A free chapter.
This is a rewrite of one of my once published romance novels. Originally, it was the fourth book in a five books series called The Sisters Callaway. Now, after a major change to the characters and story A Family for Sam is the first book in a three-book series I'm calling Home to Hendersonville. The second book will be a completely different story with one of the sisters, and the third will be Kayla's story. After revisions, of course.
I've introduced that heroine in the first chapter here.
Enjoy!
A Family for Sam
Chapter One
"I need you to take your shirt off, Mr. Wilson." Dr. Allison Anderson glanced at the elderly man. Thank God he was the last scheduled patient. "I can't tell if the cream I gave you on Monday is helping if you won't let me examine your back."
"Where's Doc Sanders?" The
gentleman backed away from the exam table, bumping into a storage cabinet.
"Doc knows how to take care of me."
Allie blew out her breath. Why is he
acting this way? She'd already seen him at the beginning of the week. He'd been
willing to let her examine his rash then, and he even allowed her to give him a
corticosteroid shot. Now it's almost like he'd never been in the office at all.
"Where's Doc anyway?"
Allie sighed out her angry
frustration. "He went fishing."
"Fishing?"
"Yes," she said, glancing
sharply at him. "He hasn't been in all day. If you don't get check out now,
you'll have to come back on Monday."
A light tap sounded on the exam room
door behind her. "Is it okay if I come in?"
"You better, Kayla." All day, one patient after
the other, had given her a hard time. Just because Dr. Sanders wasn't in the
clinic, they all acted like Allie didn't have a clue what to do with them.
"Maybe you can talk Mr. Wilson into letting me check out his rash."
Kayla stopped at the other end of the
table and looked at her. "Are you okay?"
Sighing out her annoyance, she
glanced at the smaller woman. "He's refusing to take off his shirt."
The look on her face told Allie she
might not be able to convince him either. Yet it didn't seem to bother her
nurse. She just shrugged and moved closer to the exam table. "All Dr.
Anderson needs to do is look at your chest and back, Mr. Wilson. She won't need
to touch you."
Dr. Anderson? Allie
swallowed. She'd been working closely with her for two months now, and she
still called her Dr. Anderson. But then why should she be any different than
the rest of the people in Hendersonville? Except for her parents and two
siblings, everyone called her Dr. Anderson.
Or they didn't bother calling her
anything at all.
Even Dr. Sanders never called her by
her first name.
"No, I'm not taking off my shirt
with two women in the room."
Kayla grinned. "Afraid we might
attack you?"
"That is not a proper thing to
say to the patient."
Her nurse froze, and then stiffened
up. Just like must of the other women whenever she spoke to them. No matter how
she acted, or what she said, the female residents of the town still hadn't
warmed up to her. It was strange, though. The men didn't seem to have the same
problem.
Had she done the right thing moving
back home?
"Dr. Anderson?"
Kayla's tempered voice broke through
her thoughts.
"Allie?"
The sound of her first name startled
her head up. "Yes?"
"Mr. Wilson is willing to take
off his shirt," the nurse said, a hint of laughter in her lilting voice.
"But only if you promise not to touch him."
An answering grin moved over her
lips. She wiped it away quickly. "I think I can manage that."
Her nurse stared at her for a long
moment, and then turned toward the elderly patient. "Well?"
The patient looked from the nurse to
her, then back to Kayla before turning and slipping out of his shirt. Allie
leaned in and peered at the pinkish skin on the right side of his chest.
"Have you been putting on the hydrocortisone cream I gave you?"
"Yes."
"Let me look at your back."
He turned and Allie examined his
back. Patches of red puckered skin showed at the center of his back with pinker
skin on the upper and lower areas. "It looks better."
"Feels better."
Allie leaned in closer. "Is your
wife putting on the cream for you?"
He shrugged his narrow shoulder.
"I've been doing it, mostly."
"I can tell."
"Does it still look bad?"
"No, you're healing fine except
in the center of your back." Allie moved toward the cabinet on the left
wall and pulled out a tube of hydrocortisone cream from one of the stocked
drawers. "I'm going to put some cream on for you. Will you let me?"
"Is that the same stuff I've
been using?"
Allie nodded.
Mr. Wilson studied her for another
quiet moment, and then shrugged. "I guess that'll be okay."
"Good." She pulled a latex glove
from the box on the side of the stand and squeezed a generous amount of cream
onto her fingers. She placed the tube down and turned toward the man. "Are
you ready?"
He turned his back to her.
She reached out and laid her fingers
on the worse of the sores, smoothing the cream over the botchy skin. He
flinched but didn't pull away. Allie sighed in gratitude. She spread it over
the pink skin until depositing all of the cream off the glove. "I'm all
finished."
"My back doesn't itch
anymore."
Allie grinned. "That's what
supposed to happen, Mr. Wilson."
She turned and tore off her gloves,
throwing them into the trash can near the wall. Then went to the sink and
washed her hands. She grabbed a paper towel and dried, closing the water faucet
with the towel before throwing it away.
"Are you finished with Mr.
Wilson, Doctor?"
"Yes." Allie faced the man.
"Make sure you have your wife put the cream on your back from now on, Mr.
Wilson. The rest of your skin is healing fine."
"I'll do that, Dr.
Anderson."
"You should probably make an
appointment for him for next week." Allie peered at Kayla. "Dr.
Sanders should see him."
"I'll do it before I
leave." She followed the man out the door. "Oh, would you like me to
stay around to help you clean up the exam rooms?"
"No, go on home." Allie
glanced over the room, looking at everything except the woman standing at the
door. "It doesn't take much time or energy to clean up the clinic
area."
"Are you sure, Dr.
Anderson?"
Allie nodded.
"Well, my brother is waiting for
me at the fairgrounds. Sam's planning the Memorial Day Rodeo. Some of the
ladies and I are cleaning up the hall for the dance. Memorial Day is a big deal
around here." Kayla stopped and looked at her in a questioning way. Her
mouth opened, and then she closed it shut. "I'll see you on Monday."
"Yes."
She looked at Allie again. "I'll
lock up the clinic on my way out."
"Thank you," Allie said.
"Have a nice weekend."
Kayla lifted her lips into a sweet
smile. "I hope you have a nice one too, Doctor."
After Allie cleaned and restocked the
three exam rooms of the clinic with necessary supplies, she wandered into the
reception area of the building. She rearranged all the chairs into their proper
places and stacked the old magazines and newspapers, putting them into neat piles
on the stands. Then she went to a small walk-in closet behind the reception
desk and pulled out a vacuum cleaner.
A little over an hour later, Allie
replaced the vacuum in the closet and searched her eyes around the clean and
orderly room.
Girlish laughter and a gruff male
voice broke through the silence, sending her flying toward the back living area
of the house. She entered the cheery kitchen and stopped near the old, wooden
table in the center of the room.
Warmth filled her at the sight of her
daughter.
"Hey, Becki." She crouched
down and opened her arms for her daughter's hug. "Did you have fun
fishing?"
"I gots a big one." She
stretched her hands out as far as they could go. "It was this big."
"Oh, wow."
"Yes." Her little mouth
sloped downward. "Uncle Larry told me I had to throw it away."
"Uncle Larry?"
Dr. Sanders shrugged. "I don't
mind her calling me uncle, Doc."
"Are you sure?"
"I like it." He gazed at
the yawning girl. "Looks like I tired the poor thing out."
"I'm not tired, Mommy."
Allie picked up her toddler and
cradled her against her chest, sitting in one of the padded chairs. Becki
struggled for a few seconds, then gave up and settled her head on her shoulder,
eyes drifting slowly closed. Of all the rooms in the building, this large old-fashioned
kitchen was her favorite.
Larry sat down across the table from
her. "She keeps a man on his toes."
Allie grinned. "Yes, she is full
of energy."
The man's laughter echoed through the
large room. "That is the understatement of the year, Doc."
Becki mumbled under her breath as she
curled her legs up in a ball and settled deep into her lap. Allie wrapped her
arms around her waist, spreading her hand near her daughter's stomach.
"She's sweet, though."
Allie looked at the man. "I'm
sorry if she's a bother."
"No, she's not a bother."
"I thought I found a place to
live last week, but..." Allie sighed. "The owner called me this
morning to tell me they rented the house to someone else. I really liked the
place."
"The Brown's stopped the
deal?"
"Yes," Allie said.
"And I'm not sure why. Everything seemed fine on Sunday afternoon. Mr.
Brown and I met at the little diner in town and discussed the agreement. All I
needed to do was give him the down payment and the first month’s rent. Then
this morning everything fell apart."
He looked down at Becki. "I'm
sorry, Allie."
"Allie?"
"It's your name." He jerked
his head up and leaned forward. "Oh, you don't like me being so informal
with you."
"No, that's not it." She
shook her head back and forth quickly. "It just surprised me. You never
called me by my first name before."
He jerked his head back. "I
haven't?"
"No." She glanced down at
her sleeping daughter. "You usually just call me Doc."
"Well, you are a doctor."
He looked at Becki again. "If you don't like me calling you Allie, I'll
stop."
"Oh, I don't mind. It's better
than being called Dr. Anderson. Kayla is still calling me that."
Larry didn't say anything for so long
she glanced toward him. He sat in the chair opposite hers, studying something
near the stove. She waited for a few more second as a hint of uneasiness
filtered through the man toward her.
"I'm thinking the folks here
heard you're divorced," he finally said. "I tried to keep that a
secret between us."
"Why would you do that?"
He didn't seem to hear her question.
"I think that's what's causing all your problems now. At least with the
female part of the population."
Allie focused her look on him.
"Why would my divorce upset the women?"
"Because," looking
sheepishly toward her, "I told everyone you were never married."
Image by juan grullon from Pixabay
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