Whirlwind Reunion

“You knew I intended to come straight back to you—back here after medical school, but after you proposed, with my father already gone, you thought I would stay in Whirlwind and give up my dream of becoming a doctor.”

“I never said anything like that.”

“You didn’t have to say it. You made it abundantly clear once I was out of sight. You acted as though I didn’t exist.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw as he slowly got to his feet. “I cared for you,” he ground out. “And our baby.”

“Our baby!” She shook with outrage, disbelief. “You didn’t care enough even to acknowledge my letter about the miscarriage.”

“You’re a fine one to point the finger.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked hotly.

“If you’d cared about me or what we had, you wouldn’t have lied about the baby.”

“Lied? About what?” Incensed, she marched over to him. “You think I wasn’t expecting?”

“No, I believe you were.”

“Then what?” Her heart pounded hard in her chest.

“I think you knew before you left Whirlwind that you were carrying my baby and in your letter you tried to make me believe you didn’t.”

Her breath jammed painfully in her chest. “You think I knew and went to Philadelphia without telling you?”

“Yes.”

How could he believe such a thing? “Well, I didn’t know.”

“You’re the daughter of a doctor.” He took an aggressive step toward her.

She moved back, not out of fear, but from sheer reflex.

“You helped your pa from the time you were ten, and you knew more than most about medical things. How could you not realize?”

“I was distracted by my grief over my father’s death. If there were signs of a child at that time, I didn’t catch them.”

The skeptical, scornful look on his face set off her temper.

“You are a piece of work, Matt Baldwin! Why would I lie?”

“Because if you’d admitted back then that you knew, you would’ve had to stay.” His voice rose, too. “You wouldn’t have been able to traipse halfway across the country, putting our baby at risk.”

Pain and guilt knifed through her.

“If you hadn’t been so all-fired set to get to medical school, our baby would be alive. You as good as killed him.”

Before she even realized it, her hand flew up and she slapped him. Hard.

He grabbed her wrist, his expression stunned.

Tears blurred her vision. “How dare you.”

Her hand print glowed red on his jaw. The blame was already carved into her heart, but coming from Matt, who had never even acknowledged their child? How could he have said something so cruel? Was there nothing left of the man she’d loved? If so, she couldn’t see it in those steel-cold eyes, the rigid jaw.

She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered. Very quietly, she said, “Get out.”

“You bet.” He released her with a curse.

She registered the heavy thud of his boots on the floor, the slam of the door as her entire body went numb.

He’d brought up the past and she hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut. She wished she had because now she was forced to admit what she had denied for seven years. She’d never gotten over him.

Chapter Four

If you hadn’t been so all-fired set to get to medical school, our baby would be alive. You as good as killed him.

Five days later, Matt’s words still razored through Annalise, a black poisonous cloud on an otherwise lovely Saturday. She wished she could push his words out of her head, push him out of her head, but she hadn’t been able to. So she’d done the only thing she could—she’d avoided him like he was a coiled rattler.

Sunlight streamed through the front window of her clinic, warming the space of pine floor between her and the patient in his wheelchair. J.T. Baldwin had come in with Cora, wanting Annalise to examine his leg and determine why he was still unable to walk.

“How’s the pain?” Annalise asked him.

“Most days, it’s just an ache, but if I do too much—”

“Or ride in the wagon for very long,” Cora put in.

J.T. smiled at the older woman before turning to Annalise. “Then it hurts like the devil.”

“Is the pain sharp or dull after you’ve exerted yourself?”

“Sharp. It’s a good sign that I can feel something, right?”

“It can be good, yes. In your case, I’m not sure. Because there are times when you can feel yet still aren’t able to make your leg move, I think you have a mass pressing on a nerve in your lower spine.”

“Mass? Like a tumor?” he asked gruffly, apprehension on his craggy features. “Is it gonna kill me?”

Cora reached over and took his hand.

Annalise understood his concern. Matt and Russ’s mother had died from a tumor in her stomach when Russ was ten and Matt was nine. “I don’t believe it’s a cancerous tumor. You don’t exhibit other symptoms.”

“So what do I do? Can you get it out of there?”

“I can do surgery, but there are risks.”

“Like what?”

“Your right leg might be paralyzed for good. Both sides of your body might be. There’s also a chance it could kill you. Any operation is risky, especially one this tricky.” She shook her head. “And you should know that I’ve only assisted in this surgery, never performed it on my own.”