MM02 - Until Morning Comes (18 page)

The door swung open, and Dr. Colter Gray strode in. “Did someone mention my name?”

Jo Beth got so excited, she almost forgot to decline, while Hannah and Jim started talking at once.

Colter held up his hand. “Please. If you two will leave me alone with the patient, I’ll find out what's bothering her.”

Hannah and Jim slipped from the room, closing the door behind them. Colter put his fingers on Jo Beth's pulse and gave her a serious, doctorly look.

“Jo Beth, I didn't expect to see you here, especially since you looked so healthy last night.” Still holding her wrist, he bent close and peered into her eyes. He noticed that her pulse accelerated. Stifling a smile, he said, “What's the matter? Too much dancing?”

“Too much night air, I guess.” She went into the coughing routine she'd practiced all morning. Then she put a limp hand on her brow and tried for a swoon.

Colter slipped his arms under her shoulders and pulled her into a close embrace.

“Do you do this for all your patients, doctor?” Her voice was muffled against his white coat.

“I believe in total care.”

“Then you must be very much in demand.”

“See how well it works. Your voice already sounds stronger.” He laid her back down on the examining table.

Jo Beth was going into another decline when she noticed her powder on the front of Colter's lab coat. She hastily changed the decline to a coughing fit, complete with flailing arms. It was no accident that her arms flailed mostly at the telltale powder. When it looked like she had destroyed most of the evidence, she sank back onto the table and put a hand on her brow.

“Do you think it's serious, Colter?”

“I think it's very serious, Jo. The treatment could take a long time. Maybe even years.”

Jo Beth narrowed her eyes. That foxy Colter was on to her again. He knew darned good and well there was nothing wrong with her except an overactive libido and a huge talent for drama. Still, that didn't change things. She and Colter Gray Wolf had a few scores to settle, and they might as well settle them in the hospital arena with plenty of witnesses.

She made a failed attempt at sitting up, then put her hand dramatically over her heart. Next she put on her dying-calf-in-a-hailstorm look and made her voice as weak as last Tuesday's tea.

“What are you going to do about my condition?”

Colter put one large, warm hand on her chest. “Is your heart bothering you, Jo?”

She started to say no, for even she knew that she couldn't have pneumonia and heart trouble to boot without being near death's door. But just when she was going to deny that malady, Colter started massaging her chest. The swoon she went into this time was not practiced.

She lay on the hard, narrow table, fighting a losing battle to look sick.

“What your hands can do through a hospital gown ought to be considered illegal, Colter.”

“It's part of your cure, Jo.” He kept up the massage. “I can already see a noticeable improvement in your color.”

Heat had put two bright spots in her cheeks, shining through all the layers of powder.

“Would you prescribe these massages on a weekly basis?”

“Twice daily should do it.”

“I feel better already. Shall I set up another appointment with you?”

“I leave this sort of thing to the nurses and the interns.” He patted her knee. “Don't worry about a thing, Jo. They'll take good care of you.”

He turned to leave and was almost at the door before she could find her voice.

“Colter!”

With his hand on the doorknob, he turned to look at her. “Did you forget to tell me something, Jo?”

“No. You forgot to tell me. Where are you going? What are you planning to do about me?”

“I'm admitting you, Jo. We need to run tests to find out what's wrong with you before I prescribe treatment... except the massages, of course.” He smiled at her. “As to where I'm going... There's a wonderful seafood restaurant on the bay. I was going to invite you to go along. Too bad you'll be stuck here in the hospital. See you, Jo.” He left, whistling.

Jo didn't know whether to laugh or to cuss. She'd gotten what she wanted—to be in the hospital, where she would have Colter's undivided attention—but it hadn't turned out exactly the way she had planned.

Hannah Roman poked her head around the door. “How did it go?”

“I wish I knew.” Jo Beth swung her feet off the table and reached for her shoes. “Where's Jim?”

“He and Colter went for a cup of coffee. They invited me, but I wanted to talk to you.”

“I could sure as heck use some talking to.” Jo Beth began to dress. “I'm not an old hand at this, and I keep getting the feeling that Colter is always one step ahead of me.”

“He is.” Hannah put her hand over her stomach. “The baby's kicking.” She waddled to a chair and sat down. “Jo, Colter knows that you're here to pursue him and capture him, so to speak.”

“It's more than that. I want to prove to him that people in love stick together, no matter what sort of problems they're having.” Jo bent over to tie her jogging shoes. “How does he know?”

“Jim, of course.” Hannah smiled indulgently. “You have to understand. Their friendship goes a long way back. They're as close as brothers.”

“Colter would have guessed anyhow. He's too smart not to.”

“What I think we should do is double-cross the double-crossers.”

“That's the best idea I've heard yet. I'm open to suggestions, Hannah.”

“Then, here's what I think we should do....”

o0o

Colter made sure Jo Beth was settled in her room, where he knew Nurses Martin and Turner would take good care of her.

He made his hospital rounds, then left the hospital, laughing at the audacity of the woman he'd pursued in the desert. He intended to go back to his houseboat, change clothes, then have a long, leisurely meal at a good seafood restaurant. But by the time he'd gotten back to his boat, he knew he wasn't going to do that.

He changed into jeans, a denim shirt, and moccasins, prepared a quick meal in his galley, then headed back to the hospital.

Nurse Martin pursed her fat lips when he showed up. “Back again, Dr. Gray?”

“Yes. I have to see my patient.”

Nurse Martin didn't dare lift an eyebrow when he picked up Jo Beth's chart and left the station. But as soon as he was out of earshot, she walked over to Nurse Turner, who was sorting pills for the nine-o'clock rounds.

“Tilly, I'd love to know what's going on between those two. He wouldn't tell me much, except that it was sort of a joke.”

Tilly grinned. “Maybe I’ll saunter down that way to see if she needs anything.”

“Try the bedpan. That always shows the true state of their health.”

Nurse Tilly Turner left the station and eased down toward Room 306. The first thing she heard was the laughter. That was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. Dr. Colter Gray was one of the most serious physicians she knew. He smiled at his patients, of course, and he was always friendly with them. But she had never heard him laughing the way he was right now.

She eased open the door. She didn't see it as sneaking. Not exactly. She just wanted to get a candid view of what was going on. What was going on gave her another jolt. Dr. Gray was actually
sitting on the bed holding the patient's hand.

He suddenly looked up and saw her.

“Nurse Turner, is there anything you want?”

He didn't even get off the side of the bed. That was one for the records. Tilly adjusted her cap and put on her most professional air.

“I came by to see if the patient wants anything—juice, ice, bedpan?”

Dr. Gray laughed again. Then he did the most astonishing thing: He leaned over, in an intimate way, and said, “How about it, Jo? Do you want Nurse Turner to fetch the bedpan?”

The patient had one of the prettiest smiles Tilly had ever seen.

“I can still manage that on my own, and I expect to get better every day, now that you're taking care of me, doctor.”

“She doesn't need the bedpan, Nurse Turner.” Dr. Gray was still smiling. “Anything else?”

“No, I'll just tidy up.” Tilly walked over to the bed and straightened the covers, on general principle. Then she puttered around the lavatory and fiddled with the bed rails. “Everything seems to be shipshape. Good night, Jo... Dr. Gray.”

She couldn't get back to the nurses' station fast enough. Geraldine looked up from her charts.

“Well, if that face is any indication, I'm in for quite a story.”

Tilly sat down and put her hand over her heart. It was going ninety miles an hour.

“You'll just never believe what I saw. In all my years of knowing Dr. Gray, I never thought I'd see it.”

“If you don't tell me in about two seconds, Tilly Turner, you're never going to live to see another day, let alone another year.”

“Well, first of all... you should have
seen
that nightgown she was wearing. It was a beautiful blue and so sheer I could look right through it and see everything she's got. And that's just what Dr. Gray was doing. Looking down at that gown like he was going to rip it off with his bare hands. Oh, he was laughing and joking, but Lord! were those eyes of his sizzling.”

Geraldine pushed her charts aside and propped her fat chin on her dimpled elbows. “I'm panting. Tell me more.”

“Well, he was sitting on her bed, and she had one hand on his knee. It was meant to look casual, even accidental, but when I was straightening up the soap dish I watched them in the mirror. She was
running her hands down Dr. Gray's legs.”

“I've been waiting fifteen years for somebody to ring Dr. Gray's chimes, and when it happens, I'm not even there to see it.” She sighed. “Next time
I'll
offer the bedpan.”

“You're not going to believe what happened next.”

“Tell it before I have heart failure.”

“He said something, real low like, and I know he didn't mean for anybody to hear except Jo. But I heard it.”

“What did he say?”

“Lord, how do I know? He was talking Indian or something.”

“Shoot, I’ll bet that was the best part. What else, Tilly?”

“I ran out of excuses to hang around. That's all I know.”

“If he's not out of there in another fifteen minutes, I'm going down to see exactly what's going on.” Geraldine gave a dramatic sigh as she picked up her charts. “I hope it's something good. I'm so tired of listening to everybody's aches and pains I don't know what to do.”

o0o

Colter couldn't bring himself to leave Jo's bed. He was beginning to get used to that shockingly sexy gown, so that he didn't have to stare so much, but he couldn't bear to deprive himself of her hand upon his knee.

The odd thing about her hand being on his knee, he mused, was that she didn't even seem to be aware of what she was doing. She was the same laughing, friendly Jo, but she was different in a way that he couldn't explain. True, she was beautiful and sensuous and, of course, she still had her hand on his knee, but none of that seemed to be directed specifically at him. Even his bit of Apache poetry hadn't moved her to more than a casual smile.

He began to wonder if Jim had been wrong. If they'd all been misreading Jo Beth McGill.

“I'm so glad you put me here, Colter. And I'm looking forward to another of those nice massages.”

“I could give you one now.”

“Please.” She held up her hand. “Don't bother.” She smiled sweetly. “I'll wait for one of the nurses... or some nice young intern.”

That statement was enough to send Colter off the bed. He prowled the room. It was one of the few times in his life he hadn't known exactly what to do. Finally, after she had watched him in complete silence for a small eternity, he sat in the uncomfortable chair beside her bed. The chairs had been designed to discourage long hospital visits, but he wasn't about to let a chair defeat him.

“Are you staying a while longer, Colter?”

“Yes. Since you're from out of town and don't have anyone else...”

He left the sentence hanging in midair, for Jo Beth chose that moment to yawn and stretch her arms above her head. The stretch almost brought him out of his chair. He clenched his fists at his side. As if the stretch hadn't been enough to make him forget he was in a hospital, she executed a series of upper-body movements that almost sent him right through the ceiling.

“Sleepy, Jo?”

“I could use a little sleep.” She lifted one languorous arm and let it sort of float through the air. Colter fought another battle with control. “Women in my condition need their rest, you know.”

“No doubt.” He tried to read her mind in those wide, innocent blue eyes. He half-rose from his chair, then sank back down.

“You're leaving, then?”

“You're sure you don't need anything, Jo?”

“Positive.” She smiled, but it was not the smile of a sick woman.

“Then, good night.” He got out of his chair and started toward the door.

With his hand on the door handle, he dawdled, waiting for her to call him back. When she didn't, he left quickly, trying to tamp down both confusion and disappointment.

He walked the familiar halls he'd walked a thousand times before, but it was the first time he'd never seen a thing. Habit told him when to turn left at the nurses’ station.

“Oh, Dr. Gray.” Nurse Martin lifted her hand and hailed him. He never even heard her.

His moccasins didn't make a sound as he walked quickly toward the elevator. It came on the first punch of the button, and whisked him down to the parking garage. Habit carried him to his slot where the Porsche waited, and habit carried him through the streets to the bay. Only when he reached his houseboat did he come to his senses.

He sat down on his bed and stared at the dark porthole on the opposite wall, thinking. Maybe Jo Beth would start trying to capture him tomorrow.

Chapter Eleven

Jo Beth had just had her morning bath and changed into a sizzling black-lace gown, when Colter walked through the door. She didn't even have time to jump back into bed and recline.

“What brings you here so early, Colter?”

“Your massage.”