Practicing Partners (Maiden’s Bay #2)

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

“I’M HIKING.”

“Did someone tell you to go take one?”

“Mom!” Aubrie’s breath had barely quickened a few minutes into her walk up Sentinel Hill before her mother called. Why she decided it was a good time to pick up the phone….

A little piece of her hoped the call would drop, to have an excuse to end it early.

“No, I’m off for the morning, but Doc Bernie wants me in later. He’ll call me if he needs anything earlier.” Yes, another valid excuse to end the conversation. It’s not that Aubrie disliked her mother. She loved her dearly, and the fact Aubrie wasn’t around in Dallas anymore for family dinners or outings wasn’t lost on her. She would miss them, too—for the most part. It was that Mom was never going to approve of Aubrie’s decision to move to Maiden’s Bay, which had nothing to do with the location—like it would with the average parent not wanting to be far away. No, her mother wouldn’t have approved a move to Houston.

“Has it kept you busy? Such a small practice?”

What Mom didn’t understand—at least one of the things—was Aubrie’s pursuit to slow down. “I think you’d be surprised how busy it’s been all week. We had an entire day dedicated to performing physicals to two fishing crews in town.”

She could picture Mom’s repugnant facial reaction. Like she caught a whiff of rotting fish. “Oh, Aubrie.”

“It’s fine, Mom. I know you think it’s not important work. That I’m wasting my skills. But the practice, me being here, does benefit the community. There was a woman with a heart problem that lived in the middle of nowhere, who really needed specialized care. Bran and I drove her to Seattle University Hospital to take care of her. It’s a different way to practice medicine, a more personal one that bleeds into the community, not just inside the practice.”

The response took seconds longer than expected. “Who is this Brian fellow?”

Aubrie slumped her shoulders, shaking her head. “His name is Bran. He’s Doc Bernie’s grandson. He’s also a doctor.”

“In town for a visit, or…?”

Aubrie avoided telling Mom the exact situation. That she had come all the way here not knowing she’d compete for the position. And that “the position” was actually taking over the practice. It was enough to handle the guilt of having quit her job and giving up her place. Were all mothers gifted with laying on the guilt?

“He’s actually from Seattle University Hospital. It helped that he knew the cardio team there. Made me feel comfortable knowing the patient was in good hands.” Luckily, not the hands of that Dr. Hycliff.

Aubrie felt a tinge of pride having given an inexact answer to Mom’s question.

“Is he handsome? If I Google him, will he show up?”

Aubrie’s successful deflection of work only led to the other of Mom’s favorite topics. Relationships.

“He’s rather debonair.”

“Stop joking with me.”

“What do you want me to say? Bran is good looking, and from what I’ve seen so far, a good doctor. But he’s also—”

“Aubrie?” A voice rang out from behind her. A man stood amongst the trees, in gray hiking pants and boots. His crystal blue eyes matched his rain jacket.

Bran.

Aubrie nearly dropped the phone from her ear. “Mom, I gotta go.”

“Is everything okay? You sound—”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” The words sounded short. “Promise. Just met up with someone, that’s all.”

“Met up? Who is it?”

“I’ll talk to you later, Mom.”

Aubrie hung up the phone and held it in her hands, not knowing whether to put it in her pocket or chuck it through the woods. She wanted to run, hide behind a tree. But Bran clearly stood in front of her. Hiding was a no-go.

“What are you doing here?” She fiddled more with the phone, taking the corner of the protective case off and back on. Over and over.

“I imagine the same thing you’re doing here. Minus the cell phone.” He pointed to her fidgeting hands.

“Right. I should’ve left it back at the apartment.”

“Hiking 101.” He smiled.

“I’ll remember it for next time.” She nodded, the conversation going as smoothly as the craggy top of the hill ahead. “Did you, um, happen to hear any of that?”

“What?” He feigned confusion, then overemphasized understanding. “Oh, you mean the phone call? No.”

“Okay.” The relief helped calm her worries.

“Except for the good doctor part.”

“Oh.” Not so bad. “Well, it’s the truth. Like I said, so far as I’ve seen. You’ve performed well with the patients.”

“Thank you.” His grin grew, and he scratched his jawline by his ear. “And was the good looking part true, too, or…?”

His smugness made her smile, despite the embarrassment of him hearing the worst of it. “I was speaking to my mother. Who doesn’t know about this situation here.” She waved her hand between them. “With taking over the practice.”

“I see. So, she doesn’t know about the competition Doc Bernie tricked us into?”

“Nope. No she doesn’t. And I want to delay that knowing as long as possible, so I deflected into more of the”—her words became more spaced out—“personal aspects of you. She took the bait, which meant I had to go into your looks.”

He slipped his hands into his rain jacket pockets. “Which are good.”

“You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Bran chuckled. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business. I was surprised, though, to see you up here. Didn’t know you were the hiking type.”

She shrugged. “Not a lot of hilly terrain in the Dallas area. Thought I’d give it a try.”

“You on your way down or up?”

It was tempting to say down, and be done with the whole thing. But it didn’t make much sense not holding off the phone conversation until the parking lot a hundred yards away.

“Just started.”

Bran walked off and stopped at a split in the trail. He turned around. “That way takes you on the other side of Sentinel Hill to Frasier’s Pond. They call it a pond. Some days you can catch ducks floating on a bit of water, others you can search all you want and won’t find it.” He pointed his thumb behind him. “And this way up to the summit. Hope you’re carrying bear spray. It’s a ton more useful than the phone.”

He gave one nod before resuming his trek along the path ahead of him. Aubrie stood there, letting the seconds tick by, in disbelief that he’d walked off. When she couldn’t see him after a bend in the trail, she hurried to the split.

“Are you serious?” she shouted.

Bran was simply going to bump into her and not walk with her? Was this some reverse psychology he was using? Or did he want to be on his own?

Aubrie wanted to be on her own when she first started out. But she hadn’t thought of bears, or what would happen if she sprained an ankle out on her own. The whole idea of hiking seemed dumb now.

Bran retraced his steps back to where she could see him. “What, about the bears?”

She spread her arms out and dropped them in frustration. She didn’t know if she was asking about the bears, or if he really meant to leave her on her own.

She traversed the distance to him, trying to shake off the feeling that every step was under scrutiny. No, hiking wasn’t something she’d done often, but how hard could it be? Whatever she needed to figure out, she would. She went to med school, dammit. She can work out hiking.

“Were you really going to leave me to hike by yourself?” It was hard to read him, despite knowing him better over the last several days. It was much easier to assume everything he did was for himself, but she knew him enough to know that wasn’t true.

He chuckled, biting the swollen bit of his lip.

“You know that’s not going to heal if you keep irritating it.”

He looked at her quizzically. “Now, why on earth would I want to hike by myself when I could have the joy of such helpful company?”

She chuckled. “Okay, I get it. Be on your merry way.”

“I’m kidding. I figured”—he squinted into the sky—“a full minute before you realized you’d want my company.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Why do you make it so hard to be with you?”

His eyes flinched, as if a spark had ignited a flame only to be burned out instantly. “Aubrie, would you like to join me up Sentinel Hill?”

It was her turn to pretend. She sighed, looking up at the sky. She looked over her shoulder, toward the start of the trail.

“And I’m the one who’s hard to be around?” Bran gave a stare in mock seriousness.

“Okay. I’ll join you.”

“Great.” He gestured for her to walk ahead.

“Thanks.”

“Oh, that’s just so the bears get you first.”

She stopped walking and pivoted on her heel.

“I’m kidding again. Sheesh.” He caught up with her and took to her left, the trail wide enough to accommodate the both of them unless someone came down their way. “The bears are true, by the way. Black bears, at least. Grizzlies are on the other side of the state.”

“Good to know. Ever seen one here?”

“No. You’ll hear about sightings every now and then. But me, never personally.”

“You seem to know your way around.”

“I hiked more as a kid. Used to come up here with my dad. He liked the view at the top, pointing out all the places down below. Then, after my mom died, he stopped coming. I did, too, at least at first. Once I got a little older, I was able to ride my bike around town, and I found myself coming here. I think when something like that happens, it’s good to have somewhere to escape to.”

“Healthier than other things.”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

It was then that she saw him for his age, the start of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, the strand or two of grays in his hair. He didn’t bring a backpack, but there was a definite weight in his steps.

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about what happened if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s all right. I’ve told you most of what there is to tell.”

As the trail turned upward, conversation faded. They made the ascent, a series of switchbacks that turned rockier the higher they reached. Every muscle in Aubrie’s legs ached as she urged them to move on. Bran shed his jacket but wasn’t breathing as hard as Aubrie. He stopped every so often for a water break, which she suspected he did for her out-of-shape sake.

“Nearly there.” He offered his water bottle.

Aubrie shook hers in her hand. “I’ve still got a little.”

He led the way to the top, the trees clearing into short, wheat-colored grass. To the right was a cliff made of boulders, as if they stood atop a mound of enormous rocks covered in a tarp of dirt and grass to accommodate the climb.

The wind whipped the bangs and loose tresses along Aubrie’s face. “It’s beautiful.”

Maiden’s Bay sat below, the sea beyond. They were higher than the restaurant of Doc’s retirement announcement, higher than the outskirts of Maiden’s Bay. A handful of rooftops dotted the curved hillside to the right, a good hundred feet below.

“It looks so tiny, yet so vast from here.” The Ferris wheel she had noticed this morning that appeared overnight sat on the southern rim of shoreline. She looked over at Bran to ask about it but held back. He surprisingly looked content, as if he could stand there all day. “You like it here, don’t you?”

His smile remained. “I think I do. More each day.” His eyes met hers, a rush of flutters catching her off guard.

Aubrie smiled back. “It was worth the climb.”

“Despite being with me?” Bran joked.

Aubrie nudged him with her elbow. “You got me up here quicker than I would have on my own.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Stop.” Aubrie laughed.

The wind died down, as if out of respect for the silence they now stood in.

Bran turned away from the view, toward Aubrie. “Look, about the other day—”

Aubrie held up a hand. She didn’t want to go into all of it. Not now, this nice moment, just the two of them, no one else in the world. Standing at the top of it.

“I just—”

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. “Sorry, hold on.” She checked the caller. “It’s Doc.”

Bran gave a nod.

“Doc Bernie, everything okay?” She held a finger to her free ear, the wind picking back up again.

“I need you to get over here. I called Bran as well but keep getting his voicemail.”

Aubrie looked over at him. “He’s with me. Doesn’t have his cell phone on him.”

“Good. I could use you both. It’s an emergency.” Doc hung up before Aubrie could respond. She stared at her phone in disbelief.

“What is it?”

“Doc says we need to come in now. Some sort of emergency.”

“What kind?”

“He didn’t say. Hung up before I could ask.”

“Then we’d better go.”

Aubrie nodded in agreement, and they started their descent, steps quicker from the urgency and the easier downhill.

“I told you,” Bran said as they rounded a switchback.

“Told me what?”

“Never bring a cell phone hiking.”