Rocky Mountain Reunion

“Another wife?”

“Besides you, I mean.”

Anne could feel her facing warming. “I don’t know anything about Mr. Clark, Juanita, but I feel confident you’re going to find out.”

“You know me too well.” She scooped her clipboard off the desk and headed toward the elevators.

Anne gripped the counter and turned to stare at the wall. She did the math. A nine-year-old daughter.

That would be shortly after her aunt had had the marriage annulled and transferred her from the University of Denver to Washington State to finish her degree.

She’d spent the better part of three years completely heartbroken but unwilling to defy her aunt. Her sole guardian.

Aunt Lily had warned her that a future with Matthew Clark was building her house on unstable ground. He was a penniless student with no prospects. Love, she’d claimed, was fleeting, especially when there was no money in the bank.

All these years, and her aunt had been proved correct. Anne had mistaken what she and Matt had had for love. Clearly he had no such illusions and had moved on with his life quickly enough, as though their love had never existed.

* * *

Matt stood in the door of his daughter’s room, resting his weight on his new aluminum crutches.

“Mr. Clark, you’re just in time,” the nurse who stood at Claire’s bed said. “I’m Megan Jansen, the diabetic nurse educator.”

He bit back a surge of pain as he moved into the room and shook her hand.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a quick glance down at his ankle in the plastic support boot.

He nodded. Yeah, he was okay. Glad to have dodged the need for surgery, but a badly sprained ankle requiring a walking boot and crutches wasn’t what he had expected when he’d rolled out of bed this morning.

“We were about to go over the use of the meter,” Megan said with a soothing tone. “I’ve got a warm washcloth to clean Claire’s hand and stimulate the flow of blood to her finger.”

“I don’t want to,” Claire responded. She forcibly tugged her hand away and turned her head toward the window.

“We can’t discharge you until you or your father demonstrates the ability to use the meter and administer the injections.”

“He can do it,” Claire said. The words were a sullen accusation, as though Matt had added yet another heap of misery into her young life.

Matt feared she was right.

Across the room, Megan Jansen’s gaze pleaded with Matt to intervene.

“Claire, we want you to get better,” Matt said.

“There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.”

The nurse stood and moved her equipment to the bedside table. “I think it’s time for your father to try. The sooner we get this done and get you home, the better.”

“He’s not my father and I don’t have a home...” Claire’s voice trailed off and her eyes filled with moisture.

Matt’s gut clenched. Could he blame her? Claire’s world had been turned upside down in the past month. She’d gone from living with her mother in Denver one day to living with a man she didn’t know the next.

Confusion registered on the nurse’s face as she looked at him. “I thought you were her father.”

“I am—”

“I want Anne,” Claire interrupted with a pitiful wail.

“Anne?” Megan asked, her gaze moving from Claire to him, her brow furrowed yet again.

“Claire, who is Anne?” Matt asked, as a prickle of apprehension swept over him. Surely she didn’t mean...

“That nurse,” his daughter answered.

“From the emergency room?” he asked.

“The ER nursing supervisor,” Megan clarified.

“She’s the supervisor?” he countered.

“Yes.” She glanced at her watch and nodded toward the door, indicating he should follow.

Matt hobbled outside the room right behind her.

“Why is she asking for Anne?” Megan asked.

“I have no idea. Claire was admitted while I was in X-ray.”

“You know she’s off duty now, right?”

Matt could only nod and raise a palm. What was he supposed to do now?

“My mother is a very close friend of Anne’s. I can call her. She’ll try to get in touch with—”

“No. I can’t... I can’t bother her.” Especially not after his lousy attitude in the exam room.

“I think you’d better.” Megan paused. “What other choice do you have?”

“Why tonight? Can’t we wait until morning? After the doctor checks on her? Claire’s spending the night anyhow.”

“Anne might not even be scheduled to work tomorrow. I think it would be prudent for me to at least have my mother call her.”

“But you said I could do the injections and testing.”

“Look, Mr. Clark, unless you plan to be with Claire twenty-four-seven, she needs to participate in her own care. Sure, I can okay her discharge, but that won’t help you or Claire in the long run. Your daughter has provided us with an option, and if Anne’s presence will engage her, well, then...” She raised her shoulders and stared pointedly at him. “You should be willing to try this route.”

He glanced from the nurse through the doorway to his daughter. Claire’s eyes were closed in an attempt to block out the world. He felt like doing the same thing right about now.

Instead he fought back his pride and battled against the humiliation of the thought of inviting Anne Matson into his spectacular failure of a life as a new father.