He was putty in her hands. Always had been.
“They meant more than you could ever know, the foal included,” she said softly with a sweet smile.
He fought the urge to trace her cheekbone. “It’s only the beginning.”
Turning around, he made himself walk away.
She had his heart in her hands again.
Now all he needed to do was convince her to do the same.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The growingconviction that she would stay led Hannah to one of her most unpleasant tasks: sorting through her old clothes at her parents’ house.
Before she’d left Edinburgh, she’d gotten rid of most of her meager belongings from her one-bedroom flat, keeping only one-of-a-kind treasures and her favorite clothes, shoes, and the like. Three suitcases’ worth for seven years. But she needed ranch clothes. Especially if she decided to go on a picnic with Ben, an invitation she was still both delighted and surprised about.
Face it. You’re in trouble.
Her father opened the door when she and Neil knocked, not her mother. He was wearing his usual casual doctor’s attire with a white lab coat and already had a sour look on his face. Terrific. For a moment, she thought about giving her father the screw Ben had offered her and tell him he could take a lesson from the man.
“Aren’t you working today?” she asked casually.
“Your mother said you were coming,” he replied in a voice filled with displeasure, “and this kind of disruption upsets her. Besides, I had something I wanted to say to you.”
She knew her testiness was going to filter into her voice, but she found she didn’t care. “What is it?”
“Stop filling the townspeople’s heads with all your nonsense about magic herbs and their power,” he snapped bitterly. “I swear, if I have one more of my patients ask me if I could give them something like that salve you used on Dylan Prentice’s injury, I’ll?—”
“You’ll do what?” she leveled back, aware that Neil was doing his best to make himself invisible. “Father, I’m a certified herbalist with six years of clinical experience. If I can help someone, I damn well will, and if that bothers you, then you should ask yourself why. We have the same goal. Providing professional advice to result in healing.”
Her father threw back his shoulders and glared at her.“Iam a medical doctor, young lady. Don’t you dare suggest we have anything in common. Not after you threw everything away when you didn’t go to med school.”
God, another person harping on the past. Was this how she’d sounded before she and Ben had talked things out? If so, she was glad they were finished. “Forget it. You’ll never understand me, and honestly, Dad, I don’t think you care enough to even try anymore. I won’t inconvenience you any more than I have to. I need to go through my old clothes?—”
“I had the Prentice boys put the boxes with your old clothes and shoes in their garage this morning,” he informed her, “so you could sort through them there and out of the way.”
She couldn’t help but blink at the scorn in his voice.Throwing me out, Father?“Fine. I still have other boxes in my old room to go through.”
Ones that included memories and keepsakes of Ben she now found she wasn’t as afraid to face.
“I’ll have the Prentice boys haul all of your things over to their house. You can go through them without bothering yourmother. She’s upset you’re back, and I won’t have it. Now, I’d best get back to work.”
Stunned, she watched as he closed the door in their faces. Turning to Neil, she shook her head. “Unbelievable! I have half a mind to charge in there and tell him I demand to see Mother.”
Neil took her arm and started leading her down the sidewalk away from the house. “Going a few more rounds will only make you angrier. How badly do you want to keep having a good day?”
Yeah, she’d told him on the way about how wonderfully hopeful her morning had been down to making him chortle when she showed him the screw. “Good point. All right. If Dad wants me to sort through my clothing in the neighbor’s garage, I can do that.”
She practically stomped over to the Prentice house, glancing over to the shuttered windows on the front of the house where her parents’ room was—right next to Sarah’s old one. No light could enter the top floor with the curtains. Then again, there was no light in that house anymore.
When Sarah had died, they’d let her death take everything good, in themselves and with their relationships. Thank heavens she’d committed to healing her hurts. After last night with Ben, she almost wanted to hug him for stepping up to the plate, so to speak, and mending fences. It was certainly more than her father could ever do, proving Ben McAllister was a bigger man than her father would ever be.
Because honest to God, how could a father be so cruel to his only remaining child? Then again, her father blamed everything and everybody for Sarah dying. Even knowing he probably blamed himself as a doctor didn’t lessen her anger.
She turned back toward the house.It’s not my fault that I lived. It’s not my fault you’re disappointed in my choices regarding med school. And it’s certainly not my fault that I’m healing people in this town. Father, you are a small, petty man.
“Hannah!” Dylan hollered, coming onto the front porch. “We’ve got your stuff over here.”
