MEGAN BAILEY DOUBLE-CHECKED her treatment room to make sure everything was ready. Her muscle testing vials were in order and all ac counted for. The Soft Sounds Of Nature CD was in the CD player. There was a crisp sheet over her treatment table and she fluffed the pillow at the head of it just for good measure. Her needles were in the drawer of the corner cupboard where cotton balls and alcohol were also amply stocked. The dimmer on the light switch was working.
She was all set. All set for her first client in her new office. Hope fully the first of many. Not that she was expecting a sudden surge of business, because she wasnât. She was realistic. She knew she was only breaking the ice in the small town and that it would take a while to build any kind of practice here.
After all, Elk Creek, Wyoming, was about as old fashioned, traditional, and conservative a small town as anyone could find anywhere. Which probably didnât make it the wisest choice for a place to open an office for Megan to practice acupuncture and her sister Annissa to do massage therapy.
But Elk Creek was the site of the sole piece of property that the Bailey family ownedâthe twenty acres on which sat the old farm house Meganâs and Annissaâs maternal grandfather had built. It was also the place Megan and Annissa had lived for the longest amount of timeâfrom birth until Megan was twelve and Annissa was eleven.
That made it seem like home. Like the place to come to when she and Annissa decided they wanted to finally put down roots.
So thatâs what theyâd done. Theyâd moved back to Elk Creek, into the old farm house that was costing them a fortune to get into livable condition, and theyâd set up shop in this store front on Center Street.
But the office had been open for two weeks now and so far Annissa hadnât had a single call for her services as a massage therapist and herbalist, and Meganâs days had been filled only with putting up posters and a single meeting with the town doctor to introduce herself, lay out her credentials and talk about the uses and success rates of acupuncture and how it might be applied in conjunction with Western medicine or when Western medicine failed. Particularly her specialtyâallergy elimination acupuncture.
We knew it wouldnât be easy, she reminded herself as she checked the clock on the wall and realized she had less than fifteen minutes until her appointment.
She and Annissa realized that introducing non-traditional forms of health care was bound to meet some resistance. But after being raised by two eternal hippie-flower children, neither Megan nor Nissa were unfamiliar with being considered out-of-the-norm weirdos and they were determined to make a go of it here no matter what.
And today could be the start of that, Megan thought. The start of establishing them selves in their old hometown. Especially since Meganâs appointment was with Josh Brimley.
She had only the vaguest memory of who he was. All she really recalled was that the Brimley family lived on a small ranch down the road from her familyâs place and that there had been a lot of them. Six brothers, if she wasnât mistaken.
She wasnât sure in what order they came but she did know that Josh had not been in her grade in elementary school or in Nissaâs class one year behind hers. Nissa had known a Devon Brimley and Megan thought it was Scott Brimley who had been her age, but beyond that neither of them was sure where in the pecking order Josh Brimley fell. Or anything about him. Except that he was now Elk Creekâs sheriff.
Their paths hadnât crossed in the three weeks Megan and Annissa had been in town but they were hoping that the very fact that he was the sheriff would carry some weight. Getting a man who held a respected public position to come in for acupuncture seemed like a good way to get word out that she and Nissa could provide valid services to the community.
At least that was what they were counting on and why Megan felt as if there was a lot riding on this single appointment, and why sheâd accepted it for five oâclock on a Saturday afternoon.
When she was satisfied that she was prepared for her client, she left the treatment room and went into the bathroom to check her appearance. She wanted to make a good first impression so sheâd opted for a loose cotton jumper that went nearly to her ankles and covered the white crew necked T-shirt she wore underneath it. She also had on her best clogs and her lucky braceletsâten thin copper bracelets she wore on her left wrist.