Читать книгу The Doctor Next Door - Marta Perry - Страница 11

The good thing about going to the café for breakfast, Brett decided, was that no one bothered you unless you wanted to talk. When he’d walked in the door, the early morning regulars had greeted him as if he’d been there yesterday morning, instead of years ago. Then they’d gone back to their newspapers or conversations about the weather and the state of tourism.

Nostalgia had prompted him into the third booth from the back, the one that had belonged to him, Alex and Mitch when they were in high school. The blue-padded seats looked like the same ones. With a mug of Cassie’s coffee steaming in front of him, he shook out the newspaper and prepared to get up-to-date on Bedford Creek news.

Halfway through the front page, someone slid onto the bench across from him. He looked up to find Mitch flagging Cassie and the coffeepot.

She got there before he could gesture again. “Like old times, the two of you sitting here together.” She set the heavy white mug on the table and filled it in a swift, efficient movement. “You just need to get Alex here with you.”

“We’ll work on it.” Mitch waved away a menu. “Just coffee, thanks.”

Brett raised an eyebrow. “Does Anne have you on a diet?”

“I had breakfast two hours ago. Cops get an earlier start than doctors.”

Mitch might have been up for hours, but his blue uniform was as sharply pressed as if it had just come off the rack. That was the lingering effect of years in the military, Brett had always supposed.

“When I was interning, I don’t think I ever went to bed. Come on, Mitch, admit it. You’ve got it soft these days. Cushy job in a small town, beautiful wife-to-be…”

Mitch grinned. “Plus a couple thousand tourists, no staff to speak of and two kids.”

“And you love it,” Brett pointed out.

“And I love it.” Mitch’s smile softened, as if he were thinking of Anne. “I’m one lucky guy.” Then his gaze focused on Brett. “What about you?”

The mixture of relief and guilt he’d felt the night before flooded back. “I told Doc last night.”

“And?”

Brett shrugged. “Great, fine, I have his blessing. You know Doc. He wouldn’t say anything else.” Maybe that was what bothered him most—that Doc would be so unfailingly supportive, even when Brett was disappointing him.

“Look, you have to do what you’re called to do.” Mitch spread big hands flat on the table. That was what he’d said when Brett told him the day before. “We both know that. Doc knows it, too.”

“I wish it were as clear-cut as that. If Doc were ten years younger, it might be. But I’ve seen him at the end of the kind of day he’s putting in at the clinic. He’s exhausted. It’s time he took it easier—even thought about retirement.”

Mitch shook his head. “Doc won’t retire. Face it. He’d rather die in harness.”

“I’m not going to let it come to that.”

“So what are you going to do? You can’t force him to take it easy. He’s the only doctor in town, remember?”

The decision he’d made the night before still seemed right. “That just means I have to act fast. I have to find someone else to work at the clinic, eventually take over for him. That’s the only way.”

Mitch’s skeptical look spoke volumes. “Easier said than done. The clinic board tried that a couple of years ago. The world isn’t filled with doctors who want to settle down in a town of five thousand, miles from anywhere. And anyone who was interested, Doc didn’t think was good enough.”

“There has to be someone.” Stubborn determination filled him. “And I’m going to find him. Or her. I’ve already talked to Rebecca about it.”

Mitch frowned. “I guess we both know what Rebecca thinks you should do.”

“She’s made that abundantly clear,” Brett said. His mouth twisted wryly. “She looked about ready to have me horsewhipped when I said I wasn’t back to stay.”

“I can imagine. She feels pretty strongly about Doc.”

“I know.” Brett turned the bluebird-patterned mug in slow circles on the tabletop. “I don’t quite know why she’s here, though. She could have gone anywhere when she finished her training.”

“That’s about when her father was diagnosed with cancer,” Mitch said. “You know how close they were. Rebecca came home to see him, and just stayed. Doc was in and out of the house all the time. John Forrester was a friend as well as a patient.”

“He was a good man.” John Forrester—quiet, unassuming, honest—had been part of Brett’s life for as long as he could remember. “I can understand why she came back then, but not why she stayed.”

“I guess she felt her mother needed her,” Mitch said. “Face it, Angela’s got a good heart, but she doesn’t have a whole lot of common sense. And when Quinn’s wife died, his little girl moved in with them. Rebecca’s got her hands full, I’d say.”

“Yes, I guess she has.” And probably a big debt she felt she owed Doc.

“One thing’s sure.” Mitch smiled, but his eyes were serious. “If Rebecca thinks anything you do will hurt Doc, she really will horsewhip you. I guarantee it.”

Rebecca couldn’t let it go. She paused in the parking lot outside the clinic, lifting her face to the September sunshine. That conversation with Brett ran through her mind over and over again.

He would leave. That was the bottom line. He’d try to solve Doc’s problems before then, but she knew the reality of the situation, even if he didn’t. He wouldn’t find a solution—not in a few short weeks, not even in a few months, probably.

That panicked sense of time running out gripped her again. What was she going to do?

She closed her eyes. Help me, Father. Please. You’ll have to guide me, because I don’t know what to do.

When she opened her eyes, the autumn colors seemed a little more golden. She took a deep breath, some of the tension in her shoulders ebbing. Now if she could just remember to leave the burden in God’s hands, instead of picking it up again, she’d be better off. She took another deep breath and walked into the clinic.

Brett was already there. He stood at the cabinet, looking over some files, and her heart thudded at the sight of him. He glanced up, sea-green eyes frowning, and waved a chart at her.

“Where are Alex’s medical records?”

She frowned right back. “Are you seeing him today?”

“No.” He eased away from the drawer, looking surprised that she’d question him. “But I’d still like to see them.”

She hesitated. What would Doc say to that? Brett didn’t really have any official standing, but…