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“Yes, it can.”
A few minutes later Ashley put the drink bottle down and left. She didn’t return the way she had come but instead walked toward where Lizzy had lived. The house was still there but her family had moved away as well. Ashley stood looking at the house. In her mind she could see Lizzy running down the steps to meet h
er. Or jumping as she played hopscotch on the sidewalk where Ashley stood.
It was time to let go. Lizzy and what had happened to her had shaped her own past, but now it was time to find a future of her own making. Ignoring the pain in her arm, she reached up behind her neck and unlatched the necklace. It slipped into the other hand and she dropped it into her pocket. Kiefer was right. She needed to think about what she wanted and needed. And that was him. He was her future. If she could convince him to give her another chance.
* * *
Kiefer had wanted to go straight to Ashley’s parents’ house the second he left the hospital. He had called but she had been asleep. Her mother had assured him she was doing fine. Knowing she needed rest after their ordeal, he had decided to wait. He had things he had to get straight in his mind, in his life, before he went to Ashley and begged her to consider giving him another chance.
What he had learned was that life was unpredictable and could be cut short. Finding someone special was rare and worth fighting for. He hadn’t been able to handle everything by himself during their situation with Marko, but with Ashley beside him they had made a great team. It was impossible to stop bad things from happening to her but he could be there to support her when they did. He’d not been able to protect his mother because he’d been a child. She didn’t blame him and he shouldn’t blame himself.
Ashley had told him more than once that he needed to face what had happened to his mother. He couldn’t confront that man but he could face the man that had threatened Ashley.
The next day Kiefer sat on a metal jail chair in a cubicle, looking at Marko. After some fast talking on Kiefer’s part, he had convinced Bull to arrange the meeting.
Kiefer picked up the phone on the wall. After a moment of hesitation Marko did the same.
Marko jerked his chin at Kiefer. “What do you want?”
“To tell you that your buddy Jorge is going to live. He’ll spend some time in the hospital but he’ll make it.”
Marko shrugged from where he slumped in the chair. “Okay. So you could have sent a message. Why did you show up here?”
“Because I needed to face you. For you to see me on this side of the glass and know you are on that side. To tell you that you’ll never again hold any power over me or Ashley. I’ll be there to testify against you and when I’m done you’ll be forgotten by me forever.”
Marko bared his teeth. “You think I care.”
“It doesn’t matter to me. What does matter to me is Ashley. If you so much as say her name, I’ll use everything in my power to see that you never see the light of day again.” Kiefer pushed his chair back and stood. “Now, you have a good day.”
Kiefer walked out into the sunlight. The day had just become brighter.
He rolled his shoulders and headed toward his car. As for Brittney and Josh, it was time to move beyond what they had done as well. They had been controlling his happiness and he wasn’t going to give them that power anymore. They’d been allowed too much importance in his life for too long. He was tired of having others feel sorry for him and he was disgusted by how long he’d felt sorry for himself. He’d found something good in his life, and he was going to hang on for dear life.
Ashley would never betray him. She was loyal to a fault. To her community, her family and her friends. She would be the same to him as well. There wasn’t a selfish bone in her body. She believed in commitment. Had proved that by her devotion to the people in her life. Ashley was the type of person he wanted beside him forever.
She had not only given him his self-esteem back but she’d given him a home. Not the sterile life that looked like his apartment but something comfortable like her place. He’d become part of Southriver in the short amount of time he’d worked at the clinic. People were no longer people who came and went. They were business owners, grandmothers, young families—friends. He’d had no idea he’d needed that until he’d had it and had been about to lose it. He needed Southriver as much as it needed him.
Now it was time to convince Ashley that they belonged together. That was going to require a grandiose gesture. He had just such a thing in mind.
CHAPTER TEN
ASHLEY GLANCED AT the crowd filling the city council meeting room. There were more people than usual attending. She spoke to another alderman, hoping to garner some support for the clinic. She was afraid she was going to have a fight on her hands.
Her and Kiefer’s ordeal had made the news. She’d done numerous interviews. To her surprise she’d even seen one with Kiefer. She had fully anticipated him to dodge such a thing, but he’d given a good solid sound bite, glossing over what had happened to them and turning the focus on the efforts being made in the Southriver area and what he did at the clinic. He’d made an impressive spokesman.
Others on the council had also been interviewed. They had made it clear in one way or another that they weren’t in support of the clinic or the methods being used to make improvements in Southriver.
Outside of seeing Kiefer on TV, she’d not seen him in ages. It hurt terribly. The clinic had been closed when she’d returned to her place. She had been told that Kiefer had been given some time off. He deserved that. She had also been informed that at this time there was no one to replace him. Ashley couldn’t bring herself to ask any more questions. Whatever she had hoped for with the clinic and Kiefer was gone.
He’d not even called. Okay, that wasn’t true. He had spoken to her mother, but that wasn’t the same as him talking to her. All she could try to do now was accept what he wanted and that wasn’t her.
All the media publicity had shone a light on Southriver, but it had been a negative one for the most part. That was a portion of what the council meeting was about tonight. The mayor and a couple of the aldermen wanted to rescind the funding. Their argument was that the city couldn’t afford to take a chance that what had happened to Kiefer wouldn’t happen to another doctor. The liability was too great.
As painful as it was for the clinic to close, losing Kiefer hurt far worse. It was a constant ache that didn’t ease. More than once she’d been in her kitchen and had stopped what she’d been doing to look at the door to the stairs, thinking she’d heard his footsteps. It would take a long time for her to push memories of him out of her home and even longer for them to dim in her heart.
She couldn’t think about that now. She had a council meeting to survive. A clinic and a neighborhood to protect.
“Okay, folks. Everybody find a seat. It’s time for the meeting to begin,” the city council chairman said, hitting the gavel on a block of wood.
A tingle went down her spine. She turned and looked out over the room. Kiefer had just entered. His gaze met hers and held. For Ashley all the activity in the room faded away. Her heart went into a wild pit-a-pat rhythm and her entire body hummed with awareness. Everything in her zeroed in on Kiefer.
“Alderman Marsh, if you’ll take your seat we’ll get started.”
Ashley blinked. Warmth filled her face. Kiefer grinned. Her hand trembled as she pulled her chair out from under the table. When she looked up again Kiefer was no longer visible. Had he left? Searching, she found him sitting in a seat a couple of rows from the back.
What was he doing here?
The meeting was being called to order. Her focus was divided between what was being said and Kiefer. Normally she was a highly attentive woman where her work as alderman was concerned, but this evening all her focus was on the man who hadn’t taken his eyes off her.
“Ms. Marsh, in light of what happened recently, we feel it’s too risky to ask a doctor to work at the clinic,” Alderman Richards, one of the council members, said.
That statement jerked her out of her Kiefer-induced trance. Alderman Henderson had been the most vocal about not supporting the clinic in the beginning. Now he was bringing others over to his side. She wasn’
t surprised he would be the one who would take advantage of the Marko incident to make his point.
“We can’t let one problem close down the clinic. The people of Southriver should have the care they deserve,” Ashley responded.
“Yes, but we can’t expect the hospital to put their doctors in harm’s way by working there,” another alderman said.
She looked across the table at the woman. “You do know I live in Southriver? Was raised there.”
“Where you live is your choice. The city council asking the hospital to send a doctor there is ours. We don’t want to put ourselves out there for a civil suit if he or she is hurt doing so,” Alderman Richards said, pushing his wire-rimmed glasses back up his nose.
Ashley had heard all the political rhetoric before. “The people of Southriver deserve to keep the clinic. They were supporting it, using it and, more importantly, benefiting from it. More than once Dr. Bradford...” she looked at Kiefer “...identified medical problems that would have been left undiagnosed if the person hadn’t come to the clinic. The patients would have never gone to the hospital until it was too late. He’s even taken care of my mother when she had a severe burn. The clinic is making a difference. Will make a difference if we continue to support it. Close it and it will be the first step toward telling the people of Southriver they aren’t worth the trouble. They’re part of this city just as the rest of the districts are and deserve to be treated that way.”
“Thank you for that impassioned statement, but the problem still remains that the clinic was a scene of a kidnapping and the doctor was taken at gunpoint. We can’t have that happen again or anything else criminal. The hospital isn’t going to put their employees into that type of danger.”
Kiefer stood. His gaze met hers before he looked at Alderman Richards. “I’m that doctor who was kidnapped. Dr. Kiefer Bradford. And I disagree with you. The hospital is going to continue to support the clinic. I am going to continue as director and hope to encourage an additional doctor to join me. I believe in Southriver and what Ms. Marsh is trying to do for the community. I ask that the council continue their support. But even if you don’t, I’ll still be practicing in Southriver. And the city council won’t be able to take credit for the work being done there.”
