The One And Only. Laurie Paige

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      “So how was your first day, really?” Amelia asked. “Did Beau Dalton give you a hard time? Did you get heart palpitations as all the local gals do around the Daltons?”

      Her laughter was so merry that Shelby had to laugh, too. “He is good-looking, but he was also professional.”

      “Ah, yes. All the Daltons are dedicated to their jobs.”

      Shelby, not knowing the family, didn’t comment. Instead she said, “He offered me a job in his office.”

      “Did he? I suppose he could use more help. He has a nurse practitioner who’s also a midwife—she sees her own patients—and a receptionist who keeps the books, but he probably needs someone to assist him. It’s difficult to get help in a small town.”

      “Hmm,” Shelby said noncommittally. “Has he been in business here long?”

      “Before July he kept office hours in town, going from once to twice a week during the past year, but his main office was in the city. Last month he made the shift to here full time.”

      Shelby had learned “the city” referred to Boise, which was over an hour’s drive south of the valley. “I see. Did he buy out another doctor’s practice?”

      “No. Doc Barony died about ten years ago.”

      Shelby knew Beau was too young to have had a practice there very long, but she’d hoped he had taken over another’s patients. That way, there might have been records going back several years, maybe to her birth.

      “The house had been empty until Beau started up an office and brought in the midwife,” Amelia continued.

      “The house?” Shelby asked, not sure what her landlady was talking about.

      “Beau’s office. It belonged to the old doctor. The attic is still full of records, the receptionist said. She’s afraid the ceiling is going to fall in on her head.”

      A jolt of excitement shot straight through Shelby. Records! Just what she wanted to get her hands on. But how?

      Amelia finished her wine and stood. “Well, back to work. I see a new family arriving. How do you like your room? It’s rather small, so I worry about claustrophobia.”

      “I love it,” Shelby assured the other woman, who had lovely auburn hair with golden highlights and a charming amount of natural curl, unlike her own flaming-red, string-straight locks that had been the scourge of her life.

      With a satisfied nod, Amelia left. Shelby at once reverted to her own mission. If only she could accept Beau’s offer of a job. No, she already had too much to do. Maybe she could volunteer to sort through the old records, keeping the ones for current patients.

      Why would anyone in her right mind volunteer for such a job? She couldn’t come up with a good reason.

      A tall, masculine figure with dark hair and a smooth stride crossed a flagstone path, heading for the door near her table. Her heart gave an unexpected skip-thump-skip-thump before settling down when she realized the man was a stranger, one who looked awfully like Beau Dalton.

      He paused as if hearing something, then turned, waiting for a lovely woman to catch up with him. She came from the carriage house, where, Shelby assumed, the man had also been. The door opened, admitting the couple and a wave of August air, hot and dusty to the senses.

      Meeting the man’s eyes, she saw they were as blue as the early evening sky. He had to be one of the infamous Daltons that Amelia had mentioned. He gave her a smile and nod. The blonde on his arm glanced her way.

      “Are you the new school nurse?” she asked.

      “Why, yes,” Shelby said, unable to hide her surprise.

      The young woman, about Shelby’s age, held out a hand. “I’m Honey Dalton. This is Zack. Beau has mentioned working with you. Zack and Beau are cousins.”

      “I’m Shelby Wheeling.” Shelby shook hands with both of them, giving Zack a wry smile. “You and your cousin look enough alike to be twins.”

      That brought a ripple of laughter from the couple. “We have those in the family, too,” he explained. “My younger brothers are twins.”

      “Do they look like you and Dr. Dalton, too?”

      “They do,” Honey told her. “Get the four of them together and even I get confused.”

      “Yeah? Just don’t let me catch you making out with one of the others,” Zack threatened.

      Noting their wedding rings and the easy air between them, Shelby concluded they were husband and wife. “Is something going on in the carriage house?” she asked, curious about the couples she saw leaving.

      Honey nodded. “I’m holding dance classes there. That was the Wednesday afternoon couples class. Ballroom and modern dance. We would love to have you join us.”

      Shelby didn’t know what to say.

      “I need a partner,” Zack assured her. “My wife dances with all the other men on the pretext of showing them what to do and how to hold their partners. I end up standing by the wall most of the time.”

      “Uh, thanks, but I think I’d better get settled in a bit more first. You wouldn’t happen to know of any apartments for rent, would you?”

      Honey was sympathetic. “It’s hard to find a rental in a small place like this. However, there’s a cottage by the lake next to the resort property,” she said with a tentative glance at her husband.

      “It’s for sale, not rent,” he reminded her.

      “I was wondering if they might rent it while waiting for a buyer. You know the owner. Think you could ask him?”

      Shelby perked up at this news. The only available apartment in town had been over a gas station and totally unacceptable in terms of cleanliness, repairs and general livability. The extremely low rent had been its only redeeming feature.

      “No problem. I’ll let you know,” he told Shelby.

      “Thanks. Would you leave word with Amelia if I’m not in? I’ll be teaching at the high school three mornings each week when school starts, then doing nurse duty at the elementary school in the afternoons.”

      “Isn’t this the loveliest place?” Honey gestured around the B and B common room. “Amelia serves the best breakfast rolls and pastries in town. Zack is a deputy with the sheriff’s department. Sometimes he claims he has to stay over in town, but I know he does it only so he can get a room here and have one of Amelia’s breakfasts.”

      He laid a hand over his heart. “A man has to do his sworn duty.” In an aside, he mock-whispered to Shelby, “Honey always manages to stay over, too, and join me for breakfast and the evening snacks. She says it’s my company she misses. A likely story.”

      Laughing, they bid her goodbye and went to speak to the landlady before heading out the front door.

      A funny pang, part nostalgia, part yearning, filled Shelby’s chest so that СКАЧАТЬ