Love M.D. (3 page)

“What if your true love or soul
mate happens to be a client?”

“
True love
or
soul mate
?
What the hell has gotten into you? Are you seeing someone? And I don’t mean the
little trollops that come over for a weekend fling. Of late, you seem to be
taking a keen interest in my love life.”

“Maybe,” he smiles, looking down, almost
refusing to meet my gaze.

“Come on…who is she?”

He hesitates. “You don’t really
know her.”

“
Don’t really know her…
You’re
in love with her, aren’t you? That’s why you’ve been pushing me to meet
someone.”

“That’s true.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this
before?”

“I wasn’t sure you’d approve.”

“Who is this person? And why wouldn’t
I approve?”

He pauses for a moment. “She’s… a
little younger.”

“Define
a little younger.
”

“Nine years
a-little-younger
.”

“Does she love you?”

“She says she does.”

“Well, that’s all I care about. When
do I meet her? And who is she?”

“Megan Kole.”

“As in Jonathan Kole’s sister? The
lawyer?”

“That’s the one.”

I erupt in laughter. “Does he
know?”

“I’m not sure. Jada knows. She
introduced us. He may have been told by now. If not, I’m meeting the rest of her
family tonight, and I’m sure he’ll be there.”

“He’ll kick your ass to hell and
back if you hurt his sister. You know that, right?”

“Well, I have no intention of
hurting her, so there won’t be any ass kicking to hell.”

“He goes all out for his family. He’s
very protective of them, the women in his life—even more.”

“As he should. It’s not as if he
doesn’t know me. Joshua, at his firm, is my lawyer, remember?”

“You’re not nervous about Jonathan finding
out, are you?”

“Not at all. I was more nervous
about telling you.”

“Why?”

“Do you really need me to remind
you? Chantal?”

“I stay out of your relationships,
Zach. I only found it necessary to say something to that first class tramp when
I saw her cheating on you with my very eyes. You would have done the same if it
were me.”

“You did a bit more than
say
something.”

“What?” I ask innocently. “All I
did was sit at her table, introduce myself to her date and give him one or two
details about your relationship with her.”

A knock sounds through the door and
our receptionist, Lisa, walks in with a small gift bag and a huge bouquet of
red long stem roses.

“This was just delivered for you,
Zoë,” she says.

Oh mon Dieu.
I almost knock
over the glass of water on my desk.

I glance at the bag, but there’s no
return address. I know they’re from
him.

“You must have made quite the
impression on someone. Who’s it from?” Zach asks after Lisa leaves the room.

Dr. Hottie.

“I don’t know. Let’s see what it is.”

I pull away the white tissue paper
to reveal a mahogany wooden box on the inside. As I pull the lid away, a silver
countdown clock with my name engraved on a silver plate on the bottom is
exposed. Instantly, my suspicions are confirmed.

“It’s from the doctor.”

“What happens in thirty days?” he
asks, referring to the countdown time on the clock.

“His divorce will be finalized, and
I should be done with his house.”

“So he will no longer be your
client.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, it looks like the good
doctor has his eyes set on you.”

“He’s persistent, I’ll give him
that.”

“Why’d you say that?”

“He asked me out to dinner. When I told
him I don’t date my clients, not to mention he’s technically still married,
guess his response…”

“What did he say?”

“I quote, ‘I usually get what I
want.’ ”

“
Whoa
… Zoë Jenkins, the
doctor is out to get you.”

“That might be true, but he has two
things working against him—at this point I have no desire to get involved with
a newly divorced man, and he’s a client.”

“You think he might be rebounding?”

“I don’t know. I’m not privy to the
details of his divorce, but I think it might be nasty. He didn’t say that, but
I sensed that he didn’t tell me everything. Beyond that he’s a client.”

 
“I heard you the first,
second and third time. I want you to be happy, but I also don’t want my sister
getting hurt. Be careful. When am I going to meet this amazing doctor?”

“Don’t know… and who said he was
amazing?”

“The look on your face when you saw
those roses and the way you’ve been fidgeting from the moment we started
talking about him.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking
about.” I quickly change the topic. “Have fun with Megan tonight, but I’ll be
expecting both of you at my house for breakfast on Sunday morning.”

“Bossy…” he laughs then kisses me on
my forehead before exiting the room.

At Belvedere, I
take a walk into the garage to look at
the little I have to work with. Morgan told me, but seeing the number of books
I have to make room for will be quite the task. I open one of the boxes, and I
am surprised to see the top book is about Feng Shui. Fascinating.

I come across some flat crates and
realize my inspiration for this house lies within those boxes.

I pull a flat screwdriver from my toolbox
and open them. Three crates contain Jackson Pollock art. By the way they are
packaged, I wonder if they are original. They’d cost a fortune if they were. Either
way, they’re fantastic pieces around which to design a house.

The last crate is much smaller, but
the artwork inside is of a very different nature. It is the art of a child,
professionally framed. Morgan said he had no kids, but something is so off
about this. I scan the pieces and find two oversized, framed photos, one with a
little girl who’s three or four years old, and one with the girl hugging Morgan
and kissing him on the cheek. They share the same hazel eyes but not much else.
Her hair is blond as opposed to his black hair. I search behind the frames to
see if there is a message or inscription, but I find nothing. I have to admit,
despite the fact that I don’t want to get involved with Morgan Drake right now,
I am curious about his life.

My trip’s been
going well. It’s easy to get absorbed
by my work during the day, but I look forward to the mornings and evenings when
Zoë calls. I am just finishing my day in a small village. Today, we deterred a
bit from the norm and set up in a tent in the area to immunize some kids with a
donation I secured from one of the drug companies back home. As I put the last
of our supplies in a container, I feel someone poke at my leg. I look down to
see an old patient of mine.

“Anjali. How are you?” I crouch
down to her level.

She was always shy and never spoke,
but as I look at her pretty face, I realize she’s come a long way from when I
last saw her a year ago. My cell rings on the table nearby. She picks it up and
hands it to me.

“You think I need to answer this?”

She nods, smiling brightly at me.
Looking at the screen, I notice it’s my favorite interior designer. “Zoë. How was
your day?”

“Good, thanks. Is now a good time
to talk?”

“I’m sitting here with a brave little
girl named Anjali, but I can spare a few minutes. What’s up?”

Anjali smiles, hands me a small
envelope and runs away.

“That must be important,” Zoë
responds. “I can call back or maybe you can call me when you have some free
time.”

“No, that’s not necessary. She just
handed me an envelope and took off.” I open the envelope and a photo falls out,
I pick it up and in the photo, she’s all dolled up, wearing an orange, black and
gold outfit with an elaborate headpiece. It looks like she’s dancing in a group
of twelve or thirteen other little girls. I peruse quickly through the letter,
written in a child’s handwriting.

“Dr. Drake? Still there?”

“Sorry, Zoë. I got distracted. It
looks like I have a date with a six year old and her family tonight.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It will be, she barely ever communicated
with me before. I couldn’t even get a smile out of her, and now she wants me to
come watch her dance tonight. That’s progress beyond belief. Some kids are scarred
emotionally for life. It’s not often I get the opportunity to see them start to
heal emotionally, too. Usually we make a stop and we’re out. This is the first
time we’ve returned to the same place twice so it’s really great to see her
progress.”

“You should be so proud, Doctor
Drake—”

“Zoë, I’m serious. Please, it’s
about time you call me Morgan.”

“I think not,
doctor
,” she
responds. “Anyway, I won’t keep you too long. I just wanted to know if you’re
opposed to drapery window treatments.”

“I trust you to do what you feel is
best.”

“Good, because I saw this exquisite
hot pink and blue floral that I think would be wonderful in the master.”

I hear her smile at the other end
of the line. I laugh. “I know you’re testing me. I told you, I trust your judgment.”

“Impressive. I wish all my clients
were like you.”

“Well, I know nothing about design
except for what I’ve read in books.”

“You mean like the use of Feng
Shui?”

So you’ve been checking out my books…

“You know all that went straight
out the door when you bought a house below street level, on a winding street
with a steep slope, right?”

“Oh shoot, I didn’t get to that
chapter yet.”

She laughs at the end of the line,
and it brings a smile to my face.

“Well Ms. Jenkins, regardless of
the location of my house, I’m certain that whatever design choices you make
will add great chi to my home.”

She chuckles softly. We quickly
wrap up and say goodbye.

Zoë can save herself the time and
money it takes to call me. She can do whatever she wants in my house, I trust
her design choices implicitly, but I would never turn down the opportunity to
hear her voice or see her beautiful face. If she wants to call me to ask my preference
between a satin or a matte finish, I’ll be more than happy to entertain her.

She’s been all business when we
talk. She hasn’t once mentioned the roses and the clock. I’ll let her have her
way for now, but once my lawyers have the final divorce papers in hand, I
intend to kick the charm up a notch, although I’m beginning to think she might be
immune to that. We’ll see… I look forward to returning home to see what she has
done, but mostly because I’m eager to find out exactly what makes Zoë Jenkins
tick.

I wake up
early Sunday morning to get breakfast ready
for my guests that are due to arrive at nine. Because Zach’s meeting with Megan’s
family went so well, I invited Jonathan and Jada for breakfast, as well.

Breakfast on Sundays is usually a Zach-and-me
thing, but now that it seems he’s blissfully in love, I am eager to get to know
the woman who has made such a huge impact on his life.

Since telling me his well-kept
secret earlier this week, he has filled me in on all the details of his life he
managed to keep so well hidden for the past six months, including their little
encounters in the office, their weekend rendezvous at her brother’s Lake Tahoe house,
and accompanying him on the business trip to Greece last week.

Evidently, it was easy for me to
miss what was going on right underneath my nose because we spent so much time away
from each other in the last few months. Either I was in Greece or he was, with
just short periods together in between.

I hear Peaches whining in the foyer,
and I know it’s because they must be here. Moments later, I hear Zach’s voice
coming through the house.

“Zoë?” he calls out.