Newborn Needs a Dad / His Motherless Little Twins by Dianne Drake

himself he loved Karen? Because Gabrielle Evans, in the right place at the right time, could have changed so many things in his life.

CHAPTER THREE
    “I THOUGHT you’d gone home after our meal.” Neil picked up the last of the gauze scraps and tossed them in the trash, then snapped off his gloves and dropped them in the trash, too.
    “I did, actually. Got ready for bed. Lay down. Couldn’t sleep. Decided to take a walk, and here I am.”
    “Let me guess. You were the top student in your medical-school class.”
    “Why would you say that?”
    “Because you couldn’t do anything less. You’re the obsessed type who never eases down, and being anything but the top student would have driven you crazy.”
    “Is that a bad thing?”
    Neil laughed. “For most people, probably. For you, it’s kind of cute. So, did you try counting sheep?”
    “Did that. Got to about a million, then tried reading a medical journal. That didn’t work either, so I took a walk, only it stimulated me even more.”
    “So you want me to do what? Bore you to sleep?”
    “For me, boredom means an empty mind. An empty mind means more time to think. More thinking means less sleep.”
    “In other words, you came here to work.”
    “I saw several patients in the waiting area. You could use me, couldn’t you? Since you’re the only one on.”
    “Nobody ever wins with you, do they, Gabrielle?”
    “I try not letting it happen too often.”
    “And I’m not getting rid of you, am I?”
    She shook her head.
    “Room three. Mrs Blondell. Indigestion. She probably had oysters for dinner.”
    “That’s it? All I get is indigestion?”
    “Take it or leave it, Doctor.” He grinned. “Sometimes I get to win, too.”
    On her way to exam three, Gabby thought about how much she liked Neil. He was just…easy. Easy to talk to, easy to be around. “So, what can I do for you this evening, Mrs Blondell?”
    In response, the round, ruddy woman burped. Then giggled. Then burped again. “Oysters,” she said. “Happens every time I eat them.”
    “Have you ever thought about not eating them?”
    “I limit myself to once a month.” Rumbling burp. “And the consequences are annoying, but worth it.”
    “Then how about taking some kind of a preventative before you indulge so that you can cut down on the consequences?”
    “A month’s worth of preventative for one night of indulgence? That’s a high price to pay for an occasional weakness, don’t you think?” Mrs Blondell held her breath while Gabby listened to her chest, then her belly.
    When she was finished, satisfied that nothing but a good case of acid indigestion was going on, Gabby pulled the stethoscope from her ears and took her patient’s pulse. “In my experience, you’re going to pay one way or another. Trust me, the cure won’t be so bad, and you’ll be able to have oysters twice a month, if that’s what you want.”
    “Was it oysters?” Neil asked a little while later as they passed in the hall.
    “I gave her a few antacid samples to take home with her, and prescribed an antacid to take on a regular basis.”
    “Which she won’t take. Won’t even buy. In fact, you’ll find your prescription torn up and tossed in the trash on the way out.”
    “So why does she bother coming in?”
    “Lonely. She’s seventy-two, widowed, and I think some of her evenings get pretty long. She eats oysters to remind her of her husband, even though they don’t agree with her any more. They went out on the twenty-eighth of every month for fifty years and celebrated their marriage with a romantic dinner.”
    “And had oysters,” Gabby said, as a gush of weepy hormonal tears overtook her. “And today’s the twenty-eighth. That’s so sweet.” She brushed at the unexpected tears with her hand, but Neil fished a clean tissue from his pocket and handed it to her.
    “What’s sweet is fifty years with the same person,” he said, his voice a little thin. “More like a