The Doctor's Devotion (Love Inspired) (11 page)

Something broke in Lauren. Perhaps the last frayed strands of resistance. She cut the ignition and jerked out Mitch’s keys. The medical emblem on his key chain caught light and brought home the nursing creed she’d excitedly vowed on her licensure day.

And she lost the battle.

“Fine. I’ll go in. But only for a minute.”

As she checked on Mara, Mitch joined her at the bedside. “Still unresponsive, yet improved on the coma scale. We haven’t been able to transfer her to another facility because she’s so unstable. Merely moving her up in bed caused her to code.”

Lauren turned. “When?”

“One day when you weren’t here. She had a bad few days.”

“All on days I was gone?”

Mitch seemed to think hard a moment. “Yeah, actually.”

Lauren always spent time talking to Mara. “Do you think my not being here adversely affected her?” Lauren could scarcely bear the thought of that.

She met his eyes. The tense look in them said it all.

“She hears me, doesn’t she? When I talk to her and hold her hand and tell her I’m here, she knows it, doesn’t she?”

He nodded. Which meant Mara might also know when she wasn’t. Lauren trusted Mitch’s integrity. Knew he would never use that to manipulate her to be here. Yet he could have.

Maybe there was more to Mitch than met the eye. Maybe he didn’t merely have his own interests at heart. If he was as focused on others as his discretionary act of refusal to use manipulation hinted, that changed the game from every court. Even the home front.

Respect increased for him, as did compassion for Mara.

Lauren took her hand. “Mara, it’s Nurse Lauren. You’re still in the trauma unit. You’re never alone, okay?”

She squeezed Mara’s hand and could’ve sworn she felt a minuscule tremor in the girl’s finger. Nah. She’d probably imagined it for wishing.
Please wake up.

Mitch stepped rapidly closer to the bed. He had the most intense look of concentration as he angled his chin sideways. “Talk to her again, Lauren.”

“God watches over you always. Especially when we humans have to step away to work on other people.”

Mitch leaned closer and pointed at Mara’s eyelids, which fluttered every time Lauren spoke.

Hope and tears welled. “Mara, I hope you wake up soon. You have to see what a very cute doctor you have taking care of you.”

“Look.” He nudged his chin toward Mara’s monitors. “Her heart and respiratory rates elevate with your voice.”

“Which means?”

“She knows.” He grinned.

Lauren giggled. “She knows what? That you’re cute?”

His ears reddened. “No, silly. That you’re here and that you care.” When the nurses came to change Mara’s dressings, Mitch offered to do it instead. Lauren assisted him, then they exercised Mara’s legs to prevent blood clots and the like. Afterward, Ian came and checked on her vent settings and cleared her airway with a suction tube. Mara’s numbers reached alarm point, but they got her calmed down with medication.

“She’s agitated and tired. We wore her out. Let’s allow her to rest.” They reluctantly slipped from her room. But not before Mitch bent and brushed a fatherly kiss on Mara’s forehead. “Get better, kiddo.”

Lauren almost fell flat on her face in love right then.

Mitch wasn’t as hard-hearted as he’d like her to believe. Therefore her heart had better be on its best behavior and quit trying to defy her resolve not to fall for him.

Chapter Twelve

“I
have no intention of leaving Texas.” The second Lauren drove that metaphoric tractor over his chest, Mitch woke with a start. Gasping and drenched with sweat, he sat up.

Then realized it was a dream.

Yet Lauren’s words still rang in his ears.
No intention of leaving Texas.

“And I have no intention of letting myself fall for you,” he hollered to the air, then immediately realized how ridiculous he sounded.

The complication of romance would be the
worst
-case scenario in his life right now.

Plus, with her home being in Texas, he refused to even consider it.

But why was he sitting here arguing with himself over it? It was, after all, just a dream.

Mitch flipped covers off and tried to figure out if he looked forward to this day or not.

Unfortunately he might have to contend with this annoying attraction until the day she left. Because no matter how much he tried to ignore it, the feelings wouldn’t wane.

Breakfast this morning was going to be an unpleasant, uncomfortable experience.

But he refused to stay away from Lem or neglect their friendship because of Lauren.

She’d get over her envy. Eventually.

When he arrived at Lem’s, Lauren was still in bed with no apparent inclination to get up. Maybe the whole attraction ordeal was giving her nightmares, too. Served her right for running a tractor over his chest. He still felt annoyed about it.

Then he heard noises from Lauren’s bedroom. Since her door was open, Mitch stood respectfully there. “Something wrong?”

“What’s
not
wrong?”

He waited for her to vent because it looked like she needed to. If he was getting to know her as well as he thought, she’d share if he stood there and kept quiet instead of offering solutions.

She swiped hair out of her eyes. “For one thing, the whole world seems intent on destroying my time with Grandpa. You’re taking over my life with him. Then the contractors called today during our fishing time—” Her voice quivered. She stood up. He stepped back to let her through.

But she paced right where she was. “They aren’t abiding by our renovation terms. My friend is freaking out. And I’m not there to oversee it.”

He bit his lip against giving advice.

She flopped back onto the bed in a comical motion. “She wants me to come back and deal with it. I want to spend the summer here.”

“So set boundaries. Spend the summer here.”

She groaned and shoved a pillow over her head but looked as though she’d much rather shove it over Mitch’s and hold it there.

Lem joined them. He leaned against her doorway. “I think you should be patient. Things will come around.”

“I think you should move to Texas so I can have you to myself without interference.” She shot Mitch a look.

Lem crossed his arms. “I think you should quit moping the morning away, get out of that bed and off the rude horse you seem intent to ride this morning.”

* * *

Lauren lowered the pillow. Grandpa wasn’t smiling.

Mitch turned and eyed him funny. “Wow, Lauren. He’s looking kind of fierce. Like he could kick a tractor tire. You should probably obey.” Mitch delivered his much-needed tension-diffusing smile.

“I just don’t want her pouting her life away and wasting the gifts she has.” Grandpa scowled so much that Lauren laughed. She also knew he was right.

“Wow. Grumpy today. You tired?” Mitch asked Lauren after Lem retreated to the kitchen to begin the breakfast ritual.

She yawned. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Join the club. Someone ran over my chest with a tractor.”

What?
She blinked. “Huh?”

He shook his head. “Never mind. It’s not important.”

“I’m worried about Mara.”

He looked slightly annoyed now. “I think she’ll recover.”

“I don’t mean that, necessarily. I mean socially and emotionally. The girl never has visitors. Her foster family all but abandoned her. I’d like to find a decent family member who’ll take an interest.”

“I’m pretty sure she has a grandmother who cares about her. Just no transportation. She calls more often than you realize.”

“You act like the grandma might be offended because I’m spending so much time with her granddaughter.”

“That would be an inaccurate assumption. While I do have strong concerns about you growing attached to Mara, I realize you’re just projecting your own anger into the situation.”

“What anger?” She sat at Lem’s table and pulled a bowl of potatoes in her lap, then started peeling.

“Because I’m closer to your grandfather than you’re comfortable with.”

She swung both feet over the chair and stood so fast, Mitch stiffened. She set down the potatoes and managed to resist the temptation to assault him with the peeler. Tension grew so thick in the room, not even a scalpel could slice through it.

“I’m irritated with the situation in general. Dealing with disappointment over how I envisioned this summer going, yet it’s not. Also, it rubs me the wrong way that you oppose my desire to reach out to the girl everyone else has written off.”

“I do have compassion for her, Lauren, but you seem to forget something. She made a choice. It took a life.”

“Like the person who killed your dad, Mitch? Seems I’m not the only one projecting my ire into the situation.”

That one stung because his face flinched. She felt bad throwing that out there, but she had no other way to make him see she wasn’t the only villain here. Yes, her jealousy warts needed removing, but she and God were working on that.

He wordlessly left the room, probably to cool down before he knocked her in the head with a potato. In his absence, Lauren confiscated Lem’s to-do list. If she could finish some of it, that would help everyone.

Problem was, Grandpa kept adding more and more to the list.

Mitch stood after the three had breakfast, during which Lauren and Mitch did their best to be congenial. “Is this all you need?” Mitch slid Grandpa’s shopping list closer to him.

Lem donned his spectacles. “Yeah, only, go ahead and grab a couple of big watermelons, too, while you’re at it.”

Mitch tucked the list into his chest pocket. “Will do.”

“Going with him?” Lem asked Lauren.

When she started to shake her head, he all but shoved her out the door. “Mitch might need help with those melons.” Lem winked at the two and retreated to his chair.

“Right.” Lauren gave Mitch’s bicep a playful squeeze. “I can see he needs help.”

Mitch’s laugh eased the tension. They shook heads all the way to his truck.

“He’s ornery.” Lauren adjusted her seat.

“That’s an understatement.” Mitch maneuvered winding roads connecting Eagle Point to Refuge.

“We go out to eat Sundays after church. You should join us.”

“Grandpa will expect me there soon, huh?”

Mitch grinned. “Probably so. You know him well.”

Her head snapped up. “Why wouldn’t I? He’s
my
grandfather.”

Not yours.

Mitch’s forehead wrinkled, but he stayed silent. His lively eyes dimmed so perhaps he perceived her prickly thoughts.

Remorse slammed her. What possessed her to spew that? She placed her hand on his. “I’m sorry, Mitch. That was uncalled for. I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately.”

“Long hours with Lem? Stress? Lack of sleep?” He smiled.

“No, this is more deep-seated, something further back.”

“No offense taken or meant. I know you don’t need to be reminded that you’ve been gone from Lem a long time. You’re having a hard time coming to terms with it.” He shrugged it off.

And forgave her just like that? Her heart melted another measure toward him and all he stood for. Wondered against her will what other amazing things there were about him. Stuff she’d never discover living in Texas. Away from Grandpa. Why, oh, why had she set down roots so far from the one person she wanted to be near?

“Maybe not reminded, but I should be taken out and whipped with a willow switch.” She meant it, too. “Stupid loan.”

Mitch sailed a kind look her way as he merged onto the main road. “Don’t be so tough on yourself.”

“There’s nothing I should know about his health, should I, Mitch?”

“No. He’s healthy despite his fear of turning seventy.”

“So you know about that?” Relief rippled through her.

Mitch nodded. “That’s partly why I came over to sneak you away. To discuss a few things about Lem. I’ve run every test imaginable. I don’t think he’s anywhere near death.”

“But sometimes they just know.”

“True. But in his case, I think it’s mostly fear-based.”

“Mostly?”

He seemed to want to say something else but decided not to.

“
Mostly
doesn’t make me feel good. What’re you not telling me?”

“First, it’s no secret I want you on my trauma team.”

“Wow. Blunt as a bulldog clamp.”

He laughed. “I say that to be up front because I think the biggest part of Lem’s problem is loneliness.”

“But you’re here now and you seem close.” She plucked madly at her hem. “Plus he has his library crew and church buddies.”

“He misses
you
. You’re his closest living relative.”

“Actually, he has a sister and a nephew not far from here.”

“Lauren, I meant that you’re the closest to his heart. He loves you like nothing I’ve ever seen.” Mitch’s eyes grew tender, as though his soul carried the full weight of empathy for Lem.

Lauren looked down at her hands, wringing like wayward pretzels in her lap. “I know. I regret moving away. But I’m bound to my shop building.” Distress over her decision waylaid her.

Mitch inclined his head. “Are you sure about that?”

Increasingly nervous, she thumbed the glove compartment. “It would take a lot to get me out of that loan.”

Mitch smiled but kept his attention on the hairpin curve he was navigating. “I know Someone who specializes in that.”

She aimed her finger at his chiseled cheek. “If by the grace of God I am able to quickly pay off the loan, don’t get any ideas of trying to turn me back into a nurse.”

He adopted a militant expression. “I can’t turn you into something you already are.” They pulled up to a train crossing and stopped as one passed.

What could she say to that? Nothing. Because other than Grandpa paying for her initial schooling, she had no idea why she’d hung on to her Texas license after the lawsuit. The judge had deemed her nonnegligent and had said all evidence proved that no amount of medical intervention could have saved the patient.

So why did Lauren still feel responsible?

She met Mitch’s gaze head-on. “Another thing you’re not considering is I have to leave sometime anyway. I live in Texas, remember?” Stress pressed her fingers hard into the glove box. The button clicked, and it tumbled open, spilling out a velvet box. Lauren eyed the floorboard. The box had popped open, and resting between its ridges shone a sparkly diamond solitaire.

She reached for it. “Whose ring is—?”

Mitch beat her to it. Snatched it up in an iron grip that reminded her he was a combat vet. He tossed the ring box back into the glove compartment. Train gone and bars lifted, Mitch proceeded.

Lauren saw that beside the ring sat her note. Crumpled.

Upon seeing her startled reaction, he schooled his posture. His slowed motions didn’t smooth the jagged look on his face.

“Okay, I gotta know. What’s with the ring? Whose is it?” she asked as they entered Eagle Point.

She expected Mitch to take on his hallmark lighthearted grin. He didn’t. Rather, hurled an irate glare at the glove box, closed like the conversation. Why did he harbor a ring he hated?

She’d obviously opened a wound. Remorse and an unexpected surge of care for Mitch rose within her. “I’m so sorry, Mitch. Please accept my apology,” she said in a small but sincere voice.

Mitch eyed her, then the glove box, and visibly relaxed.

He stayed silent until they stopped.

“So what all are we getting?” she asked tentatively, having a childhood flash of Lem’s sister yelling at her when she asked her to remember a certain sewing stitch Lauren’s mom had shown her. Her great-aunt had practically yelled her into next week.

When Mitch relaxed rather than tensed at her voice, Lauren’s fear of him screaming at her dissipated.

“I’m picking up stuff for Lem’s chili cook-off tomorrow. We rescheduled the others due to trauma calls.”

She sought a subject for small talk. “Ian’s coming, I hear.”

“My entire crew is,” he said flatly. Yet the soft look never left his face. He seemed…disappointed somehow. In her? A bad feeling went through her about the way he worded his last phrase. Before this, Mitch had always included Lauren when he mentioned “his crew.” Not today.

Had he already begun to distance himself from the idea of having her on his team? Wasn’t that what she wanted? Then why did his words nick like a scalpel?

He faced her. “Look, I overreacted. I’ve been meaning to tell you thanks for your note.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, looks like it really meant a lot.”

He sighed. “Lauren, come on. Don’t be like that.”

“I made a nice gesture and you smooshed it.”

“I said I was sorry. I
am
sorry. It’s just complicated.”

She rested her hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Mitch. I understand
complicated
. But I don’t understand why you trashed my note.”

His jaw clicked. “I can’t tell you that.” His eyes tendered. “Okay, fine. For what it’s worth, I do like you.”

What? How did he like her? The thoughts went swirling in her mind because there were only two possibilities. And she didn’t know which scared her most at this point. Him liking her romantically, or just as a friend.

Oh, boy. She might be in real trouble here.

At the store, Mitch chose a cart. “Need anything?”

To see you smile.
“Maybe.” She giggled as girls passed.

He peered delightfully down at her. “What’s so funny?”

“You’re oblivious to the fact that you’re the sort of man who whirls women’s heads wherever you go.” Giddiness engulfed her. Elation bubbled at the thought that Mitch liked her. She tried to tamp it back down, but like Lem’s buoyant butter bowls in the dishwater that day, it kept bouncing back up.