Love Inspired September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Her Montana Twins\Small-Town Billionaire\Stranded with the Rancher (49 page)

“Beth again. Tell me about this Beth.”

Dan shrugged. “Nothing to tell. She's Ben's cousin. An internal medicine physician on her way to a position in New York City.”

“Nothing to tell? You have a woman staying at Mom's house and you're going to try to convince me there's nothing to tell?”

“Yeah, that's right.”

“Uh-huh.”

Dan took a sip of coffee and shuddered. “Nasty.”

“So why are you drinking that stuff? Let's go down to the cafeteria and get some real food. I'd like to meet your Beth. And I miss my niece.”

“She's not my Beth.” Dan reached for Joe's duffel.

“I've got the bag. I'm not an invalid.”

“Hey, did I say that?” Dan asked.

Joe chuckled. “I'm only giving you grief, buddy.”

“Thanks, 'cause I missed that while you were gone.”

They started down the hall. Dan pressed the elevator button and turned to his brother. “Uh, Joe, maybe I should warn you.”

“About what?”

“Beth is not real happy with me right now.”

Joe laughed long and hard. “You always did have a way with women.”

“Funny, Joe. Real funny.”

* * *

It was even worse than Dan had expected. Beth and Joe hit it off as if they'd been friends all their lives. Dan sat stirring his coffee and fighting off the morose cloud that hung over him, while they dominated the conversation and Amy colored in her books.

Something had changed Joe, and Dan suspected that it had to do with the trip to Denver. Why, he'd almost suspect there was a woman involved. Well, he'd find out eventually. With Joe, you had to have patience. He didn't share personal information until he was ready.

At least he didn't used to.

Everything seemed odd, because he sure had lots to talk about with Beth.

Right now Joe was talking about his prosthesis. Maybe because she was a doctor.

“They wanted me to start the process post-op, but I wasn't there mentally,” he continued.

Beth nodded and Dan stared. How come Joe had never mentioned this before?

“Where is your amputation?” Beth asked.

“Transradial.” Joe pointed to the location, right below his elbow on his right arm where the long-sleeved flannel shirt was limp.

“That's actually a positive,” she said.

Joe nodded. “Yeah, so they tell me.”

“What are your options?” Beth asked.

“Lots of options. In fact, my head is spinning, there are so many. I'm not sure I even remember it all. I was on information overload. There are the cosmetic prostheses and manual ones, and then they have battery operated and what they call hybrid, battery and manual.” He pulled a brochure out of his pocket. “I'm excited about these. Look, a myoelectrically controlled one. They use muscle contractions to activate the prosthesis.”

“Bionic man?” Dan interjected.

“That's a rather old stereotype,” Beth said, her words clipped and flat.

Ouch.
She had a mean sucker punch.

Joe's eyes widened a notch, enough to let Dan know he'd caught that.

“Oh, and get this,” Joe said. “They even have activity-specific prosthetic devices. I can get one for ranch work.”

“This is wonderful, Joe,” Beth said.

“So what's the plan now?” Dan asked.

“I had a casting with muscle testing done. I talked to the physician and the therapist. I'll have to work with a therapist here in Paradise, in addition to a couple more fittings in Denver.”

“Great,” Dan said.

“The myoelectric prosthesis is pretty expensive, so they're trying to get me into a study that will pay for the device.”

Beth's phone buzzed. She looked down. “Text from Ben. Your mom has been moved into room 204.”

Joe slid from the booth and stood. “So how long are you staying in Paradise, Beth?”

“I changed my flight to Saturday. Amy invited me to her program on Friday, and I've accepted.” She glared pointedly at Dan. “Unless you have a problem with that?”

“It's okay, right, Daddy?” Amy asked as she collected her crayons.

Why did he suddenly feel like the bad guy?

“That'd be great.” Dan met Beth's gaze. “Thank you, Beth.”

Amy's face lit up and she wrapped her arms around Beth, who gave his daughter an affectionate smile, but merely offered him a short nod. He was well aware that he had been dismissed, back to the doghouse.

“Ben offered to take me to the airport if I need a ride,” Beth said.

“Oh, I'm sure we can get you to the airport,” Joe said, as he stood back for Dan to get out of the booth.

“Thank you.” Beth rose to her feet. “Amy and I will meet you boys upstairs.” She looked down at Amy again. “We're going shopping.”

“Shopping?” Joe asked.

“Yes. To the gift shop to find some barrettes for her hair.”

Joe gave a low whistle after Beth had left. “Yeah, you really stepped in it, didn't you?”

“Apparently.”

“What did you say?” Joe asked.

Dan felt his ears burning. He shrugged. “It doesn't matter. I thought I was giving her a graceful way out of babysitting the Gallaghers. Turns out she likes us and I insulted her by implying she'd leave us in the lurch.”

“Smooth move.” Joe bent and gathered his tray. “The question is, how are you going to fix this?”

“She's leaving. Saturday instead of Thursday, but still leaving, either way. Not much I can do,” Dan said as he grabbed the other tray.

“A wise man once said not to dwell on what happened, but to get your apology on the table as fast as you can.”

“A wise man?”

“Yeah. Dad. He said that the secret to his and Mom's relationship was that he wasn't afraid to apologize, whether he was right or wrong. Plain and simple.”

“Relationship? Do Beth and I even have a relationship?”

“Sounds like you have something.” Joe placed his tray on the disposal cart. They walked out of the cafeteria toward the elevator.

“Maybe, but I don't think you get it. Beth is leaving.”

“Do you care about her?”

“Well, yeah, but that's beside the point.”

“No, little brother, that
is
the point.”

“Joe, I—”

Joe raised a hand, effectively cutting Dan off. “It's been six years, dude.”

“You sound like Mom now.”

“Come on, how many times in six years has someone like Beth wandered into your life?” He didn't give Dan a chance to answer. “You know I'm right.”

“Maybe, but how exactly did you get all this woman wisdom?” Dan asked as he pushed the elevator button.

“Purely from messing up.”

“Somehow, that's not real encouraging.”

“Look, genius, I'm telling you that you'd better apologize and do it quick. The best thing that's ever happened to you is leaving soon.”

Dan ran a hand over his face. He hated when Joe was right.

Chapter Ten

“I
'm so glad Joe made it home safely,” Elsie said. She sat up in the hospital bed, looking regal, despite being attached to IV, oxygen and cardiac monitoring leads.

“The roads are much better,” Beth said.

“So what do you think of my Joe?”

Beth did a mental comparison between the two brothers. Dan was tall and lean and dark, with a nice chin. His older brother was also dark, but with a build like a football player, and not nearly as tall. Dan had that meltingly sweet smile in his favor, along with those clear gray eyes. When he wasn't being a jerk, he was her choice, hands down. “He's very nice,” she answered.

“Very PC, dear, but it's obvious you only have eyes for Dan.”

“I, um...I like both your sons. You should be proud. You did a fine job raising them, Elsie.”

“Thank you.” She smiled at the answer. “My girls are coming on Saturday. But after you've gone. I do wish you could have met them. I'm sure they'd love you.”

Beth smiled and crossed her arms, unsure what to say.

“Dear, you do know that Dan cares for you, don't you?”

“I'm leaving Saturday,” Beth murmured, the admission painful. It wasn't as though she hadn't made it very clear from the beginning. From the very moment she'd met Dan at Ben's house she'd been up-front. She had plans, and a job waiting in New York. Paradise was only a short detour on the road between California and New York. A few more days and she would be gone. That was what she needed to focus on, not the color of Dan's eyes, or the way she felt when he looked at her.

Besides, she had been in Colorado only a week. It was crazy to think she could have developed feelings for Dan Gallagher—or him for her—in such a short amount of time. Crazy!
Right?

“You know you are always welcome here,” Elsie said, still smiling. “If you get to the city and you don't like it as much as Colorado, then you come back. Because, Beth, there's only one thing worse than a bad decision.”

She raised her brows in question.

“And that's living with a bad decision.”

Beth sighed. Elsie was disturbingly and insightfully correct, as always.

“So, what shall we do about tonight's dinner?” Elsie asked, changing the subject.

“Do you cook dinner every night?” Beth countered.

“Oh, no. I stopped that nonsense years ago. I generally make Sunday dinner after church. I send the boys home with leftovers. Unless Amy is staying with me. I'll cook for my granddaughter, but otherwise, I figure that I've done my time, so to speak. But I do try to keep the freezer stocked for emergencies like this. Do you cook for yourself?” Elsie asked.

“I am quite skilled with a can opener and I can reheat really well.”

Elsie chuckled. “That's in your favor, because there happens to be dozens of meals wrapped up and labeled in the freezer, waiting for you to heat up. Pull out the chicken tortilla soup and dump it in a kettle. Amy can show you where everything is,” Elsie said.

“Hmm. I'm not exactly confident about the dumping. Amy and I nearly destroyed your kitchen the last time we were allowed to dump,” Beth said.

“Now, now. I know you can handle this. It's frozen, so that makes everything slightly safer.” Elsie glanced around. “Where is everyone, by the way?”

“They'll be back,” Beth said. “Dan took Amy to see the hospital's nursery. Joe is calling a buddy to get Dan's truck towed from that ditch and brought to the mechanic's shop.”

“Good. Where were we?” Elsie cocked her head. “Oh, yes. Soup. They love tortilla soup. All you do is heat it up, then grab a lime and squeeze some in, and add a few chips, some slices of avocado and some Jack cheese. Easy-peasy. Oh, and I've got chicken chili in the freezer also. Now that's a nice meal with a batch of corn bread.” She smiled. “Call me if you want me to walk you through it.”

“I can check Wikipedia if I need help.”

“Wiki what?”

“It's an online encyclopedia.”

“Beth, you aren't going to need to look anything up. This is frozen soup we're talking about.”

“Don't underestimate my lack of talent in the kitchen. Remember, I'm the one who was confused by cream of tartar.”

Elsie laughed and continued. “I think you've got it backward. You're underestimating your abilities. I saw you start that IV. You're good.”

“Thank you for having so much confidence in my culinary skills, Elsie, but may I ask a question?”

“Of course, dear.”

“Will they deliver pizza to the ranch?”

“Pizza?” Elsie's eyes popped. “Why, it would be stone cold by the time it arrived, and they charge a fortune for the processed stuff. I do, however, have a nice recipe for homemade crust, if you're interested.”

“That might be a bit advanced for me.”

“Give yourself a little credit, dear. You've got the makings of a good cook. All you lack is some training time. After all, you didn't become a doctor in one day.”

“I thought people were either born with the domestic gene or not.” Beth shrugged.

“Oh, my. Who told you that? When I married Mr. Gallagher I could barely boil eggs. His dear mother, bless her soul, taught me everything.”

“Really? I had no idea. You do it so effortlessly.”

“Why, thank you. But the only domestic gene I brought into the marriage was my sense of style.” She laughed. “That reminds me. These gowns are plain ugly.”

Beth glanced at the white gown with tiny blue flowers. “It's not so bad.”

“Ha! Have Dan bring me one of my sweatshirts. The black one that says Dr. Mom in sparkles. It might encourage that fancy cardiac doctor to discharge me.”

Amy burst into the room with Dan right behind her.

“GG, I saw the babies.” The little girl bounced onto the bed. “They're so tiny. I saw one that was as small as my hand.”

“Easy on the bed, Pumpkin.” Dan gently scooped Amy up and deposited her into the bedside chair next to Beth.

“Did you?” Elsie cooed.

Amy nodded. “Yes. I want one.”

“You'll have to talk to your daddy about that. He's in charge of bringing you a little brother or sister.”

“Mom.”
Dan's ears reddened.

“What?” Elsie raised her hands to claim her innocence as she turned to Beth. “Do you like babies, Beth?”

“Yes. I'm godmother to Sara and Ben's twins.”

“I'm sure you'd make a wonderful mother.”

Dan cleared his throat. “
Mom,
Joe will be up here shortly. I'm headed back to the ranch. I'll be back tonight. I'm going to drop Beth off at the ranch first.”

“Aren't you going to sleep?” Elsie asked.

“Yeah. I'll stop at my place and take a nap.”

Elsie turned to Beth. “Do you mind if Amy stays with you at my house?”

“Mom, Beth doesn't have to—”

“I'd love that. Amy and I can have another piano lesson.”

Little Amy nodded enthusiastically.

“Appreciate it,” Dan muttered, not meeting her gaze.

“You do not have to come back, Daniel. I'll be fine. Look at all these monitors. If I pass wind they know it.”

Beth held in a laugh. Barely.

“I want to come back. Joe and I agreed that one of us would stay with you at night. I'll trade with him later this afternoon.”

“Now, that's ridiculous,” Elsie said. “This is a hospital. They get paid to take care of me.”

“Joe and I specialize in ridiculous, and that's what we're doing.”

“Fine. Seems like a waste of your time, but who am I to complain? You know they did say that if the medication continues to work, I might go home tomorrow—”

Beth interrupted. “That would be a very loose interpretation of what you were told. They're going to do the angioplasty later today and the stress test tomorrow, and they might let you go home on Friday. The cardiac doctor said he'd like you to stay until Friday morning rounds, since you live so far out in the country.”

“Whose side are you on?” Elsie grumbled.

Beth bit her lip at the look of indignation on Elsie's face.

The silence stretched for a long minute. Finally, Elsie turned to her. “Do you want that pizza recipe before you go?”

“Thank you, but if there isn't home delivery, the soup will be fine. Making pizza from scratch seems a bit ambitious for my skill set.”

“You can't go wrong with soup, dear.”

Beth shook her head. “Unless there's a drive-through fast-food restaurant that lures me in first.”

Dan laughed. “This is Paradise. There's nothing fast in Paradise. That's part of our charm.”

Beth thought it was wise to keep her mouth firmly closed.

* * *

Someone was watching her. Beth looked up. Dan was peeking his head into the kitchen from the hallway. The twenty-four-hour beard on his face only made him appear even more ruggedly handsome. She glanced away.

I am still mad at him,
she reminded her forgiving nature.

“Nothing to worry about,” she finally said aloud, her tone dry. “We haven't blown anything up today. Right, Amy?”

Amy giggled and waved at her father from her position at the kitchen table. She knelt on a chair and very carefully stirred brownie batter in a plastic mixing bowl.

“What are you two doing?” Dan asked.

“We're making brownies,” Amy said. “I have to mix the batter one hundred times.”

“Wow,” he replied, coming over and giving his daughter a kiss on the cheek. “All by yourself? I'm impressed.”

“GG said we have a teachable spirit, when we called and asked what ‘fold in' means.”

To his credit Dan only smiled. “Well, GG would know. She taught me to cook,” he said.

“Daddy can make lots of stuff,” Amy said to Beth.

No doubt he was a much better cook that she was. Beth gave Amy a benevolent smile but offered nothing to the conversation.

Yes, she was still irritated at Dan for his hurtful comment at the hospital. Of course, the situation was totally her own fault. This was what happened when you got too close to people. You got hurt.

Dan stuck a finger in the bowl and tasted the batter. “Good stuff, Amy.”

“Daddy, GG says we can't eat the batter or we might get sick.”

“Not to contradict your grandmother, Pumpkin, but I've eaten batter all my life and never once got sick,” he said.

“What does
contradict
mean?” Amy asked.

“It means I'm a bad example. Listen to your grandmother,” he said.

Amy frowned at him and wiped a bit of chocolate batter off her fingers with a paper towel. “Look, Daddy, I got my nails done today. Dr. Beth polished them for me. My nails match hers now.”

“Whoa, they sure do.” He glanced at Beth's pale pink nails and then at his daughter's. “You look beautiful, just like Dr. Beth.”

Beth concentrated on wiping a spot of batter from the table with her dishcloth. She refused to be lured by compliments, no matter how sweet.

When she straightened, the distinct scent of tomatoes with a hint of oregano and mozzarella cheese drifted past. “Do you smell something?” she asked Amy.

“No,” Amy said. “Just brownies.”

“Well, I do.” She sniffed again and walked around the kitchen. “It's almost like...”

“Pizza?” Dan asked.

Beth whirled around. “Yes. That's exactly what I smell.” She turned to him and narrowed her eyes. “Did you bring home pizza?”

“Yeah, I heard you mention it to my mother.”

“Daddy! Pizza?” Amy exclaimed.

“Uh-huh. Go wash your hands.”

“What about the brownies, Dr. Beth?”

“I'll put them in the oven. You go ahead.” Beth slid a spatula into the bowl and began pouring the batter into a square glass pan.

Dan left the room and returned with two pizza boxes, and Millie following closely behind. He set the boxes onto the table. “Look, Beth,” he began. “I was completely off base—”

She walked over to the oven, opened the door and placed the pan on the top rack, allowing the door to slam shut in the middle of his half-baked apology.

“I'm trying to apologize.” He cleared his throat. “For what I said at the hospital. I know you care about all of us, and I appreciate that you changed your reservations to help us out. I hope you can forgive me for opening my big mouth.”

“You're apologizing with pizza?” she asked, hoping her expression clearly screamed,
not really!

“I brought your luggage, too.”

Okay, this time she was unable to resist a slight roll of her eyes.

“Could you work with me here? It was the best I could do on short notice.”

The doorbell rang and they both turned toward the sound.

“I'll heat the pizza up if you want to get the door,” she said.

He shook his head. “No, I don't care about the door. I want to know if you'll accept my apology.”

“Pepperoni?” she asked, peeking into the top box.

“Yes. One with Canadian bacon, too.”

“Okay. Fine. Yes. I forgive you.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Boy, that sounded convincing.”

“What exactly are you looking for here? An award or something?”

“Could I have a hug?”

“A
hug?
” Beth stepped back from him. “Is that necessary?”

“It really is. An old-fashioned Gallagher ‘get out of the doghouse' tradition.”

Beth looked at him as she considered his request, and then glanced away. “That seems like a very awkward tradition.”

“Not much of a hugger?”

She shook her head. “Not a hugger, period.”

“You let Amy hug you,” he returned.

“Amy is only half a person and she sort of catches me off guard. Besides, I've gotten used to her.”