Baby, Drive South (17 page)

Nikki gritted her teeth and charged through the bushes toward him. He heard her coming, lifted his hat, his eyes wide. “Taking a walk, doc?”

She skidded to a halt. “You! You’re
paying
your workers to come to me with piddly little complaints?”

“Whoa,” he said, holding up his hand. “It’s not what you think. I only offered to give my men paid time off to see the doctor if they had any ailments for you to check out.”

“Dandruff?” she shouted. “Bad breath?”

“Hey, those are legitimate concerns,” Porter insisted, “especially now that women are here.” He reached for his crutches and struggled to push to his feet. “Can I get a hand here?”

She begrudgingly reached down to help him up. Which was a mistake because when he got on her level, she couldn’t avoid contact with those intense blue eyes. Her stomach quivered and the air left her lungs, like yesterday when he’d almost kissed her. Worse, he looked like he was about to try again. She wet her lips, then remembered why she was here in the first place. She drew her head back. “Don’t even try to change the subject.”

He pouted. “Come on, little lady doc—I wanted to help. I thought if I could convince the guys to come see you about small stuff, they wouldn’t be so uptight when it came to something more serious.”

She jammed her hands on her hips. “That’s
so
patronizing! Don’t you dare do me any favors, Mr. Armstrong. The only reason those men should be coming to me is because of the medical degree that has my name on it.”

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “But these men are macho, Southern boys. They have their pride. They’re going to have to ease into letting someone as pretty as you see them in pain.”

The “someone as pretty as you” comment struck her like a slap. He was mocking her. All of his flattery, the near kiss yesterday—and today—was only to manipulate her.

“No,” she said evenly, “they’re not going to have to
ease
into seeing me as their doctor because I won’t be here, remember? By the way, I found the contract you slipped into the folder yesterday. You could’ve mentioned it.” She sneezed violently, then blew her nose.

“I wanted to give you time to look over it, hoped you’d changed your mind. Are you okay?”

“Allergies,” she muttered, dabbing at her eyes. “And I haven’t changed my mind. In fact, I called my former boss yesterday and she’s looking for my replacement.”

Porter seemed surprised. “Well, I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to help us out.”

She crossed her arms. “By the way, how are the repairs on my van coming along? Did the new fuel pump arrive?”

“Uh…Kendall is supposed to bring one back from Atlanta, if he has room.”

She squinted. “I didn’t realize fuel pumps were so large.”

The loud sound of a deep horn blasted into the air over and over, growing louder each time. Porter frowned, then moved in the direction of the noise, and Nikki followed. They emerged from the trees to see two thirty-foot-long delivery trucks pull up in front of the boarding house. Rachel waved from the passenger side of the first behemoth truck.

“Good God almighty,” Porter muttered.

Nikki turned a smile on him. “Looks like he had room.”

18

P
orter tensed as Marcus paced their office behind his desk. Kendall sat next to Porter, looking straight ahead, apparently prepared to take whatever Marcus was going to dish out regarding the two enormous truckloads of stuff he’d escorted back from Atlanta. Porter somehow knew, even though he hadn’t been part of that outing, he was going to get lumped into the tongue lashing that was to come.

Instead of calming down, Marcus seemed to become more irate, like a penned bull. His face grew redder, his hands fisted. Finally, he stopped and planted his hands on his desk. Steam was practically streaming out of his nose. “I don’t even know where to start.”

Kendall threw up his hands. “Just say whatever high and mighty thing you have to say so we can get back to work.”

Porter glanced at his brother, surprised. Kendall rarely provoked Marcus. Come to think of it, Kendall had been uncharacteristically irritable since the women had arrived, as if he were…disappointed.

Porter pulled on his chin. He and Kendall had both underestimated the amount of work it would take simply to convince the women to stay in Sweetness.

Marcus’s eyes bulged. “Get back to work? You mean unpacking knickknacks for the ladies, don’t you? Because from where I stand, there’s not much real work getting done around here!”

“We’re making good headway on the clinic,” Porter added.

But wished he hadn’t, because it only shifted Marcus’s focus onto him.

“Fat lotta good that’s gonna do us with no doctor to run it!”

“She’s still here, isn’t she?”

“But has she signed the contract?”

“Not yet,” Porter muttered.

“Our application for an RHC won’t even be considered if we don’t have a physician on staff. We’ve put this clinic in motion, we can’t stop now.”

He didn’t want to mention that Nikki had put out feelers to find a replacement— He wasn’t giving up on having the homestead land. “I just need some more time to convince the little lady doc, that’s all.”

“So you’re going to continue to hold her hostage and lie about the van?” Kendall asked.

“Absolutely. By the way, I told her you were supposed to bring a new fuel pump back from Atlanta, so if she asks you about it, play dumb.”

Kendall frowned. “That’s your role. I heard you paid some of the men to make up reasons to go see her?”

Marcus rolled his eyes.

“They all had legitimate conditions,” Porter argued. “Small…things.”

“And how’d that work out?” Kendall asked.

Porter frowned. “Not as well as I’d hoped.”

Marcus pointed to Kendall. “You talk to Dr. Salinger about staying.” Then he pointed to Porter. “
You
stay away from her.”

Porter drew back. “What about our deal?”

Marcus gave a wave. “Kendall and I were going to give you the homestead anyway, Porter.”

He looked back and forth between his brothers. “You were?”

Kendall nodded. “So why don’t you let me work on Dr. Salinger. She might respond to sanity.”

Porter’s momentary pleasure about the land deed was strangely overshadowed by the knowledge that he no longer had an excuse to be with Nikki. “But I’m the only patient she has!”

“Maybe we should break something else of yours to keep her busy,” Marcus suggested in a tone that indicated the subject was closed. Then he zeroed in on Kendall. “Back to the matter at hand. I specifically asked you to accompany the group to Atlanta to supervise the spending.” He picked up a stack of receipts and shook them. “What happened? Did you let those females flirt you out of a fortune? Porter can’t help but be an idiot when some woman bats her eyelashes, but I thought you were immune to all of that nonsense.”

“Why?” Kendall shouted, jumping to his feet. “Because I’ve lived like a monk most of my adult life?”

Porter blinked at Kendall’s outburst.

Marcus retreated, apparently just as surprised. “No.”

But Kendall was fired up. “For your information, I think the women made sound choices in technology and equipment that will move this town forward by leaps and bounds!”

They were still staring at him.

“Okay,” Marcus murmured, having had the wind knocked out of his sails.

Kendall seemed to catch himself. “I have to go now,” he said in an odd voice. Then he hesitated as if he’d lost his train of thought, before striding out of the office trailer.

Porter exchanged glances with Marcus.

“What was that all about?” Marcus asked.

“I don’t know,” Porter said. “If you ask me, he’s been acting strange since the women got here.”

“Has he developed an attachment to any of them?”

Porter couldn’t help but notice that Marcus referred to the women as if they were aliens. “Not that I’ve seen. In fact, it’s as if he’s gone out of his way to make himself scarce.”

Marcus stared after Kendall, then scratched his head. “Funny, because I only remember him being distracted and irritable one other time in his life.”

Porter made a rueful noise. “I know. When I razzed him the other day about Amy leaving town, maybe it stirred up bad memories.”

“You think? That’s been, what—ten years?”

“More like twelve,” Porter said. “But you know how serious Kendall is. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still holding a torch for her. Which is why you shouldn’t have come down on him like you did.”

“Excuse me?”

“Come on, Marcus. You know Kendall would never do anything foolhardy. It’s just not in his nature.”

“I know. That’s
your
role.”

“Nice,” Porter said drily. “All I’m saying is if Kendall thought it was worth spending money on all that stuff, then we should trust him.”

Marcus’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the screen. “It’s Mother.”

Porter winced. “She doesn’t know about my leg…or that Kendall went to Atlanta and didn’t stop to see her.”

Marcus frowned. “Anything else we’re keeping from her?”

“She doesn’t know I was the one who broke her blue vase when I was fourteen and glued it back together.”

Marcus punched a button and set his phone on the desk. “Hi, Mom. Porter’s here with me.”

“Oh, good.” Emily Armstrong’s lilting voice floated into the room. “Hello, Porter.”

“Hi, Mom.”

“How are things, boys?”

“Bumping along,” Marcus said.

“Fine and dandy,” Porter said.

“Where’s Kendall?”

“Working,” they said in unison…too quickly?

“Is he all right? The last time we talked, he didn’t sound like himself.”

Porter and Marcus glanced at each other.

“He’s fine, Mom,” Marcus said. “We’re just busy, that’s all. How are you?”

“Missing my boys. What does a mother have to do to get a visit from one of her three sons?”

“We’ll come soon,” Marcus promised.

“That’s what you always say. Porter, I had a dream about you last night, that you were hurt…or something was broken.”

He shook his head. The woman’s intuition was uncanny.

“He’s fine, Mom,” Marcus answered. “He’s just been wanting to tell you he’s the one who broke your blue vase when he was fourteen and glued it back together.”

“Thanks a lot,” Porter mouthed.

“Oh, I knew that,” their mother sang. “How’s the town coming along? Kendall told me a caravan of women arrived from Michigan.”

“Yeah,” Marcus said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “That’s why we’ve been so busy.”

“Any love matches for my boys?”

“No,”
Marcus and Porter said in unison.

Too quickly? Porter wondered again. “But we have a doctor now,” he offered. “And we’re building a clinic.”

“It’s good to know I won’t have to worry about a doctor when I move back to Sweetness,” she said. “I can’t wait until that day comes.”

Porter waited for Marcus to say something, but when the silence stretched on, he said, “We’re looking forward to that day, too, Mom.”

“I’ll let you boys get back to work. I love you.”

“We love you, too,” they chorused, then Marcus disconnected the call.

Porter reached for his crutches and pushed to his feet. “I should get going. I have some hot water heater issues to sort out, and I promised Kendall I’d oversee the staking of the colossal garden the women are so gung-ho to plant.”

“Porter?”

He looked back.

Marcus jammed his fingers into his hair, then sat on the edge of the desk. “I’m starting to wonder if we can pull this off.”

Porter was dumbstruck. Marcus was asking for reassurance from him? He struggled for words. “Of course we can. We’ll rebuild this town and bring Mother back, just like we promised.”

“That day seems so far away.”

Porter cast about for an analogy they could both relate to. “It’s like when we were deployed. You can’t get bogged down thinking about the war—you just have to take it one battle at a time.”

Porter waited for Marcus to tell him he was full of crap or make some other dismissive big-brother remark.

“You’re right,” Marcus conceded. “The Armstrongs have never backed down from a challenge. We’ll figure this out.” Then he straightened and nodded to Porter’s cast. “How’s the leg?”

“It’s not slowing me down…too much.”

“I noticed that blonde Rachel giving you the eye. Anything happening there?”

Porter felt compelled to defend his reputation as a playboy, and wasn’t about to admit that he was more interested in getting a real kiss from the little lady doc. “Maybe. I’m keeping my options open. How about you?”

Marcus scoffed. “I’m not looking for a woman.”

“Famous last words,” Porter said with a grin, then left the office. But when he got outside, he had a knot in his gut.

It was unsettling to see Marcus unsure of himself, no matter how fleeting. Porter hadn’t realized, until this moment, how much he relied on his big brother as a life compass, especially since their father had passed away. Marcus carried a mountain of responsibility on his shoulders. They were talking about building an infrastructure and economy that could make or break future generations.

Porter swallowed hard. For months now, the reconstruction had consumed his waking hours, but day-today tasks had distracted him from the big picture of what they were trying to achieve. When considered in its entirety, the mission of rebuilding an entire town was…

Daunting.

He wouldn’t have dreamed of attempting it without his brothers. Knowing that Marcus felt the same way bolstered his confidence and worried him at the same time. He suddenly felt the mantle of obligation settle around his own shoulders. Maybe the stress of it all was getting to Kendall, too.

Porter rode one of the four-wheelers to the boardinghouse to consult with the plumbers who were reassessing the hot water system. Unfortunately, there were no short-term solutions. Hot water would continue to be scarce, which he knew didn’t help their case when it came to convincing Nikki to stay. He made his way to the room that had been turned into Nikki’s temporary office and noticed, with a cringe, that four of his men were sitting in the chairs lined up in the hallway.