The Magnificent M.D. Read Online Free PDF Page A

tables in the cafeteria by day and tending bar at night. But wasn’t it also a way to assuage the old man’s conscience, too?
    There would be time to ask her. Time for her to explain, if she could, what had happened back then. There would be six months, to be exact. So he left a few days after she did, after he’d loaded his black Porsche with the tools of his trade, his notebook computer with a CD Rom and access to the latest developments in medicine from every known medical journal, updated daily, a box of medical journals, clothes and a few, very few, personal items. He didn’t need much. He wasn’t going to be there that long. Just long enough to pay off his debt.
    He thought long and hard about the debt as he drove the coast highway. It was going to take some getting used to after years of feeling no obligation to anyone. He’d pretty much raised himself, put himself through school and now he was in practice for himself. But not out of debt. Not yet. Not for six months. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, hearing he owed her grandfather and, by extension, Hayley and the whole town. He thought he’d done it all on his own. He was proud of that.
    It was a good feeling, being independent. Having no one dependent on him. After a childhood spent in poverty he was able to buy whatever he wanted, the fastest motorcycle, the most expensive sports car. Yes, he had a good life. Things were going well…except for the occasional outburst when things didn’t go right. He couldn’t stand losing a patient. Refused to believe it had to happen. He didn’t need to take a break. He’d fully intended to go and confront Al one more time. And he would have if Hayley hadn’t come back in his life…if she’d kept the secret the way her grandfather had asked her to.
    He drove slowly through town, holding the memories at arm’s length, trying to see it as a stranger would, instead of as the town bad boy. He noted the fragrant smell of freshly sawed Douglas fir, indicating the mill was still inoperation. What did they do without a doctor in town when there were injuries? he wondered. The brick buildings on Main Street looked the same, though several shops had closed and boarded their windows. He rolled down his windows to let the salt air rush in and fill his nostrils. He’d forgotten how invigorating it could be. How stale it made all other air feel.
    He couldn’t bring himself to go in to Doc Bancroft’s old office yet, so he drove past the office that occupied the building that had once been somebody’s clapboard house. But that was way before his time. It had been the doctor’s office since Sam could remember. Where the old man had practiced medicine with a firm hand. Where Sam himself had been treated for injuries more than once. And once too often. He drove slowly around the block, wondering idly where the bed and breakfast was she said she’d book him into, trying to imagine how he was going to practice general medicine in this town for one day, let alone six months.
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    â€œStop pacing,” Matilda Whitlock ordered Hayley. “And stop staring out the window. He’s not coming. He never did anything he was supposed to do in his life. Why should he start now?”
    â€œFor one reason, he said he would,” Hayley told the rotund nurse, veteran of several decades of service to her grandfather.
    â€œHah!”
    â€œFor another reason,” Hayley continued, “he’s changed. He’s a successful surgeon. You wouldn’t recognize him, Mattie.”
    â€œWant to bet? He’s still a good-looking son of a gun, I suppose?”
    â€œI guess so.” Hayley bent over to straighten a stack ofrecent magazines on the end table, hoping Mattie wouldn’t see the flush that stained her cheeks. The woman saw far too much, remembered everything and was loyal to those she loved and unforgiving to anyone with a character flaw.