“I’ll have a stellar nurse who will field the calls and give fantastic advice.”
Millie nodded, eyebrows still up. “You ever been a mother to a feverish toddler at two o’clock in the morning?”
“I’ll also have an answering service.”
“Who will call you at two o’clock in the morning. And three o’clock. And four. And five. For weeks on end.”
Josh sighed. “Why are you going all doomsday on me here?”
“Because. I might have mentioned the part about your candle burning at two ends already here. And I hate to be the one to give you the cold shower of reality, but getting out of Mercy and starting your own practice isn’t going to give you more hours in the day—not if you go it alone.”
Millie put her hand on his. “And keeping your heart all locked up because you think no woman can possibly understand the twenty-four-hour requirement of doctor duty isn’t going to hold water forever. No woman should have to put up with that—because there’s a balance, and you need to find it.”
“It’s not that simple, Millie.”
“I know it isn’t. I also know you carry a three-hundred-pound weight around your neck every day, trying to make your parents proud.” She stopped, forcing his eyes to hers. “Honey, I knew your mom, and the only thing she ever wanted was for you to be happy. Doctor, dentist, farmer—she didn’t care.”
“I am happy. I’m doing what I love.”
“I know you are, but at some point, you need to let yourself fall in love again—the sweet, messy, amazing kind that sends you to work all distracted and asking for a weekend off. That’s what you need.”
He shook his head. “Can I get the sweet and amazing without the messy?”
“You can try.” She hugged him. “Just open your eyes, Joshua … and maybe your heart.”
“Oh, and another thing.” Millie reached into her bag and came out with a moose key chain. “Got a cancellation on our cabin this morning. It’s all cleaned and ready for guests—who aren’t coming—and I think you should go stay there for the weekend.”
“Millie, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re afraid I’m heading for a nervous breakdown or something. First the candle comments, and now you’re handing me the keys to your cabin?”
She shook her head. “You’re nowhere close to a breakdown. However, I’ve taken the liberty of getting you coverage for the next two days, and I have a sneaking suspicion there’s a woman on this floor who might just say yes to a weekend in a little cabin beside the lake. You could—you know—ask.”
He smiled, reaching out to hug her.
“You’re impossible.”
“I know it. Just part of my charm.” She put the keys in his hand. “I don’t want to see these until Sunday afternoon. And as of tonight at six o’clock, I don’t want to see you, either.”
Chapter 24
An hour later, Josh stepped out of the elevator after checking on Ian, who was in a solitary room on the fourth floor, under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He was improving already, and Josh couldn’t wait to tell Delaney the good news.
He stopped in the middle of the hallway.
When had she become the first person he wanted to share a piece of good news with?
Then he heard her voice, and her unmistakable laugh, coming from the playroom. He headed down the hallway, more anxious to see her than he was willing to admit. When he got there, he paused at the doorway, surveying the scene.
Annabeth, the anorexic who Millie’d reported was starting to make some strides with her therapist, was sitting at the card table with her bony knees pulled up to her chest. He winced at how her collarbone still protruded under her T-shirt, but the disease had had her in its grip for two long years. It was going to take time to get her back to a healthy baseline.
“Gin!” Annabeth laid her cards on the table. “Read ’em and weep.”
Josh watched as Delaney laid her cards down as well, grinning. “Oh, there will be no weeping.”
Annabeth pointed at Delaney’s hand. “You have two aces, two kings, and two queens. You should definitely be crying. That’s seventy points you just lost.”
Delaney gathered the cards to shuffle. “No problem. I can totally come back from this. I’m not sure I like how you score this game, by the way.”
Annabeth looked at the notepad beside her elbow, grinning. “Omigod, you’re three hundred points down.”
“This is why I don’t like how you score this game. But you know what? There’s still time for me to pull off an epic win.”
Annabeth laughed, startling Josh. That was a sound he hadn’t heard from Annabeth since she’d been here.
Then she seemed to realize she’d done so, and backed off, crossing her arms as Delaney dealt. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Things to do?”
Delaney looked down at her cards, idly sorting them. “Yep.”
“So … why are you hanging out with me?”
“Because you’re way more fun than the other stuff I’m supposed to be doing. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve creamed somebody at gin rummy?”
Annabeth uncrossed her arms, smiling. “You’re not creaming somebody. I’m totally winning.”
“For now, girlie. For now.” Delaney pointed at the deck of cards. “You’re up. Shuffle. And there’s no way you’re winning this time.”
Josh smiled as he backed up and turned toward his office. Ian’s news could wait. Delaney was doing important work right now.
She just didn’t know it.
“What’s funny?” Millie came bustling out of a patient room, rubbing sanitizer between her fingers. “You catch the gin rummy tournament down there?”
“Yup.”
“You gonna tell Delaney she missed her calling, one of these days?”
“Nah.” He shook his head as he ducked into his office. “I think she’s figuring that out for herself right now.”
He sat down at his desk, cringing when he saw the piles of paperwork waiting there. Then he took a deep breath. “One inch. Just do one inch.”
He plucked the top inch from the closest pile and began to read the lab report. Before he got to the second page, however, his thoughts were wandering to a moonlit dock, a cup of coffee on a misty porch, a rumpled bed, and a fireplace stoked high.
He eyed Millie’s keys on the corner of his desk, his brain sorting through what Millie had said earlier. He’d been determined to keep things casual with Delaney. Hell, he hadn’t planned to keep them anything. But it wasn’t working. At all.
He hated to admit that he’d started getting off the elevator in the morning looking for her. He hated that he listened for her voice as he met with patients and their parents. He hated that when he finally fell into bed at night, it felt way lonelier than it had in a long time.
“Hey. You okay?”
As if he’d conjured her with his thoughts, Delaney stood in his doorway, her brow furrowed.
He shook his head, blinking his eyes to clear his thoughts. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“Paperwork causing you physical pain?” She pointed to the piles on his desk.
“Yes. Does our workers’ comp policy cover this?”
She frowned, shaking her head. “I think a match would be the only thing that would cover this.”
“I know, I know. I need to embrace the electronic age. And as soon as I trust it, I will.”
“I see.” She leaned against the door frame, and he had to physically stop himself from pulling her into the office and kissing her. Today she had on a flowery skirt and prim white blouse, and all he could imagine as he looked at her was undoing that top button … then the next … then the next.
He cleared his throat, eyeing Millie’s keys, then asked the question before he could talk himself out of it.
“So I know it’s late notice, but do you have plans this weekend?”
She looked startled. “Some, yes.”
“Oh.” He felt surprisingly defeated.
“Why? What did you have in mind?”
Ah, hell. Should he bother to ask her? Pulling back from a getaway weekend was a lot harder than cooling things down after just a couple of hot kisses. Was he really ready to put that much skin in the game? Especially after they’d—sort of—agreed not to?
“Camping.” The word was out before he could swallow it.
“Camping?”
He chuckled. “I didn’t know your eyebrows could go that high. Camping not your thing?”
“Not—anymore, no.”
He watched emotions flip across her face before she set her jaw, and in that moment he remembered the story about her little brother.
“Oh, God, Delaney. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t—think.”
“It’s okay. I just haven’t ever been—since Parker. Since that time.” Then she looked at him, subtly bracing her shoulders. “What kind of camping were you thinking about?”
He cocked his head. Really? She wasn’t shutting him down?
He held up the keys. “The kind with floors and windows. Adirondack chairs, stone fireplace, couches.”
He was sure they both heard him not say bed.
“No sleeping bags and mosquitoes?”
“Only if you prefer it that way.”
She nodded slowly. Then she looked down, like she was trying to talk herself into it, or out of it. He didn’t know her well enough yet to know which it was.
“Do you have a cottage or something?”
“Millie does. She rents it, but her guests cancelled at the last minute, so she gave me the keys and told me I wasn’t allowed to be at the hospital this weekend.”
Delaney laughed. “And you say you’re in charge of the pediatric floor.”
“I don’t say it to anyone who knows better—which is pretty much everybody.” He put on his best pleading face, surprised at how anxious he was for her to say yes. “So what do you say? I know we said we wouldn’t. But … I can’t not ask you. Think you could stand a weekend cooped up with a doctor in a cabin by the lake?”
“I don’t know.” She cringed, and his stomach fell. “Throw in a freak storm, and it sounds like the makings of a horror film.”
“Or a romance novel.” He shrugged. “You never know.”
Ah, double hell. Had he seriously just said that? With a straight face?
She looked at the floor, seemingly weighing the pros and cons as he waited. Finally, she nodded slowly. “Can we order in Bellinis?”
* * *
“A few kisses, and now you’re doing an entire weekend with the man? Are you really Delaney Blair?” Megan cleared a space on Delaney’s bed so she could sit—no easy feat, since it was currently covered with a pile of clothing two feet high.
“I know. It’s crazy.” Delaney blew out a breath as she flopped another shirt on the pile. “Completely crazy. What am I doing?”
“Well, it sounds like you’re heading off for a weekend of mind-blowing sex with Dr. Dreamy.”
“Megan!”
Megan shrugged. “Just calling it like it is.”
“I wasn’t going to do this. I distinctly remember us deciding we were going to remain strictly professional. Less than a week ago, for God’s sake. And now he’s inviting me to a cabin by the lake for the weekend? And I’m saying yes? Do I have absolutely no willpower at all?”
“You have a lot of it, actually. Just not with him.” Megan picked up a bathing suit from the pile. “Are you bringing this?”
“I don’t know. Either that one or the blue. I can’t decide.”
“You could go totally bonkers and pack both.”
“Stop picking on me.” Delaney turned back to the closet. “You know my stats. Three. Ever.”
“Aw, sweetie. You’ve been waiting forever for the right guy to come along and be number four. And look! He did! But you’re destined to be nervous about it.”
“You think?”
“Just remember—thing A goes into slot B.”
Megan laughed as a pair of jeans came flying out of the closet and hit her in the head.
Delaney shook her head, trying to decide which shirts would convey just the right balance of little-bit-sexy and I’m-not-trying-here. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like she actually owned any.
“When is he picking you up, Cinderella?”
“Nine o’clock in the morning.”
“Then we have time to go shopping.” Megan pointed to the bed. “I mean, since it appears your entire wardrobe has been discarded, and you’re back to about 1993 in the closet.”
“Shopping is your solution for everything.”
“No.” Megan shook her head. “But shopping is a solution for hot-date weekend with a new guy who makes your toes tingle.”
“I have done this before, you know.”
“Oh, I know. You just haven’t done it in—”
“Shut up. We’re not counting.” Delaney backed out of the closet and pushed more clothes off a chair so she could sit. “What am I doing? I was never, ever going to fall for a doctor.”
“Best laid plans and all? News flash—those fail. Often.”
“I know.”
“Hey.” Megan’s eyes widened. “Do you still have your Perfect Husband list?”
“No.”
“You do, too.” Megan stood up and reached for the top drawer of Delaney’s bureau.
Delaney leaped up to stop her. “I do not.”
She was too late. Megan opened the drawer and shuffled around, coming up with a piece of loose-leaf paper.
“Ha. I knew it.”
Great.
Megan glanced through the list, smiling. “When did you make this, anyway?”
“A long, long time ago.” Delaney reached for it. “Come on. Hand it over.”
“Why do you still have it?”
“Because it keeps me honest. Reminds me not to be stupid.”
“Item number one.” Megan held the paper out in front of her.
“Meg, seriously.”
“My perfect husband will not be a doctor.” She shook her head. “Uh-oh, Joshua.”
“See? Told you.”
“Item number two—my perfect husband will be blond.” She wrinkled her nose. “Seriously? You were thinking blond?”
“I had a serious crush on that Disney kid who was in all of those movies at the time, okay?”
“Next item—he’ll be taller than me. Phew! Joshua’s back in the running.”
“Megan, come on.” Delaney laughed. “Seriously, give me the list.”
“No way. I haven’t seen it since college. Not giving it back until I’ve read the whole thing.”
Twenty minutes later, Delaney was holding her stomach, which hurt from laughing so hard at Megan’s reading of her list.
“So let’s summarize.” Megan took a deep breath. “What we’re apparently looking for here is a tall, blond accountant who loves dogs, hates cats, and wants to travel, but never across the ocean because there’s a statistically higher risk of crashing and never being found.”
“Shark bait—that’s all I’m saying.”
Megan laughed. “I love this list. I think you should frame this list. We can read it at your wedding someday.”
“Right. Because that’s looking oh so imminent these days.”
“Hey.” Megan shrugged. “You have a hot-date weekend planned here. It’s a start, right?”
“If I survive it with my heart intact, yes.”
Megan looked at her, tapping her on the head with the list. “Am I a bad friend for kind of hoping you don’t?”
Chapter 25
“Just cream, right?” Joshua held up a to-go cup of coffee as Delaney answered the door Saturday morning.
“God, yes.” She took the cup gratefully, having not yet found time to make her own. Even though she and Megan had spent an hour cruising the downtown shops before they’d closed last night, she’d still struggled to pack this morning.
“Come on in. I’m pretty much ready
.” She took a long sip as he stepped through the door.
He laughed at her obvious desperation for caffeine. “Should I have gotten a large?”
“No. We can get another on the way.”
“The cabin’s only a half hour away, on the other side of the lake.”
She shook her head. “Too far. My very low pain tolerance is balanced by a freakishly high caffeine tolerance. I may not survive past Dunkin’ Donuts.”
He smiled, surveying her condo. “This is a great place.”
She looked around, trying to see it objectively. With its huge windows, high ceilings, and exposed brick and beams, she knew it appealed only to a select audience. She didn’t know him well enough to determine whether he was part of that audience, she realized, and that realization made her stomach even jumpier than it already was.
“Reminds me a little bit of the original part of Avery’s House, where the kitchen is.” He took a few steps toward the living room, which she’d decorated with Southwestern-style scatter rugs and Navajo pottery, all focused around the huge couch piled with earth-toned pillows that had been her big splurge when she’d moved in.
“Wow.” He parted the gauzy curtains at the huge riverside window. “Incredible view.”
“It’s what sold me. As long as we never have a major flood, it’s perfect. If we do, I’m going to need a snorkel.”
He laughed. “How long have you lived here?”
“I just barely moved in, actually. I looked at stuff all over town, but this place—I don’t know—it has a story. I can still imagine it as a mill, in a way.”
His eyes scanned the open living area, and she was thankful she’d closed the bedroom door before he arrived. She hadn’t yet cleaned up the piles of clothing scattered all over the room—had in fact slept on the couch because she couldn’t find the bed—and at this point, she was tempted to bag up the whole lot and make a trip to Goodwill, rather than put anything away.
Joshua moved along the wall, and Delaney put her hand to her throat as he got to a picture and stopped, staring at it for a long few seconds.
“Is this Parker?”
“Yeah.”
He straightened the frame slightly. “He looks just like you.” He smiled as he turned back toward her. “So, are you packed?”
Heart Like Mine Page 21
