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Once more with feeling, Mac thought as he made his way to the staff lounge. This time, nothing was going to stop him from making it out of his lab coat and out of the hospital.
Nothing but the sound of raised voices.
He heard the conversation as he made his way down the corridor.
A gruff voice was strained with impatience as Mac heard the man retort, “Look, I don’t need any of your lip, lady. You took care of him, great. Send the insurance company the bill. Wasn’t me who told him to stick his face in front of Hugo’s muzzle. I can’t be watching the kid 24/7, I’ve got my own life, my own problems to keep me busy. Damn kid’s old enough to know better.”
Turning the corner, less than fifteen feet shy of the rear electronic doors and freedom, Mac saw a tall, fairly muscular man with a weather-hewn face talking to Wanda. Or more properly, at Wanda. He was obviously giving the head nurse a hard time.
She looked as if she was having trouble hanging onto her temper, Mac noted, which was unusual, given that Wanda was one of the most easygoing people he knew. The man’s clothes had the appearance of being hastily donned, and he had one large hand clamped tightly down on Tommy’s small wrist.
The man gave Mac the impression that he would think nothing of yanking Tommy up by his arm like a rag doll that had fallen on disfavor.
Not your problem, Mac, just keep walking. Door’s ready to open for you.
Mac didn’t listen to his own advice.
Instead he stopped in front of Wanda and the boisterous stranger, pausing first to smile down at Tommy. The boy looked up at him with huge, frightened eyes, a beaten puppy looking for a single show of kindness.
“Problem, Wanda?” Mac asked in a deceptively easygoing voice.
The look in Wanda’s eyes was nothing short of grateful relief. “This is Tommy’s stepfather, Paul Allen.” Mac could tell she wanted to say something more, but she only added, “He came here looking for him.”
Obviously not in the mood for any further introductions or delays, the other man frowned so deeply, it looked as if the expression went clear down to his bones and was permanently etched there.
“Had a hell of a time finding him,” Allen complained. He glared down at the boy tethered to his hand. “Kid keeps running away.”
Mac continued to keep his tone friendly, but there was no mistaking his meaning. “In my experience, kids don’t run away when they’re not unhappy.”
The remark earned Mac an annoyed glare. “‘In my experience”’ he echoed, “pain in the butt ones do.” The man’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized him. “What are you, the roving shrink around here?”
“No,” Mac replied evenly for Tommy’s sake, “I’m the doctor who fixed his face.”
Tommy’s stepfather blew out a short breath. “Yeah, well thanks,” he spat the words out as if they cost him, then gave Tommy a short yank to wake him up. “Let’s go, kid.”
“Just a minute,” Mac called after him, then took a couple of quick steps to catch up. “We’re not finished yet.”
The other man didn’t appreciate being detained any longer, especially not over someone he considered an impediment in his life. “Maybe you’re not, but I am, Doc. I’ve got dinner waiting for me and the dog needs to be fed—”
That wasn’t all that the dog needed, Mac thought. But he knew that getting into it over the animal wasn’t going to accomplish anything. His main concern was the boy’s welfare and this was going to need kid gloves. “Your son needs more operations—”
Allen spared a malevolent look in Tommy’s direction. As far as he was concerned, the boy had been nothing but trouble from day one. “Oh he does, does he? What kind of operations?”
Mac didn’t want to get into any long explanations in front of Tommy. Besides, he had a feeling that most of it would be wasted on the man in front of him. He put it as simply as he could.
Or tried to.
“The scar is going to have to be—”
Allen stopped him right there. He didn’t have money to throw away on vanity surgery. “Scars are good for a kid. Builds character. Maybe nobody’ll mess with him when they see it.” And then he laughed harshly as he threw Tommy a disparaging look. “Kid’s a wimp, he needs something—”
Before he could say another word, the man found himself being strong-armed over to the side and pressed against the wall. Taken by surprise, Allen let go of Tommy’s wrist.
Mac was holding him put with a strategically placed elbow to his chest.
“Hey, what the hell—?”
Mac kept his voice low, even and almost moderately friendly sounding to the untrained ear. But Wanda and Jorge, who had come out to see what the noise was about, knew better.
“Now listen to me carefully, Mr. Allen. A little boy’s self-esteem is a fragile thing. From what I hear, Tommy’s already lost his mother and he very nearly lost his face today thanks to your dog. He’s terrified of that animal. In my book, that means you owe him a little more consideration than he’s been getting. Now he’s going to need reconstructive surgery on that cheek once the stitches heal. I want you to bring him by my office for a consultation in two weeks. You can come here, or to the office I have in the building across the street.”
Taking a business card out of his jacket, Mac thrust it into Allen’s shirt pocket.
Furious, knowing he was probably outmatched, Allen still fumed. “And if I don’t come—”
Mac had expected the challenge. “Trust me, Mr. Allen, you don’t want me to come looking for you. And in case you’re thinking you can take me, you can’t. I’ve got a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.” He patted Allen’s shirt pocket with the card in it. “Do we understand one another?”
The breath Allen exhaled was hot and pungent. “I can have you sued—”
Very calmly, Mac turned toward the head nurse. “Wanda, don’t forget to call the animal control department so they can check out Mr. Allen’s dog for distemper. And while you’re at it, get in touch with social services. They said they wanted to be called if there was possible child abuse and negligence suspected.”
Jerking away, Allen moved over to the side and straightened his shirt. “All right.”
“All right what?” Mac asked amiably.
Allen fired each word out as if it was a bullet. “All right we understand each other.”
The smile on Mac’s face was cold as he regarded the other man. “Good.” And then he squatted down to Tommy’s level and took the boy’s hand in his. Mac pressed another card into the boy’s palm, closing his fingers over it. “And you can call me anytime you want to talk—night or day. Got that?”
Tommy solemnly nodded his head. There was a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes. And more than a little affection.
Taking Tommy’s hand, the boy’s stepfather glared at Mac. “Can we go now?”
Mac spread his hands wide. “Never said you couldn’t.” Muttering something angrily under his breath, Allen turned away. “Two weeks,” Mac called after him in a voice that sounded as if his greatest concern in the world was what to have for dinner that night.
Wanda pressed her lips together, shaking her head. “Never did know what Jane saw in that man.”
Mac had never met the late nurse, but he took a philosophical guess at her reason for marrying a man who was clearly not one of the kinder citizens of the world. “Maybe she saw something in him that we can’t.”
Wanda could only shrug, resigned to ignorance. “Maybe. You know, if you hadn’t come along, I would have decked that man.”
“Now that I would have paid to see.” Mac laughed. “Good night, Wanda,” he said cheerfully.
He got exactly two feet farther in his escape when someone called out to him.
“Oh, Dr. Mac, could you—?”
Mac didn’t even turn around. Instead he stepped up his pace.
“Nope, no way.” He raised his hands as if to ward off anything else that might be coming his way. “I’m out of here. Now.”
He hurried out through the rear doors before someone else managed to waylay him. The place, he decided, was harder to shed than a wad of gum stuck in a little girl’s hair.
Just on the other side of the doors, Jolene watched him make his way out of the immediate parking area toward the larger one reserved for doctors. She thought of the last comment he’d made to her when his pager went off.
“Well, he certainly is in a hurry to get to his date,” she said to Wanda.
One more hour to go, Wanda thought, rounding the main desk and claiming her chair. Not that she got that much opportunity to sit at this job. In her mind’s eye, she replayed Mac pushing Tommy’s stepfather against the wall. She could have cheered. No doubt about it, Mac was her hero. After the father of her children, of course she added with a mental smile.
She flipped open a chart. “Man deserves to play hard after the day he put in.”
From everything Rebecca had said to her, playing hard was never a problem for the good doctor. “Nothing he didn’t sign on for by going to medical school,” Jolene commented.
Wanda looked up. Dr. Mac didn’t need her to defend him, but she felt a need to say something, especially after he had come to Tommy’s aid that way. She had a very soft spot in her heart for the boy. “As far as I know, they don’t give a course on how to handle self-centered bastards.”
Jolene thought of her own ex. And a few physicians she’d had run-ins with along the way. “They should start,” she agreed, “by setting up a series of classes in nursing school.”
Wanda said nothing, just laughed. These two, she thought, were on a collision course. It was just a matter of time.
And if she was lucky, she was going to have herself a ticket on the fifty-yard line. It was something to look forward to.
Mac frowned.
Ordinarily he could compartmentalize his thoughts and place them out of the way, sequestering them to the far recesses of his mind where they couldn’t bother him. It was the foundation for his ability to be able to both work hard and play hard, each of which he found important to maintaining a healthy outlook on life and a good balance in his life.
But even as he found himself in the company of a voluptuous woman whose morals appeared to be as easily shed as a pair of sunglasses, Mac was preoccupied. His thoughts were continually being kidnapped by a small boy with huge eyes and a drop-dead gorgeous nurse with an attitude problem.
Several times in the evening, Lynda had to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention.
The evening had ended the way neither one of them would have imagined. He kissed the woman good-night and left her at her door even after she’d invited him in for a nightcap and whatever else might follow. Twice.
Frustrated, Lynda shouted after him. “I liked you better in the elevator.” The pronouncement was followed by a thunderous slamming of her front door that rocked the night air.
He made a mental note to send her flowers and a short apology. She deserved more than half a date.
And he, Mac thought, getting back into his car, deserved to know what it was about Jolene DeLuca that crawled under his skin and remained there, like an unfortunate brush with poison oak.
Mac slipped out of his lab coat and hung it in his locker. A week had gone by without his having run into the feisty San Francisco transplant. Eight days to be exact.
He figured it was just as well. There was no sense, as his mother had once said, in borrowing trouble.
Except that Margaret MacKenzie had been talking about the institution of marriage at the time. She maintained that the state of matrimony was not worth the trouble it generated.
Remembering now, he shook his head. It was one of the few times he ever recalled his parents being in agreement.
More than once, he’d wondered how and why the two of them had ever gotten together in the first place. Granted they’d been a handsome couple back then, still were when they’d finally decided to give the sham they referred to as a marriage a mercy killing. But he had always thought that marriage had to be based on something far more substantial than liking the looks of the face you woke up next to in the morning.
His relationship with either of his parents wasn’t such that he could ask one or the other for any insight. The only person in his family he’d ever been close to when he was growing up was Carrie.
The same held now. But even Carrie’s happy marriage didn’t change his mind about the institution in general. Marriage wasn’t for him, not even remotely.
At an early age, Mac had come to the conclusion that there was a reason it bore the label of Institution. Institutions were places meant to restrain you, to keep you away from life in general. Prisons were institutions designed to separate the inmates from the rest of life. Marriage did the same. It imprisoned you, kept you from being happy while it sucked out your very soul, leaving behind an empty, useless shell.
Maudlin thoughts, Mac mused.
He walked down the corridor toward the rear of the hospital. He wasn’t prone to maudlin thoughts. In general, he was blessed with an upbeat nature.
Had to be the weather, he decided. After three years of dry, almost droughtlike winters, Southern California was finally experiencing a November that was more typical for the region. It had been monsooning off and on all month. Out of the last thirty days, eighteen had been inclement. And according to the weatherman, it didn’t look as if there was a letup in sight.
Certainly not today. Rain had been coming in like a gate crasher each time the rear doors opened all through his shift.
Stopping before the doors, Mac stood for a moment as they opened before him, just watching the sheets of rain coming down. The parking lot closest to the building looked as if it was going to be submerged any minute.
The gutters had to be clogged again, he thought.
The problem with living in an environment that typically saw rain only a few months a year, if that, was that people grew lax about things like sewer systems and gutters.
He’d heard that traffic accidents on the freeways were up, as well. People tended to want to escape the rain and drove with less caution than usual.
“Trying to cool down the rest of the hospital, Dr. Mac?” Jorge asked him.
When Mac looked at him, raising an inquiring brow at his meaning, the man nodded at the black rubber mat beneath his feet.
“You do know you gotta step off that if you want the doors to close again.”
Max laughed at the well-intentioned jibe. “Just bracing myself for the run to my car, Jorge.”
Jorge peered outside. At the far end of the lot, a car drove by sending a three-foot-high splash flying in their direction.
“Gonna get wet, braced or not,” Jorge told him philosophically.
Looking over Jorge’s shoulder, Mac saw Jolene hurrying in their direction. Preoccupied, she didn’t appear to see him. He’d made inquiries and knew that her shift was over for the evening, as well. Timing couldn’t have been better. She was carrying an umbrella in her hand.
“Truer words were never spoken.” He raised his voice slightly, getting her attention. “But if I wait for a lovely lady to come by with an umbrella, I won’t get wet at all.”
Picking up the cue, Jorge turned around and nodded a greeting just as Jolene joined them.
Jolene’s glance swept suspiciously from one man to the other. The last time two men had looked at her like that, they’d been hoping to borrow her Organic Chemistry notes in college. “What?”
Despite the rather cool interaction he’d endured earlier, Mac smiled at her. “Going home?”
Her response was guarded. She’d heard about what had happened with Tommy’s father the other day, everyone at the hospital had. And she had to admit she’d been impressed. But that still didn’t change her opinion about doctors in general and MacKenzie in particular.
“And if I am?”
Mac looked at the tan umbrella she was carrying. It matched her raincoat. “I thought you might want to do the neighborly thing and share your umbrella so I can get to my car without getting soaked.”
Though he wanted to watch, Jorge tactfully withdrew. He liked Dr. Mac, but his money was on Nurse DeLuca. As a rule, men didn’t like to be seen losing and he could relate to that.
“See you,” he said cheerfully, leaving.
“Bye,” Jolene murmured, but her attention was on the man who had designs on her umbrella—mainly, she knew, as a means to an end. Today her umbrella, tomorrow her clothes. “Number one, we don’t live in the hospital, so we’re not neighbors,” she pointed out. “And number two, it was raining this morning, how did you keep from getting wet then?”
“I didn’t.”
His smile was definitely too engaging, too disarming, she thought, annoyed. She had to keep reminding herself that she wasn’t easily taken in this way.
With effort, she shrugged disinterestedly. “Guess you’ll just have to get wet again.”
Mac shifted so that he was in front of her, blocking her way. The wind was coming from the opposite direction and no longer finding its way in through the opened doors. “Aren’t you up for a good deed, Nurse Frosty?”
The look she gave him could have frozen a bonfire. “I already gave at the office.”
Moving around him, she opened her umbrella and took a step out. She could feel him looking at her with eyes that were soft and soulful. Annoyed with herself, she relented and turned around.
“Oh, all right, c’mon,” she bit off. When he was quick to join her, she discovered that there wasn’t as much room beneath her oversize umbrella as she’d thought. He was standing much too close. “Where’s your car?”
He pointed off into the distance, beyond the security guard’s post. “In the other lot.”
Jolene sighed. It figured. “Mine’s right over here.” She indicated a small, red Honda.
Peppy and reliable, he thought, looking at the vehicle. He wondered if the same could be said for its owner.
“Good.” He slipped his arm through hers. “Then you can drive me.”
Jolene stiffened immediately, shrugging him off. “It’s not going to work, you know.”
His look was a mixture of raindrops and innocence. “What’s not going to work?”
“You trying to charm your way into anything,” she informed him. “I’ve had my shots against people like you.”
He was tempted to ask her just what she meant by that, but then let it go. “Everyone should always keep their inoculations up-to-date. But all I’m trying to charm my way into is your car.”
Step one, she thought. “Why didn’t you bring an umbrella?” she asked again.
He liked looking into her eyes. They were so green, they reminded him of fields of clover. He could easily get lost in them. “Didn’t think I was going to need it.”
She stared at him incredulously. “It was raining this morning.”
When she wrinkled her brow like that, a small vertical line formed just above her eyes. He had the urge to smooth it out with the tip of his finger. He kept his hands at his side. “What can I tell you? I’m an optimistic kind of guy.”
They had reached her car. She gave him a disdainful look. “That wouldn’t be my word for it.”
“Are you always this easy to talk to?”
She hit her security beeper. All four locks popped open. “This is my car, you getting in or not?”
“Since you put it so nicely—” He saw the look she gave him, like she was going to jump in and leave him standing there. “I’m in, I’m in.” He laughed as he quickly pulled the door open. Getting in, he put on the seat belt and settled back for the short ride to his own car. “So, what happened in your life after you were voted Miss Congeniality?”
She put her key into the ignition. “I scalped my first doctor.”
“Ouch.”
“Exactly.” Starting the car, she pulled out of the parking spot.
Chapter Four
Jolene brought her vehicle to a sudden halt before Mac’s car. If the stop had been any more abrupt, Mac had a feeling his head might have snapped off at the neck.
“I take it you were a race car driver in your former life.” Even though she made no reply, he wasn’t in a hurry to get out. Her car was shuddering and bucking like a mustang anxious to be let out of the rodeo chute. “You might think about having that vibration checked out.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it under advisement,” she retorted crisply, already regretting her good deed. If there was any kind of traffic on the freeway—and she knew it was too messy for there not to be—she was going to wind up being late.
“Well, thanks for the ride, we’ve got to do this again sometime.” With his fingers wrapped around the handle, he made no effort to open the door.
“Do you mind?” Exasperated, Jolene nodded toward the door he hadn’t opened yet. “I’m in a hurry.”
Mac cocked his head, curious. “Hot date?” What kind of a man warmed Nurse Icicle’s toes and melted her resistance? he wondered.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not allowed to ask questions like that.”
“Sorry.” There was nothing left to do but get out, which he did. By the time he turned around and leaned in, he was soaked. “Thanks again.”
“Don’t mention it,” she snapped, leaning over and pulling the door out of his hand. Once it was shut, she lost no time in driving away.
“Lovely woman,” Mac murmured under his breath. Fishing out his key, he unlocked his car door.
He’d no sooner gotten in and strapped on the seat belt than his cell phone rang. Trying to extract it from his rear pocket without removing the seat belt was an exercise in futility. As he unbuckled again and reached for the phone, he hoped it wasn’t an emergency of some sort. He was looking forward to getting to bed early tonight and catching up on a month’s worth of lost sleep.
He placed the phone next to his ear. “MacKenzie.”
“Dr. Mac?”
The uncertain, childish voice on the other end of the receiver sounded as if it was just an inch away from dissolving into sobs. He took a guess. “Tommy?”
“Uh-huh.”
Immediately alert, Mac sat up. “What’s wrong? Where are you?” Visions of a Doberman foaming at the mouth popped into his head. Was the boy cornered? He’d gotten to a telephone, which meant he had to be relatively safe. For the moment at any rate. He thought of the boy’s stepfather. Mac’s heart went cold. “You sound like you’re upset.”
A sniffing noise met his observation. “I’m home, Dr. Mac.” The boy lowered his voice so no one else could hear. “My dad says the surgery’s gonna cost too much, that I can’t have it.” There was silence for a moment. “Am I gonna be a freak forever?”
Mac could feel his heart constricting and struggled with the overwhelming desire to punch Allen’s face in for playing games with the boy’s head. But that wouldn’t help Tommy any.
“No, and you’re not a freak now. You just have a scar, that’s all,” he said firmly. “And don’t worry about the cost, Tommy. Something can be arranged.”
Blair Memorial was first and foremost a nonprofit facility that prided itself on giving back to the community. That was one of the primary reasons Mac had joined the staff in the first place. He could have never been associated with a hospital whose first allegiance was to its board. Mac was confident that he could talk to Blair’s chief administration officer and make arrangements for Tommy’s surgery.
The boy didn’t need this extra weight to carry around with him, he thought angrily. What the hell was wrong with Allen?
“Just tell your stepdad to make sure to bring you in for your appointment and we’ll iron out everything then.” It irked him to add, “Tell him not to worry about paying,” not because he cared about the money, but because he knew that he was saying exactly what Tommy’s stepfather wanted to hear. It definitely wasn’t his intent to make the man happy, but there was no way around it if Mac wanted to help the boy.
He could almost hear the boy struggling with his thoughts. “My stepdad says people don’t do nice things for other people without a reason.”
Mac didn’t doubt that the dark philosophy was something Allen was trying to force upon the boy. “I’ve got a reason, Tommy. I want to see you smile. Big-time. That’s my fee, Tommy, a great big, wide grin. Think you can muster a big grin for me?”