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He felt his eyebrows travel toward his hairline. “Although I never tire of hearing that, especially from you, it’s so rare. But I’m one step behind. What was I right about?”
She made a face. “Felicity’s stomachache. It was definitely brought on by stress. Her recovery started almost immediately after I told her she didn’t have to start school today.”
The comment brought him to the other reason for his visit.
“I’d like you to bring her into the office for a complete exam.” Last night had been an emergency, but Ethan didn’t normally treat patients unless he knew their history. “I assume you have access to her medical records.”
She nodded. “The school required them for enrollment.”
“Bring them with you to her appointment.”
“Okay. Ethan, I...” She hesitated, clearly debating whether to argue the point.
He cut her off before she could begin. They were in his wheelhouse now. “Keely, the child needs a primary care physician.”
“You’re right, of course.” She gave him a firm nod. “I’ll call the office later today and make an appointment.”
“Good.” They were on the same page.
“But I think it would be best if I made it with one of the other doctors in your practice.”
“Why not me?”
“I... It’s hard to explain.”
“Try.”
She dropped her gaze and sighed again, softer this time. “I guess it’s because we’re neighbors. It could get awkward.”
Nearly everything about their relationship was awkward. But this wasn’t about them. Or was it?
“Is it because of what happened at the Young Professionals mixer last year?”
“Of course not.”
The response came too quickly. He lifted a single eyebrow.
“All right, yes,” she admitted. “It’s partly the reason.”
Something inside him went ice-cold. “You’re still holding that against me?”
Her gaze snapped with familiar annoyance. “You embarrassed me in front of Parker Thorpe and two of his associates.”
Of course he’d stepped in. For good reason. “The guy was married.”
“And that matters why?”
“Married,” he reiterated.
“Parker and I were just talking.” She huffed out the words in obvious frustration.
Ethan resisted the urge to hiss out his own frustration. He and Keely had done this dance too many times to count in the past year.
Yet, no matter how he explained his side of the argument, the woman refused to believe he’d actually been looking out for her. At the time of the mixer, she’d been new to town and had no idea what kind of guy Parker really was beneath the dentist-enhanced smile and hundred-dollar haircut.
“Look, I’m not saying the conversation wasn’t innocent, at least on your end.” He held her stare. “But it wasn’t on his.”
“You can’t possibly know that for certain.”
“Parker Thorpe is, was and always will be a player.”
“As I recall, you said the same thing about Kenny Noble.”
Ethan frowned at the reminder. “Kenny was eighteen. And you were twelve.”
“I was thirteen. And, besides, I was just talking to him.”
“You were still too young to be hanging out with a senior in high school. You were only twelve.”
“Thirteen,” she corrected again, this time with an exaggerated eye roll. “There was no need to tell him how old I was—”
“I beg to differ.”
“—in front of half your stupid football team.”
Okay, she had a point there. Ethan ran a hand over his jaw and went on the defense. “I was trying to protect you, not just from Kenny but from all the guys.”
“That’s your argument? You were protecting me? By humiliating me in front of your friends?”
That hadn’t been his intention. Several of the guys had made derogatory remarks about her curvy figure. Ethan still felt a simmering rage whenever he remembered some of the names they’d called her.
He started to explain himself, again, but she cut him off. “I have to get back inside. Felicity will be wondering where I am.”
She turned to go.
“Keely, wait.”
She spun back around. “What now?”
“Don’t forget to call and set up Flicka’s appointment. Make it with me or Connor, it doesn’t matter, as long as you—”
He was talking to her back.
“I mean it,” he called after her, raising his voice over the wind. “The kid should see a doctor for a complete exam.”
She stopped, sighed, slowly nodded. “I’ll take care of it today.”
Despite her reasonable tone, Ethan sensed she was still upset. And that bothered him. A lot. Keely wasn’t a woman who held on to petty grudges. If she was still this twisted up about the past, then he’d clearly hurt her and would have to make it up to her.
If only he knew how.
Chapter Three (#ulink_1cc627e7-7832-5331-bf1d-a4daf27ae96f)
The rest of Ethan’s morning went about as smoothly as his conversation with Keely. Before he saw his first patient, he had a stack of lab reports to review and phone messages to return, nearly all of which required his immediate attention.
He prioritized. Then took action, tackling the refills from pharmacies first, the more involved problems next. Halfway through dictating a letter on a patient he was referring to a specialist, his computer screen went blank. “Not again.”
He pounded at a few keys, only to lose most of the work he’d completed in the past hour. Good times.
Mouth grim, he tried to focus, but an image of breakfast with his neighbors flashed in his mind. He hadn’t realized how much he missed being part of a small, happy family.
Logically, he knew he’d been living in limbo too long, running in place, moving neither forward nor backward. He wasn’t ready for another relationship; perhaps he never would be, but it was time to stop spinning his wheels. Time he got connected in the community and did his part for the town.
Decision made, he opened his email program and fired off a message to a former classmate and the newly elected mayor of Village Green. If there was a volunteer opportunity in need of Ethan’s particular skills, Hardy Bennett would hook him up.
Ethan sat back. Why didn’t he feel better? Why couldn’t he shake the notion that the need for his skills was much closer to home, literally next door? He’d seen something in Flicka’s eyes, a sense of loss he recognized on a soul-deep level.
Clearly, the story behind the little girl’s arrival in Village Green was an unpleasant tale. Because he knew how it felt to have the future yanked away without warning, the unsettling sensation in his gut dug deeper.
His nurse stuck her head in the office. The Santa hat sitting at a jaunty angle on her head, along with the jingle-bell earrings she wore, was a visible reminder that the Christmas season had officially begun. “Your first patient is here, Dr. Scott.”
He glanced at his watch, frowned. Tasha Dupree was ruthless when it came to keeping Ethan and his partners on schedule—one of the many reasons he valued her—but she was way ahead of herself this morning.
“My first patient isn’t due until nine.” He raised a hand to keep her from interrupting. “I marked off the extra time this morning to answer phone calls and update patient charts.”
“It’s a walk-in. And before you tell me to hunt down one of our other doctors, the patient specifically requested you.”
Ethan made his way around his desk. Tasha gave him a big, toothy grin. He eyed the nurse more closely. She definitely had an amused look in her dark brown eyes that were the same color as her hair.
Somewhere in her late twenties, Tasha was known for her quirky sense of humor. He had a bad feeling about this walk-in appointment.
“You gonna tell me the name of the patient?”
“I’d rather let you find out for yourself.” She handed him the tablet she’d brought with her.
Ethan gave the screen a cursory glance, and groaned when he noted the name of his early-morning walk-in. Lacy Hargrove.
No denying the young divorcee was beautiful. She was also on the prowl for husband number three. Word around town was that she planned to bag herself a doctor this time around. Ethan was currently at the top of her list now that his medical partner Connor Mitchell was newly married to Ethan’s sister, Olivia.
Tasha gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. “Want me to join you in the exam room?”
“Does a chicken have wings?”
The question earned him a dry laugh. “Of all the birds you could have referenced, I find it interesting you chose a chicken.”
Ignoring the wisecrack, Ethan scanned Lacy’s complaint. When his eyes landed on a familiar word—stomachache—his mind went to last night’s patient.
Ethan liked Flicka. But she reminded him of the little girl he’d thought would become his stepdaughter. Samantha had been just as sweet, just as charming. With his mind poised between past and present, he experienced a moment of utter grief before tucking away the emotion and focusing on work.
Blinking the screen back into focus, he finished reviewing the notes on Lacy’s ailment. Mouth pressed in a flat line, he handed the tablet back to Tasha and spoke in an even tone. “Where did you put the patient?”
“Exam room 3.”
“Let’s go.”
“Right behind you.” Adopting his same professional manner, Tasha followed him down the hallway in relative silence, if he didn’t count the tinkling jingle bells.
After determining that Lacy’s stomachache was simply indigestion, Ethan gave her the name of a good antacid, bolted from the room and continued seeing patients throughout the day.
By half past six, he was back at his desk, staring at his computer without really seeing the screen. He’d been feeling off since last night’s unplanned house call. The encounter with Keely had opened old wounds. This morning’s homey breakfast had only made the pain that much more real.
As he leaned back in his chair, Ethan’s gaze landed on a photograph from his army days. He was in full battle gear, his arm slung over Tracy’s shoulders. He’d been sent to Afghanistan to treat high-value patients. Tracy, an experienced helicopter pilot, had been assigned to fly the injured soldiers in from the battlefield.
It was love at first sight for them both. Following regulation, they’d held off dating until they were back in the United States. Tracy had been a single mother. Her daughter, Samantha, had stolen Ethan’s heart nearly as quickly as her mother had.
He’d proposed to Tracy six months after their first official date. She’d died three weeks later in a freak accident eerily similar to the crash that had taken his parents.
Samantha’s biological father had shown up at the funeral and taken her away immediately following the service. Ethan’s heart had been ripped out not once, but twice.
The loss of so many loved ones had left its mark. Life was fragile and could be gone in a blink. Too much pain came with loving and then losing. He would not willingly fall in love again, wouldn’t—couldn’t—go through another funeral.
Yeah, okay, he knew it was irrational. He loved his siblings, didn’t he? He could lose them, just as he had lost all the others. But why cloud the issue with logic, when he was perfectly happy living in the great state of denial?
Ethan didn’t blame God for his many losses. That would give the cold, distant deity too much power.
Needing to get away from his maudlin thoughts, he abruptly rose and left the office building. Once he was sitting in his SUV, the engine idling, he checked the time on the dashboard. Ryder would have left already for his shift at the hospital.
Ethan wasn’t especially looking forward to going home to an empty house. At least Baloo would be there waiting for him. Man’s best friend.
Fifteen minutes after pulling out of the office parking lot, Ethan swung his car onto his street. His neighbors had begun decorating their houses. Lights blinked from roofs. Man-made snowmen, plastic reindeer and Santa sleighs adorned the snow-coated lawns. He’d been dropped in the middle of Christmas Town, USA.
Instead of soothing his dark mood, the decorations reminded him of the family he’d lost, the plans he’d had for the future.
Once he was safely inside his garage, he told himself for the third time—or was it the fourth?—that he was perfectly fine with Baloo’s company for the evening. He actually preferred to be home alone with his dog most nights. He couldn’t experience any more grief if he didn’t let any more people into his heart. He had his siblings. They were enough.
He could practically hear his mother sighing in disappointment, and Tracy telling him that was no way to live. Yeah, well, they’d both left him. Not by choice, but he felt the hole in his heart, and his life, anyway.
Baloo greeted him with a series of exuberant barks.
Ethan scratched the animal behind the ears. “Bet you’re ready to go outside.”
Rising to his full height, Ethan glanced briefly out the window and noticed Keely’s house ablaze in light.
His throat cinched up tight. Since when did his neighbor turn on all her lights? Maybe Flicka was sick again. Or was she afraid of the dark? The thought tugged at the part of him that had nearly become a father.
There was something about the kid, something in her eyes, a lost look that reflected his own pain. He’d sleep easier knowing she was all right.
And while he was checking on the child, he’d point out to Keely—with extreme patience, of course—that she’d forgotten to make the appointment for Flicka’s wellness visit. It was the responsible thing to do.
