by Gina Wilkins
Apparently, it was enough to put Shannon more at ease with him. After a momentary pause, she dimpled up at him. “Okay. Personally, I think you need to have a little fun before you dive into your residency.”
His attention focused on her smile. His mind swirled with disjointed images of some of the fun he could have with her, and his body responded uncomfortably to those mental pictures. It had definitely been too long since he’d had, um, fun.
Taking him by surprise, Shannon curled her fingers around his shirt, drawing him toward her rather than holding him off this time. She rose on tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth.
“Thanks for going with me tonight, James,” she said as she drew away. “I enjoyed it.”
He caught her shoulders and lowered his head to steal a more thorough kiss. “Good night, Shannon,” he said rather gruffly when he forced himself eventually to break away, far from satisfied but knowing when to quit. For now.
Her expression flatteringly dazed, she cleared her throat. “Um—g’night,” she muttered and fumbled quickly with the door. She closed it between them with a loud snap.
Smiling a little, James turned and walked back to his car, knowing he would see her again soon.
Shannon almost dreaded the visit with her nephew Monday afternoon. Though she wanted to see Kyle, she suspected she would be grilled by her other family members about her outing with James. She refused to call it a date since it hadn’t been either her idea or his to attend the play together—they’d let themselves be persuaded by her matchmaking mom.
She wished her family could understand that she was perfectly content being single for now. They seemed to think her heart had been broken by Greg and then Philip, and that she needed to be nudged back into the dating scene by her well-meaning loved ones. She’d tried but apparently failed to convince them that both of those relationships had left her with more bruises than breaks.
Yes, Greg had dumped her, but to be honest, she’d already been considering breaking that ill-advised teenage engagement. In hindsight and with the wisdom gained from a few more years of living, she saw now that the betrothal had been spurred as much by their other high-school friends getting engaged as by a true desire on her part to tie herself to Greg for the rest of her life. She had indulged in youthful fantasies of a white-lace wedding, but the thought of the marriage that would follow had given her concern even then. Greg had simply made the decision for them both while she’d been dithering about how to break the news to him without hurting him too badly—which seemed ironic now.
As for Philip, her family seemed to forget that she was the one who had ended that relatively brief relationship. It had never progressed to the engagement stage. He hadn’t considered her properly groomed yet to be the wife of a socially-conscious dentist. He’d expressed concerns about the independent streak she’d been cultivating even then, and about her stubbornness when she made up her own mind about what was best for her. Her outspokenness was something else he’d criticized. He’d advised her only half-teasingly on several occasions to let an occasional thought go unvoiced—especially if it involved any sort of criticism of him.
She could see now that she was lucky to be free of both of them—and that she’d gained that freedom while still young and otherwise unencumbered—but her marriage-and-children-obsessed family were convinced she would be better off with someone to “take care of her.” She supposed it was the fate of the youngest child to always be seen as somewhat dependent or in need of protection. Even though she’d been making it on her own for some time now.
She walked into the boy’s room with a bright smile pasted on her face and a colorful, spaceship-shaped Mylar balloon bobbing above her head. She’d just gotten off work at the toy store and she’d picked up the balloon on her way out.
“Cool, thanks, Aunt Shannon!”
She kissed her nephew’s cheek, then tied the balloon to the bedrail where he could see it floating above him. “You’re welcome.”
“Well…?” her mother asked eagerly.
Her mother and Stacy were the only other visitors at the moment. Shannon turned to them with her hands on her hips and a firm set of her jaw. “The food was good, the play was cute, and James and I had a very nice time. He took me home, walked me to my door and that was the end of it, okay? I really see no need to analyze every minute, as I’m sure the two of you are just itching to do.”
“Did he kiss you good-night, Aunt Shannon?”
Her jaw dropping, Shannon whirled toward the bed. She’d hoped at least her nephew would be more interested in something other than her social life! “Holy kamoley, Kyle—”
But Stacy and their mother were laughing now, so maybe Kyle’s teasingly naive question had been a good thing.
“That, young man, is none of your business,” Shannon said, touching a fingertip to her nephew’s up-tilted nose. Quickly changing the subject, she looked at her sister. “What did the doctors say today?”
She was sure that Stacy would have liked to ask more about the evening with James, but maybe because of Kyle’s avid listening, Stacy allowed herself to be diverted. Kyle’s medical reports were excellent and he was still expected to leave the hospital Wednesday morning. Stacy would have her hands full taking care of him and the baby. J.P. would pitch in when he wasn’t at work, and the twins were old enough to help out quite a bit around the house, which Shannon knew they did. Their mother would help, too, so Shannon wasn’t too worried about her sister, though Stacy would expect plenty of sympathy during the next few weeks.
A tap on the door made Shannon’s pulse rate jump. She chided herself for her overreaction. There was no way she could recognize a simple knock on the door, she told herself…and yet, somehow, she had.
James stuck his head into the room with a smile. “How’s it going in here?” he asked.
He wore a white coat over a blue dress shirt, blue patterned tie and gray pants. She recognized a stethoscope and reflex hammer sticking out of one of his pockets, while other pockets held pens and notepads and what appeared to be sheets of folded papers. A plastic photo ID clipped to his collar identified him as a medical student.
Though she’d seen his “doctor face” before, this was the first time she’d actually seen him wearing the uniform. And she had to admit, it intimidated her just a little, though she couldn’t have explained exactly why. She was intensely aware of her own work uniform—the khaki slacks and white shirt all the toy-store employees wore beneath the bright green apron required while working the floor. She felt a little disheveled compared to James, but there was nothing unusual about that.
He gave her one of his faint smiles and her uncharacteristic attack of timidity transformed into something entirely different. In that moment, he was the man who had kissed her on her doorstep, who had caused her a few hours of sleeplessness last night as she’d replayed that embrace over and over in her mind. Who’d have thought the reserved, well-mannered and enigmatic doctor would kiss like that?
She felt her cheeks warm a little and she looked quickly away, hoping no one else noticed.
Her mother was notably not intimidated by James’s white coat. She beamed at him. “Well, don’t you look nice today. Are you working here in the children’s hospital?”
“I have been,” he replied lightly. “I’m doing a pediatric infectious disease rotation. I got off work a little early today.”
“Infectious disease?” Stacy looked nervously from James to Kyle.
James shook his head reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we take many precautions against contamination. For example, I used the disinfectant foam on the wall outside this room before entering—as you should all be doing when you come in.”
Assuring him they were diligent in using the foam, Stacy then launched into a word-by-word account of everything any of the medical staff had said to her since she’d last seen James, searching his face while she talked as if to judge his reactions.
He responded patiently to all questions, a
nswering with the caution she’d noticed before, responding candidly but without a great deal of elaboration. No airy assurances, no expounding to show off his knowledge, no stepping beyond the boundaries of his limited expertise. Her family might consider him their own personal medical expert, but James treated them with the respectful civility of a near-stranger whenever he was being asked to respond as a doctor rather than a friend.
As handsome and impressive as he might be as James-the-physician, she missed the warmth in his dark eyes and the elusive half-smile of her friend. She broke into the conversation as quickly as she could, deliberately directing the topic away from medicine. “I had a funny thing happen at work today. You’ll probably all get a laugh out of it.”
She wasn’t entirely sure—he was so darned hard to read—but she thought James was relieved by the diversion. “I’d like to hear it,” he said, turning toward her. “What happened?”
She told them about the adorable elderly couple who’d come to the store to purchase a video-game system that afternoon, asking for Shannon’s help because they had no familiarity with video gaming. They’d implied at first that they were buying the system for a grandchild, but when she’d asked questions to determine the child’s age and gaming experience, the woman had admitted that they were really buying the system for themselves.
“We’ve been watching all those commercials on the television,” she had explained, “and it just looks like all those people are having so much fun. Ernie and I want to play, too. We get tired of staring at each other all afternoon and I just don’t think I can stand another game of gin rummy.”
Shannon had spent the next hour happily playing demo games with the couple, showing them how the different systems operated and some of the games available for each one. They had learned quickly and after bickering amusingly for a while, they’d finally settled on the system that would incorporate healthy exercise into the games of bowling, tennis and golf that had most intrigued them.
“Old people wanted to play video games?” Kyle asked in astonishment. “Did you show them the new Warriors from Beyond the Realm game, Aunt Shannon? That one is so sweet.”
Shannon laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think they’re interested in sword fights and laser-gun battles, Kyle. Though they said they’d be back to look at more sports games once they’ve mastered the ones they bought.”
“Well, frankly, I’d rather play gin rummy,” Shannon’s mother asserted. “I don’t care for video games myself.”
“My friends Ron and Connor and I often played video games during study breaks to clear our minds and relax a little before hitting the books again,” James said.
Was there a touch of wistfulness in his voice? Stacy wondered if she was the only one to notice. Just from the little he had told her, she sensed that James missed those long study sessions with his friends, though he’d told her he didn’t miss all the lectures and tests of the first two years of medical school. She suspected he would miss his friends very much when they went their separate ways after graduation. If he had friends outside of medical school, he hadn’t mentioned any during their conversations. He talked about Ron and Haley and Connor and Anne as if he’d known them all his life.
He glanced at his watch. “I missed lunch today because I got caught up in a consult. Frankly, I’m starving. Can I tempt you ladies with a snack in the hospital cafeteria? My treat, I get a discount.”
Shannon’s mother smiled at him warmly, giving Shannon another one of those this-guy-is-wonderful-hang-on-to-him looks. “Thank you, dear, but Hollis, Stu and Karen are supposed to arrive soon. Stu and Karen are going to sit with Kyle while Hollis and I go out for a bite. Then I’m going to spend the night with Kyle so Stacy can go home to her husband and their other children for a few hours. J.P. has taken a few days off to help out here and at home.”
The family was making sure Kyle wasn’t left alone in the hospital room for more than an hour or so at a time, even though they knew the staff was vigilant in taking care of him. But Kyle’s loved ones knew how much trouble the boy could get into even lying in the bed with a broken leg and a surgical scar, Shannon though wryly. She’d offered to spend one night with the boy, but this was the first time Stacy had been persuaded to leave and their mother had insisted on staying tonight. She suspected Stacy would stay again Tuesday night. They would all be relieved for Stacy’s sake when Kyle went home on Wednesday.
Four kids—one in diapers, one in a cast. Shannon shook her head, thanking the stars for her own relatively carefree independence. She wasn’t sure she could deal with all these crises even as well as Stacy, who was admittedly excitable under the best of circumstances, but always came through admirably when she had to.
“Shannon, you could keep James company while he eats,” Stacy prodded. “I’m sure you’re hungry, too. You’re always hungry,” she added with a somewhat tired laugh.
Shannon had half expected that suggestion from her mom. Now her sister was in on the matchmaking. She leveled a quick frown at Stacy. “Since the two of you have other plans, I’d imagine that James would rather eat somewhere other than the hospital cafeteria. You certainly don’t have to hang around here for our sake, James.”
“And neither do you, Shannon,” Stacy answered promptly. “I know Kyle appreciates your visit, but he’ll have Stu and Karen here with him until Mom and Dad get back from dinner. You’ve had a long day at work. Go relax for a while.”
“That’s an excellent suggestion,” their mother agreed. “You’ve been on your feet all day at the toy store and you have to work again tomorrow. There’s no need to spend your few hours off sitting here in a hospital room.”
As if to reinforce their arguments, a nutrition-services aide entered the room just then with Kyle’s dinner on a tray. Stacy immediately busied herself helping her son sit up in the bed so he could eat. Their mother hovered, too, coaxing the boy to eat his vegetables so he could quickly regain his strength.
“I didn’t intend to put you in an awkward position or take you away from your family,” James murmured to Shannon while the rest of the family was occupied. “I’d be delighted for you to join me for dinner, but only if you want to.”
Annoyed with all of them—and maybe herself, as well—she reached for her purse. “Actually, I’m headed home. I put some ingredients in the slow cooker this morning so I’d have dinner ready this evening. There’s enough for you, too, if you want to follow me,” she added a bit gruffly. “If not, then I’ll see you later.”
She was well aware that it wasn’t the most gracious invitation; she didn’t need the chiding looks from her mother and sister to drive the point home. But James merely nodded. “Thanks, that sounds great.”
Shannon kissed her nephew’s cheek, told him she would see him the next day, then said good night to her mother and sister with a bit less warmth. Judging from their expressions, they knew exactly why she was annoyed at them—but the satisfied looks they exchanged proved they weren’t particularly repentant.
It was earlier than Devin usually left for work, but she was already gone by the time Shannon walked in with James following behind her. She had left a note taped to the slow cooker. “Smells delish, but meeting friends for pizza before work. Last-minute plan. Save the leftovers!”
Having expected Devin to join her and James for dinner, Shannon hid a sudden, nervous qualm when she turned to him with a fake smile. “Looks like it’s just the two of us. I’ll make a quick salad and heat some bread. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes, if you want to wash up and watch the news or something while I finish up in here.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“No, thanks. The kitchen’s kind of small for two. Make yourself comfortable in the living room. The TV’s behind the cabinet door.”
He nodded and turned to leave the room. She drew a deep breath when she was alone in the small, galley-styled kitchen. Being in such close quarters with James was definitely not conducive to clear thinking, s
he mused as she pulled wheat rolls out of the freezer and salad makings from the fridge.
At least the house was tidy, even though they hadn’t been expecting company. She and Devin always kept the living room ready for guests and both tended to be neat in other areas, as well.
She wondered what James thought of their little rent house—which led her to wondering where and how he lived. Though they had seen each other in their work environments, they hadn’t glimpsed much of each other’s private lives yet. Bringing James into her home felt like another step forward in their…well, she would call it friendship, because that was a comfortable and uncomplicated term. Even though her feelings for James were rarely comfortable and almost never uncomplicated.
When the simple meal was ready, she set the serving dishes on the table in the tiny dining area at the end of the narrow kitchen, then went in search of James. Rather than watching television, he had entertained himself looking through the party albums displayed on what they generously referred to as their conference table, even though it barely seated four comfortably. The albums held photos of all the parties she had organized, along with samples of invitations, catalogs of party favors and decorations, theme descriptions, options and price lists.
As proud as she was of her work and of the materials she had assembled to promote her business, she still felt a little self-conscious when James looked up at her. She wanted his reaction to what he’d seen to be positive, but not patronizing. She hated being patted on the head like a kindergartner displaying prized crayon artwork.
“I hope you don’t mind that I looked through your albums.”
She shook her head. “Of course not. I told you to make yourself at home. And those albums are there for visitors to look through—most of the stuff in them is also available at my Web site.”
“Yes, I’ve seen your site. It’s an excellent sales tool. There are more photos in your albums, though. I enjoyed looking at them. The parties look like fun. I’m sure the guests had a great time at all of them.”