The Family Doctor

by Bobby Hutchinson

  “Mine, too.” It was Monet’s water lilies, and it soothed Kate to look at it.

  “We still on for coffee on Thursday?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. See you then.”

  When he left, Kate realized she had a ridiculous grin plastered across her face. He could have called her instead of dropping by. The fact that he’d made an effort to see her pleased her, and for the rest of the day she found herself smiling more often than usual.

  She raced down to the ER just before Leslie was due to go off shift to find out how Galina was.

  “She’s about the same,” Les sighed.

  “If there’s anything at all I can do, call me.”

  Leslie promised, but the phone didn’t ring all evening.

  KATE MADE A POINT of being early for Eliza’s class on Thursday. She dropped Eliza at the entrance and drove to Tenth. Tony was waiting, sitting at the same table they’d had the previous week. Kate parked right in front of the coffee shop, and he smiled at her and waved. A spark came to life and glowed inside of her.

  When she sat down, the waitress came by and Tony ordered. He remembered exactly how she liked her coffee, and he ordered the pastries she’d enjoyed. The glow intensified.

  “You look pretty in blue,” he commented, admiring the summer dress she’d put on after work.

  “Thank you.” She flushed with pleasure. It was the first time he’d commented on what she wore. She liked what he was wearing, too, although she didn’t say so. He had khaki walking shorts on, and his legs were long and strong, nicely dusted with dark hair, the way she remembered them from the hospital. A shiver of awareness went through her. What would it be like to have those long legs entwined with hers?

  He was giving her a quizzical look, and she felt the color rising in her cheeks. Idiot. Don’t keep on blushing. He doesn’t know what you’re thinking.

  But there was a spark of humor in his eyes, and a hot intensity to his gaze that made her wonder if maybe he suspected. To break the awkwardness of the moment she blurted, “How’s the ankle?”

  “Much improved, thanks. I’ve started working out again. I can’t jog just yet, but walking doesn’t seem to hurt it, as long as I don’t go fast or far.”

  “Do you like to jog?” Her glance went automatically to his legs. That was probably what made them so powerful.

  “Yeah, I stay pretty active. I’ve done a couple marathons, but the training’s intense and it takes up too much time. I still play the odd game of rugby, and I bike when I can. But since I came on board at St. Joe’s I haven’t had much time for anything but work. How about you, Kate? What types of exercise do you enjoy?”

  This was tricky. She didn’t dare admit that weeding her vegetables and her flower beds was her usual workout. Although she did go swimming with Eliza fairly regularly.

  “Gardening. Swimming. Walking,” she embellished. It wasn’t much of a lie. She walked quite a lot at work. “I’m like you, it’s hard to find the time.”

  “Want to start a routine, real slow, with me?”

  Real slow. With him. Her heart lurched. “Sure. Doing what?”

  “Walking. Let’s figure out a time that might work for us both. You a morning person?”

  She definitely wasn’t, but no way would she admit it just now and endanger her prospects. “I could be.” Would it kill her to get up half an hour earlier?

  “Great. What about a walk tomorrow at, say, five-thirty?”

  “Five-thirty?” Her voice was faint. “In the morning?” She knew she sounded like an idiot, but was there a five-thirty in the morning? And was this a date? “Yeah. I guess so. Sure.”

  “Okay, it’s a date.”

  There, he’d said it. It just wasn’t the kind she’d had in mind. Was she going to regret this? She glanced again at his legs and got a tingly feeling in her stomach. “Where?”

  “How about Queen Elizabeth Park? It’s equidistant from both of our houses, and it’s got good paths.”

  It also had hills, if she remembered correctly. “Great.” She did her best to sound enthusiastic and gave him a bright, phony smile. “I’ll be there.”

  Maybe she’d just stay up so she wouldn’t have the challenge of climbing out of her warm bed at that ungodly hour.

  He took a swallow of coffee and she did, too.

  Then he smiled at her. He had the greatest smile.

  “Eliza was fine with the idea of coming home with McKensy after class?”

  “Yeah, she’s looking forward to it.” Actually, Eliza hadn’t been as enthusiastic about it as Kate thought she would, but the hamsters had clinched the deal.

  He was studying his coffee cup. “I tried my best to put your advice into practice the other night.”

  “What advice was that?” Kate was still thinking about Eliza.

  “Your wise words about how assertive people handle themselves at critical moments.”

  “Oh, that. And did it work?”

  “It might have if I’d stuck with it,” he admitted in a rueful tone. “Trouble was, I lost my temper.”

  She grinned at him. “Welcome to the club. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember, we always get another shot at it.”

  He pulled a face. “Oh, yeah, I’ve no doubts about that at all.”

  She wondered what specific incident had triggered him, but she didn’t ask, and he changed the subject. “McKensy’s thrilled because she got the part of the troll in the recital. What part did Eliza get?”

  “She’s a rabbit.”

  “Was she disappointed?”

  “Yeah, she really was.” Kate shook her head. “She wanted to be the wicked stepmother.”

  He looked puzzled. “Isn’t there a princess in this one?”

  Kate frowned. “There must be, there always is. At least in the ones I’ve watched. Eliza didn’t say.”

  “Why do you suppose our girls don’t have any hankering to be the princess?” He sounded honestly confused, and Kate had to laugh. She was also touched at his reference to our girls.

  “I’d say it’s an indication that we’re raising them right. I mean, what future is there for a princess? All a princess can aspire to be is queen.”

  He shrugged. “So what’s ahead for a troll? Or a stepmother, for that matter?”

  “Character parts on sitcoms?”

  They both laughed. Kate noted that she laughed a lot when she was with Tony. She could only hope she’d still be laughing at five-thirty the following morning.

  CHAPTER NINE

  HOSPITAL EMPLOYEE DIES of Hypothermia.

  Kate imagined the headlines as she slogged up the path behind Tony. She hadn’t anticipated rain, even though this was Vancouver. It had been hot and sunny for several weeks, and she’d expected more of the summery weather. But when her alarm blared at four-forty-five and she managed to unglue her eyes, the clouds outside her window were thick and it was already sprinkling.

  She’d waited for him to call and cancel. Instead, he called and confirmed. And now, twenty-three long minutes into the walk, the sprinkle had turned into a full-scale downpour. Her jacket was dripping. Her bare legs were freezing. Her new trainers were sopping.

  “This is invigorating.” Tony was marching along the pathway, using his cane, but still moving at a pace that made her pant, although at 6:00 a.m. the only pace she was truly capable of was a stationary one.

  Horizontal and stationary.

  “Feels good, breathing in all this fresh air.” He drew in a deep lungful and expelled it.

  She was trying not to breathe. All that chilly air made her shiver. “It’s waking me up, I’ll say that for it.” She swung her arms back and forth to get her circulation going. The effort exhausted her.

  He trudged upward and onward. “The kids had a great time last night. They named all the hamsters after the dwarfs in Snow White.”

  “Eliza told me. She also said that your mom spoiled them silly. She let them make sugar cookies and decorate them, and she made them
burgers and fries for dinner, but she let them eat their dessert first.”

  “Mom’s big on ice cream as an appetizer. She has shares in Baskin-Robbins.”

  “She’s a pretty cool grandma by the sounds of it. In fact, Eliza said she was way cool. She’s green with envy that McKensy has hamsters and a grandma.” It had been fascinating for Kate to learn of this entirely different side of Dorothy.

  “Your ex doesn’t have family?” He held a bush back so she could pass. Drops of water trickled down his unshaven face.

  “Nope. He grew up in foster homes.” The path was rising at an astonishing rate, and Kate tried her best not to sound winded. “He married young, and then his first wife died when Eliza was only three months old. Scott had no experience at all with babies, and no one to turn to for help.”

  “So you came along and rescued them both.”

  “Yeah.” She tried to ignore the water dripping down her neck. “Nurses are great rescuers. It’s one of the things in our makeup that causes us the most difficulty. It’s so hard to resist the impulse to rush in and fix everything.”

  “So do you think you’ve got it licked now? That fixing addiction?”

  She laughed. “I’m in recovery.” But was she? She thought of Scott and decided she had a ways to go. “I do one day at a time and I still have my slips.”

  “And where does your job fit in with recovery? Seems to me you spend all your working hours fixing things between people.”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “I don’t fix anything. All I do is give people guidelines on how to fix whatever it is by themselves. There’s a big difference.”

  Thank goodness they’d finally reached the top of the hill. Kate’s heart was pounding. Clouds of mist obscured the city, so there was no view. She thought longingly of a hot shower, coffee, breakfast. In a tentative voice she said, “Tony, think we should head back?”

  “God, I thought you’d never ask.” He gave a huge sigh of relief. “I didn’t want to be a wimp, but I’m soaked and I’ve had enough of this walking in the rain.”

  Kate threw back her head and gave a victory shout that startled Tony and echoed to them from the mists.

  They made their way down the hill faster than they’d come up. Except for their two vehicles, the car park was deserted.

  “Same time tomorrow morning?” He gave her a challenging look.

  “Tomorrow’s Saturday.” Weekdays were one thing, but getting up before dawn on the weekend horrified her. “I have to cut the lawn if this rain clears, so maybe we’d better stick to weekdays.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  They stopped beside her car. As she fumbled in her pocket for the keys, she felt his hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked up at him, and her breath caught in her throat. He was going to kiss her.

  Getting up had been worth it, after all.

  She tipped her head back, sighed and closed her eyes.

  SHE’D HAD HIS FULL ATTENTION from the moment she’d climbed out of her car looking dazed and sleepy, hair tied in a messy knot at her neck, face shiny and free of makeup. It was a turn-on, because he’d never before seen Kate anything but perfectly groomed.

  The green waterproof jacket she wore came below her shorts, which for some weird reason he found sexy as hell. As she’d walked ahead of him on the trail, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her long, slim legs. He couldn’t keep from fantasizing that she had nothing on under the damned coat.

  Now he slid a hand under her wet hair and drew her toward him.

  She came willingly.

  Tipping his head, he brought his mouth down on hers.

  Her skin was wet and warm, her lips full and soft. She tasted of the coffee he’d brought her, and of the toothpaste she’d used, and of something subtle and sweet and intimate that was strictly Kate.

  As he tasted her more fully, she made a small appreciative noise in her throat, and the sound excited him. Deepening the kiss, he dropped his cane and used his free hand to draw her closer, and her arms slid around him. Then she pulled back a little, unzipping his jacket and her own and sliding her arms inside.

  It was intimate and thrilling. He could feel the water from her coat wetting his sweatshirt. He could feel her hands, warm and tentative and arousing, touching his back.

  He closed his eyes and moved his lips from her mouth to her cheek, nuzzling her jawline, breathing in the fragrant, sweet smell of her neck when she tipped her head back.

  “Kate. Katie. Katherine.” He breathed the variations of her name, liking the sound of it, the feel of it on his lips. He felt the shudder that ran through her when he claimed her lips again, more aggressively this time.

  A sharp clap of thunder startled him.

  “Hell’s bells.” He opened his eyes and squinted up at the sky just as rain began pounding down on them. “It’s a bloody deluge.”

  After helping her unlock her car, he hurried around to the passenger side and clambered in beside her. She started the engine and turned on the heater as rain pounded against the roof. For a while they sat side by side in silence, watching the torrent pour down the windshield.

  “I like kissing you,” he finally said in a companionable tone.

  “I like being kissed by you.” Her voice was as matter of fact as his had been.

  He tried not to let his apprehension show. “So where do we go from here?”

  “I’d say to work.” She pointed at the clock on the dash and grinned at him. “Wouldn’t you?”

  “Right.” She was right. There was no need to analyze what had happened. He reached over and touched her wet, sleek hair, smoothing it back behind her ears. He liked her ears, delicate and pinned close to her head. “I’ll see you at the Admin meeting at ten, then.”

  “I’ll be there.” She smiled at him. “Dried off and properly dressed.”

  “More’s the pity.” He got out and made a dash for his car, and by the time he got it started and the wipers going, she was driving away.

  He sat with the motor running, thinking about Kate.

  It’s a big mistake, he reminded himself, getting involved with a co-worker. You know all the reasons, you’ve always claimed it wasn’t something you’d ever do. And besides, she’s not someone you can just have an affair with, O’Connor. She’s got a kid, just like you do. She’s responsible and respectable. McKensy likes her way too much.

  For heaven’s sake, man, it was only a kiss, not a roll in the flower beds. It was erotic, though. He thought of the way her breasts had pressed against him, nipples hard from the chill—maybe from more than the chill—and he shuddered. If the sun had been shining, he might have gone nuts enough to drag her into the flower beds, after all.

  He smiled at his own insanity. Me Tarzan, you Jane. Sex for the sake of sex. Wasn’t that supposed to be every man’s fantasy?

  One thing about it, fantasy sure as hell took his mind off other things. He hadn’t thought about his mother or his father or Wilson or the impending visit for all of two hours now.

  Get moving, O’Connor. You’re gonna be late for work.

  KATE’S PHONE RANG that afternoon.

  “For some reason,” Tony began, “I forgot to ask you this morning if you’d sit with me at the kids’ recital on Monday night? Mom usually comes, but she’s got a bowling tournament.”

  Kate hesitated. Scott had always come with her to the recitals, and Eliza loved having them both there. But if it came to a choice between sitting with Scott or sitting with Tony—no choice.

  “I’d like that,” she said.

  “Shall McKensy and I pick you two up, or do you want to meet us at the studio?”

  “We’ll meet you there.”

  “Good. I’ll get tickets and watch for you. I’ll try to get us seats front row center. How often will we have the chance to see our very own troll and rabbit cavorting around a stage?”

  “Not again in this lifetime, I fervently hope,” she said.

  “The girls can’t eat much before they perfo
rm, so I thought we’d all go out for dinner afterward—if you agree. There’s an Italian place that’s good for families. It’ll be quiet on Monday night.”

  Now, this was sounding a bit more like the kind of date she fancied. “I’ll check with Eliza, but it sounds perfect. Thank you.”

  Families, he’d said. She visualized him and McKensy, her and Eliza, waving from the windows of a green cottage with a white picket fence and a huge tree in the front yard. But then just where did Scott fit into that cozy picture?

  CHAPTER TEN

  “DADDY’S COMING WITH US, right, Kate?”

  It was Monday afternoon, and Kate was doing a final fitting on the rabbit costume Eliza would wear in the recital.

  She’d hurried home, but it was already 5:20, and the show started at six-thirty. The costumes the school provided weren’t new, and the fur had a tendency to molt.

  Kate sneezed for the third time. “Hold still, I need to take this in a little right here.” So she was avoiding an answer, so what?

  “Daddy’s coming, isn’t he?” Eliza was nothing if not persistent.

  “Did you ask him?”

  “Of course I did, a long time ago. He said he was gonna talk to you about it.”

  Scott had. He’d said he hadn’t had time to get a ticket and asked her to pick one up for him. He’d meet her at the studio but he’d be a little late. It was his usual system to avoid spending his own money.

  Kate had told him he’d have to get his own ticket, that she had a date. Scott had looked surprised, and then he’d laughed.

  “You got a date for a kid’s dancing thing? What is he, a little light in the loafers?”

  Give herself credit, Kate thought, she’d managed to walk away without saying anything.

  “Daddy is coming, isn’t he, Kate?”

  She was feeling uncomfortable. She resented being Scott’s messenger. “I don’t know, sweetie.” Why should she feel responsible for the bloody man? But it wasn’t Scott she felt responsible for, she reminded herself. It was this beautiful little girl.