Chapter Seven

Lila thought that Everett had dropped something when she saw him crouching down at the door of their first house call—single mother Mrs. Quinn. The next moment, she saw that what he was doing was trying to get down to the level of the little boy who stood across the threshold.

“Does your mom know you open the door to strangers?” Everett asked the boy.

The little boy shook his head from side to side, sending some of his baby-fine, soft blond hair moving back and forth about his face. “No. Mama’s asleep next to my little brother.”

“You’re very articulate,” Everett told the little boy. “How old are you?”

“Four,” the boy answered, holding up four fingers so that there would be no mistaking what he said. “What’s ar-tic—, ar-tic—” Giving up trying to pronounce the word, he approached it from another angle. “What you said,” he asked, apparently untroubled by his inability to say the word.

“It means that you talk very well,” Everett explained. Then he rose back to his feet. Glancing toward Lila so that the boy would know she was included, he requested, “Why don’t you take us to see them? I’m a doctor,” he added.

That seemed to do the trick. The little boy opened the door further, allowing them to come in. “Good, ’cause Mama said they need a doctor—her and Bobby,” the four-year-old tacked on.

Impressed at how well Everett was interacting with the boy, Lila let him go on talking as she and Everett followed him through the cluttered house.

“Is Bobby your brother?” Everett asked.

This time the blond head bobbed up and down. “Uh-huh.”

“And what’s your name?” Everett asked, wanting to be able to address their precocious guide properly.

“Andy,” the boy answered just as he reached the entrance to a minuscule bedroom. “We’re here,” he announced like the leader of an expedition at journey’s end.

There was a thin, frail-looking dark-haired woman lying on top of the bed, her eyes closed, her arm wrapped around a little boy who was tucked inside the bed. The woman looked as if the years had been hard on her.

Andy tiptoed over to her and tried to wake her up by shaking her arm.

“Mama, people are here. Mama?” he repeated, peering into her face. He looked worried because her eyes weren’t opening.

Lila finally spoke up. “Mrs. Quinn?” she said, addressing the boys’ mother. “It’s Lila. I brought a doctor with me.”

The young woman’s eyelashes fluttered as if she was trying to open them, but the effort was too much for her. She moaned something unintelligible in response to Lila’s announcement.

Before Lila could say anything either to the woman or to Everett, he took over.

Moving Lila aside, he felt for the woman’s pulse. Frowning, he went on to take her temperature next, placing a small, clear strip across her forehead.

“No thermometer?” Lila asked.

“This works just as well,” he assured her. Looking at the strip, he nodded. “She’s running a low-grade fever.” Checking the boys’ mother out quickly, he told Lila, “I can’t give her a flu shot because she already seems to have it. But I can lower her fever with a strong shot of acetaminophen.”

As Everett spoke, he took out a syringe and prepared it.

Andy’s eyes followed his every move, growing steadily wider. “Is my Mama gonna die?” he asked, fear throbbing in his voice.

“No, Andy. I’m going to make your mom all better. But you’re going to have to be brave for all three of you,” Everett told him. “Think you can do that?” he asked, talking to him the way he would to any adult.

The boy solemnly nodded his head. He held his breath as he watched his mother getting the injection.

“Good boy.” Everett moved on to the woman’s other son. “Looks like he’s got it, too,” he said to Lila. Turning to Andy, he asked him, “Andy, do you know how long your mom and brother have been sick?”

Andy made a face as he tried to remember. He never took his eyes off the syringe, watching as the doctor gave his brother an injection next.

“Not long,” Andy answered. “We were watching Captain Jack yesterday when Bobby said he didn’t feel so good. Mama carried him to bed and she laid down, too.”

Everett turned to look at Lila. “Captain Jack?” he questioned.

“It’s a syndicated cartoon,” Lila told him. “I think it airs around eight or so in the morning. One of the women in the office has a little boy who likes to watch it,” she explained in case he wondered why she would know something like that.

“So Mrs. Quinn could have been sick for a couple of days?” Everett questioned, attempting to get a handle on how long mother and son had been down with the illness.

Lila was about to narrow it down a little more. “Mrs. Quinn called my office yesterday, but I didn’t have anyone I could send.”

Everett nodded, taking the information in. “You can only do as much as you can do,” he told her. He knew Lila would beat herself up but it wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t make doctors appear out of thin air.

He performed a few tests on Mrs. Quinn and Bobby, and then he turned in Andy’s direction. “It’s your turn, Andy.”

Andy looked totally leery as he slanted a long glance in the doctor’s direction. “My turn for what?” he asked in a small voice.

“You get to be the one in your family to get a flu shot,” Everett told him.

“But I don’t want a shot. I’m not sick,” Andy cried, his voice rising in panic.

“No, you’re not,” Everett agreed. “And if you let me give you a flu shot, you’ll stay that way. Otherwise...” His voice trailed off dramatically.

Andy tried to enlist Lila to help him. She was just returning into the bedroom, bringing bottles of drinking water she’d brought with her in her car.

“But won’t a flu shot give me the flu?” the boy asked, anticipatory tears of pain already gathering in his eyes.

“No, it acts like a soldier that keeps the flu away,” Everett told him. “You don’t want to get sick like your mom and your brother, do you?” Everett asked. “Someone’s got to stay well to take care of them.”

Andy looked torn, and then he sighed. “I guess you’re right.”

“Good man,” Everett congratulated the little boy with hearty approval.

Lila set down the bottles of water as well as several pudding cups and bananas she’d brought in. “Attaboy,” she said to Andy. “If you like, I’ll hold you on my lap while Dr. Everett gives you that shot.”

She didn’t wait for the boy to answer. She gathered him up in her arms and held him on her lap.

“Okay, Dr. Everett. Andy’s ready.” She felt the little boy dig his fingers into her arm as Everett gave him the flu injection. She heard Andy breathe in sharply. “You were very brave,” she commended the boy.

“I’ll say,” Everett said, adding his voice to praise the boy. As he packed up his bag, he looked around, concerned. “Is there anyone who can stay with the kids until Mrs. Quinn is well enough to take care of them?” he asked Lila in a low voice. “I don’t like the idea of just leaving them this way.”

“Mrs. Rooney comes by to stay with us sometimes whenever Mama has to go out,” Andy said, looking from the doctor to Lila as if to see if they thought that was good enough.

“Do you know where Mrs. Rooney lives?” Everett asked Lila.

“I think that’s the woman next door,” she told him before Andy could respond. Shifting Andy off her lap, she rose to her feet. “I can go and knock on her door,” she volunteered.

“We’ll go together,” Everett told her. When she looked at him quizzically, he said, “You shouldn’t be out there alone.”

In a low voice, she told Everett, “I’ve been dealing with people in this neighborhood and places like this neighborhood for several years now. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“No,” Everett agreed. “I don’t ‘have to.’ But since I’m here, I’d feel better going with you,” he told her, adding, “Humor me.”

Instead of answering him, she looked at Andy, who was rubbing his arm where he had received his vaccination. “Andy, do you know if Mrs. Rooney does live next door?” she asked.

Sniffing as he blinked to keep big tears from falling, Andy nodded. “Uh-huh, she does.”

Lila smiled at Everett. “Problem solved. I’ll just pop in next door and ask the woman to keep an eye on this family.”

She glanced at her watch. They had spent more time here than she’d anticipated. She was glad that it had gone so well for Everett, but they did need to speed things up.

“And then we’re going to have to get a move on,” she told Everett. “Otherwise, we’re not going to get to see all the people on my list unless we work through the night and possibly into the next morning.”

He hadn’t thought that there were going to be that many houses to visit. But as far as he knew, Lila had never been one to exaggerate.

“Then you’d better find out if Mrs. Rooney is willing to stay with Andy and his family,” he urged.

That went off without a hitch.

After getting the woman to stay with the Quinn family, Lila drove herself and Everett to the second name on her list.

Again she was treated to observing Everett’s bedside manner. She was completely amazed by how easily he seemed to get along with children. Not only get along with them but get them to trust him and rather quickly.

She smiled to herself as she recalled worrying that he might frighten the children because he’d be too stiff or too cold with them, but that definitely didn’t turn out to be the case. Right from the very beginning, she saw that Everett knew exactly how to talk to the children.

Moreover, he acted as if he actually belonged in this sort of a setting.

Talk about being surprised, she mused.

As they drove from one house to another, Lila found herself wondering what these people who had so little would think if they knew that the man who was administering their vaccinations, writing out their prescriptions and listening so intently to them as they described their symptoms was actually a millionaire’s son with a thriving, fancy practice back in Houston.

She laughed quietly to herself. They’d probably think that she was making it up because Everett seemed so down-to-earth, not to mention so focused on making them feel better.

As she continued observing Everett in setting after setting, Lila could feel her heart growing softer and softer.

It became harder for her to regard Everett in any sort of a cold light and practically impossible for her to keep the good memories at bay any longer.

Everett had grown into the good, decent man she had, in her heart, always felt that he was destined to become.

“How many more?” Everett asked her as they drove away from yet another house.

He and Lila had been at it for a straight twelve hours, stopping only to pick up a couple of hamburgers to go at a drive-through. They ate the burgers while driving from one patient to the next.

Keeping her eyes on the road as she drove, Lila smiled at his question. She didn’t have to pull out her list to answer him. “That was the last house on my list.”

“No more left?” Everett questioned, thinking that she might have accidentally overlooked one or two more patients.

“Nope, no more left,” Lila told him. She flashed him a relieved grin to underscore her words.

“Wow.” Everett leaned his head back against his headrest. “I was beginning to feel like we were going to go on with these house calls forever.”

She laughed. “Does feel that way, doesn’t it?” She spared him a glance as she came to a stop at a light. “Bet you’re sorry now that you returned my call yesterday.”

“No,” Everett responded quite seriously. “I’m not.”

After twelve hours of work on very little sleep, all she should be thinking about was getting some rest, nothing else. So why in heaven’s name did she suddenly feel what amounted to an all-consuming hot tingle passing over the length of her body just because Everett had said that he wasn’t sorry he’d called her back?

What was wrong with her?

Punchy, she was punchy. That had to be it, Lila decided.

Talk, damn it. Say something! she ordered herself. The silence was getting deafening.

Clearing her throat, Lila said, “Well, I have to admit that you surprised me today.”

“Oh?” Everett responded. “How so?”

Lila was honest with him. She felt it was the best way. “I didn’t think you had it in you to just keep going like this. And I really didn’t think you knew how to talk to children.”

“Why?” he asked. “Children are just short adults.”

Lila laughed, shaking her head. “You would be surprised how many doctors don’t really know how to talk to fully grown adults, much less to little children,” she told him.

“That’s right,” Everett recalled. “When we started out today you told me that you were there to act as the go-between.” He continued to look at her profile, curious. “So I guess I passed the test?”

The light turned green and Lila pressed down on the accelerator. Once they were moving again, she answered, “With flying colors.” Again she felt she had to tell him how surprised she was by his performance. “I didn’t think that you’d keep at it long enough to see all the people on the list.” She struggled to stifle a yawn. The long day was catching up to her. “But it’s kind of late now,” she told him needlessly.

“It is,” he agreed.

She glanced at the clock on the dashboard, even though she already knew what time it was. “Too late for you to be driving back to Houston tonight,” she told him.

“Are you offering to put me up?” he asked, doing his best to keep a straight face.

That startled her. “What? No, I just—”

“Take it easy,” he laughed. “You don’t have to worry. I’ve already talked to Schuyler. She’s expecting me. I’m spending the night at her place.”

“So that means that you’re not going back until sometime tomorrow?” Lila asked.

He laughed again. “I can see the wheels turning in your head. No, I’m not going back to Houston until the day after tomorrow. So, if you want me to make a few more house calls with you tomorrow, I’m available.”

That would be a huge help. She was still down a few volunteer doctors and she still hadn’t found any more replacements.

“Don’t toy with me, Everett,” she told him, casting a glance his way.

His eyes were smiling at her. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Her heart fluttered. She forced herself to face forward. “All right. If you don’t mind putting in some more time, then yes, absolutely. I could really use you for however much time you can spare.”

“All right, then, same time tomorrow?” he asked as she pulled into the Foundation’s parking lot.

“Make it eight-thirty,” she told him.

“I’ll be there,” he promised, getting out of her car.

“If you decide to change your mind,” she began, feeling obligated to give him a way out. After the day he had put in today, she didn’t want to force him to come in tomorrow.

But Everett cut her off. “I won’t,” he told her just before he walked over to his own car.

Lila caught herself smiling. She knew he meant it.