blond bob. “This is a dream job. When Mom told me, I didn’t believe her at first. But now that I’ve had a chance to look at the blueprints, I realize I’ll have to double or even triple my crew to handle it. Not that I’m complaining. By the time I’m through with this contract, there won’t be anyone in Devil’s Cove who hasn’t heard of Hannah’s Gardening and Landscape.”
Her grandfather looked at her with affection. “I always knew your knack for gardening would pay off one day. You inherited that from me.”
“Speaking of inheritance…” Emily took a final bite of salmon before pushing away from the table. “I have to get back to the clinic. I want to leave early this afternoon so I can see what the committee did with the decorations for tonight’s kickoff cocktail party.” She paused by her grandmother’s side and bent to press a kiss to her cheek before rounding the table to do the same to her mother. “I’m so proud of you, Mom.”
“Thanks, honey.”
“But I think you’re about to become awfully busy.”
“I don’t mind. I can’t wait.” Charlotte laid a hand on her daughter’s arm. “We’ll all see you at the party tonight. I know you and your committee will do a fine job.”
After kissing her grandfather and congratulating her sisters on their good news, Emily made her way inside. A glance at the clock told her she had less than five minutes before her first afternoon patient. She hurried toward the clinic at the rear of the house.
Chapter 2
“You just about finished, Doc?” The sixteen-year-old boy lying on the examining table had his teeth clenched so tightly he could hardly get the question out.
“Almost done, Cody.” Emily tied off the final stitch while her assistant, Melissa, mopped at the blood on the boy’s thigh. “Just another minute.”
When she finished, Emily straightened, slipping off her latex gloves, and turned to the boy’s mother, who was hovering in a far corner of the examining room, looking anywhere but at her son’s bloody calf. “Janet, I’ll give you a prescription for pain so Cody can sleep tonight.”
“I don’t need stuff for pain.” The boy swung his legs over the side of the table and turned pasty-white as the blood rushed from his head. He looked down at the crimson stains that smeared the front of his baseball uniform and swallowed hard.
“You may not think so now,” Emily steadied him with a hand to his shoulder, giving him a chance to clear his head without embarrassing him. “But when this wears off you might want to have something, just in case.”
When his color returned she crossed the room and wrote on a notepad, then tore off the page and handed it to his mother. “He’ll be fine, Janet. But he ought to skip practice until those stitches come out. I wouldn’t want to see him tear that wound open.”
“Thanks, Dr. Brennan.” Janet Adams gave a laugh as she shook her head from side to side. “Dr. Brennan. Seems like I’ve been saying that all my life. Except now it’s to you instead of your father.” She looked down at the prescription, avoiding Emily’s eyes. “I’m glad you’ve stayed on in Devil’s Cove. The town just wouldn’t feel the same without a Doctor Brennan in it.”
“That’s nice.” Emily felt a twinge of pain before she managed a smile. “Next time you dive for home plate, Cody, try to avoid the other guy’s spikes.”
“Okay, Doc.” The boy grinned self-consciously.
As he eased off the table and headed toward the door Emily stopped him. “By the way, Cody. Who won?”
“We did, Doc. By one run.”
She laughed. “I guess that’s worth a few stitches.”
“You bet.”
She was still laughing when the boy and his mother left.
She turned to her assistant. “Is that the last patient?”
Melissa shook her head. “Prentice Osborn is here with his brother, Will. I put them in the other room.”
The Osborn family was the most prominent in Devil’s Cove. Prentice, a former classmate of Emily’s, had more than doubled his family fortune in the past ten years. It was his grandfather who’d had the foresight to buy up the choice acreage dotted with farms. In recent years a bidding war by developers eager to build hotels and condos on the property had made Prentice more money than his grandfather could have ever dreamed possible.
Even if Prentice hadn’t turned a fortune, the townspeople would have admired him for his tireless care of his severely handicapped brother. Will Osborn, with his garbled speech and unsteady gait, was treated gently by all the citizens of Devil’s Cove. He was routinely handed his favorite sugar cookies at the bakery. Whenever he visited the diner he was given a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate malt, free of charge.
To thank them, Prentice was more than generous to the town that sheltered his brother. He gave freely of his time and money to various charities around town. A new wing at the University Hospital now bore the names of his deceased parents.
Emily smiled at the two men. “Hello, Prentice. Will. What brings you here?”
Prentice Osborn, tall, with sun-streaked golden hair, took charge. “Will’s been tugging on his ear. I think it’s another infection.”
Emily turned to the older brother, who was watching her with the wary eyes of a frightened child, so at odds with his almost graying hair and stooped shoulders. “Have you been swimming in the mill pond again, Will?”
The man shrugged and stared hard at the floor.
“It’s okay, Will.” Prentice spoke to his brother the way one would speak to a child. “You can tell Dr. Brennan the truth. Have you been swimming in the mill pond?”
His brother nodded shyly.
“Well, let’s have a look.”
Before Emily could step closer Will hunched his shoulders and cringed.
Prentice sent her a pleading look. “Will was poked and prodded by too many doctors when he was young. Do you think you could give him a sedative to take the edge off his nerves?”
Emily nodded her understanding and reached for a syringe. “This won’t hurt, Will.” She moved so quickly he didn’t even have time to react. To his brother she said, “Dilaudid. Just two milligrams. Enough to quiet him, but not so much he’ll have any reaction. Now, Will.” She indicated the examining table and the shy man sat on the edge and watched as she sorted through her instruments. When she bent close he breathed her in and, relaxed now and enjoying the faint scent of her perfume, grinned like an errant schoolboy.
It took only a moment’s examination to see the evidence. “I’ll bet this has been giving you some pain, Will.”
He nodded.
“It’ll be much improved by tomorrow.” She used a dropper to dispense liquid into the ear, then wrote on a notepad and tore it off, handing it to his brother. “He’ll need to take this antibiotic for a full ten days. I’ll want to see him then, to make certain the infection
