“You know. That little problem you have.” With a look of quiet triumph, she closed the door.
“Women!” Daniel said a few minutes later to his grandmother as he strode back into her hospital room. “Who needs them?”
“I’m a woman, darling.” Phoebe looked up with a loving smile.
“Yeah, but you’re sane. Not many other women can say that.”
“Watch your tongue, young man,” a tart voice stated, emanating from the tiny bathroom off to the side. “In the war between the sexes, I’m a major general.” A woman about his grandmother’s age emerged, carrying a vase full of roses.
Phoebe laughed. “Ella, meet Daniel O’Callahan, my grandson. Daniel, Ella Crown is the hospital florist and she has kindly delivered the flowers your brothers sent me.”
Ella nodded but she didn’t smile. Instead, she went on grumbling as she carried the vase to a shelf where Phoebe could have a good view of it. Her long white hair was twisted into a braided ring at the top of her head, and her naturally craggy face was enhanced by some of the brightest blue eye shadow he’d ever seen.
“So you’re an expert on relationships, are you?” Daniel noted casually. “Then you might be the one who can explain to me why women are so perverse.”
“I’m not explaining anything,” she said, turning to fix him with a steady stare, her hands on her slender hips. “Why should I give secret intelligence to the enemy?”
Daniel grinned. She was a feisty one, and probably annoying as all get out in the long run, but he found her amusing. “Don’t you want to make this a fair fight?” he asked.
“Heck no.” She snorted. “Listen, youngster, I’ve married, harried and buried four men. I’ve done my part.”
Daniel nodded, impressed. “Going for a fifth?” he asked her.
She practically snarled. “I think not. I’ve retired from those battles. Hung up my spurs. I think I’ve probably had more than my share of heartbreak. Why would I ask for any more punishment?”
“Oh, come on, Ella,” Phoebe remonstrated, her eyes dancing. “You work every day with flowers, the language of love. How can you ignore the effect on you?”
“I keep my vaccinations up to date,” she snapped back. “I’m not falling for any of this romantic twaddle. There’s enough of that going on around here to choke a horse, anyway.”
“You’ve noticed it, too?” Daniel said quickly. So few would admit it.
“Noticed it?” Ella rolled her eyes, an interesting movement backed as it was with the heavy blue eye shadow. “You can’t get down the hallways without tripping over lip-locked lovers these days. I don’t know what’s come over everyone.”
That was a relief. He was beginning to think he was the only one who saw the difference. The thing was, he knew this hospital pretty well. His partner had taken a round in his leg a few years ago, the by-product of a major drug bust, and he’d visited Jimmy almost every day until they’d let him out. And there had been others—Minnie the office secretary when she’d had her heart attack, Kirk with his hip replacement, Mike with the broken back from falling off a roof while chasing a kidnapper. And then when Jimmy and his wife had decided to adopt a child, he’d become well-acquainted with Maggie Sullivan, a social worker with Children’s Connection, which was affiliated with the hospital. All in all, he’d been in and out of the place dozens of times. If things had been like this he would have noticed. It had only been this summer that he had begun to notice people here acting strangely. Only since the new clinic had opened its doors.
So he nodded in agreement with the woman.
“I don’t suppose you’ve visited the Healthy Living Clinic by any chance?” he asked. “Or had any dealings with their products?”
“Heck no. I’m fit as a spring colt, thank you very much. I don’t need any of that alfalfa-sprout mumbo-jumbo.”
She started for the door, then glanced back at Phoebe. “You take care, honey. Enjoy your flowers.” Looking back at Daniel she added, “And you take care of this little lady. Don’t go running off after some flirty skirt and leaving her to fend for herself. You hear?”
Daniel put his hand over his heart. “On my honor,” he told her earnestly.
She nodded as though satisfied and went on her way, her high heels clicking on the tiled floor.
Phoebe laughed. “Quite a character, isn’t she? I’ve known her since we were in the Oregonian Historical Society together, years ago. I’ve even met a couple of her husbands.”
“Sounds like you had to work fast to do that,” Daniel noted. “None of them lasted very long.” He looked thoughtful. “I wonder just what the circumstances were.”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Phoebe cried. “You leave Ella alone.” She gave him a look of pure exasperation—a look he’d seen many times before. “She’s a peach. Look, she stopped by the travel bureau and picked up some brochures on cruises for me.” She waved the brightly colored leaflets at him. “I’ve already got my cruise picked out.”
Daniel stopped, groaning internally. “Gram, I don’t think you’re going to be in any condition for cruising for some time,” he said carefully. “I hate to see you get your hopes up when—”
“Don’t start with me, young man.”
He bit his tongue. There was no way she was going on a cruise. It was impossible. The summer had begun with her being hospitalized with circulatory problems, and then there had been the fall she’d taken, an accident that had left her lying helpless in the street. He couldn’t bear to think of her risking another accident like that. And even if she were in physical shape to do it, the money wasn’t there.
He’d just sunk every penny in a wonderful retirement community for her. Now all he had to do was convince her that she wanted to move in. But there would be plenty of time for that once she was back on her feet again.
“You just get over here and adjust these pillows for me,” she was saying. “Then you can turn on my television and go out and find a nice girl to date.”
He obliged about the pillows right away. “That’s just my complaint, you know,” he said with a sad smile, meant to get her sympathy. “There are no nice girls left.”
Phoebe looked up at him, her eyes narrowing speculatively. “That cute little redheaded nurse was asking about you again.”
He threw out his hands in a mock gesture of irritation. “Now see, that’s what I mean. That’s just plain weird.”
“Why?”
He shrugged, ready to pass her question by. But the way she was looking at him, he could tell she wasn’t going to be satisfied with that, so he tried to explain. “Women just don’t do things like that around me. I’m not that type of guy. Never have been.”
“Oh, Danny, don’t be so dense,” his grandmother said crossly. “Women would love you if you just give them half a chance. And the redhead is the proof.”
“No, Gram.” He shook his head. This was one thing in his life that he didn’t doubt. “There’s something wrong here. Women have never fallen all over me like this before. And in such strange ways. I don’t trust it.”
“Oh, Danny.”
“It’s the truth. Women just don’t act like that around me.”
“Well, how do women usually act?”
He grimaced. “Most of the women I deal with these days reach for their license first, and then for their cell phone.”
She looked bewildered. “Their cell phone?”
“To call