The Bride Ran Away (The Calvert Cousins 2)

by Anna Adams

  Sophie dropped her voice. They ran the tests up here, but Gran could easily stumble on it. “You know about Dr. Fedderson’s office?”

  “You don’t want me?” Olivia sounded uncertain. “It’s just I’ve always had female doctors. Dr. Fedderson might be great, but I’d feel more comfortable with you.”

  Sophie owed Zach a few favors even if Gran caught her starting her own clinic out of The Mom’s Place. “Sure. Come on up tonight if you want.”

  “When does Greta usually leave?”

  “Around six.” The only good thing about their confrontation at the Train Depot Café was that Gran hardly ever wanted to gab after work anymore. Whether she was spending more time with Grandpa or less with Sophie, she went home at a more appropriate hour.

  “Do you mind waiting for me until six-thirty? Just to make sure she’s gone? My father’s in town, and he and Beth will look after Evan for me.”

  She and Zach had built a guest house for her dad on Zach’s farm. Olivia said it made his extended visits bearable. James Kendall claimed he had to visit to make sure her magazine, part of his “empire,” ran smoothly, but they’d all noticed how quickly he cut his business short to see Aunt Beth when he came to town.

  “I’ll be here,” Sophie said.

  “Thanks. I’m so glad you took my call.”

  Sophie laughed. Olivia normally handled herself with the confidence of someone who was a tycoon’s daughter and the managing editor of an important news magazine. “Me, too.” Sophie cupped the receiver. “Congratulations, just in case.”

  “Thanks. I hope the tests are right.”

  Tests? The phone clicked before Sophie could ask how many Olivia had taken.

  That evening, Gran asked Sophie to meet her in her office at six-fifteen. She could hardly refuse.

  Gran was hard faced when Sophie took her chair across the wide desk. But her eyes were soft and wounded.

  “I’ve heard a rumor.”

  “The clinic?” She braced herself against the chair. She refused to lie.

  “Tom Fedderson’s asking about available properties in town. I guess he’s in league with you?”

  Sophie crossed her legs and arms, no doubt looking as guilty as she felt. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I thought I should talk to him to see if the idea might work. He wants to slow down, and he thinks a few other doctors nearby might want to share their time, as well. You could work there too, Gran, once in a while. When you’re bored with your leisure.”

  Rage blew up in Gran’s eyes, startling Sophie, but almost as quickly, her control took over. “No, thanks. If there were a place for me, you’d have told me the first time it came up. I wouldn’t have had to confront you after you’d gone against my wishes.”

  “I’m not. Tell me to stop and I will.” Sophie’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, read Olivia’s number on the digital face and dropped it back in, unanswered.

  “You already knew I didn’t approve. Still, you approached Tom.”

  She refused to betray her grandfather. “You have to see we could do some good.”

  “I see. I just don’t like your methods, and I’m hurt after all we’ve been through together. At the very least, you should have told me working up here wouldn’t be enough for you.”

  “I didn’t know how much I’d miss the actual deliveries.” Her phone rang again. She ignored it. “I’m used to seeing my patients from conception to handing the newborn over to the pediatrician.”

  “So working here was a mistake?”

  “No.” Sophie’s alacrity was sincere. “I’m glad I came home.” She couldn’t see herself living anywhere else now. “But I’m sorry you and I are arguing about work. This should be our best time together.” She stood to circle the desk and put her arm around her grandmother. “I’m serious about you taking a shift. You’d be great. Everyone knows you. They trust you.”

  “Everyone except you. This clinic isn’t a done deal. You have to pass it by the town first, and people here vote with their pocketbooks. You’ll know you’ve failed when you can’t afford to open the doors one morning.”

  Sophie had no answer. She’d never seen such arrogance in her grandmother before. She couldn’t begin to explain it, but she felt responsible. “Gran, I’m sorry.”

  A knock at the door interrupted them. Greta stood, avoiding Sophie as she crossed the room. Sophie saw Olivia hovering behind one of the patrons.

  “Oh, no.” She stared at Sophie. “You promised to keep quiet.”

  “I didn’t say anything. We had a late meeting.”

  “Say anything about what?” Greta studied her newest granddaughter closely. She claimed she could sense a pregnancy from a hundred yards, and experience usually proved her correct. “Oh.” She turned to Sophie, the disappointment in her eyes as sharp as any lethal weapon. “I see. Your first patient.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “I CAN’T EXPLAIN my behavior, Seth.” Tearfully Greta lifted her head from her husband’s shoulder. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m jealous because Sophie’s at the beginning of her career and I’m at the end of mine and she’s starting something new without me.” She searched his pockets for a hand kerchief but couldn’t find one. He reached across her for a tissue from a box on the nightstand. He’d found her crying on their bed. “Thank God I can count on you.”

  “I wish you needed me for more than reassurance, Greta. You know you’re a vital woman. You have as much energy as our great-grandchildren. You’re intelligent. You have fifty years of medical history in this area. You don’t have to look at retirement from the baby farm as a death sentence.”

  “It’s not a baby farm.” Still, he sounded encouraging for the first time since he’d started all this crazy retirement talk. “But thank you for seeing me through rose-colored glasses.”

  “You know what I mean. You have a lot to offer the community. You just don’t have to work fourteen hours every day.”

  She blew her nose and then straightened to look him in the eye. “You wouldn’t mind if I found something else to do?”

  “I want more of your time and attention, but I’m not asking you to barricade yourself in this house with me.”

  She sniffed. “I never said that, Seth, but we’ve both been busy all our adult lives. You still visit the courthouse. You write for several different law journals. You haven’t put your work life behind you.”

  “I’d work a lot less if I had you to come home to. I’d like to travel. I’d like to take Evan and Lily and Sophie’s new baby for ice cream when she’s a toddler. Don’t you want to spend time with me and our family, Greta?”

  “I do.” She straightened his collar, fingering the smudge of her mascara on the material. “But, honestly, I wanted to work with Sophie. I’ve dreamed of sharing The Mom’s Place with her since the day she told me she wanted to be a doctor, too. Now, because she’s finally come home, I have to quit, and she’s expanding.”

  “And I’m the one who’s making you quit.” Instead of looking guilty for forcing her into retirement, he looked annoyed that she minded so much. But he lifted his shoulders, regaining his patience. “I know it’s hard, and if you tell me you can’t quit now, I’ll try to understand, but I want my wife with me.”

  She stared into his eyes. Offering to let her continue working had drained all the blood from his face. He’d asked her to stop for years. She’d agreed on their anniversary last fall. She’d made a promise to this man who’d stood by her for fifty-five years. She owed him her best effort. “I’ll start phasing out.” She kissed him, and the excitement of their youth still rushed her pulse. That never changed. “Maybe you and I could talk about ways for me to go on helping our neighbors. Even with the clinic. They’ll need some sort of guidance. Sophie said it’s going to be a multi-community project.”

  “They’d be foolish not to use you when you’ve been around for most of the births on this mountain in the past fifty years. And you’ve kept your eye on the other health is
sues that have affected us up here. They’ll need you, Greta. You’re not ready for a pasture.” He pulled her close, fitting her head beneath his chin.

  As her cheek rested against his chest, she smiled. No matter what he said about their lack of time together, this was a memory ingrained in her body—her head beneath his chin, his chest against her cheek, his breathing, deep and even.

  “Greta, I have to tell you something. I can’t let you blame Sophie.”

  She pushed away from him instantly. “Blame Sophie? I don’t understand.”

  He took a deep breath, and his confession erupted from him. “She didn’t call Tom Fedderson. I arranged their meeting. Anyway, I suggested he meet her to discuss the opportunity.”

  Greta stared at him, stunned into silence. But not for long. “Why would you do that?”

  He begged her for forgiveness with his eyes, then looked away.

  “You could only have one reason.”

  He didn’t have to answer. She scooted away, feeling the scratch of the cotton bedding beneath her palms. “You wanted to get back at me because I wasn’t moving fast enough, and you knew I was upset about Sophie and Ian’s idea.”

  Seth lifted his head as if it were on a spring. “I did, but that passed quickly. Tom was so grateful I saw the clinic as a good idea. He and the other doctors in the area want a central location. They’re all willing to do hours. This is the county seat. I didn’t pursue it to hurt you, Greta.”

  “You started it to hurt me.” She didn’t know this white-faced ghost of her husband, and she hardly knew what she was doing as she strode across their bedroom. She found the closet door in her hand and yanked it open.

  “Greta?”

  Almost without thinking, she pulled an overnight bag off a tall shelf.

  “Come back here and talk to me,” he said without following her.

  He couldn’t be bothered, and that suited her fine. She tossed clothes into the bag. When she came out, Seth was leaning on her dressing table, holding his chest as if it hurt.

  She hoped his pain matched hers. She couldn’t share this roof with him tonight. “I’m going to Sophie’s.” She decided as she spoke. “I owe her an apology, and I think I’ll ask her to put me up until I can stand coming home to a man who’s not only betrayed me, but let me blame our granddaughter.”

  “Greta, you have to see how desperate I am.”

  “You crossed a line.”

  Early in their marriage, there had been a few times that no one else knew about when she’d felt over-stressed and she’d needed time to herself. She’d found a hotel room and taken a break from school and family and later from work. Those days had inspired her to open The Mom’s Place.

  She’d needed a break from her life back then, but she’d never dreamed she’d need a break from the husband whose place was at her side, not working against her.

  THE THIRD EVENING Greta was with them, Ian almost called Seth to ask him to beg his wife to come home. She and Sophie talked shop from the moment they left the baby farm until the moment they returned. After two hours and forty-five minutes of watching Sophie wrestle her uncomfortable kitchen chair for a position that didn’t exacerbate the nearly constant ache in her back muscles, he decided to take a more direct approach.

  Sophie took one of her many bathroom breaks and Ian looked up from his newspaper. Greta glanced at him from the files and notes spread across the table. He’d grown to love Sophie’s gran, but her distracted smile annoyed him.

  “Greta.” He waited for her to focus.

  “Hmm?”

  “You’re too much work for Sophie.”

  In silence, she stared as if he’d spoken a language she didn’t understand. Probably true. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ve been with us three nights. You and Sophie pore over notes from work all day and plans for work for the next year. It’s time you made up with your husband and let my wife rest up for having our baby.”

  “Ian.” Sophie, shocked, stood in the doorway, bracing her hand on the lintel. “This isn’t your call.”

  “I disagree.” He matched the steel in her tone. “You and the baby are my family. You’re due in just over two weeks. You should be taking better care of yourself.” He didn’t add that Greta should have taken better care of her, as well, if Sophie wasn’t capable of turning off her grandmother’s work ethic.

  Sophie pushed away from the door, looking for trouble. “I’m fine. The baby is fine.”

  “Wait.” Greta began to gather papers. “Ian’s right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “Where are you going, Gran? You should call Grandpa.”

  “I called him. He didn’t want to talk.” She swallowed, her throat working. “He said maybe I shouldn’t come home if we’re going to split up, anyway.”

  “Split up?” Sophie crossed the room at a run, leading with her belly. “What are you saying? You forgave me. Forgive him. This is all my fault, anyway.”

  “Not this time.” Greta gathered herself. “Not ever. It wasn’t your fault with Nita and Ethan, and nothing is your fault now.”

  “Then talk to Grandpa.”

  Greta glanced at Ian as if he were an intruder. He didn’t point out that Greta hadn’t so much forgiven Sophie’s interest in the clinic as both women had decided to ignore it. The truth would just start a bigger fight, and his wife needed sleep.

  “Come upstairs with me, Sophie, and leave your gran to the phone.”

  Sophie looked annoyed. Teamwork went out the window every time he suggested she take things easier. The closer her time came, the more she suspected any such suggestion of being a ploy to take over her life. He shook his head. You’d think a doctor who understood the effects of pregnancy hormones could control her mood. Fortunately he found Sophie’s temper charming, because of the reasons for it.

  “All right,” she said at last. “Good night, Gran.” Leaning over the back of Greta’s chair, she kissed her gran’s hair.

  Greta looped both arms around Sophie. “Night, honey. You have to learn to tell me to shut up and let you get on with your own life.”

  “You’re a huge part of my life. I’m just glad you were willing to be friends with me again.”

  “Am I that difficult?”

  “No—but Grandpa isn’t, either. He loves you. I don’t care what he says.”

  “I can’t stand him doing things just to hurt me—and that’s why he called Tom Fedderson.”

  “Tell him, Gran. But maybe it’s time you faced the truth. He wants you to be home more, and you’re going to have to arrange that with him.”

  “I can’t stop cold turkey. Maybe I should tell him that.”

  “That’s a much better idea than breaking up after fifty-five years.” Turning with tears in her eyes, she joined Ian. “Ready?”

  He pushed her hair away from her face, his awareness of her beleaguered body making him gentle. He wished she could be as wise about her own actions as she was with Greta. “Come on.”

  At the stairs, he maneuvered her in front of him and put his hands on her hips.

  “I can make it on my own.” But for once she didn’t sound as if she really minded his assistance.

  “I like helping,” he said.

  At their room, she reached behind him to shut the door and close her grandmother out. He pulled her into his arms, leaning to make room for her stomach.

  “You make me crazy when you take charge,” she said.

  “Crazy in a good way?” He smiled, refusing to argue, no matter how badly she wanted a fight.

  “Not really.” She caught his face in her hands. Finally, as he leaned down to kiss her, she smiled back, and he loved the curve of her lips beneath his.

  “I can’t believe you still want this now.”

  “You’re carrying my child.” He ran his hand over her belly, amazed as always by its tautness. “This is all my fault.”

  She laughed and he kissed her again, needing her. He kissed her cheek and then her
throat. She slid her hands into his hair, holding him close. After all these months, she still didn’t admit it with words, but she needed him, too.

  She let him go to grab the hem of his T-shirt and push it up his chest. Helping her, he tossed it behind himself. She was already kissing his chest, her mouth finding his heartbeat with unerring accuracy that sent it thumping at an unsettling speed. She turned her head and captured his nipple. His eyes closed as sensation rocked him.

  “The bed, Sophie.”

  “Always a bed with you.”

  “Greta would be shocked if we tried some new spot downstairs.”

  “And I’d probably overbalance if we start testing the furniture.”

  He managed to undress her on their way across the floor. She peeled the comforter back and they met on the cool sheets. Her hungry mouth made him forget he longed for the days when they could lie skin to skin, neck to toe. She turned in his arms and he found a way to please them both. The urgent sounds she made, tensing against his chest, pulled him with her.

  “Ian.” She turned her head. Her mouth caught his chin. He kissed her, moving mindlessly, seeking only intimacy that had once terrified him, always eluded him. These nights had lulled him into trusting Sophie. She didn’t talk of love. She might not want to hear of love, either.

  But holding her was nearly enough. Teasing her, knowing just how to touch her to prolong her pleasure, he realized he’d become a husband. Sophie mattered most to him.

  The knowledge spun his head, lent their lovemaking new tenderness. “Sophie.” Guiding her hips with his hands, he nuzzled the nape of her neck. She stretched, pressing herself into his body, until suddenly she strained, sighing with joy that made him laugh. She made him happy.

  After a few moments, she rolled over, searching his gaze with hers. “You didn’t—”

  “No,” he said, his tone husky.

  Her smile was provocatively wicked. “Good.” She kissed him, opening his mouth with hers. He followed where she led.

  ONE NIGHT ABOUT A WEEK after her grandparents reached their unsteady truce, Greta gave Sophie a ride to the courthouse. All the physicians who’d discussed the clinic had arranged a town meeting. The people of Bardill’s Ridge generally had an opinion, and Sophie was more than ready to listen, but Ian had made her promise to take a ride from Gran.