Annie Hemby - Healing His Widowed Heart

“Great, Mr. Mason,” the boy said.

Mason kept walking, waving at the kids he passed, smiling and giving a high five every now and then. He stopped walking, however, when he saw the woman sitting at the end of the table. She was helping one of the girls with her homework. “What are you doing here?” he asked, a hard edge threading through his voice.

Lexie looked up, lifting her chin just slightly. “I told you I would be here. You and Dr. Marcus discussed this a few weeks back. You agreed to have someone from the new clinic come over to volunteer. That someone is me. I told Dr. Marcus I’d take care of this for him, so he could concentrate on other aspects of the business. I’m not going back on that commitment,” she said.

Mason shoved his hands on his hips, speechless. There were a whole lot of things he wanted to say right now, but he didn’t want to say them in front of the teens who were all staring at him. He wanted to tell Lexie that she needed to get up and get out. He didn’t think that she had anything she could teach these kids that would be of benefit. Instead, Mason stared at her for just a moment longer and then continued walking to the office in the back. His good mood was gone. Now his neck ached from the tension pulling between his shoulder blades.

“Bad day?” his friend Dave asked, looking up from his desk as Mason stormed in.

“Not until now,” Mason said.

Dave studied him. “Well, here’s some good news. We have a new volunteer.”

“Yeah, I know. And I don’t want her here,” Mason ground out.

Dave arched an eyebrow. “Why not? It’s not every day we have someone willing to sacrifice their time. What’s the problem?”

Mason crossed his arms in front of his chest. “The problem is... The problem is...” he said again, trying to think of a good reason why Lexie Campbell’s presence was a problem. “Well, for one, she’s careless. She’s the woman who I rescued from the forest fire yesterday.”

Dave nodded. “I know. She told me.”

“And you don’t think that’s a problem?” Mason asked.

Dave shrugged a shoulder. “It’s not like she’s going to be telling the kids here that they should run into burning forests.”

Mason shook his head. “I don’t want her telling my teens anything. And I certainly don’t want her giving them medical advice.”

“I get it. This is because she’s a doctor.”

“A doctor that just graduated medical school,” Mason told him. “She’s barely got her degree and she’ll be offering the people in this town, who you and I both care about, medical advice.”

Dave considered this. “Well, she’s been to medical school, and I haven’t. So I’m assuming that she has better advice than I could give.”

Mason pointed a finger. “You see? Even you would take her medical advice. That’s why having her at the free health care clinic is dangerous. Just because she’s a doctor, people will think her advice is golden. She’s inexperienced. She can make mistakes that can hurt people. Mistakes that can kill people.”

Dave’s expression softened as he stared back at him.

Mason didn’t want to see the look. Yes, he knew his past was influencing his opinion on this. He couldn’t seem to help it, though. “Lexie said she’s not leaving, so at least help me keep an eye on her,” he finally said.

“Sure. But all she’s doing is helping with the kids’ homework.”

“Good.” Mason plopped himself down behind his own desk and ran a hand through his hair. He needed to collect his emotions before he went back out there.

Dave got up and headed to the door. “I promised Trevor we’d play ball. Catch you in a few?”

Mason nodded. “Sure.” He just needed a couple minutes to himself.

After a few deep breaths and a quick prayer, Mason stood and walked to the glass window that looked out from the office onto the room of teenagers. He watched Lexie as she sat with one of the girls, Kim. Lexie threw her head back as she laughed at something that must have been funny to her. Kim cracked a smile for once, too. The teen girl rarely smiled.

Mason resisted the softening of his emotions. He didn’t want to like Lexie. He didn’t want her working here with the kids that meant so much to him. But Dave was right. The center did need all the help they could get. And truthfully, Lexie seemed like a nice woman. So, as long as she kept her medical advice to herself, Mason supposed that having her around was okay. It was just for the summer, he reminded himself. Then things would return to normal and the beautiful redhead would be gone.

* * *

Lexie was having a good time. Dr. Marcus had explained to her that the purpose of the outreach wasn’t exactly to treat the teens here. Instead, it was to form a relationship with them. To give them somebody in the community that they could talk to. To make the medical professionals more approachable.

Lexie had worked with a lot of the youth in her hometown in Raleigh. She’d grown up doing community service and had always loved helping others. Over the past few years she’d gotten away from volunteering, however, due to her demanding schedule in medical school and planning for a wedding that never happened. This summer would be as good for Lexie as it would be the Carolina Shores community. She just hoped that Mason softened up a bit toward her. She didn’t want to spend her summer tiptoeing around him.

She looked up at the office where he’d disappeared half an hour earlier. The door was still closed. She felt sorry that she was the reason he was blocked off from everyone. That hadn’t been her intention.

The office door suddenly opened and her heart stopped. Mason appeared and started walking in her direction. Here it comes, she thought. Mason was going to try to get her to leave again. She braced herself. When she’d spoken to Dr. Marcus earlier in the day about Mason’s stance on her being here, Dr. Marcus had encouraged her to come anyway. He’d described Mason as a big softy at heart. Mason’s jaw was tight right now, though, the muscles bunched along his cheek—nothing soft about the man.

She swallowed and met his gaze as he stood behind her, overlooking the homework she was helping Kim with.

Kim looked up, as well. “Hey, Mr. Mason,” she said, without so much as a smile. “Miss Lexie is helping me do algebra.”

Mason’s gaze moved from Kim to Lexie. “That’s great,” he said. “Every time I help her, she gets the questions wrong.”

Unless Lexie was imagining it, Mason’s mouth curved into the smallest of smiles. She took that as a good sign. “Math was always one of my favorite subjects,” she told him.

He nodded again. “Then I guess we’re fortunate to have you here.”

Did this mean he wasn’t going to escort her out of the building? That he’d had a change of heart? She offered up a smile in his direction, and then returned her focus to the algebra work sheets on the table. She pointed at the next problem. “Okay, let’s try this one,” she told Kim. From the corner of her eye she watched as Mason moved farther down the table and sat beside one of the teenage boys. Relief spread through her and hope blossomed. Maybe she wouldn’t have to tiptoe around Mason Benfield all summer after all.

An hour later, Lexie drove back to the Carlyles’ home to help with dinner as promised.

“Shall I set four place settings?” she asked, gathering the silverware.

Clara shook her head. “Just three. Mason called and said he wouldn’t be coming tonight.”

“Oh.” Lexie swallowed and continued counting out forks and knives. “Is it because of me?”

Clara waved a hand. “No, it’s because of him, dear. He just needs to work through his thoughts, that’s all.”