Free Spirits

by Linda Wisdom

  Patrick’s grin was a mirror image of his daughter’s. “So your mother had a few eccentricities.”

  “A few? Dad, Mom can’t cook worth a damn, but we’ve never had the nerve to tell her so. She once used hair spray to polish the furniture and she told a man from that photography studio, Olan Mills, that she didn’t need any new carpet.”

  “Yes, she does have her moments.” His eyes twinkled merrily.

  “Yes, she does.” Her voice was filled with affection. She sobered. “Dad, as much as I love having this second chance to see you two again, you and Mom can’t stay here much longer. It doesn’t seem right.”

  He touched her shoulder. “We have a good reason to be here, kiddo.”

  “I know you think you do, but—” she waved her hands as she searched for the right words “—you have to look at my side, too. You appeared on the scene to make sure I got married properly because you were worried about me, and that’s wonderful. You didn’t approve of Jason and he turned out to be a first-class jerk. Can’t you settle for a fifty-percent success? A good thing I found out in time.”

  He shook his head, compassion warming his eyes. “Alex, I know this hasn’t been easy for you, but you have to understand this hasn’t been easy for us, either. We know sooner or later we’ll have to leave you again, and it will be even harder to do it this time. I’m just glad I got to see that you’re doing well. I’m very proud of you, daughter. Sometimes I feel as if I never had the chance to tell you so. You recognized your God-given talent and put it to good use. There are a lot of people out there who wouldn’t think of taking the kind of chances you have. I’m glad I was able to come back and see how well you’ve done.” He rested both hands on her shoulders. “I hate to admit it, but deep down I was afraid you might go off the deep end and do something crazy after our deaths. Of course, I should have known better. After all, I’d like to think most of those genes inside you are mine.”

  Her lips curved. “Something crazy. You mean like come home feeling no pain from my thirtieth birthday party?”

  “Don’t you mean drunk?”

  She shook her head. “No, more like completely anesthetized.”

  Patrick grinned at the memory. “That you were. You can’t carry a tune to begin with and that night you sounded worse than Suzi Q’s caterwauling to a full moon.”

  “It wasn’t all that bad,” she defended her tin ear.

  “You forget, you were too drunk to hear yourself properly. Of course, people who are tone-deaf don’t do any better when they’re sober.”

  “Patrick, you’re interrupting Alex’s work,” Marian scolded, walking inside carrying a plate with something that sported a slightly scorched aura and a glass of milk. She set the plate down on the file cabinet next to Alex. “I made you some of my special brownies.”

  Alex and Patrick exchanged telling looks and slight smiles.

  “I haven’t forgotten your brownies, Mom,” she said truthfully.

  Marian beamed. “Patrick always tried to tell me they were overdone, but I told him brownies just can’t be overcooked.”

  “Yes, what a shame I can’t eat any,” Patrick said glibly, earning a warning glance from his daughter. “You enjoy them, Alex.” He kissed her on the cheek and sauntered out of the room.

  With narrowed eyes, Marian watched her husband leave. “Something tells me he was making jokes about my cooking again,” she murmured.

  “Nonsense, Mom, we’ve always loved your cooking,” she assured the older woman as she gingerly chose the smallest square from the plate.

  Marian wandered around the room, studying the framed animation eels Alex collected. In the place of honor, over her drawing table, hung her framed first published strip.

  “You’ve done so much this past year,” she commented. “It’s amazing how quickly Fritzi took off.”

  “Probably because so many people can relate to horror-filled vacations. Just as the strip depicting life with a new baby brings back memories to parents.” Alex bit cautiously, grateful she had when she discovered the brownie was rock-hard. She was positive her teeth were strong because she had eaten so many of these brownies over the years. She chewed gamely, trying not to let the burned taste attack her palate. She silently added prayers of gratitude that her mother hadn’t baked cookies. The boy she’d had a huge crush on when she was fifteen had broken a tooth on one of Marian’s chocolate-chip cookies. Needless to say, he never spoke to her again. After that, Alex kept a supply of store-bought cookies on hand to offer prospective beaux.

  Since she hadn’t gotten anywhere with her father, she decided to try her luck with her mother.

  “Mom, while it’s been wonderful having you here, don’t you miss the friends you’ve made in your new place?” she ventured. “Wherever that may be.”

  Marian hugged her. “I can always see them, but I only have a limited time with you, darling.”

  She instantly caught wind of the last words. “How limited?”

  “Why, until we see you married. I do like Michael. His Aunt Chloe says he was always a well-mannered child.”

  Alex pressed her fingertips against her forehead. “Mom, you’re doing it again.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Talking about people who are…are…” She threw her hands up. “You know what I mean!”

  Marian smoothed the front of her dress. “Alex, darling, I love you dearly, but sometimes you come across just a bit incoherent. You have to understand that some of you children have trouble settling down and we need to come back to lend a hand. To offer you some much-needed advice because we want to see you on the right track.”

  “I concede that Jason turned out to be a major mistake, and I’m glad I found out before I went any further with him. If you want to see me married again, fine. But what is this obsession of yours about marrying me to another doctor, after what happened the first time?” she demanded, picking up the glass of milk Marian had brought in with the plate of brownies. “Mom, let’s face it. Doctors in my life just don’t work out.”

  “Even someone like Michael Duffy?” she asked slyly.

  Thoughts of what happened in the hospital linen closet warmed her cheeks. “He’s a very nice man, Mom, and any woman in her right mind would adore to have him, but he’s too nice.”

  Marian’s brow wrinkled in a frown. “How can someone be too nice?”

  “Easy, it’s a well-known fact I’m a forceful personality, and Michael is the kind of man I could easily walk all over because he’s so laid-back. Not that he’s a wimp,” Alex hastened to add. “He isn’t, but he’s such a sweet man.”

  “He was hurt by a forceful woman, Alex. While you’ve been a human steamroller a few times in your life, you have never hurt anyone the way that woman hurt him.”

  Alex knew little of Michael’s past love life, except what he’d told her. She wondered how her mother had learned about it. “She told him he was boring,” she murmured.

  “Would you ever say that to a man, even if it was true?” Marian pressed.

  She shook her head. “Never.”

  “And you are attracted to him, even if another woman considered him boring.”

  “One woman’s boring man, another woman’s exciting one,” she paraphrased. “Mom, I love you, but this isn’t a hundred years ago where you and Dad could choose my husband for me. Even if I did screw it up the first time. If Michael and I do start seeing each other on a semi-regular basis, I want to know you two won’t try any ghostly tricks. Please,” she pleaded. “I’ve been through quite enough lately without any more surprises.”

  Marian nodded. “May I at least say that I like your Michael Duffy?”

  “You may,” she smiled, “because, you know what, so do I.”

  “You tiger, you.” One nurse winked at Michael as she handed him a chart.

  He was so engrossed reading the chart it took a moment for her words to sink in. “What?”

  By then she was walking away with a twitch of the hips and a wick
ed smile on her peach-glossed lips.

  “Ruff!” Dennis clapped Michael on the back. “I had to admit, old boy, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  He almost lost his grip on the chart. “Had what?”

  Dennis’s grin broadened. “Who’d’ve thought you’d be the one to topple the high-and-mighty Alex. I’m proud of you, buddy.” Whistling, he headed down the hall.

  Michael’s brow furrowed. “The high-and-mighty…?” The light clicked on in his brain. Someone must have seen them either go in or come out of the linen closet. And there was only one person who would truly enjoy spreading the word. Cursing under his breath, his first thought was to go in search of Dr. Craig Sommers and punch his lights out. Then reasoning intruded, as the clipboard in his hand cut into his palm. He’d wait. Cool, calm reasoning had always worked for him before and he would make sure it worked for him this time.

  Luckily, Michael didn’t have to wait long and his search turned out easier than he hoped.

  “And here we thought all the linen closets belonged to ole Craig,” one doctor teased as he passed Michael in the hall. “We might have to set up a schedule for you two.”

  Michael was known to keep his feelings inside and his temper flared up rarely. But when it did, it blew with a vengeance. This was turning out to be one of those times.

  After asking a couple of smirking nurses, Michael found Craig in the cafeteria. He headed straight for the corner table, where Craig sat sweet-talking a wide-eyed student nurse.

  “Excuse us, please,” he said in clipped tones.

  The nurse, seeing the darkness in Michael’s face, picked up her tray and scurried away.

  Craig Sommers was a doctor straight from Central Casting. Blond hair impeccably styled, features that were handsome without threatening other men, and enough charm to entice the most skeptical. His blue-striped shirt with a blue-and- burgundy tie neatly knotted, gray slacks and white lab coat were all neatly pressed. Even his cologne was expensive without being overpowering. Only the smirk on his face marred his perfect features.

  “Something wrong, Duffy?” Craig asked amiably, leaning back in his chair, one arm draped along the back.

  Michael leaned over, planting his palms on the tabletop. “Let’s get something straight, Sommers,” he said in a deceptively mild voice. “Your petty sexcapades in this hospital are bad enough, but when you allow an innocent woman’s name to be dragged down to your level, it’s downright pitiful.”

  Craig laughed, not the least bit intimidated. “Alex was never innocent. Besides, if there’s a story circulating about the two of you, who says I was the one to spread it?”

  “Because this is the kind of story only you would enjoy telling.” Michael’s eyes glittered with barely contained fury.

  Craig leaned back in his chair, curling an arm around the back. “What’s wrong, Duffy? Can’t handle the new reputation? You should be flattered. Most of the single doctors in this place have made a play for Alex at one time or another. Yet you were the only one to get past that ice-cold barrier of hers.” His well-sculpted mouth moved in a broad smile. “This is much too good to keep a secret. Alex, my prude of an ex-wife, in a compromising position in the linen closet with our upright, uptight Dr. Duffy. I didn’t think she had it in her. Think of it, after Alex any woman will be a snap.” He flashed the movie-star grin that set Michael’s teeth on edge.

  Michael leaned over the table further, not caring how threatening he looked. Right about now, it wouldn’t take much for his fist to connect with those perfect white teeth, which had probably cost the good doctor a small fortune in dental bills.

  “You’re scum, Sommers,” he gritted. “Why any woman would put herself under your care is beyond me. Let me warn you, if I ever hear anything about Alex Cassidy and myself that’s more than G-rated, I will rearrange that face of yours so no woman in her right mind will want you. Do I make myself clear?”

  Craig shrank back under Michael’s intense regard. “Perfectly clear, Doctor.”

  Michael straightened up. “Just remember, if you want a war, you’ll have it.”

  Craig’s face tightened. “I have ears. I can hear perfectly well.”

  “Too bad you didn’t think about it while your mouth was flapping when it should have remained shut.” Michael stalked off.

  Craig, along with several other interested witnesses, watched Michael walk away.

  “Well, what are you all looking at?” Craig said angrily, his face a bright red as he stood up so suddenly his chair fell over backward. Without bothering to put away his tray and dishes, he left the cafeteria with only one thing in mind. Michael Duffy was now his enemy.

  Chapter Twelve

  “He did what?” Alex fumbled for the couch behind her and sank down in the seat as she looked up at Beth whose words just sent her into a state of shock.

  “I said, Michael Duffy cornered Craig in the hospital cafeteria and they had a conversation that looked heated and very unfriendly. Neither will talk about it, but you and I both know that for some reason it had to be about you,” Beth told her. She had appeared on Alex’s doorstep a few moments earlier with news about the showdown at the hospital. The only sorry part was that no one knew the entire story.

  “He’s someone you could walk all over, huh?” Marian commented, practically smirking in the process.

  Alex turned her head in her mother’s direction. “Will you please be quiet?”

  “What?” Beth stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  Now Alex knew why she didn’t like ghosts only one person could see. They made that person look and sound ready for a straitjacket. “Nothing. I can’t believe Michael would threaten Craig. This doesn’t sound like him.” Although he had given her a few surprises. She had a sneaking suspicion what the quarrel could be about. While she and Michael had been cautious in leaving the linen room, it would have been sadly appropriate if Craig had spied them emerging from one of his favorite trysting places.

  Beth perched herself on the edge of the couch more than eager to tell all. “I can give you an excellent reason why. Craig let it ‘slip’—” she’d held up her fingers for quotation marks “—that he’d seen you and Dr. Duffy sneak out of a linen closet. And everyone already knows he considers them his private domain.”

  Alex covered her eyes, moaning, “I will never be able to show my face at a softball game again. Dennis, especially, will never let this go. It’s the kind of thing he’d make sure was carved on my tombstone. And if he does, I will make sure to come back and make his life absolutely miserable,” she vowed.

  “How much do you want to bet that Michael threatened Craig with bodily harm if he said anything more about the two of you? Alex, the man was positively primitive when he dealt with Craig.” Her eyes shone with delight as she leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees, her fingers laced together. “Michael is the talk of the hospital. There are nurses ready to cut out your heart if it meant they could have a chance at him.”

  Alex closed her eyes. Between her longtime friendship with Beth and marriage to Craig, she was well aware of a hospital grapevine. And there was never anything known as smothered gossip. “And this is supposed to make me feel better?” She wondered if anyone had ever died of embarrassment.

  “The man was ready to fight for your honor, Alex!” she insisted, then sighed. “I wish a man would do that for me. I’m usually happy if they’ll open a door for me.”

  She was afraid to contemplate it. “Perhaps he was worrying about his own reputation. After all, he is still pretty new there.”

  “Then I would think he’d have cornered Craig in some dark alley instead of confronting him in the cafeteria where the world could see him,” she pointed out with exasperation. “Alex, the man is crazy about you.”’ She sighed dramatically. “How come I can’t find a man like him?”

  “We hardly know each other!” she argued, wide-eyed at the rapid turn of events.

  Beth was quick to point out, “You know each oth
er well enough to hide in a linen closet. I mean, it is true, isn’t it?” She didn’t need to see her friend’s bright red face to get her answer.

  Alex released a short, sharp scream as she collapsed back on the couch. “I hate logical friends!”

  “You hate hearing the truth.” Beth picked up Suzi Q and draped her over her shoulder as she rubbed the cat from the top of her head to her tail in slow, soothing strokes that left the feline purring like a well-tuned engine.

  “I’d really like to know what went on in the linen closet,” Patrick spoke up, not about to let this lapse.

  “I am not going to talk about what happened in the linen closet!” Alex screeched.

  “I was afraid you’d say that,” Beth mourned, unaware of the reason for Alex’s unrest.

  Alex pushed herself off the couch and paced the length of the living room, picking up a throw pillow and punching it with her fist. “It’s all their fault,” she muttered. “They started this mess and I’m the one who has to clean it up. I don’t care. I’m telling and I don’t want any more tricks. My health insurance can’t handle it!” She spun on her heel to face Beth. “They came back on my birthday,” she blurted out. “They didn’t want me to marry Jason, so they did something to make sure I’d see him for the creep he was. And then they possessed Michael so he’d become interested in me and did the same to me at the softball game. That’s why I didn’t act like my usual self when I was flirting with him. They’d fiddled with my mind!”

  “Alex, she’s not going to believe you,” Patrick pointed out with a weary sigh. “You know how logical Beth is. She figured out Santa Claus wasn’t real when she was four and she stopped believing in the Easter Bunny when she was three.”

  “I don’t care. I just want to get it out of my system.” She continued her pacing. “It’s not fair that I’m the only one who can see them, the only one who can hear them.” She tossed the pillow to the floor and stomped on it. “Why couldn’t I have had brothers and sisters to share them with? I didn’t even believe in ghosts until they showed up!”

  “Alex, what are you talking about?” Beth shouted.