baby and he didn’t deserve to die.
“Relax,” Eli whispered. “When was the last time someone looked out for you?”
Nora swallowed. “Actually, your mother dropped off a few groceries for me last week when I couldn’t get to the store.”
And that would be when she’d been hugging the toilet—her own that time. She was doing way too much of that lately.
“I meant really care for you,” he corrected. “I know you’re independent, but even you need to rest sometimes.”
Nora wanted to sink back into the bed, his bed, but she didn’t want to leave the warmth of his firm hand on her shoulder. He was right, though. She was independent. She’d always had to be between her mother and Todd, who’d been deployed most of their brief marriage.
“I don’t mind fending for myself, Eli. I’ve honestly never known any other way.”
His hand slid down her arm, leaving gooseflesh in its path even though thick fleece separated them. “That’s a sad statement. You will rest here for at least an hour, no arguments. I’ll put the casserole in the oven.”
“But you are a terrible cook,” she insisted. “I remember that Valentine’s meal you tried to cook for me that even the stray dogs turned away.”
Eli’s eyes widened a moment before he chuckled. “That was pretty bad, but you’ve already thrown the ingredients together. Surely I can pop it in the oven without causing too much damage. I do have a PhD, for pity’s sake.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his accomplishments. “I’m really proud of what you’ve done, Eli. You had a dream and went after it.”
His eyes held hers, the hand he’d slid down her arm rested atop her own. “But at what price?” he whispered.
Her heart clenched. Was he referring to her, to them? Did he regret leaving all those years ago? This was the first inclination he’d ever shown that perhaps he wasn’t 100 percent confident in his decisions.
Nora took in his thin lips, his tense shoulders and eyes filled with anguish. Obviously he had his own demons to live with and she didn’t feel it her place to say anything.
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he murmured, looking down to their hands. “All those years ago. I never apologized.”
Okay, that was a time she did not want to revisit because from the moment he’d left, she’d been seeking happiness, only able to grasp on to meager scraps of it. But she couldn’t fully blame him. She was in charge of her own life and had made it what it was—falling into a marriage with a man who should’ve remained her friend and nothing more.
“Life happens, Eli.” She laced her fingers with his, wanting another layer of connection. “We had different goals in life. Doesn’t mean we didn’t care for each other. Besides, we were young. We might have made a mistake staying together. You would’ve probably resented being stuck here and wondered what life outside Stonerock would’ve been like.”
He squeezed her hand back. “I’ve never known a woman like you, Nora.”
She laughed, easing the intensity of the moment. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
A wide smile spread across his handsome, stubbled face. “Definitely a compliment.”
Silence surrounded them and for the first time it wasn’t strained or awkward.
“I’m really glad you’re back, Eli.”
“I’m not staying.”
He was so quick to answer, but she knew he had a life, the one he’d worked so hard for, waiting on him. Good for him for making his life everything he’d ever wanted.
“You’re here now,” she told him. “That’s all that matters.”
She didn’t want any tension while he was here. First of all, she loved his family too much to have that weighing heavily on them, and second, she couldn’t afford the emotional battle.
Even though they were different people than they once were, they could still be friends.
Couldn’t they?
He’d faced the wrath of his father when he’d sneaked out of the house at age fifteen, he’d served alongside men who’d died in front of him and he’d managed to move on after a broken heart.
But nothing scared the hell out of Dr. Eli St. John more than that waiting room full of patients. Patients who remembered the teen he used to be and had no real clue as to the man he’d truly become.
Oh, he wasn’t worried about contracting some virus or cold. No, he was terrified the do-gooders of the town would peer down their nose at him and judge him for his past sins.
Eli glanced at his watch and sighed. His father’s nurse, Sarah, would start filling the rooms any minute and Eli would just have to suck it up and get this first day out of the way.
At least Sarah was young, new and professional. When he’d walked through the office earlier to speak to Lulu, she’d been filing her nails and the phone had been ringing. It had rung four times before she slammed down her file and answered.
For some reason the townsfolk liked Lulu—with her odd, sometimes rude behavior—and expected her to be sitting behind that desk when they came in. She never changed...ever. And she still sported a low-cut top with her goods on display.
Perhaps that’s why she’d always been so well received.
Regardless, Eli’s father swore she was the most organized person he’d ever worked with and he’d hired her straight out of high school. Lulu was just shy of forty, a few years older than Eli, so she wasn’t going anywhere.
Dr. St. John—the original—was home resting and recovering and depending on Eli to keep the practice afloat. Eli had no intention of letting the man down, no matter what he thought of how his dad ran the office.
Eli moved from his father’s small office and went down the narrow hallway, eyeing the closed exam room door. Pulling the chart from the tray, he glanced at the name first...then did a double take.
Perfect. Simply perfect.
Maddie Mays. Or, as he and his brothers called her, “Mad” Maddie. The woman had to be a day older than God himself and she put the fear in every kid who had the unfortunate idea of cutting through her property to the park. More than once Mad Maddie had wielded a rolling pin in one hand and ball bat in the other. There was no doubt the woman would’ve used both weapons if anyone stepped on her precious prize-winning flowers. Those women in the Flower Garden Club were vicious and Mad Maddie was their president. Don’t mess with a woman’s rhododendrons.
Too bad she couldn’t catch them. Maddie was as wide as she was tall and had certainly been no match for three healthy teen boys.
Eli pushed open the door and for a half second he was shocked. It seemed as though a good one hundred pounds had melted off her. And her wardrobe looked straight out of a sixteen-year-old’s closet.
Sitting on the edge of the exam table, Maddie wore hot-pink leggings and a black, fitted, off-the-shoulder sweater. Furry leopard-print boots completed her interesting look. Her cane—which looked as though it had been dipped into a vat of rhinestones—rested against the table.
“Mrs. Mays,” he greeted, closing the door for privacy.
When her eyes landed on him, he didn’t shudder beneath the gaze that seemed to study and assess him. “Eli. You’re quite a bit taller and thicker than last I saw you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Last time she’d seen him he’d been hightailing it past her property after she’d threatened to go get her