The Most Eligible Doctor Read online

  Jed walked beside her, his words coming out with white puffs of vapor. “Deep River was a whole different world. We had wind chill of fifty-eight below in December. Yet when the northern lights lit up the sky, none of the rest seemed to matter.”

  She thought about Alaska and the aurora borealis…and Jed watching it. Then she motioned toward her car, the only one in the parking lot. “You walked?” she asked.

  “I’m about six blocks away.” He was staring at her car. The parking lot lights flowed over the white foreign sports car as if spotlighting it.

  “Would you like a ride?” she asked. “I can drop you off.”

  “Thanks, but I enjoy walking.”

  From what she could tell, Jed was extremely fit, and she wondered if he did more than walk. He was still eyeing her car.

  She opened the driver’s door, and the smell of leather was noticeable.

  He glanced inside, then focused once more on her.

  They were standing very close. So close that Brianne found it hard to breathe again. He was a good seven inches taller than she was, and she felt fragile, small and out of her depth standing before him. She tipped her chin up a little, and she could have sworn he leaned a bit closer.

  Neither of them spoke as the pines along the building swayed in a breeze and a truck rattled down the street. Her heart beat faster than it ever had.

  Then Jed lifted his head and put a few inches between them. With his hand on the frame of the sports car, he said, “This is a beautiful car. You don’t find many of them in Wisconsin.”

  She felt memories flood over her, and heat came to her cheeks despite the cold. “It was a graduation gift from my parents,” she said in a low voice.

  “You must have very generous parents.”

  Her parents. Irrevocably gone. Unbearably missed. Two days before her graduation, as they drove to her college, a tractor trailer had swerved into them.

  Her voice caught as she managed to answer, “They were very generous. They’re gone now.”

  Seeing the uncertainty on Jed’s face at her words, she decided to leave to take care of the awkwardness she’d created.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a good night.” Sliding quickly into the bucket seat, she closed the door and switched on the ignition.

  Dr. Jed Sawyer stepped away from her car.

  Quickly, she backed up, veered to the right and out of the parking lot, trying to keep heartache at bay.

  On Saturday morning, after Brianne had run a few errands, she returned to the Victorian house that had become her home. After her parents died, seven months ago, she’d been lost in their huge house. She’d taken the job at Beechwood Family Practice a month after graduation and had met Lily Garrison, a divorced mother who’d been looking for a housemate so she and Megan could more easily meet their bills each month. Lily and Megan had provided Brianne with a safe harbor, and they now felt like family.

  The house’s wraparound porch with its yellow railing brought a smile to Brianne’s face, as it always did. After parking along the street—there was only a one-car detached garage in the back—Brianne picked up her dry cleaning from the seat beside her and ran up the three wooden steps.

  As she stepped inside the living room with its shiny hardwood floor, colorful rag rugs and big-cushioned, overstuffed turquoise-and-red furniture, the smell of cinnamon wafted around her. Carefully hooking her dry cleaning over a closet door hinge, she headed for the kitchen and was surprised by the activity there.

  “We’re having a party,” five-year-old Megan called as she pressed a cookie cutter into bread slices.

  “A party?” Brianne asked. She had been up and out before Lily and Megan had awakened this morning. Lily hadn’t said anything about a party last evening.

  Lily’s blond waves, loose around her face now, swished against her cheek as she looked up from her cutting board, where she was slicing celery. “Last night when Doug and I were talking, I mentioned Jed Sawyer.”

  Doug was a computer technician Lily had been dating for months now. Despite her good intentions to leave thoughts of Jed Sawyer at Beechwood, Brianne was interested in anything Doug had had to say about the rugged doctor. Ever since that night almost a week ago when Jed had made the comment about her car, they’d worked efficiently together, but politely, with no personal conversations. He didn’t seem to engage in truly personal conversation with anyone.

  “What did Doug say?” Brianne asked.

  “The gist of it was that it must be difficult for Jed to come back home and live with his dad after all these years. So…I thought it would be nice to have an open house for him. Just a welcome home get-together. I remembered you said you didn’t have plans for tomorrow, so I invited Dr. Olsen and his wife, Sue and Janie and their husbands.”

  Sue in billing helped Janie manage the practice’s office. It was just like Lily to want to help Jed feel comfortable being in Sawyer Springs again, and to impulsively throw a party.

  “You didn’t make plans, did you?” Lily asked. “I told everyone to come around three.”

  “I’m free.” Brianne’s heart fluttered as she thought about Jed, here, in a casual atmosphere. “Did you invite Dr. Sawyer?” she asked with a smile.

  Lily made a face at her. “Yep. Called him this morning. He said he’ll stop in, though he can’t stay long. I think he’s just leaving himself an out in case he doesn’t want to stay.”

  “What makes you say that?” Brianne asked, wandering over to snitch a carrot from the growing stack of vegetables.

  “He’s a loner,” Lily said solemnly. “I can tell. Did you know he practiced as a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles before he took that position in Alaska?”

  “How do you know that?”

  Lily gave her a mysterious smile. “I have my ways.”

  Brianne laughed.

  Glancing at her housemate over her shoulder, Lily confided, “I’m not really Sherlock Holmes. I got a glimpse of Jed Sawyer’s résumé. Dr. Olsen happened to have it in his hand yesterday when he was talking to me.”

  “Jed said he was divorced. I wonder how long he was married?” Brianne mused.

  Lily tilted her head and cocked a brow. “You’re working for the man, maybe you could ask him.”

  “He doesn’t talk about himself much.” Brianne suddenly knew she was sounding too interested.

  “Do you wish he would?” Lily asked more gently.

  “No. It’s better this way…that we keep a strictly professional relationship. After all, he’s my boss.” Besides that Jed Sawyer was obviously experienced. She was inexperienced. That was her choice. She’d had a lot of losses in her life and because of them she tried to protect her heart.

  She’d felt totally adrift when, at fourteen, she’d found a private investigator’s report in the attic. It had stated that her biological mother had taken her to a church pew in Madison and died a few months later from pneumonia because she’d been homeless and living on the streets.

  Since Brianne’s parents hadn’t told her about any of it, she’d felt betrayed. Since her birth mother had left her in the church, she’d felt abandoned. Brianne had depended heavily on her childhood friend, Bobby Spivak, during that confusing time. He’d been her best friend since kindergarten. But in their senior year, they were discussing getting engaged and going to the same college when Bobby had been diagnosed with leukemia. She’d lost him eighteen months later.

  And seven months ago, she’d lost her parents, too. Over and over again she’d learned that love hurt in so many ways. Yet…she also knew it was life-giving. Bobby’s doctors had said he had six months to live. He’d lived a year past that, and Brianne’s heart told her that love had kept him with them.

  Still, she was afraid of loving…and losing once more. Giving her heart away wasn’t in her plans anytime soon, if ever.

  When Brianne thought of Jed Sawyer, she realized her relationship with Bobby had been the epitome of safety. Their love had been born of friendship and hadn’t yet devel
oped into burning passion. Jed, on the other hand, was so intense that all she thought about amid the tingles she felt around him was passion. That spelled trouble with a capital T. She wouldn’t let a few unruly hormones run away with her good sense.

  Ending the conversation and putting a lid on her thoughts, she asked Lily, “So what can I do to help get ready for tomorrow?”

  If she stayed busy, tomorrow and seeing Jed again in a relaxed setting wouldn’t make her so jittery.

  Mingling.

  Jed had once known how to do it like a pro. Back in L.A., he and his partners had been invited to cocktail parties with movie stars, investment bankers, models. He’d been able to talk to anyone about anything. But then his life had fallen apart and talking had become too much of an effort. The position in Alaska had been a godsend, but because of it, he’d grown rusty at socializing.

  Lily Garrison crossed to him, a tray balanced on her hand. “Try the crab quiches. I found the recipe on the Internet.”

  Jed took one, bit into it and grinned. “Maybe you should go into catering as a sideline.”

  “I think I have my hands full with work and Megan. But I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Suddenly Jed’s attention was drawn to Brianne as she entered the living room. She stood by the built-in bookshelves for a moment, looking uncertain. Her auburn, shoulder-length curls bobbed around her face with the slightest movement of her head. Her aquamarine eyes were the wonderful color of the sea. Ever since that night by the car, he’d wanted to talk to her again about more than work, but the clinical atmosphere at Beechwood hadn’t seemed right to delve into the subject of her parents. And the stirrings of desire he’d felt whenever they were around each other had deterred him from seeking her out privately.

  When Brianne’s gaze passed over the room as if she was deciding which conversation to enter, her eyes met his. She quickly looked away, turned around and retreated to the kitchen.

  Finishing the miniature quiche in a quick bite, Jed said to Lily, “Excuse me, will you? There’s someone I need to talk to.”

  Lily’s eyes twinkled. “I’ll catch you later.” Then she moved along to another group with her tray.

  Jed strode through the dining room into the kitchen, where he found Brianne scooping coffee into a filter.

  “You and Lily went to a lot of trouble today.”

  Startled, she looked up, and her cheeks became a little rosier. “It wasn’t that much trouble. Are you enjoying yourself?”

  “The truth is, I’m having to readjust to a party mode. I haven’t been to one for a few years.”

  “Since you took the job in Alaska?”

  “Yes.”

  There was an awkward silence, and Jed knew he had to be the one to fill it. “I didn’t mean to upset you on Monday night. I shouldn’t have pried into your life. Living alone in a cabin wore off my civilized veneer. I’m sorry about your parents.” After she’d mentioned losing her parents, Jed had remembered his dad filling him in on some of the things that had happened in Sawyer Springs the past couple of years. Skyler Barrington had been a lawyer, her husband Edward a cardiologist. They had both come from money and their name was well known in the town. Brianne had inherited all of their wealth and could be considered an heiress. Jed was a bit puzzled why she was working as a nurse at Beechwood when she could be traveling the world, living anywhere she pleased.

  Her gaze was vulnerable as she looked up at him. “Thank you. It’s been less than a year since their accident, and I—”

  Brianne never got to finish because Megan came running in and threw her arms around Brianne’s waist. Her hair was lighter blond than her mother’s, and Lily had attached a barrette over each of her daughter’s temples. In the crook of her arm, Megan carried a rag doll dressed in blue-and-pink gingham, with red yarn hair.

  Looking at the beautiful child made Jed’s heart clench. He wondered if he’d ever be able to be comfortable around children again. Trisha had been almost three when she’d drowned, and being around kids always made his memories more of a burden.

  Megan stood on her tiptoes and crooked her finger at Brianne, glancing shyly at Jed. “Can I have another cookie?” she almost whispered. “Mommy said I could. There aren’t any more on the tray. So she said I should ask you.”

  When Brianne smiled, her face lit up, as did her eyes and everything about her. Jed could tell this child meant a lot to her.

  “We’ll have to do something about an empty cookie tray,” Brianne agreed. “Sure, you can have another one.”

  “Can I take the lid off the cookie jar?” Megan asked eagerly.

  “Maybe Dr. Sawyer can lift you up. I’ll hold Penelope for you.”

  Brianne looked at Jed as if she was making an everyday request. He realized she was, and he shouldn’t make a big deal of it. He tried to keep his expression blank. “Where’s the cookie jar?” he asked gruffly.

  Pulling a gingerbread boy jar from behind the coffeepot, Brianne nudged it near the edge of the counter with her elbow as she tucked the rag doll under her arm and filled the coffee carafe with water.

  Megan ran over to Jed and held her arms up to him. His chest was so tight he could hardly breathe. Clasping her around the waist, he lifted her until she could reach the jar, telling himself not to feel…not to think…not to remember.

  But Brianne had turned off the water now and was looking at him curiously. He realized something showed—something he didn’t want her to see.

  After Megan lifted off the gingerbread boy’s head, Brianne took out about a dozen cookies to replenish the empty tray. The little girl replaced the lid very carefully, and Brianne handed her a cookie. Megan glanced over her shoulder at Jed. “You can put me down now.”

  He gently settled her on the floor again.

  When she looked up at him, her smile was as sparkling as her blue eyes. “Thank you. Do you want one?”

  “No. Not now.”

  She nodded as if she understood. “You have to eat your vegetables before you can eat cookies.” After Brianne handed Megan her doll, the little girl ran out of the kitchen, leaving them alone again.

  “Dr. Sawyer, are you all right?”

  “It’s Jed,” he brusquely reminded her.

  With her concerned expression, her beautifully curved lips, her pretty heart-shaped face, he knew staying away from Brianne was his best course of action. Besides the fact that he was much too old for her—Dr. Olsen had mentioned she was twenty-three—he knew her background was probably a carbon copy of his ex-wife’s. After all, Brianne was a Barrington. Getting to know her outside of their working relationship was not a good idea.

  “I’m fine,” he assured her now. “But I have to be going.”

  “So soon? Have you even had any cake?” She pointed to the table holding a frosted cake with Welcome written on it.

  “No, I haven’t. But everyone here can enjoy it. I really do appreciate you and Lily welcoming me back to Sawyer Springs. If I don’t see Lily on my way out, please tell her how grateful I am.” He knew his voice was flat. He knew he didn’t have a decent excuse to give for leaving. Yet none of that mattered. He wasn’t ready to be around mothers and children…or a woman who seemed to be thawing his frozen libido.

  As he left the kitchen, Brianne called, “I’ll see you in the morning.” He lifted his hand in acknowledgment that he’d heard her. Then he headed for the door, deciding he should have stayed in Alaska.

  Chapter Two

  As Brianne filed patient charts late Monday afternoon, she quickly glanced out the window. Snow had been falling heavily since midmorning. Everyone else had left, and she was waiting for Jed to finish with his last chart. He’d been distant today, and she wondered again what had gone through his mind yesterday afternoon at the party—and why he’d left so abruptly. The only personal conversation they’d had was “good morning.” Everything else had had to do with work.

  Still…Brianne found the man intriguing, in spite of herself. Working around him minute by min
ute, hour by hour, she found thoughts taking shape in her head she’d never had before. Thoughts of a man and woman kissing, touching…

  With a blast of mid-January wind, the door in the reception area burst open and a burly figure stomped in. Brianne was used to walk-ins by now, but she was also a bit worried about how long another appointment would take, and driving home in the deepening snow.

  The elderly man tracked slush from his black galoshes through the waiting room as he came to the receptionist’s window. He wore an orange hunter’s cap, and he pushed it high on his brow now as he gazed at her from beneath bushy gray brows. His face was lined, his square jaw beard-stubbled. The loose, red-plaid wool jacket he was wearing made him look bigger and burlier than he actually was, she noted.

  Closing the sliding metal door of the files, Brianne crossed to the glass window and opened it. “Can I help you?”

  His green eyes passed over her appraisingly. “Just point me in the direction of Jed Sawyer.”

  She would never let an unverified patient into the exam area. “Do you have an appointment with Dr. Sawyer?”

  “I don’t need an appointment. I’m his father.”

  Brianne smiled at once. She could see the resemblance now in the high cheekbones and the broad brow. “Dr. Sawyer is finishing patient notes. I’ll get him.”

  But before Brianne could step back from the window, Jed entered the office and spotted his father. “Dad. What are you doing out in this?”

  His father shrugged. “I needed rock salt for the sidewalk if this ices up. Since you walked here, I thought you might appreciate a ride. You’d better buy yourself a four-wheel-drive truck like I’ve got if you intend to stay here.”

  Jed frowned at his father’s words. “I’m used to walking in the snow. I have a few more—”

  The shrill tone of the phone ringing broke the tension between the two men. Relieved, Brianne answered it. “Beechwood Family Practice.”

  “It’s Lily,” her friend said quickly. “Are you leaving soon?”

  “I’d better if I don’t want to spend the night.”