Chapter 1

Almost One Year Later…

D anica Hartling walked into the hospital and glanced down at her clipboard to confirm the name of the person she was supposed to contact. Her short-term memory seemed to be getting worse every day. She shrugged, then looked over at the receptionist with a smile and stated, “I’m here to see Dr. Wingford.”

The woman at the front counter frowned at her. “He died last year.”

Danica rechecked her clipboard. “Dr. Wingford?” she repeated.

“Yes, old doc Wingford died late last year.”

“That can’t be,” Danica said, shaking her head. “I spoke to him yesterday.”

The lady sitting next to the receptionist interjected, “I think she’s asking for Dr. Cameron Wingford.”

The receptionist queried the woman at her counter, “Dr. Cameron? That’s Dr. Jonathon Wingford’s son.”

“Yes,” Danica stated, “Dr. Cameron Wingford. I didn’t realize there was a father and son pair here.”

The receptionist waved her hand around. “There was the father, and now there is the son. He’s on duty in the ER, and it’s a little busy right now,” she noted.

Danica nodded. “Right. He did tell me that he would likely be busy.”

“Yes, he’s very busy. Maybe you could come back at another time?” The receptionist looked at the clipboard in Danica’s hand, trying to hide her emotions. “Or maybe you could tell me what your visit is about, and I’ll have him call you when he gets a moment.”

“Which means he’ll never call me at all,” Danica stated, with a laugh. “That’s okay.” She glanced around at the fairly empty hospital waiting room. Yet she wasn’t at the ER area, and she heard noises coming from the busy nurses’ station behind her. She turned to the receptionist again. “I’ll go grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. I’ll come back afterward to see if he’s not so busy. Do you know when he’s off shift?”

The receptionist winced. “We’re so short on staff that I couldn’t possibly say.”

“Right,” Danica agreed, “and that’s a problem in itself.”

The receptionist appeared nervous and kept glancing at Danica’s clipboard.

“It’s all right. I’m not here to question how many hours he’s working or whether you guys are following the board regulations or not,” Danica shared, with a smile.

Again the receptionist asked, “Maybe you could tell me why you are here?”

“I think it best if I wait and talk to him personally,” she pointed out gently.

The receptionist dropped her gaze to the paperwork Danica still carried.

“It’s fine,” Danica stated. “He’s not in any trouble, but I do need to see him face-to-face.”

“If you say so,” the receptionist muttered.

Danica glanced around, looking for signs to direct her to the cafeteria. When she pivoted back to the receptionist, the woman pointed down the hallway. Danica smiled. “Thanks. Let him know I’m here, will you?”

“And who are you again?” asked the receptionist in a dry tone.

“Danica Hartling. Sorry.” She brought out the card she often used and handed it to her. “He’s expecting me.”

The receptionist looked down at the business card. “Medical supplies?”

“Yes and no,” Danica replied, with a laugh. “He’ll know the name.” With that, she turned and headed to the cafeteria. There she sat, with a hot cup of coffee and a sandwich, while she went through her notes.

As she sat here, lost in her own world, she heard a voice calling out to her. She looked up and around but couldn’t see anyone looking for her. Frowning, she went back to her paperwork. When she heard the call again, she twisted around, looking, but still found nothing.

Frowning, she sat back and studied the other people in the room. There didn’t appear to be anybody she would know, so she went back to her paperwork.

Work, work, and more work. That had been all there was for her lately. She was tired and had been on the road a little more than too much. She was only back in town because of her grandmother.

Then she heard her name being called again. Frowning, she glanced around but still found nobody asking for her. Daisy , she thought with a groan and then promptly dismissed the notion. Other people started to look at her curiously. She frowned and looked back down at her paperwork, determined not to look up again.

She had no idea if or why Daisy would even bother. When her phone rang, Danica was glad for the distraction. She checked her Caller ID and answered, “Hey, Nana. I’m at the hospital.”

“Did you talk to him yet?” her grandmother asked testily.

“No, not yet.”

“I told you. He’s a busy man.”

“I know that,” Danica agreed. “He also told me to come to the hospital and see him.”

“You could have set it up more as a date, you know,” her grandmother declared, with a touch of asperity in her tone.

At that, Danica snorted. “No way I’m setting up a call like this as a date.”

“It’s not as if you have a line of men sniffing at your heels. Too much spooky stuff scares them all away.”

“The men are not being kept away by anything spooky.”

“Really? So how come you’ve been looking around the damn room for the last twenty minutes, trying to figure out who’s been calling you?”

Danica froze. She pinched the bridge of her nose, then bowed her head and whispered, “Was that you?”

Her grandmother laughed and laughed. “Child, if it had been me, you wouldn’t have had any doubt about it,” she snapped.

Of that Danica was certain. “Then who was it?” she muttered.

“I don’t know that it was Daisy, but, should that call come through, you sure as heck better be answering.”

“I’m not answering,” Danica retorted. “As you are fully aware, that’s not a good thing for me.”

“And you and I both know that you don’t have any choice in the matter. Ever since you were a little girl, that stuff has been happening around you, and you can’t stop it. Some things are fated.”

“I don’t want it happening around me,” she snapped a little too loudly. She softened her tone, knowing her grandmother meant well. It’s just that Nana didn’t quite understand all Danica went through with this woo-woo stuff.

“Yes, I do understand,” her grandmother countered, once again reading her mind.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that.”

“It’s not my fault you keep transmitting, left, right, and center, child. I really don’t have any choice but to hear them,” she said, with a chuckle, “and you know yourself that you would do the same thing.”

“But I don’t want to do the same thing,” she whined. “I want to be normal.”

After a long pause her grandmother whispered, “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but that will never be your life.” And, with that, she ended the call, leaving Danica staring at her phone with a stricken expression.

She looked around the hospital cafeteria to see if anybody had been listening in, but it seemed that everybody was much more concerned about their own personal problems than hers, which made a lot of sense, considering where she sat. She was here for a completely different purpose than most, and her heart went out to those who were experiencing tough times right now. No words could ever convey the worry of someone with a loved one in here.

When her name was called in a loud preemptory tone, she turned around with a start to see a man striding toward her. She frowned as she studied him, realizing who he was, yet stunned that he still looked so much like he had before.

He stopped in front of her, a frown flashing across his face, only to be rescinded almost immediately. He held out a hand. “I’m Dr. Cameron Wingford,” he stated smoothly.

She smiled and shook his hand, then introduced herself and motioned at the seat beside her. “Have you got a moment?”

“Yes, but only that,” he shared. “This would equate to my break. Things are stable for the moment, but it can turn catastrophic from one moment to the next.”

“Of course,” Danica noted.

“What’s this about anyway?” Then he stopped, eyed her, and leaned closer. “Good God, Danica?” He waved his hand impatiently. “As in, Danica , Danica?”

She groaned and then nodded. “Yes, Danica. Danica Hartling.”

“Good God,” he repeated in shock, sitting back to stare at her.

“Yeah, I seem to get that reaction a lot.”

“Honestly I don’t think anybody would have ever expected you to return to this town.”

“Not sure I wanted to,” she replied, trying for a calm tone. “As you know, it wasn’t a very easy place for me to be back then.”

He winced. “I’m sorry. That was very rude of me.”

She shrugged. “Maybe, but it was also honest, and I’ll take honesty over anything else that I’m getting.”

“You’re back for your grandmother’s sake, I presume,” he asked mildly.

She smiled and nodded. “Yes, and I know my grandmother is another reason a lot of people choose to avoid me.”

He sighed. “She is a character. And the fact that she has that uncanny ability to do all kinds of things that some of us would love to do, while others wish she wouldn’t,” he whispered, with a small smile in her direction, “just adds to the oddness.”

“No need to add to the oddness. When your own mother attacks you in a small town like this, with a grandmother who is one step away from being certifiable”—Danica gave a wave of her hand—“it makes for a rough go.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, with a hint of sorrow in his tone, and it sounded genuine. “High school was rough on all of us, and I was what?… Maybe two—no, three—grades ahead of you?”

She nodded. “Something like that, yeah.”

“How are you?” he asked intently.

She shook her head. “I’m fine,” she replied, adding a note of firmness to her tone that she didn’t really feel.

“Yet, you’re here.”

“I am here, but it has nothing to do with medical equipment. That’s just an old business card. I don’t work for them anymore, but it does open doorways.”

He stiffened and was put on guard. “So, what does this visit pertain to then?” he asked, his gaze searching. “I really don’t have time to waste.”

“I understand,” she responded curtly. “I am quite concerned about my grandmother, but obviously I could book an appointment, if that is the issue.”

“I would hope that you would book an appointment,” he suggested, picking up on her words, “and, yes, it’s probably a good idea if you did. I love her dearly, but…” He just let the word hang.

“But she’s different. She’s odd, perplexing, and a whole lot of things I absolutely love. However, I know a lot of people don’t feel that way.”

“The last time I saw her in person, she told me that one of my best friends from high school was about to have twins and would lose one, if I didn’t do something to help out,” he shared, with a sigh. “I wasn’t even in town at the time, and she did have twins, and she did lose one. As you can imagine, they left town shortly thereafter to help forget about that loss.”

“Yes, my grandmother has always had the sight,” Danica murmured, staring down at the paperwork in front of her. “Unfortunately, having the sight hasn’t helped any of us.”

“True. She seems to have been plagued with a lot of bad luck,” he confirmed, frowning.

“Exactly. And that’s one of the reasons I’m here.” He waited for her to continue. She shrugged. “I don’t really know what to say, except to just say it. It’s regarding the property.”

“The property?” he asked in astonishment.

She nodded. “Yes. The property. Her property,… which is now your property,” she pointed out.

He nodded thoughtfully and stared off into the distance. “And what about it?” he asked, looking at her sideways. Before she could answer, he noted, “I would have thought you got that scar fixed by now.”

Her eyes widened. “I’ve thought of it, and then I get scared and back away from it. So, I haven’t done anything about it yet.”

He nodded. “It really… isn’t that noticeable.”

She snorted. “Yes, it really is noticeable,” she countered, “but I’ve come to a point in life where, if that’s what people want to focus on, then whatever. That’s up to them.”

“And that’s not necessarily fair,” he pointed out, “because people may not want to focus, but it’s right there on your face. So they may need a chance to get comfortable looking at you without staring.”

“Which appears to be a problem,” she conceded shortly. “Besides, this isn’t even about me.”

“No, of course not,” he conceded, “but if you ever do decide to get it fixed…”

Her fingers instinctively reached up to her cheek and the long scar that slashed down that side.

“Even if it’s just the reminder to you,” he offered unsurely, “I’m sure looking at that every morning is not a memory you want.”

“I ran from it for a long time,” she shared, “but now I’ve come home to help my grandmother. So, it appears to be something I’ll deal with for a while longer.”

“I don’t understand,” he said in a confused tone.

She frowned, not sure exactly what she meant herself, so she just shrugged. “That’s not the issue. Can I buy that piece of land from you?”

He looked at her in astonishment. “You mean, my home?”

“No,” she clarified. “You bought two sections of land. One has your home, and the other one is empty land, adjoining my grandmother’s house.”

“Why would you want to buy that?” he asked, frowning. “It’s not very usable land.”

“I understand,” she agreed, “and that’s one of the reasons my grandmother sold it to you in the first place. Yet I know that she would very much like to have it back. It’s just empty land and the creek,” she pointed out.

“The creek, which she already has access to,” he rebutted.

Danica nodded. “And again, I know that.… I just… she asked me to come ask you. It’s important to her, so here I am.” Again she waved her hand. “I seem to be struggling to accomplish an awful lot of things right now that are important to her.”

“I understand,” he replied, as he rounded his fingers on the table beside her, obviously thinking about it. “I won’t give you an answer right off the bat. Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about it. While I’m not using it, and I don’t really need it, I also like not having neighbors too close by.”

“Yet you do have my grandmother as a neighbor.”

“I know,” he grumbled, with an eye roll and a laugh. “Honestly she’s a very quiet neighbor, so the best kind to have.”

Danica nodded at that. “And she comes from the heart, and that’s why I’m really hoping you will open your heart and see a way to let that happen for her.”

“Did she tell you why she wants it back?”

Danica shook her head. “No, she didn’t, and I have been asking,” she stated reluctantly. “However, she’s not being very open about it. When it comes to my grandmother, she gets—” She hesitated and then shrugged. “When she gets stubborn like that, there’s no budging her.”

He chuckled. “My nan was like that too.” His buzzer went off just then. He looked down at the pager and nodded. “And that will be the end of the conversation for the moment.”

“Think about it, please,” Danica added, as he started toward the ER.

“Will do, but I’m really not sure that I want to let it go.” And, with that, he disappeared through the double doors and back into the emergency department.

Danica sat here for a long moment, wondering what she was supposed to tell her grandmother. And yet, knowing that her grandmother already knew the answer, a tap came on her shoulder. She turned to see another familiar face, one that she had hoped to never see again.

Jacob, the bully from her high school days, stared at her in shock. “Good God, it really is you, isn’t it?”

She stood up, hating the towering advantage he had always had over her, and she nodded. “Yeah, it sure is.” She picked up her clipboard.

“What the devil are you doing here?”

She stiffened ever-so-slightly and replied, “My grandmother lives here—in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Oh, who could forget that old bat?” he noted, with a harsh laugh. “What I do know is that this town doesn’t need you. It’s bad enough having to deal with her. We were hoping she would die soon, and we could all live in peace.”

Silence came from the room around them, as everybody suddenly overheard the discussion.

She smiled at him and stated, “She hasn’t passed on yet.” With that, Danica turned and walked out, without another word.

In the silence behind her, she could have heard a pin drop, as everybody settled in, understanding what had just happened and who had returned to town.

The daughter of the woman who was either murdered or committed suicide. No one seems to know for sure.

It was bad enough that they all knew Danica had almost died—or had died, in fact. It was bad enough that everybody already held her grandmother and her mother against Danica. But now, once again, everybody would know who Danica was and why she was here, which was obviously too much for the townsfolk to deal with. Especially since they weren’t happy about her return and were very vocal about it.

And that was something else altogether for Danica to deal with.