Flirting with the Society Doctor / When One Night Isn't Enough (35 page)

Jared stood with his arms wrapped tightly around her, supporting her, while his hand stroked her hair and down her back. At one point he guided them to a small coffee table so he could hand her some tissues. He didn’t offer empty words of comfort, didn’t tell her everything would be okay. She needed to cry and he let her, remaining strong for her, taking care of her while she did.

For the second time in two months Ali broke down in his arms, turned to him for solace. It felt good to be needed. Never before had he wanted to say the right thing, do the right thing, more than he did right now. He would not fail her.

“Let it all out, honey.” He guided them to a chair, pulled her onto his lap and held her close to his heart. “I’m here for you. I’ll take care of you. Whatever you need.”

“I need you.” She wrapped her arms around him.

He kissed her temple. “You’ve got me.”

It sounded like she laughed. He sat back and looked down at her. Sure enough, he noted a hint of a smile on her drippy-wet face.

“When did you become such a nice guy?” she asked.

On the night a special young woman bared her soul to him, trusted him enough to share her pain, reached out to him and asked him to love her, to make her forget. He could have used this moment as an opportunity to create a bond between them, to share his growing feelings for her. But that would make it even more difficult to leave. So he decided to lighten the mood. “You seem to be under the mistaken impression I’m not a nice person. I’ll have you know I’m the epitome of nice. Google search ‘nice guys’ and you will find a link to me.”

Her smile widened a fraction. “What about humble?”

“Nah. Not so much.”

He unscrewed the top on the bottle of water he’d brought and handed it to her.

She took a sip. “Thanks.”

He went to work trying to detangle one of the knots she’d twisted into her hair, a testament to her nerves. “I thought for sure the waiting room would be crowded with people here to keep you company,” he said.

She looked away. “I didn’t want to bother anyone. Polly had a date, I told her not to cancel. I’ll call Mrs. Meyer after Gramps is settled.”

That’s Ali. Always thinking of everyone but herself. “If I’d known, I would have tried to get off work early.”

“I don’t expect you to … I mean it’s not like we’re …”

Ali stopped in mid-sentence and jumped up when Dr. Ansari entered the waiting room. Jared rose to stand beside her. She leaned against him, reached for his hand and threaded her fingers between his, like it was the most natural thing to do. He squeezed her hand, offering his support, his strength.

“Everything went as expected, Allison,” Dr. Ansari said. He started to explain the procedure and Ali interrupted.

“So he’s okay? Where is he? Can I see him?”

“He’s on his way to CCU for the night. I’ll be in to evaluate him first thing in the morning.”

“Thank you, Dr. Ansari.” Ali threw her arms around the other doctor. “Thank you so much.” She turned to Jared. “I’m going up to CCU. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She quickly kissed his cheek. “Thank you,” she said, her words heartfelt, her eyes conveying the depth of her appreciation.

Jared wanted to go with her to make sure Gramps’s transfer went smoothly. Instead he spent a few minutes talking to Dr. Ansari, physician to physician, getting the details of the procedure, the outcome, prognosis and treatment plan, which Ali would want to know once the panicked granddaughter in her relaxed and allowed the knowledgeable nurse to take back control. Then he headed up to CCU.

He spoke with Gramps’s nurse, handed her a card with his cell phone number. “Please call me if either one of them needs anything. No matter what time it is.”

The nurse smiled. “Sure thing, Dr. Padget.”

Jared arranged for a colleague to cover for him on Sunday so he’d be available for Ali. Unable to sleep, he returned to the hospital at six-thirty in the morning. When he found no one at the nurses’ station, he popped his head into Gramps’s room.

Behind the curtain he heard, “Allison Elizabeth Forshay, you are most certainly not going to give me a bed bath. I will bathe myself.”

Gramps sounded surprisingly strong, and agitated, which was not good. Jared knocked on the partially closed door. “Can I come in?”

Ali pulled back the curtain. Her hair a mess of tangles and twisty knots, her clothes disheveled, her color pale. She looked frustrated and exhausted and confused. “Don’t you work today?”

“I took the day off in case you needed me.” Her expression softened, until Gramps called out from behind her.

“You’ve gotta save me, Doc.”

Jared looked past Ali. Gramps sat up in his hospital bed, sounded like his usual self. “Ali’s trying to finish me off. I didn’t get a moment’s peace all night, and I’ve got company coming.”

“I’m trying to get him ready for his company but he’s refusing to cooperate,” Ali snapped.

An older woman dressed in the hospital’s navy-blue volunteer blazer hurried into the room. He recognized her as Gramps’s neighbor who had helped out in the emergency room after the school bus accidents.

As if on cue, Gramps flopped back onto the bed. He coughed. His facial muscles drooped. When he spoke his voice came out raspy and sounded weak. “Mrs. Meyer. Thank goodness you’re here.”

What the heck happened? The man had gone from feisty to feeble in mere seconds. Jared glanced up at Gramps’s cardiac monitor to see if he’d had some sort of arrhythmic episode, expected to hear an alarm any second. He reached for the stethoscope usually hanging around his neck, forgetting he was not on duty.

Ali looked ready to pound on Gramps’s chest and begin CPR.

“I was just telling Ali.” Gramps struggled to get the words out. “I don’t feel comfortable with her helping me with my bath. But I’m too weak to do it myself.”

Why, that conniving faker.

Ali’s jaw dropped.

“Then I got here just in time.” Mrs. Meyer slipped out of her blazer, setting it, her jacket and her pocketbook on the chair by the window. She pushed the sleeves of her sweater up to her elbows and approached the bed. “You go on home, honey,” Mrs. Meyer said, giving Ali a kiss on the cheek on her way. “I’ll take it from here.”

Ali didn’t look at all ready to leave or transfer care duties to Mrs. Meyer. In fact, she looked ready to do battle.

“Go on, Allison,” Gramps prompted, lifting his head, sounding a bit stronger, albeit briefly. “I’m sure Mrs. Meyer will take good care of me.” He gave the older woman the smile of a man on the make.

“You know I will, you old coot.” Mrs. Meyer giggled.

Ali watched the exchange like she’d walked in on them having sex.

“Come on, Ali,” Jared said, walking over to where she stood, threading his arm through hers, intending to drag her to the door if need be.

She leaned over and gave Gramps a quick kiss on the cheek and, surprise, surprise, followed Jared willingly.

“Bye, sweetie,” Gramps said weakly. “No need to come back later. You’ll stay, won’t you, Mrs. Meyer?” Cough. Cough.

“Of course I will, you sweet man, for as long as you need me.”

Outside in the hallway Ali asked, “What the heck just happened?”

Jared smiled. “I think Gramps has got a girlfriend.”

“Mrs. Meyer? They’ve been friends for years. They’re like brother and sister.”

“Not anymore. Come.” He tugged on her arm. “I’ll take you to breakfast.”

She walked beside him but seemed in her own world. “I’m the one who takes care of Gramps,” she said almost to herself. “I pour his meds and go with him to the doctor and stay over when he’s sick. I straighten the house, cook for him and keep him company.”

“Apparently Mrs. Meyer gives him a different sort of company.”

Her eyes went wide. “Eww. Do not go there.”

As they turned into another corridor Ali looked up at him, her eyes sad. “He doesn’t need me anymore.”

But I do,
Jared thought. It took him completely by surprise. Shocked him to the point he stopped short.

Ali kept walking, too caught up in her own thoughts to notice.

Jared watched her, the sway of her hips so seductive yet she had no clue. He liked to look at her, enjoyed time spent with her. He lusted after her. But no. He didn’t need her. Jared Padget refused to need anyone. And in two weeks, when it was time for him to leave, he would. And, just to be sure, he’d signed and mailed out the contract for his next assignment early. There was no getting out of it.

A
LI
sat at her kitchen table, fiddling with the box that contained her pregnancy test result, waiting for Jared. After breakfast at the diner, Ali had come home for a shower and a nap. Jared had offered to come over with lunch and a DVD around one.

It’d seemed like a good idea at the time.

Until she decided, even though waiting for him to leave and dropping the pregnancy bomb via telephone would be much easier, she owed it to Jared to be honest, to not keep it a secret now that she knew for sure.

He knocked. Seven minutes early. A surge of nervousness made her heart jump and her chest tighten.

After a deep breath, she slid the box back into the pharmacy bag, rolled the top and tossed it into the cabinet under the sink. If he didn’t believe her, she’d take it out and show him the indisputable proof.

She opened the door. Jared handed her a beautiful bouquet of peach-colored roses. “You shouldn’t have.” In a few minutes he’d know why.

He leaned in to give her a kiss, which landed on her cheek when she quickly turned her head.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She couldn’t bring herself to kiss him, knowing what was to come, feeling certain their conversation would not
end well, that today their relationship would change forever, and not in a good way. The thought made her insides feel hollow. “We need to talk.”

“Can we talk while we eat? I’m starved.” He took off his coat and hung it in the closet. She resisted the urge to tell him he might want to hold on to it.

Ali eyed the bag of deli sandwiches he’d set on the table. Even if she drank copious amounts of water to keep food from lodging in her dry throat, her stomach was clenched so tight, nothing could get in.

“It’ll only take a minute.” She returned to her chair, felt light-headed. Now that he stood a few feet away, telling him no longer seemed like such a good idea. Focus. A responsible mother acted in the best interests of her child, starting with informing the daddy-to-be. What he chose to do with the information was up to him.

“You’ve been twisting your hair.” He reached above her right ear.

She found the knot, and started to detangle it, happy to have something to do with her hands.

“That bad, huh? Okay. Get it off your chest, and then we’ll eat.”

“Sit. Over there.” She pointed to the seat opposite hers, the one with a clear path to the door. He sat.

“There’s no easy way to put this so I’m just going to say it.” She clasped her hands tightly in her lap.

He nodded, his eyes fixed on her.

“I’m pregnant.”

He looked at her like she’d spoken in another language and he was having trouble translating her words into comprehensible form. After about a minute he stiffened. “You told me you weren’t pregnant.”

He’d started out calm. Maybe this wouldn’t be as bad as she thought.

“Damn it, Ali.” He speared his fingers through his hair. “How the hell did this happen?”

Was he kidding? How did he think it happened? The sperm. The egg.

He jumped up and started to pace. “After that first night I wore a condom every single time.”

She didn’t expect him to be happy about the news, but a tiny, unrealistic part of her she hadn’t known existed until that very minute had hoped for a miracle, and now felt good and pissed she didn’t get one. “Yes. I know how diligent you are about your condoms.”

“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here.” He pointed at her in accusation. “You’re the one who climbed on top of me down by the river without protection.”

“You know I wasn’t thinking clearly that night.”

“Oh, I bet you knew exactly what you were doing.” He jammed both hands in the front pockets of his jeans as if trying to keep from throwing something.

She sucked in a breath. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you women are all alike, that’s what.” A vein she’d never noticed before bulged in his forehead. “You manipulate men to get what you want. You did it with Michael, and now you’re trying to do it with me.”

His words seared a burning path right through her. “I don’t want anything from you.” Ali did not like being looked down on so she stood, too. “I am perfectly capable of raising this baby on my own.”

His eyes narrowed and he stared her down. “If you got yourself pregnant to drag me down the aisle, you’ve made a gross miscalculation,” he said slowly. Although she knew
he would never hurt her physically, if she weren’t so angry herself, she might have backed away from him.

“Newsflash, genius, a woman cannot get herself pregnant. You had sex with me without a condom, right here, in my bed. Twice. How is that my fault?”

“I thought you were on the Pill,” he yelled, loud enough for Mrs. Tupper to hear.

“Well, I wasn’t,” she yelled back, even louder.

He lowered his voice. “You said it was okay, that you trusted me.”

“If I made any gross miscalculation, it was that. You took advantage of me the night you left town and you know it. I’d had too much to drink, I was an emotional wreck and you saw your chance to have me and took it.”

That shut him up. He actually had the decency to look guilty. “It wasn’t like that, Ali,” he said quietly. “You needed me. I gave you what you wanted, what you begged me for.”

“Whatever.” She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “I’ve said what I had to say.” Ali walked to the closet to get his coat.

“Wait. We need to talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. I’m pregnant and you’re leaving.”

“Stop.” He held up both hands. “Give me a minute to catch up. You’ve known about the baby for a while. I’m still dealing with the shock.”

“Only since yesterday,” she said in a calmer tone. It was important he understood she hadn’t kept the truth from him. “I would have told you as soon as I found out but Gramps had his heart attack. I didn’t lie, Jared. I honestly didn’t think I was pregnant back when you asked me. My period gets screwy when I do rotating shifts and I’d come off three weeks of them when you came back.”