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“I know, Mrs. Barker.” She held the door for both of us to enter. “I was going to say that I’d love to do it, but I don’t think I ever could leave. I’d miss home too much.”
I tensed, feeling Mom look over at me, but thankfully, Gabby started to run through her checklist of vitals and post-operative questions, noting down answers in shorthand as she went, and then declared, “The doctor will be right in to check on you.”
“Oh, I hope she doesn’t leave,” Mom said. “Cheryl heard her talking to another nurse at my last appointment about how short-staffed they are.”
The door opened a few minutes later with a booming, “Good morning, Arlene.”
My jaw dropped. “Dr. Kay?”
I stared at the man who felt like he should be a hundred years old since I remembered him from when I was a kid. Obviously, he wasn’t a hundred; he was closer to Mom’s age, but his white hair and the creases worn into his face were much different than the young doctor I remembered.
“Oh my word. Well, if it isn’t little Reese.” He smiled and reached out to give me a hug. “It’s great to see you.”
“Good to see you, too.”
“How’s the big city doctor life treating you?” he asked, reviewing Gabby’s notes. “Your mom tells me every time I see her how well you’re doing.”
My face heated, and when I looked at Mom, I swore I saw a little color in her cheeks, too. It was nice to hear she was only focused on my relationship deficiency when she was around me.
“It’s good.”
He smiled and nodded, and I could tell his focus wasn’t all there. “Well, if there’s anything we can do to tempt you back home. We sure could use some good hands—”
“Jim,” Mom scolded him, surprising me by using his first name. Then again, she’d known him practically my entire life.
“I know, I know.” He lifted his hands in surrender and approached her. “But I had to. I know how much you miss her,” he added, his voice just a hair lower as he bent and examined her knee. “Alright, young lady, let’s see how this is looking.”
I watched silently as he examined and questioned her for the next fifteen minutes. At the end of the appointment, he’d said she’d get her stitches out next week and then her physical therapy would start and be every other day.
“So, I’ll have a few days off,” Mom repeated, looking at me as she did so. “Wonderful.”
“Dr. Kay, please tell my mother that it’s not advisable for her to go on a car ride all the way up to Yellowstone so soon after surgery.”
“Reese!”
I ignored her, keeping my attention focused on Dr. Kay who straightened and then sheepishly scratched his beard. “Well, I can’t really say…” He looked back and forth between us, clearly recognizing that no matter what side he picked, it would be a losing one. “I think you should listen to your daughter, Arlene. She’s a doctor, and she’s going to be here every step of your recovery, so I’m comfortable leaving that to her judgment.”
Mom gasped. “Et tu, Brute?” Her mock anger faded into a laugh.
I smiled triumphantly.
“I wish I could stay and chat more—hear about your experiences in the city, Reese, but I’m the only one on the floor on Fridays right now, so I’ve got to run,” he said, sending me one last hopeful look.
No. Not a chance.I steeled with the thought.I was not coming back here.
“Looks like you have to listen to me,” I said to Mom once he was gone. “Doctor’s orders.”
“We’ll see,” she huffed as I rolled her out of the room.
* * *
“Two pair.” I laid down my cards with a grin, swiping my hand out and pulling all the jelly beans from the pot in the middle of the table to me.
After Mom’s appointment, we’d come back to the house, and then I’d left with the excuse of going to visit Decker.
Lies on top of lies on top of lies.Who was I?I was the woman trying not to disappoint her mom while simultaneously trying not to fall for my fake boyfriend.Admirable or pathetic?
What I’d really done was spend the afternoon running errands. First, the grocery store. Then the drug store. And then to the library where I’d borrowed their internet to log into the hospital and check on my patients’ charts.
