Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The next day, Margo convinced Caroline to drop her off at Rockridge Grill for lunch, while Caroline ran errands. The food was fantastic—she'd had a few spots back in Jersey that she really liked, but nothing could quite compare to how good the food she'd had since coming back was. She'd always known her mother was an exceptional cook, of course, but she was surprised at how good this was.

She'd ordered a tuna melt and fries and had been delivered a sandwich twice the size of what she'd expected, with fresh-made tuna salad on sourdough, and melty local cheddar cheese on top. The fries were thin and crispy, just how she liked them, and they came with a lemon garlic aioli that went perfectly with the fish.

She nibbled at it while she looked over the notepad she'd brought with her, that had a list of ideas she and her sisters had gathered for the fundraiser.

Build-a-Tree , the name they'd given the Christmas-tree-decorating contest, was scrawled at the top of the page, with a list of jotted-down notes under it that they'd put together the night before.

Margo was still surprised that they'd liked her idea so much. She hadn't expected them to take her seriously—in fact, she'd really expected the exact opposite when she'd suggested it. For them to brush her off, to say she couldn't possibly know what would work, when she'd been gone for so long.

But instead, she was looking at the fruit of that suggestion on the list in front of her, and this was something that the three of them were doing together. She couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

She was just underlining a note about concessions for the contest when she saw someone approaching her table out of the corner of her eye. She looked up abruptly, and her heart did a somersault in her chest when she saw that it was Spencer standing there.

He really was too handsome for his own good—and hers, she thought. She didn't think she'd ever had such a handsome doctor before. And here he was, out of the office, standing there smiling at her, clearly taking time out of his day to come and intentionally say hi.

She managed a smile herself, feeling a flutter of nervousness as she looked at him. "Did you come over to tell me that I'm not abiding by doctor's orders by being out and about?"

Spencer chuckled. "Oh, I don't know about that. I think fresh air and socializing with others is great medicine. I think you're abiding by my prescribed recovery plan just fine," he said teasingly. "As long as you're not planning on driving yourself home," he added quickly.

"Oh, no," Margo assured him. "Definitely not. Caroline is going to come pick me up."

"Well then." Spencer smiled. "Nothing to worry about."

She knew there was no real purpose in inviting him to sit down and chat for a minute. The broken leg might have trapped her in Evergreen Hollow for a bit longer than she'd planned, but she had no intentions of staying any longer than she strictly needed to. As soon as she recovered, she still planned on leaving.

But he was standing there looking at her, with his easy, amiable air and handsome face, a body altogether nicer than what she thought any doctor needed to have, his blond hair and sparkling hazel eyes—and she couldn't resist the urge to get to know him a little better. She didn't want him to walk away just yet, and she gave in to the urge, even though she knew it wasn't going to go anywhere.

"Do you want to sit down?" she invited. "If you don't have anywhere else you need to be just yet."

"Sure." Spencer flashed her another of those wide smiles. "I'm not in any hurry. Long lunches are definitely one of the perks of this small-town doctor life."

Margo laughed at that, as he slid into the opposite side of the booth. "I used to eat lunch at my desk when I was in the office," she admitted. "But I didn't spend a lot of time there. I was always traveling. A lot of lunches on the go."

"You said you're a photojournalist, right?" He looked at her with a keen interest in his eyes. "That seems like an exciting job."

"It is. Was ," she corrected herself, with a fresh pang of hurt in her chest. "I was laid off."

Spencer made a sympathetic sound, clicking his tongue against his teeth. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, and Margo thought he sounded sincere. "It's a bad time of year for that to happen."

Margo nodded. "I came back home to—I don't know. Think about things, I guess. It seemed like the right place to retreat to, at the time. But I haven't been home in years. I avoided coming back here at all, really. So it's been challenging in more ways than one. And now I've found myself wondering if maybe stacking the stress of coming back home after so long on top of a layoff wasn't really the right choice."

"Why did you leave in the first place?" Spencer asked curiously. "If you don't mind my asking, that is."

"No, I don't mind." She let out a slow breath, remembering as she did that she'd had a tuna sandwich for lunch, and she fought the urge to touch her hand to her mouth with embarrassment. But Spencer didn't seem to notice anything, and she couldn't bring herself to care all that much. He had the most beautiful eyes she thought she'd ever seen on a man, hazel with just the right amount of green, and he was looking at her as if he was genuinely interested in everything she might have to say. So she kept talking.

"I was engaged to a guy right out of high school. Local guy. Planned to stick around, marry him, the whole small-town nine yards. And then he went to go help out his grandparents that first summer after we graduated, and he met someone else. He didn't tell me about it either. He made all kinds of excuses for it later, when I found out, but at the end of the day…"

She shrugged, pressing her lips thinly together. "He still did what he did. We couldn't fix things, and I don't know that he really wanted to. I'd always wanted to see the world. I'd been willing to stick around for him because I was young and thought he was the love of my life and all that, but afterward, I just wanted to get as far away from Evergreen Hollow and all those memories as I could. So I did. I made a job out of going as far away as I could, as often as I could. And now I'm right back here where I started."

There was more bitterness in her voice, at the end, than she'd meant for there to be. But Spencer didn't look judgmental as he looked at her across the table.

"I can understand that," Spencer said slowly. "That's a difficult thing to deal with. And right out of high school too, when you don't even really know what you want your life to be yet. None of that could have been easy." He looked at her with what she thought might be sympathy, or encouragement, or maybe a little of both. "But sometimes you need to give people and places another chance. So maybe that's what you're getting to do right now."

Margo nodded, then pushed the notepad toward him so he could see the list of ideas. "I'm hoping that this fundraiser might be an olive branch with my family. Me helping out with all of this. I haven't handled distance from my hometown all that well, I know that. So maybe this will make a difference."

"There's always time," Spencer told her firmly. "I believe that. You've got time now."

"Doctor Thorpe?" The woman at the takeout counter called out his name, and he gave Margo an apologetic look.

"That's my order. I'd sit and eat with you so we could finish talking, but a couple of the nurses back at the clinic asked me to pick up some lunch for them too, so I've got to get back."

"Of course," Margo agreed quickly, shoving down any disappointment she felt. "It was nice to sit and chat."

"It was." Spencer paused as he stood. "Do you need any help with the fundraiser?"

She felt that somersault in her chest again. Once again too, she had the thought that it was pointless to pursue this. She was going to take off again as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and Spencer clearly had put down firm roots here. But she did need help. Nora and Caroline had pointed out over and over what a short time frame they were on to get this done, in order for it to actually help the situation with the roof.

"Sure," she said with a smile. "That would be great."

"Here you go, then." Spencer fished out a business card from his pocket, handing it to her. "Give me a call and let me know what I can help with."

She felt herself blush, just a little. "Okay." She took the card, slipping it into her pocket. "I'll do that."

Margo watched him walk away, going to pick up his food, and she questioned the wisdom of calling him. Of getting herself involved in anything that might give her more of a reason than just her family to miss Evergreen Hollow when she left.

Because she was going to leave.

Anything else was just a temporary distraction until then.