Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

much, but I do. And you said you knew each other before. I asked Mom about that, and she said you, she and my dad were all in school together. My dad’s not here anymore, so it would mean a lot if someone who knew him came.”

Me and Larry, neck and neck.

He’d been a stand-in for the man back then. The last thing he wanted was to be one now.

Was that what he’d been when he’d made love to Jessi back at her house? A stand-in for a man who was dead and gone? A man whose death he’d helped cause?

“Please, Dr. Marks?” Chelsea’s voice came back again.

Clint sat there, conflicted. He believed in keeping his word whenever possible, something his father had never seen fit to do.

In fact, a lot of the strict rules governing his life had come about because of his dad’s poor judgment. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. Those rules had served him well, until he’d come back to Richmond. “I can’t promise anything, Chelsea, but if I’m still here, I’d love to come.”

Her eyes widened then darkened with fear. “You’re thinking of leaving?”

He hurried to put her mind at ease. “I simply meant if you hold the service five years from now, there are no guarantees I won’t have been transferred somewhere else by then.”

His buzzer went off before he had time to think.

When he answered, his assistant said, “Mrs. Riley is here.”

His already tense muscles tightened further. Hearing Jessi referred to as Mrs. anything stuck in his craw.

Jessi Marks. Now, that had a nice ring to it.

No, it didn’t.

Hell. This day was turning out to be anything but the good omen he’d hoped for fifteen minutes earlier. It was morphing into a damned nightmare.

“Oh, good,” said Chelsea. “We can ask her what she thinks.”

Perfect. He had a feeling Jessi was going to love this almost as much as he did.

He responded to his assistant, rather than to his patient. “Send her in.”

Jessi scooted through the door, her face turning pink when she spied her daughter sitting in one of the chairs. Then her eyes crinkled in the corners. “Hi, sweetheart. I was just headed down to see you.”

“Were you?” Chelsea’s lips slid into a smile. “Guess you decided to stop by and see my doctor first.”

Pink turned to bright red that swept up high cheekbones like twin beacons of guilt.

Chelsea waved away her mother’s discomfiture and stood up to catch her hand. “Anyway, I’m glad you did, because we have something to tell you.”

“We do?”

“You do?”

He and Jessi both spoke at once, then their eyes met. Hers faintly accusing as she met him stare for stare. She was the first to look away, though.

Chelsea blinked as she glanced from one to the other. “I don’t actually mean ‘we’ because I kind of sprang this on Dr. Marks.”

That was one way of putting it.

She glanced at him again. “Is it okay if I tell her?”

“That’s completely up to you.” He had to force the words out as invisible walls began to close in around him. So much for his quick, silent escape. What a damn mess. No matter which way he spun, seeking the nearest exit, he only dug himself in deeper and deeper.

Pulling her mom over to the chairs, they both sat down, then Chelsea told Jessi what she’d told him, in almost exactly the same way. As if she’d been rehearsing the words over and over until she’d got them perfect.

His insides coiled tighter.

Once her voice died away there was silence in the room, except for Clint’s phone, which gave a faint pinging sound as it received a message of some type.

Jessi licked her lips, her gaze flicking to Clint for a mere second before going to rest on her daughter. “I think that’s a lovely idea.”

“I asked Dr. Marks about letting the group come … and I invited him, as well. He said he’d be there, if he was still in Richmond.”

“‘Still in Richmond’?”

The words curled around a note of hurt, the sound splashing over him in a bitter wave.

This wasn’t how he’d wanted her to hear the news.

Chelsea’s hand covered her mother’s. “No, I mean he said that if I had the service five years from now, he might have been transferred somewhere else by then.”

Jessi’s body relaxed slightly.

Did she care that he might move away?

Of course not. She had to know as well as he did how utterly foolish it would be for them to go any further than they already had. And she’d withdrawn a little over the past week, changing their working relationship into one of professionals who were collaborating on a patient they had in common. Only to Jessi she was no patient. She was her daughter—someone she loved with all her heart and soul. He saw the truth of it each time the women looked at each other and in the way Chelsea touched her mom, as if needing the reassurance of her presence.

To be loved like that would be …

Impossible. For him, anyway.

And he needed to pull himself together before someone realized how jumbled his emotions had become.

“Of course I’ll be there.” The words came out before he had time to fully vet them. So he added, “If I can.”

“When do you want to do this?” Jessi’s voice became stronger, as if she saw this as a way for her daughter to close this chapter in her life and move on to the next one. One that Clint hoped with all his being would be full of laughter and happiness. This family deserved nothing less, they’d been through so much over the years.

He did not need to add more junk to the pile. They both had enough to deal with right now. He decided to change the subject. “How’s your mom?”

“Good. The home nurse is with her this morning. She’s getting stronger every day. In fact, she said today that finding out … er … finding out about her blockage might have been