"Honestly, Beth. I don't know, okay? He seems to like me. And I like him. But aside from putting lotion on my back today, he hasn't touched me. I get the feeling he's holding back. I don't know what the deal is."
"Hmm."
"What is that, that 'hmm'?"
"I'm wondering if one of the rumors I heard is true."
"What rumor?"
"Well, William is hiring a young actress from L.A. as my understudy after a ton of begging by the actress and her agent. And I've heard that she and Ben may be an item, in secret."
"Really?" Rose was dismayed at the drop in her stomach and the fluttery feeling of her pulse.
"Of course, I have no idea if this is true. Starlets have been known to start rumors like that to make themselves look intriguing in the public eye. You know, 'she's with so and so, she must be special,' that kind of thing."
"Ben told me he hasn't been in a relationship for months, but he could have lied."
"Or he told you the truth, Rose. I think he's a good guy, from what I've seen and heard of him. Anyway, I guess we'll find out the real story once she arrives tomorrow."
"Tomorrow!"
"Yeah, she'll get here around lunchtime. Look at it this way—you won't have long to wait to find out if there is something going on between them."
"Gee, thanks, Beth."
"Sorry, but I thought you should know what I'd heard."
Rose sighed. "You're right. I am glad you told me. Is it weird that I really hope it isn't true?"
"Not weird at all."
They ended the call at that point, and Rose walked into the bedroom and flung her body down on the bed. She was going to feel massively stupid if he was involved with someone. Wearing that tiny bikini today...what had she been thinking?
She'd been thinking he was available. And with that thought she started getting angry. He should have told her if he was with someone, secret or not. True, nothing had gone very far with them, but still.
She took off the robe and climbed under the sheet. Tomorrow, she thought drowsily, falling asleep all of a sudden. They'd talk tomorrow.
Chapter 4
Ben woke up to a ringing cell phone. He groaned and rolled out of bed, startled at a slight ache in his shoulders and legs.
"Hello?"
"Ben, this is William Christopher."
"Oh, hello. What can I do for you?"
"I'm sorry to bother you so early, but I wanted you to hear this from me before anyone else told you. Today the actress who will understudy Beth in the play will be arriving. Her name is Suzanne Hardtman and..."
"Suzanne? Here? Oh, damn."
"What is it, Ben? It sounds like this is a problem for you."
"No. Yes. I don't know for sure."
"Can you give me a little more to go on than that?"
"Yeah, sure. We dated last year, almost...nine months ago. It ended badly. She didn't want to break up and I did. She got very emotional. For a while there, she maneuvered to be wherever I was going, even following me. Then it all stopped. I thought she must have gotten some therapy, gotten over whatever she thought we had. But if she is coming here...did you recruit her for this?"
"No. She and her agent bugged me until I agreed. Well, this will teach me. I should have touched base with you before bringing in someone from L.A., and definitely before I signed a contract. Don't worry—I can get out of it. Just might be a bit expensive."
"No, don't do that. Let's just wait and see if she gives you grounds to terminate her. If she's still hung up on me, I'm sure that will become apparent. And if not, then she really does just want to learn from you."
Ben heard the other man sigh over the phone.
"I hope I don't regret this, Ben."
"Me, too."
They hung up and Ben set the phone down. Suzanne. Here in Sully Point. He tried to believe that she was not coming here to try and get together with him...but he knew, deep down, he knew.
* * * *
Rose remembered she was to meet with Doc Watson at his office and dressed accordingly, wearing pale, butter yellow slacks, white sandals and a loose, white cotton, sleeveless top with a crochet detail around the neckline. She liked the hemline of the trapeze top, longer on the sides, and she paired it with pearl earrings and a white ceramic bracelet edged in gold that Maggie had picked up for her.
She decided to leave her hair down today, and brushed it out until it shone, waving down her back. It ended now around mid-back, unlike earlier in the year when it had been waist-length. She'd finally gotten tired of taking care of it at quite such a long length and was happy that's she'd had some of it cut off. She used a tortoiseshell comb to pull it up on one side of her head, and she was ready to go.
Before she'd gotten dressed she'd spent extra time on her make-up. She was planning for meeting the actress who knew Ben sometime during the day. She wasn't sure where it would happen or when, but she knew she wanted to be prepared. No sloppy shorts and flip flops for her today!
Maggie had told her where the doctor's office was, right off the square, so Rose walked over, enjoying the fresh morning breeze on what looked like another sunny day. She nodded to a few people she recognized, and arrived at the office feeling refreshed and energized. It was nice to be in a town small enough that people became recognizable quickly.
The office door was open, and she walked in, but didn't see a receptionist anywhere. She waited a few moments, and then called out, "Hello?"
"Be right there," she heard a man say, and realized it was the doctor's voice.
In a minute, a man with a head full of white wavy hair, and wearing steel-framed glasses, came down the hallway and into the waiting room. He held out a hand which she shook.
"I'm Doc Watson, and you must be Doctor Rose Carter."
"Yes, I am, but please, call me Rose."
"My name is Henry, but everyone calls me 'Doc' so feel free to do so as well."
"All right. What can I do for you, Doc?" she asked.
"Come with me, back to my office, where we can talk."
She noticed that before they left the waiting room, he locked the front door and put up a closed sign. They went down the short hall, past a couple of examining rooms, and ended up in a large wood-paneled office. It looked like every doctor's office you could find on television, with shelves behind the desk filled with journals and books. There was a light box for looking at x-rays and a full skeleton stood at the back of the office. Two windows let light in through mini-blinds that were almost closed.
Doc Watson sat behind the old heavy wooden desk and motioned for her to sit in one of the two chairs in front of it.
"Well, here we are," he said, leaning forward and clasping his hands on the desk.
"Yes," she said after a few moments of silence.
He took a deep breath. "I'm dying."
She sat up straighter in her chair. "Of what?"
"Old age, mostly."
She relaxed her tense posture a bit. "How old are you?"
"Sixty-seven. And I'm ready for some rest. I love this town. Love the people in it. I've taken care of them for the last forty years. But I'm not the man I was. Not the doctor I was. I don't have the energy you need for this work. Granted, it's a small town and it's not like working in a big city doctor office or hospital, nothing like it, in fact. It's a general practice, and I've seen it all."
"Are you the only doctor in town?"
"Yes. There's a small hospital a street over from the square downtown. It serves us here in Sully Point. There's a larger one that handles more serious cases from here and two other towns to the west of us. But for most things, the folks in town come to me first. We used to have a second doctor, but he passed away seven years ago."
"What is your health like, really?"
"I didn't like the looks of the last echocardiogram I had. My EKG is not what it should be. Mostly, I think I'm wearing down."
"You could conceivably live quite a bit longer," she suggested.
"Perhaps, bu
t not with this job. And that's where you come in."
She crossed her legs and waited.
"I want you to consider taking over for me here. I wouldn't dump it all on you at once. I'd gradually work my way out of the job with you at my side, so people would get to know you and trust you."
"Am I the first person you've asked?"
"I've been sending out feelers, trying to find the right sort of person. Nobody has felt like they were Sully Point material, if you know what I mean. Then I heard you were coming. Your brother and sisters have talked a lot about you. You sound like you have what is needed."
"And what's that?"
"You care. You really, deeply care about people."
She was startled by the statement. "You deduced that simply from what they told you?"
"I heard about the clinic, the free clinic. I heard you worked so hard at helping the people who came there that your hospital finally booted you out. Is that true?"
It was a shock to hear it stated so blatantly. The feelings of the last year came back to her in a rush. The anger of not being able to help because of bureaucracy, the pain of seeing people she should be able to help out on the streets getting sicker—it all felt right there again.
"Yes, it's true. Who told you? My family doesn't know."
"The hospital administrator."
"What?" She stared at him with wide eyes.
"I called the hospital when I knew you were on the way here, and after I heard bits and pieces. None of your family seemed to have the complete story. I asked Maggie what hospital you'd been at, and then I called them. The man I talked to was an arrogant bastard, I'll give you that. But I also knew that it was time for you to get out of the trauma unit. You've been there longer than you should. Most people rotate out after a couple years. You were worn down and burned out, and then you took on the clinic. You battled for it and you lost."
She sighed, and sat back in her chair. "Yes. I lost." It was still a bitter feeling to remember.
"Do you disagree with me that you needed time off even before that happened?"
"Oh yes, I knew. I didn't have the same edge anymore, or the energy. I'd seen too much, lost too many people I'd tried to save. The stress level was awful. Losing the fight for the clinic was just the final straw. They say they put me on sabbatical, but I already know they don't want me back."
He looked down, took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. When he put the glasses back on and looked at her, there was a sad look on his face.
"According to the man I spoke to, you're right. The hospital doesn't want you back. They'll be sending you a letter soon enough. I'm telling you because of my offer, and I think you deserve to hear news like that in person."
"Thank you, Doc. It does somehow make it easier to take hearing it from you rather than reading it in a letter."
Silence fell between them as she thought about what he'd said. She was never going back to the hospital. It seemed unreal. But her first recognizable feeling was a sense of relief. She nodded slowly.
"I think it may be for the best," she said, looking across the desk into his kind eyes. "Not returning to the hospital, I mean. As far as your offer to take over here...that needs some thought."
Doc nodded. "Yes, of course it does. But while you're thinking, there are some things you need to know and things I need to tell you. One of the most important to you probably, is that the office here gets funding from the foundation set up by the Grainger, Carter, and Tremaine families and their extensions. They call it the Sully Point Foundation now, or the SPF. They came to me once it was set up to say they would cover medical bills for anyone who couldn't afford to pay, or didn't have insurance. As they put it to me, nobody in town should be wiped out financially because of doctor and hospital bills."
"Wow. That's...unheard of."
"Yes, I know. You're related to some big-hearted people. And they simplified the process so all we have to do here in the office is fill out one form and send it in, and then presto!, we get paid."
"Nobody in the family mentioned this to me at all. You haven't told them you want to leave yet? Or that you were going to ask me?"
"No, they don't know. Aside from medical bill help, the foundation donated equipment. We have a state of the art computer system and we use laptops to document everything. I carry a laptop with me when I go out on a call."
"Wait a minute—you do house calls? Really?" Rose asked in disbelief.
Doc smiled at her. "Sure do. I like to see where people live, how they live, to treat the whole person."
Rose had leaned forward in her chair and sat back to listen to more. She believed in a holistic approach to medicine like he was describing.
"We also got some equipment we needed from the SPF. I can do an EKG here in the office, and we have an x-ray machine for emergency use. My nurse is trained in the use of all the equipment. There's also a receptionist who mans the phone and the front desk. I've had my eyes open for a nurse practitioner so that there wouldn't be such a load on the nurse, and who could help out with prenatal care and education about illnesses. There are two empty offices for another doctor and a nurse practitioner. Come with me and I'll show you the setup here."
They walked out of the office and down the hall. The more she saw, the more impressed Rose was. Everything was state of the art, well-organized, and almost everything looked brand new.
"Did they just recently give you new furniture and exam room equipment? The foundation?"
"Yes, just a couple months ago. Looks pretty snazzy, doesn't it?" Doc said proudly.
"It sure does."
They ended up back in his office looking at the laptop he carried with him always. It was one of those tough ones that you could take into a jungle or up a mountain. The screen swiveled around so that patients could sign the screen easily with a special pen. That speeded up things like authorizations and medical billing forms, especially on house calls.
"You've got a slick operation here, Doc. I'm definitely impressed. It would be a big adjustment for me, coming from the E.R. and Trauma Unit. But there is an appeal to having the time to get to know my patients, to work on prevention and not just seeing them in a crisis. I don't feel like I can give you an answer yet, though. Not until I have more time to de-stress and think about what I want. Thank you, for giving me a truly wonderful option."
He stood up and walked around the desk to shake her hand and walk her to the door. "I think you'd be successful at it. But you have to want to do this kind of doctoring. It's a special kind of medical work. Feel free to call me if you think of any questions while you're pondering what to do."
"Thanks, I will. I'll be talking to you soon, Doc."
Rose left the doctor's office, and walked slowly back toward her apartment. The smells of the Bakery were tempting, but she resisted the urge and went up the stairs and into her place. She found some peaches, plain yogurt, and ground flax seed and dumped it into the blender with some ice cubes. It tasted delicious on such a hot day. The windows were open in the apartment and that had been fine so far this morning, but she knew by lunch she'd need to turn on the air conditioner.
As she sipped her smoothie, she wondered whether the actress had arrived yet. Was Ben looking forward to seeing an old flame? A current secret girlfriend? Or what? The more her mind went round in circles, the more frustrated and angry she felt.
At last, she picked up the phone and called him...and got no answer.
* * * *
Ben was at the Playhouse when the phone rang. He didn't even check to see who it was, just sending it to voicemail instead. He'd decided this venue was best for meeting Suzanne Hardtman again. It was a place that was all about work, and not about dating. He'd asked Lucretia to meet him to run lines. She'd agreed, stating that the tourist side of her business wouldn't be picking up until next week.
Lucretia walked onstage, and Ben stuck out his hand to shake hers.
"We're not in very many scenes together, Mr. Darcy. What am I real
ly doing here?"
He shrugged and confessed. "I need protection. I wanted to be busy when the actress Mr. Christopher is bringing in shows up. I don't want to be free to talk over old times."
"Ohhh...I see. Who is she?"
"Suzanne Hardtman, actress, not very well known."
"Could we call her a starlet?"
"You could, yes."
"What's she here for?"
"Understudy for Beth. They should be arriving any minute now," Ben said, running a hand nervously through his hair. "Let's pick a scene."
Lucretia nodded and opened her script. "How about at the dance?"
"Sure, that sounds fine."
As Lucretia began her little speech, Ben berated himself mentally. He knew he was letting the whole Suzanne thing get to him too much. And then there was Rose...should he tell her? Of course, knowing Suzanne, she just might start rumors about him. If Rose heard anything negative or that he was involved with Suzanne...that would not be of any help to their growing relationship. Ben realized that he needed to talk to Rose right away.
"Ben! How wonderful to see you!" gushed Suzanne as she walked up to the stage.
He turned to see her standing there and could tell by the glitter in her eyes that she was not there about understudying anything. She was in town because of him. He groaned inwardly, but pasted a half-smile on his face.
"Hello, Suzanne. I heard you were understudying Beth Carter. That should be a terrific experience."
Her face fell a bit. "Yes, it should."
"Let me introduce you to Lucretia Evans, Suzanne. Lucretia, this is Suzanne Hardtman."
"Oh, hello," Suzanne said indifferently.
"Hello, Suzanne. Nice to meet you." Lucretia raised an eyebrow as Suzanne turned immediately away and back to Ben.
"So Ben, you've got to take me to lunch. I don't know where anything is in this hick town."
Ben felt Lucretia stiffen beside him.
He frowned at Suzanne. "This isn't a hick town. And I'm busy with Lucretia. I won't be able to take you to lunch."
Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) Page 6
