just bet you will.” Stacey shifted her smile from Isaac to Annie. “A blue-eyed heartbreaker of a cowboy, that’s what he’s going to be.”
Isaac giggled, and Stacey stood and took his hand. “Come with me. I’ll take you and your mom in to see Dr. Woodward.”
“Oh. He’s still seeing patients?” Annie asked. She’d heard that Riverton’s long-time family physician had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Heartbreaking news, but surely he wasn’t still practicing medicine?
“Sorry, I guess you haven’t heard. Not Doc Woodward Senior. His son.”
“Paul? He’s back in Riverton?” Annie followed Stacey into an examining room, simultaneously reassured to hear her husband’s best friend was in town and here to look after Isaac, and a tiny bit disappointed he hadn’t called to let her know he was home. She had always liked and admired Paul. It would have been good to hear from him. Keeping in touch with Eric’s past made her feel more connected to him. Although Paul had been away from Riverton for years, he was an important part of that past. She wondered if he knew that Jack Evans, her husband’s other best friend, was also in Riverton and about to marry Annie’s other sister, Emily.
“He dropped in to the clinic yesterday, just briefly, on his way into town.” Stacey tucked Isaac’s chart into the plastic holder on the door. “Today is his first shift.”
Okay, that explained why he hadn’t called. He probably hadn’t even unpacked.
“Can Auntie CJ come, too?” Isaac pleaded.
“Of course she can.” Stacey beckoned her to follow. “How’s everything out at Finnegan Farm?”
“Everything’s great,” CJ said. “Busy. My summer riding camp is winding down. We’re boarding two new horses, and I just took in a rescue horse from a farm near Pepin. What about you?”
“Everything’s good. I’m looking forward to having my kids in school next week. Even Ben’s looking forward to getting back to teaching. I mean—” She cast a worried glance at Annie.
Annie was quick to brush aside the woman’s concerns. “I know exactly what you mean. Eric used to get as excited about the start of a new school year as he looked forward to the end of the previous one. It’s a thing with teachers. Please tell Ben I said hello.”
“I will, for sure. Have a seat,” she said to Annie and CJ. “Isaac, can you climb up here for me?”
He nodded, and scrambled up onto the examining table.
“My goodness, you’re getting tall. What is your mom feeding you?”
Isaac giggled.
Annie watched from the edge of her seat, worried he could tumble off the high table if he didn’t sit still. She felt her sister’s hand curl over hers, silently reassuring.
“Are you looking forward to school next week?” Stacey asked.
Isaac nodded vigorously. “I’m gonna be in second grade.”
“Are you? So is my daughter, Melissa.” She held up a digital thermometer. “I’m going to slip this in your ear so I can take your temperature, okay?”
More nodding. “I know Melissa.”
“I thought you might.” The thermometer beeped. She looked at the digital display and then showed it to Isaac. “See those numbers, little man? Perfectly normal,” she said, noting them on his chart.
This offered Annie no relief. Fever was not a symptom of a concussion or, heaven forbid, a brain hemorrhage. She knew because, even against her own better judgment, she had looked them up on her phone while CJ had driven them to the clinic.
“Would you like to stay up here?” Stacey asked Isaac, handing him a couple of small coloring books that came with a colorful assortment of animal stickers. “Or jump down and sit with your mom?”
“I’ll stay up here.” Isaac opened one of the books. “Do I get to keep these?”
“You sure do.” Stacey turned to Annie. “Dr. Woodward’s just finishing up with another patient and then he’ll be right in to see you.”
“Thanks,” Annie said. She stood and moved to stand next to her son in case he started to feel light-headed, which was one of the symptoms they had to watch for.
Dr. Woodward. Paul. They had all known one another for most of their lives, although she and Eric hadn’t seen much of Paul since he’d left for college and then went on to study medicine at one of the universities in Chicago. He had stayed there and had been practicing at a big-city hospital ever since.
Eric had always been a man of action, a little impulsive, even. By comparison, Paul studied the angles, thought things through. Eric’s spontaneity had been tempered by his friend’s careful consideration of everyone and everything around him. She was beyond relieved that Paul was here. If anyone would take extra-special care of Eric’s son, it would be his best friend.
“See, Mom? This book’s got dinosaurs. This one’s Diplodocus. That’s one of the plant eaters. Can I really take these books home with me?”
“Stacey said you could so, yes.”
Isaac peeled the sticker off the sheet and stuck it to the matching shape on the coloring page. This was a good sign. His fine motor skills wouldn’t be so precise if his vision was blurred, another of the worst-case-scenario symptoms. She smoothed his hair and listened to him chatter about each dinosaur as he applied stickers to the page. Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex. Then he opened the second book.
“Jungle animals,” he said. “Is this a parrot?”
“I think that’s a macaw. Parrots have smaller beaks.”
“Maca-a-a-w,” he said, peeling and attaching the sticker to the page. “Caw, caw, ca-a-a-w.”
The door opened. “Someone told me there was a little boy in here who’s fallen off a horse. I wasn’t expecting a crow.”
Isaac giggled. “Uncle Paul!” He held up a hand and Paul high-fived it.
“Annie. How are you?” Paul asked.
Annie took one look at him and felt her spine soften. He opened his arms for her and she melted into them. She had forgotten how it felt to lean on someone, rest a cheek against a hard chest, breathe in a male scent with just a hint of woodsy aftershave. She pulled away. She should not be having inappropriate reactions to one of Eric’s best friends.
He moved his hands to her shoulders, leaned in and kissed the cheek that had just sought comfort on a shoulder that was broader than she remembered.
“Oh, Paul. It’s so good to see you. You have no idea.” She looked into eyes that were not green, not brown. Hazel, she decided. She had never noticed the color before. Now she was sure would never forget them.
The tip of her nose turned pink—she could feel it. Her face didn’t turn red the way a normal person’s did. Only her nose. Anytime she was embarrassed or flustered, or whatever it was she was feeling
