Still, she’d stayed with him even when it had become clear that their feelings for each other were eroding, because she’d known who was underneath all that trauma—known the man he really was even though he hadn’t anymore. And because she’d loved him, and some of that love had still been hanging on for dear life.
In the end, though, love hadn’t been enough. And now here she was in Forgeburn, getting ready to look at the stars, hoping to find the one thing that would turn her in the direction that led her away from Carter once and for all. Because she sure wasn’t headed toward him now.
After lacing up her hiking boots, then tucking a few necessary supplies into the pockets of her cargo vest, Sloane looked at herself in the mirror. No wrinkles yet, which surprised her, with the way she worried. But there were bags under her eyes. Still cosmetically fixable, but there all the same. Yes, she definitely needed this vacation, she thought as she pulled her wild copper hair into a ponytail, then put a cap on her head.
“Ready,” she said to herself as she headed toward the door. But was she really? If it was rest she needed, and time to think, why was she already filling her schedule with activities.
Because if she kept herself busy she wouldn’t have to think. And sometimes thinking hurt too much.
* * *
“Are you a walk-in, or do you have an appointment?” the young girl at the desk asked Sloane, without looking up. The girl was buried in her phone.
“Walk-in. All I need are a few stitches for this cut on my leg.”
One of the other night hikers had knocked her into the face of a rather jagged rock in his enthusiasm to get a better look at Venus and Mars, which were less than a degree apart. He been all excited that Jupiter was also nearby.
It had been a beautiful sight, with Venus by far being the brightest of the three. Of course when she’d managed to distinguish Venus from the rest of the planets her mind had drifted off to something far less astrological. In fact she had been contemplating Venus as the Roman goddess of love, sexuality, beauty, prosperity and fertility when the night hiker had clipped her and sent her into an undignified sprawl.
Now she needed stitches and antibiotics.
She could have gone to see Matt, but he would be such a reminder that she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him. He and Carter had been so close once upon a time. Like brothers. But, like everything else with Carter, that friendship had died as well.
She would look Matt up. It was inevitable that she would see him at some point in her stay here. But not now—she wasn’t ready. So as soon as morning had forced her to open her eyes, she’d asked about the nearest doctor. She had been told there was a tourist doctor nearby, and where she could find his office, and now here she was, seeking medical care.
The young girl leaned over the desk to appraise the cut, then settled back down into her chair.
“I’ll put you on the list and he’ll see you as soon as...” She shrugged. “When he’s ready.”
It was a plain office. Not much to look at. No outdated magazines to read. But it was freshly painted. She could still smell the remnants of new paint.
“How long have you been here?” she asked the girl.
She looked up from her phone and said, “We’re new. Just opened.”
“Is the doctor Matt McClain?” she asked, hoping it was not.
“Nope. He takes care of the cowboys. We’re strictly here for the tourists, who get injured doing things like whatever it was you were doing that got you cut up.”
“Do you need my name for your records?” Sloane asked.
“Doc will take care of that.”
“Will he take care of my insurance papers as well?” This was an oddly run practice and she wondered what kind of doctor allowed it.
“Well, he won’t let me do them, so I guess it’s up to him.”
Definitely odd. And if she’d needed something more than stitches she’d probably have gone looking for Matt. But she was here now and, since there’d been no other cars in the parking lot, it shouldn’t be too long before she got called in.
She was right. Within another couple of minutes the receptionist gave her a wave to go on back, without so much as looking up from her phone.
So she took it upon herself to wander down the hall, find the exam room, then sit up on the exam table and wait. Another minute passed before she heard footsteps heading down the hall and her blood froze in her veins.
No, it couldn’t be. She knew those footsteps. Knew them by heart.
Consequently, when the doctor pushed open the door, Sloane’s head started to spin. “What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to hold back on her wobbly voice.
“Sloane? What are you doing here?” He closed the exam room door behind him but made no attempt to walk over to her.
“I asked you first,” she said.
“I’m trying to start over. Matt gave me a job here. He needed help, I needed help...so it worked out. Now you.”
“Vacation. I came here because—Well, I didn’t know you were here. Last I heard you were in Vegas.”
“Actually, Tennessee,” he said. “Vegas before that.”
“Now you’re here? Seriously?”
“As serious as it gets. So, I’m assuming you want me to stitch up that cut on your leg?”
She’d almost forgotten about that, she was so flustered. “It happened last night. I was out stargazing and met up with the sharp end of a rock.”
“Since when do you stargaze?” he asked, finally walking over to the exam table.
“Since last night.”
“And what did you learn?”
“That Venus shines the brightest and it’s best to stargaze on your own, or with a sure-footed friend.”
“Meaning...?”
“Meaning I did the tourist thing and now I’m paying for it. So, why here, Carter? I’m assuming Matt gave you an opportunity, but you’re clearly not working as a surgeon. More like what? A GP?”
“Exactly,” he said, as he bent to assess the cut.
“But you’ve never done that kind of work.”
“And you’ve never gone stargazing. So, I suppose we file it all under ‘first time’.” He looked up at her. “Everything has to start somewhere, doesn’t it?” Then he ran his hand down the calf of her leg.
Sloane shivered to his touch the way she always had. “Why are you touching me that way?” she asked. “We’re over. You quit touching me that way months ago.”
He took his hand off her leg, stood up and smiled.
“Actually, that was a perfectly good GP’s assessment. I wanted to make sure your leg wasn’t too warm, which might indicate an infection setting in.”
“I’m a doctor. I know to disinfect it.”
“And I’m a doctor, too. A doctor who’s trying his hardest to be a good doctor.”
“You always were good, Carter. Nobody ever questioned that. It was everything else that went with you...”
“My attitude?”
Sloane let out a deep sigh. She hadn’t come on