The Doctor's Choice (23 page)

Hi
s brow furrowed. “I’ll check for you.”

They agreed to meet after
she had seen the last patient and drive to Amarillo in Breck’s truck.

After clinic, she parked the big candy-apple red Lincoln in front of Breck’s office.

He came out to meet her, locking his office behind him.

Handing her up into his truck, he gave her a pat on th
e bottom as she was halfway in.

“It’s a wonder I didn’t bash my head,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Couldn’t resist.” He started the big diesel motor.

“Did you have a chance to check out Atwater?”

Breck turned onto the main street and headed out of town. “I did, but with no results. It’s as though the Atwaters dropped off the map. His wife stayed home with their newborn baby, but there’s been no report of him working anywhere. No rental or home purchase. No utilities, no phone.”

Cami turned to stare at Breck, her brow puckered in a
frown. “What was the date that the land was transferred to Kincaid’s name?”

“Thirty years ago
this month.”

“That’s a long time ago,” she said.

“Longer than you’ve been on this earth. And I was only two years old.”

“How could a whole family just disappear?” Cami bit her lip. “Everyone leaves a trail.”

#

When they arrived at the hospital, Doc was getting an MRI. Cami
questioned Doc’s attending physician about his progress. He informed them that Doc was responding well to the medication and rehab. They waited outside Doc’s room and in a short time they saw him being wheeled down the hall by an orderly.

Other than a slight droop on one side of his mouth,
she could detect no other remnants from the stroke.

“Hey, Doc,” Breck called out. He took the wheelchair from the orderly and pushed it into the hospital room.

“Hey yourself,” Doc said. He spoke slowly, carefully enunciating his words. Only a slight slur remained.

Cami leaned down to hug him, relieved when he responded using both arms to embrace her. She pulled a chair close to be on his level. “Good to see you.”

“I bet,” he said and laughed a wheezy guffaw. “How’s clinic?”

“Piece of cake,” she said. “I’ve killed
almost all of your patients, but I’m running out of places to hide the bodies.” Cami sat grinning at him as he roared with laughter. She held out her hands to him. “Squeeze my hands.”

Doc sobered and reached out to grip her hands and delivered almost as tight a grip with his right as with his left. He
looked at her as though waiting for her reaction.

She
met his gaze. “Almost there. You’re about eighty per cent on the right. Keep working with your rehab team.”

“Thanks for tellin’ the truth
.” Doc turned to Breck. “And you, young fellow, been driving nice and slow.”

He
grinned. “Yes, sir. I’ve been taking it easy.”

“And how you two been gettin’ along?” Doc gestu
red toward Cami and Breck.

“We’ve been getting along great,”
he said. “We just had to get a few things straightened out.”

Doc leaned toward Cami. “This here is a nice young feller. You oughta give him a chance ‘cause he sure is stuck on you.”

She removed his glasses and used an unused wash cloth to clean them with. Replacing his glasses, she smiled when he blinked owlishly. “I was holding out for jewelry.” She flashed the ring Breck had placed on her finger.

Doc raised his bushy brows and smiled. “I told you that other fellow wasn’t for you.”

“It seems that a lot of people felt the same way.” Cami slid a sideways glance at Breck under her lashes and caught him laughing. “No matter. I’ve got a new man everyone seems to think a lot of.”

“‘Bout time.”

#

The next day Cami held clinic and before noon, got a call that Sarah Beth Jessup was going into labor. Her young hus
band was in a near panic state.

Cami covered the receiver and asked Reba where she should tell him to take Sarah Beth.

“Doctor Cami. We’re going to deliver her baby at home. C’mon. I’ve got the kit.”

Cami climbed into Reba’s Jeep 4X4 and held onto the roll bar
with a death grip as Reba sped down the highway. About twenty miles from town she swerved off onto a narrow caliches track.

“It’s a good thing you know the way,” Cami said.

“I was born and raised here in Langston. I know where every human being in the surrounding area is living. If Nick Jessup were to try and get Sarah Beth to the nearest delivery room, she’d be having the baby unassisted in the truck and he’d be driving off the road.”

Cami bounced on the seat as they drove over a large rock in the roadway. “Not to mention, the ride wouldn’t be
much fun for the woman in labor.”

Reba flashed a grin. “Don’t worry. Doc ‘n’ me have done this a lotta
times before.”

Cami took a breath. “But it’s my first time.”

Reba turned the Jeep again and pulled into the yard of a neat frame house. Trees and grass were well maintained and it looked as though someone was planning a garden plot with a rectangle of fresh tilled earth.

Reba grabbed the bag and rushed up the steps, the stethoscope around her neck flying out in her wake.

Cami followed, at a trot.

A young man with a brush cut of bright red hair stood holding the open door. “S
arah Beth’s in our bedroom.”

Cami gave him an encouraging smile and ducked in
to the room behind Reba.

Reba set the bag on a nearby table
. “Are we havin’ this baby, or what?”

Cami watched as Reba helped Sarah Beth remove her clothing and slip into a hospital gown. She pulled
a large plastic-backed pad from the bag and spread it over the bedding, then topped it with a sheet she removed from a plastic wrapper. “Clean,” she whispered.

Cami washed her hands and arms in the bathroom and donned a pair of latex gloves. She examined Sara Beth and smiled. “The baby is crowning. Good thing you didn’t wait any longer to call us.”

“Oh, my dear Lord!” Sara was caught in a fresh contraction.

She
positioned Nick where he could hold Sara’s hand and where he wouldn’t fall on her if he fainted, which he appeared likely to do.

The baby girl was delivered with no complications. Cami made sure that Sara was cleaned and comfortable wh
ile Reba took care of the baby.

In time, the baby was placed in her mother’s arms with her father standing by grinning from ear to ear.

“What are you lookin’ so proud for, Nick Jessup?” Reba asked. “Sara Beth did all the work.”

“Do you have so
meone to help you?” Cami asked.

“No, Ma’am,” Nick said. “It’s just the two of us out here.”

Reba pointed her finger at Nick. “Well, now it’s the three of you. I do not want Sara to get up unless it’s to go to the bathroom and you need to help her do that. She needs to rest and that means you have to step up and be a man.”

“Yes, Miss Reba,” he said.

Reba was discarding trash and gathering tools. “I want you to fix her meals and wash the dishes and don’t let her lift a hand for the next week.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Reba fixed him with a stern eye and motioned him out of the room. “C’mon and show me what you have in your kitchen.”

Nick glanced at Sara and his daughter and followed Reba
from the room.

Cami ran a gentle finger across the
soft down on the baby’s head. “It looks like she’s going to have her father’s coloring.”

Sara smiled up at her. “I was so scared. I was afraid you wouldn’t get here in time.”

“Not a chance, the way that Reba drives.”

The drive back to Langston was accomplishe
d in a much more sedate manner.

Cami
noticed that wildflowers were springing up along the roadside. Blue bonnets and Indian paintbrush spread a blanket of color as far as the eye could see.

She
turned to Reba. “You were pretty tough on the new father.”

Reba made a noise in the back of her throat. “That young fool hasn’t got a lick of sense. He’d probably expect Sara Beth to get up and fix his dinner. I just wanted to spell out my expectations.”

“That was pretty slick, Reba. You’ve got home delivery down to a fine art.”

“You impressed me, too. I learned some things from you today.” Reba expelled a mirthless laugh. “Remember that Doc has delivered a lot of babies around here
, but he does it the way he did it when he started. In fact, he has a certain way of tying off the umbilical cord. I’d recognize it anywhere. Most of the residents of this county under the age of forty have the same cute little innies with Doc’s special knot. But you have a better technique.”

“I’m not an obstetrician,” Cami said. “I did deliver my fair share of babies on a Saturday night in the ER.
People who couldn’t afford pre-natal care used emergency room services. Sometimes the babies didn’t wait for the delivery room.”

Reba grinned at her. “Whatever it takes. Right?”

“Right.”She took a deep breath and let it out. “You said you’d lived here all your life. Did you ever hear of someone named Brody Atwater?”

Reba shot her a sharp glance. “That’s not a name you hear much around here anymore. Brody was a big high school football player. He was about six foot three or four and built like a Mack truck. I don’t remember him at all without a
bottle of beer in his hand. He used to come to class loaded and sleep, but the teachers wouldn’t turn him in because we won State his senior year. He walked on water around here.”

“Whatever happened to him?”

“He married the head cheerleader. Marie was a pretty little blonde thing, like you only really short. She had dimples and the bluest eyes. Brody inherited a little ranch just east of town and he tried his hand at ranching but he couldn’t make it. He was about to lose his shirt when Eldon Kincaid bought it from him. I think it was Eldon’s first piece of land.”

“What happened to the Atwaters?”

Reba squinted her eyes at the horizon. “I can’t rightly say that I know. They moved away and haven’t been back.”

“Didn’t they stay in touch with family and friends?”

Reba’s brow puckered into a frown. “No family left hereabouts. Nobody’s heard from then since they went away.”

#

On their return to the clinic, Cami discovered that Loretta had cancelled the rest of the day’s routine patients, not expecting the young doctor to return for some time.

Cami took the opportunity to drive back to her ranch much earlier than she’d planned, knowing that Breck, her new fiancé, would be heading her way in a few short hours.
She thought she would tackle the trunk he’d brought down from the attic, sorting its contents and preparing it to be refinished.

As she drove the long straight highway, she noticed a vehicle in the distance pulled to the side of the road. She slowed when she recognized E.J.’s Jaguar parked on
the shoulder with a flat tire.

She grinned as she pulled alongside him and lowered the window. “What’s the matter, city boy? Didn’t anyone teach you how to change a tire?”

E.J. flashed a dimpled grin. “As a matter of fact someone did, but they didn’t teach me how to change a tire without a jack. It seems that part of mine is missing.”

A shiver ran down Cami’s spine. “
Your jack is missing?”

“No. Just the part that loosens the lug nuts an
d cranks the jack up and down.”

Cami pulled the Lincoln off the road and got out. “I have a jack in the trunk. I noticed it when I was loading groceries.”

“Can’t use it. The jack for this car is smaller than the one for your Lincoln. I don’t want to damage it.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I called Triple A for a piggyback wrecker. There’s a Jag dealer in Amarillo who can replace the tire and jack.”

“Do you want a ride home?”

I don’t think I should leave the Jag. Someone could strip it in no time.”

“I’m not sure I can drive off and leave you
stranded.”

He
leaned back against the door of the Jag and grinned at her. “That’s a good sign. By the way, I wanted to invite you to my birthday party Saturday. Some friends of mine are coming from Dallas and I’d love for you to meet them. In fact, I’d love to show you off.”

“I’m engaged, E.J.”

“I know,” he said. “Some lucky stiff in Houston.”

She
grimaced. “Not really.” She extended her hand to display the ring on her finger. “I’m engaged to marry Breckenridge T. Ryan.”

He
stared at her with a puzzled expression. “How did that happen?”