The Doctor's Choice (13 page)

She returned to the lobby in time to see Breck at the information desk.
He looked relieved to see her.

“Hi, Breck,”
she said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Yeah, fancy that.” He grinned, the tension around his eyes fading.

“I’m glad you’re here.” Her voice came out all husky. She cleared her throat, only to have him reach for her lapels and pull her into a bear hug. She couldn’t say it didn’t feel good, but she was at a loss to explain why being in Breck’s arms felt like coming home. She pressed into his chest and wrapped her arms around him, knowing that if she raised her face, he’d kiss her.

They stood clasped together in the middle of the busy hospital lobby with people milling around and
a metallic voice making announcements overhead.

“How’s
Mr. Rios?” he asked finally.

“He’s in recovery. She’s sitting with him.”

They pulled apart and Breck held onto the back of her collar. They walked toward the elevators while Cami tried to examine her feelings.

She wasn’t supposed to have any feelings for this big, over-protective cowboy. He wasn’t her fiancé. Yet, she experienced some sort of internal ache whenever he wasn’t standing this close and some
other kind of ache when he was.

Cami was aware of his
big hand on her collar. This was his method of herding her. She’d noticed it with Shadow, whose natural instinct for herding extended to his current human companion.

In the elevator, he kept his grip on her
.

S
he leaned against him, acknowledging her fatigue and his strength.

Cami
spoke to the Recovery Room nurse and learned that Mr. Rios would soon be moved to the Surgical ICU. Milita came out to hear the update from the surgeon.

She
hugged Cami, expressing gratitude for her intervention. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I don’t want to leave my father, but if I don’t open the restaurant, we’ll lose the income.” She managed a teary little smile. “Lord knows we need it now more than ever.”

“It’s just you and your father?” Cami asked.

“We have a few regular waitresses and a part-time cook.”

“Can you get in touch with them and let them know to come to work? If so, I’ll try to keep the doors open
tonight.” Cami smiled at her. She agreed to open the restaurant and allow Milita to stay with her father. Breck drove Cami back to the restaurant with Milita’s keys in her pocket.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said. “I can work any section of a hospital for endless twelve-hour shifts. Surely I can keep a restaurant open for one night.”

“You know, offering to run the restaurant was kind of a nice thing to do.” He winked at her. “It was kind of a small-town, neighborly thing to do.”

She made a scoffing noise in the back of her throat. “Come on now. You know I’m a city girl.”

He grinned. “I’m just saying
…” He parked in front of La Hacienda, beside the Lincoln and Milita’s truck.

She
unlocked the door and picked up a menu. Breck took off his jacket and Stetson and began rolling up the sleeves of his flannel shirt.

“What are you doing?”
she asked. “I volunteered my services, not yours.”

“Nice thought, Doc,” he said. “But, I don’t think you know your way around a barbeque pit as well as I do.” He went to the back and got to work on the smoker. Fortunately, several briskets and a ham were fully cooked and waiting to be sliced. Breck put chickens on a spit and hung big links of sausage inside the smoker.

Cami reflected that he always seemed to step into the breach without being asked. Not a bad attribute for a man. She took a pan of sudsy water, added a capful of bleach and washed down all the surfaces, ready for customers.

She
opened the cash register and found it to be empty. She still had most of the money from cashing Breck’s check. Counting out a hundred dollars in the smallest bills she had, she put in a note as to the origin of the loan.

The door opened and a woman entered.
She told Cami her name and that she was a waitress. After asking about Mr. Rios, she set to work, filling salt and pepper shakers and ketchup bottles on the tables.

A few minutes later a man came in and wordlessly wrapped an apron around his middle. It took Cami a moment to realize
that he spoke no English. Another waitress showed up and the employees engaged in a rapid conversation in Spanish. They glanced at Cami and nodded at her before continuing with their accustomed routine.

By the time the first customer walked through the door, the restaurant was filled with tantalizing aromas and the bustle of activity. Word of the
Mr. Rio’s health status must have spread throughout the community, because the place filled to near capacity.

Cami
answered questions from concerned friends and busied herself by seating people, passing out water and menus. In between these tasks, she scurried back and forth to man the cash register. She also helped clear dirty dishes and wash tables. She thanked customers for their patience and they responded by helping bus tables and leaving extra generous tips. Toward the end of the evening, Frank and T-Bone showed up.

“Here, let me get that, Miss Cami,” Frank rushed to relieve her of the order
s of fajitas she carried. He set the plates down and turned to her. “Are you doing okay?”

She
groaned. “I think I’ll sleep well tonight.”

“
Well, Frank ‘n me can help you close up,” T-Bone offered. “We got plenty of

experience washin’ dishes.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I haven’t even had a chance to look in the kitchen.”

“It looks like things are going well out here,” Frank observed. “People are eating and everything seems to be running smooth. I don’t see nobody lookin’ upset or
nothin’.”

“It’s going better than I expected. Everyone is being remarkably patient and I haven’t messed up too many orders.”

“What about Milita?” Frank asked. “Does she need a ride from the hospital?”

Cami grinned at him
and he blushed. “Why don’t you call her? I’m sure the SICU nurse will call her to the phone.” She returned to the cash register to ring up a customer.

Frank
returned to tell her he would be driving to Amarillo to bring Milita back to Langston. “She was a couple of years ahead of me in school,” he explained.

“I didn’t ask,” Cami said.

After the last table was cleared and the front door locked, she peeked behind the swinging doors and found Breck rolling his sleeves down and the cook washing the last of the pots.

“I put three briskets and another ham in to
slow smoke overnight,” he said.

“
Got the cash in a bag,” she said. “I’ll count it later. I don’t think I’m capable of doing it tonight.”

He gave her a stern look.
“Do you realize that La Hacienda opens its doors at six in the morning for breakfast?”

She
massaged the small of her back. “I think working in a restaurant is harder than working the emergency room on a Saturday night.”

“You could be right. I know it’s harder than any legal task I’m familiar with. Have you heard from Milita?”

“Frank went to pick her up. Maybe she can get some sleep.” Cami turned out the lights and Breck locked the door. She climbed into the Lincoln and laughed. Her fresh produce was still fresh due to the cool temperatures. Her paint and tools sat untouched on the passenger side floor.

“Planning a little remodeling?” Breck asked.

“Kind of,” she said. “I thought I’d tackle the yellow bedroom…Silky’s room.”

He grinned. “I take that as a good sign.” He closed her door. “Go ahead and I’ll follow you home.”

She stifled her smile and started the car.
He’s still herding me.

#

Breck pulled out onto the highway behind her. She looked small in the big Lincoln. He hung back far enough so that his headlights didn’t blind her.

He
flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. It had been a tough day. It wasn’t the work. He was used to hard work. It was the strain on his emotions.

He’d
completely blown it yesterday when he’d told her once more about his feelings and she’d ignored his stupid declaration. As if she was embarrassed when he groveled at her feet like a lovesick idiot.
Won’t do that again.

Today, h
e started off feeling jealous when he found out Frank Sullivan had taken her for a ride on Red. Breck had wanted to ride with her.

Later,
she breezed into his office asking for money. He managed to piss her off all over again so that when she left she was still stewing. That experience left him with a flutter of concern in his midsection.

The next time he’d seen her she look
ed like a person he’d never seen before. She’d become the capable, competent doctor climbing into a medical helicopter with Mr. Rios. She looked like she felt comfortable in her world.

He understood now. She’d been jerked out of everything she
’d thought of as normal and thrust, by the terms of Silky’s will, into his world. Totally normal for him. Completely foreign to her.

“I need to cut
you some slack, baby girl,” he said aloud.

She claimed to have a fiancé, but she’d returned Breck’s kisses with intense feeling. Surely she couldn’t kiss him like that and be in love with another man.

He followed her when she turned off on the road to Moonshadows and
by the time he made the circle drive, she was unlocking the door.

She turned and waved and he drove to the Ryan ranch. Maybe tomorrow he’d figure out how to make her
admit she was falling in love with him.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The roosters were crowing. Cami opened her eyes.
She stretched, momentarily forgetting where she was.

“Oh!” She sat up.
Breakfast.
She had to open the restaurant for breakfast. She shot out of bed and groped her way into her clothes. She stuck a toothbrush in her mouth and hobbled downstairs carrying her boots and running her fingers through her hair. Rushing outside, the cold air greeted her, sharp as razor wire.

S
he sat on the top porch step to pull on her boots and heard footsteps crunching toward her from the direction of the barn.

T-Bone Mullins
touched his gloved fingers to the brim of his cowboy hat in a comic salute. “Miss Cami,” he drawled. “Frank went into town to help Miss Milita with the restaurant. He said for me to tell you to sleep in.”

Cami stopped fumbling with her laces. “Thank Heaven!”
She closed her eyes and sat with the early morning sunlight warming her face, the toothbrush clamped between her teeth.

“Miss Cami?” T-Bone said. “You okay?”

She nodded her head, causing the toothbrush to wag up and down. Slowly, she got to her feet and made her way inside. Sore muscles from lifting heavy trays, protested as she retraced her steps, shedding clothes along the way. She pulled off her boots and jeans before climbing back into bed. She lay spread-eagle in the middle of the comforter, clasping her toothbrush in her hand, her head burrowed under the pillow.
Just one more hour.

Cami was awakened
some time later by the blaring of a horn. She raised her head and blinked. Stumbling to her feet, she looked out through the curtains and saw Doc Parker standing beside the open door of an old green pickup truck. He gave the horn another blast.

“I’m coming,”
she said to no one in particular. She threw her clothes back on and raced down the stairs with Shadow at her heels.

Throwing
open the door, she tried not to laugh at the old man’s disgruntled expression.

“It’s about time, young lady,” he said. “I hope you’re not accustomed to layin’ about till noon.”

She waved him inside. “Actually, I’m accustomed to grabbing a little sleep whenever the occasion permits.”

He
flung his battered Stetson on the rack with a practiced flick of the wrist, then strode to the loveseat and plopped down, as though in his usual encampment. He looked around, his perpetual scowl in place.

“Doctor
Parker.” She lowered herself onto a delicate Chippendale-style chair.

“What can I do for you?”

“Young lady…Doctor…”

“Just call me Cami,” she said.

“Cami, you did a good thing yesterday.” He fidgeted and slapped the arm of the sofa resolutely. “It took a cool head to take charge of the situation at La Hacienda like you did.”

“I thought you were out of town.”

“Word travels fast in a small town. I was impressed that you didn’t just load Rios in the Life Flight copter and take off runnin’ in the other direction.”