Last Resort. Hannah Alexander

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      Yes. I’ll have to find her. Everything will be okay.

      Carissa won’t be able to find her way back without my help. I’m in control.

      I can stay in control.

      Nathan took a bypass around Branson’s busiest highway, increasingly aware that Noelle’s silent observation of the passing roadside was a sign that he’d struck a nerve. This new road had very little traffic, but he waited to speak, respecting her wish for silence, until they were on the far side of Branson.

      “I wish you’d at least talk to me about it,” he said at last.

      She cleared her throat but didn’t answer. A few moments later, she sighed, but still didn’t speak.

      “It’s okay,” he said at last. “I understand. It’s difficult. The kind of gift that you’ve been given can’t be an easy thing to live with.”

      She gave a soft snort. “Gift? You’ve got to be kidding.”

      “That’s what I’d call it.”

      “Do you remember where I found the kitten?”

      “At my grandmother’s, up the road, in the milk barn.”

      “Big surprise,” she said dryly. “Cats love milk.”

      “I’d just finished looking everywhere in that barn before you led me to her.”

      “So I got lucky.”

      “I can’t count the number of times you’ve practically told me what I was feeling without my having to say a word.”

      “That happens with friends,” she said.

      Nathan drove in silence for a few more moments while Noelle returned to her study of the passing hills and hayfields. She wasn’t fooling him. He knew her too well. She couldn’t deny something they had grown up knowing—she had been blessed with an unusual amount of empathy.

      No, not just empathy. Intuition, too, and more…

      They’d never talked about it, when they were children, because then it hadn’t seemed like such an unusual thing to them. He suspected that for the past ten or twenty years she had even tried to deny the gift completely. Or maybe she hadn’t experienced it. Noelle’s lifestyle in her late teens and twenties had not given her much of an opening for guidance by the Holy Spirit.

      He couldn’t remember when she’d first shown signs of this special sense about other people. She was right, she did have a logical thought process and a natural gift for reading body language. She also had a genuine affection for people.

      But there was something extra, besides all that, and the best definition he could find was to call it “a discernment.” Some might say it was unnatural, but if anything it was supernatural, a spiritual gift from God, because, somehow Nathan was sure, Noelle had never attempted to “conjure” this gift.

      He couldn’t help wondering about last night, but for now he wouldn’t push it.

      “Be gentle with Jill when you see her,” he said, knowing Noelle would appreciate the change of subject, even if it did mean talking about another uncomfortable issue.

      “Fine. I’ll just tenderly punch her in the nose.”

      He grinned as he negotiated a sharp curve past Reeds Spring. “I think she feels partly responsible for Carissa’s disappearance. Carissa was bringing back a ledger from the office for Jill to look at. You knew Jill and Cecil formed a business partnership for Cooper’s Sawmill?”

      “Yes, she told me. Sounds like Aunt Pearl’s not crazy about the idea.”

      “Pearl doesn’t like losing authority, but Cecil and Jill finally managed to convince her that they need to modernize if they’re going to retain their edge in the market.”

      “Meaning computers,” Noelle said. “Jill told me two weeks ago that they’d already purchased two. Also that Melva’s tackling the job of entering data for the whole year, and Jill’s learning the system with her. Aunt Pearl must be fit to be tied.”

      Nathan chuckled. “She hates anything she can’t understand.”

      Noelle glanced at him. “But Jill has her nursing job at the clinic. How does she have time for both?”

      “Maybe you should talk to her about that.”

      “I did, but Jill wouldn’t listen. Remember, I’m the baby sister without a brain in my head.”

      Nathan heard the frustration in her voice. Noelle and Jill loved each other very much, but they never quite overcame the clash of wills that should have been settled between them long ago—Jill’s fierce need to nurture versus Noelle’s equally fierce need for independence. Jill nurtured not only her sister, but her extended family, the patients she worked with at the clinic and the clinic staff, as well. Consequently, she had little time to nurture herself. She was often irritable and stressed.

      Nathan braked for a slow moving car in front of him. “Jill’s working a lot these days, and the clinic is still desperately searching for medical personnel willing to relocate to Hideaway.”

      “I know. She’s asked me at least ten times in the past month if I’d consider a position.”

      “And your reply?” Nathan resisted the urge to check out Noelle’s expression.

      “I told her it shouldn’t be hard to find someone,” she said. “The town caters to tourists, including medical personnel, and surely some of them could be enticed to stay permanently.”

      “It hasn’t happened yet. Jill isn’t the only one who would like to see you back home in Hideaway.”

      From the corner of his eye, he saw her glance at him. “Really?” she asked softly.

      “Bertie Meyer talks about you all the time. So does Carissa.”

      “Oh.”

      Was that disappointment in her voice? And if so, who else had she hoped would want her back in Hideaway?

      He suppressed a smile. “They’ll need several new staff members if Dr. Cheyenne Gideon manages to convince the city board of directors to support a hospital designation for the clinic.” He glanced at Noelle. “You’re still a nurse. Why ignore the skills you worked so hard to learn?”

      “Don’t start with me. I’ve had enough of that from Jill.”

      “Have you ever considered the possibility that she’s right once in a while?”

      “Have you ever considered the possibility that you’re a nag?” Noelle teased. “Besides, you’re the one who can’t settle on a career. From preacher to pharmacist in four years. You never told me why you made that giant leap.”

      He gave up. She wouldn’t be pinned down, and if he tried, she’d just change the subject again. “Not much of a leap. After Natalie died, I felt overwhelmed СКАЧАТЬ