“The sun don’t shine at night.” Both boys studied him with skepticism.
Clint scratched the back of his neck. “True, it doesn’t. But see, the sun is always...”
“Enough, guys,” Emma interrupted him, putting her hands on both of her sons’ heads and steering them toward home. “Let’s just say that Venus is a planet that looks like a star at night.”
Clint fell into step beside them, a bit stunned from the bright kids’ brief interrogation.
They walked on to the end of the block, where Emma made a big issue of her sons looking both ways before crossing. The lady did seem to be interested in their safety. The way she interacted with them showed she enjoyed their company. Rather odd behavior for a neglectful mother.
A dark sedan was slowly approaching on their side, so she made a point of waiting for it to pass. The boys slipped their unbroken hands into hers as they waited to cross. Their trust in her, as well as their defense of her, was without question.
Maybe he’d been a little quick to accuse her of neglecting them. Still, her lack of adequate childcare concerned him. She might depend on her mother’s help, but the elderly lady didn’t seem quite up to the task of chasing these two boys to him.
Lost in his thoughts about Emma and her situation, it took Clint a minute to realize the car was speeding up and appeared to be veering towards the family.
“Watch out!” he shouted as he jumped in front of them and pushed them away from the curb, barely getting out of the car’s path himself.
“Oh, my God!” Emma clutched her sons to her as she stumbled backward and landed on her butt, her eyes huge with fright.
The car weaved at the last minute nearly taking Clint out at the knees. If not for a move he’d perfected in high school football, he’d be laid out on the concrete sidewalk. As it was, he managed to slap both hands on the sedan’s hood before it sped off through the deserted street and through town.
“What kind of car was it?” Emma asked, her attention already focused on checking out the well-being of her sons.
Clint ran a few yards to try and read the license plate as it passed under the last streetlight before the end of Main Street. “Too dark to see.”
Clenching his fists in frustration, he cursed under his breath. Well aware the boys were watching him with eyes as wide and frightened as their mother’s had been moments earlier, he extended his hand to help Emma from the sidewalk. “Are you all okay?”
She stared up at him for a moment, confusion and something more intriguing in her cornflower-blue eyes, then she seemed to mentally shake herself.
“Yes, just a little startled, that’s all.” She quickly turned to inspect both boys’ arms, whatever had passed between them now under control.
Taking his cue from her, he squatted between the boys, checking them from head to toe for any further injuries. Finding none, he stood and brushed his hands over his jeans. “Looks like they’re okay.”
“Yes, I think I took the brunt of the impact. But at least I have good padding,” she teased, rubbing her backside.
He had a sudden urge to strip her down and check out both ass cheeks to be sure. And didn’t that send blood surging straight to his groin? Great. The last thing he needed to do was get interested in the fiery redhead. He was only here to fill in for his uncle, not date the neighbor.
Time to change the subject—if only in his mind.
“Does this happen often?”
“That I fall on my keester? No, only when strange doctors shove me down.”
“I’m sorry about that. It happened so fast, all I could do was react.”
“Like a Buckeye linebacker?” The tone in her voice told him she was teasing and not as upset as some women—like his former fiancé—might have been by his actions.
“What I meant was, do cars try to run people over a lot around here?”
That question gave her pause. She looked up the street where the car had come from. “No. But the Wagon Wheel Tavern is in that direction about five miles, so my guess is a drunk trying to find his way home?”
“Good thing you had a grip on both boys, then,” he said, nodding at where she’d taken their hands again before attempting to cross the street once more.
“Even single mothers in a small town teach their kids about traffic safety, Doctor.”
Gone was the teasing woman who’d enticed him with her hands sliding over the rounded mounds of her behind. The tense, defensive mother he’d threatened that morning had returned.
Wondering why that bothered him, he followed her and the boys across the street.
They stopped at the front sidewalk to their house.
“So, Doctor, what other stars do you know up there?” He heard both laughter and a challenge in Emma’s question. He also suspected she’d just given him a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of her sons.
He scanned the sky again then pointed to a spot he recognized. “See those three stars in a straight line?”
The others all looked up.
“I see them,” Ben announced.
“I do, too!” Brian pointed upward.
“That’s called Orion’s belt. It’s part of the constellation known as Orion.”
“Who’s Orion?” Ben asked.
“What’s a...consternation?” Brian stumbled over the word.
“Constellation, honey,” Emma softly corrected him. “Why don’t we sit on the porch steps, and Doctor Preston can explain it.”
Clint followed them up the path. Emma excused herself to go change out of her work clothes, so Clint sat on the top step with each boy flanking him.
“Constellations are what we call groups of stars which appear together in the sky.”
Both boys nodded. Clint smiled to himself. Simple explanations seemed to work the best with these two.
“But who’s Orion?” Ben asked.
Clint searched his mind to his college astronomy class for the story. “Do you guys know what a myth is?”
They shook their heads no.
“Well a myth is like a story, only the people in them never really lived.” Clint prayed they wouldn’t ask for more details. When none came forth, he almost shouted hallelujah. “The myth, or story, is that Orion was a great hunter. He boasted he could kill all the animals of the earth.”
“It’s not nice to kill animals.”
“That’s right Brian, but a hunter like Orion does kill animals. Well, the goddess of the animals decided Orion must be stopped before he could do this. So she sent a big scorpion to fight Orion.”
“What’s a scorpion?”
“Well, Ben, a scorpion is an insect that lives in the desert, way far away from here.” Clint didn’t want the boys having nightmares over this bug tonight. “It has pincer claws like a lobster. Have you ever seen one of those?”
Both boys nodded. “At the fish tank at the big restaurant mommy takes us to, sometimes,” Brian informed him.
Clint smiled at him. “A scorpion has those kind of claws, but it also has a tail that stings.”
“Like a bee?”
“Yep, Ben, sort of like a bee. Orion and the scorpion fought a battle, and the scorpion stung Orion on the heel. When he died he was put in the sky, and became the stars you see above us. The three stars show us the middle of the constellation known as Orion.”
“Where his belt is?” Ben said. Brian grinned beside him.
Clint could almost hug the kids. They got it.
“Who put Orion in the sky?”
Clint nearly groaned.
“Okay, boys. Enough star talk tonight,” Emma announced from the doorway, dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, nothing fancy, just comfortable. “Time for bed.”
“Aw, mommy,” Brian moaned.
“Can’t we hear more?” Ben whined.
She held the screen door open for them. “Maybe another night, if you go right up and get in bed now. Be very quiet. Mama’s already asleep. I don’t want you two waking her.”
; “No bath?” Hopefulness rang in Ben’s question.
“Not tonight. We’ll have to cover those casts in the morning, and you can shower then.” Emma kissed them both and patted their bottoms as they went past her into the house.
“Thanks for coming to my rescue.” Clint scooted over on the step. “Care to join me?”
Emma settled herself beside him, leaning her shoulder against the porch rail post. “This is my favorite place to think. I like to watch the sun disappear behind the maple grove there on the hill.”
“It’s peaceful. I don’t see many sunsets in the city.”
“I know. It’s one of the reasons I came back here.”
Clint studied her for a minute. “You’re from Weston?”
“Lived here all my life. At least until I went to school.”
“Did I know you? I mean...I visited here a lot when I was growing up. I just wondered...” His eyes narrowed in scrutiny.
“Actually, I knew your sister, Gwen.”
“Gwen?” Clint leaned against the opposite post, his head cocked to one side. “The only person I remember Gwen hanging out with was a skinny, freckle-faced, redhead...” Dawning registered in his mind. “Don’t tell me that was you!”
She raised her hand in mock salute to him. “In the flesh.”
“You grew up nice, little Emma.”
“No, Doctor. I just grew up.”
* * *
Turning onto the main highway from Weston, he slowed the car and headed back to Columbus. No need to attract any more attention than he already had tonight.
Months of surveillance had him bored to tears. Veering toward the woman and her sons had been a spontaneous move on his part. Interesting how the town’s new doc jumped in to protect the trio.
He wondered what his employer would think of this new situation. Perhaps he wouldn’t inform him just yet. No need to let the prick who’d hired him move up the timeline. If he played his cards right, he could milk this job for extra money for weeks. The deadline wasn’t until the end of the year.
Yep. Things in the boondocks just got a whole lot more interesting.
Chapter Four
Emma leaned against the closed door, willing herself to take deep breaths to slow her racing heart and calm her temper. Boy, it had taken all her control to simply walk away without taking a stripe out of Clint’s hide.
Years ago she promised herself she’d never lie down and let herself be walked on again. If she hadn’t been half asleep and worried about her sons, she would’ve told the arrogant man off earlier in the day. She’d had to settle for getting in the last word this evening.
A door slammed across the street. Her dismissal had angered him. Good! With a smug shake of her head, she slid the dead bolt home and went to tuck her sons into bed. From the bathroom door to their bedroom, Emma picked up the trail of clothes and shoes the boys left in their wake. Inside their bedroom door she stopped. She loved to stand right here and watch them sleep. Seeing them at rest, knowing they survived another day and were hers to love gave her life its sense of purpose. She’d gladly spend the rest of her life slinging hash as long as she had her sons to love.
Quietly, she laid Ben’s boots at the foot of his bed, tucking him in under his covers. A useless act, as her oldest would only kick the blankets off in his sleep. Even asleep his body stayed in motion. She bent and kissed his cheek, brushing the hair off his forehead. Ben was always in a hurry, always busy.
She turned her gaze to her youngest, lying curled around his teddy bear, only his right foot hanging out of the covers. Everyone thought they were identical in makeup, as well as appearance. The town motto seemed to be “what one does the other does, too”. But she knew better. In their room, when they both slept, the difference could be seen. Brian needed the security of his teddy bear, the comfort of his blankets. His efforts to keep up with his brother literally suspended with slumber.
Ben knew his brother’s need for comfort, but even though clearly the more dominant of the two he never teased Brian, or used his weakness against him. He always protected his twin.
She tucked Brian’s foot beneath the blanket then laid his boots at the foot of his bed, kissing him before she left the room. They slept so soundly a hurricane wouldn’t wake them once they were out for the night. Just like their father.
The thought of Dr. Dwayne Hazard set her temper afire once more. After six years, she still couldn’t release the hatred she had for the man who’d used her, then abandoned her and her sons. Every time she thought of her ex-husband the urge to put her fist through a wall surged through her.
She closed the bedroom door then went to check on Mama once more. Since Daddy passed away last spring, Mama seemed a little more forgetful. She prayed it was a temporary thing, but deep down she knew something more might be behind Mama’s spells. When Doc Ray got back from his cruise, she’d have to ask him to run some tests.
She sighed and leaned against the wall outside her mother’s room. Just what she needed right now, one more thing to worry about.
She inched the door open and peeked inside. Thank goodness Mama was sound asleep. Maybe now she could get something accomplished.
She closed the door and headed downstairs to the front room—better known as the construction zone. One wall of the room had already been stripped of the water damaged and decaying modern-day drywall to reveal hand-hewn clapboards hidden beneath. She wanted to remove all the other wall coverings to give the room a rustic feel.
Lifting the medium-weight claw hammer lying on the makeshift table she’d made out of two saw horses and a plank of plywood, she held it and studied the drywall-covered wall. With one giant effort she swung full force at the wall adjoining the already stripped one with all her anger fueling her arms.
“That’s for Dwayne. Ex-husband. Non-existent father. Cheating, using, no-good slime-ball!”
The hammer left a hole in the dry wall the size of a cantaloupe. She swung again and jerked back ferociously on the handle. A large chunk of the puce, chintz-covered plaster and drywall tumbled away with the hammer.
“That’s for Loreene. Female snake. Home wrecker. May she stay married to Dwayne for a hundred years. They deserve each other.”
She swung again. More Sheetrock fell to the floor.
“That’s for my own stupidity in seeing anything in Dwayne in the first place. Stupid and naive.”
Emma stepped back. A pleasant ache settled in her shoulders and arms. This was her therapy, the litany of mistakes and grievances she worked out each night. Usually, she felt relaxed after venting her anger and frustration. Tonight, however, differed a little bit—tension still nagged at her.
Once more she picked up the hammer and swung. The remaining section of drywall fell to the floor.
“And that’s for you, Dr. Clint Preston. Breaker of young girls’ hearts. Come into my house and accuse me of neglecting my children, will you?”
With one well-worn tennis shoe, she kicked the large pieces of the plaster into a pile in the center of the room. She glanced out the front window, across the street to the single light in the upstairs window. “You’d best stay out of my sight and out of my life. I don’t have time for those chocolate-colored eyes of yours.”
* * *
Two days later, just after noon, the phone rang in the outer office at the medical clinic. Harriet was occupied giving immunizations to a family of four children, so Clint laid aside his files to answer the phone.
“Weston Medical Clinic, Dr. Preston speaking.”
“Oh dear, doctor, I didn’t want you.” He recognized the soft twittering voice of Violet Miller Hardesty. “I needed to speak with Harriet.”
Clint flipped through the file, half-listening to the older woman. “She’s busy with patients right now, Mrs. Hardesty. Could I give her a message?”
“Oh, no. If she’s too busy, I’ll just call someone else. I just had hoped they’d come there. Oh dear.”
The anxiety in her voice grabbed Clint’
s attention.
“Who did you hope would come here, Violet?” he asked, remembering suddenly that Emma’s mother and the boys were to be with the Miller twins today.
“Well, they were playing catch in the yard and Isabelle was sitting on the porch watching them. I went to get cookies. When I returned, they’d disappeared. Oh dear. I’ll just call someone else. So sorry for troubling you, doctor.”
Before Clint could ask more questions, the phone clicked quiet in his ear.
His pulse racing, thoughts crashed through his head, echoed by his chair hitting the wall as he thrust himself to his feet. Emma’s twins and mother had disappeared? Where could they have gone? Were they okay? Why did Violet call the clinic instead of Emma?
He went in search of Emma. Just as he passed by the front door to the clinic, he saw the Sheriff’s car stop, its lights flashing.
He hurried out the door and down the front steps, his heart in his throat. He reached the car just as the deputy climbed out the driver’s side.
“Hey there, Doc. Got some company here to see ya.”
“What did they hurt this time?” Clint whipped open the passenger-side door and squatted between it and the seat, feeling Brian’s arms, legs and chest, then looking in his eyes. Finding nothing, he repeated the process with Ben.
“No, Doc. They’re okay.” Cleetus laughed as he came around the car. “I drove by and the boys were walking with Miss Isabelle out on Highway 64. Thought I’d best get them off the road afore somethin’ bad happened. They asked me to bring them over to see you.”
Clint sat back on his heels, relieved, but a little confused, too. “You guys are okay?”
Brian and Ben nodded.
“You tickled us, Doc Clint.” Ben hopped out, followed closely by his brother, who had a softball clasped in his unencumbered hand.
“Thanks for lettin’ us play the lights, Cleetus.” Brian grinned at the Sheriff’s deputy.
“Anytime there, Ben. You guys have fun visitin’ with the Doc, okay?”
Close To Home (Westen Series) Page 4
