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“Is the baby coming now?” Regina started to cry. Alicia wiped the girl’s face with a moist cloth. The temperature in the room had soared and sweat rolled from the four of them.
“I’m sorry, Regina, but this baby is coming now and I need you to work with me.”
WHEN BRIJETTE COULD finally step away from the table, she sighed at the sight of her blood-stained scrubs. After throwing her gloves in the garbage, she dumped plenty of antiseptic gel in her palm, rubbing it lightly on her hands and arms before wiping with a paper towel. Not exactly prescribed usage for the stuff but the sink was in another part of the store and this would have to do for now.
There was a banging sound outside and loud voices broke the silence that had finally settled in the small room. With only a brief knock beforehand, two paramedics rushed in with a gurney.
They stopped short at the sight of the healthy baby.
“Guess you don’t need us after all, Brij.”
She snorted at Michael, the lanky medic. “Well, it wasn’t by choice, I promise. At least you can give Regina and her daughter a quick ride to the hospital. I didn’t even hear the chopper come in.”
“I’m not surprised.” He paused as he and his partner eased mother and child onto the gurney. Alicia helped roll the bed to the door, while Michael stayed behind. “The chopper’s across the river. We’ll have to go back to it by boat. That’s where the nearest clearing is.”
“I guess if the two of them have made it this far, they can survive a boat ride.”
He didn’t respond but glanced around the room instead. “So, this is your clinic.”
“Yep.” Brijette grinned, realizing that most of the medical people in town knew she came here, but few had actually seen her exam room.
Michael took a deep breath. “Stinks like a pigpen, and it’s hot as hell.”
If she hadn’t been friends with the guy for years she might have been offended. “Thanks a lot. We did just deliver a baby in here. Besides, we don’t all have the luxury of an air-conditioned ambulance or helicopter.”
“Relax, I didn’t say you stink, which of course you do.”
She laughed and threw the near-empty bottle of antiseptic gel at him. He caught it with a grin. “I better go before your nurse and my partner drop our patient on the stairs.”
Brijette followed him out front. From there she watched as Michael trotted down the dirt road after Alicia and the other paramedic, who were rolling the gurney toward a waiting boat. The breath she’d been partially holding since she’d seen the girl struggling to the clinic slipped from her lungs and she leaned against the wall of the store.
“Whoowee, chère. Never ’spected that when you set up shop here.”
Brijette turned to see Anton Guidreaux sitting in a rocking chair several feet away. She hadn’t noticed him before.
“Neither did I, A.G.” Brijette pushed sweat-soaked hair off her neck. Anton Guidreux was too formal a name for him, so it had been shortened to A.G. long before she remembered making the trek to this place to buy flour, sugar and whatever else her grandmother needed.
A.G. got up to go back inside and paused to pat the top of her head as if she were still five. “Glad you were here, girl. Don’t never think folks ain’t proud to have you. Might not say it, but you know how that is.”
Her head bumped the wall as she nodded. “I didn’t come here expecting thank-yous.”
“Know that, chère. Don’t mean I can’t tell you thanks here and there.”
She bobbed her head again, staring at the floor as A.G. left her standing alone. After one more deep breath she went back to the exam room. Fanning the door, she tried to encourage a bit of cool air to come inside. She wrinkled her nose. Michael hadn’t been joking. The scent of sweat and blood hung in the room, making it positively reek. And me, too, she admitted with a wry smile. Disinfectant spray bottles sat on top of a box and she took one, squeezing the trigger, shooting generous amounts on the exam table.
“Are we done for the day?”
Brijette continued cleaning the table as Alicia rejoined her. “Unless it’s an emergency, we’re going to pack and go home. I’m exhausted. Besides, it’s going to take an hour to clean up and get the supplies loaded on the boat.”
With a shove, Alicia moved a box against the wall and began to mop the floor. In minutes, they were both dripping sweat again.
BRIJETTE SET the last plastic storage container onto the deck of the twenty-eight-foot fishing boat. She could get to her field clinic by car, but it would take hours, beginning with a ferry ride across the river. Traveling by boat made more sense. Alicia untied the vessel from the old dock and Brijette started the engine.
As she steered the boat away, she caught a final glimpse of the wooden store on the slight rise above the water. Past the store sat the small community church with white paint peeling off the walls. A couple of wooden houses on stilts were visible in the distance. They were a ten-minute ride from the river and another ten minutes to Cypress Landing. A trip she knew well. She’d made it more times than she could count, and the summer after her senior year in high school she’d made it every day to work at the tire factory in Cypress Landing and, frequently, the coffee shop on Main Street. But that was another life.
The Mississippi loomed in front of them and Alicia grabbed a handhold as the boat lurched into the faster-moving water. Brijette slowed the engine.
“Can you believe what we did?” Alicia shouted above the hum of the motor.
Brijette stared at the river in front of her. The thought of all the things that could have gone wrong with the delivery hadn’t actually hit her until now. Her legs turned to jelly and she leaned against the seat behind her. She and Alicia had brought a life into the world. What would’ve happened if they hadn’t been there? What if the girl had delivered at home or in the back seat of a car? Or even worse, on the bottom of a rusty aluminum fishing boat as she tried to get to a hospital?
“I’m glad you were there with me,” she shouted back at Alicia. To her dismay, her throat clogged and her eyes filled with tears. Getting all weepy wasn’t her style, but she’d never delivered a baby by herself before.
A hand touched her arm. “Don’t worry, me, too.” Alicia pointed to her own cheeks, wet with tears, and started to smile. They were both laughing with tears trickling down their faces as the boat bumped toward Cypress Landing.
“I HEAR YOU HAD an adventure today.”
Brijette chuckled, stacking the last container in the storage room at the clinic. “It was more of a nightmare than an adventure, Emma.”
“Well, the baby and mama were both fine, so you must’ve done a great job.”
“Nature did the work, I just…caught the package.” She glanced at her soiled clothes and shook her head at the clinic’s longtime receptionist. “I need to go home and clean up.”
“Doc Arthur wants to see you before you go.”
“I’m on my way.”
Located a block off Main Street, the clinic was actually an antebellum home that Doc Arthur had refurbished to use as his business nearly thirty years ago when he’d first arrived in Cypress Landing. Brijette crossed the lobby and went down the hall to his office. Tapping on his half-open door twice, she pushed into the room.
“Emma said you wanted to see me.”
“Brijette, come in. Good work you did today.”
“Like I told Emma, I didn’t do much. The baby came without much help from me.” She didn’t bother to say how petrified she’d been that something would go wrong or that the baby would be premature.
“Still, you were there. You do good work in that community.”
She shrugged. “I hope so.”
The older man tapped his fingers on the armrest of his chair. “You do, and don’t ever forget it.”
“What did you need me for?” She didn’t want to sound as though she was rushing him, but she was beginning to smell herself, which wasn’t a good thing.
He sat back in his chair, shoving papers across his desktop. “You know I’ve been having problems with that valve in my heart. They say I can’t put off the surgery much longer.”
Brijette rubbed her hands together in her lap. Doc Arthur had been like a father to her since she’d lost both parents when she was young. He needed the surgery, but she wasn’t sure how they’d make it at the clinic without him. She sat a little straighter in her chair. Wait, as a nurse practitioner, if there was no doctor here then she couldn’t work.
“Don’t panic, I’m not going to close and make you find a new job.”
“I’m sorry. Was I that transparent? You know I’m worried about you, but I have to admit I really love my job and all the people I work with, especially you. I’d hate things to change.”
“Unfortunately, I will have to make a change. I’m bringing in another physician.”
“But, that’s great. We’ve been so busy.” She couldn’t stop smiling, not just because she’d get to keep working here, but because they’d needed help more than she was willing to admit to Doc Arthur.
“I hope he’ll want to stay, but in all honesty he’s only coming to help out while I’m at home recuperating. He’s planning to open his own clinic in Dallas later on.”
“We’ll have to make him fall in love with Cypress Landing.” Brijette couldn’t imagine that would be too hard.
The older man studied the far side of the room and she wondered if they were finished. She leaned forward to get to her feet and Doc Arthur suddenly started speaking again. “He’s been here before. You know him. That’s why I wanted to see you.”
Brijette narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“It’s my nephew, Cade Wheeler. You remember him, don’t you? The two of you were friends that summer he visited, before he started medical school and you and your grandmother left to live with your aunt.”
Despite the air-conditioning, a droplet of cold sweat formed at the base of Brijette’s neck and began a slow trickle down the middle of her back. She’d come a long way since that summer and could happily live the rest of her life without seeing Cade Wheeler again. For a brief second, she thought she might get a new job else-where—possibly, New Orleans. But she loved her life in Cypress Landing, and she couldn’t imagine trying to raise her daughter in the city. The mention of his name made her insides gel with fear. She’d prepared for this possibility, had tried to tie up the loose ends, but her plan had never really been tested. That was about to change.
“Yes, I remember him.”
“Good, I know you two will be able to work together.”
She could only move her head slightly in agreement. Beneath her feet, the floor seemed to tilt.
CHAPTER TWO
THROUGH THE WINDOW, the silvery water of the creek rippled beyond the edges of the white sand banks. Cade Wheeler leaned against the kitchen counter as he set his glass in the sink. A ham sandwich and iced tea were the extent of his lunch—not exactly like dining at one of his many lunch haunts in Dallas. But he definitely wasn’t in Dallas now. When he’d first begun working at the busy family practice in the city, life had been idyllic. Or at least that was what his mother kept telling him. His clients had been the wealthy and often self-absorbed. When he wasn’t seeing them in his office, he tried to avoid them. Occasionally, when his mother insisted, he’d attend the same functions as they did on the weekends—extravagant parties or golf outings. Life had taken on a surreal facade as he worked diligently to build his image as family physician to the upper crust. It should’ve been easy, should’ve felt right—after all, he’d been part of the upper crust his whole life.
From his office window in Dallas he’d had a view of the designer shopping village across the street, and he’d occasionally wondered if somewhere along the way he’d made a career mistake, perhaps even a life mistake. He had. He should never have imagined he could work there when his heart wasn’t in it. One ugly incident at the clinic had exposed the truth about who his friends really were. Most of his colleagues had turned their backs on him when he’d needed their support. Even his mother had been damaged in the fallout. He might not have agreed with her ideals, but he’d never wanted to see her treated badly. Their idyllic life had been forever changed. Where exactly that change would take them remained to be seen.
Empty boxes surrounded him. The wood floors in the kitchen glowed with a new unscuffed coat of varnish. Cade recalled the owner’s reluctance to rent the expensively renovated old home. The man had been hoping to sell the place, but after a year on the market and not even one offer, he’d finally acquiesced to the inevitable. A little money each month was better than none.
“It’s too much house for you,” his mother had griped when she’d seen it, for the five minutes she visited. He gazed across the yard once again. Sure, the rambling two-story contained more rooms than he’d ever use, but the huge master suite with its luxury bathroom had been like an oasis in the desert of this town. The final draw had been the very scene in front of him. Nowhere in Dallas did you get a house or apartment with a view like this from your kitchen window. Willow trees bent toward the gurgling water of the creek, surrounded by grainy sand. Green grass dotted with oak, hickory and pine trees took up the space in between the water and his house. He’d signed a lease for six months; after that he’d leave Cypress Landing and open his own clinic in Dallas. It was the only life he really knew and he’d promised his father just before he died to make sure his mother’s life remained as unchanged as possible, which meant Cade needed to be in Dallas, where his mother was happiest. For now, he’d enjoy the view.
A tree limb flopped at the edge of his yard and he thought he saw something moving near the water. An object appeared to fly through the air and land with hardly a splash in the middle of the stream. It was a fishing cork. Another soon appeared a few feet away from the first. Trespassers already. Whoever had tossed the cork in the water might not know the house was occupied now. The idea of a couple of old men shouting, drinking beer and generally interrupting his quiet afternoons on the patio made him decide to go down there to make sure the fishermen knew he had taken up residence.
Cade let the screen door slam behind him intentionally, but neither cork moved. Still invisible behind the edge of the trees, the fishermen either hadn’t heard him or just didn’t care. People had different ideas about property and propriety. If they wanted to call him an ass from the city for asking them to leave, that would be okay.
You don’t belong in that town. Never will. His mother’s words from years ago echoed in his ears. But that wasn’t true. He had fit in and would have gladly stayed forever. That was before he’d learned that even simple country people had hidden agendas. Coming back now had been a matter of obligation, a show of respect for his uncle and nothing else. Starting his own clinic in Dallas wouldn’t be easy, but at least he knew what to expect from the people there.
Cade nearly walked on top of the fisherman before he realized it. One lone fisherman with two homemade cane poles—or should he say fisherwoman…or fisher-girl. Ragged, cut-off blue-jean shorts revealed a pair of spindly legs connected to dirty bare feet. Muddy tennis shoes sat beside the trespasser. The girl pulled at her blond ponytail, then wiped a gritty hand across her forehead.
“Hi. You’re the guy that’s renting that house.”
“How do you know that?” His eyes narrowed. Was she psychic? And weren’t kids taught not to talk to strangers?
“I was in the car yesterday when my babysitter, Norma, brought you that cake. You’re a doctor and you work at Doctor Wheeler’s clinic. She said you were a nice young man, so I figured you wouldn’t mind if I fished at your house.”
What was he supposed to say to that? If he sent her packing, would she go and tell the whole town what a mean guy the new doctor was? Finally, he sighed and stuck out his hand. “I’m Cade Wheeler. You seem to know everything else about me.”
She giggled as she laid the poles on the ground and scrambled to her feet, placing her damp, grimy hand in his. Huge green eyes fringed with thick lashes studied him briefly before she sat down again.
“Wanna fish? I got two poles.”
The moment had arrived when he could let her know, in no uncertain terms, that he didn’t want people fishing in his yard. What if she fell in the water, drowned and the parents decided to sue him? Or worse, what if someone came along and suspected he was some kind of child molester, hanging out with a young girl he didn’t even know. He knew what he’d do in the city: run back to the safety of his house. But the country was different. People knew their neighbors and took care of each other and their kids. Overhead, the sun fought its way through the leaves and flickered in the emerald eyes shining up at him. Well, hell, he couldn’t resist that, could he? He couldn’t be mean to the kid.
He sat on the bank and held out his hand. She grinned, passing him the extra pole. “I’ll fish with you for a minute, but then we probably need to let whoever’s in charge of you know where you are.”
She nodded. “I’m Dylan. That’s a big ole house just for you, or do you have some kids coming later?”
“No, it’s only me.” The girl sighed and he hated having to dash her hopes of future playmates. “You live around here, Dylan?”
“Not too close. A few miles that way on the other side of the road.” She waved her hand in the general direction. “I stay with Mrs. Norma during the day when my mom works. Mrs. Norma lives right there.”
She pointed up the creek to a clearing a few hundred yards away, where the creek disappeared around a bend. The frame house had probably once been part of the same property as the house he now rented. But over time, as with many things around here, the property had likely been sold for cash.
“Your mom and dad work in Cypress Landing?”
She didn’t reply immediately, watching him instead, as though trying to deciding how much information she should give a stranger. He wondered how old she might be. He’d seen kids in his clinic but guessing their ages hadn’t been one of his strong points. This one could be anywhere between eight and thirteen.
“My mom works in town.” She didn’t supply more, but gripped her pole when she noticed that her cork had disappeared. Pulling her line in with no fish attached, she dug into a plastic cup sitting next to her, producing a soggy piece of liver to put on her empty hook. “Mrs. Norma keeps this for me in the freezer for bait.”
“She doesn’t care if you’re fishing here by yourself?”
“I probably shouldn’t go this far, but there aren’t any fish behind her house. I can swim and this creek isn’t more than waist-deep. Besides, she’ll come look for me in a few minutes.”
As if on cue, a figure appeared at the clearing. Dylan waved and the woman moved out of sight.
“She’s probably coming.”
Within minutes Dylan’s babysitter had negotiated the path to where they were sitting. Cade handed his pole to Dylan and got to his feet.
“Dylan, you shouldn’t be this far from the house by yourself.”
“I know, but I wasn’t catching a thing there, haven’t in days. This is Cade. You brought the cake to him yesterday, remember?”
Norma relaxed. She obviously hadn’t recognized him immediately. He offered his hand.
“It’s good to see you again. I really enjoyed the cake.”
She frowned at the child, who chose to ignore both of them to focus on the corks bobbing in the current. “I hope she’s not bothering you.”
He glanced at the skinny blond girl, feeling the tug of what he was missing as a single man with no kids. Something he’d been feeling a lot lately. “No, she can stay. I’ve got to finish unpacking.” He was such a pushover.
“As long as you don’t mind, she can stay for one more hour. Your mom will be by to get you soon.”
Dylan nodded.
“I’ve got to get back to the house. I left a roast cooking.”
