“Do you mind?” Exasperated, Jolene nodded toward the door he hadn’t opened yet. “I’m in a hurry.”
Mac cocked his head, curious. “Hot date?” What kind of a man warmed Nurse Icicle’s toes and melted her resistance? he wondered.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not allowed to ask questions like that.”
“Sorry.” There was nothing left to do but get out, which he did. By the time he turned around and leaned in, he was soaked. “Thanks again.”
“Don’t mention it,” she snapped, leaning over and pulling the door out of his hand. Once it was shut, she lost no time in driving away.
“Lovely woman,” Mac murmured under his breath. Fishing out his key, he unlocked his car door.
He’d no sooner gotten in and strapped on the seat belt than his cell phone rang. Trying to extract it from his rear pocket without removing the seat belt was an exercise in futility. As he unbuckled again and reached for the phone, he hoped it wasn’t an emergency of some sort. He was looking forward to getting to bed early tonight and catching up on a month’s worth of lost sleep.
He placed the phone next to his ear. “MacKenzie.”
“Dr. Mac?”
The uncertain, childish voice on the other end of the receiver sounded as if it was just an inch away from dissolving into sobs. He took a guess. “Tommy?”
“Uh-huh.”
Immediately alert, Mac sat up. “What’s wrong? Where are you?” Visions of a Doberman foaming at the mouth popped into his head. Was the boy cornered? He’d gotten to a telephone, which meant he had to be relatively safe. For the moment at any rate. He thought of the boy’s stepfather. Mac’s heart went cold. “You sound like you’re upset.”
A sniffing noise met his observation. “I’m home, Dr. Mac.” The boy lowered his voice so no one else could hear. “My dad says the surgery’s gonna cost too much, that I can’t have it.” There was silence for a moment. “Am I gonna be a freak forever?”
Mac could feel his heart constricting and struggled with the overwhelming desire to punch Allen’s face in for playing games with the boy’s head. But that wouldn’t help Tommy any.
“No, and you’re not a freak now. You just have a scar, that’s all,” he said firmly. “And don’t worry about the cost, Tommy. Something can be arranged.”
Blair Memorial was first and foremost a nonprofit facility that prided itself on giving back to the community. That was one of the primary reasons Mac had joined the staff in the first place. He could have never been associated with a hospital whose first allegiance was to its board. Mac was confident that he could talk to Blair’s chief administration officer and make arrangements for Tommy’s surgery.
The boy didn’t need this extra weight to carry around with him, he thought angrily. What the hell was wrong with Allen?
“Just tell your stepdad to make sure to bring you in for your appointment and we’ll iron out everything then.” It irked him to add, “Tell him not to worry about paying,” not because he cared about the money, but because he knew that he was saying exactly what Tommy’s stepfather wanted to hear. It definitely wasn’t his intent to make the man happy, but there was no way around it if Mac wanted to help the boy.
He could almost hear the boy struggling with his thoughts. “My stepdad says people don’t do nice things for other people without a reason.”
Mac didn’t doubt that the dark philosophy was something Allen was trying to force upon the boy. “I’ve got a reason, Tommy. I want to see you smile. Big-time. That’s my fee, Tommy, a great big, wide grin. Think you can muster a big grin for me?”
This time, there was no hesitation. He’d gotten through to the boy. “Uh-huh.”
“Okay.” Mac didn’t believe in putting off unpleasantries. He might as well get this over with now. “Tell you what, let me talk to your dad now.”
“Can’t,” Tommy told him solemnly. “He went out.”
“Are you by yourself?” If Tommy was alone, he was going to go over and wait until the boy’s stepfather returned—to have him hauled in for child negligence the way he should have last week.
“No, Mrs. Peabody’s here. She’s the lady down the block,” Tommy explained, then added, “My stepdad pays her to watch me when he goes out.”
Well, at least the man had some decency, Mac thought. Either that, or, more likely, he was worried about running afoul of the law.
There was no sense in trying to get a hold of him tonight. He had no way of knowing when the man would return home. “Do you know what time your stepdad usually gets home from work?”
The answer was prompt. Tommy had already struck him as an intelligent little boy. “Five.”
“Great, tell him I’ll be calling him tomorrow after five. We’ll working things out about your surgery. I promise.”
This time, the small voice on the other end sounded eager and hopeful. “Okay.”
Mac spent several more minutes on the phone with the boy, reinforcing that hopefulness. By the time Mac said goodbye, Tommy seemed relatively calm.
Hell of a thing for a little boy to be going through by himself, Mac thought as he flipped the phone shut and tucked it back into his pocket.
“Once more with feeling,” he murmured under his breath as he buckled up again.
This time, there were no further interruptions as he started his car. Moving carefully, he pulled his vehicle out of the near-flooded parking lot.
No danger of a drought this year. Now the county was on the alert for mud slides. Mac shook his head. Always something. Still, he wouldn’t want to live any other place.
Coming down the steep hill that led from the hospital onto the main road, Mac saw something pulled over to the side. At first, all he could make out were the flashing taillights. Coming closer, he recognized the make as one that was similar to Jolene’s.
And then he saw someone getting out. The umbrella that preceded her instantly became fair game for the wind that had picked up. The umbrella was turned inside out and then back again before the driver had a chance to fully emerge out of the vehicle.
Jolene.
Stopping his car beside hers, Mac pressed the button that rolled down his front passenger window and leaned over the seat to look out. “Jolene?”
Under any other conditions, she probably would have simply ignored him, or sent him on his way, opting to wait by the side of the road until someone else came along. After all, it wasn’t as if this was a deserted part of town. But the wind had already shown her who was boss by rendering her umbrella useless. She was getting soaked. Besides, she was already late.
Thinking that somewhere along the line, she must have crossed some invisible line she wasn’t aware of, offending a deity with a strange sense of humor, Jolene sighed and made her way over to the car. She pushed her wet hair out of her face.
“What?” she snapped.
The woman certainly wasn’t friendlier wet than she was dry, Mac thought. He gestured toward the car. “What’s wrong?”
“My car decided to take a nap—what does it look like?” Jolene could feel her temper becoming precariously frayed.
He addressed her in terms he’d heard his sister use when any of her kids were particularly acting up. “It looks like someone needs a time-out.”
Jolene’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to utter a retort that bordered on scathing. But then she shut it again. She despised being criticized—especially when she knew the criticism was warranted. She didn’t need anyone