Page 29 of The Healer

“Welcome to Coedwig, Ilona. What will you have?” Mo chewed gum as expected, and she had two pencils sticking out of her grey chignon. So cliché.

“Just a coffee, thanks, Mo.” Everyone knowing Ilona’s name shouldn’t surprise her. Small towns tended to spread news fast. A new person in town searching for grumpy Amos and claiming to be his granddaughter? Yup, that would be news worthy of a good spreading.

“Where’s Mona? Is she well?” Amos rested his dark gaze on Ilona, pinning her to the spot.

“She’s as sassy as always. Said she couldn’t come on account of the damn cold.” Ilona was starting to agree with her.

Icy fingers seeped through any gaps in her clothing, and heaven forbid, she left a part of her body exposed. Snow was pretty on television and somewhere far away. Underfoot, it was nothing but a death trap.

Amos’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “And where is she? Which city?”

“Fenneg.”

He nodded, sucking in a shuddering breath. “Damn fool woman just left me in the middle of the night, no explanation, not even a fare thee well.”

“She said something about you intending to marry another.” Ilona smiled her thanks as Mo slid a coffee in front of her.

Dane bit off half of his donut.

Amos jerked back, tightened his fingers around the box, and dragged it closer. “Shit. That’s why she left?” He threw back his head and guffawed, sounding like a longtime smoker. “I ought to find her and whip her ass. All these years wasted…” He retrieved a letter from his jacket pocket, tossing it onto the table.

Scrawled across it in Gran’s familiar penmanship was Amos’s name.

“She explained what happened to my daughter.” His jaw tightened, and fury slithered across his features. “My…daughter.” He shook his head. A single tear slid down his weathered cheek. “She says you’re a doctor?”

“Wow, I never pegged you as one of those.” Dane ran his ice-blue gaze over her face. Both eyebrows almost touched his hairline, despite his slow smirk and relaxed posture. Sure, that’s why Ilona had studied for so many years. To impress people.

She ignored him, tapping the torn envelope instead. “Where was this?” She had tried to open the box, but the brackets and lock hadn’t budged.

“In the box.” He slipped a chain from around his neck on which hung a tiny key. “Now answer the damn question, granddaughter.”

“I studied medicine.” She glared at him, meeting his dark gaze without fear. If they were to have a relationship, she wasn’t going to let him intimidate her, or worse, bully her.

“Residency?” He waited, but she didn’t answer, choosing to sip her coffee. “Answer me.” He slapped the table, trembling the plates and cutlery on its speckled linoleum surface.

She lowered her cup to its saucer. “I don’t need to answer you, especially when you raise your voice at me. It’s not endearing yourself to me, Grandfather. I don’t need to be here. I’ve delivered the box, task done.” She turned on Dane. “Move.”

The damn man didn’t, just smiled at her as he ate his second donut.

“I loved her with every breath in my body. I still do.” Amos’s husky voice stilled Ilona’s half-climbing over Dane.

She sank onto the seat, blinking at the broken man before her.

“I never married and had no intention of doing so unless it was to her.” He lunged across the table and gripped Ilona’s hand. “I’m leaving on the first flight to Fenneg, but I can’t abandon this town during the Lunar Festival.”

“Abandon?” She frowned.

Dane threw back his coffee. “Amos is our resident doctor.”

“He’s a what?” A spark ran up her scar, throbbing it. Black and red spots tainted her vision. If Gran stood before her, she would receive such a tongue lashing. “That conniving traitor.”

Gran hadn’t wanted to accept Ilona’s decision to not practice medicine anymore. She didn’t want Ilona to mourn, to take a few weeks, months, hell, even years, to come to terms with her limitations. Instead, she had to visit her unknown grandfather under pretense.

Dane bit into his third donut. “Does she expect you to chase after her, Amos?”

“No, she thinks I’m married and bouncing my grandkids on my knee.” He rose to his full height to lean across the table, cupping Ilona’s unscarred cheek. “I could have experienced that with you. Please, stay, just for a few days.”

“I don’t know if that’s wise.” Dane wiggled his eyebrows trying to imply something.

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