For the Sake of Warwick Mountain (Harlequin Heartwarming) by Charlotte Douglas Page B

make a fool of himself?” Matt said.
    “Dr. Matt?” the girl said.
    “Yes?”
    “Is a playboy a bad man?”
    “Not necessarily.”
    Emily frowned. “Mrs. McClain said no playboy was going to touch her Lizzie.”
    Matt stifled a sigh and Becca’s heart dropped. “Are you sure you heard right, Emily?”
    The girl nodded. “And Miss Habersham agreed with her.”
    “You mustn’t repeat that to anyone,” Becca said. “I’m sure once Mrs. McClain meets Dr. Tyler, she’ll be happy to have him treat Lizzie.”
    Emily turned to Matt. “Are you going to make Lizzie pretty?”
    “Lizzie’s already pretty. I’m just going to fix her lip and mouth so she can talk as well as other people.” He lifted his head and met Becca’s gaze across the kitchen. She saw her own worry reflected in his eyes. “If Mrs. McClain will let me,” he added.
    * * *
    L ATER , M ATT SAT in a rocker on the front porch, watching tiny lights dart and flicker across the front yard.
    “Lightning bugs.” Rebecca came out of the house, handed him a mug of coffee and sat in the rocker next to him.
    “Same as fireflies?” Matt asked.
    Rebecca nodded.
    Matt felt relaxed and comfortable in her company. He tried to pinpoint the quality that made her unique. Wholesomeness? He mentally rejected that. Although she glowed with health and projected a sense of being at ease with herself, that wasn’t what caught his attention. Something made her different from other women he’d known.
    Naturalness.
    That was it. When he looked at Rebecca, he saw the real article, nothing fake, contrived or affected.
    “Emily asleep?” he asked.
    Rebecca nodded again and sipped her coffee. “Finally. She’s been all wound up today. Took her a while to settle down.”
    “She’s a sharp little girl. Pretty, too.”
    “Thanks,” she said, but her tone was distracted. “At least she’s warned us what we’re up against.”
    “Mrs. McClain?”
    “I can’t believe the woman said that. Ever since I first suggested the surgery for Lizzie, she’s been excited about it.”
    “That was when Dwight was handling it.”
    Rebecca shrugged. “That’s true. The McClains know Dwight, and they trust him.”
    “Maybe I can get them to trust me, too.”
    Rebecca stopped the gentle action of her rocker. “That could take a while. Folks here are hospitable, but they’re slow to accept strangers.”
    “And I’m Dr. Wonderful, about as strange as they come.” Resentment stirred in him. He’d never expected his lifestyle to interfere with his treatment of a patient, had never even considered the possibility. And it had been years since he’d felt as strong a desire to heal as he had when he met Lizzie McClain.
    “Give them time,” Rebecca suggested.
    Matt bit back his reply. He’d planned on performing Lizzie’s surgery quickly and then having a little time left for his vacation. Dwight had, however, warned him nothing moved quickly in this region.
    “Mountain time,” the old doctor had called it, and he hadn’t been referring to the time zone. “People move at their own speed,” Dwight had said, “and usually it’s slow or slower.”
    “That would drive me nuts,” Matt had answered.
    “Actually, you get used to it. Sometimes, especially when I’m stuck on the freeway, I long for it.”
    With the soothing rustle of the breeze in the trees, the gentle motion of his chair, the lack of the distracting blare from a television and the bothersome rumbling of traffic, Matt had to admit there was something hypnotic about the mountain atmosphere that unraveled the tension in a man’s muscles as effectively as a massage.
    Or maybe the woman beside him had something to do with how he felt.
    He’d surprised himself earlier by his impromptu proposal of marriage. Although he’d asked in jest, the idea had taken root with a certain allure that he couldn’t shake. Despite the hundreds of beautiful women he’d treated in his practice or partied with in Hollywood and