The Doctor Takes a Wife by Laurie Kingery

mean.” She avoided her friend’s knowing gaze. “It’s just the polite thing to do. He was very kind to me that day.”
    â€œHmm,” Prissy murmured, clearly unconvinced by Sarah’s casual words. “It must be nice to have a knight in shining armor. Oh! You might as well deliver his invitation to him personally,” Prissy said.
    â€œInvitation?”
    â€œTo the party, silly. Mama had asked me to take the invitations around town this afternoon, but you can save me that stop, at least.”
    Before Sarah could say anything else, Prissy dashed into her bedroom and was back in a couple of minutes, waving the cream-colored vellum envelope with its handwritten invitation inside. Of course Dr. Nolan Walker is to attend the party like everyone else. Suddenly attending the party had become much more complicated. How was she to act around him?
    â€œSo what are you going to wear?” Prissy asked.
    Sarah shrugged. “I don’t know…I suppose you have a suggestion, now that you’ve seen the entire contents of my wardrobe?”
    Prissy giggled. “I think you should wear that lovely red grenadine dress with the green piping. Very festive. And men like red dresses.”
    â€œI don’t give a fig what color Dr. Walker likes!”
    â€œAh, but I said ‘men.’ You applied my generalization to Dr. Walker.”
    Caught. Sarah tightened her lips and glanced at the clock on the mantel as she reached for the cake cover. “This is a silly conversation, Prissy Gilmore,” she said primly, “and I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now.”
    The sound of her friend’s giggles followed her out into the street.
    Really, she was going to have to warn Prissy to cease and desist with her matchmaking efforts, Sarah thought as she walked down the street, avoiding ice-rimmed puddles—she didn’t want to fall again. She was not going to change her mind about Nolan Walker, she really wasn’t, and the sooner her friend understood that, the better. She didn’t want to be embarrassed at the party. Perhaps she would wear the red and green dress,but really, her selection had nothing to do with the town doctor… When she’d pointed out he was free to court anyone else, he’d simply said, “I know,” so surely that meant he realized she was never going to reconsider her position with him, and he was now considering other options….
    She’d said they could be friends, hadn’t she? Had she been too hasty to indicate there could be nothing more? Even with all she’d had to do in the last few days because of her move into town, Nolan Walker had seldom been far from her mind.
    So intent on her thoughts was she as she turned and strode up the walk that led to the doctor’s office that Sarah almost bowled right into a figure descending the steps.
    â€œOh!” she cried, tightening her grip on the cake plate and looking up at Ada Spencer. “I’m sorry, Ada, I didn’t see you. I’m afraid I was lost in thought.”
    The other woman gave a short laugh. “That was certainly obvious!” Her eyes narrowed as they focused on what Sarah was carrying. “A treat for the good doctor? My, my, he’s going to grow fat with all the goodies the ladies of the town are bringing him,” Ada said archly. “Why, just the other day I brought him pralines myself. Have a nice visit with Dr. Walker. I must be getting home—we spent far too long chatting, the doctor and I. I don’t know where the time went.”
    Sarah stiffened as the other woman stepped past her and went out into the street. So “all the ladies in town” were bringing treats to the doctor, were they? Or was it only Ada? Suddenly Sarah felt foolish and pathetic carrying the beautiful cake, like a schoolgirlwith a silly infatuation. She could turn around now and take the cake back down the street to the