AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER ONE
Dr. Gwen Dunaway frowned a little as she drove her car along the streets of Blueberry Bay. The small Rhode Island town was charming, she couldn’t deny it, but she wasn’t paying too much attention to it. She was concentrating on locating the building that she’d bought to be her new private medical practice.
She scolded herself for buying it sight-unseen—if she’d at least taken a tour of it first, she would know where it was located. But she’d been so busy getting everything in order, trying to sell her practice in New Hampshire as soon as possible.
Her shoulders tightened a little as she thought about the life she’d left behind in New Hampshire. The truth was that she could have taken more time to move herself to an entirely new place, but she’d wanted to move as soon as possible. She was a successful doctor, and her practice had been going well—but her life at home hadn’t been.
She tucked a strand of her bobbed brown hair behind her ear and tried to concentrate on the road. Despite her efforts, into her mind floated a memory of her long-term boyfriend Ron, standing in the doorway of her kitchen and telling her that he didn’t think things between them were going to work anymore. She pressed her lips together as she remembered his words.
“You’re too inflexible, Gwen. It’s like nothing matters more to you than things being done the right way.”
She shook her head as she made a turn in the road, following the prompting of her GPS.
I’m not too inflexible,she thought firmly.I’m a successful woman who focuses on her career. He used to say that was just fine with him. Successful people need to be careful about details in order to stay on top of their goals.
She swallowed, feeling a heaviness in her chest. The truth was that she hadn’t felt in love with Ron for a long time, but he’d been her partner and New Hampshire had been her home. Now she found herself completely starting over at the age of thirty-six—something that she’d never seen coming.
“You’ve arrived,” announced the robotic voice of her GPS. Gwen slowed her car down in front of the small red brick building and frowned.
“This can’t be it,” she muttered.
It was much too small, and much too unassuming. There were a couple of small trees planted along the sidewalk in front of it—trees that would practically make it invisible when they grew to full height. The buildings on either side of it were brightly colored—a pink hair salon and a white stone clothing store that had aqua blue shutters. By comparison, the little building that she’d purchased seemed to be practically invisible.
And it was so small—or at least it appeared to be from the outside. She told herself that couldn’t be it, and there must be some mistake. She could have sworn that the place she’d looked at online was much bigger than that. The pictures she’d seen online had been of a place that looked sleek and professional, and amply sized. This place looked like it could fit inside a shoebox.
She admitted to herself with a grimace that it was possible she’d been in such a rush to move out of New Hampshire and move on that she hadn’t paid too much attention to the pictures.
“There must be some mistake,” she muttered again, and pulled her car into the parking spot in front of the building. She turned off the engine of her car and picked up her phone, checking the address. The one she’d typed into her GPS matched the building she was staring at. Even so, she told herself that maybe the addresses had gotten mixed up, and there was a mistake. She texted her nurse Heidi Rhodes, who was arriving in Blueberry Bay the next day and had helped her pick out the building.
GWEN: Hey, I think I might have gone to the wrong place. Is this the building we bought?
She sent along a photograph of the place along with her text, keeping her fingers crossed that Heidi was about to reply and assure her that she’d definitely gone to the wrong location.
For a few minutes, she sat in the car, waiting for a reply and blinking doubtfully at the small red brick building. Even though it was a chilly spring day, the sidewalks were busy with people walking along them. She saw kids running ahead of their parents, teenagers walking along giggling and holding cups of coffee, and people walking a variety of adorable dogs.
She smiled quietly to herself. Whatever else happened, she seemed to have picked a good place to start over in. Blueberry Bay seemed charming and full of life, and she’d always wanted to live right by the ocean. She told herself that things were going to get better for her, just as soon as she got back onto her own two feet.
She turned to look back at the building, wincing a little bit. Maybe it was just her nerves being rattled by uprooting herself and going somewhere new, but she felt that the place was entirely unsatisfactory. She bit her lip, regretting the factthat she hadn’t gone to check out the place in person before purchasing it.
Her phone buzzed with a text message, and her heart leapt up, hoping that Heidi would tell her that she’d gone to the wrong place.
HEIDI: Hey! Nope, that’s the right spot. Cute, isn’t it?
Gwen let out a long sigh, deciding that Heidi was entirely too optimistic. She gave the building another long stare, this time trying to reconcile herself to the fact that it was definitely hers. She’d purchased it, and there was no going back on everything now.
“At least it’s better than staying in New Hampshire,” she muttered.
In addition to being the location of her private medical practice, the red brick building also doubled as her new home. There was an apartment upstairs, and she turned her eyes to the upper windows of the building curiously. It looked like an old place. She hoped it hadn’t fallen into too much disrepair. She didn’t want a place with creaky floorboards and moldy cupboards.
Sighing again, she climbed out of her car and walked around to the trunk, where her suitcase was. She tugged it out, grunting a little. She was of medium height, but frequent running had made her fit, so even a massive, heavy suitcase wasn’t too much for her to manage.
Once she had it placed on the sidewalk, she closed the trunk of her car and locked it. She looked up and noticed that a couple of passing pedestrians were eyeing her curiously—but in a friendly way, with smiles. They looked almost as if they were hoping to introduce themselves. She smiled back, but she didn’t feel in the mood to make friends just then. She wantedto get inside the building and see if the inside was any less disappointing than the outside.
The pedestrians passed by, and she began to roll her suitcase toward the front door of the clinic. She lugged it through the front door, closing her eyes as she went. She took a few steps into the main room and then opened her eyes.
It wasn’t terrible. It was functional, certainly. It had a front desk and beyond that she could see an examination room. Leaving her suitcase in the lobby area, she walked past the desk into the examination room and flipped on the light.
She nodded slowly as she looked around the room. It was functional, definitely, but far from fancy. The walls were painted an off-white which had seen cleaner days, and she made a mental note to repaint the walls as soon as possible. Probably tomorrow. It shouldn’t take too long. The equipment all appeared to be in good working order, and ultimately, that was all that really mattered.
