Читать книгу The One And Only - Laurie Paige - Страница 9

S helby Wheeling smiled with the youngster as the doctor made a funny face at him, told him to say, “Ah,” then checked his throat.

Dr. Dalton tossed the tongue depressor in the trash can. “For an old guy, you look pretty good to me. Don’t forget to pick up a book on your way out,” he said.

“To keep?” the boy asked.

“To keep,” the doctor assured him.

The free checkup for all children entering kindergarten was a new program for the school, sponsored by the state, to see if it could nip problems in the bud and result in fewer absences for the new students.

“Tonsils,” Dr. Dalton said to her after the child left the room. “Make a note to keep an eye out for strep infections and sore throats.”

Shelby quickly wrote the observations on the boy’s chart and filed the chart in the special box provided by the state of Idaho for the Lost Valley School District. As the school nurse, it would be her duty to follow up on the doctor’s orders.

New to the area, Shelby was still enthralled by the “Wild West,” as her parents back in the Low Country of South Carolina called the area. The Seven Devils Mountains arched spiny peaks into the blue bowl of the sky to the west of the valley. The Lost Valley reservoir eventually drained into the Salmon River, which ran into the Hells Canyon of the Snake River dividing Idaho from Oregon.

Rugged, mountainous land.

She glanced at the doctor as he helped a little girl up on the stool. Dr. Nicholas Boudreaux Dalton was handsome as sin, a beguiling devil with nearly black hair and eyes the color of the western sky. He’d asked her to call him by his nickname, Beau.

According to her landlady at the B and B, there were several other Daltons just as deadly gorgeous.

This particular one was very good with children, kind and teasing with the little ones, but all serious business with her. That suited her just fine.

She wasn’t in town for romance. Far from it. She wanted to find her birth parents and to discover if any genetic disorders ran in the family. Her adoptive mom and dad worried about her getting hurt. They urged her to put the past behind her and to make a new life, but she needed to know this one thing for her own peace of mind.

“Say ‘ah,’” the doctor told the girl.

“Ah,” she mimicked, then she stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes.

“Hold it,” Dr. Dalton said, and pretended to take a picture. “We need to run a photo on the front page of the paper. ‘Monster on the loose in Lost Valley. Can’t see well, but may be dangerous. Tickling makes it disappear,’” he said as if quoting headlines.

The five-year-old giggled when he proceeded to give her a gentle tickle under her ear.

The childish laughter caused an instant flash of pain along Shelby’s nerves, and with it, the regret and the terrible sense of loss.

Like now, the memories came at odd moments. She’d be fine, then some little thing—the delighted gurgle of a baby, the happy squeal of a child in a park, the closeness of a family having dinner in a restaurant—would throw her into the tangled web of the past.

The helplessness of watching her own child slip away from life returned like a hammer blow to her chest. Nine months of carrying the baby, a year of watching her slowly fade due to a metabolic disorder until she went into a coma for a day, then…then it was over, and Shelby was left with only the memories. And the regret.

“Okay, Kenisha, I think you’ll be fine in school,” Dr. Dalton said. “Try not to give your teacher a heart attack with the monster face.”

The girl scrambled down from the stool and dashed into the reception room to pick out a book, her mother rushing to keep up with her.

“Her weight is low, off the bottom of the chart for her age and height,” he said. “I want her on a daily vitamin program. Put her down for recall in three months.”

Shelby heard the words, but they didn’t register. She knew she should be writing something, but her hand didn’t move across the page of the girl’s chart.

“Shelby?”

She stared into the blue eyes, the handsome, serious face, but she didn’t respond to the question. Locked someplace between the past and the present, it was as if she didn’t exist in either time.

“Hold the fort,” Beau said, sticking his head around the door frame and speaking to the volunteer who was directing the flow of children into the examining room of the clinic. “Give us ten minutes to catch up.”

He closed the door, then poured two cups of coffee. “Here. Drink this.”

He watched the new school nurse as he held the plastic cup out toward her. She blinked, looked from him to the cup, then accepted it. Her fingers trembled slightly.

“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.

She shook her head. A ghost of an apologetic smile appeared and disappeared, flashing over her mouth so rapidly he wasn’t sure he’d seen it. “I was running late. The alarm didn’t go off. Fortunately, Amelia woke me.”

Amelia was the owner of the local B and B. A thoughtful person, she’d sent some muffins to the clinic that morning for the staff. From Shelby’s remarks, he assumed she was staying at the grand old Victorian.

“Low blood sugar,” he diagnosed, although he was sure it was more than that. He made a point of not prying into other people’s problems. Unless the person was a patient, of course, which she wasn’t. “We’ll take a break. Sit down for a few minutes.”

“Yes, thank you,” she said. She took a seat and sipped the steaming coffee.

Beau went into the staff room, snagged two muffins and two cartons of nonfat milk and returned. His assistant was sitting where he’d left her, her gaze on the peaks visible from the window.

She glanced his way. Her eyes were as blue as his own, but her hair was a flaming auburn, as straight and fine as silk thread. Caught with a blue band at the nape, it cascaded down her back like a flow of hot lava.

He’d wanted to touch it since meeting her last week for the preschool consultation with the state and county officials about the new program. Interest of a physical nature hummed through him. He mentally took a step back to observe his own reaction.

Yeah, he was interested. But he wouldn’t act on it.

Inhaling deeply as he put the treat on the counter behind her, he caught the subtle scent of shampoo and soap and talc, but no added cologne or perfume.

Her face, with its hint of golden freckles, was free of makeup. Its shape was a classic oval, like those in pictures depicting saints and such. He wanted to run his fingers along her cheek to see if her skin was as soft and smooth as it looked. Normally flushed a healthy pink, she looked pale now. “Peaked,” his uncle Nick would say.

“Eat,” he said.

She did as told. He let the silence linger between them while they finished the snack. Slowly the color returned to her face. Serenity seemed to enclose her in a protective aura, a thing he’d noticed at their first meeting, as if she existed in a clear shell that the world couldn’t penetrate.

Again, he felt the tug of interest, only this time it was centered on her character. Was she reserved by nature, or had life shaped her that way?

None of his business, he reminded the curious part of him. Theirs was a business relationship.

“Thank you. That was delicious.” She wiped the corners of her mouth, smiled and stood. “Sorry, but what was I supposed to put on Kenisha’s chart?”

“Her weight is rather low. That in itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but I want to keep an eye on her. She’s to get a daily vitamin. Let’s see her again in three months.”

“Right.” She wrote the information and flagged the chart, all business again now that she’d eaten.

Beau decided his original diagnosis had been correct—she’d needed a break and something to eat. After tossing the plastic cup into the trash, he told the receptionist to continue sending the kids in.

Normally on a Wednesday he’d be helping Zack over at the resort they were building at the lake. Instead he’d spent the time in the office. He and several local citizens were donating their services through the clinic he’d opened in July, a month ago today, to the cause of children’s health before they started school in a couple of weeks.

Restlessness assailed him. Another two hours and they would be finished for the day. Then he’d head for the lake.

Shelby, the new part-time school nurse, stored the file in the box and selected the next one. Her smile was all gentle welcome as the next child came through the door.

His heart kicked into gear with a hard, steady th-thump that added to the hum of sexual energy running through him.

Cool it, he advised his libido. He didn’t mix business and pleasure, never had, never would. However he did have a proposition to put to her. He’d already decided to invite her out to lunch when they finished.

It was after twelve before the last of the youngsters in the new program were checked and pronounced fit. The kids were also going through a battery of tests to determine their readiness for school. Welcome to the exciting world of learning!

“How about some lunch?” he said to Shelby.

She shook her head and closed the file box provided by the state. “I, uh—”

It was obvious she couldn’t come up with a reasonable lie fast enough to account for a refusal. Her reluctance was a challenge. It wasn’t often a Dalton was refused by a woman. However this wasn’t the two-step of courtship.

“It’s business,” he assured her.

“Business?” she repeated, looking dubious.

Beau wondered if she was so used to mowing men down with a glance from those blue eyes and a toss of that flaming hair that she couldn’t comprehend a straightforward business offer. “Yes. If you’re available, I thought we could discuss it over lunch.”

She looked so relieved, he was almost insulted. He concluded he must be losing his touch. True, it had been a coon’s age since he’d dated. Opening the clinic here and turning over his office in Boise to another doctor had taken up a lot of time and energy. It was a move he’d been saving and planning for, for five years.

Thinking over the past week, he didn’t think he’d given the new nurse any reason to distrust him. He hadn’t made a single untoward move during the four meetings they’d had to set up the screening program for the schoolkids.

With rueful amusement, he wondered if that was the problem—she’d expected a pass and he hadn’t delivered. The town gossips tended to paint the Daltons with the broad brush of conjecture and innuendo, recounting every escapade from their youth with delighted indignation to newcomers.

“I suppose that would be all right,” she finally agreed after taking her own sweet time to think it over.

“Good. Let’s go. I’m starving.”

He escorted her to his old pickup. She glanced at the vehicle, then at him. He couldn’t help but grin at her surprise. “The royal chariot,” he intoned, opening the door for her with a grand sweep.

The August heat, trapped in the interior of the truck, rolled over them like a blast from a furnace.

“Whew, let’s let it cool out a bit first,” he suggested. He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, then flipped the air conditioner on to maximum air.

She got in, fastened the seat belt and looked at him without a hint of expression on her Madonna-perfect face.

For the first time since first or second grade, he felt rattled by a female’s stare. That she expected nothing and wanted nothing from him was obvious. Puzzling, too. He’d never had such a nonreaction from a member of the opposite sex. Well, so much for the famed Dalton charm.

Laughing silently at his somewhat dented ego, he slammed the pickup door and headed for the lake. He wondered if she’d accept his proposition.

“How quaint,” Shelby murmured, entering the restaurant with its rustic wooden interior when Beau held the screen door open for her.

“Sit anyplace you like,” a young woman advised, smiling at them from the cash register. “I’ll be with you in a jiffy.”

“There’s a place by the window,” her handsome companion said, gesturing across the plank floor to the opposite side of the room. Since it was after the main lunch hour, there were only three other occupied tables at present.

Beau took her arm and guided her to a table commanding a view of the Lost Valley reservoir and the mountains beyond. When they were settled, the hostess brought menus over. “The special is barbecued beans on cornbread with salad or coleslaw. It’s delicious,” she told them. “Your waitress is Emma. She’ll be with you shortly. May I bring you something to drink?”

“Iced tea, please,” Shelby said.

While he echoed her order, she observed the scene beyond the large window. The sun emblazoned diamond dust over every leaf, every blade of grass, every ruffle of water in the lake, so that the whole world seemed to sparkle.

She sighed, filled with a sort of nostalgia now instead of the intense grief. Like the endless sweep of the waves at the seashore where she grew up, the mountains had a therapeutic effect on her soul, easing the pain of loss and the hopes that had once filled her eighteen-year-old heart.

If there was one thing she had learned since that youthful time, it was that life was relentless. She’d only to live one day at a time, then the next, and the next, and then somehow, a year went by, and another, and another.

The heart does go on.

Her companion dug some change out of his pocket. He lined up a penny, nickel, dime and quarter on the table between them. When she raised her eyebrows in question, he flicked a finger toward the coins.

“However much your thoughts are worth,” he said. “Take your pick. Or all of them.”

After the waitress delivered tall glasses of iced tea, Shelby looked over the change and selected the quarter. “It’s the Kentucky commemorative quarter,” she told him, holding it up so he could see. “My mother came from there. Her parents had a farm and boarded horses. She loves to ride and still does to this day. We always had horses when I was growing up.”

“Do you like riding?”

She nodded, then added truthfully, “Not that I’ve done much for the past ten—no, eleven—years.”

“We’ll have to see if we can’t change that. My family has a ranch near here with plenty of horses just lazing around and getting fat.”

The low, sexy cadence of his words rippled with easy affection as he mentioned the ranch. She knew he’d grown up there, raised by his uncle Nick along with five other Dalton orphans, his mother having died in childbirth and his father in an avalanche that also claimed his cousin’s parents more than twenty-two years ago. Amelia at the B and B had told her this much.

The soft aura of regret enlarged to include him. He, too, had suffered loss. He, too, had gone on and made a life for himself.

Heavens, but she was sentimental today. She laid the quarter back in the line and turned her attention to a couple who strolled along the lake path.

Her companion pushed the quarter toward her and pocketed the rest of the change. “That was for sharing your thoughts. You’ve been pensive today. Do you miss your folks?”

She nodded, letting him think she might be homesick. Baring her soul to anyone wasn’t her way.

“So why did you leave the civilized east and come out here to the wilderness?”

“I’m looking for a cowboy, of course. Isn’t that the American icon of manly courage?” Her grin wasn’t exactly sincere, but she managed to hang on to it.

“Ready?” the waitress, who looked as if she might be sweet sixteen, inquired.

Shelby ordered the special. The doctor did, too, but added barbecued beef on the side. When the girl was gone, he eyed her for a minute.

There was something about his serious manner that was appealing. He had depth to him. And a solid presence that a person could depend on.

A slight shudder rippled through her. Her husband, as youthful as she, had deserted her and their child after the first month of sleepless nights and worry. He’d been the boy next door and she’d had a crush on him for as long as she could remember. He’d promised he would always be there.

Always had been exactly ten months after the marriage.

Closing her eyes for a second, she willed the memories to fade back into the hazy mist of the past. What was done, was done. She opened her eyes to find Beau studying her with a somewhat quizzical expression.

He was probably wondering what made her tick, seeing that she tended to go off into a daze every little bit today. She’d better pay attention if she wanted to keep her job and do her research.

“Sorry,” she murmured, “I was daydreaming. The mountains are so beautiful I find it hard not to simply stare at them. What did you want to talk to me about?”

“A job.”

That surprised her. “Well, I already have one.”

His smile was quick and somewhat wry. “It’s part-time. I wondered if you might be interested in working at the clinic as my assistant in the mornings.”

“I’m teaching health classes at the high school three mornings a week. It’s also part of the new program funded by the state.”

“Yeah, the weight problems of the average American family has hit the national conscience, it seems. Education is part of the solution. Exercise is the other side of the equation, in my opinion. Not that anyone has asked me.”

His laughter reminded her of soft mornings and quiet walks, of birdsong and the whispers of the wind through the pines, of the peace she’d experienced since arriving in this enchanted valley. She could almost forget she had a mission.

“A daily activity program will be part of my class,” she told him, glad of an innocuous topic to discuss. “Diets don’t work for most people. Less than ten percent of those who diet keep the weight off a year later while those who stick to a regular exercise program do.”

“Right. Say, maybe we can incorporate some kind of program for our patients,” he said.

She realized where her enthusiasm for healthy lifestyles was leading. “I can’t take on anything else at present. But thank you for thinking of me.”

He shrugged, irritation or disappointment flicking through the thoughtful blue eyes. Well, she couldn’t live her life to please him. She had her own problems.

Her mom’s worried gaze appeared in her mental vision, her eyes the same deep blue as hers so that most people thought they were truly mother and daughter by blood. Maybe she was wrong to come here, to want to find out what she could about her birth parents.

Putting the past behind her sounded simple, but if she ever married again, she had to know…before she could chance having other children.

The heart-hurting love and regret hit her again, as always when she thought of the precious life that she’d once held in her arms—

“You okay?”

She blinked and came back to the present. “Sorry. I keep going off the deep end today, don’t I?” She laughed softly to indicate it was nothing serious, only spring fever or something like that.

Realizing she sounded nervous instead of amused, she took a sip of tea and fought for composure, building the wall around her emotions one stone at a time until she was safe behind it again. Their meal arrived, relieving her of the need for small talk until they were alone again.

“You’re very good with the children,” she told him. “Putting them on the stool while you sit on a chair puts them on the same eye level. That way you don’t loom over them like some colossus.”

His face lit up in pleasure. Her heart gave an odd hitch that disturbed her equanimity a bit.

“I hated getting shots when I was a kid,” he said. “One doctor had my mom sit on a stool and hold me while he sat on another one to do the examination. He told me he had to give me a shot, but it wouldn’t hurt as much as it had before. He was right. It didn’t seem nearly so bad. Since then, I’ve tried to remember what it’s like being a kid.”

She realized Beau would make a good father. A sigh forced its way past her lips. She hadn’t picked well when it came to a father for her child. Her nineteen-year-old husband had panicked and run when he realized there were serious problems to be faced.

Her parents had taken her and their grandchild in. Because of them, she’d weathered the storm of anger and grief and regret. Due to their loving support, she’d come through the ordeal a stronger person. With their help, she’d gone on to nursing school so she, too, could assist others in times of need.

Glancing up, she met the fathomless gaze of her companion. A feeling that all would come right, that here in this rugged country she would find the answers she sought, spread over her like a golden light. She smiled.

His lips curved in response.

Her smile grew.

He chuckled. “That’s better,” he said in a lower tone. “A real smile rather than a polite one.”

Their eyes locked. Time became suspended between one heartbeat and the next. She hadn’t trusted anyone outside her family since she was nineteen. Ten years. For a moment, caught in those incredibly blue eyes that seemed open clear to his soul, she relaxed her vigil. Warmth swept through her.

It was such an odd sensation that it took her a moment to recognize what it was and even longer to realize what had caused the acute stir of blood inside her.

An attraction. One that promised to be intense.

Her smile wavered. She wasn’t here for either a fling or even something more lasting. Her search for the truth of her past took precedence over everything else. Knowing that, she would then leave and start a new life in a new place.

Those were her plans.