Huckleberry Hearts by Jennifer Beckstrand

halted in his tracks and stood in the doorway staring at her as if he’d walked into the women’s bathroom by mistake. He looked even more surprised to see her than she was to see him. His face grew decidedly pale, making Cassie wonder who would be the first of the two of them to throw up.
    He seemed to have to pry his eyes from her face. Clearing his throat, he smiled like Mammi was his favorite patient. “Mrs. Helmuth—”
    Mammi beamed at the doctor as if he were her best friend. “Anna, please.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Anna. I keep forgetting,” he said, seemingly unable to catch his breath.
    Mammi reached out, slipped her hand into the doctor’s, and tugged him forward. “Dr. Reynolds, I want you to meet my granddaughter Cassie Coblenz. She’s visiting with us for only a few short months, and she is a wonderful-gute girl.”
    â€œI should have guessed,” the doctor stammered. “We have matching scarves.”
    She hadn’t even realized it earlier. Of course Mammi had been the one who had made the doctor a scarf. It was almost identical to Cassie’s. She tore her gaze from his stunning aqua blue eyes. No way would she get caught up in those.
    â€œBut the little girl ended up with mine,” he said.
    â€œWhat little girl?” Mammi said. “Do you two know each other?” She seemed almost disappointed.
    Cassie played with an errant thread sticking out from her coat. “We . . . uh . . . we met by the busy street behind the hospital. Rose Sue Fisher wandered out there by herself. Dr. Reynolds wrapped his scarf around her to keep her warm.”
    Mammi turned to the doctor. “The one I made for you?”
    The doctor nodded.
    â€œWhat a nice young man you are. I knew it right from the start.”
    â€œI’m afraid I accidentally left it around her shoulders,” Dr. Reynolds said.
    Mammi smiled. “Not to worry. Cassie can fetch it from the Fishers and return it.”
    She’d rather not. But she couldn’t be cross with Mammi. Mammi was only trying to be nice, just like Cassie should have been doing.
    Mammi smoothed a crease from her hospital gown. “Cassie just graduated from college in art history. She looks at a lot of naked people in her studies. You two have that in common.”
    Cassie coughed violently as what was left of her pride lodged in her throat. Mammi patted her on the back with no inkling that anything she’d said had nearly choked her granddaughter.
    Dr. Reynolds’s lips twitched upward. “Matching scarves and similar lines of work,” he said. “I like your granddaughter already.”
    Cassie lowered her eyes as her face got warm. He was teasing, but in a way that wouldn’t shame her or hurt Mammi’s feelings. She hadn’t actually expected him to be nice.
    â€œShe graduated from the University of Chicago, which I hear is a very big school with lots of important people who go there,” Mammi said.
    â€œHey, I went to UChicago,” Dr. Reynolds said. “You do look familiar. Maybe we ran into each other at the library or something.”
    â€œMaybe,” she said.
    â€œI did both undergrad and medical school there, but once I got into med school, I was usually buried in the Reg trying to make sense of biochemistry. I didn’t have much of a social life.”
    Maybe not in medical school, but his social life had thrived during his senior year. Cassie frowned. Four years ago and she still remembered as if it were yesterday.
    Zach’s roommate Finn McEwan had started a club with some of the other senior guys. The goal of the club was to see how many different coeds they could sleep with before graduation.
    Cassie didn’t entirely blame the senior boys for the success of their little club or the notoriety it gave them. The girls on campus participated knowingly and even started a club of their own to keep track of their hookups. To Cassie, an