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“Come in.” Paige ushered Carly in the landing then guided her up the stairs to Paige’s small apartment.

Carly composed herself by the time she and Paige got to the quaint living room. Paige cleared dishes from the small table that sat at the window, motioning for Carly to join her. Had it really only been a day and a half since she’d shared a drink with Owen there? She glanced out the window to see if she could spot him, but all she saw was his open barn door and some equipment piled outside it. No Owen. Her heart sank ever so slightly.

“Can I make you some tea? Or coffee if that’s your thing?”

“No, thank you.” Carly’s gaze darted around the apartment.

“What’s going on?” Paige jumped right into it. Whatever bothered Carly bubbled at the surface, desperate to get out.

“Elizabeth, my daughter, has been coughing for three weeks, and in the beginning I thought it was just a cold.” Paige reached beside the window to the table her brother and Owen had hoisted up the sixteen stairs for her and found a pen and paper to take notes.

“And now?” Paige asked when Carly paused.

“Now she’s coughing up small amounts of blood with her phlegm, her cough is worse, and I don’t know what to do.”

“How much blood, Carly?” Paige scribbled notes.

“Not much, but enough that I’m worried.”

“I agree. I don’t think it warrants a trip to the ER, but why didn’t you go see Dr. Webber? He can order some X-rays, make sure it’s just pneumonia like it sounds.”

Carly shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears.

“He’s selling his practice. Retiring part time to Helena, I guess?”

Paige was confused.

“Did he send you here?” She didn’t mind helping, but it would be pretty poor form for the local pediatrician to send patients to Paige’s private residence. Especially when she didn’t live full time in Banberry.

“No, he didn’t. I tried getting in touch with him while I was at the grocery store getting Pedialyte for Lizzy and Connie overheard my end of the conversation.”

Paige guessed how the conversation had gone from there, but she let Carly finish.

“Anyway, she told me you were home for a while, said you still had privileges here?”

Paige nodded. “I am. I do.”

Paige kept up her right to practice in the state in case her family needed anything. She could call in scripts and set them up with labs if it looked like they needed it.

“Do you think you can help?”

Paige closed her eyes and sighed. She wanted to, God knew that’s why she got her license in the first place. But that could open up a whole can of worms around an existing practice in limbo. She didn’t want to give the town any reason to think she’d be there full time and could be their provider indefinitely. What happened if she helped Elizabeth and she needed follow-up appointments? Would Carly have to take her to Helena? Wait for a physician to come into Banberry and buy out Doc Webber’s practice?

A flash of movement caught Paige’s eye. Owen emerged from his barn, his strong arms steadying the bags of seed he carried on his shoulders. He wore a tight white T-shirt that she could see from there was stained with dirt and handprints where he’d wiped his hands clean.

His muscles ripped against the fabric, and a ripple of lust coursed through her as she remembered what those muscles were capable of. She hadn’t been apart from him for two days even, but damn if his hands and arms hadn’t held her in all the ways she never knew she wanted.

And she missed it. Would miss it even more if she left.Whenshe left, she corrected herself, but that version of her internal monologue didn’t ring as true in the light of the new day.

Without giving much thought to her answer before the words stumbled out of her mouth, Paige turned back to Carly.

“I’d love to help.”

Carly gasped, tears falling again, and she bent over to hug Paige.

“Listen, why don’t you leave your number here,” she told Carly, handing her the pen and paper, “and I’ll get in touch with Dr. Webber, see if I can’t use his facilities for a few days. If he agrees, let’s get Lizzy in for a few tests, including a blood panel and X-ray, and we’ll go from there. Right now, it sounds like pneumonia, but we can’t be sure until we run some tests. Sound good?”

Carly nodded, a smile on her face for the first time since Paige had been reintroduced to her. She was actually quite pretty. She’d aged well and seemed to be a devoted parent. Maybe hanging around Banberry hadn’t been all that bad for her.