"Wasn't my best.”
Rose went back to the kitchen and flipped whatever was sizzling on the grill.
She came back out and said, "You've got the look.JB used get that look when a call out went wrong on him or his guys at the fire station.Like a man pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks uphill."She looked at him directly."What's got your mind so stirred up it won't let you rest, Hank?"
He knew the answer.He'd known it lying in the dark with his heart pounding.
He couldn’t tell her the truth.Or at least not the main truth.Instead, he chose a lesser problem in his life.
He wrapped both hands around the mug."In all my years of medical practice, I've never kept my own ledgers.There was always somebody in the office to do my billing, file insurance claims, chase down checks that bounce.Now, I’ve got this shoebox overflowing with receipts, a drawer full of unpaid accounts, and a stack of envelopes from insurance companies I can’t bring myself to open.Those claims adjustors might as well be writing to me in a foreign language for all I understand their mumbo jumbo."
All of that was true.None of it was the thing that had him walking around town before dawn, though.
He said ruefully, "I'm a fair hand at fixing people up.But I’m drowning in paperwork."
"So hire somebody," Rose said practically.
"In Cobbler Cove?"He almost smiled."You know of any bored and unemployed medical office managers hiding around town somewhere?”
“Can’t hurt to post a help wanted ad,” she replied.
“I supposed I could put up a job posting between the church bulletin and the lost-dog flyers.”
"Mm."Rose headed back to the grill, and he got the brief, distinct sense that she’d filed away his complaints for later.She called from the kitchen, "Somebody'll turn up.They always do."
She set a plate in front of him.Scrambled eggs, bacon, a fresh out of the oven biscuit, and the good hash with fried onions, crispy potatoes, and finely chopped corned beef that wasn’t on the menu and she only made when she felt like it.
"I only came in for coffee," he protested.
"You came in looking like you haven't eaten a decent meal in a week, which you probably haven’t."She topped off his mug."Eat.You can't pour water out of an empty glass, Doc, and the whole town's drinking from yours."
He ate.It was easier than arguing, and she wasn't wrong.Plus, the food was delicious.
"How's Madison settling in?"Rose asked, wiping down the counter."Been near three weeks now."
"Fine."He reached for the biscuit."Good.She's fine."
Rose's mouth tugged sideways."Fine, huh?"
"She is."
"Hank Steele, that girl has been in my diner at least six times, ordered exactly the same thing every time, said please and thank you, ate every bite, and told me precisely nothing about herself."Rose leaned on the counter."She’s quiet.Watchful.Keeps her to herself more than any girl that age I’ve ever known.Tell me, where do you suppose a child picks up a habit like that?"
He found, abruptly, that the biscuit needed his full attention.
"Chip off the old Steele block," Rose said, not unkindly."Apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it?Not a big talker about her feelings, that one."
"She's been through a lot.Had a lot of practice keeping quiet," Hank said, and it came out rougher than he meant it to.
“She’s in a good place now.She’ll open up when she feels safe.”
“I hope so,” he said in a tone that revealed more worry than he’d intended.
Rose's face softened.She didn't push.She just refilled a coffee that didn't need it, which was her version of a hand on the shoulder, and let him finish his breakfast in friendly silence.
He hid money under his plate when she wasn’t looking and headed out to visit his first patient of the day, a rancher who thought his heart might be acting up and had asked if Hank could give it a listen.The fellow didn’t want his wife to know about it, though, and had asked to come to Hank’s office early before his wife woke up.
He felt Rose watching him through the front window the whole way down Main Street, and he a suspicion come to him that she had decided this morning to interfere in his life in some way.Of course, he wouldn’t find out how until she was good and ready for him to know.
