“I’m sorry,” he murmured, holding her against his chest. “I hope this diagnosis is wrong.”
She hoped so, too. Very much. Being in his arms was comforting, but it wasn’t soothing. Even through this new worry about her mother, she was aware of his warmth, of the now-familiar smell of his aftershave, of the strength of his lean body against her softness and the surge of desire it brought. She allowed herself extra seconds before she drew away. She liked his arms around her.
He let her go, but she could feel his reluctance. Attraction, sexual attraction, was humming between them like white noise, but this wasn’t the time or the place to indulge it, and they were both aware of that. She had to get back to the meeting, and then she had two other urgent appointments this afternoon.
“I wish I could just sit with her for a while.” She was torn between obligation and love.
“I will. I’ll page you if anything significant occurs,” he promised.
“Oh, James, thank you.” She felt overwhelmed.
“My pleasure.” His grin was wry. “It’s not as if I have much else to do.”
“Maybe this thing will end soon, and you can get back to the OR.”
“I hope so. I’m at loose ends not working.” His dark eyes met hers. “Although I’ll miss our mornings together at Rudy’s.”
“Me, too.” Melissa smiled at him, thinking how attractive he was. He’d become a good friend, and she was grateful for that. She was far too busy to get involved with anyone, and so was he. Ironically, when he went back to work, her own schedule would ease, which reinforced the fact that they were totally incompatible when it came to timing.
They were totally incompatible when it came to romance.
It was ridiculous to contemplate anything other than friendship.
She certainly wasn’t responsible for the wild sex they shared in the dreams she’d been having about him nearly every night. She knew the difference between fantasy and reality, and she’d never allow one to influence the other. She prided herself on being a realist.
She was in the midst of one of those dreams at four the following morning, when the phone rang. In the dream, she was in her office and James was there with her, and neither of them was wearing clothing. For some reason there was a convenient examining table with a pillow.
Melissa needed a few seconds to figure out that the ringing wasn’t just an unwelcome interruption in her office fantasy. She finally sat up and dragged the receiver to her ear.
“It’s Angela from Four West,” the nurse said, and Melissa’s stomach contracted with dread. Her fingers clenched the phone, and she bent over, hugging her knees, forming a defensive ball against what could only be disaster.
“It’s your mom, Melissa. She woke up a few minutes ago and asked us for a cup of tea. She seems absolutely normal. Of course, we won’t know for sure until Dr. Burke confirms it, but I’d be willing to bet there’s no brain damage. She’s complaining of being hungry and accusing us of trying to starve her to death, and she asked for you right away. We’re all so thrilled. We knew you’d want to know right away.”
For a moment, Melissa couldn’t even speak. She had to swallow hard to get past the huge lump in her throat. “Oh, my God. Oh, that’s such good news. Please tell her that I’ll be right there.”
“I certainly will.” Angela laughed. “And I think we’d better get her a cup of tea and some toast before she lodges a formal complaint.”
Melissa hung up, hands trembling, heart so full of gratitude that her chest felt as if it would burst. She shrieked, “Yes!” and jumped out of bed. She showered quickly, pulled on jeans and a top, and raced for the car.
The nurses were changing shifts when she arrived, and they all grinned and gave thumbs-up signs to her as she rushed into her mother’s room.
“Mom?” The tears Melissa had been holding back began to pour down her cheeks when she put her arms around Betsy, who was sitting propped against a stack of pillows, faded blue eyes open, expression alert. “Oh, my God, Mom, it’s so good to have you back.”
“The nurses say I had some trouble waking up,” Betsy said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Last I remember was not feeling too good after that damn operation.”
Melissa sniffled and wiped her eyes on the sheet. “You’re fine now, Mom. You’re soon going to be absolutely healthy again.”
“That I am.” There was determination and conviction in Betsy’s tone. “I’ll feel lots better soon as I get home. When can I go home, Lissa?”
“You’ll have to ask Dr. Burke.”
“Ask me what?”
Melissa hadn’t heard him come into the room. She turned and gave him a wide, tremulous smile. He, too, had obviously thrown on the first clothes at hand, a pair of worn jeans and a blue T-shirt. His hair was mussed and damp. He looked vital and alive and unbearably sexy. Melissa blushed. How could she be thinking of sex, with her mother right here, barely back from death’s door?
“Hello there, Mrs. Clayton.” He was staring at Betsy with a dumbfounded expression on his face. “It’s, um, it’s wonderful to see you so well.”
“So when can I go home?” Betsy was already back to being her single-minded self.
“Let’s check you over, and then I can give you an educated guess.”
He did a routine but intensive examination, and Melissa waited, hoping against hope that he’d find nothing wrong.
He didn’t. He straightened and shook his head, and his smile was wide and jubilant. “I’d like to run a few more tests, but basically, I think you’re well on the way to recovery, Mrs. Clayton.”
Betsy nodded as if that was a foregone conclusion. “So you can take this awful thing out—” she gestured at her IV “—and I can go home today.”
“Well, I’d say in a few days, as long as you have someone there with you until you’re stronger.”
Melissa envisioned her killer schedule, and tried to figure out how she could bend it. “I could probably—” she began, but Betsy shook her head.
“You’ve got too much to do as it is,” she said in a trembly but firm tone. “Gladys will come and stay with me. She’ll be glad to get away from that daughter of hers for a few weeks. You call her for me, Lissa.”
“I will. She’ll be glad to hear that you’re awake. She’s been so worried she’s phoned every day,” Melissa said.
“Prob’ly scared I won’t make it to Reno for Christmas like we planned,” Betsy said. “Gladys really likes the slots,” she explained to James. “Me, I’m more for poker.”
“I didn’t know you were going to Reno with Gladys.” Melissa had been going to surprise Betsy with tickets to Hawaii.
Betsy grinned, a hint of mischief in her eyes. “A person’s gotta have some secrets.”
James laughed, and Melissa had to giggle. Her mother was definitely better if her contrary nature had returned full force.
Betsy yawned, patting her mouth and settled back on the pillows. “I think I need a little nap,” she said. “Hard to get a minute’s peace in this place.”
Melissa straightened the sheets, and her mother was already snoring lightly when she and James walked out of the room.
“There’s no chance she’ll drop back into coma?” Melissa knew her worried question wasn’t fair. James wasn’t God, after all.
He shook his head. “She seems perfectly fine. I think your mom is over the crisis and, as I said, well on her way to recovery.”
Melissa felt like throwing herself into his arms for a massive hug, but there were staff everywhere. She settled for a swirling little solitary dance down the hall and back. “It’s a miracle, James,” she crowed. “Oh, I’m so happy I just don’t know what to do.”
“How about a coffee at Rudy’s to celebrate?”
Melissa looked up at the clock behind the nursing station. It wasn’t even seven.
“I can’t wait to tell Rudy. He’s going to be thrilled.”
They made their way out to the parking lot. The sun was alre
ady coming up, and the morning air was sweet. Rudy was in his lawn chair beside the trailer, one massive leg crossed over the other. The moment he spotted them coming, he leaped up and disappeared inside. By the time they sat down he’d reappeared with two mugs of coffee and a plateful of sugared doughnuts.
“The wife didn’t bake this morning, so I bought these from that Greek fella on Broadway. He makes the best doughnuts in town,” Rudy announced. “I wondered where you’d both got to. I saw your car over there,” he said to Melissa as he lowered himself into his lawn chair.
With a lilt in her voice and much joy in her heart, Melissa told him about Betsy.
Rudy shot to his feet and threw both fists high in the air. “Hallelujah,” he shouted, attracting the attention of people hurrying to work along the sidewalk.
“I knew Thelma’s prayer group’d come through for your mama,” he crowed. “Wait’ll Thelma hears this. She’s gonna be beside herself.” He sat down again, held his coffee cup high and insisted they both take a doughnut. “To Mrs. Clayton’s continued good health,” he toasted.
Melissa echoed his words, as did James, and took a nibble of the doughnut. Rudy was right. It was one of the best she’d ever tasted.
“Well, this settles it,” Rudy announced, talking through a huge mouthful of doughnut. “No way around it. You two gotta come to the church social Friday night.”
“Oh, I don’t think I could—” Melissa began, but Rudy held up a hand, palm out, and leaned forward until his face was only inches from hers.
“You—got—no—choice,” he drawled. “Miracle happens. You gotta come along and rejoice, both of you.”
“When you put it that way, we’ll just have to do as you say,” James told him. “Don’t you think so, Melissa?”
It was a chance to have an honest-to-goodness date with James.
Chapter Eleven
Melissa agonized over what to wear, but when James led her through the open door and into the East Side Community Hall that Friday night at seven, she realized that she could have put on almost any item in her closet, apart from her bathing suit, and felt comfortable. The simple blue cotton sundress she’d chosen was fine.
“Hey, Doc, Melissa—over here.” Rudy’s booming voice carried over the earsplitting buzz of conversation, the lively music coming from four musicians on a dais at the end of the room and the shrieks of half a dozen little kids playing hide-and-seek under the snowy tablecloths.
Melissa clutched James’s hand, and he led the way through groups of people standing and sitting, talking and laughing, eating and drinking. They passed an elderly woman in a wheelchair, a young mother breast-feeding her infant, a group of rowdy teenagers.
Rudy and a dramatically beautiful tiny woman were guarding two chairs at a round table.
“Melissa Clayton, meet Thelma, my better half.” Rudy’s face was flushed with excitement and pride. “Doc, you remember Thelma from when you took out my gallbladder.”
“Indeed I do. How are you, Thelma?”
“Nice to see you again, Dr. Burke.” Thelma’s smile was breathtaking, reflected as it was in her dark eyes. She reached out with both hands, took Melissa’s and held them for a moment. “I’m so pleased to meet you at last, and isn’t it wonderful about your mother?”
Melissa was still trying to get used to the fact that this dainty woman was Rudy’s wife. “Thank you more than I can say for praying for her,” she managed to blurt out.
“We just present our case,” Thelma said with a shrug. “What happens after that has nothing to do with us.” She swept a graceful hand toward the buffet table. “Let’s go and get something to eat, and then we can visit. I want you to meet the other women in the prayer group.”
Bracketed by Rudy and Thelma, Melissa and James made their way to the buffet. Accustomed by now to the lavish, high-calorie dishes in Rudy’s trailer each morning, Melissa wasn’t surprised by the array of mouthwatering food. She tried to select wisely, but with Rudy urging her to try this and that and Thelma indicating which dishes she herself had prepared, it seemed rude not to load up her plate with a little of everything. She noticed that James abandoned his vegetarian, low-calorie rules. His plate was heaped just as hers was as they started back to the table, and he rolled his eyes and shrugged helplessly when he saw her examining his choices.
“Seeley’s good at gallbladders,” he murmured to her.
Rudy was greeting friends. “There’s Dougie. Hey, Dougie, meet the doc and Melissa. This here’s my friend Dougie Murdoch. He’s a Sheetrock salesman.”
Dougie introduced his wife and four children, his mother-in-law, and his aunt.
Thelma introduced Maisie and Jean, members of her prayer group. They introduced husbands and cousins and grandmothers, until Melissa’s head was spinning.
“Enough socializing,” Thelma finally ordered. “The food’s getting cold.”
They sat down at their table, and Melissa realized how hungry she was. She’d had a tuna sandwich at lunchtime and nothing since.
“Everything tastes fabulous,” she told Thelma, and it did. It might have had something to do with pounds of butter and sugar and gallons of cream, Melissa mused as she ate her way through more food than she usually consumed in a week.
The thing that Rudy and Thelma had in common was their gregarious, inclusive personalities, Melissa soon realized. They were people magnets. As soon as they were finished eating, friends pulled up chairs and slid tables together, with Rudy and Thelma at the center of it all. The laughter and good-natured teasing flowed, under laid by honest affection. She and James were introduced over and over again as smiling faces joined the ever-widening circle. Melissa soon gave up even trying to remember names.
It was getting warmer by the minute in the hall, and she’d had too many glasses of fruit punch. Melissa excused herself and headed for the bathroom. She was dabbing cold water on her neck and cheeks when Thelma came in.
“Whew, it’s boiling out there. Longest stretch of hot weather I ever remember in Vancouver, and I grew up here, so that’s a lot of years,” Thelma remarked, wetting a tissue and wiping her forehead.
“How did you and Rudy meet?” Melissa had been wondering about it all evening.
“We were both working at the fish-packing plant in Steveston for the summer. I was seventeen. He was twenty- two. He was going to apprentice with a plumber in the fall, and I needed money to go to college. There was a party and I asked him to go with me.” Her smile was tender. “We’ve been together ever since.”
“Did you get to college?”
“Oh, sure.” Thelma wiped off eye shadow and reapplied it. “I did business admin. It’s been a real help with the plumbing business.” She outlined her lips with a lip pencil and filled them in with lipstick. “Rudy says you’re the boss of the whole show over at St. Joe’s, first woman ever to hold the job. That’s what the doc told him. Good for you. It thrills me to meet women who won’t take no for an answer.”
“Thanks, but I think that’s an exaggeration.” Melissa laughed and explained what she did. Thelma listened and asked several pertinent questions about the physicians’ job action and what affect it had on Melissa’s work.
“The doc’s lucky he found you,” she said at last. “He’s way more easygoing than he was when he operated on Rudy. Whew!’ She rolled her eyes at the memory. “He was a pretty uptight guy. Now he’s out there joking and laughing with the best of them. You’re really good for him, Melissa.”
“Oh, but—but we’re not a couple, not really,” Melissa stammered. “This is the first time I’ve actually been out with him.”
“Rudy said the doc’s not too swift on the uptake when it comes to romance. But the way he looks at you, he’ll catch on. Don’t you worry. Rudy was like that when I met him. Figured he couldn’t ask me out because I was going to college and he was a plumber. The doc probably has his own hang-ups. Men get the darnedest ideas in their heads.” Thelma patted her shining cap of short dark hair. “We’ll put yo
u both on our prayer list. We’ll just ask God to give the doc a little shove in the right direction.”
Melissa was flustered. Obviously Thelma had the wrong idea about her relationship with James. “But you don’t understand,” she tried to explain. “Neither of us is looking for a long-lasting relationship. We’re just—” She remembered that kiss and her cheeks flamed. “We’re just friends,” she insisted. “He operated on my mom, and because of that and the job action, we’ve spent some time talking, but there’s nothing—” She was babbling, and she shut up.
Thelma tipped her head back and laughed. “Honey, the electricity between the two of you is strong enough to blow all the transformers in town. You just relax and let the prayer group work on him a little.” She winked and tucked a strand of Melissa’s hair behind her ear. “C’mon out and dance with him. The band’s really warming up. Dancing is a great aphrodisiac.”
“I don’t think James knows how to dance.” Melissa remembered his saying so.
Thelma waved a hand dismissively. “He’ll learn fast enough. Rudy and I’ll teach him.”
Couples were dipping and swaying to a sedate waltz, and Rudy took Thelma in his arms and whirled her away, as light on his feet as a ballerina in spite of his bulk.
James smiled at Melissa, but he looked uncomfortable. She sat down beside him and sipped at the fresh glass of punch he’d brought her.
“I know you like to dance. I’m sorry I’m challenged in that—“
Rudy interrupted whatever James was about to say. He swept up to the table and pulled James to his feet.
“Dance with Thelma,” he ordered. “She taught me to tango. She can easy show you how to waltz.” Rudy bowed low before Melissa, his face scarlet with exertion, his eyes alight with pleasure. “Madam, may I have the honor?”
Before she had a chance to respond, Rudy was swooping her expertly across the dance floor. In a hearty baritone, he sang the words to the tune the band was playing, so there was no need for conversation. He was so confident that Melissa didn’t have to do anything except float along in his massive arms. He was an extraordinary dancer, innovative and smooth, totally dedicated to the fun of it all. Every now and then, without missing a beat or a lyric, he would pull an immense white handkerchief out, mop his brow and grin at Melissa.
PATIENT CARE (Medical Romance) (Doctor Series) Page 7
