly, her eyes all but lighting up.
Shayne interceded. Without looking at Ben, he squatted down to Hayley's level. "Sorry, honey, but I need him here. He's a doctor," Shayne told her.
Hayley's perfectly shaped, tiny golden eyebrows knitted themselves over her nose as she pondered what Shayne had just told her. Looking up at her new hero, she asked, "You're like him?"
Shayne placed his hand on his brother's shoulder as if for the little girl's benefit. "He's working his way up," he responded before Ben could say anything.
Ben flashed a grin at his brother. "And I've got a long way to go."
"But you're bigger," Hayley pointed out in earnest, looking from one man to the other.
Amused, Ben assured her, "Size doesn't matter in this case." Glancing toward Heather, he noticed that Hannah was now burying her face in the fold of what there was of her mother's skirt.
Heather had a great pair of legs. But then, she always did have. He remembered watching her practice cheerleading moves on the field while he and his friends were supposedly listening to the coach give orders. He allowed himself a moment to appreciate the view. For old-time's sake.
"Is there anything else while you're here?" Shayne asked her.
Heather shook her head, a little emphatically in Shayne's estimation. "No. Thank you." She felt behind her for the doorknob. Finding it, she held on as if it represented her ticket to freedom. "I can pay you around the middle—"
Shayne waved away her words. "Follow-up care. See you girls later."
"Um, yes. Thank you," Heather stammered. With a quick nod at Ben, she turned on her heel and left the premises. She had to almost drag Hayley in her wake. The latter, her gaze intent on Ben, waved madly as she disappeared down the front steps of the porch.
Shayne waved back even though he knew that the attention was centered exclusively on Ben. The door closed and he turned to face his brother.
"Looks like you're a hit with the under-three-foot set," he commented. Glancing at the day's appointments, he saw that the next one wasn't scheduled for another half hour—provided there were no emergency phone calls.
He knew better than to count on that. But he did need a caffeine hit.
Since Ben had neglected to take his blatant hint about making coffee, Shayne made his way to the back room and the barren coffeepot. Of late, at a very minimum, he found himself averaging a cup an hour. It was an unabashed intent on his part to stave off exhaustion. The feeling seemed to haunt him more and more these days, though he kept that to himself. Given Sydney's penchant for reading him like a book, he knew it was only a matter of time before his "secret" was out. Hopefully, by then his energy would make a reappearance of its own volition.
"Not entirely," Ben replied, following him into the back. He leaned against the doorjamb, watching Shayne move about the cramped area. With a discarded dinette table in the middle, surrounded with four chairs,
the room wasn't big enough for both of them to move around, and he didn't want to crowd Shayne. "Her older girl looks as if she's afraid of me."
"Hannah," Shayne said. "Hannah's shy. She's always been the quiet one in her family. She was born without making a sound." He smiled. "Heather used to bring her in, concerned because Hannah didn't cry. I told her to be grateful. Once Hayley was born, she realized she'd had a good thing with her firstborn."
Ben nodded, only half listening. Another question had occurred to him. Try as he might, he couldn't see the petite, delicate Heather married to Kendall, a big, burly man who looked far more at home handling steel beams than holding something as fragile as Heather in his arms. "How's Joe Kendall doing? Is he still a miner?"
"Not these days," Shayne told him dryly. Putting the filter in its proper place, he measured out several heaping tablespoons of coffee and then added very little water. The pot began making noises as it heated the water. "He's dead."
"What do you mean, 'dead'?"
"The usual definition," Shayne responded mildly. He replaced the plastic lid on the can of coffee and put it back into the tiny refrigerator Sydney had given him. "Not breathing. Body decomposing, or in Joe's case, already decomposed." He turned from the coffeemaker and glanced at his brother. "Did you sleep through the basic course in medical school?"
"I mean dead how?" Ben pressed. "How did her husband die?"
"Cave-in at the mines."
The words were recited without feeling, but Ben knew better. No one cared more than Shayne about these people. Whenever there was a cave-in, Shayne was the first there to help with the wounded. To go into the bowels of the earth if need be. Shayne coped by keeping a tight rein on his feelings. Just the way he had when their parents were killed.
Ben thought back to the special he'd watched last month. The one that had triggered his decision to return home. Maybe the footage he'd seen on the Alaskan cave-in had even been of the one that had claimed Heather's husband.
Small world.
He realized that Shayne was holding a cup out to him. Taking it, he looked down at the pitch-black, almost-solid contents. "You know, you should offer to coat the walls at the mines with this stuff, Shay. They'd never cave in again."
The Prodigal M.D. Returns Page 3