The Doctor's Blessing (18 page)

“I’m sure she must be. I don’t want you to worry. I’ll take care of getting the equipment ordered.”

“My Church will pay for what is needed.”

“Fine. As soon as it’s installed in your house, Grace can come home.” Phillip knew he was grinning like a fool, but he couldn’t stop.

At the door, Elijah said, “My thanks for your efforts to help my daughter and my wife. You have been a gift from
Gott
to my family.”

Pulling open the office door for him, Phillip said, “I’m glad I could help.”

Elijah looked down at his hat and then back to Phillip. “This cure they are looking for, you will help them find it?”

“I’m afraid I must leave that to more qualified doctors.” What he wouldn’t give to be part of that battle.

As the man walked away down the hall, Phillip stared after him. He did want to be a part of finding answers and cures, not waiting for others to do the work. He’d never be content to send grieving parents out his door without being able to give them hope.

Suddenly, he realized he’d been heading down the wrong career path.

Perhaps this had been God’s purpose in bringing him to Hope Springs. To show him where his true calling lay. Not in family medicine like this, but in genetic research.

Amber once said God used her sister’s tragedy to reveal her true calling. In his heart, Phillip knew he was being called, too. Not to follow in his father’s footsteps, but to forge a new path for himself.

I’m listening, Lord. I’m finally listening.

Excitement percolated through his body. He’d need a new degree. It would mean more years of study. He knew just where to make it happen. At his alma mater, the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The door beside his office opened. Amber peeked out. “Well?”

Wilma came rushing down the hall. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

Phillip stepped back into his office. The women crowded in. Holding his arms wide, he grinned. “They said yes.”

Happy screams almost raised the roof. Phillip found himself the center of a group hug and joyful jumping.

Wilma broke away first. “I’ve got to call my husband. We’ve been praying about this all weekend.” She dashed out of the room and headed for her desk.

Shyly, Amber smiled at Phillip and placed both her hands on his chest. “You done good.”

“With your help.” His heart turned over and he pulled her close. She had become as important to him as breathing. How could he live without her?

He loved her. He loved her with all his heart. Would she leave this place and come with him to Hawaii if he told her that? He braced himself to find out.

The outer door of the office opened. Expecting Wilma, he looked over Amber’s head and his mouth dropped open.

Harold, leaning on crutches, stood in the doorway scowling at them. “Don’t let me interrupt. On second thought, what’s going on here?”

With a squeal of delight, Amber tore away from Phillip to embrace his grandfather. “Harold, I’m so glad you’re back. Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?”

Wilma squeezed through the door behind them shaking with excitement. She, too, threw her arms around the man. “God has answered my prayers. It hasn’t been the same without you.”

He hugged both women close. “I’m happy to be back. I don’t think I’ll ever leave this town again.”

“Good,” Wilma stated firmly, patting his chest. “Now, maybe things can get back to normal around here.”

Phillip stood back, allowing them their long-awaited reunion. Finally, his grandfather looked up and met Phillip’s gaze over the women’s heads. Harold said, “That’s my plan. I’m here to make sure that things get back to normal as soon as possible.”

A
mber walked slowly toward Phillip’s office the following morning. The door stood open.

Harold’s office, she corrected herself. It would take some time to get used to that again. She stopped in the doorway and watched the man she had come to love more than anyone in her life. Busy packing his few belongings, he didn’t see her.

The dreaded moment was here at last. She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t. “You’re leaving?”

He looked up. His eyes were filled with the same pain and longing that was tearing her heart to shreds. “Yes.”

“When?” She took a step inside the room.

“I’ve got a flight out of Cincinnati at two o’clock. I can make it if I hurry.”

“Today?” He heard the despair in her voice because he stopped packing and came to take her in his arms. Huddled against his chest, she said, “I don’t want you to go.”

If she told him that she loved him, would he stay? Did she have the right to ask him?

He whispered, “You could practice as a CNM in Hawaii. It’s a beautiful, special place.”

Those were the words she both longed and dreaded to hear. “There are no Amish in Hawaii.”

The strength ebbed out of his embrace. “Why are they so important to you?”

“I don’t really know—except I believe this is where God wants me to be.” She looked up. “Why don’t you stay? You know Harold could use the help.”

“Not according to him. He’s in a rush to get back in the saddle. I’m in the way. I’ve changed things.”

“He’s bluffing. He does need help, especially now. He can barely walk.”

“Even if I didn’t have commitments in Hawaii, I wouldn’t stay longer.”

“Of course. It was silly of me to ask.”

He held her at arm’s length. “Let’s not make this any harder than it already is. We knew from the start that I was only here for a short while.”

Her throat ached with unshed tears. “Somehow, I forgot that.”

Gently, he stroked her cheek. “So did I. I never meant to hurt you, Amber.”

“I know that.”

“You are the most amazing person I’ve ever met in my life. Knowing you has been an honor. I’ve learned so much from you about the Amish, about birthing babies and a great deal about myself. If you ever change your mind, you’ll be welcome in Hawaii.”

“I thought we weren’t going to make this harder than it already is?” Her voice caught on the last word and she pressed a hand to her lips as she struggled not to cry. “I’d love to see your island, but Harold is going to need me more than ever. I can’t run out on him now.”

“No, and I shouldn’t ask you to do that.” Defeat laced his words. She stepped away from him and wondered why life had to be so difficult.

Just then, her cell phone rang. As much as she wanted to
ignore it, she couldn’t. One of her patients needed her. The longer she stayed with Phillip the harder it became to say goodbye.

Holding up the phone, she said, “I have to take this.”

She silenced the ringing and put the party on hold. Taking another step away, she said, “Have a wonderful flight. I know you’ll be a great doctor in Hawaii. Send me a postcard of the ocean.”

She turned and ran before the tears started falling again.

Phillip pressed his fingertips to his eyes to ease the burning pain behind them. Why had God allowed him to find the most perfect woman in the world only to put her out of reach?

A tap at the door made him look up. Harold stood in the doorway. “May I come in?”

“It’s your office.” Phillip turned away to finish putting his few personal belongings in his carry-on case. The last item to go in was Doctor Dog. Phillip drew his hand over the puppet’s silky ears before putting him away.

Harold cleared his throat nervously. “I’m hearing good things about what you did while you were here. I’m a little sorry now that I rushed back.”

Phillip glanced at his grandfather with concern. “Are you well enough to be back to work?”

Holding out his leg cast, Harold said, “I’ll need some physical therapy when this comes off, but they tell me I’ll be as fit as ever. The old noggin gets headaches. Hopefully, those will fade.” Stepping close, Harold said, “I know you didn’t have an easy time here, but I’m proud of the way you handled yourself. Your father would have been proud of you, too.”

“I hope someday I can become as good a doctor as he hoped to be.”

Harold drew back, a puzzled frown on his face. “Your father never wanted to be a doctor.”

Stunned, Phillip stared at his grandfather. “Wait a minute. What are you saying?”

“My boy wanted to be a musician from the time he could reach the piano keys. I know you idolized him, but he drifted from club to club playing his saxophone and guitar. He was always broke, never had a decent place to live. I prayed for him. I paid for his college but he blew that, too.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” It was like Phillip’s world had tipped off its axis.

“Was it your mother who told you Brendan wanted to be a doctor?”

“Yes.”

“What else did she tell you about him?”

“That he loved baseball.”

“I wouldn’t say he loved it, but he enjoyed Little League.”

“And did he surf?”

“As far as I know, he never tried it.”

Phillip sat down, his knees suddenly weak. His entire life he’d done things because he believed they were the things his father wanted to do. It had all been a lie. Why?

He thought back to those times. When his mother wanted him to play ball, he refused at first. Telling him his father had loved the sport had changed his mind. Shortly after that, she began dating his coach.

She’d never brought up the subject of surfing until they moved to California. She had hooked up with more than one beach bum during those years.

He looked up at Harold. “Why did my father join the Marines?”

“Your mother should tell you that.”

Phillip stood and picked up his bag. “This time she will.”

He started to leave, but Harold grabbed him in a fierce hug
and clung to him as if for dear life. “I’m going to miss you, my boy. I love you, more than I thought possible. I loved your father, too. Remember that and don’t think badly of me.”

“I could never think badly of you.”

Sniffing once, Harold straightened. “It was great getting to know you. Thank you for everything you’ve done to keep this practice going. It’s all I have left in the world.”

Pulling a card from his pocket, Phillip handed it to him. “This is the number of a young doctor who’d like to go into practice with you. You should give him a call. The Amish deserve to have someone here after you’re gone. Hopefully, that won’t be for many years so you can train him up the way you want.”

Harold took the card. “God bless you, Phillip.”

“And you, too, sir.” With a nod of goodbye, he walked out to the lobby. Wilma rose from her desk and came around to shake his hand and wish him well.

Out in the parking lot, he tossed his bag on the front seat of his car, then glanced toward the building once more. Amber stood at the window in the first exam room. She raised her hand and pressed it to the glass.

He raised his hand briefly in return, then got into his car and drove away.

His flight was long and tedious, giving him plenty of time to rehash every decision he’d made in Hope Springs. Right or wrong, he still wasn’t sure. He put his pain and unhappiness in God’s hands. The Lord had a plan for his life that he couldn’t see yet. He had to believe that.

After seventeen hours in a cramped airline seat, he was more than happy to get off the plane. To his surprise, his mother was waiting near the gate.

“Mom! I wasn’t expecting you.” He gave her a quick hug.

“When my baby is gone for two months, do you think I
wouldn’t want to see you the moment you got off the plane? Tell me about your stay in that frightful place.”

Petite, with an artfully styled riot of red curls that wasn’t her natural color, Melinda Watson tried never to look her age, yet tonight she looked much older than he remembered. There were carefully disguised dark circles under her eyes.

He wasn’t ready to talk about his time in Ohio. “Mom, what I want is a hot shower and to sleep for a week.”

“I thought you could use a lift back to your apartment.”

“I could have grabbed a cab. Where’s Michael?”

“I didn’t tell him you were coming today. I thought you and I could visit for a while.”

“All right. Let me get my bags.” He was tired, but he didn’t want to dampen her happiness. Besides, he had questions he needed to ask her.

“Marvelous.” She clapped her hands together. “Why don’t we have dinner at the Maui Fire? I hear it’s the hot new place.”

After catching his bags off the carousel, he followed his mother outside into the warm, tropical evening air. He could smell the sea. For the first time in his life it didn’t make him want to pick up his board. It reminded him of Amber…and her sea-green eyes glistening with tears.

How was he going to function if he couldn’t cross the airport parking lot without missing her so much his heart felt like a jumble of broken glass?

His mother continued to chat aimlessly on the drive. Watching the familiar sights of high-rise hotels and waving palm trees, he couldn’t help comparing the glitter and glitz to the simple rolling hills and plain white farmsteads of the Amish countryside.

“You’re very quiet,” she said, sneaking a peek at him.

“I’m tired.”

“A good dinner will perk you up in no time.”

He didn’t want food. He wanted answers. “Why did you tell me my father wanted to be a doctor?”

“Because he did!”

“Was that before or after he wanted to form his own rock band?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she slowed the car and turned into the parking lot of one of the popular beaches, stopping the car where they faced the ocean. The waves came sweeping in, each topped with a whitecap of foam. His stomach was churning in much the same fashion.

After rolling down the windows, she turned the car off. Gripping the steering wheel, she stared straight ahead. “Phillip, I wasn’t a very good mother when you were young. I know that. I do.”

She turned to gaze at him. “But I’ve been a good mother since I met Michael, haven’t I? I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

“You’ve always done your best, Mom. I love you, too.”

“I know how excited you were to find your grandfather, but he isn’t a good man. Believe me, I know.”

Phillip drew a deep breath. Was he finally going to get to the bottom of this? “He is a good man, Mother. He’s kind and devoted to the Amish and his community.”

“Well, he wasn’t always that way. Your father and he never got along. Nothing Brendan did was good enough for Harold. Finding out that Brendan and I were planning to get married infuriated him. I wasn’t good enough for his only son.” Scorn dripped off her every word.

Phillip wasn’t sure he liked where this conversation was leading. “Some parents have trouble accepting their child’s new spouse at first. It normally changes over time.”

“Harold didn’t want his son tied down with a family at such a young age. He knew Brendan couldn’t handle it, that it would destroy his life. We were only nineteen and I was
pregnant. We were as poor as dirt, living in Brendan’s van half the time. Oh, Brendan’s father had plenty of money. He could have helped us but he wanted his son to earn his own way.”

Phillip tried to imagine what his mother had gone through back then. “I’m sorry things were so difficult for you. I never knew.”

“And I never wanted you to know but there’s no point in hiding it any longer. Your grandfather came to me and offered me a lot of money.”

Phillip’s heart sank. “He paid you to leave my father?”

“He paid me to get rid of you.”

The blood rushed to Phillip’s brain and sent his head pounding. “I don’t believe it!”

Calmly, she replied, “It’s true. When Brendan found out, he flipped. He and your grandfather had a terrible fight. Brendan told his old man he’d find a way to support his wife and a child. Then he stormed out of the house and stopped at the first recruiting station he could find.”

“That’s why he joined the Marines?”

“Yes. We were married before he shipped out and he was killed three months later. It’s your grandfather’s fault that your father is dead.”

Leaning his head back against the seat rest, Phillip listened to the waves and struggled to digest all the information he’d been given. Had he wanted his grandfather to be a wonderful man so badly that he’d been blind to Harold’s faults? Perhaps that had been true, at first.

Phillip realized that he’d spent his life longing for something he could never have. He’d never have his father watch him at a ball game or sit in the audience at his graduation. Maybe he’d gone to medical school because he thought that was what his father would have wanted, but medicine was where Phillip belonged. It was his vocation.

Images of Amber slipped through his mind, quieting the turmoil inside him. Amber knew where she belonged in life. Now he finally did, too.

He couldn’t stay in Hawaii. He had to confront his grandfather, to find out if this was the truth or more of his mother’s manipulations.

Then he needed to tell Amber that he loved her. He’d been a fool to leave without telling her how he felt. If she returned his love, somehow he would to find a way to keep her in his life.

He looked at his mother. “Thanks for telling me this, Mom. I’d like to go to your house now. There are some important things I want you and Michael to hear together.”