Saved By The Doctor (BWWM Romance) (5 page)

A part of Jackie wanted to nod eagerly, flirtatiously flip her hair and assure him she would, but an even bigger part of her couldn't bring herself to do that. Instead she lifted her lips into a smirk and replied with, “I don't think so. You see, because if I was to call you, then we'd talk, and you'd get to know me, and I'd get to know you, and that's a little much for a skinned knee... don't you think?”

Jackie and Laila had crossed the threshold and reached the end of the hall before he could even hope to respond.

Chapter Five

Jackie stood on her roof, three feet away from the canvas she had started the day Laila got hurt. After a couple more strokes of red and orange to balance out the blue, she was at a complete loss for what to do next. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms, staring as hard as she could at the thing in front of her, but instead of some heart-stopping, gut-wrenching inspiration, she saw Doctor Allan Chase's face. It appeared right in the canvas, as if it was yelling at her, begging to be painted. She scoffed, stepping even farther away from it. It had been almost forty-eight hours and she still couldn't stop thinking about the man. She found herself obsessed with someone, literally for the first time since college.

“Momma! Momma! Look what I did!”

Jackie turned around to find Laila sitting at the small fold-up table they had picked out together for the first and last time they went to Coney Island, finger painting her own little masterpiece. A smile tugged at the edges of her lips as she picked up the wet piece of baby-canvas and examined it in the Saturday afternoon light. She had to suppress her laughter at the fact that she was staring at a rough representation of her work. Although the fact that the hand was obviously immature, she could see so much of herself in it. If she had an eye problem or maybe needed glasses, she would think that it was her own work. “Wow!” she breathed, realizing as the words came out of her mouth that she was being totally genuine. “Who is it?” she asked. Although she could tell it was a face, a male face, recognition was obviously out of the question.

“It's Doctor Chase!” she exclaimed.

Jackie's eyes went wide. Even her daughter couldn't get her mind off of him. “Honey, why did you draw him?” she asked, trying her best not to sound negative.

Laila shrugged, and then averted her gaze as if she couldn't believe she had said anything. “Because he saved me... I guess...” her voice trailed off at the end.

Jackie sucked in a deep breath and turned away from her. Jesus, even she was completely smitten by him. It was like all the signs; all the roads led to him and she was just the last one in the party to get on the wagon. “My baby, he just patched up your knee. He didn't save your life,” she replied in a dry voice.

As Laila's eyes went wide, her intuition, always years and years beyond her, told her that she had said something upsetting. But she just shook her head and snatched the canvas back. “You just don't like it!” she cried.

But Jackie knew that she was just embarrassed, and annoyed that Jackie hadn't hailed her art a masterpiece. “It's completely fine, Laila. I'll put it up, I promise,” she replied as she picked it back up.

Laila opened her mouth to say something else, but someone buzzed from downstairs. Jackie froze, her eyes wide and her heart fluttering. For a moment she thought it might have actually been that doctor ... but that thought passed by the time her daughter jumped up and scurried towards the door. “It's Aunty Victoria!!!” she screamed.

Jackie released a deep breath, growing lightheaded after that minor, wild, impossible scare wore off. “I can't believe I actually thought...” she murmured, but the sound of Laila trying to open her roof door knocked her out of her mental escape.

She helped her daughter down, and in the next five minutes, Victoria was knocking on her door. She swung it open to find her friend, big blonde hair and all, standing on the other side of her threshold. “I can't believe you still live in Brooklyn,” she muttered in a dry voice as she pushed her way into the house.

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Oh calm down. The Upper East Side is so quiet you can hear a pin drop. Plus Brooklyn will always be home to New York's greatest artists,” she replied as she followed her into her own house.

Victoria dropped a bag onto the table and placed the coffee tumbler she had in her hand on the kitchen table. “What's all of this?” Jackie asked, picking up the warm tumbler.

Victoria shrugged, taking off her jean jacket and putting it on their dining room chair. She opened her mouth to respond, but just as words were about to come out of her mouth, Laila came running out towards them. “Tori!!” she screeched, charging right at Victoria.

Victoria squatted in front of her, holding her arms out in anticipation.

Jackie jumped out of the way as Laila bounded into her arms and Victoria swooped her up. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of her best friend see-sawing her daughter up and down and was overwhelmed with the feeling that nothing had changed. “You're spoiling my daughter lifting her up like that,” Jackie muttered.

Victoria giggled as she put Laila down. “I just made a painting!” she yelled excitedly.

Victoria's eyes went wide. “Oh you did?” she replied, hamming up her own excitement. “Well, go get it! Let me see it!” Laila nodded excitedly, and then ran back into the studio.

Once Laila had disappeared around the corner, Victoria turned back to Jackie, who had just picked up the mug and was beginning to unscrew it.

“I brought you a little bit of something old and a little bit of something new,” she explained.

But Jackie's eyes grew even wider as the smell of the house mix from Think Coffee reached her nose. It was her favorite coffee shop from downtown Manhattan. She used to go there to snag a quick cup before heading to the one politics class she had ever taken. It was more for her parents than anyone else as they were the ones who were convinced that she could do real academia beyond whatever schooling was required for her degree, but the truth was that she needed more coffee than an entire law firm to get through one stupid lecture. But she fell in love with Think. She sighed. “Oh, just the smell of this reminds me of a better time,” she murmured, her eyes watering with a strange melancholy.

Victoria shrugged. “Oh, come on!” she scolded. “How was greasy food and sneaking into clubs any better than a spacious loft in the most hipster spot on the planet?” she demanded as she made her way to the table. “Here. I got you something way better than 8 AM lectures,” she picked up the bag and sifted through it, pulling out a small packet of macaroons.

Jackie's eyes went wide. “From the Upper East Side?” she asked.

Victoria nodded. “From the Upper East Side,” she replied.

As Jackie sat down to open her new treats, Laila came back, this time walking, not running, with her canvas in hand. “Here it is!” she exclaimed, placing it on the table for Victoria to see.

Victoria took a look at it, and then raised an eyebrow. “It's a boy...?” she replied, glancing up at Jackie. “Does she have a crush?”

Jackie rolled her eyes. “Yes,” she replied in a short voice.

“Who is he?” she asked.

“Her doctor.” Jackie replied in a dry voice.

Victoria giggled, running her hands through Laila's wild hair. “Doctor Allan Chase,” she retorted.

“Don't do that. Don't say his name like he's Prince Charming.”

Victoria shrugged. “You made him sound like he was, over the phone,” she replied.

Jackie scoffed. “Yeah. He's just a god.”

She chuckled. “And you're just too angry,” she replied.

Jackie sat down at the table, putting her head in her hands. Her heart was pounding again and she felt like she was flying and falling all at the same time.

Victoria sighed. “Laila, honey, why don't you go catch up on SpongeBob,” she muttered as she leaned into Jackie.

Laila scoffed. “SpongeBob is for losers.”

Victoria's eyes went wide. “SpongeBob is Gospel. Now go. Mommy and I have to talk.”

Laila reluctantly got up and left the room, but not without leaving her canvas there for the two of them to look at.

Victoria wrapped her hands around Jackie's arm, forcing her to look at her. “All right, what's the real deal here?”

“He asked me to call him,” she replied.

Victoria shrugged. “So...”

“So, I've never wanted to do something so badly in my life,” she replied.

“So why don't you?” Victoria asked.

Jackie opened her mouth to respond, but then stopped herself. It was a fantastic question. Why didn't she just take that leap? What on earth was stopping her? “I just... I'm not the girl that I used to be,” she started a lump growing in her throat. “The girl that calls doctors and flirts with good-looking men is the girl that doesn't have a child... or nightmares for that matter. How could I even-”

“Single moms date all the time,” Victoria replied.

But Jackie just shook her head. “No. It’s not just Laila. It's me. I don't know how I would even begin to get to know him. I'm so damaged. I've got so much baggage, it's disgusting.”

Victoria gave her an even stare. “I completely agree with you. You have baggage. But so does everyone else. I know it just seems really hard right now but your life is still going. You aren't in some weird limbo waiting to send Laila to college. You've got to get back out there. If you don't, you might end up alone forever.”

Those words were enough to send Jackie's heart plummeting to her stomach like a dead rock. The thought of ending up alone, with a bunch of cats and her daughter's daily schedule engrained in her mind was a little too much to bear.

Victoria placed a hand over hers. “Are you all right?” she asked.

Jackie could feel the pity oozing out of her and the last thing she wanted was to drown in it. “Yes. I'm just fine,” she replied. She then tilted her head in the direction of the living room. “Laila!” she called. “Come get some macaroons!”

From the sound of Laila's footsteps rapidly approaching, Victoria could tell that the conversation was most definitely over.

Chapter Six

The next day, Jackie found herself on her couch with her Sunday morning date: Laila. She made four large pancakes and drowned them in syrup because it was the weekend and both of them really needed to splurge. She took a fork and cut her way through the cake, shoving the dripping thing in her mouth. The thick syrup coated her entire mouth and made her feel like she was in heaven. She glanced down at Laila, expecting her to be enjoying it just as much as she was, but she sat on the other side of the couch, guarding the remote with her life and not even looking at her plate of pancakes. Jackie took one look from her daughter, to the pancakes, to the thirtieth rerun of Scooby-Doo and realized that she just couldn't take it anymore. “Laila, why don't you eat your food? It's gonna get soaked,” she replied. She then watched expectantly as Laila struggled with the remote and picking up her plate.

Jackie raised an eyebrow. “Why don't you put the remote down and you can get your plate,” she suggested, waiting for her to finally let go of the remote.

“No,” Laila replied. “I can't let it go. I wanna finish watching,” she replied, shaking her head in a stubborn manner.

Jackie cocked her head to the side. It was almost noon and Laila hadn't had a thing to eat. It was way more about the pancakes than it was about the TV. “Look, if you don't start eating right now, I'm gonna unplug the television and conveniently forget how to reconnect it,” she replied in a harsh tone.

Laila's impish grin immediately disappeared and she set the remote down, replacing it with her plate of pancakes. “Here. Happy?” she snapped.

Jackie glowered at her. Something about Laila's attitude made Jackie want to smack her and hug her all at the same time. “You're lucky those are pancakes and not oatmeal,” she scolded.

Laila scrunched her nose in disgust. “I hate oatmeal,” she whined.