Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

It was one in the afternoon, and Spencer Thorpe, Evergreen Hollow's resident doctor, was ready to take his lunch break.

The morning had been full of patients. A successful morning, with nothing more serious than a light case of the flu, but a busy one. The winter always seemed to be busy, between kids coming down with various bugs and winter injuries, and the usual cold-weather aches and pains that tended to plague Evergreen Hollow's older residents. But he was happy to help. He enjoyed his work, and had done ever since he'd taken over his father Alan's practice a year ago. He did, however, think there was something to the idea of hiring an extra nurse. Just so he got to actually take a lunch break more often.

As if to underline that thought, he heard the door open just as he was about to shrug out of his white coat. He stepped out into the waiting room instead, since the receptionist was still on lunch herself. It was just him, for now.

Sabrina Burns was walking toward him. She was hard to miss, with her bright red hair. He would have known her even if he hadn't been able to see her tight, harried expression.

"Oh, Spencer! I'm glad to see you." She dusted a little snow off her coat, talking rapidly. "I have a prescription to pick up? For the anti-anxiety medication."

"Ah. Hold on. It should be here in your file." He circled around the desk, thumbing through the yellow folders. "You know," he added wryly as he found hers and opened it up, "you probably wouldn't need it if you weren't so nosy, and didn't get so worked up about other people's business." He smiled as he said it, taking a little of the sting out of the words. "But, I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker. So there's no way for me to reverse one of your most prominent character traits, I'm afraid." He held out the prescription to her.

Sabrina sniffed, taking it out of his hand, but there was a small smile at the corners of her mouth. "You're lucky you're so handsome," she teased. "I wouldn't let anyone else talk to me like that."

"I know." Spencer leaned on the side of the counter, raising an eyebrow. "But I'm your doctor. It's my job to dispense medical advice."

"Well, it's always good advice. You really have been such a great addition to the community over this past year." Sabrina flashed him a brilliant smile. "I really don't know what we did without you, before. The only thing I'm wondering is how you came to us without a Mrs. Thorpe in tow—or barring that, how you managed to spend a whole year here without one of the Evergreen Hollow ladies locking you down."

Spencer chuckled, side-eyeing her as he closed the file and tucked it away. "I just haven't found the right person," he said simply. "I'm sure if it's meant to be, it will happen."

"But in San Francisco?" Sabrina clucked her tongue. "I can't believe out of all those eager ladies that there must have been to choose from, you couldn't find anyone . A whole city! I'm sure your work kept you busy, but there must have been someone ."

He shook his head, stepping back around the desk. "No one important enough to mention," he assured her. "Besides, there were more choices, you're right. In everything, really. But I love the quiet life here. I can hear myself think, and pause to appreciate the simple beauties in life. The girls I met there weren't interested in a slower-paced life. Whoever I choose to spend the rest of my life with would need to be."

"So you always intended on coming back here?" Sabrina pressed, and Spencer chuckled.

He knew she'd keep pressing as long as she thought she could get information about him. It was just her nature. She loved gossip, and she loved knowing as much as she possibly could about the residents of Evergreen Hollow.

She hadn't gotten nearly enough out of him over the past year, and anyway, a year of residence was practically a week compared to how long most people had lived here. He was still basically a newcomer, in Evergreen Hollow time.

"It was always in the back of my head," he said. "I thought I'd come back when the time was right. Which is a practice I apply to most things. Nothing should be rushed. When it's right, it'll happen."

He could tell that wasn't the answer Sabrina wanted from the way she wrinkled her nose. But he didn't have the kind of gossip he knew she was hungry for. And he wasn't overly interested in discussing his personal life, or the lack thereof.

"Well, I'll keep an eye out for prospects to send your way," Sabrina said, tucking the prescription into her purse. "And I'll be sure to wait for a thank you when you find the love of your life because of me."

Spencer laughed at that. "I'll say thank you now, for thinking of me. But I should probably get to lunch before someone else comes through that door."

"Oh! Of course. Sorry for keeping you." Sabrina pushed the door open, heading back out into the cold, and he followed her as he exchanged his white doctor's coat for a heavier black peacoat to ward against the frigid air outside.

Despite the chill, he opted to walk to Rockridge Grill for lunch. It was only a couple of blocks away, and the nurse would be back from her own break soon. He figured she could handle it long enough for him to get lunch, and the Tuesday special at Rockridge Grill was always a meatloaf sandwich. He'd been thinking about it all day, hoping he'd be able to duck out long enough to grab one.

It was yet another thing he liked about Evergreen Hollow, he thought. Back in San Francisco, taking a lunch break just wasn't a possibility. He was lucky to scarf down half a cafeteria sandwich that someone else brought him, or get a bag of chips between appointments. Taking even a half hour to go and get a hearty lunch was unheard of. He'd worked days, more often than not, where he got to the hospital before breakfast and left after dinner.

The work had been fulfilling in many ways. He'd worked on cases far more difficult than he ever saw here, and felt the glow of solving someone's problem, of giving them a new and better quality of life afterward. He'd used his skills to their fullest, and often been challenged. But he'd been doing that for years. And he'd started to burn out, as much as he'd known he wasn't supposed to admit it.

He'd been glad, deep down, for a reason to come home. A reason to slow down, to live and work somewhere where an emergency was the exception, not a multiple-times-per-day occurrence. Where he could breathe, and start to think about what else he might want for his life beyond just work.

A relationship might be part of that. He was in no hurry, and had no desire to rush it. But he'd definitely thought about what it might be like to have time to really date someone. He wouldn't have to let someone down any longer by canceling dates because he couldn't leave the hospital in time, or having to slip out of bed at three in the morning because he was on call, or abandon a date in the middle of dinner. He wouldn't come home exhausted, night after night, in no mood to go out to a movie or drinks or the theater because he'd lost a patient, or had to give someone bad news, or repeated that multiple times throughout the day.

If he found someone, he thought, he might be able to form a long-lasting relationship. To have a partner, get married, possibly even have children in the future. He didn't know if those things were in the cards for him, but they were at least possibilities now.

He had a feeling that it wasn't going to be Sabrina though, who paired him with the right woman.

More often than not, he thought instead, the right one would arrive when he least expected it.