Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) (8 page)

"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, but 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 really 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.