Nursing The Doctor (8 page)

“So how did the visit to Doc Brulotte go?” Frannie shot a curious look at Lily, obviously aware of her swollen eyes and flushed face.

“Okay, I guess. It bothers me a lot to see someone I’ve worked with every day that hurt and helpless, though.”

Frannie nodded. “I spoke to one of the nurses from orthopedics this morning. She says he’s in quite a bit of pain and that he’s not the easiest patient they’ve ever had. He’ll likely go down to rehab before long, and when he does she said the nurses on ortho are planning to send a sympathy card to the staff.”

Lily had to smile. “He’s that bad, huh? Well, he could be a tyrant in the ER when things weren’t going the way he thought they should. We had more than a few heated discussions.”

Frannie gave her a curious look. “You care for this guy, huh, Lily?”

Lily felt herself flushing, and cursed the involuntary reaction. “As a co-worker, of course I care for him. But not in any other way. He’s not the kind of guy any woman in her right mind would fall for. He prefers quantity over quality when it comes to women.”

“Sometimes your heart does things in spite of what your head knows is sensible,” Frannie said with a rueful grin. “You ever go out with him?”

Lily shook her head. “He asked a couple of times, but he’s too much of a womanizer for me, Fran. He’s really attractive, but he scares me.” Her voice hardened. “I grew up watching my father go through women the way a junkie goes through needles. I don’t want or need another man like that in my life.”

“This accident’s going to change his life pretty drastically. He might just be a different person by the time he’s recovered.” Fran winked and said in a teasing tone, “Maybe the jury’s still out.”

“Maybe. But I doubt he’ll change.”

Lily had had enough of discussing Greg. The subject made her both emotional and uneasy.

“How about coming over to the house for dinner tomorrow night? Kaleb’s off and he’ll be cooking. I’d like you to meet him.”

Frannie hesitated. “I’d love to, but I’m baby-sitting Taylor. Heather’s going to a support group for bipolars.”

“Why not bring him along? Zoe’s still with us, and she’d be in seventh heaven. She loves other kids.”

“Sure you don’t mind? Taylor can get pretty rambunctious.”

Lily laughed. “You haven’t seen Zoe at her best, but you have seen the house, Frannie. Kaleb and I haven’t taken up interior decorating since you were over last.”

Frannie grinned. “I’d love to come.”

“Gram’s certain at the moment that she’s living on a farm in Saskatchewan, so be prepared. Come around six?”

“We’ll be there.”

It was five minutes before six the next evening when the doorbell rang.

“Can you get the door, Lily? I have to watch this sauce or the damn stuff’s gonna boil over,” Kaleb said. He glanced at the table where Hannah was making a pie.

“Gram, I always cook the apples a little before I put them in the piecrust.”

“You keep a civil tongue in your head, young man.” Hannah was having a good day. “I’ve been cooking for threshing crews for years. I certainly know how to make pie.”

Lily grinned at their friendly bickering and hurried toward the door.

“Me come, me come.” Zoe attached herself to Lily’s left leg, giggling as her aunt struggled to walk with the child attached to her like a limpet.

“Come in, Frannie. Welcome. Hello, Taylor. I’m glad you could come visit us.” Lily smiled at her friend and bent to greet the wide-eyed dark-haired boy holding tight to Frannie’s right hand.

Hannah abandoned the apple pie and came up behind Lily to see who was at the door, hands still covered in flour.

Lily put her arm around her grandmother’s shoulders. “Gram, you remember my friend Frannie. And this is her nephew, Taylor. Remember I told you they were coming for dinner?”

“Of course I remember.” Hannah shot Lily a reproving look. “There’s not a thing wrong with my memory. Won’t you come in, dear? Now whose daughter are you? You look like one of the Hillsteads from up Sturgiss way.”

Lily rolled her eyes at Gram’s fantasy as Zoe and Taylor eyed each other warily.

“Boy,” Zoe said in an admiring tone, reaching out to touch Taylor’s soft dark hair.

He giggled, and Zoe moved to the toy box in the alcove of the hall. She threw the lid up and began to exuberantly unload her treasures, all the while giving Taylor come-hither looks over her shoulder.

He glanced inquiringly up at his aunt.

“It’s okay, Taylor. You can go play.”

The two aunts fondly watched their charges bond over a toy barn with tiny animals.

Lily glanced at Frannie and giggled when she recognized the same sappy, adoring-aunt expression her own face wore whenever she looked at Zoe.

“They’re gonna get along fine. Come on into the kitchen and meet Kaleb.”

Her brother was still bent over a saucepan at the stove, his back to them. Hannah had gone back to the pie.

“Frannie, this is my brother, Kaleb Sullivan. Kaleb, Frannie Myles.”

Kaleb turned and Lily enjoyed the look of amazement on his face as he looked at Frannie. When she’d told him earlier that Frannie was coming to dinner, Kaleb had asked what Frannie was like, and unable to resist this chance to tease him a little, Lily had described her friend as tall and thin, with glasses and hair worn in a bun, all of which was true, but bore no resemblance to the stunning reality of Frannie.

“Good to meet you, Kaleb.”

Frannie sounded a little shy as she extended a hand, and Lily realized that she’d never really described her brother accurately to her friend, either. She’d just said he was tall and blond, which was an understatement.

Kaleb, with thick, unruly blond hair falling over his forehead and smiling turquoise eyes, had been turning female hearts upside down since he was fourteen.

“My pleasure, Frannie.” Kaleb recovered his equilibrium, wiped his hands down the front of his snug jeans and took Frannie’s hand in his big paw, shooting Lily a look that said he’d deal with her later.

“Lily said you were bringing your nephew.”

“Taylor, yes. He and your daughter are climbing into the toy box together, I’m afraid they’ve dumped everything on the floor.”

“Good for them. Can I get you a glass of wine? I’ve got a bottle chilling in the fridge.”

“I’d like that, thanks.”

Lily watched with growing interest as the other two, both a little flushed, studied each other just a heartbeat too long.

Wouldn’t it be nice if...

But she stopped herself right there. Matchmaking was a risky endeavor, one she never deliberately undertook. And while she truly hadn’t given a single thought to the idea that Kaleb and Frannie might be attracted to each other, as the evening progressed, it would have been obvious to the most obtuse observer that something was happening between them.

Frannie had to leave early so Taylor could get to bed, and after saying her own goodbyes at the door, Lily steered Hannah into the den and searched for a channel Gram wanted to watch so she could have a few moments alone with her brother.

“You want this cowboy movie, Gram?”

“Kaleb and that nice young woman hit it off, didn’t they, dear?”

Hannah stacked a pile of children’s books and placed them on the coffee table, and Lily realized that for the moment at least, the disease had disappeared and Gram was her old self again. These windows were precious and becoming rare. Lily sat down beside Hannah, needing to cherish the moment.

“It would be good if he met someone and got married again. A man like Kaleb needs a good wife,” Hannah said in a conversational tone. “Not that I think marriage is for everyone,” she declared with a vehement shake of her head. “I would have been better off staying single myself, but there was the farm, and of course I had Michael. He was only three, and I thought he needed a father. Getting married was the only thing to do back then.”

Lily knew from things Hannah had said that her grandfather Frank Sullivan had been a difficult, stern man. He’d been Gram’s second husband. Her first, Michael’s father, had been killed in a farm accident.

“You’re smart to stay single, Lily.”

Lily stared at her grandmother in surprise. Gram had never said anything like that before. “Women nowadays are much better off than in my day,” Hannah went on. “You have a good job, your own money. You don’t have to get married.”

“But what about love, Gram?”

Hannah smiled her old, sweet smile. “Love is about taking care of people.”

“Oh, Gram.” Hannah had devoted so many years to caring for her and Kaleb. But surely there was more to it than that. “Didn’t you ever fall in love with anyone, Gram?”

But Gram’s eyes had taken on a faraway look and she didn’t respond. The cloud had come down once more, Lily realized. She waited a moment to see if it would fade again, but Hannah was staring blankly at the television screen,
oblivious to Lily’s presence.

With a sigh, she got up and went in search of Kaleb. He was in the kitchen absently scrubbing the bottom of an already clean pot. Lily boosted herself up on the counter beside the sink and smiled at him, needing to lighten her mood.

“Mousy looking, isn’t she?”

Kaleb knew she was talking about Frannie.

“I oughta tan your hide, baby sister. You’ve known her all this time and never bothered to introduce me. How could you do a stingy thing like that?”

“I just never thought you might be interested.”

“You’re mentally challenged, you poor kid. And you’ve got a mean streak to boot. Now, tell me everything you know about her, brat. And this time I want accuracy, honesty and detail.”

“Let’s see...” Lily tried to sort out what she could tell him without betraying any of her friend’s confidences.

“Frannie’s twenty-eight, excellent at her job, never been married, no serious romance in her life at the moment. She has one sister, Heather, Taylor’s mom. They grew up here in Vancouver. Their mom died when Frannie was fourteen.”

She didn’t add that the mother had been alcoholic and that Frannie had spent her childhood taking care of her sister.

“Her dad’s still alive.” And like their own father, Frannie’s dad had never been around when he was needed.

“Her sister’s an artist who’s beginning to attract a lot of attention for her drawings.” She’d also been hospitalized several times, and Frannie had taken on the full care of her nephew. Lily was very conscious that what she was leaving out was more significant than what she was revealing, but Frannie would have to decide herself how much to tell him.

“She does a lot of volunteer work with teens, particularly street kids. She’s started a group for young teenage mothers that’s very successful. She’s a special lady, Kaleb.”

“I figured that out in the first five minutes.”

“So, did you ask her out?”

“Yup.” Kaleb nodded. “For dinner and a movie next Thursday night. It’s the first night I get off after tonight.”

“And did she say yes?”

He grinned at her, a wide, happy grin that wiped away the lines of strain his responsibilities had begun to etch around his eyes and mouth. “As a matter of fact, she did.”

“I guess this means you might need me to baby-sit. Or is Darcy taking Zoe next week?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t heard from her yet. I could get Mrs. Hosko if you’ve got plans of your own.”

“Plans? You jest, big brother. I’d be thrilled to baby-sit, you know that.”

Kaleb hadn’t dated much since his marriage broke up, and Lily was grateful to see him excited and happy.

Sometimes she had troubling visions of herself and Kaleb growing old together in this house, living their lives vicariously through Zoe, becoming more and more eccentric as the years passed. She thought of the strange conversation she’d had with Hannah.

“You think you’ll ever get married again, Kaleb?”

Lily often wondered if Kaleb had the same problems with love and trust that she did. He’d at least been courageous enough to marry, even though it hadn’t worked out, whereas she’d been unable to make the leap of faith that marriage represented.