by Durano, Liz
Ava spinning on her bar stool and her elbow knocking the poor server’s tray filled with drinks was just the thing I needed to snap me back to the real world outside of medicine. Being around her felt as if someone had rewound the already-played mixtape of that part of my life and said, “okay, dude, let’s start over from the beginning.”
And that’s what we did. Just first names, no talk about work or anything else, just two people starting the evening with a blank slate. We figured we’d simply focus on enjoying the show first before she’d buy me a few drinks. Only we never got past that first drink.
Hearing her tell me she’d rather find out if my six-pack abs were real instead of talking about the weather or what we did for a living changed everything between us that night. Hours of flirting while watching Aerosmith perform their hits culminated in a kiss that transported us into my hotel room where we let go of everything. I just didn’t expect Ava to disappear before I could get her number.
But life has a way of throwing curveballs when you least expect it, like seeing Ava again tonight. And then there’s this moment, when the elevator doors suddenly stop closing halfway and Ava steps into view.
“Going down?” For a moment she almost steps back as I hold out my arm to halt the doors from closing again. Then she takes a deep breath and steps inside.
“I’m looking for the cafeteria,” she says as she steps inside. “You? Are you finished with your rounds?”
I nod. “Yes. How’s your mother?”
“She’s feeling better,” she replies as the elevator stops and the doors slide open to the lobby. “She’s sleeping right now so I figured I should find something to eat before my stomach wakes her up in the middle of the night.”
As I hold the doors open to let her step out first, I ask the only question that pops up in my head. Screw going home. “Would you like some company?”
There’s a moment’s hesitation before she nods. “I’d love that.”
* * *
From Ava, I learn that her mother broke her hip after falling off a ladder while cleaning the roof gutters that morning. Ava had been in a meeting in New York when it happened and she just flew into Sacramento, rented a car and drove straight to the hospital. She looks tired but that doesn’t detract from her beauty.
“Who’s her doctor?”
“Dr. Evans,” Ava replies and I nod. “You know him?”
“He’s not in my department but I hear he’s an excellent doctor.”
Relief washes over her features. “That’s good to know.”
“She’s in good hands, Ava,” I say, wishing I could hold her hand. Around us, the cafeteria is starting to get busy, the evening shift grabbing their coffee before heading to the floors.
”Thanks, Parker. Now I just need to figure out what happens after she gets back home,” she says. “She can’t be climbing ladders from here on but she’s just so stubborn.”
“I’m sure Dr. Evans will prescribe post-op rehabilitation before she can do that,” I say as Ava glares at me. “And definitely no climbing ladders either. Anyway, they can direct you to services who can provide someone to be with her during the day, help her adapt to her new normal.”
Ava sighs. “That’s the thing. She shouldn’t be hiring someone else to be with her. I should be with her.”
“You’re here right now.”
She sighs. “For now.”
We don’t talk for a few moments, her sandwich untouched in front of her. It’s as if we’re trying to catch our bearings. I know I am.
Ava blows a breath out of her lips. “Any more talk about my mom and I’ll be a nervous wreck before you know it. So what about you? Why Auburn Springs? I’m sure you probably had your pick of bigger and better places to practice medicine, but why here?”
I shrug. “Why not?”
“We’re a very small town, Parker. Our claim to fame is being a small town nestled in the Sierra Nevadas and the Yuba River. Gold mining town, Federalist Victorian homes for those who can afford the upkeep, antique stores, that kind of thing,” she says, her eyes narrowing as she studies me. “To be honest, I had you pegged for a city boy.”
I grin, her questions reminding me of how my friends had reacted when they found out I’d decided to move to a small town when I could have had a more promising career in a big city. God knows I had enough offers. But after spending the last three years in a grueling neurology residency program and before that, a year in internal medicine, I needed a break.
True, what salary Auburn Springs Medical Center offered was half what the other places dangled in front of me and I had to admit, they were all tempting. But Crawford, one of the original doctors who founded the hospital, had thrown in a percentage of the hospital profits into the hiring package.
For a medical center nestled in one of the most beautiful places in the country where their new pediatric wing offered a natural environment for patients and families to heal, sure, it was a gamble. But when added to the prospect of being able to live a semblance of a normal life outside the hospital surrounded by nature and a close-knit community, I signed on.
“Small towns have their advantages, as I’m sure you know,” I say.
Ava arches an eyebrow, as if unable to believe what she’s hearing. “I must have been away from Auburn Springs too long. Care to remind me what they are again?”
I roll my eyes. “Surely you haven’t forgotten, Ava. For one thing, there’s the community. It’s tight-knit.”
She laughs. “Right. And where everyone knows your business. That’s okay with you?”
“Nothing wrong with that,” I say, pausing. “Or I think there’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Just you wait and see,” she says, chuckling. “Start dating someone or something and everyone will know. That is, if you aren’t dating anyone already.”
I grin. “I’m not.”
She looks at me, surprised. “You’re not? Are you married?”
“Not that I know of.”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry. That’s pretty forward of me.”
“Not really. It’s a small town, remember? Where everyone knows your business? So you might as well know mine,” I say, grinning. “What about you? Married?”
She shakes her head.
“Seeing anyone?”
She shakes her head again, her cheeks turning crimson. “Anyway, continue illuminating me about the pros of living in a small town again?”
I clear my throat. Her mother broke her hip and here I am, flirting. “There’s also the outdoors. You can’t beat it. Hiking, cycling, snowshoeing in the winter,” I continue. “And then there’s the river. I hear there are places to go for skinny dipping although I haven’t gone yet. Don’t really want to go by myself.”
Dimples appear on Ava’s cheeks as she chuckles. “I can only imagine your patients seeing their doctor butt naked. Not that they’d probably complain.”
“You mean they’d be too polite to complain?”
She bites her lower lip. “Not if the view is good.”
This time it’s my turn to feel my cheeks heat up. But as the silence between us grows, I also have the feeling that our time together is ending. I want to tell her I want to see her again but I also know it’s the worst thing I could say to her given the reason why she’s really here.
“Thank you so much for sitting with me, Parker.” She slips her uneaten sandwich back into its wrapper. “I think I’m going to eat this in Mom’s room instead.”
“I’m sorry for distracting you from your dinner.”
Ava shakes her head. “You don’t need to apologize. I needed the distraction.”
I reach into my coat pocket and pull out my card. I write down my cell phone number at the back and slide the card toward her. “If you need anything at all, Ava, I’m just a phone call away. Anything at all.”
As she reaches for the card, our fingers touch and my belly clenches, my nerves tingling. Shit, I didn’t expect that.
“Af
ter my mother’s out of the hospital,” she says, turning the card over. As her index finger traces my cell phone number on the card, I remember how that same finger once traced the outline of my abs eight months earlier.
Not that I ever forgot.
Chapter Four
Ava
The next morning, while Mom is in surgery, Lisa and her husband Jim arrive to keep me company. Three hours later, Dr. Crawford emerges to let us know that the surgery went well and that Mom’s in recovery right now.
“She should be brought back into her room in about two hours,” he says after adding that Mom’s in such excellent health, he sees her walking in no time.
“If you want, you can head home while we stay here and wait for your mom,” Lisa says after Dr. Crawford leaves.
At first, I refuse before realizing it’ll be great to take a shower, at least, and change into something more casual—California casual, that is.
A group of people are gathered in the lobby when I step out of the elevator. There’s a news crew, their van parked on the side of the entrance, its telescopic mast raised. I could keep on walking toward the exit and mind my own business but I’m back in Auburn Springs where everyone knows what’s going on. So I find a spot by the wall to see what’s going on.
It’s apparently a ribbon cutting and my heart skips a beat when I recognize Parker standing behind a ribbon stretched across the entrance to the new wing. He looks handsome in a tailored suit as he grins for the cameras. Next to him, a tall man with salt and pepper hair cuts the ribbon to the applause of the people around them.
“I wonder how long the new guy stays this time,” a woman standing next to me mutters under her breath. She’s wearing deep blue scrubs and her I catch the letters RN on her ID.
“Which new guy?” I ask innocently.
“The hot one in the suit. The one talking to the HR lady,” she says, pointing to Parker. “He’s new here, about six months. Unfortunately, guys like him never stay long around here.”
“Why’s that?”
She shrugs. “They’re just too good for little towns like ours. Eventually, some big medical center snags them with the promise of better pay and benefits. That’s what happened to the last neurologist Dr. Crawford hired. Some big hospital in Denver offered him three times what Auburn Medical could pay him. It’ll just be a matter of time before he gets a better offer and then he’ll be gone…like the rest of them.”
“You never know, maybe he’ll stay.”
She chuckles. “Anyway, the nurses on our floor have a pool going. I’ve got a hundred riding on him leaving in six months.”
I almost tell her that Parker isn’t going anywhere soon, but I don’t. Instead, I thank her and head toward the exit. Besides, who am I to know what Parker wants to do with his life? Just because I slept with him eight months ago doesn’t mean he owes me—or this town—anything at all. He’s young and successful, and he’s got a promising career in front of him. As much as I’d like him to make Auburn Springs his permanent home, he should be able to move around wherever he wants.
As I make it to the main doors, I hear someone calling my name. “Ava, wait up.”
“Hey, Parker,” I say, stopping and turning around to face him. “Thanks for the chair. I actually slept like a log last night, thanks to you.”
“Ah, I’m glad to hear that. And you’re welcome.” I can almost spot a blush creeping to his cheeks. “How’s your mom doing?”
“She just got out of surgery and is in recovery. Our friends are with her right now and I figured I’d go home and take a shower,” I reply. “What about you? Working after this?”
“A full day. Couple of days actually, now that the pediatric wing is officially open.” He pauses, glancing down at his suit. “Not wearing this, of course. Too formal. I’ve got an extra change of clothes in the office.”
“That’s a bummer, because you do look great in that.” Just then, my phone beeps from inside my purse and as I pull it out, I see Ryan’s name. I slip the phone back into my purse, unanswered. Ryan can leave me a message.
“Anyway, I’m glad to hear your mother’s doing well,” Parker says as someone says his name. “I gotta go. It’s nice seeing you again, Ava.”
As he rejoins the group of doctors being interviewed by a Sacramento news station, I chide myself to stop seeing him naked inside my head. But it’s easier said than done, not when Parker looks the way he does and the only remedy is to walk out of the building, get in my car and mind my own damn business.
All we had was a one-night stand, for crying out loud. Everyone knows nothing comes out of those things.
My phone beeps again when I get behind the wheel and this time, I check my phone. I’m not surprised to read Ryan’s messages about needing my help with the presentation, not when I’d basically managed the whole thing from the beginning and Ryan only showed up mainly to approve each step with barely a glance. His strengths lie more in selling the benefits of Pearson Media as a company rather than project management, but since this is the second campaign from the client I’d met in Las Vegas eight months ago, my main goal is to make sure this is going to be just as successful as the first one. And so Ryan flailing at the helm or not, I can’t let anything go wrong.
Besides, I want that promotion he promised me. I want my corner office.
Chapter Five
Ava
It’s been three days since Mom’s hip replacement and she’s progressing well, her days at the hospital filled with visits from doctors and physical therapists who help her walk along the corridors. Today, she’s having her last physical therapy session before she’s scheduled to be sent home.
“Will you or someone be at the house with her to help her? She’s going to need help with bathing and doing things around the house for a while.” The therapist named Anita asks. Next to her, Mom is walking down the hallway with the help of a walker, a gait belt wrapped loosely around her waist.
“For this week I’ll be there, but Lisa and her husband live next door and they said they’ll help any way they can,” I reply as I follow right behind them.
My phone rings and I excuse myself, seeing Bailey’s name on the display.
“I’ll keep this short since you’re on leave but Ryan was just here,” she says the moment I pick up. “He’s nervous about the presentation next week. Says he doesn’t want to do it alone so he asked me if I knew how your mother was doing. I suspect he’s going to ask you to attend the meeting.”
“And do his job for him, I bet,” I say, unable to hide the sarcasm from my voice. “My mom’s feeling better each day but that doesn’t mean I have to drop everything and go back to work just so I can make Ryan look good. I’m still in direct contact with the team so he shouldn’t have any problems doing the presentation himself.”
“How’s your mom doing?”
“She’s about to be discharged,” I reply. “Then I stay home with her.”
Despite keeping Mom company at the hospital as much as I can, I’ve been working, too, usually finding a booth in the cafeteria where I put on my headphones and do what I need to do. Lisa and Jim have been keeping Mom company, too, their conversations focused on the upcoming egg hunt.
Turns out, hip replacement or no, Mom is determined not to be left out of an annual event that has become a tradition at her house. And given that I’m actually home to see it, she’s determined to make it memorable.
“Well, just wanted to give you a heads up, Ava,” Bailey says. “And if Ryan pulls something crazy to get you to show up at the presentation when you should be on leave, just say no.”
“I will,” I say even though in my head, the words that I really want to say don’t come out the same, not if it means losing out on a promotion. And that corner office.
* * *
By two in the afternoon, we’re back home and Mom is resting in her bedroom, relieved to finally be home. As Mom goes through the many Get Well cards people left at the shop and the hospital, Lisa tells
me I’m free to do whatever I want, especially since she and Jim are staying in the extra bedroom in case Mom needs them for anything.
“It’s not that you haven’t been helping her,” she says just when I’m about to protest to say the exact same thing. “It’s just that you’ve stayed with her every night while she was in the hospital and honestly, you need a break. Who knows? Maybe you can even hang out with that handsome doctor you’ve been hiding from us.”
“What handsome doctor?” I pretend not to know what she’s talking about even though it’s useless trying to hide anything from her or my mother. This is one of the things about living in small towns. Everyone knows your business.
“One of the nurses told us that you two sat together in the cafeteria the night you got in. She said he was looking at you like you were the Easter bunny. Or should I say Playboy bunny?” Lisa says, a huge grin on her face. “Your mom and I have been waiting for you to spill the beans but you’ve been tight-lipped for most of this visit.”
“He’s just a friend, and that was three days ago. Have you even seen me talk to him since then?”
Lisa doesn’t have to answer for the answer is no. Ever since I ran into Parker in the lobby, he’s been busy. With all the media coverage about the brand new pediatric wing and the number of times I heard his name on the PA system, he’s clearly busy. So the last thing I want to do is bother him for a little chat.
“But you text each other, don’t you?” Lisa says, a knowing look on her face. “I’ve seen your face light up every time his text comes in.”
“How do you know it’s his text message?” I ask, hoping my blush doesn’t give me away. Our texts have actually been innocent. Hi, how are you? How was your day? pretty much defines how they go.
“Because you get annoyed when you receive your boss’ texts but you glow whenever you get the doctor’s.”