Huckleberry Hearts (5 page)

As if she couldn't escape fast enough, she hurried into the warm building with her daughter in her arms.

With her face to the hospital, Cassie stood as if her feet had been frozen in place.

“Your mom's Amish?” Zach asked. Maybe she'd feel better if she talked about it. Maybe he had no idea how she'd feel. Maybe he wanted to do something, anything to make her smile.

She glanced at him and made a valiant attempt at nonchalance. “My whole family's Amish.”

A lump stuck in his throat as the fear bubbled up inside him. It would be just his luck if she were doing the whole Rumpelstiltskin thing. For a girl like her, he might be tempted to convert. “Are
you
Amish?”

She looked at him as if she were reluctantly surrendering every little bit of information she gave him. “No. Not anymore.”

Zach almost passed out with relief. “Now that wasn't so hard, was it, Cassie?”

She flashed a genuine smile, even though he could tell she didn't want to. “It's pure luck that Mary Fisher happened to come by and let my name slip.”

“But now you can't consider us strangers.”

“Yes. I can.”

“I'm trying to bring my A game here, Cassie,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

He felt heartened by the befuddled look on her face. She didn't completely have the upper hand. “I can usually get a phone number out of a girl with just a smile. Do I have something stuck in my teeth?”

She probably blushed all the way down to her toes. “No. I've always thought you had very nice teeth.”

“See? A stranger would never ask you to examine his teeth.”

“He would if I were a dentist.” She started walking again, faster and with purpose, as if she were trying to break some speed record to the main doors. But he hadn't been a three-year starter on the UChicago soccer team for nothing. With his long legs, he could easily match her stride for stride without even breaking a sweat.

“I'm going to be treating a lot of Amish people in the next few months. I could use a tutor who knows about the culture.”

“There's lots of good information on the Internet.”

“Come on, Cassie. What do you say?”

“About what?” she asked, obviously fully aware of what he wanted.

She was the first girl he'd met since high school who hadn't fallen at his feet and fawned all over him like he was some Greek god. He'd gotten used to his status as a Greek god. She seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he was irresistible. He didn't quite know what to do with that. Girls didn't often play hard-to-get with him.

He found her resistance both frustrating and exhilarating. He'd never chased a woman this vigorously before. Literally. He enjoyed the chase, especially when he knew she'd eventually relent. He pulled a few steps ahead of her and turned around. “Come to dinner with me?”

She stopped and eyed him as if trying to work out a calculus problem in her head without scratch paper. “You want to take me to dinner?”

“I'm a fun date.”

She folded her arms and seemed to grow more and more agitated the longer they stood there. “I'm sure you are.”

“I'll take you to the fanciest restaurant in Shawano.” Which might have been the McDonald's for all he knew. “All I need is your phone number. Just a phone number.”

She looked down at the sidewalk, over her left shoulder, and finally up to the sky before she spoke. He knew she'd refuse before the words were even out of her mouth. “I don't think I'd better. But thank you anyway.”

Rejection stung like a ninja wasp.

He'd never been stung before.

She studied his face. A glint of surprise flashed in her eyes before her expression softened. She kind of looked like she felt sorry for him, as if she felt terrible about dashing his hopes on the rocks of despair.

He didn't like being felt sorry for, even if his disappointment was so thick he could have captured it in a cup and swallowed it. He shoved his hands into his coat pockets and tried to think of a way to make a graceful exit.

“I'm . . . sorry,” she stuttered. “I'm sure you don't really care about me in particular. There must be plenty of other girls willing to . . .” She turned bright red as her voice trailed off into nothingness.

Oh.

She thought he wanted to make a conquest.

He had no idea what he expected, but when it came to the angel, a conquest wasn't what he wanted at all.

Lowering his eyes, he made his escape into the safety of the hospital. He'd be forced to perform surgery with wounded pride and a soggy pant leg. At least he hadn't been out in the frigid air long enough to get frostbite.

He looked down and groaned. That little Amish girl had made off with his scarf.

And the angel had made off with his ego.

Chapter Four

Outside through the glass, Cassie watched Dr. Zach Reynolds get onto the elevator. When the doors closed behind him, she counted to twenty before venturing into the lobby. She would have been mortified if they'd been forced to wait for an elevator together.

How in the world had she had the misfortune of running into Zach Reynolds in tiny Shawano, Wisconsin? Weren't there five million other places in the world he could have been assigned to do his residency?

She hadn't expected him to remember her. It had been four years, and he'd only actually spoken to her twice when they were both going to the university in Chicago. The first time they had met had been at a loud party with lots of flashing lights and zero visibility. She'd been passing through the crowd on her way to the exit when he had stopped and asked her name. She'd given it to him, but only because he'd caught her off guard. The second time she'd had the misfortune of coming in contact with him, she and Tonya had been standing at the threshold of his apartment, soaking wet from a torrential downpour outside. She had looked more like a drowned rat than herself. Of course he didn't remember her.

But she remembered him. Vividly. A good-looking, athletic senior like Zach Reynolds tended to turn the heads of every wide-eyed freshman girl on campus. But that wasn't why she remembered him.

He had been one of those arrogant, devil-may-care premed students, like all the other arrogant premed students who treated girls as if they were as disposable as Kleenex.

She'd rather not spend another minute rehashing her bad memories of college fraternities and heartbroken roommates. She could certainly steer clear of Zach Reynolds for a few weeks. It wasn't as if they'd be running in the same circles.

Guys like Zach Reynolds could be incredibly charming. It was a testament to his powers with women that he'd been able to make her smile, even when she hated the very sight of him. It wasn't in her disposition to be mean or sarcastic—but sometimes she wished it was. Her old roommate Tonya would have scolded her for not having the courage to put Zach Reynolds in his place with a clever insult.

But was it so bad to try to be nice to everybody? She had worn a kapp and a Plain dress for her mamm in the name of harmony. Trying to get along was not a character flaw.

Cassie took a deep breath and tried to think charitable thoughts about the doctor. He'd been wearing a very nice, homemade beanie and an expertly knitted scarf. He probably had a sweet grandmother somewhere who loved him dearly and knitted him ties for Christmas. If some cute little old lady could find it in her heart to love Zach, then he couldn't be all bad.

He had seemed very concerned about Rose Sue Fisher, but maybe it had all been an act. Cassie took the scarf from around her neck and stuffed it into her purse. As a doctor, he was paid to care.

She decided not to risk the elevator. Mammi and Dawdi were only one flight up. She had dropped Mammi and Dawdi at the front before parking the car and encountering the arrogant and handsome Dr. Reynolds. She wouldn't be caught off guard again.

When Cassie got to the second floor, the nurse at the desk directed her to the room where they were prepping Mammi for her surgery. Mammi sat in a leather recliner wearing her prayer covering and a hospital gown and knitting, and Dawdi sat next to her reading
Sports Illustrated
.

“Look at this tattoo, Annie,” he said, turning the magazine so Mammi could see it.

“Oh,” Mammi said. “He's got a spider crawling up his chest. Very nice.”

“Is everything okay?” Cassie asked.

Mammi laid her knitting in her lap. “Fine, dear. When they brought us back here, I worried you wouldn't find us.”

Cassie took off her coat and hung it on a hook near the door. “Parking the car took longer than expected.”

“I'm glad you made it. You look so lovely today, and I was afraid you'd miss the doctor. He's coming in to say hello before he cuts the cancer out of my foot.”

“Are you nervous?”

“Of course not. I gave birth to thirteen babies, all at home. Nothing scares me.”

Dawdi turned the magazine sideways and carefully examined one of the photos. “Is that a fish or his mother?”

“I think it's his arm, dear.” Mammi folded up her knitting and placed it in her canvas bag. “Cassie, this is very important. I want you to be the one to hear all the doctor's instructions. Ask lots of questions.”

Cassie sat on the chair next to Dawdi and reached over to squeeze Mammi's hand. “Don't you worry about a thing. I'll make sure I get all the important information.”

“And be sure to mention his nice hair. He's very proud of it.”

Mammi occasionally said peculiar things that didn't make a lot of sense. “Whose nice hair?”

“The doctor's. He doesn't have any bald spots.”

“Oh. Okay.”

They heard a quick tap on the door. Mammi's eyes got wide, and she squeaked in delight. “It's him.”

Cassie didn't know why Mammi was so thrilled about seeing the doctor, but her enthusiasm made Cassie smile. To Mammi, every minute of the day was an adventure. Her persistent excitement made her seem younger than her eighty-four years.

The door swung open, and all of Cassie's internal organs plummeted to the floor. This couldn't be happening. Not when she'd been so careful to avoid the elevator.

Zach Reynolds was Mammi's doctor?

The doctor's eyebrows nearly flew off his face as he caught sight of Cassie. He halted in his tracks and stood in the doorway staring at her as if he'd walked into the women's bathroom by mistake. He looked even more surprised to see her than she was to see him. His face grew decidedly pale, making Cassie wonder who would be the first of the two of them to throw up.

He seemed to have to pry his eyes from her face. Clearing his throat, he smiled like Mammi was his favorite patient. “Mrs. Helmuth—”

Mammi beamed at the doctor as if he were her best friend. “Anna, please.”

“I'm sorry, Anna. I keep forgetting,” he said, seemingly unable to catch his breath.

Mammi reached out, slipped her hand into the doctor's, and tugged him forward. “Dr. Reynolds, I want you to meet my granddaughter Cassie Coblenz. She's visiting with us for only a few short months, and she is a wonderful-gute girl.”

“I should have guessed,” the doctor stammered. “We have matching scarves.”

She hadn't even realized it earlier. Of course Mammi had been the one who had made the doctor a scarf. It was almost identical to Cassie's. She tore her gaze from his stunning aqua blue eyes. No way would she get caught up in those.

“But the little girl ended up with mine,” he said.

“What little girl?” Mammi said. “Do you two know each other?” She seemed almost disappointed.

Cassie played with an errant thread sticking out from her coat. “We . . . uh . . . we met by the busy street behind the hospital. Rose Sue Fisher wandered out there by herself. Dr. Reynolds wrapped his scarf around her to keep her warm.”

Mammi turned to the doctor. “The one I made for you?”

The doctor nodded.

“What a nice young man you are. I knew it right from the start.”

“I'm afraid I accidentally left it around her shoulders,” Dr. Reynolds said.

Mammi smiled. “Not to worry. Cassie can fetch it from the Fishers and return it.”

She'd rather not. But she couldn't be cross with Mammi. Mammi was only trying to be nice, just like Cassie should have been doing.

Mammi smoothed a crease from her hospital gown. “Cassie just graduated from college in art history. She looks at a lot of naked people in her studies. You two have that in common.”

Cassie coughed violently as what was left of her pride lodged in her throat. Mammi patted her on the back with no inkling that anything she'd said had nearly choked her granddaughter.

Dr. Reynolds's lips twitched upward. “Matching scarves and similar lines of work,” he said. “I like your granddaughter already.”

Cassie lowered her eyes as her face got warm. He was teasing, but in a way that wouldn't shame her or hurt Mammi's feelings. She hadn't actually expected him to be nice.

“She graduated from the University of Chicago, which I hear is a very big school with lots of important people who go there,” Mammi said.

“Hey, I went to UChicago,” Dr. Reynolds said. “You do look familiar. Maybe we ran into each other at the library or something.”

“Maybe,” she said.

“I did both undergrad and medical school there, but once I got into med school, I was usually buried in the Reg trying to make sense of biochemistry. I didn't have much of a social life.”

Maybe not in medical school, but his social life had thrived during his senior year. Cassie frowned. Four years ago and she still remembered as if it were yesterday.

Zach's roommate Finn McEwan had started a club with some of the other senior guys. The goal of the club was to see how many different coeds they could sleep with before graduation.

Cassie didn't entirely blame the senior boys for the success of their little club or the notoriety it gave them. The girls on campus participated knowingly and even started a club of their own to keep track of their hookups. To Cassie, an ex-Amish girl with an old-fashioned sense of right and wrong, the whole thing seemed sordid and low.

Cassie's roommate Tonya was fully aware of the club but still felt shocked and hurt when Finn dumped her. She had talked herself into believing Finn loved her and that their relationship was different from all the others. He, on the other hand, had just wanted to increase his tally.

Poor Tonya.

And everyone at school said
Cassie
was naïve.

On a rainy night, Tonya had begged Cassie to go with her to Finn's, to plead with him to take her back. The attempt was nothing short of pathetic, but Tonya had been inconsolable until Cassie had agreed to go with her, more to save Tonya from herself than anything else.

Cassie could still smell Zach and Finn's aged apartment. It stank of stale pizza and sweaty boys. She and Tonya had stood dripping wet just outside the door because Finn wouldn't invite them in. Finn, with his wavy bleach-blond hair and diamond-studded class ring, told Tonya not to cry about it, that it was nothing personal against her, but that she had just been part of the contest. He even thanked her for helping him take over first place.

Cassie had tried to pull the sobbing Tonya away from the door so Finn could close it, but Tonya had wrapped her fingers around the doorjamb and held on like a barnacle.

At that point, Zach—who had been studying at their kitchen table—joined Finn at the door and started yelling at Cassie. She hadn't done anything wrong and certainly hadn't felt she deserved his disdain, but she got it anyway, along with some shockingly horrible words from the future Dr. Reynolds.

“Don't go sleeping around if you can't handle the rejection,” he had said.

“Don't go starting a club, Dr. Reynolds, if you can't handle jilted girls showing up at your door.”

Of course, she hadn't actually said that to him. She never would have dared say anything even remotely snarky. Not to superior Zach Reynolds.

She and Tonya had walked home in the rain, wrapped up in an extra-large blanket, and drowned Tonya's sorrows in two pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream while listening to a Beyoncé CD.

Cassie glanced at the doctor. He stared at her as if expecting her to say something, as if he wanted her to reconsider giving him her phone number. She folded her arms and smiled politely.

He cleared his throat, again. He must have found the air in Wisconsin very dry. Sitting on the stool, he gave Mammi all his attention. “Now, Anna,” he said, “we're going to cut the cancer out of your foot and take a few lymph nodes to make sure the cancer hasn't spread. After that you will have to stay completely off your feet for three weeks. We'll give you a scooter so you can get up and go to the bathroom, but that's it. We're also going to send you home with a wound vacuum to help keep the site completely dry and infection free.”

“They don't have any place to plug it in,” Cassie said.

Dr. Reynolds looked up and smiled. Curse those brilliant white teeth. It made a girl forget why she disliked him so much. “This is a battery-operated wound vacuum, so there shouldn't be any problem. We'll have a home health nurse come every other day to change your dressing. After three weeks, we'll do a skin graft. Then it's off your feet for six or seven more weeks. You're going to be spending a lot of time in bed.”

Mammi nodded. “Cassie will be with me.”

That aggravatingly attractive smile again. “Then you're in good hands.”

“Yes, I am.”

Dr. Reynolds pulled out his pen. “Let's talk about medication.”

Mammi waved him away with a mischievous glint in her eye. “I really don't have the patience for it, Doctor. Tell Cassie what I need to know.” She picked up her knitting and acted as if she couldn't care less what happened to her foot.

The doctor smiled, scooted closer to Cassie, and focused his attention squarely on her. She wished he wouldn't have. It was all she could do to keep from fidgeting under his intense gaze.

He told her about the medications Mammi would need and promised to write explicit instructions for everything. Good idea. She wouldn't remember half of what he told her. No wonder immature college girls fawned over him. He was too good-looking to be a doctor. He'd prove a distraction to all his patients.