The Doctor Takes a Wife ; Rocky Mountain Redemption by Laurie Kingery

Author:Laurie Kingery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-02-14T16:42:03+00:00

Chapter Three

The news of Max’s death echoed in Ben’s head like a gunshot in a deep mountain canyon. He’d not heard one thing. Not one thing.

When Callie had uttered the words a few hours ago, his emotions had warred between deep anger and grief. The death was an utter waste of a life so young.

And a mark of shame for Ben.

If he’d been able to turn his brother around, Max might still be here.

Ben let out a stuttering, remorse-filled sigh. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath, and tried to relax his tight muscles, calm his beating heart, but it seemed useless. His entire being had been drawn into a knot of unrest and regret in hearing the news.

He would’ve questioned her further had she not drifted off to sleep. He wanted some proof of marriage or of Max’s death, but the longer he sat here staring at her—his brother’s widow, a young woman whose brow even now furrowed in pain—the more he questioned his need for evidence.

He didn’t know one thing about Callie. Had no reason to trust her. Still, she didn’t strike him as someone who’d lie about something so severe.

Ben had a volume full of unanswered questions regarding his wayward sibling. Twice as many misgivings. If he could learn even a little about what had transpired in the past seven years, then maybe, just maybe, Ben could put to rest the painful remorse.

He doubted he’d ever find peace about certain things, though. With Max dead, there were some bitter words Ben had said that could never be taken back: that Max was good-for-nothing, a stain to the Drake family name and the worst of scoundrels. Sitting on this solitary side of things, he had no idea what kind of damage the last words he’d said to Max could’ve done.

The shameful memory pierced Ben like buckshot, shredding his already shaky confidence. In the past six months his assurance in his work as a doctor, and his trust in God, had been dealt some rough blows.

First, he’d been unable to help his brother Joseph after an accident that left him blind. Ben had doctored him to the point that Joseph demanded to be left alone. The sleepless nights Ben had spent worrying, praying, and reading anything that might be a key to Joseph regaining his sight had been to no end.

He swallowed a thick knot of guilt. The inability to produce a winning outcome did something to a man who was supposed to be an instrument of healing in God’s hands.

Then his brother Aaron had been dealt a double blow when his newborn baby and his wife died within a day of each other. Complications of childbirth. Ben had done everything he knew to change the course, but it hadn’t been enough.

And now this.

Surely, had he done things differently with Max, spoken some sense into him, things would’ve turned out differently.

He blinked hard as he stared at Callie, asleep and burrowed in a thick cloud of blankets and pillows.

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