The Doctor's Accidental Family

by Jacqueline Diamond

  Unbelievable—he’d scored a house! Nick reflected when he took a moment to catch his breath. And a live-in friend and a delightful little girl who seemed remarkably even-tempered for a toddler. Linda curled on the couch poking at the games on his phone while the grown-ups planned meals for the next few nights.

  The fridge and pantry were well stocked with their combined supplies. The pots and pans, plates and tableware filled the drawers and cabinets.

  To his relief, Zady relaxed her insistence on avoiding the kitchen. “I’ll cook dinner for the kids Tuesdays through Fridays, on your work nights. You’re responsible for Saturdays through Mondays.”

  “No problem.”

  “You can cook, right?” she pressed.

  “I have a few specialties.” And what Nick didn’t know, he could learn.

  She nodded, although he detected a trace of skepticism in her expression. “I’m going to take a nap with Linda.”

  “Need any help?”

  “Putting her to bed or sleeping?”

  Nick grinned. “How about both?”

  She poked him in the ribs. “Snoozing with my boss? No, thanks.”

  Her boss. He’d almost forgotten that part, Nick conceded as he watched her stroll out of the kitchen, curly hair floating and softly rounded derriere swaying with natural sensuality.

  Zady didn’t belong to him, and the four of them weren’t a family. But after the difficult adjustments since Bethany’s death and Nick’s change to the night shift, he finally felt as if he was regaining his balance.

  Lucky arrived around 2:00 p.m. with a borrowed van. “Nice place,” he announced when Nick admitted him. “Pretty much what I have in mind for me and Zora when we can afford a house of our own.”

  “We like it.”

  After Nick showed him Caleb’s bedroom, the nursing supervisor pushed up the sleeves of his jersey. “We can do this in an hour. Let’s dig in.”

  They dismantled the bed and lugged it to the garage, then returned for the dresser. It took more angling and heaving than Nick had anticipated, but they moved that without damaging it, too.

  “I really appreciate you doing this.” Nick felt good about what they’d accomplished.

  “No problem.”

  After leaving a note for Zady, who remained napping in her bedroom with Linda, they headed out. Traffic flowed well until they hit a jam halfway to La Habra Heights. The van lacked an onboard computer, but Nick’s phone showed an accident a couple of miles ahead.

  “How bad is it?” Lucky’s fingers drummed the steering wheel.

  “They’re moving the damaged cars to the shoulder.” It appeared the lanes would be clear soon. Taking an alternate route would waste more time than it saved, Nick calculated.

  All the same, he gritted his teeth as they inched along. He’d hate to be late, but in view of his experiences with Elaine, calling to warn her wouldn’t accomplish anything. He might as well use the opportunity to get better acquainted with Zady’s brother-in-law. “Your new position keeping you busy?”

  “Sure is,” Lucky said cheerfully. “I’ve been planning in-service training, reviewing patient-care standards and screening office nurses for Dr. Rattigan, since I won’t be able to assist him as much as I used to.”

  “I’m surprised you can do it at all. Surely he doesn’t expect you to perform double duty.”

  “I plan to keep an eye on things for him.” Lucky tapped the accelerator, increasing their speed from a 15 mph creep to a 20 mph crawl. “I owe it to him. A few years ago, when the doctor I worked for retired, nobody would hire me. One look at my tattoos and they dismissed me as a ruffian. I would have removed the tats, but the process is painful and expensive.”

  “And I hear it leaves scars.” Zady had mentioned that Lucky hailed from a rough neighborhood in LA. To Nick, his achievements seemed all the more impressive that he’d come so far. “How’d you manage while you were out of work?”

  Lucky accelerated as the traffic opened up ahead. “I spent a year temping for a nursing service. When Cole joined the staff at Safe Harbor, I didn’t believe my application to be his nurse had a chance, but I figured I’d try.”

  Obviously, Cole had hired him. “He didn’t mind the body art?”

  “The only thing that mattered to him was how I regarded patient care and whether we could deal comfortably with each other.”

  It struck Nick that he, too, had grown up in a rough area, and neither of his parents had graduated from college. But unlike Lucky’s parents, neither of them had showed a strong work ethic. How had he become a high achiever?

  The answer was partly his inner drive, and partly his reaction to Marshall’s side of the family. While a few teachers had encouraged Nick to aim high, it was primarily the disdain of his aunt, uncle and cousin that had spurred him to prove himself. How strange.

  “I nearly got a tattoo once,” he recalled. “As a teenager. But I didn’t figure it was worth the grief. Marshall’s folks sneered at me enough already.”

  “Some guys would have done it to spite them,” Lucky observed.

  “I defied them by succeeding in medical school.” Also, Nick had figured body art might put off future employers. “I can understand your devotion to Cole.”

  “He’s an amazing man.” Lucky glanced at the faster-moving lane to their left but apparently decided not to risk a sudden move. “We just heard Friday that he received a grant to establish two new surgical fellowships. It hasn’t been announced, so I’d appreciate your keeping mum, but we’re excited.”

  “Congratulations.” A grant meant his cousin would probably be successful in his bid to secure offices for the urology fellows. That wasn’t likely to go down well with Nick’s colleagues, but betraying a confidence would be a poor repayment for Lucky’s kindness.

  Finally they left the freeway, wound through the heights and approached the Carrigans’ address. Next to the carriage-shaped mailbox, a for sale sign had been stuck into the ground.

  “They’re selling their house?” Lucky said.

  “No one told me.”

  True, the Carrigans had said they planned to move into assisted living, but what other surprises awaited him? Nick wondered with a twist of uneasiness. He hoped he hadn’t been a fool to assume Elaine was losing her power to manipulate him.

  * * *

  ZADY AWOKE IN the dim late-afternoon light with a sense of dislocation. Where was she? The bed didn’t feel familiar and a night-light cast an eerie shadow through the wood-and-paper screen closing off part of the room.

  She turned toward the window. A small gap in the curtains revealed rosebushes and, across the street, a ranch-style house illuminated from within.

  A house much like this one. Now she remembered where she was.

  Zady groped onto the bedside table for her phone. It read 4:34 p.m. She must have slept over an hour, but there were no sounds from the rest of the house, only Linda’s soft breathing from behind the screen.

  Rising, she peeked at her goddaughter. The girl lay curled beneath the covers, her arms around her favorite doll.

  A glow of pure love spread through Zady. How adorable this child was. If she’d given birth to Linda as Nick had suspected, she’d never have been able to part with her. Would she ever have another child and a man to shelter them?

  Don’t you dare fantasize about Nick.

  She ought to freshen up before he and Lucky returned—but entering her bathroom would force her to sneak past Linda and risk waking her. Instead, Zady crossed the living room. She saw no reason not to use the main bathroom, which opened both into the hall and, through a side door, into Nick’s room.

  A splash of water didn’t do much to restore her appearance, the merciless mirror informed Zady. Her hair was a mess, but she’d left her purse in her bathroom, and she wasn’t about
to borrow Nick’s brush.

  It lay on the counter beside his electric razor, next to a bottle of aftershave lotion that exuded a spicy scent. When Zady reopened the door to Nick’s room as a courtesy, the air that flowed around her felt infused with his maleness. Since leaving Dwayne behind, she’d missed that humming awareness of a masculine presence.

  When another inspection showed Linda still sleeping, Zady dared retrieve her brush. After achieving little more than rearranging the tangles in her hair, she retreated to the kitchen. Earlier, she’d brewed a pot of coffee, and now she poured a cup and sat down with her phone to write a memo to herself.

  Essential qualities in a man, she tapped out.

  No sense listing obvious stuff like sex appeal, hygiene or the absence of a criminal record. In fact, anything that applied to Nick could be omitted. The goal was to provide reinforcement should she weaken.

  Number 1. Fresh start—no stepkids or ex-wives! Excellent.

  Staring at the tiny keypad, Zady wondered what idiot had put the exclamation point on the number pad, requiring an extra step to reach it. To her, that punctuation mark was as important as a comma or a period.

  Moving right along...

  Number 2. He has never mistreated or abandoned a girlfriend. Maybe she should add, Or delivered a halfhearted proposal after she got pregnant. But it was important to her psyche that she maintain the appearance of objectivity.

  Number 3. Financially stable. Although Nick earned a good income, he had student loans. And a guy who could only afford to pay his nanny room and board was barely hanging on.

  Number 4. There ought to be a number 4. What was it? Unfair to list working a day job, since that would rule out too many otherwise-eligible guys. Instead, she typed, Doesn’t put me in the middle of family feuds, especially involving my doctor.

  That was too specific. She deleted everything after “feuds.”

  Zady sat back, pleased to have covered the necessary ground. She’d have to remember to keep looking at her list until being around Nick wore so thin that she no longer, even at the most insidious level, considered him boyfriend material.

  The doorbell rang. Who was that? With her hair frizzing and her makeup worn off, she was in no state to greet anyone. Then it occurred to her that Mr. Tran might be stopping by to welcome them. She’d better hurry, because if he rang again, he’d wake Linda.

  She should have peered outside first, Zady realized, too late. She opened the door to reveal the last person she’d expected.

  Her boss. Her real boss. Dr. Marshall Davis.

  * * *

  THE INTERIOR OF the Carrigan house had undergone a thorough cleaning since last weekend, Nick noted when Elaine insisted on escorting him and Lucky on a tour of the premises. “Our real estate agent recommended this cleaning company. Didn’t they do a marvelous job?” She indicated the spotless kitchen with a stove and refrigerator so old they qualified as fashionably retro.

  Nick mumbled his agreement and reached for Caleb’s hand. The little boy peeked apprehensively at his grandmother. She nodded, bathing them in an overly bright smile, and Caleb took his father’s hand gingerly.

  What was her angle? Surely Elaine and Bennie, who remained resting in the den, didn’t imagine that cleaning up the property and listing it for sale would make any difference to his plans.

  “We should start moving Caleb’s furniture,” Nick said. “I’m sure Lucky has other plans for this evening.” As do I.

  “His furniture?” Elaine repeated as if he’d sprung this idea out of the blue. “Oh, dear.”

  “Surely you don’t plan to take it with you to assisted living.” Nick doubted their new apartment would have any extra room.

  “No, but the agent says it’s important to keep the house fully furnished. Prospective buyers have to be able to visualize themselves living here.”

  “Wouldn’t that be easier without someone else’s furniture?” Lucky asked. Astutely, in Nick’s opinion.

  Elaine shrugged. “She says to keep it furnished, and she’s the expert. But his clothes and toys are packed.” Turning, she led them toward the stairs.

  Nick and Lucky exchanged glances. Clearly they both found her behavior peculiar. But although Nick’s child support had no doubt paid part of the cost of the furniture, he couldn’t insist she surrender it.

  This meant he and Lucky would be stuck carting the bed and bureau back from the garage. More important, Caleb faced an unnecessarily difficult transition.

  With luck, he’d be distracted by his new playmate. Nick was glad he hadn’t mentioned Linda to the Carrigans. Heaven knew how Elaine would have used Linda’s presence against him, but he suspected she’d have figured out a way.

  In the bedroom, they found some of Caleb’s toys and games still scattered on the floor. “Pick those up and bring them along, okay?” Nick asked his son.

  “Okay, Dad.”

  No fussing or arguing. Was that disappointment on Elaine’s face, or was he reading too much into her expression?

  With Lucky and Nick hefting the boxes and Caleb carrying loose items, it didn’t take long to stuff his possessions into the van. After the last trip downstairs and through the entry hall, Lucky stayed outside while Nick went to take leave of the Carrigans.

  After apologizing for not rising from his armchair, Bennie thanked Nick for his cooperation. “You were right. We’ll be better off in assisted living.”

  “I hope you can visit us.” Nick meant that sincerely. Maintaining continuity with the boy’s loved ones mattered a great deal. “If you can’t, I’ll bring Caleb to see you. Let’s make plans for next weekend.”

  “That will depend on the real estate agent.”

  “Elaine!” warned her husband.

  “It’s not as if we’re going to vanish from his life,” she said. “Although Nick might wish we would.”

  “Not in the least. That would be horrible for him.” Nick hadn’t forgotten his disorientation and anger as a ten-year-old when his father had left abruptly. He’d never forgiven his dad for disappearing.

  While Nick had a measure of sympathy for the man due to his bipolar disorder, the pain of his father’s rejection had been deep and long-lasting. Years later, Quentin Davis had made a few feeble attempts to restore contact, but Nick had rebuffed him. And his father hadn’t tried very hard to persuade him otherwise.

  Caleb had already lost his mother. Nick didn’t intend for his son to lose any more family.

  “So you’ll come visit us next weekend?” he asked.

  “Of course.” Elaine’s attitude appeared to have undergone a rapid change. “We’d love to see your house. And that sweet nurse.” To Caleb, she said, “Without Zady, none of this would be possible. You’d have to limp along with your sick old grandparents.”

  That was hardly the case. “His home is with me now,” Nick corrected. “With or without Zady.”

  “I think she deserves more credit than that, but let’s not argue.” Stiffly, Elaine bent to hug her grandson. “You’ll forget all about us the minute you’re with her.”

  “No, I won’t.” Caleb clung to her. “Grandma! Grandpa! Don’t send me away!”

  In the boy’s shrill voice, Nick heard heartbreak, along with exhaustion and hunger. Understandable, since it was almost dinnertime.

  “I’ll tell you what.” He eased Caleb away from Elaine. “Let’s order pizza while we drive home so it’ll be ready when we get there.”

  “Okay.” Despite his assent, Caleb’s pace dragged as they went out.

  Lucky didn’t say much until they were on the freeway. Caleb remained silent, too, strapped into his booster seat behind them.

  Keeping his eyes on the well-lit freeway, Lucky asked quietly, “Is she always like that?”

  “Elaine? Like what?” Nick was curious how the oth
er man had interpreted her puzzling behavior.

  “Saying one thing and meaning another.”

  That was the exact quality he’d been struggling to identify. Now the appropriate word sprang to mind. “You mean passive-aggressive? I suppose she is, somewhat.”

  “More than somewhat. She defines the term.” Lucky frowned as a car with ultrabright headlights zoomed up behind. He slowed, and the inconsiderate driver swerved past.

  “She’s always been strong-willed and a bit overbearing, but never this erratic,” Nick said. “I have no idea what she expects to gain.”

  “Neither do I, but I’d watch out for that dame.”

  From the rear seat, a little voice cried, “My grandma’s not a dame!”

  “Little pitchers have big ears,” Lucky muttered. Nick hadn’t heard that phrase in years.

  He turned to face his small, defiant son. “Caleb, what do you think a dame is?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It’s a lady.”

  “Oh.”

  The kid’s obvious tension reminded Nick of his earlier offer. “What’s your favorite pizza topping?”

  “Uh, cheese.”

  “What else?”

  “More cheese?”

  “Most people love pepperoni, too,” he prompted.

  “Not me,” Lucky put in. “I’m a vegetarian.”

  They spent the next few miles considering ideas for toppings, ranging from the practical—onions, mushrooms and tomatoes—to the improbable, including licorice bits and strawberries.

  With Caleb giggling, Nick called Krazy Kids Pizza in Safe Harbor. He ordered two pizzas, one vegetarian with strawberries and one pepperoni with licorice.

  “We don’t have licorice, sir,” the woman said.

  “Okay, hold the licorice,” Nick told her. “Are you telling me you have strawberries?”

  “Yes. Frozen, not fresh.”

  “That won’t do,” he responded. “Hold the frozen strawberries, too.”

  Beside him, Lucky snorted with laughter. Caleb joined in.