Return to Lone Oak (Harlequin Heartwarming) (5 page)

Was this the reason for the bone-deep weariness radiating from his eyes? An explanation for his inability to smile?

Katie looked for links for more information, but saw none. She did a search on the Medical Missions site itself, but only turned up his media profile. No details on his accomplishments or on anything else he’d done for the organization.

She went back to the search engine results and clicked on every link listed. He’d apparently spent some time on the East Coast and had been part of a family practice there before volunteering. But that’s all she found. A few listings on other medical sites, but nothing that told her more about what she wanted to know. About what happened in Africa.

She shut her laptop in frustration. Based on that one photo, it appeared Noah Fletcher was a real hero.

She began to see him in a different light.

It didn’t mean she liked him. His uptight, controlling ways were enough to make her eyes cross. But she could admit—however begrudgingly—that her respect for him had increased significantly.

CHAPTER FOUR

K
ATIE
ROLLED
OVER
,
instantly aware of two things. First, it was far too early to get out of bed. Second, if she didn’t get out of bed now and do something about it, the wound on her chin just might explode.

The cut felt as if someone was taking a pin and pricking drops of acid into her skin. Her head throbbed, and she knew, without touching it, that her chin must be puffed up like a blowfish.

She flipped over and pulled a pillow over her head telling herself to go back to sleep, but that hurt, too. So she rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up, fairly unhappy with the world.

Still drowsy, Katie made her way downstairs to the kitchen to find some breakfast. When she saw that Claudia had picked up a family-sized box of Lucky Charms, she nearly wept with joy. Sometimes it was the small things that got you through.

She was bent over her bowl catching up on the contents of Lone Oak’s weekly newspaper when Claudia came in.

“Morning, Katie.” Then she did a double take. “My goodness, what’s wrong with your chin?”

Katie shrugged. “Hurts.”

“It looks like it does more than just hurt. We need to get you back to the doctor.”

As Claudia spoke, Katie finally woke up enough to realize she was right. Still, she groaned. “No. No doctor.”

“Honey, that’s not something you can ignore. Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll take you in.”

Katie finished chewing her cereal. “I’ll drive myself.”

Her tone was sharp, making confusion and hurt appear on Claudia’s face, but Katie wasn’t in the mood to back down.

“I can take care of myself. It’s no big deal.”

Claudia sat in the chair next to Katie. “Katie.” Tentatively, she touched Katie’s forearm, and though Katie’s instinct was to pull away, she didn’t. “I know you’re still struggling with the idea of your dad getting remarried.”

Katie met her gaze but said nothing.

“I’m not trying to fill in for your mom, honey. We’ve always gotten along in the past and I know it’s going to take you some time to adjust. I just hope we can get back to that comfort level we used to have.”

Katie slumped in her chair, pulling her arm away at the same time. She was acting like a bratty twelve-year-old stepchild and she knew it. The thing was, she didn’t dislike Claudia at all. She didn’t blame her for marrying her dad and didn’t even really blame him for marrying her. In her mind, she understood they were in love and were happy together, and theoretically she wanted that for her dad. It was just that her heart hadn’t caught up with the logic. She couldn’t force herself to swallow such a gargantuan change and go on as if nothing was wrong.

“Claudia, I’ll get there... I hope. But I’m not there yet.” She stood, shoveling one last bite of cereal onto her spoon. “I’ll drive myself to the doctor and I’ll be fine.” She carried the empty bowl to the sink.

Claudia nodded, looking less than happy, but was wise enough not to push the issue.

Katie found the number for the clinic and dialed it on her cell phone as she made her way upstairs.

“Fletcher Family Practice.” Eve’s formal voice made her grin again.

“Hey, Eve. Katie Salinger.”

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“I need to get in to see a doctor this morning. My stitches are infected. Is there any way I could see Old Man Fletcher today?”

“What’s that all about?” Eve asked nosily. “Seemed like you got along okay with Dr. Noah the other day.”

“He doesn’t like me. I’d rather see his dad.”

“He doesn’t like anyone. You’re not special.” Eve chuckled. “Seriously, though, I’m supposed to give all call-ins to Dr. Noah.”

“Why? What if the patient requests his dad?”

“Well, I might be able to get away with it, but he’ll find out. He checks a couple times a day. Doesn’t trust me.”

“So you’ll get in trouble?”

“I wouldn’t say that. If you request his dad, that’s your prerogative, right?”

“That’s my thinking. What’s he trying to do? Take over the whole practice?”

“You noticed he likes control, did you? He claims it’s because he doesn’t want his dad working so hard. I promise you if Dr. Ivan Fletcher finds out, you’ll hear the blowup from there.”

“Wouldn’t blame his dad a bit. I’d blow up, too.”

“Okay. I’m writing you down for Dr. Fletcher, senior. But there’s one condition. You’ve gotta fill me in on what’s going on when you get here.”

“There’s nothing. Really. We just met up on the jogging path last night and he disapproves of me and everything I do. I’m not in the mood for a lecture about how to live my life.”

Eve chuckled again. “That’s so not ‘nothing.’ Can you make it by nine?”

Katie glanced at the clock. Ten after eight. “Yeah, I’ll be there. See you then.”

She headed upstairs for a quick shower. If she had to go out looking like a swollen lobster, she was at least going to make sure she didn’t smell.

* * *

K
ATIE
SAT
ALONE
in a different examining room this time, feeling slightly sick to her stomach. It was all she could do to stay awake while she waited. When this was over, she planned on a very long date with her pillow. Her body ached, as if she hadn’t slept at all the night before, when, in fact, she’d been asleep a bit after midnight. Early for her.

She reclined on the table, unable to resist any longer the temptation to lie down. Knowing Dr. Fletcher, senior, would be the one to walk through that door helped relax her enough to close her eyes and drift off.

When she opened them again, the first thing she saw was the back of a doctor washing his hands at the sink near her head. And if she wasn’t mistaken, that was not the back of an older man. Katie raised herself up to a sitting position, rubbing her eyes and wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep.

Noah turned toward her, drying his hands on a paper towel.

“You’re supposed to be your dad.” She didn’t look straight at him, keeping the puffy side of her face away from him.

“My dad is busy, and I didn’t think it was right to make him busier just because you and I don’t see eye-to-eye on a few things unrelated to your medical care.”

She turned her head toward him with the idea of arguing more, but then his gaze slipped to her chin and she suddenly felt ugly and unsure of herself.

“Ouch,” he said, moving closer to inspect it. “It looks like you didn’t have such a good night.”

She squeezed her eyes shut as he moved his hand toward her chin, anticipating jabbing pain from his touch. But his fingers rested beyond the wound, where her neck met her jaw. This was a gentle caress, somehow caring yet still professional. She was thrown by his apparent concern.

“I swear I’ve done everything you told me to.”

He nodded, still inspecting the wound. “I did say you could jog, didn’t I?”

“Go ahead. Get the lecture over with.”

“It doesn’t sound as if I need to. You know what I’m going to say.”

“I’m bad. I ran too far, too hard. Of course, that was partly to keep up with you. I do too many wild things, don’t take care of myself...”

“Nice start,” Noah said, dryly. “You do need to take it easy so your wrist and chin can heal. However, I don’t think your questionable tendency to chase after adrenaline rushes had anything to do with this wound becoming infected.”

The admission pained him, she could just tell. But the reprieve was much appreciated.

He touched her forehead next, just for a second, then frowned. “You have a slight fever.” Noah glanced at her chart. “One hundred point four, according to the nurse.”

“Am I dying?” She was starting to feel like it.

Noah looked into her eyes, his own lacking the annoyance of the previous night. It almost seemed as if he really did care. If anything, it had to be in a professional capacity. “I think you’ll live. We’ll get some antibiotics started right away. That should clear it up, but you have to promise me you’ll rest all day today.”

“Would it surprise you if I said there’s nothing I want to do right now more than sleep?”

“Probably not as much as it surprises you.” He actually looked a little smug at that. “I want you to go home and sleep.”

“Not a problem.”

“Here’s the catch. When you wake up and think you feel a lot better, I still want you to keep resting.”

She sighed.

“Katie, this isn’t serious yet, but it could quickly escalate. The infection has gotten into your body and we need to get it out.”

“Okay. I’ll keep resting. Yay.”

“I love an enthusiastic patient.”

What he loved was issuing orders, obviously. He thrived on it, she could tell. Probably was still getting a kick out of taking over the appointment she’d made with his dad.

“I found a picture of you on the Medical Missions site,” she said, perhaps in an attempt to get back at him, throw him off kilter.

He was writing a prescription, but the moment she said it his pen stopped. His jaw tensed, but he quickly resumed writing. “Why were you snooping around there?”

“Curiosity. Because you wouldn’t tell me what happened. They don’t provide a lot of information about what you did, but I get the impression it was pretty heroic.”

His head tilted up to meet her gaze. “It wasn’t heroic.” His tone discouraged all argument—or at least it might have with anyone else.

“I saw the little girl you saved, Noah. You got shot and yet you carried her back to camp. I’d say that’s the stuff of heroism.”

He signed the prescription form, pressing the pen against the pad so firmly that she thought it might snap. “You don’t know any of what happened.” He said it so surely that Katie wondered if anyone really knew the story, if he’d ever told a soul. “Please don’t say it was heroic.”

“You’re modest. That surprises me.”

He stood abruptly, ripping off the prescription and holding it out. “It has nothing to do with modesty.”

She studied him, wondering exactly what was going through his head. Clearly he felt strongly about the nonheroic bit, but why?

“Have you done any interviews?” she asked, already suspecting she knew the answer.

“No, and I don’t intend to.”

“You should think about it. It sounds as if it’s quite a story. Everyone’s looking for a hero—people love reading about them.” She folded up her prescription and stuck it in the pocket of her sweatshirt.

Noah opened her file and jotted down a few final notes, ignoring her.

“I have connections at the newspaper,” she continued.

That made him turn to look at her, his eyes hard.

“My dad? The editor? He can assign someone good to write it. Someone who won’t screw up the story. I’d offer to do it myself, but I’m on vacation.” She climbed down from the table, trying to act casual, even though Noah looked as if he might strangle her.

“Rest today. Call us if anything gets worse. Fever, pain, nausea... We’d need to see you right away.”

“Probably would’ve been easier to let your dad handle this appointment, huh?” She grabbed her purse and walked out, feeling his eyes burning holes into her back.

* * *

“Y
OU
’
VE
COME
TO
HAUNT
ME
.” Katie opened her eyes wider, rubbing the sleep from them. She sat up on the deep-cushioned chaise lounge she’d been dozing on. She’d come out to the screened-in porch to read and
rest
and had apparently fallen asleep. Again. She’d crashed for practically the whole day.

“Actually, I came to look at the house again,” Noah said, pulling up a lawn chair and sitting so that he faced her.

She stifled a groan, barely. “So go look. Buy it. Whatever.” She adjusted the seat to a more upright position.

“I already looked, thanks. I’ve been here for almost an hour with your dad.”

Wasn’t that just fabulous. “Well, this is the back porch. See?” She waved an arm at the room. “Now you can go.”

“Is that the magazine you work for?”

He motioned to the latest edition of
Rush
on the end table next to her chair. She’d finished reading it before drifting off.

“Yep. That’s it. It’s got my article on hang-gliding in it. Would you like it?”

“I don’t want to take your copy. I’ll pick it up somewhere.”

“I have others. I always have others. Take it.” She handed it to him.

“So. Did you want something?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

“I’m fine. I’ve rested all day. You can ask Claudia.”

“Feeling any better?”

“I just woke up. Can’t tell yet. Still hurts, though.” She risked running her fingers over her chin.

Noah leaned forward and rested the side of his hand on her forehead. It took Katie by surprise, but her head was already against the chair back so she couldn’t move. He was close enough that she could smell his scent, a combination of soap and man, and she was surprised to realize she liked it. Liked his touch, here, away from the sterile exam room.

“It feels like your fever is gone. That’s good.”

“You should start advertising house calls. Not many people do this anymore.” She babbled to hide her physical reaction, which was growing stronger by the second.

“I’m afraid this visit is a little more self-serving.”

He sat back in his chair and Katie lamented the loss of his closeness. This infection was really taking a toll on her body, making her loopy, she decided.

“Well?” she prompted when he didn’t continue.

“I don’t know how serious you were earlier about siccing a reporter on me.”

“I was serious. I’m a writer. I know a good story when I see one.”

“Please, don’t pursue this.”

The emotion in his normally controlled voice startled Katie, and she took a closer look at him. His eyes held their usual weariness, but she saw something else there, too. Lingering pain. Sorrow. She sensed he was fighting a battle by himself, in his mind, and she almost reached out to touch him. That reaction in her was so foreign that it frightened her. Getting personal wasn’t something she’d ever been comfortable with. Normally, she’d crack a joke and increase her physical distance.