The Doctor's Devotion (Love Inspired) (3 page)

“But you need to get used to hearing it.” He grinned.

Her eyebrows pinched in a beautiful downward slope. “If my patient didn’t need this blanket, Wellington, I’d be tempted to smother you with it.”

His grin widened. “You definitely inherited your grandfather’s temper.”

“I can’t imagine him ever being angry with you. You seem the best of friends.”

There was no missing the sour tone that pickled her words.

“He hasn’t been angry with me for twenty years anyway.” Mitch chuckled, recalling the first time he met Lem, who dragged Mitch across a field by his ear for stealing corn. Made him work it off, too. Lem and that cornfield had been the best things to ever happen to Mitch. “But I have seen him come unhinged at a broken-down tractor or two.”

She giggled. “He still kick tires when they break down?”

“Still does.”

“I’m ashamed I never appreciated everything about him before.” She slumped. “Anyway, time for vitals. See you later.”

He could only hope. Mitch watched her departure, enjoying every second of her appealing stride.

Ian returned. “I’m— Wait. Why do you look sedated?”

Mitch shrugged and averted his gaze from the lovely Lauren.

Ian eyed him curiously. “Anyway, I’m heading out. See ya.”

Mitch caught Ian. “Hey, what do you have going Saturday?”

“Besides staying in a coma?” Ian rubbed tired eyes. Mitch knew the feeling. His eyelids scraped like sandpaper.

“Lem invited the med team over for a Southern-fried feast.”

“You making this famous chili we hear about?” Ian winked.

“Sure. We’ll have a chili day at Lem’s and just hang out. Refuge medical folks are covering our shifts here.”

Kate approached, chomping on a delicious-looking apple.

His invitation lifted weight off Ian’s shoulders. “Lem’s it is then.” Ian eyed Mitch pointedly. “Will Lauren be there?”

Wait…what?

Kate snickered then looked thoughtful. “You know…we need another nurse. Lauren did outstanding. Have you considered—?”

“Already asked. She said no. Not just no, but ‘don’t ask again or I’ll throttle you’ no.”

Ian snorted. “When has that ever stopped you?”

“Point taken. I’ll work on her as long as she doesn’t do to me what Lem does to broken-down tractors.”

His team laughed, but Mitch wondered how Lauren would take his familylike friendship with Lem. Daily breakfast with Lem would be interesting. Especially if he actively recruited her to be on his team, which would mean major life restructuring and relocation. Much as he wanted Lauren close to Lem and on staff, it wasn’t his choice to make.

Help her make the right one, Lord.

But Mitch’s gut knew. He eyed the ceiling. “Thanks. I’m commissioned to convince a hot-tempered redhead to uproot? This is one assignment I am
not
looking forward to.” Especially if he had to continue to contend with this all-too-annoying attraction.

Mitch headed to look for Lauren and give her a ride home. And pester her a little more about at least being his part-time summer nurse. She seemed to enjoy scrub duty best and was good.

“Fine. I’m on it, God. But help me accomplish this mission with the least bloodshed possible.”

He rounded the corner and ran smack into the object of his prayers. She returned his stethoscope.

He tried to hand it back. “You might—”

Her head shook firmly. “I won’t need it again. This final cameo was nice for closure, but my nursing career is over.”

Chapter Four

“S
he really said that?” Grandpa’s laugh drifting from his kitchen drew Lauren from sleep the next morning.

“She really did.” Mitch’s deep, answering chuckle compelled Lauren to full wakefulness. Had she slept in? She blinked into darkness until her eyes adjusted and
7:00 a.m.
squinted back at her from Grandpa’s antique dresser clock.

What was
he
doing here?

She rolled over to listen to the cozy male banter.

Grandpa harrumphed. “Well, it’s not over until the Good Lord says so.”

“Hate to say this, Lem, but she gets her iron will from you.” Mitch chuckled. The invigorating sound lilted down the hall and lifted Lauren’s head from the pillow.

She rubbed at scratchiness that the sleepless night had left in her eyes. If only she could rub away how raw his being here scraped her inside.

Who were those hooligans talking about anyway? Her? Sounded like it. In that case, she’d best be up and ready to defend herself. Grandpa’s robust coffee should do it.

Lauren lifted her robe from the bedpost and snuggled her feet into pure comfort that Lem left beside her bed. Sentimental slippers she’d used here every summer since age ten. Ones that warmed her heart as well as her toes.

She traced fingers across calico star patterns embedded in the last quilt Grandma Bates made before she died. Lauren pulled it up, pressed it to her face and drew a sustained breath.

It smelled like home.

Lauren smiled, glad Lem left the quilt in “her” room. She felt touched that he remembered how she, Grandma and Mom toiled over the pattern together with lots of tangled thread and laughter. The quilt and its cozy memories tucked aside for later, she stepped toward her door.

“So if her stubborn streak came from you, who’d she get the luscious red hair and gorgeous green eyes from?” Mitch asked.

Lauren skidded to a halt and held her breath to hear.

“My daughter, her mama,” Grandpa proudly answered.

“She must have been a looker. Lauren is beyond beautiful.”

Mitch’s heartwarming words washed through her. He thought she was beautiful? She pattered over, peered at herself in the mirror…and laughed.

Her unruly blaze of hair looked plugged into a live socket. Illinois’s humidity poofed it out like mops-gone-wild. It was a crimson entity all its own today.

“No matter.” Lauren wrinkled her nose at her reflection.

A handsome hunk thought she was pretty.

Despite the irksome fact that he was hogging her grandpa, Lauren stood what felt a foot taller. Which would still barely bring her nose to nose with Mitch.

His unwitting compliment melted off last night’s stress and sleeplessness. Hours full of trauma images that had stalked her deep into dreams.

Worse was waking to find out that she’d actually experienced gladness and felt useful again caring for patients.

She remembered the respect that had multiplied in Mitch’s eyes every time he’d sought her out last night, which had been often. She’d felt unequivocally in her element. Ian had even commented so in a hurried hallway. Kate, too, in surgery, said Lauren looked to be doing what she was uniquely gifted for. Was she?

Lauren shook off the notion. It was nothing more than an acute case of memories or a major manifestation of jet lag.

Why was Mitch here anyway? She shuffled into the kitchen.

“Look who’s awake!” Grandpa’s explosive grin pushed tears to her eyes. He greeted her with a flurry of hugs that felt like five years’ worth rolled into one.

When had anyone been this genuinely happy to see her? How she’d missed him, and the closeness they shared!

Which he now seemed to share with Mitch. The moment soured.

“Morning, Grandpa.” She helped him to his chair and avoided Mitch’s assessing gaze. Eyes that said he knew she struggled.

“Hope we didn’t wake you.” Mitch pulled out a chair for her at Grandpa’s table, covered in a crisp red gingham cloth and place mats she’d made as a child. Homesickness overloaded Lauren’s emotions.

As always, his kitchen smelled of cinnamon, her favorite toast. The kind she’d made for her parents that fateful morning.

She’d been so excited to show them that Grandpa had taught her how. Same toast she’d clutched in that irrevocable instant when she’d found the two most important people in her life barely breathing.

Life as she knew it had suddenly crumbled and fallen through fragile fingers.

Today the smell didn’t repel because she equated it with Lem, her lifeline after her parents had died. In those days, Lem talked unceasingly about how heaven was the promise that she’d see her parents again. He told stories of what Jesus had to go through in order to whisper that promise to mankind.

Memories flooded back through a river of time and nearly swept Lauren off her feet. Every coloring page she’d perfected at this table, every dish she’d set and every summer meal she’d eaten. All with Grandpa. He’d become her mom and dad rolled into one.

How could she have abandoned him all these years? Yet hadn’t he encouraged her nursing dream?

She swallowed a hard lump and ran her hands across the country tablecloth. How could one forget a rickety table meant for six, yet set for two, that housed a million happy memories?

“Never get rid of this, Grandpa,” she whispered hoarsely.

Mitch looked up, eyes sharpening. Grandpa paused, and unlike Mitch, his gaze seemed to fade back in years. Perhaps to meet hers at a time and place where their memories mingled and played. Toys. Crafts. Food. Games. Baking. Devotions. Love. Life. Loss. Hard times. Happy times. Tears. Fun. Stories. Laughter. Learning. Faith. Family. A bond no two others shared.

Until Mitch.

And that upended Lauren’s world more than he could know.

Slowly, Lem set a steaming plate of sausage and eggs in front of her. “Still like ’em scrambled best?” Gentle remembrance and solid knowing seeped into Lem’s life-and-loss-wizened eyes. He’d been through everything she had and more.

He knew every tear she’d cried, every boy she’d liked, every stunt she’d tried and every piece of toast she’d ever burned. An unfortunate many.

No one knew her like Grandpa. In fact, no one knew her at all except Grandpa. Not even her Texas friends. Life suddenly felt very lonely. Yet had Mitch come to know her through Grandpa’s gift—the power of story?

Suddenly Grandpa’s vast love for books and storytelling held greater meaning. He loved words so much, he’d used Grandma’s life insurance money to found and fund the local library, something Grandma had always wanted yet never lived to see.

What would become of Lauren if Grandpa died at seventy? Irrational or not, fear welled. Lauren had a tough time quelling it, even as Mitch and Grandpa eyed her with growing concern. Panic pulsed through her. She took deep breaths to calm down.

Didn’t help.

“Yep, still—” For some reason, her throat clogged.

They’d shared so much. She and Grandpa.

No two people possessed the treasure of memories they cherished. Not even Mitch, who studied them gently now.

Yet Mitch and Grandpa had undoubtedly made their own trove of memories. Suddenly and without warning, she wanted in.

Back into Grandpa’s life.

Grandpa shuffled contentedly to the stove to continue his domestic dance of eclectic hospitality. As his comforting and familiar clatter of pans resumed, Lauren sized up her foe.

Mitch stared at her with precision, proving he’d picked up on her envious vibes. Hopefully he’d see her need to resume her rightful place in Grandpa’s heart and life and back off a bit.

If she thought she was determined, it was no match for the titanium will steeling his liquid silver eyes and chiseling stony angles in the jaw he tenaciously jutted.

Instinctually she knew he’d been a rock for Grandpa to lean on in her absence. Who was she to interfere or tear that down?

They needed to find a middle ground. Problem was, his devotion toward Lem made her feel even more irate. At Mitch, yes, but more at herself for letting things like her emotional distance with Grandpa get this way to begin with.

They continued to stare at one another silently but by no means quietly. His breathtaking eyes spoke of loyalty and love as he rose and took a territorial stance next to Lem. Hip reclined against the counter, Mitch’s muscle-thickened arms folded across his broad chest. Not breaking eye contact, he leaned toward Grandpa with undeterred aplomb. Mitch’s massive height and build morphed into a force of protective nature.

He was clearly afraid she’d run off and hurt Grandpa again.

Their challenge-wrapped exchange was protected from Lem only because his back was to them as he whistled over sumptuous chocolate gravy bubbling in the pan. Lem was the only person Lauren knew who served dessert at every meal, including breakfast.

She doubted even Grandpa’s sugary gravy could sweeten Mitch up this moment or erase the resolve on his face. It blared his thoughts. He wasn’t about to lose ground just so she could gain it. He’d not alter his friendship with Lem for anyone. She knew this for certain, because he made no attempt to hide his expressive countenance and protective body language from her. Mitch’s gaze drifted to Grandpa and softened in such a way to pierce her heart with a two-pronged spear of remorse and regret.

If one picture could say a thousand words, Mitch’s face was a photo montage. Tenderness scrolled across masculine planes, and deep care swept into the valleys. Grandpa’s incessant Mitch stories afforded her the ability to ascertain that Mitch’s will to fight for a hold on Lem’s heart stemmed purely from admiration, loyalty and love.

No doubt a by-product of Lem’s reaching into Mitch’s desolate childhood and pulling him, a broken little smudge-faced boy, out of the ashes of poverty and hardship and teaching him how to live and love, work and pray, play and laugh like a man.

So what was her excuse? Why were her feelings so unruly?

She returned her attention to Grandpa. Had he the slightest inkling that he was the invisible rope in this unspoken, territorial tug of warring hearts?

Mitch probably thought she was a flake and that she’d end up hurting Grandpa by leaving and not staying in touch. But he had no right to insert himself into her business. Unfortunately, Grandpa had given Mitch full right to insert himself into Lem’s.

There was nothing she could do about that, but she could do her best to make up for lost time with Grandpa, with or without Mitch. Preferably without. He was a multifaceted distraction, and one she could not afford in any fashion.

Grandpa set a gravy dish of cocoa goodness in the middle of the table. Mitch served them, starting with her. He ladled a heap of chocolate gravy over one of Grandpa’s homemade biscuits she’d torn into quarter-size chunks over her plate.

She tried not to soften at Mitch’s sweet Southern manners. Or notice the way his well-muscled forearm moved with motion that mesmerized. How many broken soldiers had those careful and caring hands mended? How many lonely days had Mitch’s smile and presence brightened for Grandpa, who struggled with loneliness?

Tears pricked her eyes. She blinked vehemently.

She felt Mitch’s militant intentional gaze on her again and remembered she hadn’t brushed her crazy hair. Or finished answering Grandpa’s question of many awkward moments ago.

Self-consciousness flitted through her. “What’d you ask?”

“You never did tell me if you still like your eggs scrambled best,” Grandpa repeated with a spirit of patience.

She patted her head. “Yep. Scrambled like my hair this morning.” She slid a sideways glance at Mitch. Maybe he hadn’t noticed the big red mop.

Oh, he noticed, all right—because he stared right at it.

Mitch cleared his throat. “You have nice hair, Lauren.”

Lauren wasn’t sure Lem, fiddling again at the stove, heard. She also wasn’t sure she liked Mitch being nice, or the merry way his flattery made her feel.

She leaned back and eyed herself in a shiny toaster. An out-of-nowhere laugh came from the back of Lauren’s throat.

Grandpa turned faster than a man half his age. Mitch looked up with the most adorably confused expression.

“Nice?” Lauren held out her unruly hair. “Now I know he’s as adept at fibbing as he is at interfering.” She directed her comment to Mitch. His face colored as Grandpa chuckled and rejoined them at the table.

“Well, when you brush it it’s nice.” Mitch poked at his eggs. Had she offended him? Maybe he’d get a clue and get away from Grandpa. At least while she was here. She didn’t need anyone distracting her from the reason she came to visit: to make up for lost time.

She refused to sit idly by while Mitch picked up where he left off before deployment—taking her place in Grandpa’s heart.

Unfortunately, Mitch was the kind of man who was effective at whatever he attempted, which justified her jealousy. A little.

She studied Mitch. He still pushed his fork around his plate. Perhaps he’d cued in on her struggle with ill feelings.

Grandpa nodded toward Mitch’s well-massacred eggs. “Uh, son, those are already scrambled.”

Both men grinned. Lauren’s faded.

Grandpa called Mitch “son.” Dismay and fear disarmed her. Her heart thumped as though it wanted to be let out of her chest. Her stomach clenched and unclenched like a raw-knuckled fist.

Mitch and Grandpa were closer than she ever imagined.

What bothered her most was that she envied Grandpa this morning almost as much as she envied Mitch. Almost.

Thankfully her emotions came quickly to their senses.

Jealousy, she could contend with. Feelings for Mitch? No way. That would be the second stupidest thing she could do. Entertaining the annoying attraction had been her first.

The three ate in introspective silence. Lem looked from one to the other. His eyes circled Lauren’s face.

The last thing she wanted to do was worry Grandpa. So how to wrestle her jealousy under a rug and remedy this? She needed to try to compromise. Be more understanding. Easier said than done, though. One solution was to strive to spend time with Grandpa when Mitch wasn’t here. That meant rising before the crack of dawn and staying up late, like Grandpa-the-night-owl liked to, but so be it.