скачать книгу бесплатно
“The town would fall apart if the last Yates moved away.” Jen sighed. “And so would we.”
“No need to worry. This is home.” And it was. Rebecca and Jen were family. The Yateses were big believers in family.
“Doesn’t mean you can’t see the world,” Rebecca said. “You know, with your imaginary lottery winnings. You’ve planned a thousand trips with your collection of travel guides and coffee table books. The money could mean you stop planning and start going.”
Sure. New, lucky, rich Stephanie could be adventurous. That would be interesting.
And if the freedom she’d been dreaming of didn’t make her happy, she’d have to assume there was something wrong with her, not her hometown.
She needed to dream bigger.
“You’re right. So, instead of taking a trip I’ve planned a million times, I’d put on a blindfold and throw a dart at the map. I’d aim for Paris, but how exciting would it be to pack a bag, get on a plane and go see someplace you’ve never thought of?” She leaned her head back and imagined herself deplaning from a private jet. Somehow she was dressed like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s because why not.
When she realized how quiet the other two had gotten, she opened her eyes to see them both watching her closely. “What?”
“You, go somewhere without careful planning, the required shots and an insurance policy against acts of God? That sounds wrong.” Jen stood up, topped off the wineglasses and added, “But I like it. Let’s do it.”
Annoyed all over again at how impossible it was to try something new without everyone reminding her that it was out of character, Stephanie said, “Do what? Just...win the lottery?”
“I’m pretty sure the darts are still in Daniel’s closet. We need a map.” Rebecca stood up, shook out the skirt of her sundress and disappeared down the hallway.
Jen walked into the kitchen and came back with a dish towel. “Not a real blindfold but it should work. No peeking.” She paused in front of Stephanie, grabbed her hand and started to pull her off the couch. “We’ll go ahead with the dart in case we win and you need to jump on a plane quickly. You like to be prepared.”
Giving in to Jen’s demands, Stephanie eased up off the couch and smoothed down her Holly Heights High School T-shirt over her hips. “You act like you don’t trust me.” She yanked on her ponytail to tighten it and then waved her hands. “Wait, you act like we’re actually going to win the lottery.” Either one was a crazy thought.
Rebecca trotted back into the living room with a giant map poster and a dart. “I’m not sure all these countries still exist, but Paris should be there.” She yanked open a closet door and taped up the poster. “Remember when we had a dartboard here? Daniel smoked us every time we played.”
Stephanie crossed her arms over her chest and said nothing. She didn’t have to. Jen and Rebecca both turned to stare at her.
“I got an email from him yesterday. Sounds like things are going well,” Rebecca said and studied her carefully. “And then there are his Facebook updates.” Rebecca raised her eyebrows and dared Stephanie to say she had no idea what she was talking about.
The thing about best friends is that they never forget your first love or first crush or whatever it was she’d had for Daniel Lincoln, her best friend’s older brother and the first male to shove her into the role of friend when she’d wanted more. Bravely asking him to dinner had been an un-Stephanie kind of thing to do. Doing it on his worst day ever was poor planning.
Nobody had forgotten it, actually. But that whole fiasco had happened a long time ago. Now he wasn’t even in Holly Heights, and her friends had already established she could never leave because the town would fold without her.
The risk she’d taken in telling him how she felt hadn’t paid off. His easy rejection had made it clear he’d never seen her as anything other than an adopted little sister.
That didn’t mean she’d made a mistake or that stepping out on a limb this time would mean failure. If she never made a change, she’d never know what was possible.
“Give me the blindfold. I’m ready to hop on a plane to anywhere, you wait and see.” She tied the dish towel over her eyes and held out her hand. Jen pressed the dart into her palm and said, “See the map. Be the map.” They all chuckled, remembering countless slumber parties where Daniel had tried to show them how to hit the dartboard instead of the innocent closet door.
Rebecca put her hands on Stephanie’s shoulders and spun her around once. “Do your best!”
“Come on, Paris!” Her heart racing with excitement and fear, Stephanie tossed the dart and hoped to hit land. She could see herself stepping off a plane. Floating on a boat, not so much.
She tried to yank off the dish towel but Jen shoved her glass of wine in her hand. “Before you see where you’re landing, let’s make another toast. To new beginnings and lottery winnings.”
Thinking they were spending a whole lot of time making plans for something that would never happen, Stephanie held out her glass, waited for the clink and took a sip. Then Jen yanked off her makeshift blindfold and said in her best game show host voice, “Let’s see where you’re headed.”
The three of them lined up in front of the map. Somehow she’d completely missed France, not to mention the tiny dot of Paris. In fact, she’d overshot Europe as well. The dart was planted squarely in the middle of nowhere Peru.
“That’s impossible. There’s no way I missed the entire continent of Europe.” The images of Peru that came to mind were of llamas and Machu Picchu, which she might enjoy seeing, but that was not where the dart had landed. No, apparently she was going to...Alto, a place she’d heard of once in her life thanks to a posting on Daniel Lincoln’s Facebook page. She narrowed her eyes at Rebecca. “What did you do?”
“Have another cookie,” Rebecca said and blinked her eyelashes as she held out the plate. Of the three of them, Rebecca had always been able to put on the best innocent face.
“I have no clue what you mean.” Jen yanked down the map, folded it and handed the dart to Rebecca. “It seems your first destination is the Andes. When we win.”
Stephanie wagged her finger at Rebecca. “You moved the dart. You had to. There’s no way that I, the dart queen of 2001, would have missed by that much.”
“Now why would I do that?” Rebecca asked.
Thanks to years of experience, Stephanie was skeptical of her perfectly angelic expression.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes at Jen. “Did you see me move the dart?”
“I did not.” Jen shook her head firmly. Her boots shifted on the hardwood. “And for what reason would Rebecca send you to the area where her brother is working? I mean, what could she hope to gain from it? Have another cookie. You’ll feel better.”
Stephanie studied the plate of cookies Rebecca was waving under her nose. She crossed her arms again. “It doesn’t matter. We won’t win. I don’t know why you’d... What? Push me in his direction. If you’ll recall, I tried that once. He patted me on the head and told me he liked me too much to try dating. Remember? And he could never kiss me.” She wrinkled her nose in the same way Daniel had when he’d said the word as if she’d asked him to kiss the south end of a north-bound donkey.
“People change, Steph. Maybe he has, too. He’s lost his job, moved halfway around the world. That’s got to cause some careful consideration of what’s important in life.” Jen turned to Rebecca. “He’s not dating anyone, is he? Not that it matters.”
“No, he’s not dating. And getting involved with a man like Daniel would be a terrible idea. He’s married to his job. But...” Rebecca shrugged.
When Rebecca didn’t add anything else, Jen dropped back into her usual spot and kicked one jean-clad leg over the arm of the chair. “It’s not like running into the guy you measure other guys against is a bad thing, is it? Maybe that’s all you need to get out of the friend rut and on to the road to love, happiness and Favorite Teacher. Well, that and a few million dollars.”
At the reminder of the nonexistent money needed to fuel this imaginary trip, Stephanie eased back against the couch again. They could tease her all they wanted. Nothing would come of it unless the numbers the machine had spit out were winners. She’d ask the math wizard in the group what the odds were, but she didn’t want to let them know how shaken she was at the idea of either a trip to Peru or seeing Daniel Lincoln again in his no doubt trailblazing glory.
If she needed a mentor in learning to make new paths instead of waiting for things to change, he would be a solid choice.
As far as either of them knew, she’d had a crush and now it was over. Right? She watched Rebecca, her best friend since first grade, finish her cookie with what seemed to be a touch of smugness.
Then Rebecca and Jen glanced at each other and the smugness bloomed and spread.
Faking a stop in the Andes Mountains couldn’t be that hard. She took a deep breath. Lying might not be the most honorable solution, but it would definitely be the easiest, and she wouldn’t feel the least guilty about cheating a couple of dart-moving cheaters.
“We’re going to hold you to your fabulous idea, Steph. One dart and you pack your bags, get on a plane. Unless you bring back photographic evidence of you, Daniel and his clinic in Alto, we’re going to know you chickened out, you big chickeny chicken.” Jen’s satisfaction was hard to face, but Stephanie did her best not to show her dismay.
Rebecca wagged a finger. “Great idea, Jen. Evidence.”
Stephanie snorted. “So what happens if I decide to take my millions and head for France and ignore the clucking sounds you make every time you see me from now until the end of time?”
“No cookies for you.” Rebecca moved the plate out of reach and Jen whistled.
“Harsh but effective.” Jen raised an eyebrow. “Not that you need consequences. You want to make a change. Here’s the push you need. After we win the lottery.”
“Okay, so you managed to fix the dart-throwing exhibition. If you can figure out a way to rig the lottery, I am going to be so impressed.”
Jen exchanged a glance with Rebecca, and as soon as Stephanie put the wineglass on the table, Jen shouted, “We won!” She and Rebecca jumped up and down like the excitement could no longer be contained. “Five million dollars split three ways. We won!”
“Pack your bags,” Rebecca sang as she hugged Stephanie. “It’s time to make a wish come true.”
Stephanie tipped her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “You’re talking about seeing Peru, right?”
“Sure.” Rebecca blinked slowly. “What else could I be talking about?”
“Fine, but you’re going with me,” Stephanie muttered. And added through gritted teeth, “My treat.” If she was going, she was certainly going to take a buffer with her.
“Can’t.” Rebecca held up her hand and ticked off the points. “No passport. No tranquilizers. No airplanes. No way.” Her fear of flying was well documented. They’d tried it the first summer after her parents moved to Florida.
It had gone badly. Very badly. Now they took road trips.
“And Jen’s out. She signed up to teach summer school.”
Before Stephanie could argue that Jen had no need to pick up the extra money, Rebecca added, “This is your thing. You don’t need us.”
Oh, yes, she did. It was fine to dream big on Rebecca’s sofa. Actually going to a foreign country all alone might be too big.
And the fact that she was sitting on the edge of panic over the trip instead of dancing in celebration over winning the lottery was something to think about. Later.
“Are you matchmaking?” Stephanie asked. “Because...”
“I love you. I love him. The two of you together, I don’t know about, but you’re in a rut. This ought to fix that.” Rebecca wrapped her arm around Stephanie’s shoulders. “And if I know my brother, his rut’s deeper than yours, even on a mountaintop. Of the three of us, you were always the best at getting him to do what we wanted.”
“But what do we want him to do?” There had to be an ironclad excuse to get out of this.
“Simple. I want him to be happy.” Rebecca shrugged. “And you, too. What if the best way to stop turning dates into friends is to make a friend...something more? I dare you to give this a shot. One trip. Easy.”
Stephanie was speechless as she considered Rebecca, who had walked away to pull a casserole out of the oven that was now living on borrowed time. Rebecca was her best friend. They would be friends until the end of time. But she might have been breathing in the oven fumes for too long.
Still, she could go, see Daniel and return with the message that he was happily saving the world one vaccination at a time. The trip also would prove that her feelings had been settled, once and for all. He was a friend. He’d stay a friend.
And having a purpose made the trip a little less intimidating.
But only a little.
Ready or not, she was headed for Peru.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_f4ea2242-a5e5-50dc-a933-8749e90ad358)
“WHY ARE YOU updating now, you stupid piece of junk?” Daniel rubbed his forehead, watched his laptop count up slowly and tried to think happy thoughts. Before he’d settled in to start and finish the overdue fund-raising report, he’d checked his parents’ Facebook page. The cruise to Alaska was going well. But there were no other updates. Nothing from his sister. He would’ve called her to check in, but his recent uptick in homesickness wouldn’t be helped by hearing her voice.
Since he’d been about half a second away from hitting the medical recruiting sites he’d started checking now and then, just to see who was hiring close to home, he should thank his computer for saving him the angst.
While giving him a whole different bucket of angst, of course.
His life was in Peru. He missed home and his sister more than he’d ever admit, but he was a grown man. He’d deal. There was plenty to do here to keep his mind off what he was missing in Holly Heights.
Daniel scanned the small lobby restaurant and watched three guys in business suits working happily on laptops with better timing than his. At least he wasn’t trying to do this in a necktie and white coat. The doctor’s dress code had been replaced with comfortable jeans, his favorite Baylor T-shirt and a dusty ball cap that kept the sun out of his eyes.
Most of the time, he was the lone doctor in town. He had the freedom to dress the way he wanted and run the best clinics he could.
That had to be the unlikely silver lining to his flameout at Holly Heights Hospital. Refusing to discharge a patient whose insurance wasn’t up to par—against his sound judgment as a doctor—was one thing. Insulting the hospital administrator in front of the board was where he’d stepped over the line. And as a result the hospital’s summer job shadowing program for high school kids—the one his sister had drafted and he’d called in every single favor he could to get approved—had also been axed.
Letting Rebecca down had been a hard way to learn the lesson, but he’d never again make the mistake of believing his skills made him bulletproof. Even worse was imagining the disappointed kids who might have missed out on finding their calling.
In Peru he didn’t have to worry about offending any number crunchers in expensive suits. Well, except for the guy watching him over the top of his newspaper.
Daniel shoved the computer out of the way, yanked his breakfast plate closer and scooped up a heaping tower of fluffy scrambled eggs. At least this meal was on his schedule. That was one of the perks of this business-class hotel in Lima. Everything ran on time. Reliable electricity. Running water twenty-four hours a day. And hot water whenever he turned on the tap. City life definitely had its bonuses.
When the laptop finally whirred back on, he sighed and reopened the document he’d been staring at for long minutes before his computer had taken its life in its hands by shutting down and restarting without his permission.
He smiled at the woman who kept his coffee cup full. After she’d gone, he ate his toast and tried to come up with the next paragraph of his fund-raising report for HealthyAmericas.
The patterns on the ceiling hadn’t changed since the last time he’d stared up for inspiration. “I should have found someone else to work on this report.” Not that he’d really trust anyone else with something so important. He was the project leader. The success or failure of HealthyAmericas outreach in the Pasco region rested squarely on his shoulders.
“And success depends pretty heavily on money, so you shouldn’t have put this off, idiot.” He surveyed the room to see the other diners shooting glances at him out of the corners of their eyes and decided talking to himself was a habit better left to long hikes in the Andes Mountains. Apparently it made the city people nervous.
“The clinic in Alto continues to serve the population of the town and the surrounding region through vaccinations and basic...” Boring. Why would anyone care about these colorful, three-dimensional people when all he could give them was gray, flat statistics? “I could write a report about one patient, make it clear how donations help an individual. People love to hear feel-good stories. Especially about cute kids.”
The businessman seated across from him wrinkled his nose as though he wasn’t quite convinced, and the idea of starting all over again made Daniel want to escape. Head back to the mountains. Get his hands dirty and make a difference the best way he knew how.
But coughs needed medication, cuts needed stitches, and there were babies and mothers and little ladies with arthritic hands or worse all depending on this funding.
Why did good medicine always seem to come down to money?
When his email dinged, he seized his chance to do anything else and clicked to open the message from his sister.
“Won the lottery?” Daniel laughed out loud in relief. His sister would write a check, no problem. “And Jen and Steph, too.” His fist pump froze all activity in the restaurant while everyone waited to see what the crazy American would do next. He waved his arms broadly. “Good news!”
They all smiled awkwardly in return and kept on watching him surreptitiously.
He went back to the message and reread it. “A big investor coming here? Today? I don’t have time for that.” He tried to imagine what sort of businessperson would come all the way to Lima to check out his operation and decided it didn’t matter. He needed donations.
The plate of scrambled eggs and toast was demolished in a flurry of happy bites before he fired off a congratulatory email with the standard “make a donation now” request. Then he quickly drafted another message for Dr. Wright, a medical school colleague who’d founded HealthyAmericas, to let her know big donations were on the way and that his fund-raising letter would be delayed but he’d have it ready for the big donor event in two months.
“Or else,” Daniel muttered. He added his regrets that he couldn’t make it back to Texas in time for the event before he hit Send. She wanted him to be the face of the doctors serving in South America. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to show his face around there. Too many people would remember him leaving in disgrace. Austin was close to Holly Heights and it was a small, small world.
He clasped his hands behind his head, stretched in his chair and studied the ceiling again. “Definitely a case study. Maybe a few, with pictures to show the real-life benefits of having medical teams making regular stops. That’s the way to go.” He ignored the curious stares and tried to think of someone who could do a good job with the report in order to free up his time for more patients. “I should request an intern or something, somebody who’s good with a camera and a computer.”
Making a mental note to add that to his budget for the next year, he closed the laptop, shoved it in the beat-up bag he carried with him at all times and pulled out his wallet to leave nuevo soles as a tip. He smiled at the waitress again. “Gracias.”
Before he could head back to Alto, he had to check out of the hotel and make sure the truck with the medical supplies was scheduled to deliver next week. And now he needed to come back to the hotel to meet with this investor. Flights arrived early from the States, so he should still be able to make it to Alto. He’d leave a message at the desk with a time and hope whoever it was checked in soon.
Every day he had a long list of things to do, so he was glad to push off the report that was making him crazy. When he made it back to Lima in another two weeks, he’d do it. Definitely.
A husky laugh drew his attention to the lobby desk where Paulo was talking with a tall blonde dressed for African safari. She was khakied and cargoed from head to toe, although silky hair trailed down her back. Something about her was familiar, but that could be attributed to the homesickness that struck now and then. He was happy in Peru, but that didn’t mean he never dreamed of going back to the way things were, when he was such a skilled surgeon he could bend the rules as he liked. As always, he shoved aside the disappointment and stood as the blonde turned away from the desk.
“Stephanie?” He had to sit back down before his weak knees made him stumble.
