Marta Perry - The Doctor's Christmas

“Come on, Doc.” Isaiah Martin, looking better dressed than he had been for his clinic visit, waved toward Grant. “Get up here and pick out a slab of pie.”

Friendly hands shoved him toward the table on a wave of agreement. Feeding him was their way of welcoming him. Would he recognize that?

“Here you go, Doc.” Evie Moore slid a piece of cherry pie onto a flowered plate. “That’s my cherry pie, and you won’t find better anywhere, if I do say so myself. Those cherries come right off my tree. Now, what else will you have?”

“That’s plenty,” he began. Then he stopped, apparently realizing from the offended expressions on the other women that he’d made a strategic mistake.

He wasn’t her responsibility. Still, maybe she’d better rescue him. Maggie slipped closer.

“You’d better try all of them,” she murmured. “You wouldn’t want to insult anyone.”

“I can’t eat fourteen pieces of pie unless you want to let out my lab coats.” He slanted a smile at her, apparently not surprised to find her at his elbow. “How about getting me out of this?”

Suppressing that little flutter his smile provoked, she took a knife and split the piece of pie, sliding part onto a different plate. “Let’s give Dr. Hardesty a little sliver of each kind,” she suggested.

The pie bakers greeted that with enthusiasm. Evie might be acknowledged as the best cherry pie baker, but no one else intended to be left in the dust. Before Grant escaped from the serving line, they’d managed to add slivers of dried apple, rhubarb, lemon meringue and mincemeat pie.

Maggie helped herself to coffee, then realized that Grant had headed straight for the table where Joey sat. Her nerves stood at attention.

By now, all five hundred and three residents of Button Gap knew about the warning Gus had delivered. They were all on the lookout for Mrs. Hadley. Everyone, in other words, but Grant.

She reached the table quickly. She thought Joey understood how important it was to keep quiet about their mother’s absence, but kids were unpredictable, and it was her job to keep them safe.

Joey wore a rim of cherry around his mouth. “Sure is good pie,” he said thickly.

“You better take it easy, or you won’t be able to sleep tonight.” Relieved, Maggie slid into the seat next to Joey. Unfortunately, that put her directly across from Grant.

His level brows lifted. “Are you talking to Joey or to me?”

“Both of you.”

“You’re the one who made me accept all of this,” he protested.

“You didn’t want to insult anyone, did you?”

He glanced at the crowded plate. “If it’s that or my arteries, I think I’ll take the arteries.” He took a bite of Evie’s cherry pie, and then gave a sigh of pure pleasure. “Although this might be worth the risk.”

Their smiles entangled, and her heart rate soared.

You’re mad at him, remember? she reminded herself, but it didn’t seem to be doing any good. Maybe she’d better concentrate on finishing her dessert and getting the kids home.

Unfortunately Grant seemed to be eating at the same rate she was. He put his plate on the dish cart right behind her, grabbed his coat while she was getting the kids into theirs and walked out the door when they did.

“It’s chilly out here.” He buttoned the top button of his jacket.

She nodded. “Winter comes early in the mountains. We usually have a white Christmas.”

By Christmas, Nella would be safely home with her children, and one source of Maggie’s concern would be taken care of. By Christmas, Grant would be back in his world, probably forgetting about Button Gap the moment he crossed the county line.

The kids romped ahead of them. Joey stopped in the middle of the deserted street. He spun in a circle, his arms spread wide. “Snow!” he shouted.

Maggie looked up. Sure enough, a few lazy flakes drifted down from the dark sky.

“It is snow.” She felt the feather-light touch of a snowflake on her cheek. “Look!”

Her foot hit a pothole in the road, and she stumbled. Grant’s arm went around her in an instant, keeping her from falling.

“You’re as bad as the kids.” His voice was low and teasing in her ear. “Next thing you know you’ll be dancing in the street.”

“Is that so bad?”

She looked up at him and knew immediately she’d made a mistake. Grant’s face was very close, his eyes warm with laughter instead of cool and judging. His arm felt strong and sure, supporting her.

The laughter in his eyes stilled, replaced by something questioning, even longing. Nothing moved—no one spoke. The children’s voices were a long way off, and the world seemed to move in a lazy circle.

He was going to kiss her. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to stop it.

But she couldn’t. Whatever her reasonable, responsible brain said, her body had an entirely different agenda.

It didn’t happen. Grant seemed to wake himself, as if from a dream.

“Well, maybe we’d better say good night.” There was something almost questioning in the words.

“Yes.” She could only hope she didn’t sound as stupid as she felt. “Good night.”

She turned and ran after the children, knowing she was trying to run from herself.

Grant let out a sigh of relief as Maggie closed the outer door of the clinic behind the final patient on Monday afternoon and snapped the lock. She flipped the sign to Closed, not that it would actually stop anyone.

“Are we really done for the day?”

He’d been busier than this in the hospital emergency room, of course. Certainly he’d worked longer hours, especially as an intern. But somehow the clinic seemed a heavier responsibility, maybe because there was no one here to back him up except Maggie.

“That’s the last of them.” Maggie gathered files from the desk. “Congratulations.”

He lifted an eyebrow, trying not to think about how soft her lips looked, or how he’d almost made the mistake of kissing them on Saturday night. “For what?”

“That was a good catch on Elsie Warner’s pregnancy. Some docs wouldn’t have seen it.”

He shrugged. “Hopefully it will be nothing, but the ultrasound will tell us for sure. Better to be forewarned than caught unprepared.”

It had been routine, of course. There was no reason to feel elated at the glow of approval in Maggie’s eyes.

“Well, you did a good job. And you’ve been accepted. That steady stream of patients means that the word has gotten around that you’re okay.”

He considered that, ridiculously pleased. “Sure it wasn’t just the lure of a free checkup?”

“I told you, they don’t take charity.” She nodded toward the desk’s surface. “You now have three jars of preserves, two of honey, a pound of bacon from the hog the Travis family just slaughtered and a couple of loaves of homemade bread.”

He took a step nearer to Maggie, reminding himself not to get too close. He didn’t want to feel that irrational pull of attraction again, did he?

“So deluging me with food is the sign of acceptance in Button Gap?”

“It is.” Her full lips curved in a smile. “Don’t tell me the big-city doc actually appreciates that.”

“Hey, nobody ever brought me honey before.” He picked up a jar, holding it to the light to admire the amber color. “You sure this is safe?”

“Of course it’s safe.” Her exasperated tone seemed to set a safety zone between them. “Toby Watkins’s bees produce the best honey in the county.”

“Well, I can’t eat all this stuff on my own, and you have kids to feed. We’ll share.”

“You could take some back home to Baltimore with you when you go. Give it to your family.”

He shook his head. “My mother doesn’t eat anything but salads and grilled fish, as far as I can tell.” He grimaced. “She might gain an ounce.”