Free The Doctor's Blessing by Patricia Davids Page A

terrible pain in my neck. What do you think it could be? Oh, and my left heel hurts dreadfully when I stand up in themornings. What can cause that? Your grandfather has never been able to figure out what ails me.”
    Amber felt a little ashamed, but if Phillip was going to be practicing in Hope Springs, he had to take the good with the bad. He might as well get his first meeting with Gina over with. She’d stop listing her ailments as soon as Pastor Finzer began the service.
    Amber suspected the spinster harbored a secret crush on the good-looking blond preacher who was at least thirty years her junior.
    Amber started to turn away, but Phillip grasped her wrist. “Please, sit with us.”
    It wasn’t so much a request as a command. Unless she wanted to make a scene by twisting away from his firm grip, she had no choice. With another false smile in place, she said, “I’d be delighted.”
    He stood to let her in the pew. “I doubt it,” he muttered as she slipped past and sat down
    Gina leaned forward to look past Amber. “Isn’t this cozy?”
    “Very,” Phillip replied, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
    Amber took her punishment like a big girl. For the next ten minutes she listened to Gina’s litany of complaints and answered the odd medical question aimed her way. Phillip got the brunt of them. Between Mrs. Curtis’s painful heel, clicking knee, sciatica and the nervous twitching of her right eye that only happened during the late show, she put Phillip through his paces.
    Amber glanced his way once and saw his eyes about to glaze over. Taking pity on him, Amber turned to Gina. “How is your nephew in Cleveland getting along? Didn’t he have surgery not long ago?”
    “Oh, honey, you don’t even want to know the things thatwent wrong for Gerald. First, they checked him into the wrong wing of the hospital.”
    Before Amber had to hear the entire story, Pastor Finzer entered and the congregation rose to its feet. Opening her hymnal to the first song, Amber softly joined in the singing. She couldn’t carry a tune very well, but the Lord only asked for joyful noise. Phillip had no such trouble. His deep baritone rang out clear and strong.
    She had been surprised to see him standing on the church steps earlier. He hadn’t struck her as a religious person. The moment the thought crossed her mind she amended it. She wasn’t being very Christian this morning.
    Determined to do better, she gave her full attention to the sermon when it started. Pastor Finzer spoke eloquently on suffering for being a Christian and the prejudice that existed in their own small town.
    Once or twice, well, okay, four or five times, she glanced at Phillip out of the corner of her eye. He was listening intently, not fidgeting or yawning as a few others in the congregation were doing. It warmed her heart to know he was truly listening to God’s word.
    Since first meeting him, she had cast Phillip in the role of a villain because his decision played havoc with her career. He wasn’t a bad guy, and she owed him an apology.
    When the closing hymn began, he glanced down at her and smiled. She smiled back before she could stop herself. Clearly, it was time to admit that she liked this man in spite of their professional differences.
    When the service ended and they began filing out, Amber saw her chance to separate Phillip from Mrs. Curtis when the woman stopped to compliment Pastor Finzer on his sermon. Grabbing Phillip’s hand, Amber tugged him toward the corner of the building. Once they were out of sight, he pulled her to a stop.
    “Miss Bradley, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
    “I am. I’m so sorry. She’s one of our town characters.”
    “Remind me to look up late show twitching tomorrow so I can at least sound like I know something.”
    “Okay, but I warn you, it will be her left shoulder that hurts or her right thigh the next time you see her. Gina’s ailments travel from one place to the next.”
    He nodded. “She