The Doctor's Secret Son

She continued to examine Spence without blinking an eye, but internally she was in turmoil. She might be able to fool the others but she could never fool herself. Today’s encounter with Zach had changed the playing field entirely, and she didn’t know what to do with what she had learned.

She didn’t know the man Zach Bowden had become.

Worse yet, she wasn’t over him.

Chapter Two

On the outside, at least, Zach kept his attention on his ailing neighbor, but, surreptitiously, he watched Delia work, his heart drinking in the presence of the woman who had once been his whole life like a man who’d spent years in the desert with no water.

In a way, that was exactly what he was. He had told himself a million times that he wouldn’t care if he ever saw Delia again in his life, but he now knew that was a flat-out lie.

How could he not care when she had taken his heart and smashed it into thousands of pieces?

Time hadn’t healed his wounds, nor had it changed the way his heart leaped out of his chest every time their eyes met. It shook him to the core to discover that despite the anger and bitterness he felt toward her, his attraction to her had only deepened with the passage of time.

She was beautiful.

She’d always been pretty, but now there was a new maturity shining from those huge sapphire-blue eyes of hers. Her black hair, which she’d worn shoulder-length as a teen, now flowed in thick, glossy waves down her back. Her rich alto voice had matured to be smooth as silk, wrapping around a man’s senses like a warm wind.

“On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst pain you can imagine, how do you feel?” Delia asked Spence in a soft, reassuring tone.

“Still about a five or six,” Spence said with a groan. “Man, this really hurts.”

“That’s actually good news,” Delia informed him, and Zach silently concurred. “When you really start to worry about a burn is if it doesn’t hurt at all.”

“Great,” Spence muttered.

Delia chuckled.

Zach squeezed the man’s shoulder as Delia added additional morphine to the IV and efficiently prepared a cart for dressing the wound.

“It looks worse than it is,” he assured Spence. “Right, Delia?”

“Absolutely. You’ll need to change the dressing a couple of times a day and take the antibiotics I’m going to prescribe you, but this should heal up just fine. I’ll clean up the wound a bit and you’ll be as good as new.”

Spence’s gaze widened perceptibly, but he clenched his jaw and nodded gravely as he resolved himself to endure the discomfort.

Zach felt for him. Burns really hurt, even the small ones, and even though Spence’s burn wasn’t life-threatening, he’d still have to struggle with the pain.

“Do you feel the narcotic kicking in yet?” Zach asked as the tension left Spence’s shoulders.

Spence’s eyes grew dilated and hazy, and he laid his head back on the pillow and sighed. “Yes, thankfully.”

“Just keep your eyes on me, man,” Zach suggested. “This will all be over in a minute. You can trust Delia. She’s a great doctor.”

Delia’s surprised gaze flew to Zach, and it was no wonder. In truth, he had no way of knowing what kind of a doctor Delia was. He’d made the comment for Spence’s benefit, to ease his anxiety.

That said, he was fairly certain his statement was correct. Even though he’d never actually seen Delia practice medicine, he had no doubt in his mind that she was a very good doctor. As long as he’d known her, she’d dreamed of having a career in the medical field. She’d always excelled as a student. And she was nothing if not persistent and dedicated. She wouldn’t let any obstacle get in the way of whatever she wanted to do.

Even if he was the obstacle in question.

He ignored the tug in his gut and reminded himself to keep his mind on his work. This was no time to visit the past.

Delia was quick and efficient as she cleaned and dressed the wound. Zach imagined she’d encountered dozens of similar situations on her emergency room rotations in Baltimore, although this time her patient was a neighbor, a man she’d known from her childhood.

How did she feel about being able to provide medical assistance to someone she was acquainted with? Did she find the same satisfaction in helping a friend as he did?

Maybe that’s why she’d finally come home.

He experienced another acute, agonizing stab in his gut. Unlike Spence’s burn, which probably would do little more than leave a scar, Zach’s wounds had never quite healed properly, and he didn’t think they ever would.

Delia reached for a key to the medicine cabinet and provided Spence with a bottle of prescription painkillers and an antibiotic. She was the pharmacist as well as the doctor in this little town; but, as with the rest of her duties, she handled the transaction with ease.

She rechecked the wound one last time and pronounced Spence good to go.

“Ben and I can give you a lift back to your house,” Zach suggested, supporting Spence’s arm as he rolled to a sitting position.

“I’ve already caused you enough grief,” Spence argued. “I can find some other way home.”

Delia’s gaze shifted to Zach. She knew him well enough to know he wasn’t going to back down. That wasn’t his way.

“Nonsense,” Zach said with a shake of his head. “It makes sense for us to give you a ride. Your father can’t drive anymore, and even if he could, he’s the one who’s watching the twins.”

“Yes, but—”

Zach cut him off with a wave of his hand. “Ben and I will be happy to take you. Not another word, you understand?”

Even after Zach’s friendly warning, Spence still looked like he was about to argue some more, at least until Delia laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Listen to Zach,” she advised. “It’s not like you’ll be inconveniencing them. Short of a kitten stuck in a tree, you’re likely to be the day’s only emergency. Think of it as a favor—you’ll be giving the two of them something productive to do with their time.”

“Don’t argue with Delia,” Zach added. “Take it from me—she always wins.”

That hadn’t come out right. He didn’t know why he’d said it. He sounded churlish.

He definitely wasn’t over her.

In his youth he’d been devastated by her leaving. Now he was bewildered by her return. Still, he knew he could be handling it better.

“I don’t know that I always win,” Delia countered, her bottom jaw rocking forward as she tempered her response. “But I hope in this case, Spence, you’ll take my advice.”

Zach was immediately ashamed of himself. He was a changed man now; and, hopefully, a better one, thanks to God’s grace. It wasn’t like him to bring personal issues into his working life, especially not with a patient present. Seeing Delia again had really done a number on him, much more than he had ever anticipated.

“I guess I’ll take that ride, if you’re sure it won’t be a bother,” Spence said, caving in to Delia’s persuasive smile.

“That will be best,” Delia agreed, patting Spence on the shoulder. “Would you like some help getting out to the ambulance? Morphine can make you a little woozy.”

“I’m good.” Spence stood and found his balance before gingerly taking a couple of trial steps. Zach hovered at one of Spence’s elbows, while Delia stayed next to the other. Her patient was a little shaky, but he appeared stable enough to walk on his own.

“Don’t forget to take those pain pills when you get home, Spence,” Delia instructed. “The morphine is going to wear off soon and your hand is going to hurt for a while.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Delia,” Spence said.

“I’m glad to be here,” she assured him.

Zach’s breath caught in his lungs. Delia might be glad to be here, but Zach wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that she’d so suddenly appeared back in his life.

She had thrown him off balance. Emotionally, he was having a harder time staying upright than Spence was.

He’d imagined Delia’s return to Serendipity a thousand times, but the stark reality of the moment was completely different than anything his mind could have conjured—never mind his heart.

“Zach?” Delia called just as he was about to close the door behind him.

Just her saying his name made a ripple of awareness flow through him. He took a deep breath, casually arched an eyebrow and turned toward her.

Her eyes were shaded and her expression neutral. It used to be that he had easily been able to read the depths of her heart through her gaze. But he would have thought the time and distance would have changed that ability.

He was surprised to find that it hadn’t. He could see that she was struggling emotionally with this unexpected reunion, just as he was.

He questioned her with his eyes. What did she want—or expect from him, for that matter?

He was aware of the very moment she elevated an emotional barrier. Her gaze turned from a glimmering sapphire to a steel-blue. Clearly, whatever courtesy she had shown him had been for Spence’s sake and not his own. Although, why that should surprise him was beyond his comprehension. Hadn’t he done the same with her—or at least had tried to do?

He dropped his brow. He didn’t know whether she had put their past aside. He only knew that he couldn’t.

She had left him without a word. She had broken his heart.

There was so much he wanted, no, needed, to say to her, but the words would not come. And even if they had, now was hardly the time.

“Well?” he asked when she continued to stare at him without speaking.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” she said in a raspy near whisper that sounded dry and strained.

His brow lowered further. “For what?”

“For helping me out here today. For being there for Spence. I might have been able to do it without you, but I don’t think he could have.”

“It’s my job,” he replied curtly.

“Maybe,” Delia said, shaking her head. “But I don’t think that’s all it is.”

His mouth twisted but he didn’t deny it.

“I’m glad I could help,” he said after another extended silence. Help Spence, he added to himself.

She hesitated, looking as if she had something else to say, but then her jaw tightened and she shook her head almost imperceptibly. “So, I guess I’ll see you around.”

He nodded. This conversation was over. His gaze broke with hers as he gestured toward the door. “Spence and Ben are waiting for me.”

He turned and nearly sprinted for the door. It was more of a getaway than an exit.

How, he wondered, was he ever going to be able to work with her when just seeing her drudged up so many uncomfortable feelings?

If there was a way out of this, Zach didn’t know what it was. He knew how God would want him to respond—with forgiveness and love. Zach wasn’t sure he could manage either one of those right now.

Maybe ever.

Chapter Three

Two more days passed before Delia was ready to turn the clinic sign from Closed to Open, and by then it was Friday afternoon and the end of the workweek. The supplies she’d ordered online had arrived and were organized, the financials were up to date. She’d talked Vickie McCall, who’d been Doc Severns’s receptionist, into returning to her old job. Monday morning the clinic would officially open for business.

She wondered how long it would be before her tiny waiting room was full of people. The word was definitely out about the clinic reopening, at least to some extent, or Zach would never have known to bring Spence in.

Her best guess was that Jo Hawkins Murphy, the owner of Cup o’ Jo, the local café, had learned of her arrival and spread the word. News traveled fast with that good-humored, redheaded lady. Jo was better advertising than a television ad—and a good deal more persuasive—so on the off chance that the woman hadn’t heard of her return, Delia thought it would be worth a walk down Main Street to fill her in.

Besides, she hadn’t had much of an opportunity to reconnect with her old friends—except for the occasional email, and that just wasn’t the same thing as face-to-face contact. She was anxious to hear what they’d been up to recently.

Eventually she’d bring Riley along with her and introduce him to the town. She hadn’t planned to return to Serendipity, but she was here now and she had to face reality. People were going to start asking questions about Riley. Someone was bound to do the math, and like it or not, the truth would eventually come out.

It was imperative that she protect Riley against the gossip that was sure to arise—and better that she tell Zach the truth before he found it out any other way.

Soon. But not today. Right now, she had enough on her plate just getting the clinic open.

She pulled her hair back into a smooth ponytail and checked her makeup before leaving the clinic. She didn’t know why she bothered—Serendipity was a country town with country ways. Hair and makeup were simple here.

Her heavily lined boots clapped loudly against the wood-planked sidewalk as she headed for the café. The ever-present Texas wind had a strong nip to it, and she pulled her wool coat more closely around her neck.

Her mind drifted as she walked. Nothing in the scenery was any different than she remembered from her youth. Serendipity was a settlement unchanged by time, looking nearly identical to what Delia imagined it must have looked a hundred years ago.

It was her perspective that had changed. Her heart. And now she was more confused than ever.

Catching up with old friends and announcing the opening of her clinic weren’t her only reasons for visiting Cup o’ Jo. She wanted to know more about Zach before she introduced him to Riley. It was better to be prepared than to be taken off guard, and she’d seen enough in her interaction with him to realize things were different now.

Zach had been a passionate boy, but self-centered in his every thought and action. He’d gotten her into all sorts of trouble—encouraging her to ditch class, driving recklessly with her on his motorcycle—even getting her arrested. It was hard for her to fathom that he could change so completely, even given the ten years since she’d seen him. Leopards could not change their spots, and neither, Delia believed, could Zach Bowden.

Once a troublemaker, always a troublemaker—right?

Still, he hadn’t asked if he needed to stay around and help her out with Spence, nor had she indicated in any way that he should have. They both knew it wasn’t a paramedic’s job to play the nurse, but that was exactly what Zach had done.

Maybe there was hope.

As she neared the door of the café, she noticed a man up on a ladder, leaning precariously to one side as he fastened a string of icicle Christmas lights on the eaves with a staple gun. The sun was behind him and she could see only the shadow of his profile, but nevertheless she immediately recognized him—not with her eyes, but with another, deeper sense.

It was Zach.

Her heart lurched into her throat and it took all of her willpower not to turn on her heels and walk the other way. Sure, she wanted to talk about Zach and learn more about him, but she wasn’t ready to see him again. Not yet.

The only thing that stopped her from fleeing was the very real possibility that he had seen her walking up. But, because of the glaring sunlight, she couldn’t tell for sure. He certainly didn’t acknowledge her in any way, nor did he stop what he was doing.

Setting her jaw, she moved past him and into the small café without so much as greeting him. Maybe it was best if they ignored each other.

For now.

Delia stepped inside and then stopped, stunned, as she looked around the small establishment. Whereas the town hadn’t changed at all, the inside of Cup o’ Jo had been entirely renovated. Jo had turned it into Serendipity’s own version of a contemporary internet café, with computers lining the back wall and a printer whirring in the corner.

Despite the high-tech upgrades, the homey feeling Delia remembered from her childhood somehow remained. Perhaps it was the mouthwatering smell of fresh pastries emanating from the kitchen.

Jo, her red curls bouncing right along with her ample figure, approached Delia with a vigor that belied her seventy-plus years.

“As I live and breathe. If it isn’t Miss Delia Rae Ivers, all grown up and looking just gorgeous,” Jo exclaimed in that boisterous but exceedingly friendly way Delia remembered well from childhood. She’d missed the woman, who was like a second mother to her—and to most of the town. “I’d heard you were coming, dear, but how I managed to miss when is beyond me. If I’d have known you’d arrived I would’ve had Phoebe bake you a welcome-home cake.”

At the sound of her name, a very pretty and very pregnant woman, who Delia guessed to be about her own age, turned from the pastry bin where she was stocking and waved at Delia.

“Phoebe is my nephew Chance’s wife,” Jo explained. “And as you can see, I’m about to have a grand-nephew or niece.” She paused and chuckled. “Or is that great-nephew-slash-niece?”

Jo chuckled and waved her hands. “Oh, well. Whatever. I’m just excited for the baby, no matter what his or her technical relation might be called. I’m ready and waiting to smother the little one with love.”

Delia chuckled and nodded to Phoebe. “Congratulations on your baby. You’re welcome to stop by my clinic for the rest of your prenatal care if you’d like.”

Phoebe smiled. “Thank you. I will.”

“But back to you,” Jo inserted, making a speed-of-light U-turn to her original subject, “How long has it been now since you’ve stepped foot in Serendipity?”

Delia realized that the patrons in the café, mostly friends and neighbors from her youth, had stopped what they were doing to see what all the fuss was about. She wasn’t shy, so she didn’t let it bother her. This was as good a way as any to announce she was back in town and had reopened the medical clinic, even if it wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind when she’d walked in the door.

“Ten years,” said a bubbly, high-pitched female voice from behind Delia’s left shoulder. “I ask you, what kind of a friend leaves for ten years without even visiting her friends for the holidays?”

Delia turned to find herself wrapped in the animated embrace of her three best friends from high school—Mary Travis, Alexis Granger and Samantha Howell, who were all talking and squealing in turn. There was a good reason the boys on the football team had labeled them the Little Chicks when they’d been freshmen in high school—even now the chirping sound was unmistakable.

“It’s good to see y’all,” she said, although she knew she’d never be able to express in words how much these women really meant to her. While she’d had friends in Maryland, they were nothing like the Little Chicks. She’d been too wrapped up in medical school and her residency, not to mention single-parenting Riley, to make any truly close connections on the east coast.

“Did you see Zach outside?” Alexis queried, giving Delia’s shoulders another tight squeeze. “He’s hanging the Christmas lights for Jo.”

Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach and thrashed around in burning waves.

“I…yes. I saw him,” she said, hoping that would be enough of an answer to stave off further inquiries.

She wasn’t surprised her friends were asking her about Zach. He’d been her boyfriend all through high school. They didn’t know the whole story, of course, because she hadn’t told them. Other than her parents, she hadn’t told anyone.

But she was going to have to tell them, and soon—keeping the most important part of her life a secret was wearing on her. And, at the moment, it was making her feel a little queasy.

“I’m dying of thirst,” she said in an effort to change the subject, and thinking maybe a little carbonation would settle her stomach. “Can we get a table and catch up on what’s been going on with you? Emailing was nice, but it’s so much better to be face-to-face, don’t you think?”

Her girlfriends might not have taken the hint, but Jo, who was still hovering nearby, certainly did. The older woman began unobtrusively herding the ladies toward a large table next to the far wall.

“Four sodas coming up,” Jo said without waiting for the women to order. “Three diets and one regular.”

Delia chuckled. It was exactly the same drink order the girls had made dozens of times in their youth. She was amazed that Jo remembered.

Samantha flashed a mock scowl. “Your figure is as nice as ever,” she groused. “I was always jealous that you got to eat and drink anything you wanted without putting on a pound, whereas I couldn’t—can’t—even look at a regular soda without gaining weight.”

“You look fine,” Delia countered as Jo returned to the table and passed the drinks around. “You all do.”

“So when is the clinic going to open?” Mary asked. “Old Doc Severns hasn’t been working for a month. If anyone sprains an ankle around here, they have to drive for an hour to get it looked at.”

Delia combed her fingers through the length of her hair, offhandedly massaging her scalp. The vision in her left eye was beginning to blur, a sure sign that she was feeling the start of one of her knock-down, drag-out migraines. She couldn’t imagine why one would hit her now. She was so happy to be with her old friends. It would be a shame if a headache ruined it for her.

Please, God, not today, she thought, trying to breathe deeply.

Not that she was actually praying to God. She’d left her faith when she’d left her youth. It was just a way of thinking and nothing more. It wasn’t as if God, if He was there, had time for her headaches. She’d rather rely on science.

She rummaged around in her purse for her migraine medication and popped a pill in her mouth, following it with a long pull on her soda. The medicine wouldn’t stave off the headache completely, but at least it might whittle her migraine down to only one night of suffering. Otherwise she’d be in bed for a week.

“Still having your headaches, huh?” Samantha asked.

“Sometimes,” Delia confirmed with a groan. “Unfortunately.”

“Stress?” Mary guessed. “I remember the day of senior finals. You looked like you were going to outright faint most of the day.”

“I felt like I was going to collapse,” she assured them. “I can’t even believe I passed any of those exams.”

“And yet you made it through med school,” Alexis commented, tilting her head so that her long blond hair brushed over her shoulder. “How is that?”

Delia sat speechless for a moment, stunned by the revelation. Now that she thought about it, how was that, that she’d managed long, sleepless nights during her residency, not to mention her years as a single mom with no support?

Because, she realized, her migraines hadn’t been as bad in Maryland, stress or no stress. It was coming back to Serendipity that was the real strain on her nerves, and no wonder. Until all of her secrets were out in the open, she was carrying a tremendous burden inside her heart.

“That Zach,” Jo said as she swished forward and stopped at their table. “What a good, kind Christian man he’s turned out to be. I don’t know what I’d do without him, offering to put up the Christmas lights for me again this year—and then stopping ’round today to fix them up when the wind blew half of them off the eaves. Now that’s Christian charity for you. Otherwise Chance would have had to do it, and he’s already overworked just cooking for me.”

Theoretically, Jo was speaking to everyone at the table, but Delia was well aware that the woman’s comments were aimed directly at her.

Everyone looked toward her, yet no one spoke a word.

“That’s nice of him,” she stated, not knowing what else to say.

“It sure is,” Jo agreed with a chuckle. “It seems to me that man does more around the community and the church than anyone else in this town. No matter what or when the need arises, he’s always the first to volunteer.”