Page 37 of My eX-MAS Emergency

I let the phone drop on the desk, not caring if the screen cracked. I should have kept Poppy with me, but Quinn didn’t think her mom would like it. And Coco and Poppy seemed to like to be together, so I sent her off with Tristan last night. That was a mistake. It gave him another avenue into my life. A life he didn’t want. Why, after all this time, had he changed his mind? Was it the holidays? The loss of his brother? These events do odd things to people. And it didn’t matter if we shared the same soul. He’d made his choice. You don’t just get a do-over. Did he have any idea how much he’d hurt me?

“Knock, knock,” Joelle interrupted my hyperventilating session. “Mr. Harding is ready to see you.”

Great. Just great. “Thank you. I’ll be right there.” I picked up my phone and thought I would text Tristan back and tell him I hated him, but then I thought Quinn might see it. No need to upset her. In the end, I just ignored him. I couldn’t afford to engage him in conversation. I feared if I did, it would open the door to my heart. If he thought my eyes said they were at home with him, for sure my heart would scream how much I loved him. That, he could never know.

CALISTA

I STRAIGHTENED MY BLINKING ANTLERS before barely rapping on the door. “May I enter?” I croaked before clearing my throat. I meant to sound more in command.

“Yes,” Rosemary called out, her voice wavering.

It startled me. I had never heard her speak. The lilt in her voice reminded me of the gentle way my mom used to talk. That alone had me wanting to run. It wasn’t fair Rosemary could remind me of Mom after all the pain she had caused her.

It was surprising they hadn’t requested a different doctor. Maybe they didn’t want to make a scene. Or perhaps they were here to trick me into doing something that would get me fired. I wouldn’t put it past them to conspire with Cordelia and Frasier to rid this town of me once and for all. If that was the case, they had another think coming. I wouldn’t let them intimidate me. I would stay in Aspen Lake until Quinn left for college, regardless of whether the Hardings and Grangers liked it.

I swung the door wide open and walked in with my head held high, for my parents’ sake. I looked between the aging couple gaping at me. “I assume we can do away with the usual pleasantries, since you know who I am.”

Rosemary nodded, and Arthur swallowed hard.

After my curt introduction, I sat on the rolling stool and pulled the laptop cart closer to access Arthur’s information. I could feel their eyes on my every move. I logged in and began perusing Arthur’s charts. He had type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure and was on a few different medications. The nurse’s note said he’d fallen this morning in his bedroom on the way to the bathroom. She was worried about a possible concussion.

“You look so much like Vera,” Rosemary choked out her name.

My head snapped up. How dare she mention my mother. I had a diatribe on the tip of my tongue and was bursting to unleash it upon them, but I thought of Deidra and Quinn and kept my mouth shut. Hopefully, the fire in my eyes conveyed all the terrible things I wished to say to them.

Judging by Rosemary’s watery eyes, she got the picture. However, her emotional state confused me. They’d disowned their daughter almost forty years ago. One would think after that length of time, there would be no lingering affection.

“I don’t blame you for hating us,” Rosemary whispered.

I said nothing. Of course I hated them. The way they had treated my mother was inexcusable.

I rolled toward Arthur. He was sitting in the same wheelchair the tech had rolled him back in. Joelle had cleaned his cut and put a butterfly bandage on it. I pulled a penlight out of my shirt pocket to exam Arthur’s eyes. “Have you had any vomiting or headaches?” I asked in my most professional voice.

“No,” he answered.

I turned toward Rosemary. “Has he had any slurred speech or seizures?”

She shook her head.

I clicked on my low beam light and shined it at the outer edge of his right eye, moving it inward to see how fast his pupil constricted. It was a little slower than I’d have liked. I checked his left eye, and it, too, was sluggish. “I’m going to order a CT scan to see if there is any bruising or swelling in the brain.”

Rosemary gasped.

“It’s just as a precaution to rule out a concussion,” I informed her before gliding back toward the laptop to submit the order. While typing, I absently recited, “Joelle will be in shortly to take you to imaging. Let me know if you need anything in the interim.” I said it without thinking. It was my normal doctor speak, but there was nothing ordinary about the situation.

I logged out of the laptop and stood to exit quickly, thinking I would at least get a reprieve until I got the test results back.

“We do need something,” Rosemary bleated like an injured lamb.

My eyes narrowed, not at all hiding my annoyance.

Rosemary wasn’t deterred by my less-than-cordial attitude. “We would really like to get to know you,” she said, trembling.

My brows shot up. Was this a joke? “Why? Because I’m a doctor now? Is that respectable enough for you?”

“No. No. No.” Arthur adamantly denied my accusation.

“Then why, after all these years?”

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