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Eli held her gaze and she couldn’t look away if she tried. Those broad shoulders filled out the dark gray wool coat that he’d yet to take off, but somewhere along the way he’d removed the hat. That dark, messy hair looked as if he’d just stepped out of his lover’s bed, and his eyes, still fixed on hers, were so dark they were nearly black.
All three brothers had those eyes, the same as their father’s. There was something about Eli’s that captivated her, held her. He was the type of man who demanded attention without saying a word. How could she not comply?
“When did you eat last?” he asked, shrugging out of his coat and laying it on the end of the bed.
She thought back to the dry toast she’d choked down with orange juice for breakfast. “About nine.”
Eli glanced to his wristwatch and glared at her. “It’s nearly three, Nora.”
“I really wasn’t hungry and I didn’t feel that great. I just wanted to clean and get back home.”
“No one expected you to tidy up the place. Not to sound ungrateful, I appreciate the gesture and so will Mom, but you have to listen to your body.”
Well, right now her body was saying to stay in this cozy bed and let someone wait on her hand and foot.
“I’m listening, Doc.” He continued to glare and Nora tapped his very toned, very chiseled biceps. “Smile. I’m fine.”
“Your color is coming back.”
“See? Told you I just needed to lie down for a bit.”
She glanced beyond his shoulder to the photos displayed on his old dresser. A picture of him in Iraq, one of him graduating from medical school, another of him in some type of surgical field. No doubt his mother had proudly put these photos into frames. Just more reminders that he wasn’t staying and his life was elsewhere. He’d worked hard to become a prominent doctor and she was so glad he’d not only chased his dream, but he’d captured it with both hands.
“Why am I in your old room?” she asked, bringing her eyes back to his.
“Because I wanted you to lie down.”
“What about the couch?”
His eyes roamed over her face, to her mouth and back up. “I thought you might need to rest and you’d be able to do that up here away from the commotion of Mom and Dad coming home in a bit.”
Nora started to sit up. “I better put a casserole in the oven. It has to bake for a while.”
Eli put his hand on her shoulder and eased her back down. “I can do it, Precious.”
She froze. He’d always called her that when they’d dated.
As if realizing what had just slipped out of his mouth, Eli cursed. With his hand still on her shoulder and their faces only inches apart, she trembled. No man had ever affected her the way Eli did.
Not even the man who’d promised to love, honor and be faithful. Her heart clenched from so much emotion. Even though Todd obviously hadn’t cared for their marriage, he was the father of this unborn baby and he didn’t deserve to die.
“Relax,” Eli whispered. “When was the last time someone looked out for you?”
Nora swallowed. “Actually, your mother dropped off a few groceries for me last week when I couldn’t get to the store.”
And that would be when she’d been hugging the toilet—her own that time. She was doing way too much of that lately.
“I meant really care for you,” he corrected. “I know you’re independent, but even you need to rest sometimes.”
Nora wanted to sink back into the bed, his bed, but she didn’t want to leave the warmth of his firm hand on her shoulder. He was right, though. She was independent. She’d always had to be between her mother and Todd, who’d been deployed most of their brief marriage.
“I don’t mind fending for myself, Eli. I’ve honestly never known any other way.”
His hand slid down her arm, leaving gooseflesh in its path even though thick fleece separated them. “That’s a sad statement. You will rest here for at least an hour, no arguments. I’ll put the casserole in the oven.”
“But you are a terrible cook,” she insisted. “I remember that Valentine’s meal you tried to cook for me that even the stray dogs turned away.”
Eli’s eyes widened a moment before he chuckled. “That was pretty bad, but you’ve already thrown the ingredients together. Surely I can pop it in the oven without causing too much damage. I do have a PhD, for pity’s sake.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his accomplishments. “I’m really proud of what you’ve done, Eli. You had a dream and went after it.”
His eyes held hers, the hand he’d slid down her arm rested atop her own. “But at what price?” he whispered.
Her heart clenched. Was he referring to her, to them? Did he regret leaving all those years ago? This was the first inclination he’d ever shown that perhaps he wasn’t 100 percent confident in his decisions.
Nora took in his thin lips, his tense shoulders and eyes filled with anguish. Obviously he had his own demons to live with and she didn’t feel it her place to say anything.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he murmured, looking down to their hands. “All those years ago. I never apologized.”
Okay, that was a time she did not want to revisit because from the moment he’d left, she’d been seeking happiness, only able to grasp on to meager scraps of it. But she couldn’t fully blame him. She was in charge of her own life and had made it what it was—falling into a marriage with a man who should’ve remained her friend and nothing more.
“Life happens, Eli.” She laced her fingers with his, wanting another layer of connection. “We had different goals in life. Doesn’t mean we didn’t care for each other. Besides, we were young. We might have made a mistake staying together. You would’ve probably resented being stuck here and wondered what life outside Stonerock would’ve been like.”
He squeezed her hand back. “I’ve never known a woman like you, Nora.”
She laughed, easing the intensity of the moment. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
A wide smile spread across his handsome, stubbled face. “Definitely a compliment.”
Silence surrounded them and for the first time it wasn’t strained or awkward.
“I’m really glad you’re back, Eli.”
“I’m not staying.”
He was so quick to answer, but she knew he had a life, the one he’d worked so hard for, waiting on him. Good for him for making his life everything he’d ever wanted.
“You’re here now,” she told him. “That’s all that matters.”
She didn’t want any tension while he was here. First of all, she loved his family too much to have that weighing heavily on them, and second, she couldn’t afford the emotional battle.
Even though they were different people than they once were, they could still be friends.
Couldn’t they?
Chapter Four (#ulink_b26c7c2e-62bb-529f-9f59-825cf59be7a2)
He’d faced the wrath of his father when he’d sneaked out of the house at age fifteen, he’d served alongside men who’d died in front of him and he’d managed to move on after a broken heart.
But nothing scared the hell out of Dr. Eli St. John more than that waiting room full of patients. Patients who remembered the teen he used to be and had no real clue as to the man he’d truly become.
Oh, he wasn’t worried about contracting some virus or cold. No, he was terrified the do-gooders of the town would peer down their nose at him and judge him for his past sins.
Eli glanced at his watch and sighed. His father’s nurse, Sarah, would start filling the rooms any minute and Eli would just have to suck it up and get this first day out of the way.
At least Sarah was young, new and professional. When he’d walked through the office earlier to speak to Lulu, she’d been filing her nails and the phone had been ringing. It had rung four times before she slammed down her file and answered.
For some reason the townsfolk liked Lulu—with her odd, sometimes rude behavior—and expected her to be sitting behind that desk when they came in. She never changed...ever. And she still sported a low-cut top with her goods on display.
Perhaps that’s why she’d always been so well received.
Regardless, Eli’s father swore she was the most organized person he’d ever worked with and he’d hired her straight out of high school. Lulu was just shy of forty, a few years older than Eli, so she wasn’t going anywhere.
Dr. St. John—the original—was home resting and recovering and depending on Eli to keep the practice afloat. Eli had no intention of letting the man down, no matter what he thought of how his dad ran the office.
Eli moved from his father’s small office and went down the narrow hallway, eyeing the closed exam room door. Pulling the chart from the tray, he glanced at the name first...then did a double take.
Perfect. Simply perfect.
Maddie Mays. Or, as he and his brothers called her, “Mad” Maddie. The woman had to be a day older than God himself and she put the fear in every kid who had the unfortunate idea of cutting through her property to the park. More than once Mad Maddie had wielded a rolling pin in one hand and ball bat in the other. There was no doubt the woman would’ve used both weapons if anyone stepped on her precious prize-winning flowers. Those women in the Flower Garden Club were vicious and Mad Maddie was their president. Don’t mess with a woman’s rhododendrons.
Too bad she couldn’t catch them. Maddie was as wide as she was tall and had certainly been no match for three healthy teen boys.
Eli pushed open the door and for a half second he was shocked. It seemed as though a good one hundred pounds had melted off her. And her wardrobe looked straight out of a sixteen-year-old’s closet.
Sitting on the edge of the exam table, Maddie wore hot-pink leggings and a black, fitted, off-the-shoulder sweater. Furry leopard-print boots completed her interesting look. Her cane—which looked as though it had been dipped into a vat of rhinestones—rested against the table.
“Mrs. Mays,” he greeted, closing the door for privacy.
When her eyes landed on him, he didn’t shudder beneath the gaze that seemed to study and assess him. “Eli. You’re quite a bit taller and thicker than last I saw you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Last time she’d seen him he’d been hightailing it past her property after she’d threatened to go get her gun if he touched her pansies again. In his defense, he’d needed a bouquet of flowers for Nora and he’d thought it was dark enough to conceal him. He’d been wrong.
“I’m quite a bit older now,” he added, setting her chart on the counter so he could wash his hands in the small sink.
One perfectly penciled-in brow arched. “I hope you’ve settled down. Are you married?”
“No, ma’am.”
Maddie let out a harrumph. “Well, you’re not too settled, then.”
After drying his hands, he opened the file, more than ready to get down to the reason for her visit. “Mrs. Mays, I’m not showing any symptoms on your chart. I see where Sarah took your vitals, but nothing else.”
Eli closed the chart, setting it on the exam table beside her and pulling his stethoscope from around his neck. “Let me just listen to your heart and lungs while you tell me the reason you’re here.”
“Oh, I’m healthy as a horse, Eli.” Maddie smiled when he froze. “Thanks to my vitamins and green tea, I’m healthier now than I was thirty years ago. Of course my workouts help. I had a pole installed in my living room about five years ago after I started reading about all these pole dancers and the strenuous workouts they go through and—”
Eli held up a hand. Besides the fact the dead last thing he wanted to hear about was Maddie and her...pole...he had a more pressing issue.
“Why are you here if you aren’t sick?” he asked. “Do you need a refill on any medication?”
“No. Since I started eating healthier a few years ago I was able to get off all my medication. All that processed food will kill you.”
Eli took a deep breath, settled his stethoscope back around his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Then what can I do for you, Mrs. Mays?”
“I just wanted to have a look-see since you’re back in town.”
He should’ve expected this. “Mrs. Mays, I have other patients I need to see. If you’re not here for a valid reason, I’ll need to get going.”
She reached into her oversize purse and pulled out a foil-wrapped package. “I made you a loaf of pumpkin mint bread.”
Pumpkin mint?
Eli took the gift, not sure if this was the norm for Maddie. “Thanks,” he said as she slid off the exam table.
Maddie clutched her cane and narrowed her eyes. “I’ll be keeping my eye on you, Eli. I’m not too comfortable with a St. John boy being my doctor, but I trust your father and he’d never let you into his practice if he didn’t think you could do the job.”
“I can do the job,” he assured her, now wondering if the odd-flavored bread was poisoned.
“Heard you got on at some big hospital in Atlanta.”
He didn’t know how she knew. And that was the crazy thing with small towns. People knew all about your business—occasionally before you did.
“Yes, ma’am.”
And if all went well, when he returned it would be to a substantial promotion.
“Well, that’s something,” she proclaimed as she made her way to the door. “I’ve been impressed with your brothers, even if they still have that I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude.”
Eli laughed. “That’s something we were born with. But I’d say Drake and Cam have done well for themselves.”
Maddie put her hand on the door and turned to smile at him. “You’re all still single. You’re not doing too well if a woman can’t keep hold of you wild boys.”
Her laughter followed her down the hall and Eli stood there staring at the empty doorway. What the hell just happened? His first patient wasn’t really a patient and in the span of five minutes he’d been given a backhanded compliment, a scary homemade present, a warning and then he was educated on geriatric pole dancing.
Maybe being back in Stonerock wasn’t so bad, after all. It certainly wasn’t boring and for the past several minutes Nora had stayed out of his mind.
* * *
Heading toward home, Nora couldn’t help but replay her doctor’s appointment. Her BP had been elevated and she was still having some cramping. Thankfully the ultrasound looked good; the baby weighed what she should and her heartbeat was right on track.
A little girl. Nora smiled. Despite the chaos in her life, today she’d been told she would be having a baby girl. For some reason knowing the sex made everything seem so...real. As if the past five months of sickness, fluctuating weight and epic crying sprees hadn’t been real enough.
Now Nora would start thinking of names, decorating a nursery, buying cutesy little clothes. Granted, she had to sell her house and find a new one before she could decorate and before the baby came.
