“Scott,” she said. “Where are you?”

“Just wrapping it up at the clinic,” he said. “I stayed to finish my charting and clean up a little, but I’m done now. Devon picked up the kids, and I’m headed to her house to scoop up mine. If I drag my feet a little, she might feed them.”

Peyton laughed, missing him. Missing the whole group. “Don’t be mean.”

“I’m on call tonight, so she might get stuck, anyway. And then there’s always payback. How’s it going?”

“Ah, yes, how’s it going. Well, there’s good news and bad news.”

“Lay it on me,” he said.

“Well, the good news is, I’ve left San Francisco a little early. The bad news is, I’m headed for Portland.”

“Portland? That wasn’t in your plans, was it?”

“Nope, I had a very abrupt change of plans. There’s a crisis—one of Ted’s kids called me—she’s in some trouble and I’m needed. I don’t know how much I can help, but I’m going to try. It’s serious or I wouldn’t bother. But I was wondering—”

“You’re going to Ted’s house?” he asked, sounding a little brittle.

“Well, that’s where his kids are.”

“I thought you had decided you’d done all you could for that family,” Scott said.

“And as it turns out, there might be one or two more things I can do. You have to believe me—I’m not doing this for Ted. It’s his daughter—she needs me right now.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Of course,” he said. “How long do you suppose she’ll need you?”

“Hey, you’re upset!” she said.

“I’m surprised,” he said. “You were very convincing when you said you were all done there. The kids hated you, you said. How much can you do for kids who hate you?”

“Don’t do this, Scott. I wouldn’t be going if I thought I was just being exploited by Ted or his kids. It turns out to be quite important. His pregnant daughter reached out to me.”

“And I suppose you’ll have quite a lot of discourse with Dr. Ramsdale while you’re there, helping his daughter.”

“I don’t give a crap about Ted, though I pity him! But at this moment I’m beginning to feel pretty sorry for you, too.”

“I’m sorry, Peyton,” he said. She could picture him rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “I’m reacting. I guess I’m disappointed.”

“Apology accepted,” she said, but it really stung.

“Maybe while you’re that far north you should take the time to check out that surgeon in Seattle.”

“What? What?” she asked twice.

“Peyton, I love you. But we both know I don’t have nearly as much to offer you as that Seattle surgeon does. Or as Ted does, for that matter.”

Peyton was stunned. God, he’s jealous. Of Ted. How ridiculous! But ridiculous or not, it was plain as paint—Scott was licking his wounds and had been since the day Ted had descended on them, driving his fancy car, calling the clinic a dump and not good enough for Peyton, acting like the hotshot he thought he was.

Peyton thought that, of all the people she knew, Scott would know what a real pauper was.

She was quiet. She could try to soothe him, reassure him that Ted had nothing she wanted, that all his glitter meant nothing to her. She could go to him, be there in two or three hours, have a heart-to-heart with him about what things really mattered to her, and ask him to try to understand.

Or not.

“All right, Scott, everyone’s entitled to be petty sometimes, so I’m going to just let that go. What I’m going to do is drive to Portland and see if I can help Ted’s daughter. I might spend the night with my parents since I’m that close, and then I’m going to come back to Thunder Point where I happen to live at the moment. We’re going to have a serious talk and get this issue completely resolved. When this crisis is behind me, we’re going to talk our crisis to death. I’d do that right now, but I’m tired, I have hours of driving ahead, I have a lot of other things to worry about and, frankly, you really pissed me off. But when our problem has been aired, we’ll decide where we go from there.”

“That sounds reasonable,” he said.

“Tell me one thing, Scott,” she said. “Are you sure you still love me?”

He sighed into the phone. “I don’t think anything will ever change that.”

“Then after we finally get this sorted out, you’re going to feel really stupid.”

“It won’t be the first time,” he said.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” she said, clicking off.

She sat for a moment. She was really too tired to allow her emotions to overwhelm her, but he was breaking her heart. Did he have so little faith in her? Did he not know her at all? Couldn’t he look beyond the nice car or the ex-boyfriend with the even nicer car?

But the tears came, anyway. It just hurt so much that he was unsure of her.

She called the farm. “Mama? Hi. I’m on my way to Portland—I’m needed there. I’ve been driving, and I’m wondering—can I sneak into the house very late tonight and grab a few hours of sleep before going on to Portland? It will be midnight or so. I hope the dogs don’t start barking, but I’ll be as quiet as I can.”

“Of course, my Babette. Don’t worry about the dogs, they bark at the moon. Just come. What needs you in Portland?”

“One of Ted’s kids is in trouble and called me for help. I’ll tell you about it at breakfast. Thank you, Mama. I’m sure I’ll be very tired by the time I get there.”

“Is there nowhere else for you to stop, darling?”

Like Thunder Point? Peyton thought. “No, Mama. I’m coming straight home.”

Seventeen

When Peyton walked upstairs at the farmhouse, her mother met her in the hall. Corinne was wearing Paco’s robe over her pajamas. She turned on the hall light and, frowning, looked Peyton up and down. “You’re all right?” she asked.

“Just tired.”

“Sleep, then. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Peyton hadn’t even taken her suitcase out of the car. She stripped off her jeans and crawled into the bed that had been hers as a girl. It seemed that she’d closed her eyes for mere seconds when she was roused by the smell of coffee. She dragged herself out of bed, pulled on yesterday’s clothes, ran her fingers through her hair and went down to the kitchen. Paco looked up and gave her a slight frown of concern. “Trouble?” he asked.