Nursing The Doctor (3 page)

“Isn’t it great? There’s nothing like fresh powder. We’re heading up early tomorrow morning, so I hope it lasts.”

He’d slowed down now on the pizza. He was taking languid bites, interspersed with sips of soda, and he was watching her a little too intently for comfort. “You ski, Lil?”

“Nope.” She shook her head. “Never learned to ski or play tennis or operate a sailboat. I’m recreationally challenged.”

“Oh, I dunno. I bet there’re activities you’d excel at if you’d only give yourself half a chance.” His husky voice deepened and his eyes seemed to caress her.

Such obvious sexual innuendo didn’t deserve an answer, in her opinion. She gave him a cool look and concentrated on her pizza. He laughed as if they’d shared a good joke and then said, “You grow up here in Vancouver, Lily?”

“Yes, I did.” Again, she turned the question back on him. “How about you?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “I was born here, but I grew up in Greenwood. You ever heard of Greenwood?”

“Isn’t it a small mining town somewhere in the interior of B.C.?”

He nodded. “Full marks, Lil. My grandpa had a family practice in Greenwood, I lived with him and my grandma. He retired five years ago at the age of seventy-six.”

“That’s a long career. He must have enjoyed being a doctor.”

Greg’s smile was reminiscent, his voice affectionate. “He loved it. He’d still be working if he hadn’t had a slight stroke. After that, he was smart enough to realize that he couldn’t give the quality care he always had, so he retired.”

“You go back there often?” This was a side of him she’d wondered about, his family, whether he was close to them. It was a little disturbing how often she speculated on Greg Brulotte and his life.

“Not as often as I should. Gram died some years ago, and I try to get there every six months or so, see how Gramps is doing. I’m heading back for a visit in the spring.” He looked pensive for a moment. “I should really go through for Christmas, but I’ve already made plans.”

I’ll just bet you have, Lily thought. I wonder who the lady is? Out loud she said, “You ever thought of practicing in a small town, Doctor?”

He tipped his head back and laughed, then shot her an incredulous look. “C’mon, Lil. Can you see me in a small town treating measles and viral infections?”

He grinned at her, the intimate, crooked, engaging grin that she knew was calculated to set every woman’s pulse hammering when he aimed it at them. It infuriated her to know that she wasn’t immune.

“So, what have you got against measles and viral infections?” She deliberately avoided his gaze, pretending to examine the pizza on her lap. “Burnout’s pretty high in the ER. Most of us ordinary mortals have a contingency plan for our doddering years.”

“Oh, yeah? And what’s yours?”

She reached over and set the cardboard on the table, then got to her feet. “Oh, I figure I’ll go work in extended care, just for a total change of pace. With the baby boomers aging, it’s gonna be where all the action is in twenty years or so.”

He laughed. He liked to laugh, Lily realized, and his laugh was good to hear, filled with ebullient energy and a sense of fun.

“Much as I luv ya, Lil, I can’t promise to go along with you on that one. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m not long enough on patience for extended care. Nope, I intend to stay right here in Emerg as long as they’ll have me.”

A woman’s calm voice on the intercom said, “Dr. Brulotte, Dr. Brulotte, report to Emergency, stat.”

“Well, seems right now they can’t live without you.” Lily smiled. “Thanks for the pizza.”

“My pleasure. Maybe we can do it again sometime soon?”

Maybe not. It hadn’t been the best idea she’d ever had. Greg Brulotte was like eating chocolate; one bite and she wanted the whole bar.

She smiled noncommittally and shrugged as he winked at her and loped out the door.

Forty minutes later, Lily closed the door of her childhood home behind her and stood for a moment in the entrance hall, listening.

Always early to retire and up at the crack of dawn, Hannah had recently decided she didn’t like going to bed at all. Often she became noisy and agitated when anyone insisted she put her nightclothes on.

And sometimes late at night she believed it was already morning and got up, struggling into her dress, wandering around the house. Worst of all, she often took it into her head to cook at that time, and she could no longer be trusted to turn burners off on the stove.

That’s what had happened the night of the fire. Lily had been working the night shift in the ER, seven at night to seven in the morning, and Hannah had turned the stove on at 2:00 a.m. and burned the bottom out of a pot.

Kaleb of course had installed smoke detectors, and they went off, alerting him, but the house reeked of smoke for days afterward.

Tonight, apart from the muted sound of the television in the den, the old, rambling house was blessedly quiet. It smelled not of smoke tonight, but of fresh bread. Kaleb, an avid cook, had recently bought a bread machine.

With a sigh of relief, Lily laid her handbag on the hall table and took off her raincoat and boots. She put the boots on the rubber mat and found a free hook on the antique rack to hang her dripping raincoat before she made her way along the hall to the den.

“Hi, Kaleb.”

Her brother turned his blond head toward her and smiled a greeting. He was slouched in the comer of the chintz-covered sofa, his tiny daughter draped across his broad chest like some exotic ornament. The television was tuned to the local news station.

Zoe was in pink flannel pajamas, sound asleep against her father’s chest, her silvery curls tousled, her ridiculously long, dark eyelashes fanned across round, flushed cheeks. Children’s books surrounded them, spilling off the sofa onto the floor, scattered across the scarred surface of the low oak coffee table.

“She finally conked out, but only a few minutes ago,” Kaleb related in a hushed tone. “She wouldn’t settle down. She kept asking for more stories. I must have read Pat the Bunny twenty-three times. I’ll take her up and put her in her crib now.” He shifted the little girl into a more secure position and got up, cradling her gently against his tall, lanky frame.

“I didn’t know she’d be here tonight.” Kaleb was divorced, and Zoe had spent the past couple of days with her mother. Lily went over and pressed a kiss on her niece’s forehead and smoothed her damp hair, breathing in the wonderful scent of the freshly bathed little girl.

“Darcy phoned in a panic and dropped her off at suppertime. Zoe kept asking where you were.”

Lily’s eyes lingered on her tiny niece. “It’ll be fun to have her here in the morning. She likes me to make her toast fingers. She’s got us both wrapped around one tiny finger, big brother.”

“Naaa. You really think so?” Kaleb grinned, his craggy face crinkling into laugh lines around his nose and mouth. He looked down at his daughter. “I was sitting here thinking how much easier it is to read Pat the Bunny than it’s gonna be to sit and wait for her to come home from a date with some young jerk I don’t trust.”

“You’ve got a few years before that happens. Gram settled down okay?”

“Yup. She had one of her good nights, went off to bed all by herself without a fuss. Thank God for small blessings. Dealing with two obstinate females tonight would have done me in.” He headed for the stairs. “Back in a minute.”

Lily sat down on the sofa and stared at the television for several long moments. The weather was on, and the forecaster was predicting more rain, with snow at higher levels. Greg would be pleased. An image of his face
popped into her head, and she got to her feet, impatient with herself for allowing him into her thoughts again. She was probably just overtired and having hallucinations, she told herself with a wry grin. She’d make a cup of tea, sample Kaleb’s fresh bread and then head up to bed.

CHAPTER THREE

Kaleb found Lily in the comfortable but antiquated kitchen, pouring boiling water into a teapot and making two slices of toast.

“You want some? This bread’s awesome.”

“I’m gonna have a beer instead.” He opened the fridge and extracted a can.

Lily smeared butter and jam on her toast, and together they sat down at the wooden table.

“Darcy wants me to keep Zoe all week,” Kaleb said. “She says she’s got an important seminar in Seattle.”

Kaleb’s ex-wife was an advertising executive, and it seemed that her work claimed more and more of her time, her daughter less and less. Lily suspected that there was more than work involved; Darcy was attractive and sensual. She was also monumentally self-centered.

“I told her I’d have to talk to you about keeping Zoe,” Kaleb went on, popping the top of his beer. “You’d have her on your own for most of the next couple of days, and then I’ve got that course. I’d be home evenings, but it doesn’t seem fair, you using your days off to care for Zoe as well as keep an eye on Gram.”

“You know I adore having Zoe all to myself. Call Darcy and tell her it’s fine.”

“Thanks, sis.” Kaleb’s gray eyes telegraphed his relief and appreciation. “I know Darcy’s taking advantage of us both.”

“You heard from the lawyer?”

“She called this afternoon. She’s waiting for a court date.” Although the courts had granted Darcy’s request for custody of Zoe at the time of the divorce, Kaleb’s lawyer was asking that the issue of custody and child support be reexamined.

Kaleb was paying Darcy for Zoe’s care even though Zoe had lived with him for the better part of the past six months.

Her brother was a wonderful father, Lily mused. He’d be elated if Zoe lived with them full-time. And so would she. Caring for her niece was probably as close as she’d ever get to parenting, just as the seven months she’d lived with Richard Polifka was probably as close as she’d ever come to marriage.

After graduation from nursing school, Lily had moved around a lot for several years, working in small towns and larger cities, enjoying the sense of independence and freedom her life-style afforded. When she was in her mid twenties, she’d applied for and gotten a job in the OR at Calgary General, and she’d liked it and stayed.

Richard was the chief of surgery. For the first several years they’d simply been teammates and casual friends. In his middle thirties, Richard was recently divorced and wildly attractive, although he wasn’t dating anyone in particular.

One night after a particularly difficult surgery, they’d had dinner together. After that, they’d dated for several months, and then he told her he loved her and asked her to move in with him.

Lily had given the decision a lot of consideration. There was a definite bond between them. She thought she loved Richard as much as it was possible for her to love a man, and at last she agreed. And in spite of her initial reservations, it had been pleasant. Because of their work, they weren’t often home at the same time. When they were, they enjoyed each other’s company, and there was always work to discuss.

And then one morning Richard asked her to marry him, and Lily knew deep in her soul that she couldn’t do it. She cared about him, she even loved him, but she couldn’t bring herself to love or trust him enough to make a lifelong commitment.

Maybe she didn’t have it in her to trust any man enough to marry, she thought despondently. That’s when she’d resigned her position and come home to Vancouver. The timing was exactly right: Kaleb, who’d recently divorced and was living here with Gram, was beginning to have problems caring for her alone.

“Busy at work?” Her brother’s question distracted Lily from her runaway thoughts. Kaleb was a fireman in downtown Vancouver, and because of the situations he encountered at work, he fully appreciated just how crazy a shift in the ER could be.

“We had an MVA and a knifing.” She described the two dramatic episodes, thinking how companionable it was to have a brother who worked at a job similar to her own. One of the things she’d missed the most when she broke up with Richard was the conversations they’d had about medicine.

They chatted for a short while, and then Kaleb yawned and got to his feet. “I’ve gotta be up at five, so I’d better get to bed if I’m gonna get any sleep at all. I put a load of Zoe’s clothes in the dryer, I’ll go down and get them out before I head up to bed. Night, sis.”

“Sleep well.” Lily fingered a few more moments over her tea, enjoying the simple pleasure of being totally alone.