He sounded like a pretty good sport about it, and that didn’t surprise me. “What kind of pranks?”
He pondered some more, apparently scrolling through memories. “The usual stuff. Rubber snake under your pillow in the call room, KY jelly on the Hail Mary bars in the back of the ambulance when you’re on practice rides, stuff like that. The driver gets points for every body part he can make you smack.”
“That’s not very nice.” Not nice at all, but it did sound funny.
“Well, when you’re pulling a double or triple shift, those kinds of things can really lighten the mood. I’ve been picking up a lot of those lately to earn some extra cash.”
Additional call shifts to earn extra money? Just like me. Only I took call so I could pay a decorator to load up my plush new house with plush new furniture, and Tyler was doing it so Scotty wouldn’t go to jail and his mother’s place wouldn’t go into foreclosure. I suddenly felt overly indulgent. I worked hard to have the things I had, but Tyler worked hard too. It didn’t seem fair. It made my eyes water again, and if I kept on crying, he was going to sedate me.
“What’s your craziest patient story?” I asked instead, hoping to elevate my own mood. Everyone in medicine has crazy patient stories. Boob-flashing Dody Baker was at the top of my list.
“So many to choose from,” he answered. “But let’s see. I guess the most recent is this one old guy who keeps calling us for the same issue. We keep telling him he’s fine, but every time we have to take him into the ED anyway.” He set his soup bowl down on the table and ran a hand through his hair.
“What’s his issue?”
“Beets.”
“Beets?”
“Yeah, apparently he keeps stealing beets from his neighbor’s garden and they turn his pee bright pink. He thinks he’s dying. But no, it’s just the beets. Last time we were there, the neighbor came running after him with a rake. Funniest thing ever, watching two eighty-year-old dudes trying to wrestle each other to the ground.”
He laughed at the memory, and I wondered if either of those old guys had noticed how debilitatingly attractive Tyler’s dimples were.
Probably not.
“Dr. Andrews said if we brought him into her ED again she’d hit him with a rake herself.”
I sat up a little straighter. “Dr. Andrews?” Suddenly I wondered if this Dr. Andrews had noticed the dimples.
“Yeah, over at Trinity Health. That’s where we usually go since our area is east of Bell Harbor. I don’t make it to your hospital very often. Unless I’m a patient, I guess.”
That explained why I’d never seen him in the department before. If I had, I’d have remembered. And so would most of the nurses.
“I didn’t realize you were over near Trinity. How are you managing that? Working all those hours for MedPro and then serving at Jasper’s? Aren’t you exhausted?”
He shrugged. “I guess I’m used to it.” He took the empty bowl from my hands and set it next to his. Then he leaned back and stretched his arm over the back of the sofa toward me. “Honestly, the hardest part isn’t being busy. I like that. But lately I find myself . . . wondering . . . what you’re up to. Where you are. Wishing we were in the same place.”
His voice had gone all warm and bedroomy. He must be catching my fever, because he couldn’t be gazing at me with such infatuation given how horrendous I looked. I was wearing gray sweats and an extra-large, extra-faded Northwestern T-shirt. But his expression said I was beautiful. Yes, he was definitely catching my delusional fever.
“I like you, Evie. A lot. That’s probably obvious, but in case there was any doubt, I thought you should know.” He didn’t seem to be teasing. Or febrile.
I reached out my hand, entwining my fingers with his. “I like you too. In case it isn’t obvious.”
He looked down for a second, just long enough for me to realize he was winding up for something big, then his eyes were back on me. Bright. Sincere.
“It’s not obvious,” he said.
“It isn’t? Do you think I fool around in lifeguard huts all the time?” I was trying to make a joke, but he didn’t go for it. His jaw set, twin lines creased between his furrowed brows.
“Look, I know you’re doing this computer dating thing. And I can’t really ask you not to because I know you’ve got this husband and kids thing on your mind. I also happen to know you went out with some other guy last night. Word travels. But Evie, I’m not big on sharing.”
“Sharing?” Suddenly this conversation had taken a turn toward Seriousville.
Tyler clutched my hand a little tighter. “I’m not the type to make promises I can’t keep, and I don’t know what’s in store for me in the next year or so, but the bottom line is, if you sleep with some other guy, I’m out of here.”
“He said that?” Gabby’s face lit up as if she held a winning lottery ticket. “How utterly romantic.”
“How is that romantic? He’s just marking his territory,” Hilary answered.
The two of them were in my office once again. I really needed to get a lock for that door, because as much as I enjoyed these daily dissections of my love life, we’d been discussing this latest milestone in my nonmarital status for almost half an hour, and it was nearly time for me to start seeing patients.
Gabby waved her sister’s words away with a flick of her fingers. “Not marking his territory. He’s saying she’s important to him. So what did you say back?”
“I said OK. And then I went to bed alone because I still had the flu.” It wasn’t quite as romantic as Gabby seemed to think, and yet . . . it was. Because he wasn’t just marking his territory. He was saying I was important to him. And I hadn’t been important to someone in a very long time.
“So that’s it then?” Hilary wiped lipstick off the lid of her coffee cup and didn’t look at me. “No more husband hunting? No more I think I want a baby? You’re just going to have playtime with Tyler and forget the rest? That’s kind of rash, don’t you think?”
This news was proving hard for Hilary, and I wasn’t entirely sure why.
“It’s not so much that I’m done husband hunting. I’m just postponing all the marriage and baby stuff for a while. I mean, I’ve waited this long, so what’s a few more months? Or even a year? I mean, who knows how long this thing with Tyler will last?”
She looked at me now, her eyes sad. “But what if it does last? Let’s say you guys are still together in five years. All that time, will you be longing for children? I know this is pure selfishness on my part, but I’d like your kids to play with my kids. And I don’t know about you, but forty and pregnant doesn’t sound that fun to me.”
“Forty in general doesn’t sound that fun,” Gabby murmured, earning her a glare from both of us. Hilary and I were a lot closer to the F-word than she was. The F-word being, in this case of course, forty.
“Honestly, Hil, at the moment, I don’t have an answer for that. This is new territory for me. All I agreed to was to not fool around with anybody else, which was pretty easy to do because I don’t want to fool around with anybody else.”
Gabby raised her hand. “Can I have Chris Beaumont, then? I’m available.” She was bouncing back nicely from her breakup with Mike. She’d even colored her hair a warm honey brown. No more pink tips. If nothing else good came from her heartbreak, at least it was good for her hair.
The copy of Chris’s credentialing paperwork was still sitting somewhere on my desk. I rummaged around for it and then handed it to her. “Be my guest. He likes Italian food and he’s afraid of dogs. But he’s very nice.”
I felt a minuscule twinge of remorse as she took the papers, not because I wanted to see him again, but because there’d been no good reason to not fall for him. Except, as Hilary had so eloquently put it, Tyler had gotten to my panties first. I had to believe it was more than that. I had to hope it was more than that.
“I feel like I should call Chris, though,” I said, gazing at them. “You know, just to say, ‘um, I won’t be calling you.’ What’s the protocol here?” I was completely out of my element in this scenario. I didn’t want to be rude, or presumptuous. I could just wait to see if he called me.
Hilary shook her head. “Don’t look at me. I haven’t been on a date since I got married. Not sure I can say the same for Steve, of course.”
I stole a glance at Gabby and she rolled her eyes. We’d both been pushing Hilary to confront her husband, but so far she wasn’t moving on it. She’d taken, instead, to muttering disparaging comments and didn’t want to hear our advice.
“So, are you taking Tyler to your parents’ wedding? That’s coming up pretty soon, isn’t it?” Gabby asked, redirecting the conversation.
“Oh, thank you for reminding me. I have to call my mother about my dress.” I grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled myself a note. “I haven’t asked him. That’s a big step, introducing him to my parents and taking him to the wedding. They’re not going to be thrilled with his background.”
“Or his future?” Hilary muttered. The snark was starting to show a little around her roots today, but I decided to ignore it for the sake of civility. She’d snap out of this funk. I knew she would.
“In the meantime,” I said instead, “we’re going to Jasper and Beth Baker’s baby shower because Jasper invited him, and sometime after that I should be able to move into my house. I haven’t been inside since the painting started. My decorator said he wants to do a big reveal.”
“Didn’t you tell me your decorator is Fontaine Baker?” Gabby asked.
I nodded.
“OK, well, let’s hope when he said big reveal, he meant your house.”
Chapter 25
DES MCKNIGHT’S HOUSE WAS LOCATED just a few miles from my new place, on a quaint little street full of picturesque houses with meticulous landscaping. Tyler had arrived at my apartment in plenty of time, but I’d stalled getting ready until he’d finally insisted we leave. We were headed to the baby shower for Jasper and his wife. A baby shower that was sure to be full of hospital staff, a multitude of Gabby and Hilary’s cousins, and heaven only knew who else.
I should be fine. All of this should be fine. But the truth was, I was nervous as hell about showing up at this party together. I couldn’t imagine there was anyone in Bell Harbor who hadn’t heard about us. They’d certainly all discussed my private life before. But being whispered about was one thing. Boldly walking down the red carpet together for all the Bell Harbor paparazzi to see was something else entirely. I was about to make a public declaration. Yes, I was officially involved with Tyler Connelly. His ultimatum two weeks ago had pretty much cemented that.
We stood on the brick front step until the door to Dr. McKnight’s house swung open and a pretty little girl smiled at us from the other side. “Are you here for the baby’s shower?”
“We are. Is this the right place?” Tyler said.
“Yep.” She nodded, sending a wave of curls around her face. “I’m Paige. Come on in.”
I spotted Mrs. Baker immediately. Of course she’d be here. She was the soon-to-be grandmother. That frothy, pale pink chiffon number she wore looked like it had been whipped up on a cotton candy machine. Des was next to her, holding a tiny baby. My heart gave a little hop, skip, and a flutter. Not because he was handsome, although he was, but because of the sweet bundle in his arms. A precious little junior McKnight all snuggled up right in the crook of his elbow. The pretty brunette next to him must be his wife, Sadie. Fontaine had mentioned her several times, saying they worked together when she wasn’t—as he put it—breeding. She was holding a baby too.
Twins. Oh, yes, of course. Dody had told me about the twins. My uterus clanged a Tibetan gong, sending out a particularly hollow sound in the cavern of my abdomen. I’d squashed most thoughts of babies lately, knowing that the SS Fertility was sailing off without me. Since I’d halted my husband hunt, that illusory dream of motherhood was fading away. With some effort on my part.
“Evelyn, hello and salutations!” Fontaine fluttered over, wearing white pants and a lavender-striped shirt. “How are you, darling?” He air kissed me on both cheeks and then stepped back.
“Oh! And how are you?” His voice went husky and dropped two octaves when he spotted my date. Tyler did look particularly fine tonight in a blue linen shirt and nice khaki pants. My decorator obviously approved.
“Fontaine, this is Tyler.”
“Yes, I know.” He smiled psychopathically, then leaned in and whispered, “Coo-coo cachou, you lucky little cougar.”
Oh, no. I was a cougar?
Fontaine grabbed my wrist and pulled me farther inside. “Do you love what I’ve done here? Tell me you love it. My partner and I decorate for parties too. You’ll have to let us plan the first soiree in your new house. Your furniture will arrive any day now, by the way. When do you want to move in?”
“As soon as possible. I’ve been waiting forever.”
“I know, baby girl. I’m getting things done as fast as I can, but artistry like mine can’t be rushed.”
We took another step forward and I saw . . . pink. Lots and lots and lots of pink. Bright pink vases, crimson flowers, cherry-colored balloons, even maroon lampshades. It was like the Cat in the Hat had thrown up in here.
“It’s remarkable,” I said.
“Oh, my stars! Is that my Dr. Rhoades?” An operatic voice cut through the mellow din of conversation as Mrs. Baker turned and saw me. She moved like a fluffy tornado, coming straight at us.
“Oh, it’s simply delightful to see you, dear. Fontaine, darling, get Dr. Rhoades and her escort some of that yummy punch.”
“It’s lovely to see you, Mrs. Baker.”
“Pish-posh, call me Dody. We don’t stand on ceremony around here. And who is this delectable fellow?” She flipped open a plastic fan and began to wave it at her flushed cheeks while her gaze roved over Tyler like he was a centerfold.
He smiled his flirty smile, which was to say, his normal, everyday smile. “So nice to meet you. I’m Tyler.”
“Oh, why yes. Of course you are. I’ve seen you at Jasper’s restaurant. You’re very handsome.”
He blushed adorably. She and I nearly swooned in unison.
“Thank you, Mrs. Baker,” he said.
“Oh, gracious. You can call me Dody. Or you can call me, maybe.” She held an imaginary telephone to her ear and Tyler laughed.
Fontaine came back with glasses of cherry-red punch. I almost asked if it was a strawberry dickery but immediately saw that conversation veering off in an irreparable direction. I took a sip and looked around instead. There must be close to thirty people here, chatting and laughing, and most of them were holding children at some stage of development. Tiny ones, bigger ones, wiggly ones, sleeping ones.
“You didn’t tell me this party was BYOB,” I whispered to Tyler.
“BYOB?”
“Bring your own baby?” I suddenly felt empty-handed and out of place. I should have anticipated a Bell Harbor baby shower would be full of babies.
“Have you met my niece? Come and meet my niece.” Dody pulled on my arm, almost causing me to spill the punch as we worked our way through the crowd. Tyler tagged along behind us, an amused smile on his face.
If Des McKnight was surprised to see me there, he didn’t show it. His wife gave me a warm smile too.
“Look who I found.” Dody’s singsong voice reverberated through the crowd. She’d make a good auctioneer.
“Evelyn, hi,” Des said. “Tyler. Glad you guys could make it.”
Tyler blushed as they shook hands, and I realized they’d met once before under less auspicious circumstances, when Des treated him in the ED. Des’s manner gave no indication he was thinking of that, though.
“Thanks for having us,
” Tyler answered.
“Our pleasure.” Des leaned forward. “Please understand our house is not usually this pink. Fontaine had a theme, and there is no going against him.”
Sadie nodded in agreement. “My cousin was in charge of decorations. Don’t judge us.”
Don’t judge them? I nodded and smiled, feeling more at ease already. I slipped my arm through Tyler’s. “I’ve worked with Fontaine. He is tenacious with his motifs. He thinks my bedroom should look like a sultan’s harem.”
“Well,”—Dody stepped up closer—“I think it looks simply delightful in here. Lots of pink for a baby girl. They’re having a girl, don’t you know? Another girl, just like these two beauties.” She pointed at the twins. “This one is Shelby, and that one is Sydney.” Then she scratched her head furiously. “Oh, or is that one Sydney and this one Shelby? I can never tell.”
“I’ve got Shelby,” Des answered. Then he looked at his wife. “Right?”
She slapped him playfully. “Stop pretending like you can’t tell them apart. It’s not funny.”
His glance at me told me he wasn’t kidding. I hid my smile behind a sip of punch.
“Dr. Rhoades is going to do my surgery soon, but of course you already knew that. Aren’t I lucky to have the best surgeon in all of Bell Harbor?”
“That’s very kind of you to say, Dody, but I’m sure there are lots of great surgeons in town,” I said.
“Oh, pish-posh. I know how good you are. You needn’t be so self-defecating.”
Des burst out laughing and Sadie gasped. I heard Tyler chuckling beside me.
“I think you meant self-deprecating, Mom,” Fontaine called from over her shoulder.
“I do? Why? What did I say? Oh my goodness! That damned Anita Parker is stealing all the thin mints. Anita!”
Dody bustled away, on a mission. A whirlwind in pink fabric.
“So how old are these two?” Tyler asked, reaching out and squeezing a pudgy baby foot.
“Almost five weeks. And still completely nocturnal,” Sadie answered.
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