by Peggy Webb
Don’t give up, Janet. If I had a man that DELICIOUS, I wouldn’t.
Joanna
From: Molly
To: Janet, Joanna, Bea, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda
Re: Ask Daddy
Ask Daddy what to do, Janet. He’s a really smart man, and he’s known Dan Albany a lot longer than you have. Sometimes I think it helps to have a man’s perspective.
Molly
From: Bea
To: Molly, Joanna, Catherine, Clemmie, Belinda
Re: Men
Dang, Molly! Have you lost your mind! If I asked my brother Sam’s advice about love and marriage, I’m get a boring lecture a mile long!!! Sam knows as much about love as I do about brain surgery. His brain is a computer and his heart is in a vault at that stuck-up bank he runs. I swear!!! Your daddy’s smart like that, too. Of course, he is on Match.com, so maybe he’s still got a libido. How would I know? Thank God, I’m not fifty!
Listen, Janet. I think Clemmie and Joanna are onto something with this Harry and Sally bit. If I recall, it was years before they ever got together. If you take that long to figure things out, your Virginia will be like the Mojave Desert! Strike while the iron is hot, girlfriend! You can figure it out later!!!
Bea
From: Catherine
To: Janet, Bea, Molly, Joanna, Clemmie, Belinda
Re: A Hot Iron
Ditto, everything Bea said!!!
Cat
From: Janet
To: Bea, Molly, Joanna, Clemmie, Belinda, Catherine
Re: NOT bad advice
I take back everything I said about bad advice. I have the smartest friends in the world! You’ve made me feel enormously better.
Belinda, Clemmie, I’d love to have lunch! I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to you.
Janet.
o0o
It was only eleven in the morning, and already Dan had lost his concentration for the sixteenth time. Several students in the back of the classroom tittered. Dan had no idea what he had said to cause such hilarity.
Blaming his bad day on the fact that it was Friday, he faced his students.
“Turn to page sixty-five and we’ll continue our study of love triangles.”
The class erupted in laughter. If Dan had been a man given to puzzlement, he’d have scratched his head in wonder.
“I hope all of you find the study of triangles this funny on exam day.”
A brave soul in the back of the room raised his hand.
“Question?”
“What kind of triangles, Coach Hall? Isosceles or love?”
One of Dan’s finer qualities was the ability to laugh at himself.
“In the spring a young man’s fancy turns to love... and an old man’s, too,” he quipped. “Spring is not so far away. I guess I’m a few months ahead of schedule. Or a few years behind.” He glanced at the big clock on his classroom wall. Five minutes till the final bell. “Take a break, class. You can use the last few minutes to study or chat—or even to flirt, if you keep it reasonable.”
Someone tapped on his door, and he found the principal’s secretary in the hallway.
“This message came for you fifteen minutes ago.”
He read the slip of paper she handed him and began to smile.
“This is exactly the excuse I need. Thanks, Barb.” He gave her friendly kiss on the cheek.
“You just made my day, Coach.” She went back down the hall smiling. If the political correctness police were watching they could kiss his ass.
o0o
Janet was exhausted. She was working the emergency room, and it was always hectic.
“Dr. Hall?” The nurse was wearing a name tag that said Eleanor and a big smile that made her one of the hospital favorites. “There’s a man who insists on seeing you.”
“Is he a patient?”
“No. I told him to get his patient and wait in examining room two.”
“If the patient needs assistance, send somebody with a wheelchair.”
“I offered, Dr. Hall, but he insisted it would be best if this patient waited in the car.”
“I’ll have something to say to him about that.” Janet made a final notation on the chart. “And you, too, Eleanor. The patient should be in that cubicle waiting.”
“I’m quaking in my boots.”
“You don’t wear boots, Eleanor.” Janet glanced at her watch. “Did you get the patient’s name?”
“Harvey.”
It couldn’t be! Janet dismissed the idea as ridiculous. Obviously, some nice old man named Mr. Harvey had heard about Janet through Molly’s dad. Mr. Jed was always bragging about his neighbor. The great Dr. Hall, he called her.
Still, this Mr. Harvey should have known better than to leave the patient in the car. Janet’s heels clicked against the linoleum as she headed toward cubicle two to set him straight.
She parted the curtains to an empty room.
“Hello?” Had Mr. Harvey gone to the bathroom? To car for the patient? “Hello?”
“Doc?”
Dan was suddenly there behind her, smiling over the top of an enormous bouquet of roses—red, pink, white and yellow, all jumbled together in a flamboyant riot of color.
“Is this a joke!”
“No. It’s a peace offering.”
“This is a hospital.”
She stared at him and his roses so long that Dan began to worry. But what had he expected? That she would tumble into his arms like some pigtailed sixteen-year-old?
“I was a perfect jackass last night,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say perfect.”
“Well, Doc. Aren’t you going to take the roses? I was nearly picked up by men with nets and carted off to an institution getting them for you. The florist thought I couldn’t make up my mind about the color, and then she didn’t understand that a dozen wouldn’t do. She said nobody had ever placed such an order and she wasn’t even sure how to charge for it. And then—”
“Dan.”
“What?”
“I love the roses.”
“That’s a relief. For a minute there I thought you were going to bash me over the head with them.”
“The thought crossed my mind.”
“Let’s get out of here, Doc.”
“Wait! I’m trying to find a patient named Harvey. I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that, would you?”
“Guilty.”
“That figures. When did he get out?”
‘I picked him up at the vet’s office this afternoon. If you can take a quick break, he’s waiting in the car to say hello.”
“I can’t wait!”
If you’d told Janet last night that all it would take to change her mind about Dan Albany was a stray dog, she’d have said you were crazy. But here she was, out of breath as she hurried along beside Dan. And all because he had done this one, incredibly thoughtful thing. She’d love to have seen him sweet talking Eleanor into letting a strapping, healthy man into the inner sanctum. The flowers were gorgeous, but the planning and the execution he’d put into this surprise left her speechless.
She laughed aloud at the sight of him hurrying along with that outrageously large bouquet. To the casual observer, he would be just a football linebacker-sized man with a ridiculous amount of flowers. But to Janet, he was an endearing man letting his nerves show by squeezing the bouquet so hard three of the roses were already drooping on broken stems.
Harvey was waiting for them in Dan’s pickup. When he spotted them, he barked and wagged his tail.
“My lord,” she said. “What is that thing he’s wearing?”
“A pink hospital gown.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask. Where did you get it?”
“I sweet-talked Eleanor and she found it in a supply closet.” He grinned at her. “Harvey was a little upset about the pink, but he calmed down after I told him it gave him a rakish, charming quality and what a kick the Doc would get out of seeing him dressed the part.”
Dan opened the truck door, and Janet hugged her dog, not even trying to dodge his wet tongue.
“You, big cuddlebum. I’m so glad to see you.”
“What about me, Doc?”
Sooner or later, she was going to have to deal with this man, whether she was ready or not. But first, she wiped dog drool off her face.
“When you set out to win a game, you do it with style, Coach.”
“The game is over, Doc.” He cupped her cheeks.
“Is it?”
“Yes.” His thumbs caressed her chin. “It’s just you and me now, a man and a woman with totally incompatible professions and wildly different life-styles. Two people who will have to muddle through the best we can. Two people only a hair’s breadth away from being in love.”
“You’re presuming I feel the same way.”
“Not presuming, Janet. Knowing.” Watching her reaction, he gently traced the planes of her cheekbones, outlined the shape of her lips. “I know that you feel the same excitement I do when we touch. And when we kiss I think the angels bend down from heaven.”
“Dan, you have the soul of a poet.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I love the romantics...Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Byron.”
“I didn’t know.”
“There are other things you don’t know about me. And there’s much I don’t know about you.” His finger traced her lips again. “Janet, let’s learn each other.”
“No games?”
“None.”
She stalled. The timing was all wrong. He’d never understand the hours she’d have to commit to finishing her medical degree.
“Playing games with you was fun, Dan.”
“We can have the fun without the games.”
“I don’t know how to feel about all this.”
He smiled. “Feel good about it, Doc. I love a woman a high-powered career and a stinger, to boot. It makes you a challenge.”
“And I love a man who is willing to be declared insane over a bouquet of roses.”
Harvey, who had grown tired of thumping his tail and being ignored, woofed from his perch on the car seat.
They both laughed.
“Harvey agrees with you, Doc.”
“I still don’t know how you managed to past the receptionist and Eleanor. She’s a sweetie, but she’s formidable when it comes to protecting her patients in the Emergency Room.”
“That’s one of the things you should know about me—I’m irresistible to women.”
“There’s one thing you should know about me, Coach. I don’t like sharing.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about. When I fall in love, I’ll be the most loyal, serious, one-woman man you ever saw.”
Dan made it all sound so easy. But she wasn’t quite ready to believe yet.
“What did the vet say about Harvey? And how did you ever get him into this ridiculous gown?”
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Ask two questions at the same time.”
“I suppose it’s because I usually do two things at the same time. I do most of my medical reading while I’m in the tub.”
“I can think of more exciting uses for the tub.”
She came very close to blushing. “You didn’t answer my questions.”
Dan loved seeing the high color in her cheeks, loved the idea that he had put it there, loved the lively give-and-take of their conversations, loved the underlying current of passion that was always between them.
“Harvey and I wrestled a while till I told him the gown added just the right touch for our Doc. Except for that scar on his leg, he’s is back to his usual exuberant self. He can’t wait to get back to a home-cooked dinner of hot dogs and pizza and cream-filled cupcakes.”
“Dan Albany, don’t you dare. He needs proper nutrition to continue the healing process and to maintain his health.”
“Spoken like a doctor.”
“I am.”
“I know, and I’m beginning to enjoy this doctorly side of you. But I enjoy the passionate side more.” He tossed the bouquet into the seat beside Harvey then swept her into his arms. “Doc, it’s been too long since I kissed you.”
Janet felt as if she had been locked inside a helium-filled balloon and turned loose in a sparkling summer sky. She was intoxicated, and reluctant to let go.
They might have kissed forever if Harvey hadn’t decided to get in on the act. He nudged his big head against Janet and began to lick her arm.
“I think somebody wants some attention,” she said.
“I think somebody wants out of that gown. Harvey hates pink.”
Together they undressed their dog, who shook himself all over when he was free.
“I’ll take Harvey to my house. It’s bigger than your apartment, and I have a fenced-in backyard where he can get plenty of exercise.”
“That’s sensible.”
“He’ll expect his favorite doctor to make house calls.”
“He will?”
“I will, too.”
They stood grinning self-consciously at each other. Dan cleared his throat.
“Do you like movies, Doc?”
“Yes.”
Dan’s grin was huge. “That’s fantastic. I love movies.”
Janet smiled. “Are you asking me for a date?”
“I am. And doing it badly.”
“But with charm.”
“Let’s go on a real, honest-to-goodness Friday night date, Doc. Just the two of us with bags of popcorn and lots of butter and icy drinks that never taste as good anywhere else as they do in a dark theater. What do you say?”
“I’m working till seven. Can we make it a late movie?”
“I’ll see you at eight thirty, Doc.” He caught the lapels of her lab coat and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “You look good in white.”
“This old thing? It’s just something I picked up with my degree.”
“It suits you.”
Smiling, he reached across Harvey for her bouquet then handed it to her with all the fanfare of a man delivering five dozen perfect roses.
Chapter Eight
Dan and Janet slid into empty back row theater seats just as the late movie was beginning. Dan was wearing a comfortable-looking red wool sweater under his leather jacket, and jogging shoes that looked as if they were familiar with forest paths, mud holes and grassy creek banks. When he settled back in his seat, he looked as relaxed as if he’d been there all evening.
She envied his capacity for relaxation. Her neck was stiff with tension and her stomach was clenched in a knot. She couldn’t get everything she’d seen in the emergency room out of her mind.
Suddenly she felt Dan’s hand on her neck, his fingers warm and strong, stroking, massaging, caring. She closed her eyes and leaned back.
“How did you know I needed that?” Although the back two rows of seats were empty, she kept her voice quiet.
“Instinct.” He scooted down in his seat so that his head would be on a level with hers. “You don’t come to the movies often, do you?”
“I can’t remember the last movie I saw in the theater.”
“Doc, I’m just what you need.” His hand stopped its wonderful massage and slid down to cup her right shoulder. With gentle pressure he eased her head down into the crook of his arm. “Can you still see the screen?”
“Yes.” It was the truth, but she wouldn’t have cared if she hadn’t been able to see a thing.
“You just stay right there. I’m going to take good care of you.” He reached into the big cardboard tub of popcorn that was sitting in his lap and took a handful of buttery morsels. “Open wide.” One by one, he popped them into her mouth.
Butter drizzled down his fingers. Feeling relaxed and pampered and reckless, she took his forefinger in her mouth and sucked away the butter.
“Ahh, Doc. Keep that up and I won’t be responsible for what I do.”
Grinning wickedly she stroked his finger wi
th her tongue. He took his finger out of her mouth and traced her lips. Then he leaned over and nibbled away the salty, buttery moisture.
Oblivious to the movie, they fed each other popcorn.
“You get butter in the nicest places,” she whispered as she leaned over to kiss his chin.
“A little bit lower, Doc.”
“Here?” She pressed her tongue briefly on the pulse point at the base of his throat.
“Indeed. Janet, you make me hungry.”
“I can remedy that.”
She fed him another handful of popcorn, lingering to caress his lips with her fingertips.
His eyes shone in the darkness. “Hungry for you, Janet.”
“I’m sure it’s a temporary condition.”
“I’m not sure I want it to be.”
Looking deep into each other’s eyes, they both reached into the popcorn tub at the same time. It was empty. Their hands touched, and their fingers entwined.
“Neither am I,” she whispered.
They stayed that way for a small eternity, searching for answers to questions they dared not ask. Finally, hands still locked inside the greasy popcorn tub, they both turned back to the screen.
The vast green cornfields of Iowa spread out before them on the wide screen, and the larger-than-life actors spoke of dreams, of knowing them, nurturing them, and not letting them pass by unheeded.
In the darkness, Dan’s quiet voice came to her. “What are your dreams, Janet?”
“To ease suffering, to heal.”
“That’s professional. What about your personal dreams?”
“I haven’t thought about them in a long, long time.” She swiveled her head so she could see his face. “What about you, Dan. Do you dream?”
“Yes. I have my dream house and my dream dog. I used to have a clear picture of my future, but the shape of it keeps changing lately.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed away all the remnants of butter. “I’m not sure what my dream is anymore.”
“I’m glad.”
He smiled. “You are?”
“Yes.” Seeing the intensity in his face, she suddenly realized that she wasn’t ready to encourage him to dream new dreams, to consider her as a part of his future. Nor was she yet ready to consider him. There was too much between them that had to be worked out.
