She couldn’t resist him. It was enough to make her think about whether she needed that greater income offered by the surgeon. There was something about making love with Scott that rang all her bells and whistles. He was just a small-town clinic doctor. He had no power in the medical community, in any community. His picture would never be on the cover of Medicine Today. He didn’t even have a website. He needed a website! He was not a mover and shaker.... Okay, he moved and shook a little in Thunder Point, but you’d never know it; he was treated like a friend, a pal, a buddy. He didn’t influence people, make things happen anywhere but in his small bubble. He helped people where he could and sure, people noticed, but they weren’t important people.

They were just regular people. And that was exactly who he wanted to be.

But when they made love...

That was it, she thought. They made love. Love was what they were doing. With Ted it had been sex. But even though Ted had said the words, she hadn’t really felt loved.

Scott hadn’t said the words, and yet he was completely convincing. She felt them. With each passing day, the thought of saying goodbye to him became more impossible to imagine.

* * *

One Saturday they took the kids south to California to see the largest stand of redwoods in the area—they were magnificent. They picnicked, hiked through the woods, hugged trees. The following weekend they drove north of Coos Bay to Echo Beach and Canon Beach where the haystack rocks offshore were the most stunning. It was so chilly on the water, they had to dress warmly and snuggle close. The four of them had many dinners together, and twice Scott was called to the hospital, and once a Thunder Point resident called his cell phone in the evening with concern over an injury on his foot. It was a deep cut that he’d closed and been treating himself, and now it was worse with a mysterious red line running up his leg from the site of the wound. Gabby was called upstairs to be on duty for the kids, and Peyton went with Scott to the clinic where Scott cleaned the wound, stitched it and loaded the guy up with antibiotics.

If the whole town didn’t have his cell phone number or if Scott had been on ER duty at another hospital, it could have meant a trip to another town’s emergency room for the man. Or she would be the only other option. She could have met a patient at the Thunder Point clinic. If she was still in town.

But a person had to be out of town sometimes and, while Peyton could treat and prescribe for patients, an MD usually had to sign off on her work. So Scott made arrangements. Scott’s clinic hours were Monday through Friday, nine to five, and he always answered his cell phone, but a man needed days here and there when he could be completely unavailable. To that end, a doctor from an urgent care in Bandon agreed to trade off practices with him from time to time. Dr. Stewart was a young, ER-certified physician, looking for more income, and was willing to be the doctor on call to Thunder Point if Scott could return the favor now and then. Scott’s patients could call Dr. Stewart when Scott was away, and Dr. Stewart’s patients could call Scott in emergencies.

The first time for this new partnership was coming up in another week. Scott and the kids were following Gabriella back to Vancouver; he was pulling a trailer with her belongings. The kids couldn’t be left behind—the coming separation was going to be difficult enough.

“I can keep the clinic open if Dr. Stewart will work with me,” Peyton said. “He can sign off on any procedures that come up while you’re away, but we’ll stall most of the appointments until you’re back in town.”

A few days before the scheduled departure to Washington, Peyton had dinner with Scott and the kids. He was on call and his phone rang. There was a family with a bad flu in the ER, and the youngest was two years old. They were all sick, dehydrated and feverish.

“I’ll text Gabriella to come upstairs, and then I’ll take off,” he said.

“Don’t bother her,” Peyton said. “I know the bedtime drill. I’ll get the kids settled. Gabby doesn’t have much time with her beloved Charles before she has to leave Thunder Point.”

“Are you sure? I know how you feel about being taken advantage of in off hours.”

“I’m good,” she said. “Just go. Maybe you won’t be too long.”

* * *

There was one thing about being the ER doctor on call, it was very rare that Scott felt his time had been wasted. This night there was much more to the story than a family with the flu. It was carbon monoxide poisoning from a dysfunctional water heater. A mom, dad, four-year-old and two-year-old had come to the ER The kids had low-grade fevers while mom and dad were just sick as dogs. Scott had to decide what the devil it could be if he ruled out fever. Then he asked if they were the sole inhabitants of the house and learned that Grandma and Grandpa lived there, as well. The fire department was dispatched, two more patients were admitted, the water heater was turned off and the house aired out.

All this took quite a while.

Scott texted Peyton as he was leaving the hospital, but she didn’t respond. He wondered if she had fallen asleep in the fort again. That thought made him smile.

If Peyton knew how much he fantasized about her joining their family, about a life with her, he feared she’d run screaming into the night. He had no idea how to pursue her, but he was moving as cautiously as he could. He knew a little about what she’d been through with Ted and gathered it had more to do with being stuck with his bratty kids than with him. Scott couldn’t guarantee his kids would always behave; he often wondered if he didn’t just find them way more precious and sweet than other people might. One thing for sure—they were his responsibility. Not hers.

And if his kids weren’t enough of a wild card, how about the grandmothers? Holy Jesus, they made him want to run away! They were each high maintenance in their own way—his mother could be domineering and controlling, Serena’s mother could be wheedling and manipulative. When they weren’t bickering, they were forming an alliance, with him as the common enemy. While he and Serena lived in Vancouver, the grandmothers, both widows, competed for time. “She got Thanksgiving, so I get Christmas.” Even though they invited each other to all family events. They disagreed on how to take care of the children, fought over what discipline was appropriate and what was not and who was the better cook or more nurturing grandma or whatever. They’d been like that even when Serena was alive. When Will was born, Serena’s mother took up residence in her daughter’s house, staking a claim as the mother’s mother. Scott’s mother had snidely asked, “If I drive past the house slowly, will you please hold the baby up in the window so I can see him?”