Run: Beginnings (5 page)

              “I should go,” Eric finally said, his voice harsh with his obvious restraint.

              Natalie looked up confused. “Did I….Was I….?”

              Eric smiled and gently kissed Natalie on the forehead. “You were and
are
lovely. And a good cook,’’ he added with a broadening grin. But his eyes were still dark with lust and a deeper layer of something else. Something he was hiding.

              “But before anything can go further, I need to have you know a few things about me as well,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers.

              “You can tell me. Is it about your family? Your work?” Natalie asked, hoping she didn’t sound too eager. She was most certainly ready to unravel this inner cloak of enigma that seemed to be hidden within this man.

              Eric’s eyes clouded a bit and his expression hardened, his lips tightening into a flat line. “Not tonight. Not yet.” He broke away with a sudden jerk. He gave her a gentle smile, brushing his warm hand against her cheek. “Thank you for dinner, little rabbit. It was delicious.” He headed towards the door. “And so were you,” he added with a wink as he walked out into the frosty night air.

Chapter
Five

              The next day, Natalie was completely distracted. She mistakenly took Abe Duggan’s temperature twice and gave Dora Winston a prescription for heart medication when she came in for an asthma inhaler refill. The nurses all noticed the absent-minded and distant doctor but kept it to themselves and gently reassured Abe that his temperature was fine and quietly gave Dora her correct inhaler refill.

              After Dora, Natalie sat in the empty exam room, wondering what had happened last night. It hadn’t ended badly. Not exactly. But it also hadn’t exactly ended on a good note either. Why had Eric broken the kiss so abruptly? And what did he want to tell her? And whatever it is, she couldn’t imagine why he couldn’t tell her last night. After all, hadn’t she bared her heart by revealing her broken engagement?

              And that kiss….It had completely shaken Natalie. Her response to his touch had been so powerful. Her entire body from the tips of her toes to the top of her scalp had become sparked with a kind of passion that she had never experienced. And remembering Eric’s shattered breathing and surprised expression, she knew the feeling had been mutual. So why the stop? Why did he pull away?

              All night she had tossed and turned wondering. And today had been her first day as a doctor where she had not come into the office completely and one hundred percent present. She felt guilty for not bringing her best to the clinic yet couldn’t help herself from following her distracting thoughts while working.

              “Dr. Evers?” Nurse Marcia, the oldest of the three nurses, popped her head into the exam room. She was a gentle faced woman who looked to be pushing close to sixty. Yet she was just as vivacious and sweet as any nurse Natalie had ever worked with.

              Natalie looked up and saw the nurse’s confused and slightly amused expression. Looking down, she noticed she had slowly been pulling apart cotton swabs. The small exam table looked like it was covered in fluffy cotton snow.

              “Was it that late of a night with Mr. Mitchells?” Nurse Marcia asked with a knowing smile.

              Natalie’s eyes widened in shock. “How did you know?” she asked. And then coughed and blushed as she corrected, “It wasn’t a late night. He came over to look over my house repairs and then he had dinner. That was it.”

Nurse Marci
a’
s blue eyes twinkled. “It’s a small town, Dr. Evers. Someone getting a new washer is town news around these parts,” she said in good humor.

              Natalie gave a faint nod. Not that she often forgot she was now living in a small remote town in the vastness of Canada but she did sometimes forget the differences in social dynamics. There was no way gossip could spread in a city like Los Angeles unless you happened to be in the entertainment industry. And even then, you would have to be in the top 1% for anyone to give a damn about news regarding you. But here, curious eyes saw everything.

              “It’s good that you had dinner with him,” Nurse Marcia continued as she began sweeping the dissected cotton balls off the table and into the bin. “He’s been alone too long, the poor dear.”

              Dr. Evers ears perked up. Well if her life was providing town gossip, it only seemed fair that someone else’s life now reciprocated the favor. “Does he not have any family nearby?”

              The nurse’s eyes clouded over in sadness. “No. He came into town several years ago—from out of nowhere really! And almost immediately began working for old Ted Darrenson who ran the hardware store before Eric. Eric’s the quiet type, as most men are,” Nurse Marcia added confidentially, “but from what was gathered, he’s an orphan.”

              Natalie gasped. “An orphan!” Maybe that was what he wanted to tell her? Perhaps his family had died tragically. Perhaps he had some emotional scars that inhibited him during intimacy. These seemed a little far-fetched though. Natalie might not know Eric well but she already knew without a doubt that the man would never run from any kind of fear, whether physical or emotional. She knew he would confront them head on and face them. Either way, this was at least some additional information to help her pull away the shroud of mystery around this lone wolf.

              “Anyway, Ernest Briggs is here and I’m pretty sure he’s eaten blueberries again,” Nurse Marcia said with a patient sigh. Ernest ran the local market and loved blueberries. He was also quite allergic to them. Natalie had already seen him once this week after he had eaten dried blueberries under the delusion that when dried, they would not cause the same allergic reaction as when fresh.

              Natalie coughed to tastefully cover her laughter. “Send him in.” She was determined to see Eric after work today. She would find him and talk to him about last night. She refused to be coy. She lived where the wild things roamed and she’d take a page out of their book and be bold.

              Shaking her head clear of all her wandering thoughts and curious questions, she prepared herself to meet Ernest and the rest of her patience with a good and clear head on her shoulders.

***

              Grabbing her satchel in one hand and some extra folders and her cellphone in the other, Natalie threw her things into her car, waved off some of the nurses, and then slid into her seat, eager to get to Mitchells Hardware.

              It was early and she didn’t know Eric well but she knew she wanted more. There was something special between the two of them and it was worth exploring. But as Natalie turned on her ignition, her cellphone rang. Looking down at the screen, she saw the caller ID picture of Amber, surrounded by flowers, laughing.

The baby!
Natalie immediately felt her heart drop. It was too early! Had something happened? She quickly answered the call.              

              “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you in the hospital? Is it the baby?”

              “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Amber said, chuckling a little. “I’m
fine.
The bun’s still in the oven cooking. Everything’s alright, Dr. Evers, so let’s take it down a notch.”

              Natalie sighed in relief then snorted at her friend. “Well, at least you can’t fault me for not being prepared. I was ready to drive all the way down to LA in my ancient truck.”

              Amber laughed. “And for such loyalty, I am grateful. How are you doing, Nat? I looked up the weather there. It looks pretty nasty.”

              Natalie looked out her car window. It was certainly cold. Natalie could see her breath as she spoke. But it was
n’
t windy and it wasn’t raining. And for those two reasons alone, she considered today to be a good day. Natalie chuckled to herself. How quickly her standards had changed. She used to think 60º weather was an igloo. Now, she felt like 50
º
was a sauna.

              “It’s not too bad. A good coat can go a long way here.” Natalie swiped her wipers to break away some of the light frost against her windshield. “So what’s up?” They had been sending regular emails and exchanging weekly phone calls since her move. But the calls usually happened on the weekends at night. Today was a Wednesday.

              Amber’s sigh crackled through her phone. “I wanted to call to break some news to you before you heard it elsewhere.”

              Natalie looked through the windshield. The clini
c’
s small parking lot faced the main road. She knew just a few miles down was Eric and his warm hardware store. She had waited the whole day to talk to him and just
maybe
hoped they would share another kiss. “What news?”

              Natalie could feel the awkward pause. What could be making her friend hesitate like this? They had shared their most intimate secrets for years after all.

              Amber sighed again. “Okay, I’m just going to say it because I don’t know a better way to tell you than to just say it plain.”

              “Okay….What is it then?”

              “Michael’s engaged.”

              Natalie felt all the noise of her car disappear into a ringing silence for a split second before the roar of disbelief and surprising pain rushed into her. “What?”

              “He’s engaged. To Candace. I heard last night. They’re planning to go to Vegas this weekend to do the deed. They’re certainly not wasting time,” Amber added bitterly.

              Natalie felt like her chest was caving in. Candace. The giggling blonde from the shower. A flash of Michael on his knees in front of her with a broken expression flew across her mind.

             
“It was all a mistake, babe. I just was so stressed out from work and with you always on call. But it didn’t mean anything.
She
didn’t mean anything. I swear it!”

             
“But you slept with her. You were
with
her. For
three
weeks
you said.” Natalie knew it was medically impossible for her heart to break but it felt like it was certainly trying its damnedest to prove medical truth wrong.

              Michael shook his head. “God knows what you must think of me, Nat. But just know it was all just a stupid, godawful mistake! She was so persistent and she kept calling me! But what you and I have is special, babe! I know you are a one in a million kind of girl and I don’t want to lose you. I’m so sorry.”

              One in a million. More like a dime a dozen. Because after knowing Candace for less than one of Amber’s trimesters, he had found another ‘one in a million’ girl to propose to and marry.

              “Natalie? Are you there? Oh honey, I’m so, so sorry to have to tell you! I really am! But I wanted to make sure you heard it from me than be sidelined by some idiot later.”

              Natalie swallowed dryly. “No, no,” she whispered. “You did right.” They had been together four years. Michael had known Candace less than four months and now they were getting married.

              “Do you want me to fly up? I can fly up? Honey I know this is big. I don’t want you to be alone,” Amber’s voice pleaded.

              Natalie gripped her steering wheel. “No, Amber,” she said, trying to infuse a thread of strength into her voice. “You are in your last trimester. You are
not
flying out here.”

              “But I’m flying
to
a doctor! It’s not like I’ll be in any harm. I can grab a flight out tonight.”

              “Amber,
no
. If you trust me enough to deliver your baby, then trust me now when I say I’ll be alright. Stay in LA. You need to be near your own doctors.”

              Amber made a noise of defeat. She knew it was true. “Then call me anytime. My phone is always by my bed. You call me whenever you want—whether i
t’
s to cry or to bitch out that gutless asshole—whatever! Just call! You’ll do that, right?”

              Natalie nodded. Then remembering she was on the phone, she said, “Of course. Thanks for letting me know, Am. You were right. I’d rather have heard it from you than anyone else.”

              Hanging up, Natalie tossed the phone into the passenger seat.

              A wave of humiliation passed over her. When she and Michael had been engaged, how many times had he been secretly meeting up with Candace? All those distracted, distant looks he had given her….She had assumed they had been because he was too disgusted to touch her. Perhaps that was still true. But perhaps he was also distracted because a slim, leggy blonde was somewhere waiting for him.

              Those nights when he would come home late from work….Had he just come from Candace’s? Had he had his fill of the beautiful lover so he could come home and crawl into the bed of his obligation?

              “God,” Natalie whispered as a tear trailed down her cold cheek. How many times had that man made her feel the fool? And now she was in a different country and
still
she felt the rolling pains of shame.