This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
World Castle Publishing, LLC
Pensacola, Florida
Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2021
Paperback ISBN: 9781953271952
eBook ISBN: 9781953271969
First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC,
http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com
Licensing Notes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Cover: Karen Fuller
Editor: Maxine Bringenberg
Chapter 1
Rodney was ready to close up the office for the day when a little boy came in with blood all over his face and hands. Calmly, so as not to freak him out any more than he seemed to be already, he asked him if it was his blood or someone else’s.
“Mine. Most of it anyhow. I was wondering if you could maybe fix me up before my aunt wakes up. She’s going to have a cow when she figures this out. Man, is she going to brain me.” Rodney took him into the exam room and asked him if he could call his mom. “Yeah, call her. That’s a good idea. Mom won’t freak out until after I’m fixed up. I fell out of the tree and hit my head too.”
After cleaning most of the blood off the kid, he could see that he was going to need some stitches. Also, his head was going to need to be X-rayed. Aaron, he told him his name was, said he’d been in the tree hiding from a bully at school. His sister Angie, he said, had run home when he distracted the bully.
“All right. We’ll need someone here that can okay you getting sewn up. Tell me your mom’s name.” He did. Sheila Walsh was working, but she’d come home for him. “I would imagine she would. And this aunt of yours—I don’t suppose you can tell me why she’s sleeping when you’re out with bullies? You don’t have to, but you do seem to be afraid of her.”
“Nah, I’m not afraid of her. But she told me she’s so stressed out that if she was to fart, she’d have a heart attack. She quit her job. We really need the money, Mom said, but we need Rebel more. She’s my best friend. When she’s not freaking out.” He heard the door open and his nurse talking to someone. When she laughed, Rodney relaxed a little. “Oh no. That’s my aunt. Tell her I’m not going to die as soon as she comes in here, or she’ll have me naked in a minute and her poking and prodding at me.”
“Aaron James Walsh, what the hell were you thinking sending your sister home all by herself? I canna believe you would have— What happened to you?” Aaron told his aunt what he’d told Rodney. “Let me have a look at you.”
Aaron had been right. She had him stripped of everything but his underwear in seconds. She looked him over, commenting in a language he didn’t know about something she’d find. Rodney stood back, waiting for her to notice that he was still in the room.
He knew who she was. The other night he’d spoken to her at the meeting at the school. Rodney had a feeling then that she was his mate but hadn’t pursued getting close enough to her to find out because of the things he had going on here and at the school. But with her so near him today, he knew that not only was she his mate, but she was much prettier than he remembered.
“Whatcha doing with that thing?” Rodney noticed that his nurse, Adaline, had brought in a kit to clean up the wounds and stitch them up. Rebel told him what she was going to do with the scissors. “No way are you going to cut my hair away from anything. I’ve seen you hack at your own hair. You leave my hair alone and let Doc Rodney do the cutting. You’ll have me as bald as Grandpa Walsh was before he passed on.”
“It’ll only be a wee bit.” Shaking his head, Aaron looked at him. So did Rebel. It seemed to occur to her that she was in his offices taking over. “I’m sorry. I kinda get myself in Dutch when I’m worried. He’s my nephew.”
“I gathered that. I can cut away the hair. In fact, it would be my pleasure.” Rebel handed him the pair of shears. “We were about to call his mom. He was telling me that you freak out about blood.”
“Nay, not blood on others, but on my family does bother me. Especially this one. He’s somewhat of a daredevil at times. You’d not be able to call his mom either. She’d lose her job if she had to leave work.” He asked her what she did. “I was an emergency room doctor until last night. I couldn’t take it anymore. They don’t seem to like foreigners for some reason.”
“You’re Rebel Walsh.” She nodded. “Yes, I’ve heard that the nurses are giving you grief. Harris, my sister-in-law, is looking into that. There have been complaints from the patients that they’re being pitted against you. For some reason, she thinks you’re a much better doctor than most of the staff that works there. Are you?”
“I donna know about that. I work hard. It’s hard to do when the staff is forever making it difficult for me. They wouldn’t believe I was a physician. Or they did but kept telling the patients in my care that I was in over me head and only a nurse. Not that I have anything against being a nurse. But I worked very hard to be a doctor the same as anyone has.” He finished up with the hair trimming, then moved back. “I should have sent him someplace to get X-rays. I just
