For the Sake of Warwick Mountain (Harlequin Heartwarming) Read Online Free Page A

you support Emily if you lose your job?”
    “How will I face Lizzie McClain and Jimmy Dickens if I turn away their best chance for a healthy, happy life?” Irrational anger at the man in the next room surged through her. Why couldn’t he have been old, stodgy and ugly as homemade sin, as well as one of the world’s most brilliant plastic surgeons?
    “Maybe Dr. Peyseur will come next year,” her aunt said.
    “Do you remember how long a year is to a child? Especially an unhappy child?” Becca buried her face in her hands and accepted the blow fate had dealt her. She had no choice. She couldn’t sacrifice her own daughter’s welfare for the other children, no matter how needy they were. She had to keep her job to support Emily.
    She was all Emily had.
    She rose from the bench and squared her shoulders. “Well, that’s that, then. I’ll tell him he has to leave.”
    Her aunt stood and hugged her in a fierce embrace. “I’m sorry, honey. I know how much all the children of this community mean to you. But you have yourself and Emily to consider. You’ve made the right choice. Enjoy the cake. I’ll let myself out the back.”
    As the screen door slammed behind Aunt Delilah, Becca sank onto the bench. If she’d made the right choice, why did it feel so wrong?
    * * *
    M ATT SUFFERED A PANG of disappointment when the women in the kitchen moved farther from the door and cut off his access to their conversation. Their discussion had just been getting interesting.
    With a scowl, he recalled the nickname “Doctor Wonderful,” the invention of the feature writer who’d interviewed him for a recent magazine article. The name lacked dignity and made him feel like some kind of comic-book character, but once the publication had hit the stands, the distasteful moniker had stuck. Maybe its unwanted notoriety was part of the dissatisfaction he’d felt so keenly recently.
    “Are you Dr. Wonderful?” Emily asked.
    Matt shook his head. “I’m Dr. Tyler.”
    “Did Aunt Delilah tell a lie?” A sharp discernment shone in the tiny girl’s big green eyes.
    “No. Dr. Wonderful is a nickname someone gave me, but I don’t like it, so I don’t use it. Do you have a nickname?”
    Emily nodded. “Granny used to call me Sweet Pea. I like Emily better.”
    Sweet Pea suited her. The child was a sweetheart. He’d never paid much attention to children before. Never saw them in his practice, because Dwight treated the youngsters. But this little girl touched his emotions in a way that surprised him.
    “So,” Matt said with a smile, “you understand what I mean about nicknames.”
    “I guess.” She wrinkled her nose as if deep in thought. “If Dr. Dwight isn’t coming, are you going to stay with us?”
    Matt cocked his head but couldn’t distinguish anything more from the murmur of voices behind the kitchen door. “I guess that’s up to your mother and Aunt Delilah.”
    “I hope you stay,” she said with earnestness. “You’ll like it. It’s nice here.”
    Matt glanced around the room, its low ceiling supported by hand-hewn beams. It seemed ancient and small, lacking the style of his Malibu home with its fourteen-foot ceilings, expansive glass walls overlooking the Pacific and the sparse elegance of chrome and glass his interior designer had insisted on. Matt’s house was the perfect place for a party, but he’d need a crowbar and a shoehorn to fit even a dozen people into this room.
    Still, the mountain house had a certain charm. Earthernware jugs held casual bouquets of wild flowers, roses and a fragrant blooming vine that were a drastic counterpoint to the stark ikebana twig and orchid arrangements in his own home.
    The rug on the highly polished floor of wide oak planks was hand braided, its colors muted by time and wear. Schoolteachers were underpaid, but made enough to afford more than Rebecca Warwick apparently had. What made her stay in this poverty-stricken pocket of the mountains?
    The thought of poverty