PATIENT CARE (Medical Romance) (Doctor Series) by Bobby Hutchinson

would. I hope you understand that.” She nodded without looking at him and opened the door. She had to compartmentalize her feelings. She couldn’t allow herself to dwell on her mother when there was business to be done, or she’d burst into tears and lose control.
    The other members of the committee were waiting.
    The meeting was with the Ministry of Health, and it was contentious. The doctors were demanding higher pay, fewer hours, more operating rooms, and James delivered an impassioned defense of their position. The government representative spoke of the sanctity of medicine, the irresponsibility of doctors who would choose job action over mediation, the danger they were imposing on the city and the current emptiness of the coffers that funded Medicare.
    A representative from the nursing staff registered the nurses’ strong opposition to the doctors’ demands for more operating rooms; the nurses wanted more beds and more nurses. Arguments were heated, and Melissa’s task was to find a path through the minefield, to come up somehow with a compromise that everyone might accept.
    She did her best, but nothing was settled by the time the meeting finally ended at a quarter to twelve. As the room emptied, Melissa gathered up the notes she’d made and stuffed them in her briefcase.
    “Melissa.”
    James Burke was at her elbow. She turned, raising an inquiring eyebrow.
    “I wonder—that is, would you consider having dinner with me this evening?” His voice was hesitant, and she paused. He was asking her for a date, and she wanted to go-
    But then he blew it. “I thought perhaps we could discuss some of the more relevant issues about the job action over a meal.”
    He didn’t want a date. He wanted a sympathetic ear for his platform. She was so disappointed she wanted to haul off and smack him one. “I don’t think that’s appropriate,” she said in a haughty tone. “I don’t believe in mixing my personal life and my job.”
    “Shit.” The expletive burst from him. “That came out absolutely the wrong way. I wasn’t trying to lobby. I sincerely wanted to share a meal with you. I didn’t mean—” He stopped short and pulled in a breath, then grinned.
    It took her by surprise. It changed his face entirely. He went from handsome to hunk in a flash of perfect teeth. “How many times is this I’ve apologized to you today?”
    She tilted her head and pretended to reflect. “Three. Maybe four.”
    “So can I just delete what I said and start over?”
    She shook her head. “I’d like to have dinner,” she confessed. “But I have a seven o’clock meeting with a patient’s family, I want to spend as much time as possible with my mother and I have to find a store that sells vintage tapes.”
    “Vintage tapes?”
    “For my mom. She loves golden oldies.”
    “I see.” He turned to leave, then turned back. “Would you have time for a coffee with me tomorrow morning, out at Rudy’s trailer?”
    She considered it. It would mean getting up even earlier than her usual 6 a.m., but she hadn’t been sleeping much, anyway.
    “Yeah. Yeah, I could manage that. How early is Rudy there?”
    “Six-thirty. I asked. He’s an early riser.”
    Melissa nodded. “I’ll be there at quarter-to-seven.”
    He smiled again. “Great. Good. Quarter-to-seven it is.”
    James Burke wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine. Did she really want to be with him first thing in the morning? Still, there were those wonderful teeth, very white and even.
    The better to bite your head off with, my dear. Lord . She needed to get a grip.
    She also needed to find a bathroom, and then something to eat. She hurried off in search of both, but her thoughts lingered on Burke. Where had he learned to kiss like that? Had he ever been married? Did he have kids, a family, a mother and father, sisters and brothers?
    Doctors weren’t employees of the hospital, so there wouldn’t be a personnel file on him. And even if there were, it would be