INSTEAD of heading to the hotel, Molly decided to go back to the clinic to give Sammi the news about the house and see how things had gone with her pregnant patient.
She was also anxious to get to work. While she could make good money in private practice, that wasn’t why she’d gone into medicine.
So here were her current challenges: surviving the flights to and from the islands and working hard to prove the government dollars were well spent. If she could do those two things, hopefully the work would continue, even if she couldn’t.
“Did you like it?” Sammi tossed her long braid over her shoulder.
“It was beautiful! I’m going to take it.”
“What about that sign? Wasn’t it a hoot?”
Molly grimaced. “Yeah, especially having a man in the car with me when I got there.”
“Hey, you never know. Blake’s quite a catch, if you haven’t noticed.”
She glanced away. “Really? He seems kind of standoffish to me.” Picking a chart up from the counter, she flipped it open as if reading it. “Besides, Mark asked me out, and he is rather yummy, don’t you think?”
A second or two of silence went by and Molly looked up to find Sammi on the other side of the room, staring out the window. She frowned. “Is everything okay?”
“Yep.” The other woman turned around with a smile. “Tell Mark I said hi when you see him. In the meantime, could you give me a hand? I have two patients waiting and the PA is off for the rest of the day.”
“Sure.” Something about Sammi seemed artificially bright all of a sudden, but she couldn’t place exactly what it was that made her think so. So she accepted the file handed to her and went to the exam room the CHA indicated.
A half hour later she swiveled on the stool to face Sarah, her five-year-old patient, gently wrapping an ace bandage around the child’s wrist. “It’s not broken according to the X-ray, but it still must hurt, huh?”
The little girl’s breath hitched as it had several times during the exam, and she clutched her mother’s hand. “Uh-huh.”
“No more bike riding for the next week or so, okay?”
Sniffling, Sarah leaned against her mother, who stroked her hair and said, “Your arm will be as good as new in no time. You’ll see.”
Molly nodded. “That’s right.” She rummaged through a couple of drawers until she found a stash of slings with the clinic’s initials inscribed on the outside. Sorting through them, she found one she hoped would fit Sarah’s small arm. Maybe the device would also remind the girl why she couldn’t ride her bike. She went over to the table and positioned Sarah’s limb. “Can you hold your arm here while I put this on?”
The sling went on easily, with no fuss. Afterward, Sarah touched it with her other hand. “It’s pink, just like my bike.”
“See, isn’t that better? You need to wear it until your next appointment.” She gave the child’s mother a wink and held up crossed fingers, hoping she’d realize the sling was just a prop. Then she helped the child climb off the table.
Sarah’s mom mouthed, “Thank you.”
“Can I have a lollipop? Sammi always gives me one, ’cause I’m a good girl.”
And cheeky, too.
She glanced around the room. “Do you know where she keeps them?”
“She hides them inside there, behind a bunch of junk…” Sarah pointed at one of the upper cabinets “…but all the kids know where they are.”
The haughty tilt of her nose said the adults around this place had gravely underestimated their young patients.
The child’s mom gave her daughter a warning frown. “Sarah…”
Laughing, Molly went to the cabinet and slid her hand deep into its recesses. Sure enough, toward the back was a large round-bellied Mason jar. When she pulled it forward, a colorful array of treats met her eyes. A big label on the side divided the sweets according to color and what they were intended to reward. Nifty idea.
Red: Valor.
Green: Broken bones.
Yellow: Sunny disposition.
Purple: Vaccinations.
Orange: Courage.
Blue: Stitches.
She pulled it off the shelf and set it on the counter. “Now let’s see which one you’ve earned.”
“The blue one stains your tongue.”
Molly’s brows went up. “It does?” She glanced at the label. “You’ve had stitches before?”
“No, but sometimes Sammi lets kids choose the color.” The little girl leaned closer, her eyes round. “Even if they cry.”
“Does she? Sammi’s a very nice lady, to let you do that.”
An energetic nod followed.
They’d evidently made their fair share of trips to the clinic. Molly was glad she’d come. Maybe Sammi wouldn’t be run as ragged as she’d evidently been the past couple of months.
“So which color do you think you’ve earned?” She popped open the latch that held the glass lid in place. The scent of sugar wafted up, despite the plastic wrapping around each individual pop.
Sarah studied the label, her lips pursed. “My bone’s not broken, right?”
“Right.” Molly gave her mother a quick smile. Choosing a sucker was serious business around these parts.
“I was brave, though, wasn’t I?”
“Very.”
“But the blue…” The child’s wistful eyes searched the jar, obviously looking for something.
Molly spun the glass container around. There was only one blue left. That staining feature Sarah had mentioned hadn’t made it any less popular. In fact, it appeared to be the most desirable lollipop on the block.
“I think we can make an exception in this case, since you were so brave about letting me X-ray that arm.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.” She crooked an arm around the jar and tilted the mouth of it toward the child. “I’ll even let you reach in and get it, if you want. It’s on the very bottom, though, do you think you can manage it with your left hand?”
“I’m left-handed.” The pride in her voice was obvious, bringing another smile to Molly’s face.
“Well, there you go.”
Tiny fingers wiggled their way through the sea of lollipops until her whole arm was swallowed by the jar’s neck. Once she reached the sweet and pulled it out, her mother draped a hand over Sarah’s shoulder. “What do you say?”
“Thank you,” she said in that cute sing-songy tone children used when responding to a prompt.
“You’re very welcome.” Molly glanced at her watch. She should probably head back to the hotel. Hopefully Blake had been able to catch the cat. The thought of seeing him again brought a strange little rush of pleasure to her tummy.
Not good.
You’ve only known the man a little while.
But the fizzy sensation remained, undaunted by the internal reprimand.
Sarah’s voice came back through. “Can I eat it now, Mommy?”
“After lunch.”
“Can’t it be an appet…an apperti…” She searched for the word. “Apperitizer?”
“Appetizer. And, no, it can’t. It’ll be dessert, which comes after we eat.”
The girl’s lower lip moved back into a threatening position, and her mom gave a little laugh. “Come on, time to go.”
Waving as the pair headed out the door, Molly turned back to the room so she could tidy up. She pulled the paper covering the exam table through the feed at the bottom until the surface was covered with a fresh, clean layer, ripping off the used portion and wadding it in a ball. As she turned to toss it into a nearby trashcan, she almost jumped out of her skin when she found Blake standing in the doorway.
“What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to let you know that the cat walked right into the crate as if she’d been in one before. She’s already at my house, chowing down on some food. Anyway, Sammi said you had a patient. I didn’t want to interrupt you, so I waited.” He helped himself to a piece of candy from the jar.
A giddy little laugh came out, and she cleared her throat, trying for a frown instead. She glanced at his hand. “Yellow. Really?”
“Huh?”
She tapped a finger to Sammi’s labeling system, hoping to ward off the crazy sensations that were rising in her chest. “Things like that have to be earned.”
He squinted at the notations. “Sunny disposition. That describes me to a T.”
“Right.”
“Besides,” he said, “the blue ones appear to be all gone.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not you, too.”
“Hey, if you can’t beat ’em…”
He actually was in kind of a sunny mood. Surprising. What had cheered him up? “So the cat seems to be okay?”
“She’s fine. I went ahead and checked with the vet in town. No one seems to be missing her.”
He propped a hip against the counter, evidently in no hurry to leave.
As for her, she needed to get back to the hotel and get ready for her date. Anything to avoid standing here staring at Blake.
She opened the chart and began writing up her notes. “I got the rental by the way. I sign the contract in the morning.”
“Good to hear. When are you moving in?”
“I’ll be at the hotel another couple of days until my things arrive. Probably on Thursday or Friday.”
“Hmm.”
She snuck a glance at where he was methodically flipping the sucker, catching it by the stick on every second twirl. His biceps—seemingly oblivious to the actual weight of the candy—responded as if it were dealing with a two-ton barbell, tightening into a solid mass of muscle with every toss. Tearing her eyes away took discipline and courage. Two things she lacked right now.
Yeah, she was a professional all right.
“I’ve still got your things in the back of my car. How do you want to work this?”
Ah, so that’s why he was still here. Man, she was dense sometimes.
“I’d totally forgotten about the suitcases. Sorry.”
So how did she want to handle this? She didn’t have a vehicle yet. Maybe Sammi could—
“I could give you a lift to the hotel and drop the stuff off.”
Relief swept over her. “That would be great, thanks. I’ll see about getting a rental car tomorrow.”
She finished jotting her notes, and glanced at the previous ones to see if Sammi had a specific format she wanted followed.
Yep. She’d recorded the color of each sucker for each visit. Curious, she thumbed through the entries. Red. Red. Blue. Yellow. Blue. Blue. Blue.
Molly laughed as she penned blue at the end of her own notes. That made four blues in a row.
“What?”
“Just thinking about how people—even kids—get on a kick and don’t want to move away from it.”
“Not sure I follow you.”
“My patient’s favorite lollipop was blue.”
She shrugged. “Even at a young age, we as humans start digging a rut for ourselves and then settling into it. The deeper we dig, the harder it is to climb back out.” She reached in the jar and pulled out a lollipop, staring at it for a moment. Holding it upside down, she made a couple of scooping motions. “You can make a shovel out of almost anything if you try hard enough. Even a simple piece of candy.”
“I still don’t follow.”
Maybe that had been part of the reason her parents’ marriage had floundered. They’d allowed themselves to settle into an unhealthy routine that had gotten deeper and deeper until they’d been trapped. And her own relationships had followed a similar course. She’d worked harder and harder to please Gary—and her mother—but it had never been enough. She’d just kept digging. Until she’d finally thrown down her shovel and scrambled up out of that hole.
“I was just thinking about my mom and dad, and how they argued about his job. How my mom always tore my dad down. It’s hard for people to change when something’s become ingrained.”
She closed the chart, noting Blake had gone very still. “Something wrong?”
“Just thinking.”
She wanted to ask, but it was none of her business, really. To cover up the awkwardness, she worked to put the rest of the room in order. He moved to stand by the wall without needing to be asked when she reached into a cupboard and pulled out a bottle of disinfectant spray. Giving the counter a couple of healthy squirts, she waited a few seconds for the solution to kill any microbes before drying it with a wad of paper towels. Blake remained silent, not even attempting to find a topic of conversation.
Then again, neither did she. She’d evidently said something wrong.
She shut her eyes and realized what it was. He didn’t want to hear about her parents’ problems. That was something personal, and Molly wasn’t even sure why she’d brought the subject up. Blake had worked with her father—had respected him. Why would he want to hear anything that might cast a pall on the man who’d helped train him? Great. Just when she’d thought he was softening, she had to go and mess things up. “I’m almost done.”
“No hurry.” The words were generous, but the tightness she’d heard at other times was back in his voice. Yep. She’d definitely made some kind of gaffe.
When Sammi poked her head into the room, Molly was grateful for the interruption. “I just finished with my patient. How’d it go with Sarah?”
“Fine. No breaks. Just a bad sprain. I put her arm in a sling and told her to take it easy for a while.”
Sammi’s eyes went to the candy jar. “I forgot to tell you about the lollipops.”
“Don’t worry. Sarah let me know.” She refastened the lid. “You’re out of blue, by the way.”
Sammi laughed. “I should have stuck to the chart. But once I let the kids talk me into breaking tradition, there was no stopping them. Blue is all the rage right now. Kind of like a badge of honor for surviving this place. Maybe I should nix that color.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” To her surprise, Blake spoke up, holding up his sucker. “It’s not just the kids who are guilty. I play favorites, too.”
“So you’re a yellow man.”
“It would seem that way.” His lips gave a wry twist. “Although, according to Molly, a shovel is a shovel, no matter what the color.”