he not only wouldn’t be willing to help her have a child, he’d probably never speak to her again.
“Hey there, Katie,” Martha Payne called from the reception counter. She eyed Jeremiah up and down. “Looks like you found someone—”
“With a fishhook in his thumb,” Katie interrupted her. “He needs Doc to remove it.”
Martha had been the nurse at the Dixie Ridge Clinic since forever and knew everything that went on within its walls. She no doubt thought Katie had found a hapless victim to make a donation toward Operation: Katie-Wants-a-Baby-Before-It’s-Too-Late.
“Good thing you got here when you did,” Martha said, patting a few strands of steel-gray hair back into place as she came around the end of the counter to take a look at Jeremiah’s thumb. “As soon as we close up for the day, Doc and Lexi are gonna load up their three kids and take off for a couple days vacation down at Stone Mountain in Georgia.” She shook her head as she examined the wound. “You buried that hook real good, son. How did it happen?”
Katie’s face grew hot when Jeremiah glanced over at her. “I was tying a fly and wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing,” he said, shrugging. “It happens.”
Martha nodded as she released his hand. “You two have a seat while I get everything set up for Doc to take care of gettin’ it out.”
As she watched Martha lumber down the hall to one of the examining rooms, Katie sank into one of the chairs lining the walls of the waiting area. She’d seen the gleam in Martha’s eyes and knew the woman was dying to know what was going on. Aside from the fact that she wasn’t used to seeing Katie with a man, Martha was wondering why Katie had been the one to bring Jeremiah into the clinic. Everyone in town knew that Harv was the only Dixie Ridge resident Jeremiah was acquainted with and would have been the likely candidate to drive him to the clinic.
When Jeremiah settled his tall frame into the chair beside her, she sighed. “This is all my fault and I’m so very sorry.”
For the first time since she’d met him, the corners of his mouth curved upward in a rare smile. It changed his whole demeanor.
Her heart skipped a beat and her breath lodged in her lungs. Jeremiah Gunn wasn’t just good-looking. When he smiled, he was drop-dead gorgeous.
“Forget about it.” He shook his head. “I’m sure I misunderstood what you meant when you said—”
“Well, hello again,” Dr. Braden said, smiling as he walked out of his private office. “I didn’t expect to see you here again so soon, Katie.”
“I’m not here because I need to see you,” she said hastily.
Before she could explain things further, Dr. Braden turned his attention to Jeremiah. “So, you’re here to see me?”
Jeremiah nodded. “I told Katie I was fine, but she insisted that you needed to check things over and be the one to take it out.”
Dr. Braden’s eyebrows rose as a stunned look spread across his face. “It really is best for both parties to have a clean bill of health before proceeding with something like this. But you’ll be the one to take care of the actual—”
“You mean I have to have a physical, then take this fishhook out myself?” Jeremiah asked, frowning as he held up his thumb.
Katie’s cheeks felt as if they were on fire when Dr. Braden glanced her way. There wasn’t a thing she could say that wouldn’t make matters worse. All she could do was pray that this nightmare came to an end soon.
Turning his attention back to Jeremiah, Dr. Braden nodded toward the hall. “I’m afraid I misunderstood the reason for your visit. If you’ll follow me, we’ll get that hook out and you can be on your way.”
As she watched the two men disappear into the examining room at the far end of the hall, Katie wished with all her heart that this day had never happened. When she’d gotten out of bed this morning, all she’d had on her mind was to get her yearly physical out of the way, work at the café until closing time, then go home and start a new quilt to sell to one of the gift shops in Gatlinburg.
She rubbed her temples with her fingertips. How had everything gotten so complicated? So humiliating?
Sighing heavily, she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. As soon as she drove Jeremiah back up the mountain to the cabin he was renting, she’d make some excuse about temporary insanity running in her family. Then she’d go home and hope with all her heart that she would never have to face him again.
After Dr. Braden had given him a shot in the knuckle to numb his thumb, Jeremiah sat on the examining table and watched the man carefully remove the fishhook from the fleshy part of his thumb. But instead of concentrating on what the doctor was doing, his mind was on the conversation that had taken place in the waiting room.
“You thought I was here for an entirely different reason than having a fishhook taken out of my thumb.” It wasn’t a question, and if he was any judge of character, Jeremiah knew Dr. Braden wouldn’t try to deny it.
The man met Jeremiah’s gaze head-on. “Yes.”
“I don’t guess you’re at liberty to tell me what that reason was?” Jeremiah watched Braden cut the barb off the end of the fishhook, then pull the rest of it out of his thumb.
“No, I can’t discuss it,” Dr. Braden said, applying a generous amount of ointment to the wound. “Let’s just say I was wrong in my assumption and leave it at that.”
Jeremiah smiled. “In other words, if I want to know, Katie’s the one who’ll have to tell me.”
The doctor grinned as he wrapped gauze around Jeremiah’s thumb. “That’s about the size of it.” He taped the bandage in place, then stepped back for Jeremiah to stand up. “I’m assuming since you just got out of the military a tetanus shot won’t be necessary?”
Jeremiah frowned. He wasn’t at all comfortable being the talk of the town. “Let me guess, Harv told you I was in the marines.”
Braden nodded. “Don’t be too ticked off at old Harv. Having everyone know all about you is one of the hazards of living in a town the size of Dixie Ridge.” He laughed. “When I moved here from Chicago five years ago, having everyone know who I was or what I was doing was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. But it didn’t take me long to figure out it’s their way of letting you know they care about you and want to make you feel like you’re part of the community.”
“I’m sure that was an adjustment.”
Jeremiah refrained from telling the good doctor there were two sides to every scenario. It had been his experience that small-town gossip was far more destructive and alienating than it had ever been accepting.
As he prepared to leave the treatment room, Dr. Braden pointed to Jeremiah’s thumb. “You don’t want that to become infected. Let it heal for a few days before you go fishing again.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.”
Following the man out into the hall, Jeremiah stopped at the reception desk to pay for the doctor’s services, then walked into the waiting area where he’d left Katie. As soon as he entered the room, he couldn’t
