Dancing in the Moonlight - Harlequin.com

RAEANNE THAYNE
41
Jake knew there was no one at the Cold Creek, and
that he and Maggie would have to take care of Seth alone.
Looking back, he was ashamed when he remembered
how frozen with helplessness and fear he’d felt
for a few precious seconds. Maggie, no more than eight
herself, took charge. She grabbed Seth’s inhaler from
his backpack and set the medicine into the chamber.
“I’m going to get my mama. You stay and keep him
calm,” he could remember her ordering in that bossy
little voice. Her words jerked him out of his panic, and
while she raced toward her house, he was able to focus
on calming Seth down.
Seth had suffered asthma attacks since he was small,
and Jake had seen plenty of them but he’d never been
the one in charge before.
He remembered thinking as they sat there in the pale,
early-morning sunlight how miraculous medicine could
be. In front of his eyes, the inhaler did its work and his
brother’s panicky gasps slowly changed to more regulated
breathing.
A moment later, Viviana Cruz had come roaring
down the driveway to their rescue in her big old station
wagon and piled them all in to drive to Doc Whitaker’s
clinic in town.
That had sparked the first fledgling fire inside him
about becoming a doctor.
The second experience had been a year or so later.
Maggie and Seth had still been friends of sorts, and the
two of them had been tossing a baseball back and forth
while they waited for the bus. Jake had been caught up
in a book, as usual, and hadn’t been paying attention,