Doctor Steamy

by Kristen Kelly

  We spent some time talking about the people in the park, especially the food vendors which Patrick seemed to know a lot about.

  Patrick wiped his mouth with a napkin, and got up to throw the container in a nearby trash can.

  “Here... I’m finished too. Thanks.” He took my bowl and spoon, then deposited all of it in the bin. As he walked away I couldn’t help but admire the way he moved with so much confidence. My hands itched to squeeze his backside. When he sat back down and took my hand, we gazed into each other’s eyes. I’d thought them lobelia blue, but now I saw they were slightly gunmetal. I got a little lost in those eyes and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t look away.

  “About the other night, Delila...”

  I bit my lip, preparing for the worst. Susan would say ‘this is what you get for throwing yourself at a man. Especially a cop. The guilt was probably killing him. “I... I’m sorry,” I said, holding back the tears. “I... I don’t usually act that way and I never should have...”

  His kind eyes widened at my apology. “What?”

  “I knew you weren’t attracted to me but...”

  He straightened his shoulders. “Not attracted to you...”

  “Yeah. I get it, but I wanted to make you feel better.”

  “Wait. You’re apologizing? To me?”

  I bit my lip, nodding.

  “And you don’t think I’m attracted to you? Delila, why would you think such a thing?”

  “Hey, when a girl meets up with a guy twice a week for a month and he doesn’t even try and hold her hand or steal a kiss she just...”

  “I was in uniform, sweetheart. You know, the whole pillar of society thing and all.”

  “Are you saying you could be attracted to me?”

  He laughed. “Wasn’t it obvious the other night?”

  “No.”

  “No?” He looked genuinely confused.

  “I thought...”

  “You thought that was all just because I was drunk and mildly upset.”

  “You weren’t mildly upset, Patrick.”

  “Okay, pissed for sure, but I assure you I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do.”

  “You didn’t?”

  He squeezed my hand. “I did not.”

  “Then what did you want to tell me?”

  He leaned toward me, speaking low into my ear. “I regret that I was rough with you. I shouldn’t have... taken you like that.”

  “Like what?” I whispered back.

  “In the back of a dirty pub.”

  I giggled. “Actually, I liked it. It was naughty.”

  He didn’t say anything for several minutes. Could it be he was actually embarrassed about the whole thing? He was a big strong guy, must have had hundreds of women in his life. Sure, it was a little risky, but most men liked that stuff. They didn’t apologize.

  Patrick sat back, his arms over the back of the bench. He looked away for a bit, his face reddened that had nothing to do with heat.

  Oh my God. He was embarrassed.

  “Patrick...”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t regret it. None of it.”

  He lifted my chin, glanced left to right quickly, then kissed me on the head. “How about those Celtics, huh?”

  I burst out laughing. “Patrick, that’s basketball, we’re in baseball season now.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Delila

  There was a storm coming. I could feel it. A thickness all around me with a brisk wind that frizzed my hair. I glanced out the window of my apartment, noting the clouds on the horizon. I knew if I was going to see my sister on my one day off, I needed to get myself in gear before I was caught in a downpour. Summer showers in Boston were the worst, they came on all of a sudden, drenched you to your panties, and made visibility, literally impossible while driving.

  As tired as I was after three classes, waitressing at the Cheesecake Factory and then staying up late to watch old movies with Patrick, I roused myself out of bed, stumbled to the coffeemaker in the kitchen, and poured myself a cup. “Ugh.” Deciding it tasted like sludge, I dumped it in the sink.

  I threw on shorts and a T-shirt, put up my ponytail, and was just about to grab an orange from the fridge when I remembered something Patrick had said. “Protein. You need protein.” I threw the orange back in the crisper, went to the cupboard and grabbed a granola bar instead, thinking how absurd it was that I was taking nutrition advice from a man who fed me ice cream for breakfast.

  SUSAN LOOKED A WRECK, which I attributed to the fact that she had three kids below the age of five and was a single mother.

  “Oh my God, it’s you,” she said opening the door for me.

  “Were you expecting someone else?”

  “Yeah, that asshole ex-boyfriend of yours.”

  “Tom? He was here?”

  “He begged me to give him your number. Didn’t want to take no for an answer.”

  “Oh yeah, I changed it since we were together. What did he want?”

  “Some shit about his electric razor being at your place?”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay, what?” Her brows raised. She gave me that look that all older siblings have, when they suspect the younger one of doing something wrong.

  “Just okay. What do you want me to say?”

  “Tell me you aren’t seeing him again.”

  “I haven’t seen him since... since the funeral.”

  Tom had been there for me when I learned that my brother-in-law had been killed in action, and I needed someone to lean on, but he’d always wanted more. Eventually, I’d had to break it off. He hadn’t taken it so well.

  “Why do you think he wants the razor back after all this time?” Susan wanted to know. She was busy picking up Legos all over the floor.

  “How the hell should I know? I’ll drop it off with you the next time I come over.”

  “That would be good. Now, there’s something else I have to talk to you about.” She stood up, deposited the Legos into a container and looked at me.

  “Oh?”

  “You better sit down for this one.”

  I sat on the overstuffed sofa just as two-year-old Peter plopped his chubby little self on top of me. Wrapping his arms around my neck, he smothered me with kisses. “Wow, someone is very lovey dovey this morning.”

  “He’s feeling neglected,” Susan said. “I’ve been pretty preoccupied lately. That’s why I wanted to see you about today.”

  “Well you do have three kids,” I said, by way of understanding.

  “It’s not that.” Her face was pinched as she bit her bottom lip.

  “Susan, what is it?”

  She took a deep breath and said, “I have some bad news. Really bad.”

  “Oh come on. How bad can it be?”

  My sister was like a rock that never moved. Never gave up on anything or anyone. Even when my brother-in-law went missing, she never gave up hope. I didn’t like that look in her eyes right now. Like she’d lost hope somehow.

  “I can’t pay for law school.”

  “Susan, we talked about this. I’ll get a scholarship or something. You don’t have to worry.”

  There were dark circles under her eyes. Suddenly, I knew her not sleeping had more to do with something more than just being a single mother.

  “You don’t understand, Delly. I can’t pay for the classes you’re taking right now either. None of it.”

  “What?”

  She shook her head, lips pressed together and a tear slipped down her face. She went over to her desk, took out two envelopes, and handed them to me.

  “What’s this?”

  “Two things. An eviction notice...”

  “Eviction!”

  “And a letter from the bank saying they are investigating something in Seamus’ background and until they come to a conclusion...”

  “They froze your assets?”

  “Uh huh.”

  Jason, my brother-in-law was killed in the line o
f duty a year ago. My sister had been living off his life insurance until her two youngest went to school.

  “They can’t do that, can they?”

  “They can and they did. Two months ago.”

  “Two months! Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Peter hopped off my lap and began chasing the cat around the room. I could hear Aileen and Kyle arguing in the playroom followed by Peter crying a few minutes later.

  “I thought it would be resolved by now, but your tuition is due in a few weeks and my mortgage payment is late too. I can’t even get into my bank account. I have nothing, Delly. Nothing.”

  “Oh shit.”

  She took the envelopes from me and stuffed them in her purse.

  “What do you mean, investigating your background? You’re as pure as the driven snow. What exactly does that mean?”

  “I’m guessing they think I’m a spy. You know Jason was in the special forces.”

  “Yeah, so.”

  “They think Jason gave away military secrets and that I knew all about it.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Let me see that letter again.”

  I took the letter out of the envelope and scanned the contents. “You have a meeting on the twenty first. We’ll get a good lawyer and this whole thing will get straightened out then. You’ll see.”

  Susan stared at me with her hands on her hips. “And how the hell do I pay for a lawyer with no money?”

  “I’ll skip next semester and pick my more days at the Cheesecake Factory.”

  “Oh, Delly. No.” She dropped down in a chair, looking dejected.

  “It’s not a big deal. I’ll go back in the Fall. It’s not forever. Just until you get back on your feet.”

  She gave me a thin smile but her eyes were full of tears. I could tell it was killing her to accept my help. She’d been so proud of me when I signed up for college. Even more so when it was in her power to pay for my classes. She said it was her honor and duty, due to mom and dad not being around.

  “I promise you’ll get to law school, Delly. If it kills me, I will figure out how to pay for it and you’ll go.”

  “I can always do student loans.”

  “Oh, God forbid.”

  That was another thing Susan hated. Mounting debt. This whole mess was eating her up inside.

  I glanced at the window.“I see blue outside. Maybe it’s not going to rain after all. Let’s take the kids to the park. I hear the ice cream at the Cookie Monsta truck is amazing.”

  “Um...”

  “My treat,” I said. I took off my raincoat.

  “What the hell is on your neck?!”

  Whoops.

  CHAPTER 5

  Patrick

  The call from my brother bothered me all day, but I had to trust him to take care of the situation in Ireland. Seems there had been some embezzling going on in Takeda, the Pharmaceutical company I owned. A few of the investors wanted to pull out. In order to bring them back on to the table, he’d had to offer them a bribe. A big one. I wasn’t sure why he’d deflected about having to marry some lass he met, but we could talk about that another time.

  Today I was meeting Delila for our second date, unless you counted our twice weekly rendezvous at McGuire’s for the last month.

  She almost said no. She had to work late but when I said that was fine, and that we would have Yvonne’s all to ourselves anyway, she had been cautious at first, explaining that she didn’t expect me to spend a lot of money on her. I won her over when I explained there was lobster on the menu.

  Before thinking of Yvonne’s, I’d almost offered a repeat of our first date in the park, maybe trying different food trucks. I was a simple guy with simple tastes, despite all the advantages I had, but Delila... I thought she deserved better.

  I looked up from my wine list as Delila walked across the room. The overhead lights shimmered across her hair which was much darker tonight. She wore a cornflower blue dress that fit like it was made for her. Low cut in the front. Sensuous and flowing. I liked it. A lot.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Sorry I’m late. No one told me I’d be part of the cleanup crew at the restaurant. I hadn’t expect that.”

  Cleanup crew! How I wanted to say she didn’t need to do that. Not ever, if she didn’t want to. How to say that without appearing like a pompous was another story.

  “No problem,” I said instead, giving her a quick kiss before pulling out her chair.

  “Thank you for inviting me. I’m absolutely starving. I haven’t eaten all day.”

  “You didn’t?” I asked, genuinely shocked. “No matter which profession I’ve been in, be it doctor, lawyer, Indian chief...Okay, not Indian chief, but you get the point. In all my professions, I’d never forgone food. Once, I’d even had a nurse feeding me peanuts intravenously.”

  Her beautiful brows knit together.

  “Okay, maybe not.”

  Cripes, I needed to work on my jokes.

  “You changed your hair,” I said.

  “Nah. Just went back to my original mousey brown.”

  “I like it.”

  “Thanks.” Her head swiveled around the room, apparently taking it all in. The unvarnished brick walls, tin ceiling, opulent furnishings. Her eyes settled on the Renaissance painting of naked angels behind my head. The only ones in the restaurant besides us, were the wine steward and hostess waiting for our order.

  Delia’s shoulders stiffened. “Patrick...”

  “Here... Select a wine, sweetheart.”

  “Um, are you sure. Remember what happened last...”

  I couldn’t help the slow grin that crept across my face. Yeah, alcohol had been a factor in that kanoddling, but I couldn’t say I regretted it.

  “Okay. But I don’t really know much about wine. You choose for me.”

  I motioned to the wine steward and gave him our order. Several minutes later he was back with a bottle of the house’s best Blanc de Blanc, poured us each a glass, and then left.

  “Patrick, you didn’t have to do this all for me. I would have been fine with another food truck.”

  “Not at this time of night,” I reasoned. “The park is a whole different place after sundown anyway, and the trucks aren’t there until morning.”

  “I meant we could have done a date at some other time. You know, when I’m not working or something.”

  “Are you ever not working?”

  “Not much these days. No.”

  “I rest my case.”

  “It’s just... Look at this place, Patrick. Chandeliers, crystal, white table cloths.” She glanced over her shoulder at the hostess who stood silent near the velvet brocade wallpaper. “It must cost a fortune to eat here and you shut this place down? For me?”

  “Is that all right?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “It’s very nice but... How? How exactly did you close it?”

  I shrugged. “I know the owner.”

  “Or maybe he has rats in the kitchen, and you look the other way, hmm?” She looked adorable when she giggled.

  I reached across the table for her hand. “Delila...”

  “Delly.”

  “What?”

  “My friends call me Delly.”

  “All right. What I was going to say, Delly, was, I’m a cop, not a health inspector. I wouldn’t know if they had rats, nor would I care.”

  “Well I care.”

  I chuckled squeezing her small hand. “That’s not what I meant. I assure you, there are no rats.”

  “I kinda already knew that. I’m just giving you a hard time.”

  Suddenly my slacks felt snug.“Hard time? You have no idea.”

  I’D TOLD MYSELF I WOULDN’T drink anymore. It was an oath I took after seeing my father die of liver disease, but when one is in a fancy restaurant one must have the whole experience. I wanted Delila pampered and I knew she wouldn’t drink if I didn’t have one too.

  By the time our dessert came we both looked at each other and burst into giggl
es. “Breakfast,” we both shouted at once when we saw what they called, La Bete Noire. It was black raspberry chic ice cream and chocolate pecan oatmeal cookie crumble. “Well, it is morning now,” Delly said glancing at the Timex on her wrist. “After this, I should get going. I’ll never make it to work on time tomorrow if I don’t get some sleep.”

  “You’re not going into work after pulling a double shift are you?”

  “I have to, Patrick.” She drank the rest of her wine, grabbed the strap of her denim purse off the table, and stood up to leave.

  “Stay,” I pleaded, grabbing hold of her hand.

  “I...I can’t.”

  “Spend the night with me, Delila. We need to do this right this time. I have a nice big bed and I’m not afraid to share it.” I gave her my best panty melting grin. “Please.”

  “Wow. That’s tempting.”

  “Say yes.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Oh Patrick. You don’t understand. I can’t take off work. I’d like to but...”

  “But what?”

  “I just can’t, that’s all.”

  “Not even one itty bitty day?”

  Her face hardened and she pulled her hand from mine. “Listen, this was wonderful, and I’m glad I came, but play time is over. I have people depending on me, Patrick.”

  “Who?” I asked, feeling the rage inside my belly. If she was going to say she had a low-life boyfriend who didn’t work, I was going to lose it. It wasn’t a boyfriend though. I could tell by the way she was tearing up. This was bigger than just a case of her rent being overdue.

  Her face went suddenly dark as she straightened her purse strings on her shoulder. I had no doubt Delila was the sort of woman who could take care of herself and did, plus whoever else she felt responsible for.

  “Tell me.” I couldn’t help wanting to help. It was in my nature.

  “Tell me, Delila. Tell me who or what is so important that you can’t take one day off.”

  She slumped back down in the chair. “My sister. It’s my sister.”