The Doctor's Medicine Woman. Donna Clayton

smile waning, Travis seemed momentarily unsure of the meaning of her statement. Diana liked the idea of keeping him on his toes and made no effort to explain her thoughts further.

      “Normally,” she said, “I would become the apprentice of another Shaman. I would have learned everything I needed to know without leaving the reservation. But I wanted more. I wanted a formal education. And my grandmother agreed. So I attended college, and then medical school.”

      “What if your grandmother hadn’t agreed?”

      Diana lifted one shoulder slightly. “That wouldn’t have happened. My grandmother is a wise woman. She knows there is very little opportunity on the reservation. We already have two family physicians. It’s a small tribe. Too small to support three doctors. She knew I would someday have to find another path to follow.”

      “A different path? You’re thinking of quitting—”

      “No, no,” she assured him. “I am a Kolheek Medicine Woman, first and foremost. I will remain on my chosen path. But if I’m to support myself, it will someday take me to a different place. Off the reservation.”

      “I see.” He glanced over to check on the boys, and then his dark gaze leveled on her once again. “How do you feel about that? Leaving your home? Your grandmother?”

      Diana averted her gaze for an instant. She moistened her lips, and tilted up her chin as she told him, “I love my grandmother dearly. She raised me. But all baby birds must someday leave the nest, fly on their own, isn’t that so?”

      She’d left the nest once. She’d married and thought she’d made a home for herself in California. But then she’d been wounded, she’d fled back to the reservation, her heart ripped and torn to shreds, her wings broken and bleeding.

      “Sounds like you and your grandmother are very close.”

      “Yes,” she answered softly. She would miss her grandmother this holiday season. But Diana was determined to make her grandmother proud by doing right by the twins. Jared and Josh would know what it meant to be Kolheek when she was through. She could take great pride in that.

      A frown bit into his brow as if something worrisome had just then entered his mind. “Maybe you can help me to understand something. Can you tell me what she meant today? Your grandmother, I mean. With that cryptic parting phrase she gave me? The one about fate? And seeing what it had in store?”

      The sudden anxiety clouding Travis’s gaze had a startling effect on Diana. Empathy enveloped her like the warm blanket of sunshine that covers the New England mountains each summer.

      Travis continued, “She wouldn’t let me bring the boys home, get them settled, only to deny me the right to adopt them after your stay, would she?”

      His distress turned to raw fear, and Diana thought her heart would surely rend in two. And in that instant, bells and whistles sounded in her head, red warning flags waved furiously. She had no business caring so much about this man’s reactions to her grandmother’s words. No business whatsoever.

      Chapter Two

      Then we’ll see what fate has in store.

      Her grandmother’s words had flitted through Diana’s head more than once since she’d left the reservation with Travis. She remembered the unsettled feeling the obscure yet seemingly momentous statement had stirred in her as she stood with Travis before the Council.

      Diana’s first thought had been that the remark had been meant for her benefit, and she’d been bewildered by what message her grandmother might be trying to relay to her. But hearing Travis’s doubts regarding her grandmother’s intentions now had Diana wondering if maybe he was right. Maybe her grandmother had been issuing some kind of warning to Travis about the boys. That did make more sense. But if this was so, then it was a cruel thing for her grandmother to have done to Travis. The man was trying to do something good here. Something honorable and compassionate. Now he was being made to worry about having the twins taken from him after opening his home—and his heart—to Jared and Josh. Would her grandmother have done something so unkind?

      Sympathy for Travis pained Diana’s heart. He needed reassurance. She could tell from the expression on his face, from the doubt shadowing his intense, black eyes.

      “To my knowledge, the Council has never retracted a promise,” she told him softly. “And they did make you a promise today. They said they wanted you and the boys to become a family. To the Kolheek, a person’s word means everything—honor, pride, honesty, integrity. A person’s character is only as good as his or her word. I cannot believe…”

      Her voice faltered and then trailed away as she tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. As much as she wanted to assure him, she refused to tell him anything other than the full and honest truth.

      After expelling a resigned sigh, she said, “But I cannot mislead you. This situation is far different than any I’ve ever experienced. The Council is concerned about the boys. About their living away from their culture. About your being single.” She sighed. “Until the adoption papers are signed by each Council member and the documents are in your hands, then…I would suppose that anything is possible.”

      “Great.” His utterance was soft, more to himself than to anyone else.

      Again, compassion squeezed her in its tight grip. “The Council did say they wanted you to have the boys.”

      “Only two of the members actually spoke,” he reminded her.

      “They were the Council representatives. They spoke the thoughts of everyone. If even one member had disagreed, you can be sure he or she would have spoken up.”

      Gratitude tinged his tone as he murmured his appreciation. She smiled at him, her stomach suddenly feeling all giddy and…and strange.

      Just then a plastic drinking straw from one of the boys’ sodas came flying over Travis’s head, landing on the blue carpeted aisle separating Travis’s and Diana’s seats. Automatically she reached down to pick it up. After quietly warning the boys to settle down, Travis turned back to her and took the straw from her.

      The pads of his fingers were warm as they gently brushed the backs of hers. A chill shimmied up her arm, churning up gooseflesh, and she shivered. She darted a glance at his strong hand, and then again at his handsome profile. Luckily Travis was in motion, swinging back around to speak to the twins, and he didn’t seem to notice her astonishing response to his touch.

      She curled her fingers into a fist and stuffed her hand into her lap. Reacting to Travis was the very last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t want to be affected by him. Men were the cause of too much pain. Too much humiliation. Her only goal on this trip was to spend time with Jared and Josh, to acquaint them with their heritage. If she could help assuage Travis’s doubts and fears about the adoption, she would. If she could help the boys feel more comfortable with their new father, she’d do that, too. But she didn’t want any involvement with Travis other than what was necessary for the boys’ sake.

      Okay, so she found him handsome. Any woman would. His onyx eyes were appealingly intelligent, his long, neat hair glossy and inviting, his sexy mouth sent sensuous ideas flitting through her mind—

      She cut the thought to the quick. Her body was only reacting to his good looks. This was mere physiology. She was smart enough to know that.

      The steward ambled by, instructing passengers to return seats to the full, upright position and gathering used napkins and empty soda cans in preparation for landing. But Diana barely heard, so involved was she in her thoughts.

      The fact that she’d identified her attraction to Travis early was a good thing. She gave a mental nod. A very good thing. What she was experiencing was a completely natural response. Purely physical in nature…hence, totally controllable if she remained vigilantly cognizant of it.

      Diana glanced over at Travis, but saw only the back of his sleek,