The Healing Place

“Yes, and they refused. My neurosurgeon said Dr. Shields is the best, and that’s who I want for my daughter.”

Mr. Williams was here? This fellow was not taking no for an answer.

As she stood in the doorway of her office, Emma saw Sonja sitting at the reception desk, looking up at a man who leaned against the counter. He had his back to Emma, holding an enormous envelope of files beneath one arm. No doubt the envelope contained various pathology reports and MRIs from his daughter’s neurosurgeon. It looked like he had brought everything.

Dressed in navy-blue slacks and a light yellow pinstriped shirt, he was tall and slender, with shoulders wide as Texas. His short, slicked-back hair reminded her of the color of damp sand. He shifted his weight and shoved one hand into his pants’ pocket. His stance tensed. What if he caused a scene?

“I need to see Dr. Shields. If I could just talk to him—” Mr. Williams’s voice sounded low, edged with desperation.

“Her,” Sonja corrected in a kind tone. “Dr. Shields is a woman.”

Mr. Williams lifted his hand in a gesture of frustration. “If I can just talk to her for two minutes, I won’t take more time than that.”

Like a coward, Emma ducked into her office and leaned against the wall. Her pulse throbbed, her hands clammy.

“Please. If I have to beg, I will.”

His beseeching tone touched the deepest corners of Emma’s heart—what little she had left. She squeezed her eyes shut.

Opening her eyes, she swallowed and clenched her teeth. If she said yes this time, it would be harder to say no to the next parent who walked through her door. Brian’s death had cured her of taking any more chances.

She stepped around the corner and pasted a professional look on her face. As she walked toward Mr. Williams, she extended her hand. “Mr. Williams?”

He turned.

She froze. No, it couldn’t be.

“Mark? Mark Williams?” Her voice sounded watery to her ears.

When he saw her, his eyes widened and his features softened with relief. “Emmy! Emmy Clemmons. Wow! How long has it been?”

She tried to pull her hand back, but he caught it and squeezed tight. The warmth of his fingers tingled up her arm.

“Uh, it’s Shields now. Emma Shields.” She emphasized her first name. It had been two years since anyone had called her Emmy.

He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You must have gotten married. So, who’s the lucky guy?”

She ignored the question. “Your daughter has a brain tumor?”

“Yeah, she needs an oncologist. Are you the oncologist?” Amazement creased his brows and finally he released her hand, which she put behind her back.

He rubbed his angular jaw where a day’s worth of stubble showed he hadn’t shaved that morning. He was thinner than Emma remembered, but faint lines around his eyes showed increased maturity and fatigue. Regardless, he was still handsome as ever, with the power to break any girl’s heart.

He looked good. Too good.

“Yes, that’s me.” Her voice sounded strangely robotic.

Oh, why did this man have to be her former high school boyfriend? They’d dated for about a year and then he’d dumped her for Denise Johnson, head cheerleader, a.k.a. The Doll. That’s what all the girls called Denise behind her back because they were so jealous of her long blond hair and perfect good looks. They hated Denise because all the boys loved her.

Mark shifted the envelope of files beneath his arm and shook his head. “You know, I wasn’t surprised when I heard you went to med school. You were such a bookworm in high school and always wanted to be a doctor. I knew you’d go far.”

Yeah, when Brian died and David left, she’d almost gone off the deep end.

“Emmy, we need a good oncologist. We need you.” Mark’s voice sounded firm, insistent.

Emmy. She hated that name.

Overhearing the conversation, Emma’s receptionist threw her a curious glance. As she directed another patient into the treatment room, one of the nurses gave Emma an inquiring look. The attention bothered Emma. Why couldn’t her staff mind their own business?

“Let’s go into my office where we can speak in private.” Emma stepped back to lead the way.

“Okay, but—” Mark shot Sonja a quick look.

“I’ll bring her to you as soon as she’s finished in the bathroom,” Sonja said.

Oh, no. The little girl was here, too. This was not going to be easy.

Mark followed Emma into her office. In anticipation of the arrival of his daughter, she left the door ajar before she rounded the large desk and sat down. She was grateful to put some kind of barrier between her and Mark.

He sank into one of the three chairs facing Emma’s desk and leaned forward, his fingers clasped, elbows resting on his knees. His gaze locked on her and he appeared confident and in control, the same old Mark she remembered from high school.

“You look great, Emma. How’ve you been these past fifteen years?”

She threw a fleeting look at him, then stared at the black stapler on her desk. “I’ve been fine.”

“Do you and your husband have kids?”

She wasn’t about to tell him about her sweet son or her nasty divorce. “What line of work are you in, Mark?”

“I’m a CPA. My firm serves mostly local contractors. It’s busy and lucrative.”

It probably suited him, she thought. As a kid he’d lived in a mobile home on the “other” side of the tracks. With his dad gone, his mother had worked hard to eek out a living for them. All he’d ever talked about was marrying a beautiful girl and making truckloads of cash so he could live a life of style and ease. It looked like he got his wish.

“So, how’s The Doll?” she asked.

He sat back. “You mean, Denise?”

She tried to laugh, to lighten the moment, but it sounded more like a hoarse croak. Her hands were damp and she felt the sudden urge to run from the room and hide. “Yeah, remember? That’s what we all used to call her.”

He shook his head. “No, I never called her that.”

“Oh.”

Was her foot too big to fit inside her mouth?

“We’re divorced.” He spoke in a vacant tone but she caught a flicker of pain in his expressive eyes.

Inwardly, Emma sighed. As a doctor and a mother, she understood the strain a child’s critical illness inflicted on a marriage. She had learned that lesson the hard way.