* * *
Seth caught up with Luke between patients, which wasn’t all that difficult to do. Seaview Key had a tiny, exceptionally healthy year-round population, which grew in winter with a lot of senior snowbirds. This time of year, though, there were mostly locals around and the occasional day-trippers from the mainland enjoying the shops and galleries that had sprung up in what had once been little more than a fishing village. Come January, according to Luke, that would all change and the town would be packed with strangers.
“Hannah’s grandmother told me you have a lead on a boat we might be able to outfit for emergency runs to the mainland,” Seth said, settling into a chair in Luke’s office and propping his feet up on one of the boxes of medical books that Luke had yet to unpack. For a man who practiced medicine with demanding precision, he didn’t seem to mind doing it amid chaos. That had served him well in Iraq.
Luke dug through the piles of paper on his desk, his expression triumphant when he finally found what he’d been looking for. He handed the fancy color flyer from a nearby seaside community to Seth.
He gave Seth a couple of minutes to look it over, then asked, “What do you think? I made a couple of calls. It’s got a few years on it, but the rescue squad chief says it runs well. He had a mechanic call me to confirm that. Best of all, it’s already outfitted for what we want.”
“If it’s so great, why are they getting rid of it?” Seth asked, glancing over the specifications, then whistling when he saw the asking price. “And why is it priced so high?”
“They’re selling it because a grateful patient is underwriting a new boat. They have another backup, newer than this one. And the price is that high because that’s what this sort of specially equipped boat can command. If we had to start from scratch to outfit a boat with all that emergency medical equipment at today’s prices, it would cost even more.”
“Can we afford it?” Seth asked doubtfully.
“The bigger question is can we afford not to buy it?” Luke responded. “We can’t keep relying on finding a volunteer to take our emergencies to the mainland. I’m equipped to handle a lot of minor things right here, but some people need to be in a major ICU and they need to get there in a hurry.”
Seth nodded. “Agreed. And the cost for using a medical evacuation helicopter is prohibitive.”
“To say nothing of the fact that there’s no really good place to land it other than the school ball field, which seems to be swarming with kids even when there are no games going on.”
“You do know the budget can barely squeeze out enough for my salary, bandages and emergency supplies, right?” Seth said, though he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the boat pictured on the flyer.
Luke nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
“Have you come up with anything? A fairy godmother, for instance?”
“Nope. I’m thinking we ought to start organizing some fund-raisers, make this a real community effort. I can put Hannah and Grandma Jenny on that, maybe get Lesley Ann over at The Fish Tale involved. She could sweet-talk a saint into donating a halo. I’ll kick-start the drive with enough to get them to hold the boat for us. The community can do the rest.”
“That could work,” Seth said thoughtfully. Unfortunately Seaview Key was small and filled with hardworking middle-class families who didn’t have a lot of spare cash. He couldn’t begin to imagine how many bingo games or spaghetti dinners it would take to raise enough.
“It could take a while,” he told Luke realistically. “What about going to the developer who’s building those houses at Blue Heron Cove? I imagine the folks who buy those pricey houses are going to want ready access to top-notch medical care before they buy on an island that relies on ferry service to the mainland.”
Luke’s eyes lit up at once. “Great idea. The final vote on that deal is coming up in the next week. Maybe we could get the donation worked into the approval.”
“Or maybe we could just ask the developer,” Seth said. “It would be a terrific public-relations gesture.”
Luke nodded. “Good point.”
Seth drew in a deep breath, still weighing whether he should mention anything about his encounter with Abby Dawson. He opted to put the news out there. “And since we’re talking about Blue Heron Cove, that brings up something else I need to mention.”
“Oh?” Luke said.
“I fished a woman from that area out of the water this morning.”
“But there aren’t any houses in there yet,” Luke said, his expression perplexed. “The beach along there is posted with No Trespassing signs.”
Seth grinned. “Which I’ve been ignoring. The point is that the original house is still in there.” He watched Luke’s face closely and saw the instant when understanding dawned.
“Abby Dawson?”
“Grandma Jenny seemed to think so. I ran into the woman again at The Fish Tale just now and she confirmed it. Her married name’s Miller.”
“Well, I’ll be,” Luke said. “Abby couldn’t wait to put Seaview Key behind her. I’m surprised she’s back.”
“Grandma Jenny mentioned that the two of you used to be pretty tight,” he said casually, watching closely for a reaction.
“Ancient history,” Luke said a little too quickly.
“You sure about that?” Seth asked. “You look almost as worried as Grandma Jenny did. Is this woman being back going to cause problems for you and Hannah?”
“Absolutely not,” Luke said firmly, then sighed. “I’m not sure Hannah will see it that way, though. Back then, Abby and I were...”
“Let’s just leave it at ‘close,’” Seth suggested.
“Oh, yeah,” Luke said. “And then some. But we were over a long time ago.”
“But that’s not going to stop all of Hannah’s old insecurities from rising to the surface,” Seth guessed.
“Under normal conditions, she probably wouldn’t give it a second thought,” Luke replied. “But now? She might be in remission from her breast cancer, but it’s always in the back of her mind. And the scar is a constant reminder. No matter how many times I tell her it doesn’t matter, that she’s a beautiful woman, on some level she doesn’t buy it. And just today I realized that she’s already worrying about the next screening. This is a stress she doesn’t need right now.”
He gave Seth a hopeful look. “I don’t suppose Abby has aged badly, maybe gained, like, a hundred pounds or something?”
Seth laughed, thinking of the slender woman he’d held in his arms, the woman with curves in all the right place. “Afraid not.”
Luke sighed, his expression troubled. “Maybe Abby’s just passing through. Last I heard she was settled up in north Florida and happily married. She probably just came down to take care of some paperwork with the developer or something. All that land back in there belonged to her family.”
“I don’t think so,” Seth said. “I mean, she told me herself that she’s divorced and that she’s back to stay.”
Luke studied him curiously. “You sound surprisingly happy about that. What happened on that beach this morning?”
“I hauled her out of the water. That’s it,” Seth said, downplaying the effect the