A Child Under His Tree by Allison Leigh

Author:Allison Leigh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarlequinUKLtd
Published: 2016-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The day after the carnival, Caleb did something he’d never done before in his life.

He had the office reschedule an entire afternoon’s worth of appointments.

One way or another, he was going to have it out with Kelly.

But when he went to her mom’s farm, the place was deserted. House locked up tight. Dusty car with the Idaho license plate nowhere to be seen.

He didn’t want to think that she’d up and left town again, but he’d had the same knot in his gut when she’d done it before. Only back then, the knot had been caused by Georgette Rasmussen slamming the door of her house in his face after lying to him about her daughter being married.

What the hell kind of person did that? Who made up some damn pointless lie the way she had? It was as if she’d been afraid he’d go after Kelly or something.

Wouldn’t you have?

It wasn’t the first time the question had sneaked its way into Caleb’s thoughts.

He’d never given it serious consideration, though. He’d been too focused on med school. Then his residency.

Yeah, he’d made a few stabs at locating her. But he hadn’t tried hard enough. If he hadn’t been so career driven, would he have tried harder? Fought for her?

He sat down on the front porch steps. While the puppy yanked on her leash, he stared at the land around him. The wind blew pretty constantly in these parts, and that afternoon was no different. It was kicking up little whirlwinds of dirt, flattening the weeds down against the sparse brown patches of grass and rattling the weathered wood of the abandoned coops.

When he and Kelly were teenagers, the farm hadn’t looked this way. There’d been the chickens, of course. But there’d also been rows and rows of whatever crop was growing that season.

He scrubbed his face with his hands. Now the only thing surrounding him seemed to be the echoes of Georgette’s dissatisfaction with life.

Which Kelly herself must have felt much more strongly.

Would it be any wonder if she’d had enough and had bolted?

Particularly after what had happened the evening before at the carnival?

And if she’s gone back to Idaho now?

He suddenly yanked out his cell phone, startling Bingo into yipping. “Relax, dog.” He reached out and rubbed his hand over her silky head while checking the signal on his phone. One bar. But it was enough, and he dialed the office. “Mary,” he said when the receptionist answered, “I need you to pull Tyler Rasmussen’s record for me. I need his mother’s contact information.”

“Sure. Hold on a second.”

The nice thing about Mary was that she wouldn’t pepper him with questions like some of the other people working for Doc Cobb. She was back in seconds. “She left a mobile number.”

Thank you, God. “Text it to me, would you please? And I’ll see you in the office as usual tomorrow after I’m finished at the hospital.”

“You have three appointments here before your rounds,” she reminded him. “Had to fit in those reschedules.

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