Page 50 of A Flower for Angus

Chapter 12

Poppy had to admit, Doc was easy to be around. He was professional and thorough as he went through her basic vitals. She answered most of his questions regarding her stress level in the last year as briefly as possible. She knew his sharp mind was reading between lines to understand the parts she wasn’t saying, but she didn’t want her horrible reputation in Chicago to follow her over here. Especially if she decided to live here in Inverness.

Finally, he laid his stethoscope on his bag on the table and folded his arms. “My diagnosis is that ye do appear to be in reasonably good health, too far on the thin side so I’m guessing ye don’t eat when ye’re stressed, and judging from the deep shadows under yer eyes, ye don’t sleep well. Plus, ye’ve not seen a therapist but ye’ve seen yer regular doctor,” he summed up nicely. “Do ye remember the names of the tablets he gave ye? Were they supposed to be pain pills or sleeping aids?”

Poppy screwed up her forehead, the low throbbing pulse in her head making her want to keep her eyes closed. “Both? I just know that when my head really began to ache, I’d take one and then I’d go to sleep. When I woke up, the headache was usually gone. I don’t remember the name of the medicine.” She rubbed her temples, trying to ease the current pain.

“Is the script he gave ye still good?”

“I don’t know, I threw the bottle away after it was empty while I was in Toronto,” she confessed.

Doc took out a script pad and began writing. “I’m going to give ye a script that will do the same thing. Ye can take it for either, a good night’s rest or pain. Since the headaches are obviously stress related, which happens more often when ye are overtired, ye need to get more sleep. If this doesn’t address yer headaches as well as ye’d like, I want ye to make an appointment with me for a CT scan. I doubt we will find anything, but it’s always better to rule out anything wrong inside yer head other than the normal lassie stuff.” He grinned down at her and winked.

“Is this an addictive narcotic?” Poppy asked suspiciously, ignoring his teasing comment. “I don’t want to take oxycodone or something like that.”

“No, I don’t think ye need anything that strong at this point. Let’s see how ye fare with this first. The next time I see ye, I want those shadows gone and few more pounds on ye. Get more rest.”

“I hope there won’t be a next time,” she replied with a scowl.

Doc snapped his bag closed, one eyebrow arching higher than the other. “That remains to be seen, young lass. If ye’re staying at Neamh for any given amount of time, I wouldn’t count on it unless ye take care of yerself. My nephew has strict rules about his employee’s health. And Angus always made sure Rosie had her annual checkups as well,” he remarked.

Poppy could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks. “Scottish men are over protective—noted.”

“Nay, lass. Scottish men are protective of their women and families. They consider them a duty and a gift.”

“All Scottish men?” she scoffed in disbelief.

He studied her briefly. “Not all, nay. I’m sure in America there are protective men as well, but just like here, they have their share of evil men too.”

“I guess the trick is figuring out which is which then,” she retorted, rubbing her forehead again.

He handed her the script and then reached in his bag and pulled out a sample packet. “Here. Take this sample and go to bed. At the risk of sounding cliché, ye should feel better in the morning. And for the record, Angus and Darro are some of the good men.”

He grabbed his bag and strode out leaving Poppy to stare after him. He was right, they were good men, she just had a hard time trustinganyman.

With a sigh, she went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of cold water and opened the packet. She could hear the rumble of voices coming from the living room and made her escape to her room while she could. Her head was pounding and she didn’t want to face Angus and Darro again. She owed them all an apology but she couldn’t think clearly right now. All she wanted to do was hide and not have to think about or discuss what was happening in Chicago. With the tablet, maybe Edna would stay out of her nightmares.

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