Secrets of Forever Read online

  “Yes, honey,” Dan said, putting his hand on his daughter’s shoulder to guide her back into the house. “We’re playing a game. It’s called ‘herding your dinner guests back into the house.’” Every word was wrapped in affection.

  “All right, you two,” Tina announced into the darkness. “Everybody back into the house. My dessert has jelled and is ready to be consumed.”

  Being young enough to still display enthusiasm over the simpler things in life, Jeannie cheered and clapped her hands together in anticipation. Her older brothers, however, refrained from showing that sort of reaction, although, Neil noted, their pace did pick up a little.

  Tina, without a doubt, everyone agreed, made the world’s most heavenly desserts.

  * * *

  When dinner and dessert were finally over and it was time for Ellie to leave, Neil insisted on walking her to her vehicle. That freed Dan and Tina to tackle the simpler things in life that they looked forward to: tucking their children into bed and, in Jeannie’s case, reading to her until she dropped off to sleep.

  The two boys insisted that they were much too old for such “baby things,” although they asked to have their door left open so that they could overhear Dan reading to their sister. As far as Dan was concerned, this was what everything else was all about. It was one of his favorite parts of the day.

  “I appreciate you being chivalrous,” Ellie told Neil as he walked her the short distance from the Davenport house to her Jeep, “But you really don’t have to do this. This isn’t the kind of neighborhood you’re used to,” she pointed out, thinking of what she’d heard went on in some New York neighborhoods. “I’m perfectly safe out here walking to my car.”

  Maybe he was being overly cautious, Neil thought, but that didn’t change anything for him.

  “Humor me,” he told her. “Old habits die hard—and if you’re afraid I’m going to use this as an excuse to kiss you again, you don’t have to worry,” he assured her with a mile. “You’re safe.”

  Ellie cocked her head and peered up into his face. “Are you saying that you don’t want to kiss me again?” she deadpanned.

  “No, what I’m saying is that...” Neil’s voice trailed off as he realized he had managed to paint himself into a corner. “There’s no graceful way out of this sentence, is there?”

  Ellie grinned at him. “No, not really.” Her eyes twinkled in amusement. “Don’t worry, Doc. I’m just having a little bit of fun at your expense.” And then she grew serious. “So, when are you going to be seeing Miss Joan? Do you have a time yet? Maybe I can sell tickets,” she teased.

  He looked at her in disbelief, not entirely sure that she wasn’t serious. “Are you people that hard up for entertainment?”

  “Don’t sell entertainment short,” she quipped, attempting to keep a straight face. And then she told him honestly, “I’m just curious as to who’s going to come out the winner here. For Miss Joan’s sake, I hope it’s you. I wasn’t at the diner when Miss Joan nearly passed out,” she confided, “but I know some people who were. The upshot of it was that Miss Joan looked frightened. That is not a usual occurrence and none of us wants to see her like that again. The woman is the town’s rock.

  “So,” she continued, “if you need a little moral support in bearding the lioness in her den, all you have to do is just say the word and I’m there for you. So are a lot of other people.”

  Neil thought of the conversation he’d had with Dan when he’d agreed to come to Forever in the first place. “Well, from what I gather, Dan intends for the two of us to go to the diner tomorrow to try to sweet-talk this woman into coming back to the clinic.”

  Sweet-talking Miss Joan into anything she wasn’t entirely sold on doing might prove to be very difficult, Ellie thought.

  “She’s light enough to be carried if necessary,” Ellie pointed out.

  Neil laughed at the picture that created. “I think there are laws against forcibly taking a patient in to be examined.”

  She rolled that over in her mind. “True, but around here, the sheriff enforces the law and Sheriff Rick wants to keep Miss Joan healthy and around just as much as the rest of us do.”

  Neil nodded. “Maybe she’ll surprise us and listen to reason,” he speculated.

  “Maybe,” Ellie agreed. After all, miracles did happen, she added silently as she put her hand on the handle of the Jeep’s driver’s-side door. “Well, I’d better get going before Pop starts to think I lost my way getting home.” She paused for a moment. “If I didn’t say it before, Doc, welcome to Forever.”

  For some reason, Neil couldn’t shake the feeling that the words almost sounded like a foreshadowing.

  He was letting his imagination run away with him, he thought. The next moment, Neil flashed her a smile. “Thank you.”

  Opening the driver’s-side door, Ellie paused for just a second before getting in. With a quick movement, she brushed a quick kiss against Neil’s cheek and then got in behind the steering wheel.

  In the blink of an eye, she started up her Jeep and, before he could even process what had just happened, she was gone.

  Neil stood there watching her taillights become smaller and smaller until they disappeared completely. He could still feel the warm imprint of her lips on his cheek. Had she kissed him to let him know that she hadn’t minded his kissing her earlier? Or because she’d absolved him of that and wanted him to know that they were now even?

  Neil lightly glided his fingertips along his cheek as if to press the sensation she’d created there into his skin.

  His mouth curved in a slightly bewildered smile.

  He was glad that he had come here. He had begun to feel lost and alone after his breakup even though he had been the one to instigate it. He was now beginning to think it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  * * *

  The following day, though no one had said a word to Miss Joan about her pending interaction with the cardiologist, somehow she knew.

  The moment Dan Davenport and another tall, good-looking man walked through the door into the sacred territory known as Miss Joan’s Diner—followed by a few other patrons of the establishment, including Ellie Montenegro—her rail-thin body went on the alert.

  Miss Joan raised her hazel eyes up from what she was doing at the counter to hone in on the stranger entering her arena.

  She then looked at Dan and nodded, saying, “Hi.”

  The rest of the diner went deadly silently.

  “What can I do for you and your friend, Doc?” she asked in a voice that said she already knew what was coming but wanted to hear them say it.

  “You could come back with us to the medical clinic,” Dan told her politely.

  She looked at him sharply, warily. “And why would I want to do that?”

  Dan patiently reminded her of the conversation they’d had the other week. “Because you said you would submit to an examination and tests if I got a cardiologist to come out here to see you.”

  The expression on Miss Joan’s face told Dan she didn’t see things that way. “No, I said I’d see him. And, as far as I can tell, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m seeing him,” she pointed out, her voice tight.

  This is just wordplay, Neil thought, and they were wasting time, something he had always felt was a precious commodity.

  “Miss Joan—” Neil began patiently.

  She turned her eyes on him sharply. “Don’t you ‘Miss Joan’ me, sonny. We haven’t even met yet.”

  Neil suppressed a sigh. “Fair enough,” he said, extending his hand to introduce himself. “I’m Dr. Neil Eastwood,” he told her.

  Miss Joan’s eyes narrowed. “Look, Handsome, just because you’ve got those dimples in your cheeks when you smile doesn’t mean that I’m about to peacefully trot off to the medical clinic and let you play doctor with me,” she informed him,
a warning note in her voice.

  “There won’t be any ‘playing’ involved, Miss Joan,” Neil respectfully intoned.

  With one hand fisted at her hip, Miss Joan gave the man a steely look meant to put him in his place. “Damn straight there isn’t going to be any ‘playing.’ I’m too for you, kid. And too much woman, to boot,” she added with a nod of her head. “Now, I’ve got a diner full of hungry people to feed,” she informed him. “So if you don’t mind—”

  “Oh, but I do mind,” Neil said, cutting her short. “From everything that Dan told me, you are at risk of having a cardiac episode that isn’t slanted to have a happy ending if left unattended.”

  Miss Joan raised her chin defiantly. “Don’t you have enough of your own patients to take care of without coming out here, trolling for more?” she asked.

  “Yes, I have a lot of patients,” Neil agreed. “But, in all honesty, I’ve never had one the whole town seems to be so worried about.”

  Miss Joan looked around the diner, glaring at the patrons as if to silently tell them to butt out. “And you still don’t. Now, order something or leave,” she told him sternly, “because you’re taking up space and it’s approaching my busiest time of day.”

  Ellie stepped forward. “What are you afraid of, Miss Joan?”

  “I’m not afraid of anything,” she snapped a little too sharply.

  “All right, then fine...” Ellie said, approaching the counter and Miss Joan. “If you’re not afraid, have the Doc run some tests. If he doesn’t find anything, everyone’s happy and he’ll go away.” She paused, exchanging looks with Dan. “And if he does find something, he would have caught it early and whatever’s wrong can be fixed. Again, everyone’s happy.”

  “I’m not happy,” Miss Joan growled.

  “You’d rather be sick?” Ellie questioned the older woman.

  “I’d rather be left alone,” Miss Joan all but barked.

  “And you will be, darlin’,” Harry, Miss Joan’s husband said, adding his voice to the others as he walked into the diner. His eyes never left his wife’s face. “Just as soon as you have the tests done.”

  Miss Joan’s angry gaze swept over all the people within the diner. Like a creature backed into a corner, she lashed out.

  “Is this the thanks I get after all these years of serving you people, of listening to you whine and complain and giving you a shoulder to lean on? Having you all suddenly decide to gang up on me like this and kicking me when I’m down?” she demanded.

  Rather than waste his breath by arguing with the woman, the sheriff, who was also there, told Miss Joan, “Yup,” as he came forward. “Now, the sooner you stop being so stubborn, Miss Joan, the sooner you can have these tests done and the sooner you can get back to work,” he concluded.

  Miss Joan uttered a guttural sound steeped in frustration. She looked stymied and far from happy at the turn of events. She was usually accustomed to bullying her way out of things as a last resort, but it just wasn’t happening this time.

  “And my agreeing to this blackmail is the only way I can make you people stop harassing me?” she asked.

  “The only way,” the sheriff assured her.

  “Because we’re not going to back off until you submit,” Dan told her in no uncertain terms.

  Miss Joan thought of something. “You don’t have the kind of equipment you need to run these tests,” she pointed out. “And I am not about to take off to go to some big-city hospital because some cute, big-city doctor thinks he can get me to—”

  Neil cut her short before she got too wound up. “I can have whatever’s necessary for the tests brought out here,” he told her.

  Confounded and exasperated, Miss Joan raised her chin defiantly, a fighter looking for a fight. She didn’t believe him.

  “How?” she challenged.

  “I have connections,” Neil assured her. “If need be, the necessary equipment for the tests can be flown out here,” he told her. “Now, will you say yes?”

  “You’re not going to stop flapping those gums of yours until I do, is that it?” Miss Joan asked.

  Neil held his ground. “That’s about it.”

  Ellie found herself very impressed. She wouldn’t have thought the surgeon would stand up to the iron-willed Miss Joan. She’d thought he would back off at the last moment.

  “Tell me, when did talking a patient to death become a required course for a medical degree?” Miss Joan asked.

  “Since they made you, Miss Joan—and broke the mold,” Neil answered. And then he smiled at the crusty woman. “We wouldn’t want to risk losing a one of a kind,” he told her.

  Miss Joan sighed. “I’d better say yes before I wind up in a diabetic coma with all this sweet talk and sugarcoating going on,” the woman declared, waving her hand at Neil and, in essence, surrendering. Ever practical, she demanded, “How long are these tests going to take?”

  “It’ll take up to a day once the necessary equipment comes in,” Neil told her.

  Rather than say anything to Neil, Miss Joan turned her head toward the kitchen. “All right, I know you heard every word, Angel,” she called out to the young woman who did all the cooking. “When these witch doctors are ready to run these voodoo tests of theirs, I’m putting you in charge of my diner.”

  “Yes, Miss Joan,” Angel Rodriguez complacently called back from the kitchen.

  “Okay, boys, the ball’s in your court,” Miss Joan announced to Dan and Neil. “Now, until you get everything here so you can take those damn tests, let me get back to doing my job,” she ordered. So saying, she turned her back on the doctors and did just that.

  Chapter Ten

  Since she had only come to lend her support and not to actually get anything to eat or drink at the diner, Ellie left.

  But she didn’t go very far. She hung around because she wanted to tell Neil how impressed she was with the way he had handled Miss Joan. She had seen a lot of people shot down by the dictatorial diner owner.

  “Masterfully done,” she told the two doctors as they walked out of the diner and down the front steps. “You two handled Miss Joan like pros. Kindly, but firmly,” she added with approval.

  “Your input helped,” Dan told her, grateful she had thought to show up and add her voice to all the others.

  “Yeah, well, we’re not exactly home free yet,” Neil pointed out.

  Ellie put her own interpretation to his words. “You don’t think you’ll be able to secure the necessary equipment to conduct the tests that you’ll need to evaluate her condition?” Ellie asked.

  Neil looked at her. Her question had caught him off guard since that wasn’t his point.

  “Oh, I’m fairly sure I can get what I need. It might take a little doing, but it can be managed,” he said, thinking of his network of fellow surgeons.

  Confusion creased her forehead. “Then what?” she asked.

  Neil voiced his concern to both Dan as well as to Ellie. “I’m thinking beyond that. What if Miss Joan doesn’t like the results the tests yield? What if the tests point to her having to have a procedure done, like an angioplasty or an ablation, or something more serious?”

  “Like a bypass?” Dan asked.

  Neil nodded. “Like that. Then what?”

  There was no sense in worrying about what hadn’t come to pass yet. “One step at a time,” Dan told him. “First, let’s get those tests done. Contact those people you know and see what it takes to get everything set up,” he advised his friend.

  What Neil needed, Ellie thought, was something to divert him. “And after you make those calls and while you’re waiting for the equipment to arrive, why don’t we see about getting you those driving lessons we talked about?” Ellie suggested.

  Well, he hadn’t seen that coming, Neil thought. “As I recall, you were the one who did the talking. I just listened.”
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br />   “But you didn’t say no. C’mon, learning how to drive is all part of asserting your independence, Doc,” Ellie coaxed. She glanced at Dan for his backing as she continued talking. “Don’t you want to come and go as you please?”

  The eager pilot was forgetting one crucial point, Neil thought. “To do that, I’d have to have a car,” he pointed out.

  When he saw the smile that slipped over her lips, he knew that this wasn’t going to be his way out of the lessons. “The town mechanic runs a garage,” Ellie told him. “I’m sure that he’ll be more than happy to set you up with a loaner—provided you know how to drive.”

  Neil looked toward Dan for help, but his friend was already on his way back to the medical clinic. “You’re on your own here, Neil.”

  Neil sighed. “Are all the women in this town so pushy?” he asked Dan.

  Dan laughed. “I’m afraid so, buddy. It’s all part of being strong and independent.”

  “You should have warned me,” Neil called after him.

  His friend merely smiled at the protest. “Then you wouldn’t have come.”

  “You’re right,” Neil agreed, raising his voice so that it would carry. “I wouldn’t have.”

  Ellie took hold of his arm, directing Neil toward the clinic. “But you’re here now and you might as well make the most of it,” she told him. “C’mon, I’ll come with you to the clinic and wait while you make those calls to secure the equipment you’ll need so you can conduct those tests. And then,” she concluded happily, “I’ll give you your first lesson.”

  Neil looked at her skeptically. “I don’t know about this...”

  “I do,” she countered firmly. “And if you’re worried about anything happening, Dr. Dan’ll treat you at the clinic,” Ellie told him. “No waiting,” she teased to cinch the argument.

  “No waiting,” Neil murmured under his breath as if he didn’t view that to be a selling feature. Resigned, he decided to go along with this for the time being, but he was far from thrilled. “You know,” he told her as they went to the medical clinic, “I’ve been skydiving a few times.”