The SEAL's Return Page 2

  After she finished, she couldn’t speak for a moment. She’d fought hard to get this residency and then to be selected for the coveted fellowship. It was her long-held dream, but she couldn’t sacrifice what was left of her family for it.

  “My sister and brother need more than I can give them now,” she finally said. “My brother... I’m afraid Gordon is headed for disaster. He’s just so...angry. My sister is still grieving, and her grades are diving. My aunt has been staying with us and doing her best, but she has to leave. I...just can’t be away all the hours required for the fellowship. I can’t give you or my siblings my best with...” Her voice trailed off. Every word had pain dripping from it.

  “They’ve lost two parents,” Dr. Rainey said. “That’s a lot to handle.”

  “My brother was...very close to Mom, considered himself the man of the house, and then he had to watch her die. He’s angry at the doctors who couldn’t save her, and I’m one of them. He feels I deserted him, as well.” She hesitated, then said the words she had practiced. “I promised Mom I would take care of Gordon and my sister, and I haven’t been able to do that.”

  Dr. Rainey leaned forward. He seemed to hesitate, then said, “I don’t want to lose you. You’re one of the best residents we have and I think you would make a fine pediatric surgeon. I’m told by the attendings and nursing staff that your instincts are excellent.”

  It was a rare compliment from Dr. Rainey and made what she had to do even harder.

  Gordon’s arrest, though, made a change in lifestyle imperative. Gordon had been released with a number of conditions, including a curfew. His hearing would be in three weeks, and the attorney she’d hired had talked to Gordon’s caseworker. It was possible that he would be given a year’s probation and then his record could be cleared...expunged...if he stayed out of trouble.

  She knew he wouldn’t. She’d caught him sneaking out after curfew last night. She knew as sure as the sun rose in the morning that he’d try again.

  “What are you proposing to do?” Dr. Rainey asked after a few seconds.

  “A position with stable day hours,” she said. “Maybe a clinic. Maybe after Gordon finishes high school, I can...” Her voice drifted off.

  Dr. Rainey sat back in his chair and tapped a pen on his desk.

  “I have a friend,” he said, “a general practitioner in a small town in Colorado. He’s had heart surgery. It leaves the town without a doctor within a hundred miles. He hopes to find someone to replace him while he recuperates.

  Lisa was stunned. She hadn’t known what to expect but it certainly wasn’t what she realized what was coming.

  “I’ve been to the town,” Dr. Rainey continued. “It’s small and friendly. You can step into a fully equipped practice. It would be good experience for you and a great environment for kids. There’s a lake, mountains, skiing. The school draws from the surrounding ranches and is said to be quite good.”

  He paused. “The town will provide a house within walking distance of the office. If, at the end of a year, you’re still interested in the fellowship, I’ll try to bring you back.”

  * * *

  IT SEEMED TO be an answer to a prayer. She was exhausted from the hours at the hospital together with the ongoing drama at home. Still, she hesitated. “Our house...”

  “If I remember correctly, you live near the hospital. I’m sure a resident or incoming staff member will be more than happy to rent it for a year.” He wrote down a number. “If you’re interested, call Eve Manning in Covenant Falls. She’s the mayor and can give you more details.” He looked up at her from his desk. If you’re interested, I’ll need to let my friend know ASAP.”

  “Thank you,” she said, surprised at his understanding, even more so by the proposal. She had never lived anywhere other than a large city but right now a slower pace seemed inviting.

  She thanked him and said she would certainly consider it. The more she thought about it during the day, the more feasible the idea seemed.

  During a break, she looked up Covenant Falls on the web. The site featured a photo of a sunrise spreading gold across a pure blue lake with white-tipped mountains behind it. There were insets, including photos of a football field, a community center, an attractive main street and two teenagers riding horses.

  From that moment, everything happened swiftly. She called the mayor, liked her instantly on the phone. She found herself relaying all her concerns, especially regarding the two rebellious teenagers, and by the end of the conversation was convinced Covenant Falls might be an answer.

  She tried not to think of the fellowship. This was something she owed her parents, a debt she couldn’t ignore.

  Two days later, Lisa used her day off to fly to Denver, full of apprehension, for a one-day visit to Covenant Falls.

  She was picked up by Eve Manning and driven to Pueblo to meet with Dr. Bradley at the hospital there. He was hooked up to a monitor and his color was poor, but his eyes were challenging as they met hers.

  “Dr. Rainey said you’re a good diagnostician,” he said. “But it takes more than that to be a small-town doctor. You need an instinct about people. You have to really care about them. They know if you do. And if you don’t. It’s not like a hospital where you see them once or twice before sending them to someone else.”

  “I realize that,” she said, “and it appeals to me. It’s frustrating to treat a patient and never know what happens later. I intended to go into a private practice after completing my fellowship.”

  “Cliff Rainey said you’re experiencing family problems?”

  “Siblings. Teenagers,” she said frankly, and gave him a brief summary of what had happened. “What makes it hard is I’ve been absent when they needed me most. I thought my aunt could fill in, but it isn’t the same. I didn’t realize that until my brother, Gordon, was arrested.”

  He nodded. “Sometimes we doctors are so busy taking care of our patients, we don’t have time to take care of our own families. I’m guilty, as well.”

  He then asked medical questions, queried about diseases, treatments and protocols. “We have an older population with the ailments that come with it, but we also have our share of pregnancies, broken bones, flu and rattlesnake bites. We usually have a couple of those each year. We keep anti-venom in the office but then the patient has to be transported to a major hospital that maintains a larger stock.”

  “As to staff,” he said, “I have a very competent nurse, but she isn’t qualified to write prescriptions. There’s also a part-time bookkeeper who works out of her own house. She can take care of most of the paperwork for Medicare and insurance companies.” He studied her for a moment. “I can’t pay you much, but the town is providing a home, and the experience will be useful.”

  She nodded.

  “Let me know what you decide after you visit Covenant Falls and see the clinic. The position is yours if you want it. If Cliff Rainey recommends you, that’s good enough for me.”

  She breathed easier as she left. She glanced at her watch. It was one-thirty in the afternoon. She had left Chicago on an early flight that morning, but then there was the long drive from Denver. She understood it would be another hour and a half drive to Covenant Falls, then the drive back to Denver for another early-bird flight to Chicago.

  Her aunt was staying with Kerry and Gordon. She hadn’t told them about the possibility of moving. She didn’t want to say anything until she felt reasonably confident the position was a real possibility.

  “What do you think?” Eve asked when Lisa joined her in the hospital reception area.

  “He said the job is mine if I want it,” she said.

  “So now it’s my job to convince you to want it,” Eve said. She explained that the town was cradled on one side by mountains and the other by the plains. “There’s approximately three thousand people in the area, includ
ing ranches that aren’t in the city limits but contract for city services.”

  “I’m going to be taking my sister and brother out of the schools and activities they know,” Lisa said. “What is there for them here?”

  “The school is highly rated and will open in four weeks. We have football, baseball, basketball and track along with a terrific music and drama department. Then there’s skiing clubs, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts, community baseball and football. There’s also a lot of special-interest groups—music, mechanics, computers, a horseback riding club.”

  “It sounds great. To me. I’m not sure it will to them. They love the city.”

  “Maybe because they’ve never experienced anything else,” Eve said.

  Lisa was silent the rest of the drive into town. Rolling plains reached toward the mountains. The two-lane road was bordered by fences with occasional breaks leading to houses and barns. As they entered the town of Covenant Falls, it looked even smaller than she’d imagined. She counted all of three stop signs. Eve parked in front of an attractive building she identified as city hall, and they walked across the road to the Covenant Falls Medical Clinic.

  She met the nurse, Janie Blalock, who didn’t look much younger than Dr. Bradley. The nurse was friendly and showed her around the office, including a small X-ray room. It was, Lisa thought, probably well equipped for a small-town doctor but she would miss all the state of the art diagnostic technology available in Chicago.

  “Time for lunch,” Eve announced when Lisa finished the tour.

  Lisa thanked Janie, then she and Eve walked half a block to a glass-fronted building with a big sign proclaiming it to be Maude’s. The diner was nearly empty, and they took a seat next to the window. A large motherly looking woman immediately came over.

  “This is Maude,” Eve said. “She owns this place and it has great food.”

  “This the new doctor?” Maude asked.

  Lisa looked helplessly at Eve.

  “She’s looking us over,” Eve said lightly.

  “You’re a sight prettier than Doc Bradley,” Maude said. “Your meal is on the house,” she added. She studied Lisa solemnly. “Seems to me you need a bit of meat on you. How about a steak?”

  “They’re good here,” Eve said. “My husband swears by them.”

  Lisa wasn’t sure. The last few days of uncertainty and worry had her stomach in turmoil. But she also had to eat and she still had a long day ahead. She nodded. “A steak and salad with dressing on the side, please. And an iced tea.”

  “I’ll take the same,” Eve said.

  When Maude left, Eve turned to her. “What do you think?”

  “I like Dr. Bradley. I like the clinic. I like the mountains. But I’m not sure Kerry and Gordon will feel the same.”

  “My son lost his father when he was four,” Eve said. “I know how difficult it is for a child to lose a parent. And you and your siblings have lost both. But this town supports its own, and that would include you. We’ll do our best to keep your family safe and happy.”

  They couldn’t do any worse. Their Chicago neighborhood that had once been a safe place to live now bred gangs. It wasn’t home sweet home anymore. She just wasn’t sure Gordon saw it that way.

  “I’ll show you the house after lunch,” Eve said. “The owner passed away and the heir agreed to let us use it and much of the furniture for a year if we did the repairs and voided the overdue taxes. It’s a good deal for us both. My husband and his group of vets painted the house and fixed everything that needed fixing.”

  “Group of vets?”

  “We have a lot of veterans here,” Eve explained. “In fact, a military nurse recently moved here. She was wounded in Afghanistan and wasn’t ready to go back to nursing, but she’s available in an emergency.”

  Lisa absorbed that. Since their mother died, Gordon had threatened to go into the military when he was old enough, and she had done her best to dissuade him from that path. Would a town full of vets sharpen his interest? One count against coming here.

  The food came then, Lisa’s stomach’s turmoil ending at the smell of the steak. Once bite proved Eve’s recommendation. It was excellent and the salad good. The prices were amazingly low, even if the meal hadn’t been free. One count for moving here.

  Eve continued to plug the town as they ate, then drove her around for a tour. They drove by a wooded park with a gazebo in front of a sprawling building. “That’s our community center and library,” Eve said. “And there’s a small museum and a beach, as well.”

  “Where do the kids usually gather?”

  “School. Maude’s. The falls. The community center or sports field. Or they go horseback riding as incentives. Nearly every kid in town can ride. I have two horses that your brother and sister can ride.”

  A plus for Kerry, the animal lover. Lisa wasn’t so sure about Gordon. His sport of choice was soccer and he’d quit playing in the spring.

  Eve took a corner just three blocks from the clinic and stopped in front of a white house. It was a two-story with a connected garage. A white picket fence stretched around the property.

  She and Eve walked onto the small porch. Eve unlocked the door and they went inside. The house was not unlike her parents’ house in Chicago: a large living room with a fireplace, a kitchen with plenty of cabinets and a small dining room. There was a master bedroom and bath downstairs and two nice-size bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. It looked newly painted and the furniture, though a little more formal than she liked, looked comfortable.

  She looked out the kitchen window and saw a large fenced area. “Pets are welcome, too,” Eve said.

  Lisa hadn’t thought of that. Kerry had always wanted a dog, but it never happened for one reason or another. Maybe...

  She realized she was making a life-changing decision for all of them. A huge decision. Kerry may be happy with it, especially with a dog and horseback riding. Gordon, the other hand, would hate it. She would be taking him away from his so-called friends and all he knew.

  She thought of the argument they had when she caught him trying to sneak out of the house after his release from jail.

  “You can’t tell me what to do,” he’d said, his face red with anger. “You’re not my mother. You’re not even my real sister.”

  It was a barb that hurt more than she let him know. She had been adopted when her mother failed to conceive after years of trying. Eleven years later, her mother delivered Gordon, and Kerry arrived four years after that.

  Lisa had mothered them, especially after their father was killed, and her mother went to work in a real estate firm. She loved her siblings with her whole heart.

  And now...she would be turning their lives upside down. Again. She hadn’t told them she was flying to Colorado. They would just assume she was at the hospital. “What do you think?” Eve said, breaking into her train of thought.

  Lisa hesitated. “It’s very nice.”

  “I sense a reservation,” Eve said.

  “I think you should know why I’m considering this,” Lisa said slowly. “You might change your mind about wanting us.” She’d told Eve on the telephone there were problems, just not how severe they were.

  Eve didn’t say anything, just waited.

  Lisa spelled out the story, from her mother’s death to Gordon sneaking out after his arrest. “I hoped the arrest would scare him, but it didn’t.” She hadn’t meant to say that. It was another failure on her part and she wasn’t used to failing. She should’ve noticed Gordon’s problems, just as she should’ve caught her mother’s illness before it was too late.

  “Losing two parents is a lot for a kid to handle,” Eve said slowly. “I can’t imagine my son dealing with losing me after already losing his father.”

  “I should have been there for him,” Lisa said. “I have to do it now and h
ope it’s not too late.” She paused, then added, “I talked to the caseworker handling his case. She said she would ask for probation and suggested it might be possible to transfer supervision here. Can you do that?’’

  “We can. We have a new police chief who’s great with kids.”

  “It’s okay, then?”

  “I’m sure it will be,” Eve replied. “Sometimes magic happens in Covenant Falls.”

  “It would have to be pretty major magic.”

  “That happens, too. Someday I’ll have to tell you how I met my husband.” Eve paused then asked, “So what do you say? Does the house and clinic work for you?”

  Decision time. “Yes,” Lisa said, her stomach tightening. She was gambling and she didn’t like to gamble. She didn’t see any other choice. “I’m happy to accept the offer.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  JUBAL PIERCE PLUCKED the letter he’d received yesterday from the trash can. He’d read it then and discarded it. This time he reread it slowly and considered the proposal.

  His first inclination had been Hell, no.

  That was his answer to almost everything these days.

  He took a swallow of Jameson Irish whiskey as he glanced around the San Diego apartment he shared with two other SEALs. He was the only one in residence now. The others were on missions. He usually saved the Jameson for the end of successful missions. Now it signaled the end, period.

  He couldn’t stay here now. His career as a navy SEAL was over. He knew it. His superiors knew it. His body had been too damaged by two years of near-starvation and captivity—not to mention what it had done to his mental health.

  He’d been a SEAL half his life. It had been his entire identity until that rescue mission had gone to hell, and he was taken.

  He’d crawled out of a jungle with the last of his strength. After his captors abandoned him, he’d found a key to the chain around his wrists in the bread that his guard had thrown at him. One act of mercy, maybe because he’d saved the man’s life a year earlier. The tribesman probably didn’t think he would make it through the jungle alive. He barely did. He didn’t want to think of those days spent crawling through the jungle more dead than alive.