Dr. Chance Landry was in his office dictating notes about
the patients he had seen that morning. In spite of the
tedium of his chore, he couldnโt stop smiling.
One of his patients had been his sister-in-law,
Savannah. It had been his great pleasure to tell her she
was carrying his brother, Sethโs, child. Savannah made him
promise not to say a word. She knew that Jasper was a
small town and she didnโt want some gas station attendant
telling Seth first.
His very large family was getting very much larger.
Earlier in the year, his oldest brother, Sam, and his wife,
Callie, had welcomed a baby boy, Samuel Sheldon Landry. He
was their second son. The baby was called Sheldon. No one
would dare refer to the baby as Junior, in Sam and Callieโs
presence -- or out.
His cousin Cade and his wife Barbara had a seven month
old, Jackson Prather-Landry. Chance tensed when he thought
about Jackโs birth. Apparently the boy was as impatient as
his father because he had come into the world almost three
months early. Luckily, the neo-natal unit in Helena was
able to nurse him through those first few difficult months.
Speaking of nurses, Chance checked his watch. He had
a date with a particularly fetching redheaded nurse this
very evening.
He picked up another file and tried to decipher his
own scripted notes. It was no wonder Valerie was always on
his case. His handwriting had become atrocious in his
thirty-five years on earth. He set the file aside. Heโd
have Val translate it for him later.
His mind conjured a picture of his assistant, Valerie
Greene. Sheโd been with him for six years, but he really
didnโt know much about her. Except that she had a killer
body and an incredibly exotic face. He knew she was part
Native American, which wasnโt all that uncommon in
Montana. He knew she had completed medical school, and
then bailed after her internship. But he didnโt know why.
He knew she believed in holistic medicine and some of the
tribal cures she had learned as a child.
Valโs homemade remedies were basically harmless, so he
didnโt care that she often handed them out along with his
traditional advice to his patients. She was a puzzle to
him. He wasnโt being vain when he said she was the only
woman who had never come on to him. Thanks to the
wonderful Landry genes, Chance was a pretty good-looking
man. Coupled with the fact that he was a doctor seemed to
draw women to him without requiring much effort on his part.
And he did love women. All women. Well, all except
for one. She was the reason heโd go to his grave single
and without a family. Some part of him of him still felt
the pain of her abandonment deeply. The other part was
afraid that he would repeat her actions.
Val stuck her head in the door. Her eyes, which he
noted were an incredible kaleidoscope of color that
included greens, golds and browns, appeared troubled. He
hoped it wasnโt an emergency walk-in.
โIs someone here?โ he asked.
She shook her head as she entered the office. โStop
turning the ringer off on your phone,โ she chided as if he
were some delinquent child.
Funny, she was the only one in the office who spoke to
him with such candor. Maybe that was why he liked having
her on his staff.
โThe hospital is calling, pick-up line one. Youโve
got a major problem.โ
โWhat kind of problem?โ Chance asked, annoyed. The
small, community hospital just outside of town often
classified something as simple as a hangnail a dire
emergency.
โThe kind that can end your career as a doctor.โ
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