EMMA"Have I told you how happy I am that you're back at work?" Darcy, one of our two nurse practitioners on the oncology wing at St. Agnes, smiled at me as we both sat behind the desk at the nurses' station. "We did okay while you were on vacation, but it just felt like something important was missing. You make the oncology floor a little nicer place to be."I grinned back at her. "Awww, Darcy, that's so sweet of you to say. And I'm sure that you really mean it, and you're not sweet-talking me into covering hours while you're on your honeymoon.""Hey, I don't have to sweet-talk anyone for that. I'm using my accrued time off for that, and I have zero regrets. How you all decide to work out the coverage is up to y'all." She paused before adding, "Now, it's entirely that it's the pregnancy hormones getting me all soft and mushy about having you back, but I can't be held responsible for that. This is what happens when you're making up for lost time with a super sexy football player." S
EMMA"I guess I don't need to ask how your vacation was, doc. You look rested." George Brewer rested his head against his pillow, gazing at me. "Everyone around here missed you, though. The place isn't the same without you." "So I've been given to understand." I winked at my patient. "My vacation was wonderful, thanks, George. The bigger question is . . . did you bring me a new picture of that sweet baby boy of yours?" "Of course." George beamed and picked up his phone. "Shelly took a photo of him last night, right after they video chatted me at bedtime." He extended the phone toward me. "Tell me that isn't the cutest child you've ever seen."Tilting my head, I examined the picture on the screen. "Oh, George, he really is. And he looks more like his daddy every single day." "Awww, I don't think so. The kid's lucky enough to have his mama's eyes and her smile." George took the phone back and gazed at his son. "Sure am blessed, though, aren't I? I got the best wife in the world a
EMMA"Thanks for throwing me under the bus." I pinched her arm. "Hey, did you really want to sit there and listen to that boring discussion?" she shot back. "Because I know I didn't." She opened the fridge and pulled out a huge bowl. "And I did need to come and get this. Nico made it for tonight because he is a sweetie and wanted my friends to enjoy some seriously delicious food." "He's so wonderful." I gave her another hug, this time squeezing extra tight. "I'm so glad for you both, Jen. No one knows more than me how much heartache went ahead of this happily ever after." "Right?" She leaned a hip against the counter and nibbled on a chip. "Which is why I hope you're also going to be understanding of my next news-which I wanted you to hear first."A trickle of foreboding ran down my spine. "Okay. That sounds ominous. What's up?" She sucked in a deep breath. "This proposal wasn't as out of the blue as I made it seem. Nico and I have been talking about it for a while-about gett
DEACON"Emma? Do you have a minute?" I stuck my head into our naturopath's small office. She was sitting at her desk, frowning at her desktop computer. "Ummm . . ." She blinked at me as though disoriented. "Deacon. Did you need something?" I smiled. "Sorry. You look like you're in the middle of a project. I'll come back.""No!" She almost cried out the word, and I paused, stepping into the room. "I mean, you don't have to go. I was just reading reports of a new study on metastatic breast cancer and the use of phytochemicals." "Ah." I nodded. "Mrs. Dulinkski?" "Yeah." Emma pushed back from her desk and let out a long sigh. "I don't know why I bother, because when she sees me coming, she gets this look on her face . . . like I'm going to wrestle her to the ground and make her meditate or something. The first thing she always says to me is that she doesn't hold with all that spiritual crap." She rolled her eyes. "I could help her, Deacon. I really could. At the very least, I cou
EMMA"Emma, I know I said this the other night when we had dinner together, but it bears repeating. I'm thrilled that you had a wonderful vacation, but we missed seeing your face around the farm." Anna beamed at me from her seat on the steps of her front porch, where she was watching me cavort with the baby goats . . . who weren't so much babies anymore."I can't believe how much they grew in just over two weeks." I caught one little girl and scooped her into my arms, nuzzling her soft head. "Thanks for covering my part of the care while I was on vacation. I thought about asking Jenny to do it, but I figured she might be more trouble than she was help." Anna chuckled. "She's not exactly farm-friendly, that one. Sweet girl, salt of the earth, but she doesn't know one end of a pitchfork from the other." "You're not wrong." I sniffed. "Did Deacon tell you that she and Nico are moving up north?""He did." Anna's voice gentled. "That's going to be hard on you, isn't it?"I nodded. "
EMMA"So that's it? You and Noah are done? Over? Finito?" Jenny reached to the side of the pool to pick up her beer. I nodded. "Yeah. In the end, it felt right, you know? It wasn't easy, and it wasn't fun to do, but it was right. It was what we needed to do. And we're still friends, which is the best outcome I could've hoped for.""That's so sickeningly mature and healthy." Jenny stuck out her tongue. "If Nico and I ever broke up, which of course we won't, I'd never be able to be friends with him. It would hurt too much to see him living a life without me in it." "I think . . ." I searched for words even as I clung to the side of the pool and lazily kicked my legs in the water. "I think going back to our old friendship is the goal. It's the perfect world ideal. I don't think it's going to be quite like it was, though. As much as we both say we want that, it's not realistic. We're both going to have some residual . . . feelings." "I get that." She nodded. For a few minutes, we s
DEACON"Hey. Are you busy?" I glanced up from my desk, well aware that I was already smiling just at the sound of Emma's voice. Dammit, I had it bad for her. Again. Still. "No more so than usual," I responded, leaning back. "What do you need?" "Nothing pressing, if you're up to your neck in something already. What are you working on?" "Reading resumes from nurse practitioners." I grimaced. "Whose bright idea was it to allow Jenny to move to Virginia, and Darcy to get both married and pregnant?" Emma dropped into the chair across the desk from me and laughed. "Well, Deacon, you know, Jenny didn't ask our permission. She made a choice. And Darcy did, too. But she's not leaving for good, at least as far as I know."I shot Emma a withering glare. "She's getting married to a football player who lives in Tampa, over an hour away from here. And she's having his baby. I can read the writing on the wall. Even if she doesn't put in her notice right away, I don't expect her to come ba
DEACONIf I needed one more reason to be pissed off for life at my father, he'd just given me one. Emma had been about to respond to my promise. She'd been close to saying something-and I clung to the hope that it was what I wanted to hear, not a regretful blow-off. But I'd never know now, because my father, the man who'd abandoned my dying mother and me, the one who'd never stuck around long enough to be more than a shadow in my memories, was a patient in my hospital. Emma trailed behind me as I stalked angrily down the hall with Mira toward the room she'd indicated. "Deacon, hold on. You need to know all this." I came to a sudden halt, and Emma nearly ran into my back. Out of instinct, I caught her arm to steady her even as I wheeled around to face Mira. Emma's hand slid down my forearm to folded itself into mine, a silent comfort that she somehow seemed to know I needed. "What?" I barked at Mira. "What else do I need to know? Did he tell you why the hell he came here of all