Rescued By Marriage. Dianne Drake

we’re glad to have you here, Doc Riordan,” Mayor Bruce Vargas responded.

      “Call me Della.”

      “Doc Della,” he said. “The village of Redcliffe is anxious to have you set up and going, and we’re ready to do anything required to help you.”

      “Dr Riordan and I have some medical matters to discuss,” Sam Montgomery said, stepping up to the platform. “I hate to break this up and I know everybody’s thrilled to have her here, but before she can start her practice we have some issues to go over about health-care requirements in Massachusetts.” Whatever that meant, since he really was quite far removed from the real medical world now. He looked directly at Della. “I’m Dr Sam Montgomery,” he said, extending his hand to her.

      She nodded, and took his hand, but didn’t say a word.

      “You look like you could use a cup of coffee.” Or a shot of penicillin and a week in bed.

      She nodded. “That would be nice.” But she didn’t smile, and the only word he could think of to describe what he was seeing was heartbreak. Dr Della Riordan was suffering from a broken heart. No wonder she’d been so quick to accept this offer. Why else would anybody want to come to Redcliffe to practice medicine if they weren’t trying to get away from something?

      * * *

      The tiny bit of the village she saw looked nice enough. The main street was quaint, with its tidy Cape Cod style predominant in the architecture. The people here smiled at each other and exchanged pleasant greetings. The air was pure and crisp. And the ride over on Captain Cecil’s boat hadn’t been bad at all in the salty breeze—what she’d seen of it through the tears. All good signs, but none of them did anything to alleviate her pain. She already missed Meghan so badly she wasn’t sure she could survive the next five minutes away from her, let alone the next five months. But if she turned around now and went right back to Miami with even less than she’d had when she’d left there…No, that wasn’t an alternative. She had to make this situation work, no matter what it was she’d gotten herself into.

      “I appreciate the coffee,” she said, sliding into the booth across from Sam as he waved for the waitress. “I’ve had a long twenty-four hours and I think it’s finally catching up with me. This time yesterday I’d barely even heard of Redcliffe Island except for what I’d read in the offer papers, and now I’m a resident here for the next five years. It’s a lot to deal with in the span of a day.”

      “One of those strange twists of fate. This time yesterday I’d barely even heard of Redcliffe Island, either. And now everybody here knows my name.”

      “They are friendly, aren’t they?” she said, her voice on the edge of a tremble. He seemed nice. Handsome, for sure. Wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes. Fetching build, too. Probably around six feet tall, he cut a handsome figure in his casual jeans and T-shirt, and she especially liked his relaxed smile. She thought about Anthony for a moment. Nothing about him had ever been casual or relaxed. He’d been the epitome of starched and polished perfection and he’d had quite the sharp edge to his beau ideal. She couldn’t recall ever having seen him in a T-shirt and jeans in all their years of marriage, let alone sitting in a cozy, comfortable diner, sipping coffee. No, he had been too upscale for such a thing.

      “Would you like something to eat?” Sam offered. “A sandwich, maybe a cup of chowder?”

      She shook her head. Truth was, it was easier not to eat. The way she’d felt so much of the time lately, there wasn’t much point since whatever she ate merely turned into a nauseated muddle in the pit her stomach. “So, what, exactly, do you do here? I was led to believe I was the only doctor on the island.”

      “Technically, you are. But I’m here from the state health commission, basically to make sure your transition into your new practice is a smooth one. Redcliffe has a peculiar history with its doctors, so I’ll be around for a while to…to assist you where I can, I suppose you could say.”

      “What, exactly, is this peculiar history, other than their doctors not staying?”

      “You don’t know?”

      She shook her head, although she wasn’t about to tell him she’d bought the practice on a whim. A very fast, possibly very foolish whim.

      “Like you already know, nobody wants to stay. The people are nice, the island is a veritable Atlantic paradise, but I think the past few doctors have found the island to be a little more off the beaten path than they expected. Quite restrictive, I think. When you hear paradise you think of glamorous, and nothing here is about glamor. Also, the earning potential is not nearly as great as it might be on the mainland, just a few miles away. Personally, I think that’s a huge factor in the reason no one wants to stay. Then there’s the isolation…some people aren’t cut out for it. And it’s quite isolated, as you already know. Which is what surprises me about you coming here…alone. You are alone, aren’t you?”

      “For now,” she said, sighing. “And I came here because I want to be off the beaten path.” That much was absolutely true. She wanted to set up her new life without the Riordans’ interference, and interference was a distinct likelihood if she did it under their scrutiny.

      “Then you’ve come to the right place because I’m not even sure if there is a beaten path.”

      “Speaking of the right place, I’d like to go find it and get myself settled in. Do you know where it is?”

      He raised his eyebrows skeptically. “You don’t?”

      “I’m not very good at directions.” That was a bit of a hedge, but there was no reason to include him in every little detail of her business transaction. Truth was, buying what she had, sight unseen, might seem a little strange to most people, and what she didn’t want was for word to get around that the new doctor was wonky in such affairs, because that could get back to the judge. So instead of admitting that quite possibly she was wonky, or worse, she merely smiled. “I get myself lost at the end of my driveway and right now I’m not even sure if I go left or right to get there.”

      “Then we’ll go pick up your loaner car from the mayor, and you can follow me on out there.”

      She wanted to ask how far on out was, but instead she took another sip of coffee. It didn’t matter anyway. However far it was, she owned it, and for the next five years it was going to be her home sweet home. In a little over five months, home sweet home for Meghan, too. That, and nothing else, was what mattered.

      CHAPTER TWO

      THE loaner car was nice—a compact little SUV. Purple. The mayor explained that it belonged to his daughter who was off to college right now, and Della’s first thought was why would a college girl need a car on Redcliffe Island? Was there anyplace to go here? Of course, she didn’t ask. That would have been impolite. Instead, she accepted the keys graciously and promised to be careful.

      “I might stop in to see you later,” Mayor Vargas said, as he rubbed his shoulder. “Got a little touch of arthritis setting in, I’m afraid. Maybe you could take a look.”

      Her first patient. This was promising. Here less than an hour and she was about to get busy. “Stop by any time.” She assumed he knew where to stop by, and she would have told him to call for an appointment, but she didn’t know if her phone service was in operation yet. Land-line phone. She’d given up her cellphone right after she’d given up just about everything else that had added an extra bill to her burden. In her old life the cost of it hadn’t mattered; in her new life it did tremendously. “I’ll be glad to have a look at you.” She was tempted to tell him to bring all his friends along for an exam, too, but that would have seemed rather bold of her.

      “So, is there anything else we can do to help you get settled in, Doc?” he asked. “I know some of the ladies are going to bring meals to you for a while, until you’re set up on your own.”

      “I hadn’t