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

Arlene had prepared. She had no time to think of babies with their feet stuck in her ribs. She had no time to think about James Burke and the blonde with the big hair, or whether or not he still took her to the vegetarian restaurant on Granville.
    She had work to do, a ton of it, and for the rest of the day she attended to it, but at odd moments she thought about meeting James the next morning and realized she was looking forward to it.
     
    He was already waiting when she drove into the lot at 6:45. He was at the food trailer, standing beside Rudy, and wearing biking shorts and a short-sleeve blue golf shirt. His butt definitely rivaled his smile for appeal.
    Melissa pulled into the new parking spot Lennie had commandeered for her and walked over to the trailer. She’d put on a sky-blue silk thing with a short-sleeve tailored top and a skirt that ended well above her knees, and she could have sworn that James did a swift survey of her legs as she approached the trailer.
    “’Morning, Melissa.”
    He smiled at her, and she smiled back. It was hard not to smile; the early morning was still cool, the air was fresh and tinged with the smell of the sea, birds were singing in the cedars that shaded the lot and the food smells drifting out the door of the trailer were intoxicating.
    “Sit down, you two.” Rudy grinned at her. “You look pretty as a picture in that rig,” he boomed. “I always had a weakness for red hair. Don’t tell the wife I said so, though.” He filled two mugs with coffee, and before Melissa could object, he put warm cinnamon buns in front of them.
    “Thelma didn’t make the buns this mornin’,” he confided. “George’s wife did. They’re not up to Thelma’s standards. She uses way more butter, but they’re not bad. Try ’em, Melissa. See what you think.”
    To be polite, Melissa took a small piece off one corner. It seemed to melt away on her tongue in an orgy of yeasty dough and sweet icing and cinnamon. Her taste buds begged for more.
    “They’re delicious,” she told Rudy. She said to James, “Are you on the picket line this morning, Doctor?”
    He shook his head. “I’m lucky. I get to hang around the ER in case something comes in that can’t be transferred. There was a stabbing yesterday, brought in from skid row, but that was the extent of it.”
    He sounded so disappointed at the lack of desperate injuries that she had to smile. “I guess not being able to do your job has to be frustrating.”
    He nodded. “Surgery’s my life,” he admitted.
    Rudy was listening. “C’mon, Doc, I know firsthand how good you are at opening folks up and sewin’ em back together, but you gotta have other stuff you like doing just as much. Hell, I like what I do, but plumbing don’t come close to being with Thelma, dancing up a storm, holding my new granddaughter. You got kids, Doc?”
    “No kids. I’m not married.”
    “How ’bout you, Melissa?”
    She shook her head. “No kids, no husband.”
    Rudy whistled between his teeth. “You two gotta get with the program,” he chastised, leaning toward them. “Neither one of you is getting any younger, no offense. Careers don’t keep you very warm in bed when you get to be my age.” He laughed his big, booming laugh.
    Melissa noticed the look that James gave Rudy. It was thoughtful, as if his words might have struck a chord.
    “You know what the kids say,” Rudy went on. “Getta life. I can’t believe neither of you is married.”
    “Well, Rudy, the statistics on marriage aren’t very reassuring,” James said. “About fifty percent of marriages end in divorce these days.”
    “Doc, if somebody told you there was a fifty-percent chance of savin’ somebody’s life, would you go for it?” James had to laugh, and Melissa joined him. Rudy definitely had a point.
    “Either of you ever been married?”
    “Once,” James admitted with a shrug. “We were both doctors, both busy all the time. It didn’t work out.”
    So Arlene’s