Annie Hemby - Healing His Widowed Heart

A wedding dress.

Which meant the woman on her way to the hospital was spoken for. Taken. Off the market. That knowledge stung a little, leaving him with something akin to disappointment, which didn’t make sense. She was a stranger and he had no interest in dating or relationships, or ever getting married again. Shifting his truck back into gear, he headed out of the neighborhood with the bagged dress beside him. The smell of smoke was hard to kick. Foolish or not, he didn’t want the bride-to-be to smell like a forest fire on her special day.

A short drive later, he pulled into a gravel driveway and parked.

“Mason.” The woman he rented his garage apartment from turned from the stove as he walked into the adjoining ranch-style house. “What are you doing here at this hour?” she asked.

He set the garbage bag against the wall. “I thought I’d leave this with you for safe keeping if that’s all right. I rescued someone from the fire earlier and—”

Clara Carlyle’s hands flew to her mouth. “Are they okay?”

“Well, she wasn’t exactly in the fire. She just got too close, and inhaled a lot of smoke. She’ll be fine.” That’s what his head was telling him at least. His heart, on the other hand, was sick with worry. Ambulances and hospitals made him nervous. “Do you think you could check on her for me?” he asked. Clara checked on a lot of hospitalized people from church. It was something she enjoyed doing.

“Of course I will. I’m going to the hospital to visit Mr. Jacobs from the choir this afternoon.”

Mason nodded. “Thank you.”

“How are you doing?” she asked then, her brown eyes studying him intently.

A bunch of descriptions rattled off in his head. He was tired. Hungry. Anxious... Lonely. “I’m fine,” he told her, grabbing an apple from her fruit basket on the counter and kissing her temple. “I have to get back to work. Then I’ll be at the Teen Center tonight.”

“You won’t be home for dinner?” Clara asked with a frown.

“Maybe tomorrow night,” he said. If the fire was contained.

“Be careful out there. I don’t want to be visiting you in the hospital, too,” she said.

Not a chance. “I will.” He closed the door behind him and walked back to his truck.

* * *

Lexie awoke to the familiar sounds of a hospital. She was usually the one controlling the sounds. Now, for a reason she tried to remember, she was the patient lying in a stiff, narrow bed. There was an IV poking into her right arm.

Pieces of her morning started to reassemble in her memory. The rental home she was staying at had been evacuated while she was out of town. She’d gone back to get her—

Lexie sat up, her eyes suddenly wide as she scanned the room for her grandmother’s wedding dress.

“You need to relax, dear.” A short woman with white hair and a ready smile knocked as she entered the room, holding a large, leafy potted plant.

Lexie had never seen the woman before, so she guessed she was on her way to see another patient.

“I’m Clara Carlyle,” the woman said, placing the plant on the nightstand beside her and pulling up a chair. “Mason sent me to check on you.”

Lexie didn’t know him, either. “Who?”

Clara smiled softly. “Your knight in shining armor. He rescued you when you passed out this morning. Don’t you remember, dear?”

“Y-yes. I was going back to get—”

“Your dress. Yes, I know.” The older woman looked sheepish. “I may have peeked inside the bag. Oh, it’s a beautiful dress.”

“You have my bag?” Lexie asked hopefully.

“At home. A hospital isn’t the place for something like that. Neither is a fireman’s truck. That’s why Mason brought it to me. I’ll take it to you after you’re discharged. Where will you be staying?”

Lexie’s mouth fell open. That was a very good question. The rental home had been cheap. It was run-down and needed renovations. Until she started her real job in the fall, she didn’t exactly have the extra funds to rent one of the more livable, touristy places in town. She could always go back home to Raleigh, she thought, discounting that idea immediately. She’d promised Dr. Marcus she’d help him open and run the free health care clinic in Carolina Shores this summer. She would also be in charge of the clinic’s outreach to the local teens in the community. “I’m not sure yet,” she told the woman.

“You don’t have any family in Carolina Shores?” Clara asked.

Lexie shook her head. “No.” She’d needed a break from the concerned looks of her family and friends. They meant well, but seeing them only made her dwell on her canceled wedding and happily-ever-after.

There was another knock on her hospital room door. Lexie smiled for the first time since waking up at the sight of a short-statured man with an overgrown, scraggly beard. Dr. Marcus had taught a year of her medical school before returning to the field at Carolina Medical to practice medicine.

“Lexie! When I called and asked you to come to Carolina Medical, I meant to work alongside me, not to be my patient. Although it’s always a pleasure to see you.”

“Good to see you, too. And as soon as I’m discharged, I’ll get right on that,” Lexie promised. “I’m so excited about the work we’re going to do together.”

He smiled. “Me, too.”

Clara stood to greet the doctor. “Hello, Dr. Marcus. How are you?”

He nodded and gave her a hug. “I’m well. Yourself?”

Clara patted his back and sat back down in the chair beside Lexie’s bed. “I’m blessed. I didn’t see you in church last Sunday.” She lifted a brow.

Dr. Marcus shook his head. “I’m sorry I missed it. I hear the sermon was a good one, but duty called. I see you’ve met one of my favorite students from the time when I was a professor in Raleigh.”

They both turned to Lexie. She’d passed her medical boards last month. She was officially a doctor now, and couldn’t wait to start practicing.

“I have,” Clara told him, folding her hands in her lap. “Is she going to be okay?”

Dr. Marcus gave her a serious look. “You know I can’t break patient confidentiality, Clara.”

“So you keep telling me.” Clara winked at Lexie. “He never tells me anything when I come to visit.” Clara pretended to whisper, intending for Dr. Marcus to hear every word.

Lexie laughed. “Am I going to be okay?” she asked, turning to Dr. Marcus. “When can I trade in this hospital gown for my real clothes?” And start looking for a place to stay in Carolina Shores temporarily.

“Just as soon as you promise to stop running toward wildfires,” he said, writing something on the clipboard in his hand.

“Oh, trust me, I won’t be doing that again anytime soon,” Lexie said. Heat moved through her cheeks.

“That’s good, because part of being a good practitioner is setting a good example. Especially when it comes to the teens.”

“Right.” She felt conviction in her spirit. She hadn’t started the job yet and Dr. Marcus was already mentoring her.

“And where will you be staying when you leave here?” he asked.

That seemed to be the question of the moment. Lexie knew that Dr. Marcus would offer her a place to stay if she told him she was now homeless, but she also knew he was a newlywed. He and his new wife were late to find love, and had only been married for a couple months. Lexie had attended the wedding here in Carolina Shores. It was the first time she’d visited the coastal town, and she’d wished she could stay a little longer at the time. Now she was here for the entire summer.

She opened her mouth to tell Dr. Marcus she wasn’t sure, but Clara stopped her.

“She’s my new houseguest, Dr. Marcus. A friend of yours is a friend of mine.”