Bob nodded and took off his cowboy hat, but he wouldn’t step off the front door rug. “Don’t mean to bother you, Miss Valerie, but Margaret has been complaining about this pain in her neck for about a month now.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re a doctor, Valerie,” Brea whispered over her shoulder.
“I know I’m a doctor,” Valerie snapped back in a hushed whisper, then turned and smiled at the couple. “Um, I’m sorry about your neck, Margaret. Have you been to see Doc Parmalee?”
“Doc Parmalee retired three years ago, Miss Valerie.”
“He did?” She scratched her nose. “I didn’t know that. Who’s the doctor in town now?”
“Isn’t one,” Margaret said.
“There isn’t? So who treats everyone?”
“No one.” Bob shook his head. “Gotta drive all the way into Tulsa now if we wanna see a doc.”
Valerie was stunned. “Really? That’s too far.”
Margaret nodded, then winced and reached her hand up to her neck.
“Let me take a look at that, Margaret. Brea, will you take Bob and Margaret into the kitchen while I get my medical bag?”
“Sure. Come on, you two. I’ll put some coffee on.”
“Sounds great,” Bob said. “Much obliged, Miss Brea.”
While Brea got Bob and Margaret settled, Valerie went upstairs and grabbed her medical bag, then hurried downstairs and met Mason in the entryway.
“Someone else stab themselves?” he asked, looking down at her bag.
“No. Bob and Margaret Stenner are here. Margaret has a sore neck.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding as he followed her into the kitchen. “Hey, Bob, Margaret.”
They all said hellos, and while Valerie washed her hands, Mason helped himself to the coffee Brea had made. Valerie realized that examining Margaret in the kitchen while everyone sat around sipping coffee and gaping at them just wasn’t going to work. She needed to undress Margaret to get a good look at her muscles.
“What’s wrong?” Margaret asked, concern lacing her voice after Valerie took a step back.
Valerie laid her hands back on Margaret’s shoulders “Nothing. You and I just need some privacy so I can conduct a thorough examination.”
“What about the old kitchen?” Brea suggested. “No one uses that anymore. It’s got plenty of room, plus a sink to wash up. And God knows Lila keeps every room clean in this place, so you don’t have to worry about whether it’s a sterile enough environment.”
“That’s a good idea.”
They relocated Margaret to the old kitchen. It was a little sparse, but after they dragged a couple chairs in, Valerie had plenty of light—and privacy—for what she needed to do.
“I can’t really tell for sure without X-rays, Margaret,” she said, after finishing her examination and pulling off her latex gloves. “But it feels to me like a muscle strain. It seems to be most tender back here.” She gently placed two fingers at the C-spine area of Margaret’s neck. “But I don’t think it’s spinal in any way.”
Margaret pursed her lips. “Bob’s snoring is driving me crazy, so I’ve spent a couple nights on the sofa.” She tilted her head back to look at Valerie. “It’s not the most comfortable piece of furniture. I bought it more for looks than comfort. That was a mistake.”
Valerie laughed, pulled up a chair in front of Margaret and sat down, then took out her prescription paid, grateful she’d gotten her medical license—and malpractice insurance—in Oklahoma as well as Texas. Not that she’d intended to let her family know that. But she wanted to be able to practice medicine in this state, just in case. “I’m going to write you a prescription for some muscle relaxers. They should help. And while you’re at the drugstore in town, get some earplugs. Those should help with Bob’s snoring.”
Margaret laughed and laid her hands over Valerie’s. “Thank you, dear. Your parents would be so proud of you. You make a fine doctor for our town.”
“Oh, I’m not—”
But Margaret had already taken the prescription and headed out the door.
“—staying.”
Valerie sighed, put away her stuff and closed her bag. Brea popped her head in the door.
“Might as well leave that bag open.”
Valerie frowned. “Why?”
“Better come look.”
She came out of the kitchen and rounded the corner, then rocked back on the heels of her tennis shoes.
There were half a dozen people in the main kitchen, all sipping coffee and visiting with Lila, who was grinning and offering up cinnamon rolls while happily chatting away as if she’d invited them all.
“Who are all these people?”
Brea’s lips lifted. “Your next patients. Word’s out that you’re the only doctor within a hundred miles, Val. Might as well hang a shingle on the front door.”
before he walked in, mason waited until leonard Russell ambled his way out of the old kitchen, tipping his hat to Mason as he did. Valerie was cleaning up medical instruments and washing up the counter. He shut the door behind him and turned the lock.
“Long day?”
She turned and offered up a tired smile. “You have no idea. I must have seen forty patients today.” She tossed the paper towels into the wastebasket and pulled up a chair, then collapsed into it.
He had two bottles of beer in his hand. He handed her one.
“Lila left a plate of meat loaf and mashed potatoes in the fridge for you.”
She took the beer he offered. “Thank you. This is just what I need. I might be too tired to eat.”
She took a couple long swallows of beer and sighed, then set the bottle on the table and smoothed her hair away from her face. She lifted her shoulders up and down.
“Muscles?”
“Yeah.”
He moved behind her and started rubbing the kinks out of her shoulders, digging in when he found hard knots. Valerie let her head fall forward.
“God, that feels good.”
He continued to work at her muscles, from her shoulders up to her neck, sliding his fingers into her hair. He pulled the ponytail holder out so he could spread his fingers into her scalp and massage there.
“You keep that up, I’ll be your slave.”
He smiled. “I like the sound of that. Never had a slave before. What would you do for me?”
“Rub my temples and I’ll show you.”
He came around front and slid his fingers along the side of her head, smoothing lightly along her temples.
She moaned.
His cock hardened.
“I’d forgotten how good this felt, how talented you are with your fingers.”
“I like using my fingers on you.”
She lifted her head, her hair falling across her face. She swept it away. “Yes, you do. I remember that, too.”
His balls throbbed and he laid his hand across the hard ridge of his shaft. Her gaze drifted down, then back up again, her eyes taking on that glassy look that he knew meant desire.
Damn.
“Step closer, Mason.”
“I didn’t come in here for you to take care of me, Val.”