by Ava Miles
“Under the nothing-to-lose category,” he said. “But I draw the line at a cat.”
They’d had barn cats on the ranch, but that was a lifetime ago, and there’d been enough reminders of the past.
“How about I bring one of mine with me?” she suggested. “It can hang around while I’m here. Wouldn’t hurt anything, would it?”
He thought about it. There would be no caretaking or feeding. “I can’t see a negative.”
“Good,” she said, giving him a broad smile. “Let’s review the plan then. I’m going to set up appointments with an acupuncturist, energy healer, and feng shui expert. Anything else?”
“Is there anything I can do by myself? I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but how about yoga?”
She laughed. “I don’t see you and yoga working well right now. Have you heard of Qigong? It’s an ancient set of Chinese movements designed to heal the body that you can do yourself. I know someone.”
“You’re a walking fount of knowledge,” he said, sitting back in his scooter. “How do you know so much about this?”
“I explored every possible healing modality or technique when my son was diagnosed with ALS.”
“I’m so sorry.” Her son had Lou Gehrig’s disease? “Who stays with him while you’re here?”
The smile faded slowly, and that’s when he knew. “He died eight years ago. But he lived longer than most people with his disease and had a higher standard of living than most. I’ve become a better nurse because of it.”
“Was Andy his doctor?” he asked, his gut making the linkages now.
“Yes,” she said, straightening her sweater wrap. “Not all doctors are open to other healing modalities. Andy is. He’s one of the finest doctors and men out there.”
“Then I guess I’m lucky he’s my doctor,” he said.
“You owe Moira that one,” she said, chuckling suddenly. “From what Andy told me, she refused to let the emergency room team work on you. She marched up and pulled him off rounds, insisting that he take care of you personally. Caused quite a scene in the hospital. She sure is a firecracker.”
That she was. His chest tightened in an odd way, hearing the lengths Moira had gone to for him. She’d skied down an unskiable hill just so he wouldn’t be alone, then she’d done everything possible to ensure her brother was the one who took care of him.
The doubts he’d felt earlier sloughed away. He was going to do everything to pleasure the hell out of her while he was here. She deserved everything he could give her, little though he had to offer.
“Call everyone you know,” he said. “I’m ready to heal big and go home.”
Her eye roll made him smile. “Don’t quit your day job, Chase.”
“I don’t plan to.”
When Andy arrived an hour later, Helga ran him through her assessment of his current condition while he sat in his scooter. It was hard not to interrupt, but he respected her and appreciated that she hadn’t insisted on talking to his doctor without him. It was his body, after all.
“Chase has also agreed to explore many different options on the alternate healing side,” she told Andy, who cocked a brow in his direction.
“I’m as surprised as you are,” Chase replied. “But I’m determined to heal as fast as possible so I can get back to work.”
“Run me through the plan, Helga,” Andy said, listening intently.
Helga outlined everything succinctly while Andy periodically took notes on his chart. When she mentioned bringing her cat, Chase nearly groaned.
Andy looked over at him. “I won’t write that in my notes. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you,” he said dryly. “I’m afraid of what Evan might do with that information.”
The man’s shoulders shook, but he said no more on the subject. Then they got down to the examination, and Chase tried to remain impassive as Andy took his vitals and examined his injuries.
“The swelling around the outer edges of the casts is better,” he said. “Acupuncture will help it even more. Helga, if Sarah suggest Resinol-K topically for the swelling, I’m good with it. Just don’t get it on the plaster.”
“I’ll be careful,” she said, standing at the end of the couch where Andy was doing the examination.
“I know you will,” Andy said. “No one has a better touch than you, Bon—”
“Helga,” the woman quickly said.
Chase was on to them. “Why did he almost call you something else?”
They exchanged conspiratorial glances.
“Evan thought it would make a bigger impression on you if we pretended my name was Helga,” the woman said. “He didn’t think you’d be intimidated by a Bonnie.”
Was he hearing her correctly? “So he arbitrarily made you call yourself by an alias?”
“He left it up to my judgment when I met you.” She gestured at him. “I agreed with his assessment. If I could have gotten away with working in a Viking outfit, I might have. You were one of the toughest, surliest patients I’ve ever had.”
“Thank you,” he said in a dry tone.
He wanted to curse. Was he really that bad? Then he remembered what Evan and Moira had said about his attitude, what a hard time he’d given Helga-Bonnie those first few days. “Fine.”
“Ready for the fun stuff?” Andy asked, capturing his attention.
“Fun?” he asked.
“This is where you decide to tell me the full truth about your head.” Andy gave him a pointed look. “I’ve dealt with people like you before. You might lie or stretch the truth to get bounced. Let me steer you away from that. You’ll only end up back in the hospital with more pain in your head. The brain won’t let you get away with it.”
“Believe the professional here,” Bonnie said.
“You think I’d lie?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” they both said at the same time.
Okay, he’d thought about stretching the truth—but only a little. “Ask away. I’ll answer truthfully. I’m confident the woo-woo plan is going to speed things up tremendously.”
“The woo-woo plan,” Andy said, pocketing his stethoscope. “I like that.”
His nonchalant doctor ran him through the same set of questions they’d discussed in the hospital. They talked about the pain in his head, his moodiness, and his memory.
“I still think you need a couple more weeks to rest your brain,” Andy said. “The pain is rough, sure, but the nausea is concerning. We could do another scan, but I know what it’s going to show. There’s still some swelling. Your call, though, if you want to go the extra step.”
He shook his head slowly. “If you’re sure, I don’t need anything extra. Let’s focus on these other modalities and see what happens.”
“I agree,” Andy said, standing up. “We can do a follow-up next week. I’ll call Helga and set something up.”
He could hear the repressed laughter in the man’s voice. Evan was going to hear about this when he saw his friend later. But he had to admit that this friend had been inspired in his deviousness. Clearly, he knew Chase well.
“Andy,” he said. “I need to talk to you about something else.”
Andy and Bonnie shared a look.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” she said, leaving the room.
When she was gone, he looked at the doctor. “I need another assessment. I don’t think it’s anything, but I want to make sure.”
Andy sank back to his haunches in front of his scooter. “Shoot.”
The words seemed caught in his throat, but he knew it was a bad—no, terrible—idea to keep this to himself. “There have been a few times around this injury where I’ve experienced sharp pain in my chest and left arm.”
The man’s eyes narrowed immediately.
“Chest pain? Why didn’t you say anything earlier? Did you have this pain before you fell down the hill?”
He remembered how the smoke from Roger and Cora’s home had made him think about the fire that had stolen his own
home. “Things happened so fast. I think so, but I can’t say for sure.”
Andy stood up. “All right. Let’s focus on the now. You said you’ve felt the pain after your injury too?”
“A couple of times,” he said, thinking about seeing Alfie lying in that hospital bed, an oxygen mask covering his adorable little face. “I get an annual physical. My EKG is always good. There is no history of heart disease in my family. I know I work a lot. I pay attention.”
“I agree your blood pressure is pretty impressive for someone with your workload,” the man said. “It’s even better today, FYI, but given what you’ve said, I want to do a full examination, including an EKG.”
He pulled out his stethoscope and put it to Chase’s heart. This time he took longer to listen. When he put it back in his pocket, he lifted a shoulder. “I don’t hear anything, but that doesn’t always mean anything.”
“I want to make sure nothing is going on,” Chase said, choosing his words carefully. “But I also want to be assured that this stays between us as doctor and patient.”
Andy glowered at him. “Meaning you don’t want Evan to know. Shit, Chase. Do you really thinking you’re just going to waltz back to work with a heart issue, should you have one? I thought you were smarter than that.”
“I am smart,” he insisted. “I’m having it looked at.”
“You’re putting me in a hell of a position,” Andy said, glowering. “Not just with Evan, but with my sister. They both care about you, and since you’ve been a difficult patient, they’re relying on me to prescribe the best course of recovery for you so you can get back to work. This could tie my hands.”
“I’ll abide by whatever recommendations you make if you find something wrong with my heart,” Chase said. “I don’t plan on risking my health. I just don’t want to cause unnecessary alarm.”
Andy studied him for a long moment. “I’m going to choose to believe you. I’ll bring what I need to do the examination here. And I’ll keep this between us. Who you choose to tell about your health is your business, but I retain the right to suggest another doctor if I feel there’s a conflict of interest. Trust me when I say that keeping things from my sister is a conflict.”
Chase respected him for that. He nodded and said, “Let’s wait until you’ve examined me.”
Andy pulled out his phone. “I want to get this looked at as soon as possible.”
They agreed on a day and time. “I’ll be here. Obviously.”
“You can trust Bonnie, Chase,” Andy told him. “If there’s an issue, we’ll want to add this to the areas of treatment for the woo-woo plan, as you call it.”
“All right,” he said. “I’m glad to hear it. I wanted to be sure. About Bonnie. Evan is paying her, after all.” It was still weird thinking of her with a new name.
“She has more integrity than that,” Andy said, his mouth tight. “So do I. Just don’t abuse it. Neither of us will play that game.”
“I won’t.”
“Good, then we understand each other.”
Their gazes met and held, and what Chase saw in Andy’s eyes told him that Moira’s straightforward attitude was hereditary.
Chapter 15
Moira couldn’t believe what she was hearing from her sister.
“He just walked into the gallery and asked you to come to Rome?” Moira asked into the phone after listening to Caroline’s rendition of her meeting with J.T. Merriam. “I still can’t believe it.”
“Me either,” she said. “I felt like I needed to down a scotch or something after his visit. He’s like a tornado. Well, not a tornado exactly. Something powerful, but not destructive. You know?”
Didn’t she? It was the perfect description of Chase. “You’re going to Rome, right? Because if you chicken out, I’m going to smack you. This is the chance of a lifetime.”
Moira eyed Gary, who was hovering in the doorway of her office. He gave her an awkward smile, something he excelled at.
Usually she didn’t take personal calls at work, but what was a girl to do when her sister texted her with an ASAP call request? She signaled for Gary to give her a little more time. He nodded enthusiastically, but rather than return to his desk, he began pacing.
“I know it is,” Caroline said, the words punched with enthusiasm. “My only concern is my schedule. Leggett needs—”
“Your time,” Moira said. “It’s a great gallery, Caroline, but perhaps it’s time to broaden your reach. Heck, you studied abroad in Rome for a summer. It’s your favorite city in the world.”
“True,” she said. “I’m simply…in shock.”
“Well, douse yourself with cold water and call the man back.”
“I’m afraid if I do it now, I’ll look too eager.” Her sigh was audible. “Besides, he might ask me to go to Rome today. After he finishes meeting with Evan. Did you know about that? I didn’t think you did, or you would have mentioned it.”
“I didn’t,” she said honestly. “Evan comes and goes as he pleases. Some days he doesn’t come to the office because he’s working on his inventions or Quid-Atch. I didn’t even know he was going to Denver today. I wonder—”
“What he and J.T. are meeting about,” Caroline finished for her. “If Uncle Arthur set that up—”
“Who knows with that old man?” Moira said, tapping her feet in response to Gary’s caged pacing in front of her door. “Look, I have to get back to work. Bask in this, Caroline, but call that man now. Sounds like he appreciates eagerness. Love you.”
“Love you back,” she said and hung up.
“Gary!” Moira called. “What can I do for you?”
The young man started, as if he hadn’t just spent several minutes trying to attract her attention, and then broke out into a huge smile. “Hey! Sorry if I was loitering. I just couldn’t sit still.”
That was Gary for you. Truthfully, it was part of his charm.
“What do you need?” she asked again.
He barreled into her office and plopped down in the red leather chair in front of her desk. “Evan wanted me to help you send out the invitations for the fundraiser.”
Yeah, she’d received his email this morning. He’d included K-Barker and Quid-Atch’s other competitors. Chase wasn’t going to like it one bit when he heard.
“That’s great,” she responded. “Happy for the help. I finally stopped tinkering with the invitations. They’re ready to be printed.”
“I’m only doing the mailing labels really. They’re not actually labels, you see, because I found a program where I can take a sample of Evan’s handwriting and make it look like he handwrote the addresses on the envelopes. It’s so cool. Wanna see?”
Evan and Gary were constantly using technology in ways Moira would never have thought possible. “That sounds a lot better than my idea. I didn’t like the idea of printing stock labels, so I was going to ask you to handwrite the invites.”
“Gah!” His face was so full of horror, she had to bite her lip to suppress her laughter. “That’s so old school. It’s like Evan and I told you. If you have an idea about something, we can find a technological solution that will make it easier.”
Easier was a matter of perspective. She didn’t like researching different applications like some tech junkie. “I’m so glad you guys know how to do this stuff. It would take me way more time.”
“That’s only because you have a technology block,” Gary said, completely serious. “It’s like you had a bad date or something and haven’t gotten over it.”
She started laughing. “A bad date? That’s the metaphor you went for?”
“I sucked at English lit and all that grammar shit,” he said with a shrug, “but I think it works.”
Part of Gary’s charm was that he swore about the most offhand things. “I sucked at English lit and all that grammar shit too.”
“Must be why we get along so well,” Gary said. “I mean, when I first met you I thought you were a little scary. But now that I’ve seen your chi
ll side, we’re good.”
Scary, huh? “Here’s the final guest list. How long do you think it’ll take you to print out the invitations and envelopes?”
“No time at all. Once I input the data, all I have to do is hit the button and poof, invitations. Evan had me buy a seriously high-tech, fast printer. You have the paper, right? He said you picked out some of the fancy stuff.”
She’d thought her boss would want to send out the invitations to be printed, but no, he’d told her to pick out a rich cream paper with matching envelopes. “It’s in the supply closet, above the computer paper. You can’t miss it.”
“I bet I could,” he said. “I’m like a genius when it comes to my IQ rating, but a total moron about finding things like a can of soup or my shoes in a closet.”
“Maybe you need an app,” she suggested, biting her lip to keep from laughing.
“That’s what Evan said,” Gary replied. “In the new house Evan’s planning with Margie, he’s got a coding system for all his clothing. You scan in the receipt from the store, and it creates an entry of the item, everything from the day you bought it to where. The app finds a picture of the item online for you to select and—”
“I get the picture,” she said quickly to head off the lengthy explanation. “Why don’t you try and find the paper? If you have trouble, give me a holler.”
“When I have time, I’m going to use his app for our office supplies,” Gary said, jumping to his feet. “Hey, Moira, have I told you recently how excited I am to be working here with you and Evan? It’s like the best. The only thing that would be better—”
“Would be getting invited into the Inventor program,” she said since he told her how grateful he was pretty darn often, so often it was cute.
“Yeah,” Gary said with a wistful look on his face. “Or working for a company like Evan’s. I can’t wait to work in the defense industry.”
