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  Sharon hadn’t sought her out again back then, but now here she was all these years later hoping Mrs. Schull could spare her another kindness.

  Chapter Two

  Sharon sat in the small reception area, relieved no one else was there. It had taken her mother two days to set up the early morning appointment, so she’d bided her time between registering Kyle for school, riding around Legend township and the countryside, and hiding out in a room at the lodge. After Mrs. Schull didn’t show up immediately, and having time to give everything serious consideration, Sharon decided not to stay at the B&B after all.

  Suzie Schull was kind, or at least she’d been kind in the past, but Sharon hoped to get lost in the shuffle of the much larger and busier hotel rather than the more intimate setting of a home. So far it was working. No one had recognized her yet, but that could be because the staff was relatively young and wouldn’t remember a nobody like her.

  The lodge was completely restored from the ramshackle death trap it had once been and was doing a raging business. When she’d been in high school, the building had all but collapsed. Something Sharon knew personally since she and Kyle made it their place to be alone together so no one, his parents especially, would know. She’d met him there eagerly, willing to do anything to be with the boy she’d loved and obsessed over. It hadn’t occurred to her then, but now it shamed her that she’d allowed herself to be someone’s dirty little secret.

  The memories were bittersweet. She really had loved that boy and even now believed he’d loved her, too. They’d fought so much, though. Mostly over the fact his parents hated that he dated her, and they didn’t bother to hide their feelings when she’d been around. But she didn’t want to think about that.

  Kyle had been something back then, a somebody unlike herself, and she was sure his life had turned out just fine. The quarterback of the national championship team, full-ride scholarships, parents who would spend anything to give him the life they believed he deserved. Of course his life turned out perfectly. How could it not?

  The first few years after she’d left Legend, but had still attempted to have a relationship with her mother, Candy was more than happy to update her on Kyle’s life even though Sharon repeatedly told her not to bother. It hurt too much, and it was all Sharon could do to hold her own life together without reminders of what might have been. Finally Candy got the message, but not before sending one last jab that he’d brought home a woman his parents were crazy about.

  But that was years ago now, too.

  How Candy had such personal details about the Sanders family, when there couldn’t have possibly been any contact between Mrs. Sanders and her mother, just proved what a small town Legend was. The saying was that you couldn’t fart in Legend without the tornado sirens blaring in response. It had been funny when she was younger. Now it just reminded her that she was a hillbilly from a hick town that had no class.

  No, that wasn’t true. Not anymore anyway. Just driving in a couple of days before and the drives she’d taken since had shown her a whole new Legend. Her initial evaluation upon returning must have been clouded, she decided, partly from the stress of being back, though mostly because of seeing her mother for the first time after so many years had passed.

  Everything was changing. Everything had changed. For Legend and herself. She was no longer that girl so lost in love she could forget whom her mother was and what others thought about her. Oh, she was still lost, completely at her wit’s end in fact since her mother was determined to drive her crazy, but she was a woman who no longer believed in love. In many ways it was a relief to know she would never allow her heart to be so trampled again. Freeing, actually.

  The doctor’s receptionist was the same old woman who’d made her fill out a patient chart years before when she’d come in with her mother for the blood tests Candy would periodically have taken to make sure she hadn’t gotten some horrible disease from all the sexual partners she’d entertain while between husbands. Her mother made her get tested occasionally, too, which had been more embarrassing than she’d wanted to admit at the time.

  Sharon just hoped Mrs. Huff didn’t remember her since she’d been very blond back then, her own natural sandy colored hair bleached repeatedly so it was nearly white. Now she wore it natural, and it had even darkened more in the past couple of years to an uninteresting, but respectable, dishwater-blond. She didn’t dress the same either. Though there was nothing she could do about her overly developed breasts, she wore conservative clothing to downplay curves that had once been her pride. It wasn’t much, but she hoped the changes would be enough to keep her under the radar of Legend’s notice until she could get back out of town.

  “Miss?”

  Sharon glanced up, stunned immobile at the sight of the white-coated Adonis before her. He stood at the open door that led back to the two examining rooms and Old Doc’s office. She swallowed and sat up straighter. He smiled, and she was certain she pooled all over the black and white tiled flooring.

  “Are you with Mrs. Graves?”

  Sharon found the strength and fortitude to stand though the name threw her. When had her mother married someone by the name of Graves? Since she knew she and Candy were the only ones present she nodded, but felt the need to correct him. “It’s Mrs. Crane now. She remarried.” A hundred or so times.

  He nodded his head once, slowly, but his smile stayed in place. “Oh, okay. Her chart said Candy Clark Tipton Clark Peterson Graves. I used the last one and she didn’t correct me. I’ll have my receptionist fix that. Can I speak with you in my office while Mrs. Crane gets dressed?”

  Sharon followed him, wondering where Old Doc had gone. It was clear the gorgeous man who stopped to allow her to precede him into the office was a doctor. He waited until she was seated in the hard wooden chair across from the massive desk before sitting behind it. He looked at her silently for several moments before biting his bottom lip. She followed the movements of the incredibly straight teeth then looked back into his whiskey colored eyes. “Is she sick?”

  He nodded. “Are you a relative?”

  She wasn’t going to give away her identity if her mother hadn’t already done it. Sharon laughed silently at the thought. No, Candy would never admit to being her mother to a man as gorgeous as her new doctor. “I’m here to take care of her. What can you tell me? I can’t help her if I don’t know.”

  He leaned back in the large wooden swivel rocker Old Doc had always had in his office. “I’m Jake Parker. I’ve taken over my grandfather’s practice. From the medical history in his chart on her, and my own examination, I’m guessing an untreated sexually transmitted disease is taking its toll—I’m having Mrs. Huff draw blood now. Mrs. Crane is headed toward emphysema, cirrhosis of the liver, and pretty much seems to be killing herself with a bad diet and personal hygiene issues. Will she listen to you if you tell her to change her lifestyle?”

  Sharon couldn’t say she was surprised at his tentative diagnosis, but it worried her. She wouldn’t be able to leave Legend quickly if her mother really was that sick. “Maybe. If I tie her in a chair and hand feed her, throw out her cigarettes, pour her whiskey down the drain, and burn down her house to kill all the critters that probably live there.”

  Her dry, sarcastic response made his eyes open wide before he laughed. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”

  Sharon bit her own lip. She was going to have to stop being so mad at the world. Even if it had kicked her more often than not. “Sorry. I guess I’ll have to try. Though I’m serious about burning that house to the ground. The Health Department would probably give me the matches.”

  She blew out an agitated breath. “I’m just visiting and don’t know anyone in town to call. Do you know anyone I could hire, cheap, to help me clean her house up and possibly do repairs?”

  Doctor Jake placed his elbows on his desk, steepling his fingers so only the tips touched. He studied her silently, making her wonder if he was trying to figure out whom she was. She d
idn’t remember him, but figured he was at least four or five years her senior, so they would never have crossed paths while growing up. Of course, with Candy’s reputation, she was afraid everyone knew her or about her, but she couldn’t help that.

  “I’m new to town myself. Mrs. Crane is my first patient, and you’re my first visitor, so I’m afraid I can’t help you there. Have dinner with me tonight, and I’ll help you clean her house myself.”

  Chapter Three

  He could tell, immediately, he’d said the wrong thing as she jumped up and turned to the door.

  “Thanks. But no thanks.”

  He rose quickly, uncertain what he’d done to make her mad. “Hey. Wait,” he said, following her out the door. He acknowledged his receptionist as he kept following her out into the parking lot, knowing full well Candy Crane was still awaiting his return in the examination room. “Wait!”

  She turned to him, her lips set in a grim line. “What?”

  Jake almost smiled at the childish pout of her lips, but he’d already made her mad somehow and didn’t think it would be his brightest move.

  “I missed something. What did I do?”

  She looked at him with those lips clamped so tightly they were one thin line. Finally her features relaxed, blowing those lips back up to slightly plump. “I don’t do dates for favors.”

  Jake nodded, realizing his mistake. “Look, I’m sorry. Let me rephrase that. I’d like to take you out to dinner, and I’d be happy to come over and help you help Mrs. Crane.”

  She blinked several times, sending her long dark lashes up and down over her bright blue eyes. He seriously doubted she had any idea how deliciously feminine the action was since her lips were set in a scowl, again.

  “I need help. Not dinner.”

  He did grin now. She was one stubborn woman. “Everybody has to eat.”

  She squinted her eyes at him. “What makes you think I would be interested in eating with you?”

  Jake placed his hands over his heart in mock pain. “I’m not that ugly.” He could see his remark almost made her smile, but she didn’t.

  “You know you aren’t ugly.”

  Jake bit the side of his lip before trying again. “And I have a good job.”

  She glanced over the little yellow building with its lovely landscaping surrounded at the back and side by a deeply wooded lawn. “An understatement.”

  Jake grinned. “And I bathe regularly. Sometimes twice a day, in fact, since I like to work out in the evenings.”

  She actually cracked a smile. “Look, Doc, you’re gorgeous, rich, smell wonderful, and I’m not interested. Okay?”

  Jake didn’t know how to respond. He’d never had to ask a woman out more than once. He couldn’t count the number of times they’d asked him out. He nodded. “Okay. It’s just I don’t know anyone here except my grandfather, and he’s in bed before dark. I thought it would be nice to dine with someone, but no problem. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Have a good day, Miss?”

  “Sharon. My name is just Sharon.”

  Jake nodded again. “It was very nice to meet you, just Sharon. I’ll send your charge right out.”

  Vastly irritated, he turned, reentered the cottage his grandfather had built a practice in and passed Tilda Huff who smiled at him sweetly, reminding him he needed to remind her to put her teeth in each morning before they started work. He went to his office, unlocked the medicine cabinet, prepared a shot, and then returned to the examining room where a now fully clothed Candy Crane sat waiting for him. He slid on a pair of latex gloves. “I’m sending your blood off to have tests done, but I’m going to give you an antibiotic shot today anyway, just to be on the safe side. Please stand here, undo your pants, face the examining table, and lean forward slightly.”

  Candy slid from the table, sending him what he was certain was once a seductive smile. He ignored her and pulled the low riding, rhinestone-studded, jeans halfway down one hip. “This is going to sting.” He bit the cap off the hypodermic, slid the needle into her bottom, and slowly pushed the thick white liquid in.

  She moaned. “Ow! That hurts,” she complained in a gravelly, grating voice that indicated she’d spent the majority of her life smoking.

  “Just relax a little longer. That will make it easier.”

  He pulled the needle from her body, slid the cap back on, threw the shot into the biohazard box, placed a dinosaur decorated Band-Aid on the puncture site, and then pulled the gloves from his hands to dispose of them. “I’ll be at your house tomorrow after work to see what needs to be done to help you get better. In the meantime clean yourself up.”

  Candy’s mouth hung open, making him realize that her caregiver had affected him so badly as to make him forget his bedside manner. “Just take care of yourself,” he stated, before walking across the hall to his office, where he slammed the door closed behind him.

  Jake sat behind the desk, wondering what had come over him. He’d acted like a complete jerk to his very first patient, and that was not only bad for business, it was totally out of character. He didn’t know why, but Sharon—whoever she was—had gotten his goat. It wasn’t that he considered himself a Don Juan, but damn, the woman had acted as if he’d had cooties, which he was afraid her charge might have given him. That woman creeped him out a little, filling him with guilt. He shouldn’t even think that way, given his choice of career.

  His offer to go to Mrs. Crane’s house was something he hadn’t given forethought to. It was something his grandpa had done often when he’d visited all those years ago, and he’d gotten to go along on the home visits where Gramps did everything from offering medical care, to teaching nutrition, to plumbing if it was necessary to improve his patient’s lives.

  Old Doc had come from a generation of doctors whose patients meant more to them than money or the possibility of being sued. His sixty years of business as a family practitioner hadn’t diminished over time even though Legend built its own hospital back in the 1970s, and later added a medical building that attracted all kinds of specialists in the years since.

  He’d kept on doing the same things he’d always done and, in turn, had a loyal following of patients who had never considered going to someone else. Jake knew he wouldn’t have that loyal a following if he treated all his patients the way he’d treated Candy Crane. He rose, determined to do better with his second patient. He left his office and approached the woman who’d orchestrated his grandfather’s office for all of those sixty years.

  She smiled at him, drawing back thin loose lips that showcased her shiny pink gums. He bit his lip, thinking he’d wait until the end of the day to mention her teeth, and maybe even suggest she start thinking about retirement. “Who do we have next, Mrs. Huff?”

  She pointed a bony finger through the sliding glass window out into the waiting room. “Gunther Feelgood. He was in a fight again.” She’d said it with the resignation of a mother dealing with a naughty child.

  Jake took the chart she handed him and opened the door separating the back from the waiting area. The large, round, bib-overalled man approaching him had the grace to look contrite, or at least Jake thought he did. It was hard to tell since the bloodied handle of a small pocket knife was all he could concentrate on as it protruded from Gunther Feelgood’s chubby cheek.

  Chapter Four

  Sharon closed her eyes and said a quick prayer, knowing she’d need every ounce of her strength to deal with her mother. Following yesterday’s doctor visit, her mother had insisted on going home and going to bed, and she hadn’t wanted Sharon cleaning the house while she tried to sleep.

  In truth Sharon was more than happy to drop her mother at the door and drive off, but that only meant her visit would be extended another day. She’d already decided she wasn’t staying past getting that nasty house cleaned up, which would take weeks of hard, disgusting work. It probably didn’t make her daughter of the year, but she didn’t care. Her feelings for Candy were ambivalent at best.

  S
haron still could hardly believe Ms. Addie had swooped in like a Guardian Angel at the very moment her help was needed, and provided not only a temporary home but, once it was sold, funds to help Sharon start all over somewhere other than close to her mother.

  She needed to see the cabin as soon as she could get in to assess its value, but in the meantime she really needed a job to support herself and her son. The reality was she was nearly destitute and though she appreciated the free roof over their heads, she’d use up a lot of their funds just getting utilities turned on or transferred into her name. Not to mention what she’d owe Mr. Matthews once she left the Lodge.

  Sharon was also ashamed, and thoroughly embarrassed, that she’d been so mean to the young doctor. It wasn’t his fault she’d taken his offer of help, with the stipulation of a dinner date, as borderline prostitution. Her mother had lived her life letting men do things for her, and then she’d dated them. Of course Candy’s dates had actually been nothing more than sex in exchange for whatever the favor or trinket had been. And if she’d been particularly lucky, she’d actually get one to marry her, and he’d be the only one spending time in her bedroom for the short duration of the marriage.