2. Prescription For Love

That was another really good reason to keep her distance. Single women with kids were like mama bears—protective and reluctant to let anyone close. Rightly so, but not for her.

“Dad did it,” Harper said, “but he had Mama. I don’t see how he could’ve done it and set up his practice without her.”

Flann glanced toward the back porch where her parents were spending a rare few minutes alone together. Even now a lot of the people in the area wanted her father when they had a medical emergency, and he was often called out at night or came home after dinner was long over. Always, her mother had been there for all of them. Her father was Harper’s hero, but her mother was hers. Harper would be the best of both of them, but Flann had always known she wasn’t cut out to be a family woman. She hadn’t even been able to hang in there when Katie was dying. The loss cut her heart out and she’d barely managed to say good-bye, let alone stand strong. She swallowed down the familiar guilt. “I’m sure things will work out fine. Abby has handled a lot tougher situations than relocating, it seems to me.”

Harper set the empty bottle on the drain board. “It’s going to be a challenging transition for her and her son. Moving from the city up here is just part of it.” “Well, Abby’s got Presley, and that will help a lot.”

“I don’t know

”

“What?” Flann had never known Harper to be reluctant to discuss anything. “What’s going on?”

Harper blew out a breath. “Abby told Presley a big part of the reason that she moved up here was to give her son a new environment, a new place to finish high school.”

“Teenager troubles? Drugs or something?”

“No, nothing like that. Apparently, Blake identifies as trans. He had some trouble with the transition at his old school and Abby thinks a fresh start with new kids will help.”

“Whoa,” Flann said. “That’s got to be a challenge for both of them. Is this the kid Margie met today?”

“Yeah.”

“She didn’t say anything.”

“Maybe she didn’t think anything of it—or doesn’t think it’s her place to say. A lot of kids their age are cool with different gender identities, even up here where being out about differences isn’t as common as in the city. I haven’t had a single kid in my practice talk about gender issues, and I’m sure some have questions.”

“Neither have I,” Flann said, and suddenly, she wanted to know a whole lot more. “You know, it’s about time we did a few repairs to that barn at the Whites’ place, don’t you think?”

“There’s a lot of things that need repairing,” Harper said, seeming not to notice the change in topic.

“How about Saturday afternoon?”

Harper gave her a long look. “I’ll tell Lila to make sure she leaves plenty of extra food for supper.”

CHAPTER SIX

Abby pulled into the drive at sunset. Her commute had taken less than ten minutes. Amazingly, she’d saved an entire hour of travel that she’d usually spent on the subway in a haze of fatigue. Now she actually had a few hours to spend with Blake when she wasn’t so tired all she wanted was to stretch out and not think about work or finances or what might lie ahead for her child. She left her bag by the front door and walked through the big living room, scanning the loft at the top of the staircase that was Blake’s new bedroom. No lights up there, and a silent house. “Blake?” “Out here,” Blake called from the back porch.

Abby stopped to pour a glass of iced tea she’d made in the morning, carried it outside, and sat down next to him on the top step. From here any sound from the street was muffled and the only thing to see was pastureland. The stillness was unnerving and suspiciously restful. She wondered if she’d ever get used to the absence of the barely controlled energy that defined city life. “What are you doing?”

He held up his cell phone with a futile expression. “Trying to get a signal.”

“Huh. Dead zone?”

He gave her a look. “I think the whole town might be a dead zone.”

She tried to hide her horror. She wasn’t that much into a calmer lifestyle that she could do without the Internet. Or her phone. “Really? That can’t be right. There must be a cell tower around here somewhere.”

“I walked just about everywhere, and most of the time I couldn’t connect.”

“What about in the house?” She imagined her son rambling through town with his phone held up in front of him, like a displaced time traveler. He was, in a way, and not of his own choice. God, having a child was hard. Wonderful, but so damn hard. “Can we text inside?”

“It’s sketchy.”

“Let’s see what happens when we get cable.” She blew out a breath. “We need to have some kind of phone service in an emergency.”

“Or if the hospital needs you,” Blake said glumly.

“That’s not going to happen as often as when I was a fellow. My hours will be a lot more regular.” “You’re the boss, right?”