Newborn Needs a Dad (5 page)

Not to hear Karen talk about it. His ex-wife had accused him of so many things over the course of their marital breakup, and he was pretty sure his skills at being a gentleman had probably fallen in there somewhere. “Let’s just say that I’m out of practice, and for the foreseeable future I don’t expect to be getting much practice.” Work was easier. It didn’t betray him the way his wife had.

“This is the part where I
don’t
ask questions, right? Because I’ve never been very good at the distinctions. Some people say something leading, like you did, then drop it, hoping to really drop it. Others say something leading, then drop it, hoping the other person will pick it up. But I’m sensing that you don’t want me to do that…to pick it up and ask questions.”

“Failed marriage. In and out quickly with a lot of ugliness in the middle. That’s about all there is to say about it.”

“Even though I’ve never been married, I know that’s
never
all there is to say about it, Neil, but I won’t ask.”

She really did fascinate him. There were so many complex layers to her, it could take a lifetime to peel them all back to reveal the full essence of Gabrielle Evans. What an astonishing lifetime that could be for some lucky man. “Are you always so direct?” he asked.

She nodded. “I attribute it to my relationship with my dad. He was a busy man, didn’t have time to waste, and he’d always tell me that if I wanted to know, ask. If I wanted to be heard, speak up. Worked for him, works for me.”

“Your dad was right, and being direct is oddly becoming on you.”

She wrinkled her nose, forcing back an almost shy smile.

“You don’t take compliments very well, do you?”

“In my experience, compliments often come with conditions. So let’s just say that the one offering the compliment has to grow on me before I’m comfortable with the compliments.”

“Am I growing on you yet?”

“Sprouting,” she said.

Yes, she was very direct, and he liked it more and more. In fact, he seriously doubted that Gabrielle could ever lie, or be even the slightest bit deceitful. So where had
she
been when he’d been convincing himself he loved Karen? Because Gabrielle Evans, in the right place at the right time, could have changed so many things in his life.

“I
THOUGHT
you’d gone home after our meal.” Neil picked up the last of the gauze scraps and tossed them in the trash, then snapped off his gloves and dropped them in the trash, too.

“I did, actually. Got ready for bed. Lay down. Couldn’t sleep. Decided to take a walk, and here I am.”

“Let me guess. You were the top student in your medical-school class.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because you couldn’t do anything less. You’re the obsessed type who never eases down, and being anything but the top student would have driven you crazy.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

Neil laughed. “For most people, probably. For you, it’s kind of cute. So, did you try counting sheep?”

“Did that. Got to about a million, then tried reading a medical journal. That didn’t work either, so I took a walk, only it stimulated me even more.”

“So you want me to do what? Bore you to sleep?”

“For me, boredom means an empty mind. An empty mind means more time to think. More thinking means less sleep.”

“In other words, you came here to work.”

“I saw several patients in the waiting area. You could use me, couldn’t you? Since you’re the only one on.”

“Nobody ever wins with you, do they, Gabrielle?”

“I try not letting it happen too often.”

“And I’m not getting rid of you, am I?”

She shook her head.

“Room three. Mrs Blondell. Indigestion. She probably had oysters for dinner.”

“That’s it? All I get is indigestion?”

“Take it or leave it, Doctor.” He grinned. “Sometimes I get to win, too.”

On her way to exam three, Gabby thought about how much she liked Neil. He was just…easy. Easy to talk to, easy to be around. “So, what can I do for you this evening, Mrs Blondell?”

In response, the round, ruddy woman burped. Then giggled. Then burped again. “Oysters,” she said. “Happens every time I eat them.”

“Have you ever thought about not eating them?”

“I limit myself to once a month.” Rumbling burp. “And the consequences are annoying, but worth it.”

“Then how about taking some kind of a preventative before you indulge so that you can cut down on the consequences?”

“A month’s worth of preventative for one night of indulgence? That’s a high price to pay for an occasional weakness, don’t you think?” Mrs Blondell held her breath while Gabby listened to her chest, then her belly.

When she was finished, satisfied that nothing but a good case of acid indigestion was going on, Gabby pulled the stethoscope from her ears and took her patient’s pulse. “In my experience, you’re going to pay one way or another. Trust me,
the cure won’t be so bad, and you’ll be able to have oysters twice a month, if that’s what you want.”

“Was it oysters?” Neil asked a little while later as they passed in the hall.

“I gave her a few antacid samples to take home with her, and prescribed an antacid to take on a regular basis.”

“Which she won’t take. Won’t even buy. In fact, you’ll find your prescription torn up and tossed in the trash on the way out.”

“So why does she bother coming in?”

“Lonely. She’s seventy-two, widowed, and I think some of her evenings get pretty long. She eats oysters to remind her of her husband, even though they don’t agree with her any more. They went out on the twenty-eighth of every month for fifty years and celebrated their marriage with a romantic dinner.”

“And had oysters,” Gabby said, as a gush of weepy hormonal tears overtook her. “And today’s the twenty-eighth. That’s so sweet.” She brushed at the unexpected tears with her hand, but Neil fished a clean tissue from his pocket and handed it to her.

“What’s sweet is fifty years with the same person,” he said, his voice a little thin. “More like a miracle.”

“Spoken like a man who’s jaded about marriage.” Sniffles coming to an end, she stepped over to the nearest sink and washed her hands.

“Jaded about one marriage in particular. Admiring of the ones that make it.” He gave her a patient chart. “Room five, mysterious rash. Nothing sentimental as far as I can tell.”

“Well, one bad marriage doesn’t a bad institution make. In my opinion.”

“Eternal optimist?”

“Don’t you have to be when you’re a doctor? Especially an obstetrician?” She took the chart from him. “Or even someone falling in love?” Without awaiting an answer, Gabby
marched straight into a full hour of incidental complaints—nothing too taxing, nothing communicable. Because Neil was considerate. He could have stuck her with the flu patient who came in dehydrated and coughing, or the man with the gashed hand who was loud and obnoxious, but he didn’t. He was protecting her. Giving her what she wanted by allowing her to work yet looking out for her at the same time.

If they’d been more than colleagues, she might have considered that a little romantic. Maybe not as much as oysters, but nice all the same.

So why wasn’t a man like Neil Ranard taken? He was a looker in every way that should attract a woman. Great personality. Considerate. Good doctor. Yet he seemed to have no life outside his work. It didn’t seem like he wanted one. So, why was that?

It did make her wonder, especially when she stood off to the side in the emergency department, as she was doing now, watching him work, watching him interact with other people. He was with a grumpy child. A
loud
, grumpy child with a tummy ache. The little boy had been crying for fifteen minutes, then Neil pulled back the curtain, entered the emergency cubicle, and…what was that he did? Did Neil make a funny face? She couldn’t tell, but suddenly the child was laughing. No words even spoken.

The way he related to his patients was simply astonishing. And the way they responded to him… Just like the little boy did. People lit up around him. Reacted in amazing ways. Come to think of it, she had reacted like everybody else did.

Well, one thing was certain. Whatever kept Neil estranged in his personal life had to be his choice. Because as she watched him work, she noticed any number of admirers who would have loved being included in his off-duty hours. The clerk at the emergency desk who couldn’t keep her eyes off
Neil, the volunteer who giggled when he got near her, the grumpy little boy’s mother… Neil Ranard had a way about him when he was being a doctor. Just not so much in the personal sense. “So, anything else?” Gabby asked when he left the child’s cubicle. She was actually beginning to feel a little tired. “Because I think now would be a good time for me to go back to the cabin and get some rest. Unless you need me.”

Rather than looking at her, he looked straight at her belly. “Your baby is the one who needs you right now…needs you to be rested.” Then he looked at her. Stared straight into her eyes, with no attempt to rush the encounter—apparently lost in thought before he finally spoke. “So, go. Take care of yourself. And Bryce.”

It surprised her to hear him say her baby’s name. Until now, no one ever had. They always said
the baby
or
it
. But, honestly, she was pleased that he’d even remembered Bryce’s name, and hearing it from someone else gave her an unexpected thrill, like she wasn’t the only one in the world who thought of her child as a real person. “For once, I’m not going to argue.” She arched her back, then raised her hand to rub the small of it, but Neil stepped behind her and started a gentle massage to her shoulders.

“You don’t mind me doing this, do you? Chivalry may be a little old-fashioned, but sometimes old-fashioned is called for.”

Rather than answering, she responded with a groan that sounded more like a purr. And did it again when he found a particularly tight muscle in her neck. “Magic hands,” she murmured, not intending to say it out loud.

“In that case, gratuities accepted.”

His hands moved back to her shoulders and it was all Gabby could do to keep herself from going weak in the knees and collapsing right into his arms. “And what kind of gratuity would you like, Dr Ranard?”

“Haven’t decided. But I’ll let you know when I think of it.”

“Sounds fair. But I reserve the right to make conditions.”

“I figured you would. In fact, being direct the way you are, I never thought you would have it any other way.”

Gabby started to laugh, but at that moment Neil discovered a very sore spot between her shoulder blades, and what started as a laugh turned into a groan. “You know you could make money with those hands,” she said, her voice a little raspy. “Open a massage therapy clinic…”

“You’d be my first patient?”

His hands splayed out from shoulder to shoulder, and his fingers applied that perfect amount of pressure—pressure that verged on both pain and pleasure at the same time. The hurt that felt so good. It wouldn’t take much for her to become addicted to this…on a regular basis. “First in line.” Whole body treatment. His hands everywhere… Well, that was a thought a woman in her advanced condition shouldn’t be having. But she couldn’t help it. If the rest was as good as this…

“I heard you and Neil had dinner together last night.” Laura Stewart sat down across from Gabby and plunked her coffee mug on the table, indicating she was going to stay awhile.

“Small-town talk,” Gabby replied. She’d slept in late since she had no early morning appointments, had a leisurely breakfast, and was now enjoying a lazy view of the main street, watching all the people heading off to their various destinations. Some were in a hurry, some were not. Some drove cars, others walked, a few ran. And there were a handful of brave souls on bicycles, pedaling against the chilly air, which gave Gabby the shivers, even sitting so close to the lodge’s large stone fireplace, with its morning fire all crackling and cozy.

What she could see from her favorite table was an amazing snapshot of everyday life, but there was so much space in
White Elk. Nothing was crammed in here. Not the buildings, not the people. And the street was not permeated with the sounds of impatient motorists honking, and passers-by shouting their anger and frustrations for anyone to hear, like she’d grown accustomed to in Chicago.

Gabby felt good here. Maybe that was what she liked best about this little town. She didn’t fit in, didn’t know anybody. Didn’t even have any kind of a life here. But she felt good, maybe even more optimistic about her future than she had for quite a while. Truth was, she didn’t especially mind the small-town talk, even when it involved her.

“Then it’s true? You did?”

Gabby shrugged. “I had dinner, he had dinner. And, coincidentally, we sat at the same table. So I guess the answer is yes, but not to the things people might imply from it.”

“Ah, but rumors still fly, no matter how you might want to defend yourself. And up here, at this elevation, where the air is clearer, they seem to fly a little faster.”

“You mean the rumor about the pregnant stranger and the handsome town doctor?” She laughed. “It may sound like the title of a romance novel, but I’m afraid it was just dinner. He ate. I ate, and ate, and ate…”

“We worry about Neil because he doesn’t take time for himself. Doesn’t have a lot of fun in life. And I’m not going to spread rumors here, or tell you anything I shouldn’t, but everybody I know wants him to have…more. Good things. Happiness. He deserves it.”

Laura sipped her coffee while Gabby pondered what she’d just said. So Neil was a bit of a recluse? Or maybe so dedicated to his work that he got lost in it? Honestly, she could relate to that. Her father had been much the same way, and to a great extent she took after her father in that. Her dad had buried himself in work because he’d lost the love of his life
much too early. And she’d buried herself because that’s all she’d known. Maybe for Neil it wasn’t a bad thing, being that way. According to Laura, though, it wasn’t such a good thing either. “Well, when the rumor flies your way again, would you mind infusing it with a bit of truth, that it was a casual dinner between two medical colleagues? That’s all. No need for speculations.”

“I think there might be some disappointment with that,” Laura replied.

“Haven’t people noticed the obvious about me?”

“People notice what they want to notice. Carol Vincent, the night clerk at the hospital, said Neil looked happy when he came back from dinner. Apparently that was much more obvious to her than your condition.”

“And?”

“We don’t see that smile on him much. That’s what made it so noticeable.”

“So when he does smile, it starts a rumor?”

Laura laughed. “Under normal circumstances, I’d say no. But because it’s Neil, and because he’s so well loved… Look, I’ve got to get busy. I just wanted to stop by for a moment, say hello, see if there’s anything you need.”

Anything she needed? Now, that was a loaded question because the honest truth was, she did need, but she wasn’t sure what. “I’m fine,” she said, trying to figure out what should be on the top of her list of needs. “A little surprised that I’ll be staying here for a while… You don’t mind me staying in the cabin, do you?”

“I love having you in the cabin. Normally at this time of the year there’s no one to talk to, so this is good. And I know Angela is glad you’re here. With what she’s been going through lately…” Laura stopped abruptly.

“What?” Gabby asked.

“If I told you, that would be small-town gossip, wouldn’t it?” Laughing, Laura scooted away from the table. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that it’s good to have you here, and I’m hoping that after six weeks you’ll decide to call it home.”

A lot could happen in six weeks, but for now Gabby decided that no decision was the best one. Liking the texture of the little town was one thing, but settling down here and setting up a new life…she just didn’t know if that’s what she really wanted to do. Of course, she didn’t know if that was
not
what she wanted to do either.

After Laura scurried off to do whatever it was she had to do, Gabby bundled up for her walk to the hospital. Her morning schedule was light, but she did have patients to see. And according to her schedule, the day was going to begin with some kind of a dedication. She wasn’t sure what, wasn’t even sure she was going to go see what it was about. But when she arrived at the hospital, the entry corridor was bustling with people. Dozens of them, all headed in the same direction.