Kissed By The Country Doc

Gabby and Penny reached the rise where Sophie and Ella stood just as a man rang a bell at the top of the hill. “Who’s coming to school today?”

“You have optional school here?” Ella asked Gabby.

“We have independent study, but yeah, Mr. Garland is available to help us for a few hours every day, so it feels more like regular school.” Gabby shrugged. “At least, what I expect regular school is like.”

“You’ve never been to a traditional school?” Sophie asked, brown eyes wide behind her glasses.

“Nope. My dad moved me here when I was less than a year old.” Gabby positioned the sled at the top for another ride down, sat on the blue plastic and then helped Penny into her lap. “Last ride before school, Penny.”

“Schoo?” Penny rolled off Gabby’s lap onto the packed snow. “I go schoo.” She got to her feet and reached for the girl’s hand. “I go.”

“Okay.” Gabby stood, braces on display as she smiled. “You can help me with math.”

“I don’t think so,” Ella said gently. “Penny’s too young for school.” Not to mention she’d be a distraction to the learning environment.

Penny pouted, crossed her arms over her chest and muttered, “I go.”

“No,” Ella said, just as gently and firmly as the first time.

Sophie’s twins leaped on the blue sled and barreled down the hill, screaming in delight. When they reached the bottom, they fell over sideways and tried to pelt each other with snow.

“I wish my boys were interested in school,” Sophie murmured.

“Mr. Garland won’t mind.” Gabby swung Penny into her arms. “At least let her come see.”

Penny stuck out her lip at Ella.

“Okay.” Ella relented, clearly beaten. “Are you coming, Sophie?”

“Not yet.” Sophie waved off Ella. “I’m going to stay and let the boys burn off some energy.”

They stopped for Gabby’s laptop and schoolbooks, and then followed the other children to the Bent Nickel, saying good morning to Mitch, who was clearing a path from the inn to the coffee shop with a snowblower.

Second Chance’s schoolteacher was younger than Ella expected—in his midthirties—and attractive, although looking in his eyes didn’t make Ella feel much of anything.

Penny claimed a seat at a table with Gabby, her chin level with the tabletop, her green eyes wide as she watched the other children.

“I’m working on the great American novel,” Mr. Garland said to Ella. “In between hiking and fishing and teaching a bunch of bright kids, of course.”

“Which means his book will never be finished.” Gabby smiled widely when Mr. Garland raised his eyebrows at her. “Which is great, because I wouldn’t want any other teacher. Don’t you agree, guys?”

The other children, all younger than Gabby, agreed.

Mr. Garland smiled. “Gabby has great leadership qualities.”

“Thank you, Mr. Garland,” Gabby intoned as if by rote.

“And a healthy dose of sarcasm,” her teacher added. “Which we love her for.”

“Snark is free of charge.” Gabby opened her laptop. “That’s what my dad always says.”

“Okay, Penny, honey. Let’s go.” Ella gave Mr. Garland an apologetic smile. “The kids have school.”

“No.” Penny’s lower lip jutted out. She waved off Ella, which broke her heart. Her daughter rarely rejected her. “Go, Mom. Go.”

The schoolteacher produced a coloring page and crayons. “She’ll be fine here for a bit. It’s good to foster some independence early.”

“But...she hasn’t even been to preschool.” Which made Ella sound like one of those helicopter moms she’d heard so much about, hovering over her child 24/7.

The other children and Ivy reassured Ella they’d watch out for Penny.

“Thirty minutes,” Ella said, relenting. Besides, Penny would need some independence when Ella returned to work. Now was as good a time as any to start. “And then we’ll order a hot breakfast for you.”

Ella hurried back to the inn to get her paperwork on the town properties. She’d looked at it a few times since receiving it and had told Shane she thought there were transaction documents missing. She didn’t have any paperwork on a few of the buildings, most notably the fur-trading post and the mercantile. If Grandpa Harlan owned everything in town, why didn’t she have recent documents for every property in Second Chance?

When she returned downstairs, Mitch was sitting behind the inn’s check-in counter staring at his computer screen. Shane was drinking coffee in front of the fire. The fact that they weren’t talking made the air crackle with tension.

“Where are you off to?” Shane sounded crankier than Penny when she’d been told she couldn’t go to school. Having lived in Las Vegas and run hotels for years, she guessed he wasn’t a morning person.

“I have twenty minutes to begin the property inventory before I have to pick up Penny.” She waved the plat map and left before Shane could ask if he could come. She couldn’t afford to lose time waiting for him to get moving. On the way out, she absently registered Mitch’s odd, almost panicked expression. She chalked it up to something he’d seen on the computer screen.

Ella walked from the inn to the diner, getting her bearings on the map. And then she came upon a dead end. There was no more sidewalk. At least, not one that had been shoveled. There were at least four more buildings on her side of the highway, which... Hey there—the highway had been plowed. She slogged her way through knee-high drifts of snow to reach the cleared highway and then walked north.

The morning was still overcast, and the wind swirled around her like a champion skater.

The next building contained three small storefronts with large plate glass windows and signs that each posted a variation of Reopening in Spring. She’d have to walk through twenty feet of snow to reach the porch.

Um, no.

Best limit this trip to a scouting mission and use her impressions to form a plan of attack. She looked farther north. There were supposed to be four houses or cabins perched on the river side of the road.

Ella consulted the plat map and then surveyed the area. “Why are there only three?” Had she read the map wrong?

The wind tugged at the map.

She tried to hold the paper taut in the air, but doing so only made it billow like a sail. She switched tactics and tried holding it over her thighs, which worked better. Except... Where was she on the map again? She turned around slowly, trying to draw reference from snow-covered landmarks and—

A big gust of wind pushed her backward into a snowdrift, which, all things considered, wasn’t as bad as it seemed. She was protected from the wind and realized the plot across from the missing home had a cabin perched high above the road.

“Aha!” She laughed and tried to stand.

Except, instead of getting to her feet, she sank deeper in the snow and then began to slide backward down the hill toward the river, her stadium coat acting like a soft-sided sled and her head cutting through nature’s snow cone like a shark’s fin cut through water. She didn’t slide fast, but the incline was steep enough that her flailing arms and legs didn’t stop her. Snow clung to the nape of her neck and pushed the knit cap off her head. She slid and slid and slid until her back connected with something solid and she came to a halt, although her heart kept beating as if she was running a race.

If not for the big cold rock at her back, Ella might have plunged in the river. She could hear its throaty gurgle alarmingly close. Her knit cap and property papers were halfway up the hill.

It had all happened so fast. Epiphany. Laughter. Disaster.

Her heart rate began to steady and the cold continued to spread, starting with her neck and her toes and working toward her core.