Page 100 of The Doctor's Irreplaceable Love

"No need.I’ll shoot him a quick text and tell him I’ll leave them in the mudroom for him."

"You don’t want to walk them down there?"she asked."It won’t take long."

He was already hurrying them back up the driveway toward the house.

"However fast we could do it’d take too long.That’s all I know."

He curled his arm around her waist as they walked, and she did the same — tucking her fingers into the back pocket of his jeans.

He turned to smile at her, and when she turned to meet him, he kissed the tip of her nose.

"I love this, Shelley.I love you being here."

Her heart seemed to thud to a halt.For a moment there, she thought he was about to sayI love you.

There was a time in her life, not long after her divorce, when she'd promised herself she wouldn’t ever trade those words with a man again.

And yet she knew damn well that if Trip had said them, she would have happily said them back.

Chapter Twenty-Two

When the phone rang, Shelley pushed her chair back and nodded at Brooke to answer it.She wasn’t surprised that, rather than looking nervous, Brooke smiled eagerly as she picked up the phone.

“Good afternoon, Dr.Harvey’s office.How can I help you?”

Shelley relaxed as she watched Brooke handle the call efficiently, setting Mr.Higgins up with an appointment for next Thursday before chatting with him briefly about his granddaughter — who, it seemed, Brooke had gone to school with.

After she ended the call, Brooke looked over.“Was that okay?How did I do?”

“You did great,” Shelley told her.“I think you’re going to be better at this job than I ever was.”

“No way!I can do it all right, but that’s mostly because people already know me.”

“No — you set him up with his appointment before you chatted with him.”

“Yeah, but…” Brooke shrugged.“I think I’m going to do okay.But you need to tell me if I need to improve on anything.I want to learn.”

“I can tell that you do — and as I said, I think you’re going to be great.Do you think you’ll enjoy it?”

Brooke let out a short laugh.“Am I going to enjoy sitting here in comfort, making appointments, and helping people?Hell yeah, I am.I mean, I won’t say anything against my job at the gas station — that job’s been a lifesaver — but this is so much better.And thanks, Shelley.I appreciate it.”

“You don’t need to thank me.I’m grateful to you for coming in to take over for me.And the way I understand it, it was Emmett who suggested you for the job.And as he told you this morning, Trip’s thrilled to have you.”She smiled.“This is one of those situations where everybody wins.And you’ve got to love those.”

Brooke laughed.“I love it.I’m just not used to it.”

Shelley was curious about Brooke.From what she understood, her brother Blane was one of Trip’s group of friends, but he rarely came back to the valley.From the way Trip told it, Blane loved Brooke and looked out for her — but Shelley didn’t understand why he wouldn’t come home and be here with her.Why she needed to work so many jobs.

She didn’t feel it was her place to ask, though.Whatever Brooke’s circumstances were, it seemed she’d be much better off now that she was going to be working here at the clinic.

Trip had spoken to her on Wednesday, and she’d been enthusiastic to start as soon as possible.She’d come in today to learn the ropes, although she needed to leave soon for a shift at the gas station.She was planning to hand in her notice — and as soon as she could, she’d be starting full-time here.In the meantime, she planned to come in and sit with Shelley to learn as much as she could so that when she was ready, Shelley could step back and go to work with Jim.

Shelley had been doing as much background work as she could this week, but she was looking forward to being able to dedicate her time to establishing herself, to being able to practice here in Montana — and to getting on with arranging Jim’s affairs the way he wanted them.

They both looked up when the front door opened and Harper came breezing in.

“Hey, Shelley-Bells,” she began, before noticing that Brooke was sitting at the reception desk.“Oh, hi!You must be Brooke.It’s lovely to meet you.”

Brooke laughed.“And you must be Harper.It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”