“Good morning, ladies.” Brett entered the bedroom. Dressed in a pale blue Oxford shirt and navy slacks, his black hair damp and combed, he looked cool and professional. His expression was wary, however.
“Thanks for rescuing my friend yesterday,” Ivy said.
He smiled thinly at Ivy. “Just when we thought you dropped out of the sky with no past, Mandy Smythe bounces onto our boulevard. Makes a man wonder if there’s more to you than meets the eye.”
Brushing past a gaping Ivy, Brett approached the bed and took Amanda’s bandaged ankle in his hand. “Looks good, only minor swelling. You’ll be able to scoot around on crutches—as long as you don’t overdo it.”
“That’s great.”
“If you’d like to shower now, we can wrap your foot in a bag.”
She slanted him what she hoped was a crafty smile. “I usually take bubble baths.”
“Oh.” His expression betrayed interest, then a measure of restraint. “In that case, you can still use the bag. First sit on the edge of the tub, then swing over—Maybe I should show you. I have a minute or two to spare.”
Amanda gazed into his deep blue eyes, imagining him participating in one of her luxuriant soaks. For a change she had trouble finding her voice. “No thanks. I can manage on my own.”
He patted her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Okay. Be sure to let Della know your plans, though, in case you end up in an awkward position.”
Worse than this one? Amanda glanced back to Ivy to find her shaking in a silent chuckle. She was glad her old friend was showing some sense of humor about the situation, because sparks were going to be zinging through this old house. Amanda might not know diddly about love, but she was an expert on infatuation.
Brett rose and stood by the bed. “So how long are you planning to stay with us, Mandy?”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “A while. Why?”
“Well, Della would never say anything, being proud and hospitable, but we boarders are in the habit of helping with chores.”
“Chores?”
“You’ve heard of them, of course.”
Yes, and that was about all. Staff hired by her father had always seen to her every whim.
“Like my washing the windows yesterday,” he prompted.
“That kind of chore is way too dangerous.”
“Not really—”
“I mean to girls like me.” She aimed a finger at him. “If you’d have kept grounded with your shirt on, I wouldn’t have been distracted enough to fall.”
He looked both mildly shocked and greatly amused. “We’ll make it easier on you. No climbing. And by all means, keep your shirt on. Especially for Colonel’s sake. His old ticker isn’t what it used to be.” Brett glanced at his watch. “Guess we’re good for now.”
If he was hoping to part on a savvy note, he was to be disappointed. He hadn’t taken three steps before Tess appeared in the doorway. She was dressed in a light green jumper and white T-shirt. A pink helmet tucked under her arm, her cherubic face was set indignantly.
“Hey, you girls locked me out before!”
Ivy calmly tapped Tess’s nose. “No, dear, I locked us in. And you know you are supposed to call me Miss Waterman on school days.”
“I will. At school.” With that she barreled past Ivy and Brett and bounced atop the bed, narrowly missing Amanda’s bad ankle. “Hi, Mandy. When you ride your bike you should wear a helmet. Like this.” Tess plunked it on her own head and tightened the strap under her chin. “Then you won’t jiggle your marbles if you fall.”
“Jiggle my marbles?”
“That’s what Della said you did. When you called Daddy handsome instead of Hanson.”
Amanda laughed, enchanted with the rambunctious child who reminded her very much of herself at that age. There was something else familiar about Tess that tickled at the fringes of Amanda’s mind, but she couldn’t put a finger on it.
Brett rubbed the back of his neck. He looked increasingly uncomfortable. “It must be almost time for school, Tess.”
Tess laughed gaily. “Oh, Daddy, you silly.”
“What?”
“Kindergarten is in the afternoon,” Ivy reminded him. “But I do have a morning class of preschoolers and should head over there myself.” With a flutter of fingers, Ivy departed.
Tess grinned after her. “Whew! She didn’t unpack your suitcase. I want to help with that, Mandy.” Peeling off her helmet, she let it roll across the floor in favor of the suitcase by the dresser.
Brett appeared flustered. “I can take her away, Mandy.”
“No, that’s all right. Help her wheel the case over here, will you? And bring me some hangers from the closet?”
Brett obliged, then lingered to watch Amanda lay open the belongings he’d repacked last night. “Hope I didn’t upset things too much.”
She extracted her cell phone. Like a child caught with something forbidden, she held it in her hand for an uncertain moment, then shoved it under the covers. “A little pressing will fix things.”
“Hey, look at this!” Tess picked up a blue gel-filled mask and pressed it to her eyes. “Halloween is coming. Maybe I can wear this. You think so?”
“It has no eyeholes,” Amanda protested.
Brett shook his head. “I really must get to the office.”
“You should go, Daddy. This is girl stuff.” She pointed to her chest. “My turn to be locked on the inside.”
“Yeah, Daddy,” Amanda chirped with a wink.
Brett beat a hasty retreat downstairs. He entered the kitchen just in time to see Ivy tearing a check from her checkbook.
Della took the draft most reluctantly. “I feel funny taking money from you, Ivy, on your salary. Would it help if I gave Mandy a discount?”
Ivy regarded the landlady fondly. “Not on your life. I happen to know Emmaline was paying you twenty dollars a week extra for that room because it’s a corner one with extra windows. So Mandy is already getting a bargain. And I feel I should warn you,” she said on a lower note, “she may not be quite as helpful ’round the house as Emmaline was.”
“She’s got a bum ankle!”
“Even after it mends, she may not—” Ivy jumped as Brett cleared his throat.
“Go on, Ivy,” he invited her.
“It’s nothing.”
Brett addressed Della. “I was just telling Mandy the score. Anybody who lives here is part of the family and shares the load. It’s true she can’t run around with a dust rag or mop just yet, but she can…polish something.”
Della hooted with laughter. “Most chores take two good feet. But if it’ll satisfy your thirst for justice, I’ll put her on to polishing Colonel’s medals.”
“Never mind.” Pivoting on his heel, Brett grabbed his medical bag off the counter. “Sure you don’t mind seeing Tess to school?”
“I’m looking forward to the daily stroll.”
“At least it’ll give you a baby-sitting break afternoons.”
“I never mind looking after her. And you’ve been very generous in paying me for my trouble. So where is she now?”
“In Mandy’s room, helping her unpack.”
“Convenient. Then she’ll know exactly where things are stowed for a second and third opinion later on.”
Brett knew better than to take offense. Della’s observation about his darling daughter’s bold curiosity was delivered with gentle amusement and one hundred percent true.
“You go on, Doc. I’ve got both girls well in hand.”
He paused with a sudden afterthought. “Do me a favor and keep a lookout, in case she tries to get into that old bathtub.”
“A voluntary bath doesn’t sound like our Tess.”
“Uh, no. I mean Mandy.” Disconcerted by the misunderstanding, he blushed and zipped out the screen door.
BRETT DROVE ON TO THE clinic with thoughts of Mandy. Hearing the small snatch of conversation between Mandy and Ivy had startled him. Mandy felt their attraction just as he did! He wasn’t going to make a fool of himself over it, however. Well, not again. He’d been clumsy in trying to convince Della that Mandy should be treated like the rest of the boarders. And then there’d been the damn bath misunderstanding. He’d handled that situation like a dopey schoolboy. Okay, so Mandy was smart, pretty and fun. He knew from experience those qualities weren’t always enough. It paid to be cautious.
The clinic’s staff parking lot was well occupied when he swung his Corvette into his reserved spot. In fact, when he entered through the rear service door he quickly discovered he was the last to arrive. Everyone was huddled together in his small private office—his partner Jack Graham, nurses Rochelle Owens and Kaitlyn Miner, and nurse’s aide Sarah Draper—murmuring among themselves.
Plainly, this was to be a day for the unexpected.
“Is this some kind of mutiny?” he asked cheerily, wheeling inside. The room fell into a startled silence, faces frozen in stifled smiles.
“Good morning, Brett,” Jack said. The blond physician was in the rear of the crowd, but quite visible as he was a head taller than the rest. “We were just debating whether some music was in order for the occasion, a little humming of ‘Pomp and Circumstance,’ maybe. But, never mind. Let the man through, girls.”
Bodies parted, allowing Brett a path. There on his desk sat the object of their amusement, a plastic toy black stallion, upon which was seated a chrome knight.
“Knight in shining armor. Very clever.”
Jack beamed. “We have no right to give out Nobels or Pulitzers, but when a fella is a hero, something should be done. And it’s come to our attention that you rescued one damsel in distress yesterday, right in your own front yard.”
Applause broke out. As it died away a familiar slap-and-shuffle could be heard out in the hallway: size nine moccasins hitting the tiles. It was sure to be Charlotte Evenson, office manager and character of the clinic. Age seventy, five foot six, two hundred pounds, pale yellow hair stiff with spray, huge earrings that dangled like tree ornaments. Like everyone else, she wore white, but unlike the others, it didn’t make her appear especially professional.
The remarkably solid woman now filled the doorway. “It’s eight-thirty on the dial,” she boomed without preamble. “Patients are waiting.”
She stood back smugly, allowing the nursing staff to scatter.
“They were just having a little fun, Charlotte.”
“Don’t I know it,” she hooted. “Who do you think got Alan Nash to open his toy store at the crack of dawn for that pony! Fun is fun and now it’s time for business.” With another slap and shuffle of shoe, she was gone.
Brett moved to the coffeemaker on a file cabinet, poured himself a mug and sat at his desk. “To think I dashed over here to hide out for a few minutes before opening, to decompress.”
“Well, blame me. It was all my idea.” Jack Graham slid a thigh over the front edge of the desk and picked up the horse and rider. “Pretty clever gift though, eh?”
“Not as clever as the time in med school when we put that skeleton in your bed.”
“Agreed. I’ll just have to keep at it until I pay you back in full for that prank.”
Brett laughed. “How was I supposed to know your kid sister was in town?”
“Or that she’s always been especially frightened of horror movie theatrics? She still complains about you, even though she’s married and living in Washington.”
“Well, I’ve had my share of bad luck with women all my life.”
Brett watched Jack sober a bit in sympathy. The bond they’d formed at UCLA had been the best kind, built not only on chemistry but on respect and trust. It hadn’t seemed to bother Jack too much that Brett had always been ahead of him in class rank, had a girl who adored him.
In any case, Jack seemed quite satisfied with life these days, settled back in his hometown. With the help of his innate sense of humor, he’d come to terms with his average looks and relatively uncomplicated personal life. And he was more than happy to share his family practice with a widowed pal who needed a fresh start. It was a bonus that they made each other feel young and crazy again.
If Brett could change anything about Jack it would be his nosiness. But then again, the small town was nosy by nature. He watched in amusement as Jack shrugged, trying not to sound too eager for precious info.
“This new girl does sound real cute. Mandy. Even her name is fun.”
“Turns out she’s a friend of Ivy’s.”
“Yeah. Not a bad reference.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve always felt Ivy’s a confusion, singing karaoke at the Blue Parrot Lounge on Saturday night, then trotting over to church the next morning to sing with the choir.”
“The bigger confusion is her nerve. She actually thinks she has a singing voice.”
“If possible, this Mandy is even wackier. Can you imagine riding a bicycle in tight pants and high gold sandals? Then crashing into a car just for a look at my bare chest?”
“I’ve never seen much in your chest. A bit too much hair, a little too lean, if you ask me.”
“You aren’t taking me seriously.”
“No, I’m not.”
“That’s not all that’s odd. She has a case full of fancy clothes and apparently no money, as Ivy’s paying her rent. She claims to be a master at odd jobs, in town to write her first novel. But if she has a degree like Ivy, why doesn’t she have a career she could have been using to save up for this writing sabbatical?”
Jack clapped him on the back. “I suggest you nose around for answers. Give her the third degree.”
The phone on the desk rang sharply. “Internal line,” Brett noted. “Must be Charlotte. You answer it.”
“No way, it’s your office.”
With a frown Brett picked it up. He held it out so Charlotte’s voice boomed through the room. “When the blazes are you men starting? Mrs. Tremble is out here with a case of hemorrhoids so bad it makes her butt twitch on the chair. Willy Sacks Junior is back with some nasty acne—and he’s missing first hour English as we speak!” Her voice drifted slightly. “Open a textbook, Willy. High school’s been in session a week. You must have homework.”
Brett gingerly hung up. “All that, shouted out in a public forum. It’s so unprofessional.”
Jack stood. “Breaches every patient’s right to privacy.”
“Somehow, we’ve got to shatter her illusion that she runs this place.”
“The sooner the better.”
Brett thrust a finger at the door. “You go out there and lay down the law. Once and for all!”
Jack stepped back with a swish of his lab coat. “Me! All by myself?”
Brett regarded him pityingly. “It is your responsibility, Jacky boy. After all, she is your grandmother.”
“I PUT MY UNDIE PANTS in the top drawer,” Tess announced. “But I don’t think I can reach your top drawer, Mandy.”
Amanda was using the closet door frame as a lean-to, hanging up garments delivered her by Tess. Now the child was seated on the bed, distracted by the contents of the suitcase. “Forget the dresser. We aren’t finished hanging clothes.”
“I’m tired of hangers.” Tess began to paw through Amanda’s lingerie. “I don’t see any Winnie the Pooh or Cinderella pants. You’ve only got funny ones.” Tess held up a pair of black lacy ones and peeked through them.
Amanda hopped toward the bed on her good leg. “Those are very expensive and very fragile.”
“What’s fragile?”
“You might rip them. Careful!”
Tess ignored the warning and hung the panties on her head, drooped over her eyes. “Beatrice wears a hat with a black lace veil to church sometimes. When somebody gets married or dies.”
Amanda snatched the panties away and ruffled the child’s soft dark hair. “Oh, yeah?”
“My mommy died. But not here. A long time ago.”
“So did mine.”
“Really? You got no mommy?
“Nope. I lost her when I was a little girl like you.”
“You have a Della to love you?”
“I only wish.”
“I love Daddy and Della. And lots of other people. Frank lets me help in the garden and Beatrice reads to me and Colonel Geoff takes me for constitutionals. Those are walks.”
“You do have a lot of friends in this house.”
“And out of this house. Ivy sits with me and Dr. Jack tickles me.”
“Who’s Dr. Jack?”
“He works with Daddy at the clinic. He’s got a cool grandma named Charlotte who gives me lots of suckers. But she yells a lot.” She lowered her voice. “Daddy thinks girls should talk soft. And not dig holes in the backyard.”
“You dig some holes, little one?”
Tess’s round face beamed. “I like to dig holes.”
Suddenly there was a mild buzzing sound under her covers.
To Amanda’s chagrin, she realized it was her cell phone, which she’d stashed away from Brett’s prying eyes. She sat on the bed.
Apparently, Tess not only dug holes against her father’s wishes, she was also quite capable of raising her voice. “Eek! There’s bees under there!”
“Relax, kid. It’s only my phone.”
“A bee stung me in the garden. It hurt bad.”
“No bees in here. Ignore the sound and it will go away.”
Tess frantically jumped into Amanda’s lap. Amanda flicked back the covers to expose the compact blue instrument. “See? It’s all right.”
“Answer it, answer it. Make the noise stop.”
As Tess pressed palms against her ears, Amanda realized the spunky child was truly frightened. She pushed the talk button to stop the noise. At that moment, her door swung open and Della charged in.
The landlady breathlessly surveyed the picture of Tess huddled up against her new tenant. “What’s bringing down my house?”
Amanda muffled the phone against a pillow. “Just a little misunderstanding over b-e-e—”
“Bees!” Tess hopped off the bed and into Della’s arms.
“It was just my phone, Tess. Sorry it scared you.”
Tess was insulted. “I don’t get scared of phones. Just bees.”
Della made a clucking sound and whisked the child out the door with the promise of grape juice. Tess paused at the doorway, well on the way to recovery. “We’ll finish your undies later.”
“Don’t you go telling the kids at school about my undie veil,” Amanda called after her. “Everybody will want one.” Left alone, she lifted the phone from the pillow. She hoped it was her assistant Jen Berry checking in. No such luck. It was her father’s bellowing voice. She calmly hit the off button.