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“So, were some memory lapses the reason you called me the way you did yesterday?” she asked.

      “No,” he said simply. “As I said, the ladies and I do a walk every weekday morning. If someone can’t make it, they either tell us ahead of time or call one of the group to let us know so no one worries. Yesterday Estelle just didn’t show up. I sent the ladies on without me and went to your mother’s house. I found her front door wide open, a burner on her stove blazing hot with nothing on it and no Estelle. After searching the place and calling for her, I spotted her from an upstairs window—she was nearly at the other end of the block, wandering down the middle of the street in her nightgown.”

      That knocked some of the wind out of Ally again.

      “Oh.”

      “Yeah, oh. I went after her, got her back home and she was in such a daze she didn’t understand why I was upset. She said she’d just gone out to get her newspaper, as if that was all there was to it. I got her some breakfast, but I still didn’t want her to be alone. Sylvia—I don’t suppose you know her?”

      Ally shook her head.

      “Well, she’s one of your mom’s friends, and kindly agreed to stay with her. But by early last night Estelle insisted that she felt fine, that I’d made a big deal out of nothing, and she convinced Sylvia to leave her alone—”

      “I must have called the house two dozen times last night and there was never an answer.”

      “Sylvia had left by the time I talked to you. Who knows why Estelle didn’t answer the phone—but that’s the point, left to her own devices we don’t know what she’s doing.”

      “If all of this was yesterday, how did she end up here today?”

      “When she didn’t show up for our walk again today the ladies and I all went over there. We can only assume from the way it looked that she’d tripped over a throw rug in the entryway. She’d hit her head, hurt her wrist and she was nearly incoherent.”

      “And that was when you called the ambulance.”

      “It was impossible to tell exactly how badly she might have been hurt, so yes, I called the ambulance. She’s been examined, and beyond some bumps and bruises, her wrist is the primary concern for the moment—that’s why she’s in X-ray now. But there’s a bigger picture here.”

      Ally was trying to absorb everything. “I didn’t know,” she said.

      “You don’t know what’s happening because you’re nowhere around,” he countered as if he couldn’t contain it any longer.

      “No, I’m not. I don’t live here.” The explanation sounded feeble even to her, but it was the best Ally could come up with.

      “As people age, as their physical and mental abilities decline, they need help. If they’re lucky enough to have family, it’s that family that should provide the help.”

      That was a tidy lecture that once again made Ally feel as if he was passing judgment on her. He was just so convinced that he knew the right way. The only way.

      “Well, now that I am here, what do you suggest?” she said, challenging his attitude.

      In a more reasonable tone, he said, “I’ve been trying to get your mother to go to her primary-care physician for a physical but she’s flat-out refused. I’ve tried to get her to let me order a brain CT or an MRI, to order blood tests to see if we can tell what’s behind the memory lapses, but again, she just won’t do it. As her daughter, it’s your job to intervene.”

      “You want me to force my mother to get medical treatment?” Ally said, her own voice taking the opposite turn and becoming louder than it had been.

      “Look,” he said, as if he felt the need to impress upon her the importance of what he was saying, “Some of what Estelle is showing could be considered indications of Alzheimer’s disease. I don’t know what your relationship has been in the past, but like I’ve said already, your mother is in trouble and you’re the only family she has.”

      He had no idea what he was asking of her.

      The nurse who had been in before reappeared in the doorway now. “Excuse me, Dr. Fox, but your secretary just called to remind you that you have a patient and the patient’s family waiting in your office. There’s some volatility…”

      Ally looked on as Jake checked his watch. “I completely forgot. Tell Eugenia that I’m on my way.”

      He glanced at Ally again, his slightly bushy eyebrows coming together in a frown. “How are you feeling? Any more light-headedness? Nausea? Dizziness?”

      He got points for seeming to care that she’d recovered from her faint and for putting that before whatever volatile situation awaited him.

      “I’m fine. I’d just worked myself into such a state of terror on the way over here—that’s all it was.”

      He blushed again. “Look, I’m sorry I scared you.”

      “It’s okay.” But Ally was surprised by how small her voice had become.

      “Your mother will be back here soon,” Jake continued anyway. “They’ll probably splint her wrist, give her some pain meds and send her home. You’re going to have to take it from there.”

      Basically what he’d told Bubby.

      But Ally had had no idea to what extent he’d meant that when he’d said it earlier. Now that she knew what problems her mother was having and that he expected her to confront Estelle, she felt completely overwhelmed.

      Jake was waiting expectantly for some kind of answer, so she nodded her head as if taking it from there was exactly what she was agreeing to do—even though she had no idea how she was going to do it.

      Apparently he didn’t feel reassured. “I mean it. You can’t turn a blind eye to this. It has to be dealt with.”

      “I heard you the first time,” she said, managing a little spunk in defense against his once again demanding directive.

      He stared at her as if he still wasn’t convinced he could leave this in her hands. But after a moment he seemed to concede to the other demands on his time. “I have to go. I’ll check with you later, though probably not until tonight.”

      Ally didn’t say anything at all to that, but after another moment, he pushed off the examining table and headed out of the room.

      He paused at the door and turned those striking dark gray eyes on her again.

      “I’m sorry, Ally,” he apologized a third time. “I know this is a lot to handle and none of it is what anyone wants to have to face. But it’s in your mom’s best interests that you do face it,” he said, showing the first hint of compassion since they’d met.

      “I’ll see you later.”

      Part of Ally would have preferred she never see the man again as long as she lived. Yet another part felt a tiny bit intrigued—and safer—at the idea.

      Because as abrasive as the handsome doctor could be, there was also something strong and solid about him that made it seem as if he could handle anything.

      And when it came to her mother, Ally wasn’t too sure she could.

      Chapter Two

      It was after eight o’clock Thursday evening. Jake’s last session had ended at ten minutes before the hour and he was sitting at his desk in the office that adjoined the hospital trying to make his case notes before he left.

      Trying unsuccessfully.

      He just couldn’t seem to concentrate. Since leaving Ally Rogers at the E.R. he’d done his damnedest to keep his mind on the patients he’d seen. But his thoughts kept wandering back to Ally.

      On the few occasions when

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