by Patt Marr
This very smart man knew her job was to find contestants who might match his answers. He was saying that she was his perfect match.
The butterfly troop flew into action, hunting balloons and confetti. Their guy still loved her, and her knees felt so weak, she had to sit down.
Under “Immediate Plans,” Ry had written, “Make up with my best friend.” Under “Future Plans”… Meg stopped and just sobbed, for Ry had written, “Marry my best friend.”
Penned in the bottom margin was the scripture, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1.”
How she wished Ry had stayed. She would give anything if she could be in his arms right this moment.
A tap just outside her open doorway made her look up. A bouquet of pink roses came through the doorway, and then Ry peeked his head in. There was such an uncertain look in his eyes, as if he wasn’t sure of his welcome, that she couldn’t stand it.
Scrambling out of her chair, she rushed to him, her arms open wide. He swept her up in his arms and held her against him, burying his face in her neck. She would rather have two minutes with this man than twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with any other man.
“I’ve missed you,” he said in that buttery baritone that made the troop twirl.
“Well, you don’t have to anymore,” she murmured, planting kisses in each darling dimple. “Not if you take it back that we’re not ‘meant to be.’”
“Did I say that?” Ry grinned sheepishly. “Sweetheart, that was just pride talking. We were always meant to be. Beth believes it so much that she’s given her heart to the Lord. She’s a Christian, Meg.”
Meg’s happiness went over the top. She couldn’t wait to talk to Beth. But first, there had to be a serious talk with her guy. She took the roses and laid them on the desk so she could take both of his hands in hers.
“What’s this I hear about you not going to med school?” she said sternly.
“I’m not,” he said firmly while his eyes roamed her face as if he just loved what he saw.
It wasn’t easy, being stern with Ry, when he looked at her with such love. The butterfly troop responded with fluttery flair.
But she had to do this. “Ry, we’ve had the conversation before, but this time there has to be a better ending.”
“You mean, you have to win,” he said, teasing.
“No.” She didn’t mean that at all. “We both have to win.”
He wanted that, too, but he’d thought about this for hours. He couldn’t see a good life for Meg if he did what he wanted. “I can’t go, babe. You lose too much.”
“If you don’t go, we both lose more.”
Ry saw such faith in her beautiful eyes that it took his breath. His darling Meg loved him for better or worse.
“When I was so against the whole doctor thing,” she explained earnestly, “I was leaving God out of the equation. Isn’t that amazing that I could forget something so essential? Ry, we’ll be fine if we follow God’s lead.”
For weeks now, he had prayed that Meg would trust God enough to trust him. If this was the answer to his prayer, it was sure worth the wait.
“So, we agree?” she asked as if he had no choice at all.
When had Power Woman become so ready to make powerful choices? That had to have come from above.
“I only want God’s best for you,” he said, loving her so.
Those blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “If you really want the best for me…”
“I do,” he said firmly, backing that pledge with a kiss, the kind that said he would love her forever.
“Then you’ll have to say that again,” she murmured, barely breaking that kiss.
“Say what?” It was hard to pay attention when his girl was so very good at this.
“‘I do.’ You’ll have to say that again on Saturday. In the church garden. With the birds, the harp, the whole thing. That’s what would be best for me.”
“You didn’t cancel our wedding?” he said, almost shouting for joy.
“I couldn’t.”
“I couldn’t cancel the honeymoon, either!”
“Were you planning to go by yourself?”
“Were you going to eat our wedding cake by yourself?”
“Maybe,” she said guiltily. “I eat a lot when I’m depressed, and I do love wedding cake.”
“We’ll take the leftovers on our honeymoon.” She could have all the cake she wanted, but she wouldn’t be depressed, not if he could help it.
She took his face in her hands and looked at him with so much love, he could barely breathe. He reached for the ring he’d put in his pocket when he knew he was coming here today. “Shall we put this back where it belongs?” he asked, his voice husky with emotion.
She held out her hand. He slid the ring back to its home and kissed it in place.
Meg clutched at her stomach.
“What’s wrong, Meg? Are you sick?”
She shook her head. Laughing, she patted her stomach. “Ry, I think it’s time you met your dear friends, the butterfly troop.”
Epilogue
Five Years Later
A new group of medical students entered the ER of L.A. Medical Center, their eyes wide at the frantic activity. A patient on a gurney moaned as paramedics rattled off her vitals. A white-haired gentleman called for his mommy, and a gunshot teen yelled his head off because the bullet had messed up his new tattoo.
The new redheaded nurse flirted outrageously with the new ER doc, who dismissed her with a look that said he didn’t allow that kind of nonsense. If she hadn’t been new, she would have known better.
All the ER regulars knew this doc was a one-woman man who took his work seriously and was amazingly competent for a first-year resident. Of course that didn’t surprise Hector at all. His old partner was exceptionally smart. If Hector were the one showing up here in need of treatment, he would ask for Dr. Ry Brennan by name.
“Hector!” the doc called. “I need a nurse here.”
Hector smiled. It was cool, working with Ry again. He took his place beside Ry, putting his new nursing skills to work, thinking that the two of them still made a great team.
If it weren’t for Ry believing in him, Hector wouldn’t be here, doing this work. Sometimes he thought about the paycheck he would have earned if he’d become a firefighter or police officer, but he went home every day, feeling as if he’d made a difference. He liked working here.
“Can you watch this patient?” Ry said, glancing at his watch anxiously. “I’ve got to check on someone.”
Hector grinned. He understood. “Tell someone I said ‘hi.’”
Ry smiled and took off in a slow jog.
The redheaded nurse frowned. “Where does Dr. Brennan go when he disappears like that?”
“Like he said, he’s checking on someone,” Hector said, smiling to himself.
He could have said that the doc had a habit of stealing kisses from the media director just down the corridor. The woman’s ID badge read Meg Brennan, and the child she carried under her heart would be born any day to a daddy with an M.D. after his name.
ISBN: 9781408965399
Man of Her Dreams
© Patt Marr 2005
First Published in Great Britain in 2005
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