Page 21 of The Seal's Promise

With one arm still resting on the top of his steering wheel, Dalton just nodded. She could feel his eyes studying her in the dim light bouncing off her front stoop and into the cab of his truck.

“Whatever you say, Brooke, as long as you’re not mad at me.” His eyes narrowed in on her.

“Thank you for rescuing me tonight.”

“I would rescue you anytime from anywhere if you would let me.”

Her breath caught in her throat. He sounded so believable.

“Okay, good night.” She plucked her keys out of his hand and was almost disappointed when he didn’t try to keep her in the truck longer or invite himself in. Maybe he could tell she was too fragile to handle a one-night stand. He waited to leave until she’d let herself in her quiet house, and she leaned against the door until she heard his truck drive away. As exhausted as she was, she couldn’t seem to fall asleep once she was dry and warm in bed. All she could think about was Dalton and what could have happened, and she was a little mad they’d never know.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Brooke

The Solution

The next dayBrooke woke up with a burst of energy, like she had known the solution to her Dalton problem all along. There was no need to even worry about the kiss, because she knew for sure: first, Dalton would leave again soon, and she didn’t have any emotional room for a man who had a great track record of leaving. So she was going to pretend that the kiss didn’t happen and that she didn’t still have a girlish crush on the boy she once loved.

What she really needed to do was recruit a new doctor to work at the hospital. Dr. Jones was retiring and they had to replace him, but they also needed a third doctor. She’d convinced herself that working the extra hours was necessary as a single parent, but she was missing out on valuable time with Max. She relied on her parents and was lucky to have them, but she wanted to be the one doing parent pickup every day and volunteering for field trips. And she wasn’t going to miss any more.

Sometime during her restful night’s sleep the solution came to her: she was finally going to petition the court for child support. When she’d divorced Tyler, she was still pregnant, he’d had a team of lawyers, and she just wanted out of their bogus marriage. When she’d had to go through their lawyers to tell him she was pregnant, they’d said that she could file for child support once the baby was born, and that Tyler would want a paternity test. She’d been so offended and disappointed that she never went back and filed for the child support.

It had shocked her that Tyler wouldn’t acknowledge their pregnancy or birth of his own son. But then it surprised even more when Tyler’s oldest brother, Miles, sent her a baby gift and birthday presents each year, then showed more interest in Max as he got older. Meanwhile Tyler wanted to play a minimal part in their son’s life. She assumed that was best for Max—if Tyler didn’t want to spend time with his son, why try to make him?

But the reality was, it was Tyler’s responsibility to at least financially provide for his son, and with those funds Brooke wouldn’t have to work so much to make ends meet. She could spend more time with Max. And if they hired another doctor, she could see fewer patients and work fewer shifts. She could focus on being the administrator of the small hospital, and occasionally even work from home.

She was determined to convince at least a few doctors to come tour the hospital today and get an idea of what it was like to work in a small-town facility. She needed doctors who liked the idea of having a lot of responsibility and the challenge of working with minimal resources, young doctors who weren’t used to making huge salaries yet. Which was why she’d sent out a call to several medical programs and invited the graduating classes to visit Sandy Point to tour the hospital. Eight of them were set to arrive today.

“Your field trip has arrived,” Nora groaned as Brooke walked through the hospital doors with balloons, a box of donuts, and a bag of freshly ground coffee.

“Oh thanks, where did you stick them?”

She spun to the left of the entry and spotted eight well-dressed young men and women in the waiting room. She smiled big then turned back to Nora.

“Put on your smile. We’re finding a new doctor today.”

“I doubt that very much, but I’ll smile for one of those donuts,” Nora said, reaching for the box.

“Oh no you won’t!” Brooke said, moving over to greet the doctors.

“Good morning!” There weren’t any patients in the waiting room so it was easy to spot the doctors. “Thank you all for coming out today to our small but mighty town hospital. I hope you’ll all seriously consider the power and responsibility that comes with practicing in a small-town hospital. Consider the type of career you want and the kind of life outside of work you’re hoping for in the next five to ten years and beyond.”

They all looked at each other with weak smiles.

“We can’t afford to hire all of you, so you can think of this tour as your interview alongside your competition. But first things first: we need coffee and donuts before we start to get busy. Follow me.” She led them to the surgery suite that doubled as a doctors’ lounge.

“Alright, we should all be able to fit in here. Help yourselves to a donut, and I’ll take any questions you have to start. Then I’ll give you some stats on how many patients we see in a year, our threshold to send a case to the city, and salary.” She set the donuts down with a stack of napkins on the small table they had, then opened the fresh bag of ground coffee to make a pot.

“Excuse me, Nurse Garcia, I don’t want to be rude, but I think I’ve seen enough already. I don’t think I could live in a town this small. But thank you for the invitation. It’s a great opportunity for someone, I’m sure,” a young woman said, and dropped her visitor badge on the table by the donuts.

“Thank you for coming,” Brooke said with a forced smile.

“I’ll have to second that,” said another young man.

They both looked like they’d barely graduated high school. In fact, they all looked young, which made sense since they were just finishing up their final years in medical school.

“Now that we’ve made the first cuts in the competition, who wants to tell me why they became a doctor?” Brooke asked.

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