Practice Makes Perfect (2 page)

Damn society. Nineteen-year-old Kari Linstrom had grown up in the projects on the north side of Hyde Point and had spent a year at Serenity House—just as Paige had done. After she’d moved back home, Kari’s very rigid father never let her forget her unwed status.

Paige ran a soothing hand down Kari’s hair. “Listen to me, Kari. Children are often born with these kinds of marks. They mean nothing, and most of them go away within the first two years of life. If they don’t disappear, laser surgery can easily remove them.”

“R-really?”

“Really. But understand this, honey. Even if that wasn’t the case, like with Jimmy’s feet, birthmarks are flukes of nature, not acts of God.”

Kan raised her eyes to Paige. They were still swimming with tears. “My priest doesn’t believe that.”

“Your priest sees things from a more narrow perspective, Kari. I see them in a broader sense.”
And more sanely
. “Now, I don’t want to hear any more of that bunk about little Alyssa’s pretty face.”

When Kari still looked skeptical, Paige added, “You have to have faith in me. I would never lie to you.”

“I know.” Kari gulped back her tears. “I do have faith in you. Thanks.”

Paige reached for the baby. “Now, hand her over, kid. I want to count my namesake’s fingers and toes.”

Kari glanced past Paige’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Dr. Chandler.”

Paige’s head snapped around. She’d been unaware of their audience and was vaguely discomfited. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“I didn’t want to disturb you.” He gave her a killer grin.

She scowled back.

“I was wondering if I could see you after you’re done here.”

For a moment Paige hesitated. A shudder of something went through her.
Like someone walking over my grave
, was how Nora always described similar feelings. Paige shook the notion off. “Sure, I’ll be about half an hour.”

“I’ll be in the doctors’ lounge on this floor.”

“Fine.” She turned her back on Ian. Best to concentrate on the baby. “Now, let me have her.”

As she cradled the child in her arms, Paige felt the same sense of well-being she experienced every time she held a newborn. It was one of the reasons she’d chosen to specialize in pediatrics. She loved all children, but babies especially. And she had “the touch,” her mentor, Elsa Moore, used to tell her.

Smiling, she lay the little girl on the bed and unwrapped the blanket.

o0o

“CAN I MAKE fresh coffee for you before I go on duty?” The petite blond nurse—Sabrina Sherman—smiled at Ian through heavily made-up eyes.

“No thanks, ma’am. My ma learned me good.” He winked at her, and saw those eyes widen. Uh-oh. His brother, Derek, constantly teased him about his effect on women. His mother had other admonitions.
Be careful with that charm, young man. God gave it to you to use, not abuse.
“Thanks, anyway. I can do it.”

Sidling close to him, Sabrina gave him an I’m yours-if-you-want-me smile, then left

Women. They were the joy and bane of his existence. He chuckled as he washed the pot and assembled the coffee. Take Paige Kendrick. He never would have guessed she could be Ms. Warm and Sensitive. True, he hadn’t seen her work directly with patients in her exclusive practice on the hill, but he did run into her at Hyde Point General, the only hospital in the small upstate New York town; he was an ob/gyn and she was a pediatrician, and they’d consulted a few times, too.

As the aroma of coffee filled the air, he crossed to the table and dropped onto a chair to fiddle with one of the jigsaw puzzles that he routinely brought in here. He didn’t dare sit still or he’d fall instantly to sleep.

Soon Paige walked in. “What are you doing?” she asked, checking her watch. “At 6 a.m.?”

“A jigsaw puzzle so I don’t doze off.”

Paige looked thoughtful. “You ever get used to this?”

“Calls in the middle of the night? Nope. My dad said you never get used to it.”

“Your father was an obstetrician?”

“Yes.” Standing, Ian crossed to pour coffee for both of them. The pain of his parents’ death a year ago was still there, and when he was tired like this, the wound felt raw. “Before he retired, he’d cut back on his practice and was teaching at Elmwood Medical School.”

“Elmwood? I went there.”

“Yes, I know.” He turned and handed her a cup. “Black, right?”

Nodding, she took it from him and glanced at her watch again. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

So much for small talk
. It was the one criticism her colleagues had about her. She was cold and standoffish—all business. Some nurses joked that they needed to wear a sweater when they worked with her. Quite a contrast to what he’d just witnessed in the birthing room.

“Come sit down.” He moved past her and sank onto the lumpy cushions of the couch. “You can keep me awake.”

She didn’t smile. Nor did she act as though his every word was a come-on, which frankly he was pleased about; she sat a respectable distance away and sipped her coffee. “Shoot.”

“I want you to join us at the center I’m establishing for young mothers and children.” This was Ian’s pet project—a facility to treat unwed mothers and other young mothers who couldn’t afford medical care for themselves or their children. Pregnant girls from Serenity House would receive pre- and post-natal care, though they would give birth at the hospital.

Paige’s soft-brown eyebrows arched. She didn’t pluck them, he noticed. They were thick and full, like her lashes, which framed eyes the color of the sky in spring. “I thought you were ready to open next month. You have all your personnel, don’t you?”

“We did. But Diane Conklin backed out.” He managed to say it without wincing. He’d had no idea the young doctor had joined for...spurious reasons. “Her husband took a job in Cleveland and she’s going with him.” After Ian had made it clear he didn’t sleep with married women.

“That’s too bad. Diane’s terrific with kids.”

“So are you.”

Paige frowned. “I didn’t respond to your memo the first time, Ian, because I’m too busy with my private practice.”

“Ah, yes. But I wanted you, you know.”

It was subtle, just a slight shifting, but she inched away from him. “Really? Well, nothing’s changed since last year when you sent it around. If anything, I’m busier.”

He drank his coffee; the caffeine was kick-starting his system, and he could think more clearly. “I’ve been assessing your practice, Paige.” He studied her. “You don’t have a lot of underprivileged patients. Your practice is pretty upscale.”

“That’s none of your business.” Her tone was glacial.

“Well, I’m making it my business. The Center is for young mothers who can’t afford good medical care for themselves or their kids. Don’t you think you should give back to a society that’s gotten you where you are?”

“That society did me a lot more harm than good, Dr. Chandler.” She sent him a don’t-mess-with-me look. “Not that it’s really your concern. In any case, I’m simply too busy to help you out.”

Hmm. She was prickly about this. For some reason, it challenged him. “Sounds pretty self-centered to me.”

“Ian, I mean it. What I choose to do isn’t any of your business.”

“Maybe not. It’s just that you’ve been so good with Kari’s kids.”

The genuine compliment seemed to melt her iciness a bit.

“Look,” she said, “I have this resident working with me until the end of the month. As far as I know, he’s not committed after his rotation. You can ask him.”

“I don’t want a resident. You could start by giving us one day,” he said coaxingly. Ian knew that one of his faults was that he was like a pit bull when he wanted something. “Or is it that you don’t agree with the concept?”

“No, of course I agree with the concept.” Her eyes blazed blue fire. “Hyde Point needs good medical care for young girls and their babies. I admire you for doing it.” She frowned. “I just don’t want to be a part of it.”

“Why?”

“God, Ian, are you always such a bulldozer?”

“Only when I need to be.”

“I don’t want to do it.”

She stood, moved to the counter and rinsed her cup in the sink. He watched her, noting the way her pants hugged her curves. He’d rarely seen her in slacks, and he stopped himself before he could tell her how good she looked in them. He wanted to woo her into his center, not his bed. Time for the big guns. The manipulation he was about to engage in caused him a momentary twinge of conscience, but he went ahead, anyway. “Paige, do you know the name of the new center?”

Pivoting, she threaded her fingers through her light brown hair. Lank and silky, it swung around her shoulders. “No. Does it matter?”

“It might to you. It’ll be christened the Elsa Moore Center.”

Paige gripped the cup. “How do you know Elsa Moore? You didn’t go to Elmwood, did you?”

“No, I went to med school out West.” He gave her his best grin. “But I knew Elsa Moore very well. She was my mother.”

o0o

A VISION OF ELSA—small, slender and delicate—swam before Paige’s eyes; Elsa was so unlike the tall, muscular man with linebacker shoulders who was sprawled on the couch. For a moment Paige was speechless. He must look like his father, she thought. “Elsa was your mother? Really?”

“Yes.”

Paige knew Elsa was married to Tom Moore. She’d met him in Elsa’s office, of course. She’d never met Elsa’s sons, although she’d seen scattered photos of two small boys around the office. “I remember her telling me her sons’ names were Derek and Tommy?”

“I’m Tommy. Named after my father. Thomas Ian. It got confusing and Dad and my friends started calling me Ian, but Mom liked Tommy.”

Her brows knitted. “You don’t have your parents’ last name.”

“No. It’s a long story.”

It didn’t add up. “The only pictures I ever saw of you were when you were little. Elsa had those on her desk.”

Gray eyes were briefly shadowed with hurt. “Yes. She said that I was still her little boy even though I’d grown up.”

Paige leaned against the counter. “I never knew.” Her insides knotted. God, she hated surprises. “Ian, I’ve known you for four years. Why didn’t you ever tell me this?”

“For the same reason you never came to our house, spent time with our family, even though you worked for my mother all through medical school.”

Paige had a brief flash of Elsa’s invitations.
We’re having a picnic this Memorial Day, dear...You and your sister are welcome to spend Christmas with us, Paige...My husband and sons would love to finally meet you...It’s Tommy’s graduation...

“Paige, are you all right?”

“This is a shock to me.” Her eyes narrowed on him. “What do you mean, for the same reason I never came to your house?”

“My mother said you were a very private person who didn’t want to mix your personal life with your professional one.” He waited a minute. “It’s why you never saw much of her once you opened your own practice.”

“She retired to Florida soon after that.” Paige’s tone was defensive.

“They came up to Keuka Lake every spring and summer.”

“Well, you’re right, really. I still don’t like to mix my personal and professional lives.”

“Yes, everybody knows that about you.”

Paige stiffened.

“Don’t get your back up. I didn’t mean it was the subject of gossip.”

Paige thought of something else and straightened immediately. “Ian, I was doing that physician-exchange program in England when Elsa and Tom died. That’s why I didn’t make it to their funeral.”

His throat worked convulsively. “I know, we got your note.” It had been addressed to “The Moores.”

“I would have said something to you personally had I known you were her son.” When he didn’t respond, she added, “I’m so sorry I missed the funeral. I got back a month afterward.” She hesitated. “I went to the cemetery.” Actually she’d visited more than once.

“She would have liked that.” Ian stood and stretched. The scrubs strained across his chest. Paige was tall, but he loomed over her. “In any case, I’m naming the center after Mom for a couple of reasons. One is personal. But mostly I’m doing it because she was a brilliant doctor who donated her time to worthy causes like this.”

“She worked magic with kids.” Paige had learned the tricks of her trade from Elsa, who’d always accepted nonpaying patients and showed by example how doctors could help society in many ways.

“The touch, she called it. You have it, too. She’d said that, but I never saw you in action before tonight. Watching you was like watching my mother treat patients.”

Paige shook off the compliment, though it warmed her. “I’m dumbfounded.” And...upset that she’d known Ian for years but hadn’t known he was Elsa’s son.

“Good. I’m catching you in a weak moment. Join us, Paige, at the Center.”

“I—”

He raised his hand and she stepped back, afraid he was going to touch her.

“Don’t say no again. Think about it.”

He was something else, but he was starting to get to her. And the last thing she wanted was to work regularly with unwed mothers who reminded her of her own past. Just dealing with the few Serenity House patients as a favor to Nora was difficult. It was why she’d chosen to practice on the Hill—usually the moms were older, married and more established. So she said more firmly, “I don’t have to think about it, Ian.” She crossed to the exit.

“Wait, Paige.”

She halted at the door and faced him He was, after all, Elsa’s son.

“My mother would have loved to see you working with disadvantaged children.”

Exasperated, she said, “Do you always resort to emotional blackmail to get your way?”

“Only when I have to.”

“It won’t work this time.”

“Hmm,” was all he said. But the smug grin on his face unnerved her.

o0o

IT WAS SEVEN that evening before Paige let herself think about Ian’s proposal—and one of his comments, in particular.

My mother would have loved to see you working with disadvantaged children
.

She sat in her car, outside Serenity House, where she’d driven as soon as her day—which had begun so early— was over.

She studied Serenity House in the twilight. The gabled three-story structure, set on a hill, had changed over the past fifteen years. It had been painted gray and new steps had been installed. The saplings Dan Whitman had planted that first spring were towering red maples now.