by Diane Craver
“I’d like a cup of coffee, but I’m sure I won’t renege on my invite.”
He stood. “I’ll introduce you to Sharon now.”
After he walked Mallory to Sharon’s office, he chatted for a few minutes before leaving for his room.
He sighed as he leaned back his chair. He was done for the day since Mallory was his last appointment. Had he just asked a patient out for a cup of coffee? What was he thinking? Well, she’d invited him to a dinner party. That was a first in his office too.
Actually going to a coffeehouse with Mallory could be considered business since they’d probably talk about her surgery. He chewed on his bottom lip and thought how the dinner party might be a stretch to classify it as a business opportunity. Okay, so big deal. He was going to see Mallory again. If she did go ahead with the surgery in June, he’d be able to ask her out on a date later in the summer. He’d never asked a patient out before because he’d always wanted to maintain a professional relationship.
That wasn’t true. Mallory was the first patient he’d ever wanted to see outside the office.
***
He realized he’d made a mistake having coffee with Mallory. He liked her too much which wasn’t appropriate for a patient—doctor relationship. Add to that, he thought she was beautiful. Her dark brown hair shone in the bright sunshine that streamed in through the window by their table. Her brilliant green eyes mesmerized him. Incredible eyes with such a sparkle to them that he loved staring at them. Her warm smiles got to him too. He’d noticed in the office Mallory had a tiny scar that looked like a dimple when she smiled. He’d wondered then what had caused the scar but hadn’t wanted to ask her.
Maybe he should tell her that she could skip the nose surgery. Mallory’s face had so much character with her strong cheekbones, overwhelming smile, beautiful eyes and personality that an imperfect nose was of small importance.
“Thanks. This is nice to relax after a rough day with seventh graders.” She took a sip of coffee. “And I love the smell of coffee. When I was growing up, I always woke up to the aroma of coffee brewing. My mom had to have coffee first thing in the morning. She wasn’t a morning person and needed her jolt of caffeine.”
“How about you? Do you get up at the crack of dawn?” He bet she looked cute even in the early daylight hours.
“I usually don’t have any trouble getting up.”
Should he talk to her about not having the surgery? Sure, he should. It was his obligation. “Mallory, I know Sharon put your name on the calendar for your surgery, but I’m not so sure you need to have anything done. Look at Sarah Jessica Parker. She has a strong nose.”
“But my nose is bigger than hers.”
“You might think your nose is imperfect because of the size, but I do think it gives your face character.”
“Well, I can do with a little less character on my face.”
“Your nose is large but it’s aristocratic…like Princess Diana.”
“And look what happened to her. Prince Charles loved Camilla.” She snapped her fingers. “Guess what? Camilla has a small nose.”
“But Princess Diana was considered beautiful.” Like you, he wanted to say but didn’t.
She sighed. “I bet you’re afraid I won’t be happy with my appearance because I still won’t have the perfect small nose. I understand that you can only do so much, but it’ll definitely be a big improvement over what I have to live with now.”
“I’m happy to do your surgery but if you should change your mind, I’ll understand.”
She gave him a warm smile. “You’re stuck with me. I’m not changing my mind on this. I loved seeing the imaging of what I’ll look like after surgery.”
Mallory was definitely serious about having rhinoplasty. Part of him was glad because he’d be seeing her again several times, for sure. But he wasn’t certain he liked that it’d be as his patient. “Then I’ll see you in June for your surgery.”
She cleared her throat. “What made you decide to become a plastic surgeon?”
The abrupt question caught him off guard. He thought about that for a moment. “I was impressed how plastic surgery made a difference in my sister’s appearance. When we were still young, a stray dog came in our backyard and attacked her. Amy had to endure many surgeries.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I’m still not sure why the dog went after her instead of me. We were both playing outside.”
Her cell phone rang. While she pulled it out of purse, his eyes shifted to her mouth. Mallory had full perfect lips. Ideal for kissing. Big oversight spending time with Mallory outside the office. Now he was noticing her lips.
After glancing at the caller ID, Mallory said, “Good, it’s Elizabeth. I’ll ask her more about the dinner party.”
***
“I think I’ll get a muffin. Would you like one?”
“No, thank you.” After Mallory held the cell phone to her ear, she said, “Hi, Elizabeth. What’s up?”
“Heather said she told you about the dinner party. I think it’ll be lots of fun. Don’t you?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m looking forward to it. Is it okay if I bring my plastic surgeon? He’s perfect for Heather.” Mallory mentioned that fact quickly because she didn’t want Elizabeth to assume she was interested in him for herself.
“You just made my life easier. I was trying to think of someone for Heather.”
She groaned. “Oh no, that means you are having this dinner party for me to see what a great guy Jeremy is.”
“Cut the dramatics.” Elizabeth laughed. “You already knew that. Seriously, I think you and Jeremy would make a cute couple.”
“But—”
“But you’re not interested in Jeremy. Yes, I know. I hear you. You sure you aren’t falling for your surgeon.”
“Of course not. I just met him.”
“Hey, if he’s willing to come, then he must be smitten with you. Maybe he’ll give you a discount.”
“It’d be nice to get a lower price, but I wouldn’t use him like that.” She was worried now. Was Dr. Whitman attracted to her? She figured he didn’t have anything better to do on a Friday night and just hated to go home to an empty place. When he’d asked her to Starbucks, she decided to accept because she wasn’t having the weekly dinner with the girls. Also she’d already missed Toby, so accepting his coffee invitation delayed her trip home. The house would be so empty without Josh. Don’t be ridiculous. He couldn’t think I’m interested in him. I mentioned not wanting to date.
“He can be your backup guy if you dismiss Jeremy as a possible boyfriend. By the way, Jeremy’s great with kids.”
Dear Lord, Elizabeth’s wearing me down by constantly trying to fix me up with someone. Please help her to realize that I’m not comfortable with the whole dating thing again. Thank you, Lord, for your blessed help. “Oh yeah, what night did you want to have it?”
“I’m thinking a week from this Saturday. Does that sound good to you?”
“It’s okay with me. You can tell me later where and all the details.” She saw Dr. Whitman carrying two muffins to their table. “I have to go, Elizabeth. I’ll tell Dr. Whitman he’s invited.” After a quick bye, she set her phone on the table and said, “Elizabeth’s happy to include you in her plans.”
“I didn’t want to eat alone and these muffins are good for you. They have berries in them and are low calorie. Not that you need to lose any weight, but I’ve heard Amy say often enough how the other muffins have too many calories for her to enjoy.” Dr. Whitman handed her a muffin.
His fingers touched hers before releasing the muffin. Just this slight gesture suddenly seemed too special. What was she doing having coffee with her doctor?
“It occurred to me while I waited in line that you need to call me Seth at the dinner. I know your friends realize you came to see me about plastic surgery, but what about your minister friend?”
He wants me to call him Seth. Things were getting personal, but really would
it matter if she called him by his first name instead of Dr. Whitman. And he was thoughtful to think ahead about how she should introduce him to Jeremy. She grinned. “It might be weird to call you doctor instead of by your first name, especially since it’s with my friends and not a business event. I’ll call you Seth and please call me Mallory.”
He removed the muffin from the paper holder. “Do we need to have a story ready on how we met?”
Her grin widened. “What story did you have in mind?”
Chapter Five
“Hey, stories should be up your alley. You’re the English teacher.”
“I don’t know how to say we met. But Jeremy might not ask. If he should ask what you do, just say you’re a surgeon. And don’t offer any additional information.” Geez, she couldn’t believe how bossy she sounded. And she just met Dr. Whitman…or Seth.
He swallowed a mouthful of muffin. “How about we pretend that we don’t know each other?”
She raised her eyebrows. “We don’t know each other. Sure, we’ve met as doctor and patient. And you can look at my patient information form I filled out to learn more about me…by the way, you know how women lie a bit when they answer the weight question on the medical forms, well, I didn’t. Just so you know.” She didn’t want Seth to think she was one of those women who lied about their age and weight. Although she had lied once about her weight for her driver’s license, and afterwards had felt so guilty. Toby had told her that was ridiculous since she’d been pregnant at the time and wouldn’t be that weight for long. She hadn’t believed him so had called Elizabeth. For once, she’d agreed with Toby that no one would expect her to put the pregnancy weight on her license.
“I never thought you lied about your weight.”
She frowned. “You looked at my weight.”
“I might have glanced at it.” He gave her an embarrassed look. “Okay, I did look at it. But you have a nice weight. I mean you’re a perfect size.”
“I think you are too. Your weight, I mean.”
“Back to explaining how I was invited—”
She broke off a piece of muffin. “I think you’re enjoying this whole situation.”
He chuckled. “It’s not everyday that a patient on her first visit invites me to a dinner party.”
“You’re right. I’m surprised I did but you’re single and Heather’s single. Like I mentioned, they might not be so occupied with fixing me up with Jeremy if you go. You’ll be someone new, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy meeting my friends.”
“We can have Heather introduce me to Jeremy. Since she’s a nurse, he’ll assume that’s why I was invited.”
“Okay, but I don’t want to lie.” She grinned. “Especially to a minister.”
“You better warn your friends to keep quiet. I have a feeling they might let it slip.”
She nodded. “I better. Elizabeth’s pretty chatty.”
“I did have an ulterior motive in going to this dinner party, but now I might not be able to capitalize on it.”
“Okay, you have my attention. What’s the motive?”
“I was going to pass out business cards, and tell them I’ll give $100 off the price of any plastic surgery they have.”
He couldn’t be serious. Could he? She assumed he had plenty of patients all the time. She stared at him, noticing his amused eyes. He was teasing her. She’d play his game. “I want a business card and $100 off my surgery…or wait, I invited you to this event so I should get more off.”
“I guess it’s negotiable.”
She laughed. “Fess up. Obviously, you were kidding about passing out cards about your practice. You mentioned having a story ready to avoid telling them the truth.”
“You caught me.” He paused to sip his coffee. “So where is this dinner thing?”
“I don’t think Elizabeth knows yet. I’ll call you when she decides.” Maybe she should talk Heather up to Seth. Her friend deserved someone like him. He seemed like a super guy. Too bad she couldn’t date him. And he was easy on the eyes. Actually he was even better looking than the photo on his website. She had a cute photo of Heather in her purse. She pulled her wallet out of her bag and flipped to a picture. “I thought you might like to see what Heather looks like.”
He leaned across the table.
Pointing to Heather, she said, “She’s the one with black hair. And Elizabeth’s the blonde.”
“That’s a nice shot of all of you. The hiking trail in the background looks familiar to me. Was it taken at Kelleys Island?”
She nodded. “We like the trails there. Heather’s a great hiker. Do you like to hike?”
“I do. My family used to go camping a lot when I was a child. And we went to Kelleys Island.” He took another look at the photo. “I heard they built a new boardwalk to the North Pond Nature Preserve. I’ll have to go and check it out sometime.”
“Were you tent or RV campers?”
“For a few years, we roughed it and had a tent. Later though my parents did get an Apache popup trailer. Did you go camping as a child?”
“My mom and I never camped, but I went a few times with Heather and her family. Toby and I went once before Josh was born.” She glanced at her watch. “I better head home. Thank you for the coffee and muffin.”
“You’re welcome. I enjoyed talking with you.” His blue eyes twinkled. “You’re an interesting person, Mallory. And you weren’t even under anesthesia.”
“I thought you said I wouldn’t be put to sleep for my surgery.”
“You won’t be. I couldn’t resist a little medical humor. I’ll get those pictures emailed to you soon. In the meantime, if you think of any questions give me a call.”
She crumbled up her napkin and shoved it in the empty cup. Maybe she should apologize for being so pushy. “I’m sorry if I was a little too assertive about the dinner party. If you decide not to go, I won’t hold it against you.” She smiled at him. “I’ll still have you do my nose job.”
“I want to go to the party. It sounds like fun.”
***
The phone rang just as Mallory finished grading a stack of papers at the kitchen table late Saturday morning. Upon answering it, she noticed Toby’s voice was upbeat. Whatever had caused him to sound remorseful and urgent when speaking to her over a week ago wasn’t present now. What had changed? Hopefully, he was calling because he wanted to get together to tell her what was going on in his life. And it better not be about Samantha. Why couldn’t his girlfriend break up with him and instead find a nice single guy to see without an ex-wife and child? It was too soon for Toby to be serious about someone. Didn’t he care about Josh’s feelings? He needed time to adjust to his parents not living together. Adjusting to another woman in his dad’s life was overwhelming.
Toby said, “So is it okay if I come over this afternoon while Josh’s at the movies with Billy?”
Mallory missed the part where Toby had said what movie Billy’s mother planned on taking them to, but she didn’t see any problem. In the past, Billy’s parents had always taken the boys only to suitable G rated movies. “Sure. I’d like that. I’ve been anxious to hear your news. I was disappointed I missed you last night. We could’ve gone and got coffee or something while Mom watched Josh.”
“How about I bring your favorite ice cream?”
Visions of scoops of chocolate almond ice cream from Dietsch Brothers appeared in her head. But she should refuse. If his news wasn’t good, she’d get upset and eat too much. She wanted to keep her weight off so said, “Thanks but I’ll pass. I’m watching my calories.”
“Hey, I noticed you lost weight. I meant to mention it last Sunday.”
Hearing Toby say that he’d realized she’d looked smaller made her loss all worth it. “I lost fifteen pounds. What time do you think you’ll be here?”
“I’m dropping Josh off at Billy’s at two, so will be at your place around two twenty.”
“Did you and Josh go out for breakfast this morning?” She’d thought of call
ing to see if she could join the boys for their usual Saturday morning at IHOP. Not only had she wanted to spend time with Toby, but she missed her little guy.
“No, Josh wanted to stay here and watch cartoons. I fixed my famous omelets.”
“I always loved your omelets.”
He chuckled. “That’s not true. What about the time you said I put too much pepper on the eggs? Plus you didn’t like the cheese I used.”
“You did put too much pepper on it that time. And I didn’t like my eggs loaded with parmesan cheese. You must have used half the jar. But I understood why you sprinkled the omelet with parmesan cheese when you were making me a pizza egg.”
“It’s good Josh appreciates my cooking since he’s here every weekend.”
What did that mean? Did Toby resent having their son on the weekends? When they were getting the divorce, he’d insisted on having Josh on a weekly basis and sharing custody. They both decided Toby’s law practice required long hours during the week, so Friday and Saturday was the best arrangement. But that was before Samantha had entered the picture. “I guess you seeing Samantha on weekends is being cramped with Josh around. Did you fix her breakfast too?”
“No, she’s not here. And to put your active mind to rest, she never spends the night. I know how you feel about that and I agree. Also we aren’t in a serious relationship. We haven’t known each other that long. Remember?”
Yeah, she remembered. She felt socked in her gut when she learned he was dating before the ink was dry on their divorce papers. She hadn’t expected him to start seeing someone so quickly. After Toby mentioned meeting Samantha to her, she’d driven the next day to the fitness center to see what the new woman in Toby’s life look like. She’d gone during her planning period so Toby wouldn’t be there. Obviously, it would be bad to be checking out Toby’s new romantic interest while he was there. He might think she was being a bit obsessive to want to see Samantha already. Okay, more than a bit. Fortunately, she observed Samantha while she led a Pilates class. No one had been the wiser.