A Time To Mend

Chapter Four

An eagle rode hot updrafts rising from the lake and Jonah Martin put down the medical journal he’d been studying and looked up at the sky. Insects whirred from the trees above him, and the distant sound of food being scraped from a picnic plate dulled the cutting edge of his loneliness. Somewhere overhead a jet whispered through the cloudless sky, reminding him for the briefest of moments that he hadn’t been home…in a long time.

A sudden scream chilled him to the marrow. Out on the lake, a young woman on skis had fallen and was now splashing and screaming for help. For an instant his pulse quickened and his hands tingled in the old adrenaline rush he remembered from his stint in the E.R., then the woman’s scream turned to laughter and Jonah saw that her head and shoulders were safely above water. She wore a buoyant life vest, a skier’s best friend. Her boyfriend fussed loudly as he turned the boat to pick her up.

“Yeah, hurry back,” Jonah murmured as he lowered his eyes again to the reports he had intended to study on his day off. “Don’t keep her waiting, buddy, or you’ll be sorry.”

He reached under his sunglasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, consoling himself with the reminder that he’d learned his lesson. He’d been sorry every single time he’d ever become involved with a woman. Christine, the love of his high school and college years, had been more eager for a ring on her finger than for him. Marriage during medical school and internship wouldn’t be practical or fair to either of them, he had warned her; he’d be under tremendous pressure and working long shifts at the hospital. And if their love was real, it could stand the test of time….

But Christine didn’t want to put love to the test. He’d received her letter the week after his arrival at medical school; she’d found someone else, an aspiring lawyer from Georgia, a boy willing to marry her right away. “He doesn’t mind that we’ll be married during his law school years,” she had written, and Jonah idly wondered if she realized she’d be financially supporting her new husband as he finished his education. He hadn’t wanted to place that kind of burden on her. He was a doctor; he had years of schooling and hard work before he could seriously consider establishing a home. And so, after receiving Christine’s letter, he had guarded his heart against romantic entanglements.

He should have learned his lesson then, but he was a normal red-blooded male, and women, for some unaccountable reason, were drawn to him. He’d once heard a professor warn about the tendency for female patients to fall in love with their doctors, but Jonah had always found that his patients—mostly older women—thought of him more like a son than a love interest. His patients were no threat.

But other women worried him. Ever since the incident at the University of Virginia Hospital, he’d been careful to keep younger women at arm’s length. He had been naive and completely innocent in his UVA days, but one nurse he dated told a different—and totally fabricated—story. He’d smelled mischief on her as strong as the cheap scent she wore, so after one disastrous date he ignored her advances. Later, he tried to ignore her threats…and found that he could not.

And so began his troubles. His running. Now he was an expert at recognizing the lazily seductive glance that signaled trouble, and it always seemed easier to remove himself from a situation than to call for someone else’s job.

Besides, people always believed the woman.

So now he found himself sitting by a lake in Central Florida, one county away from Mickey Mouse, blocks from the southern belles who wore hoop skirts and talked with accents as thick and sweet as honey. Now he was the doctor he’d always dreamed of becoming, and the work here was fulfilling, even if it was lonely. From day one, he’d established a strong rapport with his patients and a frigid enmity with the women at the clinic—especially Jacquelyn Wilkes, whom he found particularly unsettling. He’d been harder on her than the others, though he couldn’t say what drove him to alienate her so ruthlessly. Perhaps it was her skill, her quiet competence…then again, maybe it was those green eyes.

“Hurry, Craig! I can’t hear him breathing!”

A familiar voice jangled across his nerves, nudging him out of his musings. Jonah dropped his magazine and stood. Jacquelyn Wilkes and a man were coming from the picnic area; the man staggered under the weight of a blanket-wrapped body in his arms. From the look of the sagging form in the blanket, the patient was a heavy adult, possibly a drowning victim….

Without hesitating, Jonah unclipped his cell phone and dialed 911. “We need an ambulance sent to the picnic area at Lake Silver, stat,” he told the dispatcher, then he disconnected and sprinted to intersect Jacquelyn’s path.

“Nurse Wilkes!” he called, falling into step beside her. “What’s the problem?”

For the first time he could recall, she looked at him with honest appreciation in her eyes. “Dr. Martin, thank goodness! I don’t know what the problem is.” Her eyes were wide with fear as she continued jogging toward the parking lot. “Heatstroke, I think, or maybe snakebite.”

Jonah nodded. “Pulse? Breath sounds?”

“Pulse is strong, but slowing,” Jacquelyn answered, huffing. “Breath sounds are erratic.”

“Puncture wounds?”

“None that I could see. But I didn’t look closely, there wasn’t time. His breathing was so erratic—”

The wail of sirens cut through the summer afternoon as an ambulance screeched to a halt in the parking lot.

The thimble-shaped man carrying the victim stopped abruptly and sent Jonah a crooked smile. “You called an ambulance?”

“Of course.” Jonah frowned, unable to understand the man’s expression, but there was no time to consider the quirks of Jacquelyn Wilkes’s friends. The emergency medical technicians were spilling out of the vehicle, and a curious crowd had begun to gather.

“Possible heatstroke or snakebite,” Jonah called, hurrying forward. He pulled the back doors of the truck open himself. “I’m a doctor, and I’d be happy to ride with the patient to the E.R.”

“Is this the victim?” one of the rescuers asked, pointing down the path.

Jonah turned and followed the man’s gaze. Jacquelyn and her friend were approaching, the blanket-wrapped body still in the man’s arms. “Yes,” Jonah answered, reaching for the stretcher. “Let me give you a hand.”

“Jacquelyn,” the burly man panted, halting with his burden. His flush deepened to crimson before the eyes of the curious crowd. “You’ve got to tell them.”

Jacquelyn lifted the blanket. “Tell them what?”

Jonah’s nerves tensed as the blanket fell away. The face resting on the man’s shoulder was black and furry; a velvet ear trailed over his arm. Long, lanky limbs pointed toward the sky, and a limp tail drooped out the side of the blanket. Jacquelyn Wilkes’s boyfriend was cradling the most massive dog Jonah had ever seen.

Someone in the crowd of onlookers snickered and one of the paramedics turned away to hide a smile. The other EMT’s face purpled in sudden anger. “What’s this?” He turned to Jonah. “You called us out here to tend to a mutt?”

Jonah held up his hand, but couldn’t think of a single word to offer in explanation. The red-faced man lowered the dog to the ground, then stood back, his arms folded tight across his chest. From the expression on his sweaty face, Jonah knew the man was wishing he could melt into the growing crowd and disappear.

At that moment Jonah could have walked happily into the crowd himself and wished the day away. But his traitorous eyes moved to the place where she stood, clenching and unclenching her hands, copper curls clinging damply to her forehead and the nape of her neck, her eyes welling like a stormy sea.

A jolt of sudden and unexpected desire forced him to look away. Jacquelyn Wilkes was a beautiful and desirable woman, reason enough for him to avoid her. She thoroughly disliked him, of that he was certain. Her dislike he could handle, he could even welcome it. He could work with her frigidity, aversion, even disgust…

But she’d honestly hate him if he didn’t help her now. One look in her eyes had convinced him that the dog, mutt or not, was precious to her. And if she hated Jonah, she’d want to destroy him. It’d be only a few months before he was adding yet another hospital to his résumé.

“Please, Doctor. Will you help him?” If Jonah had any doubts, they vanished when Jacquelyn spoke in the fragile and shaking voice he’d heard a thousand times from his patients.

Ignoring the flustered paramedics, he knelt to examine the animal.

“What happened?” he asked, lifting one of the dog’s eyelids. The jowls at the sides of the animal’s mouth had swollen, and the dog seemed to have difficulty drawing breath. Jonah abruptly brought his hand through the dog’s line of vision and noted that the animal’s blink reflex had slowed to almost nothing.

“I can’t see any puncture wounds,” Jacquelyn said, her voice choked with urgency and rising panic.

Jonah gently lifted the swollen jowls and peered into the dog’s mouth. A layer of white foam covered the teeth and gums, but after wiping the substance away he observed tiny red blisters flaring angrily along the pink flesh.

“I’d say the dog got into a nest,” he said, gently lowering the animal’s head. “Wasps or bees. This is probably an allergic reaction.”

“Allergies?” Jacquelyn looked at him with blank eyes. “But…that can be fatal! If his esophagus closes up—”

Jonah looked up at the red-faced ambulance driver. “Take us to the E.R.,” he said, pulling his wallet and ID from the pocket of his shorts. “I’m Dr. Jonah Martin. I’ll be responsible.”

“No way.” The driver planted his feet and crossed his arms, well aware that at least a hundred curious potential letter writers had gathered to watch the spectacle. “I am not running a canine to the hospital. Call a vet.”

“Look, you have to return to the hospital anyway,” Jonah pointed out. “Why not take us along for the ride? I’ll take full responsibility.”

“I am not—” the man paused for emphasis “—pulling up into my parking lot before my boss with a canine on my gurney. No way.”

“If you don’t take this dog somewhere,” Jonah lowered his voice, “it may die. Do you want that on your conscience?”

He had spoken quietly, but the crowd heard. “Give the dog a break, man!” someone called.

“Have a heart!”

“Ain’t you got a dog of your own?”

The driver fidgeted uncomfortably. “It still isn’t right. I’ll be in major trouble if I take a canine anywhere near the E.R.”

“You can take him to my office.” Jonah bent to help Jacquelyn lift the dog onto the gurney. “I’ll tend him there. And I’ll cover the bill for this run.”

Bowing to Jonah’s logic and public pressure, the driver threw his hands up and went to the front of the vehicle. The second paramedic helped Jacquelyn and Jonah load the gurney into the truck, then he waved to the crowd and went to the front of the ambulance. Obviously neither paramedic was going to risk his job by taking care of a sick animal.

Jonah turned to Jacquelyn. “I’ll have to ride along to let them in the building,” he said, watching the play of emotions on her lovely face. He’d never seen such a depth of caring in her eyes—not even with her most troubled patients. “I suppose you’ll want to follow later with your friend.”

“I won’t leave Bailey,” Jacquelyn said, hopping up into the ambulance beside the gurney.

“I’ll follow in the car after I gather our things,” the boyfriend called, backing away from the ambulance. Before Jonah could climb in and pull the double doors closed, he had disappeared.

But he’d said our things.

As the ambulance pulled out, Jacquelyn leaned forward and crooned to the animal on the stretcher. “It’s okay, baby dog. Mama’s right here.” Surprisingly, the dog whimpered and struggled to nuzzle her hand. Something in the tender exchange caught at Jonah’s heart.

Enough. Fix the dog up and send them home. And he’d have done his part to keep peace in the office.

Jonah settled into the rhythm of the swaying ambulance, then motioned to Jacquelyn. “If you hand me that bottle of saline solution behind you, we can start cleaning out his mouth.” He reached for a pair of sterile gloves and snapped them on. “I don’t know how many regulations we’re breaking here today—” He looked up at her and paused, struck by the fine shape of her mouth and the slender column of her throat. When he could speak again, his voice was more subdued. “But I trust this is for a good cause.”

Jacquelyn did not look up. The fringe of her lashes cast shadows on her cheeks as she monitored the dog’s breathing and reached for the saline. “Yes, Doctor, it is. If you have a dog, I’m sure you understand.”

Jonah leaned over the animal, his jaw tightening. “I don’t have a dog. I live alone.”

She did look at him then, and in her expressive eyes he saw mingled tenderness and pity. “Well, I’m sure you’ve loved a dog sometime. And you know we dog people would do just about anything for our animals.”

He lifted a brow and looked back down at his patient, gingerly running a gloved finger around the inside of the dog’s jowl to check for any abrasions or lumps. “He won’t bite me, will he?”

“No,” Jacquelyn answered, taking the animal’s massive head into her hands. She cast Jonah an inquisitive look. “For some reason, I thought you’d have a dog. I kinda figured you were the Chow type. Or maybe a Rottweiler.”

“No dog, no cat, not even a gerbil,” Jonah answered, absently reaching for her hand. She inhaled sharply at his touch and he ignored her reaction, though the slight contact sent a giddy sense of pleasure through his own senses.

“If you please, Nurse,” he said, keeping his eyes upon the dog as he moved her hand toward the animal’s muzzle, “would you retract this flap of skin? I need a clear look inside that mouth.”

“Of course.” Her strong, sure fingers left his and pulled back on the loose jowls. Jonah flipped on the overhead dome lights and peered into the animal’s mouth. A series of red, angry welts glared through a thin layer of whitish foam. His hunch was right. Jacquelyn’s dog had disturbed a nest of insects, probably yellow jackets from the vicious look of things. During his E.R. rotation Jonah had treated a little boy with similar welts.

“No pets at all?” Jacquelyn made a soft clucking sound as she handed him a square of sterile gauze to wipe the inflamed area. “How do you live? No shoes chewed, no vet bills to pay, no snores waking you in the middle of the night.” Grateful green eyes slanted toward him. “How can you come home to an empty house when you could have unlimited hugs and snuggles?”

His inner antennae picked up what could have been a not-so-subtle flirtation and he stiffened, instantly on his guard. But she was studying the dog, concentrating on the animal, and after an instant Jonah decided that she meant nothing by the remark. After all, she had been at the park with a man. And if Jonah’s luck was running true to form, he was the last man on earth an intelligent woman like Jacquelyn would ever be drawn to. The women he attracted were like radio stations—anyone could pick them up, especially at night.

He gently wiped the swollen area, then tossed the soiled gauze toward a trash bin. “I hope my house won’t always be empty.” Now who’s dropping hints? He took pains to keep his eyes on the patient; it wouldn’t be wise to lose himself in Jacquelyn’s emerald gaze.

“Oh?” Her voice was cool and impersonal. “Planning on getting a pet—or a wife?”

He lowered the animal’s lip and motioned for her to turn the dog’s head so he could check the other side. He couldn’t bring himself to risk touching her hand again.

“I don’t know.” He reached for another square of gauze. Funny, he should have been annoyed at this interruption of his holiday, yet he was enjoying every minute of this chance encounter. “Maybe I can find a wife who will give lots of snuggles and not chew shoes.”

It was the most pleasant, teasing thing he had ever said to her, and he didn’t dare lift his gaze to see how she’d respond. She remained silent for a moment, almost as if she were holding her breath. When she spoke again, her voice was light. “If you’re very lucky,” she said, one hand beginning to stroke the dog’s sweaty side, “you’ll find a wife with a dog.”

Enough. Stop now. Why in the world was he flirting with a nurse? He scarcely knew Jacquelyn Wilkes, and he had no idea how she was reading his comments. If he wasn’t careful, tomorrow she’d be telling the entire office that he’d asked her to marry him, and when he denied it she’d sue for sexual harassment or breach of promise or something.

He frowned. “You animal lovers are the strangest people.” He wiped the inflamed gums with the sterile square. “You’re totally illogical. People like you are the happiest when they are the most inconvenienced.”

He looked up, expecting to see her usual stern expression, but she only smiled and took the dirty gauze from his gloved hand.

“Isn’t that what love is all about?” she asked, looking at the dog with a tenderness he’d never seen in her eyes before.

The ambulance engine slowed and died, and a moment later the surly paramedic opened the rear doors. “End of the road for the mutt, Doc,” he said, gesturing to the clinic outside. “Your office, just like you ordered.”

Jonah smiled his thanks and grabbed the end of the stretcher. “Just give me a hand getting the dog in, and I’ll see you get a commendation for going above and beyond the call of duty.”

After injections of steroids and antihistamines to treat shock and counter the insect venom, Jonah measured out a ten-day supply of amoxicillin from pharmaceutical samples, then labeled a prescription bottle for “Bailey Wilkes.”

“I’d say give him two and a half of these twice a day, but you’ll want to double-check the dosage with your vet.” He made a note on a chart he’d improvised from the supplies on hand, then looked up to find Jacquelyn studying him, a glint of wonder in her eyes. He frowned. “Something wrong?”

“No,” she said, a smile trembling over her lips as she soothed the recovering animal. “It’s just that—well, you’ve surprised me, Doctor. Dr. Kastner would have let Bailey die right there at the lake. Probably ninety percent of the doctors in this hospital wouldn’t want to be bothered with an animal, especially on a holiday.”

“Ninety percent of the doctors in this hospital don’t have my seriously skewed personality.” He snapped the file shut and slid it toward her. “They don’t care if their patients like them.”

A blush ran like a shadow over her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I was wrong to say that.”

She looked so vulnerable, so guilty, that he had to stifle an urge to walk forward and pull her into his arms.

“No, you were right.” He looked away, pretending to search for something on the desk. “A doctor must be careful not to get so involved that he can’t see things clearly. But I’ve always found it’s far easier to get involved with the patients than with—”

Attractive nurses. He stiffened, embarrassed at what he’d almost said. Fortunately, Jacquelyn’s attention seemed focused on the animal.

“I guess you could say I’m just a sucker for eyes that color,” he whispered, keenly feeling the great gulf between what he was and what he suddenly wanted to be.

“They’re coffee-brown,” she said, casting him a fleeting smile. “I’m a sucker for Bailey’s eyes, too.”

He turned away to clean up the counter, allowing her to misunderstand what he’d meant. Don’t even think about it, he warned himself. She’s your nurse. She has a boyfriend, that’s plain enough. Remember the past, stay aloof. Romance and medicine don’t mix.

As if she’d read his thoughts about the boyfriend, Jacquelyn quietly left the room and walked out to the reception area. When she came back a few moments later, she carried a yellow sticky note. “A message from Craig,” she said, a frown settling between her delicate brows. “He says he came, he waited, he had to leave. He had an important appointment at four o’clock.”

Jonah glanced up. “Is that a problem?”

“A little one.” She smiled tentatively. “I hate to bother you, Doctor, especially after all you’ve done today for me and Bailey. But we’re stuck.” She tucked her hands into the belt at her waist. “Without a car, I mean. I guess I could call a cab, but I don’t know how I’ll get Bailey into the backseat.”

“There’s no way you can carry this dog by yourself,” Jonah pointed out. “And Bailey still doesn’t look very steady on his feet. I’ll call a taxi and take you both home. I jogged over to the lake, so I’ll need a cab to get home, anyway.”

Her face was firmly set in deep thought. “That’s asking too much. I need to stay here and clean up the mess we’ve made. I should move Bailey to the waiting area so I can sterilize and prep this room, and then I have to make a list of all the meds you gave him so I can submit and pay the bill.”

She suddenly smiled and tilted her sleepy-cat eyes toward him. “And since I can’t afford your hourly rate, Doctor, just forget about doing anything else for me. Bailey and I can hang out here until Craig is done with his appointment. I’ll call him at five or so. He’ll come and pick us up when he can.”

He laughed, honestly amused by her detailed sense of integrity. “Forget it. Don’t bill yourself for anything,” he insisted, turning toward the sink. “Practically everything I used was a free sample. Don’t worry about it.”

His gaze came to rest on her questioning eyes, then his instinct for self-preservation forced him to turn away.

What was he doing? Acting like a fool, again. He ought to leave her and take a cab back to his apartment. He could spend the night surfing the Internet, and he needed to check out some recent stats from a Johns Hopkins project…but it was a holiday and he did need to relax.

Maybe, just this once, nothing bad would happen.

He cleared his throat. “I’ve never walked out on a patient without making sure that he or she was resting comfortably, and I don’t intend to start now. Really, I’d love to see you home…unless you’d really rather wait for—what’s his name? Craig.”

A spark of some indefinable emotion lit her eyes at the mention of the boyfriend’s name. She smiled to herself, then crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “There is no way of knowing how long Craig will be. Are you sure you wouldn’t mind taking us?”

He turned the faucet and began to scrub his hands. “Absolutely sure, that is if Craig won’t mind. I wouldn’t want him to get the wrong idea.”

There. In one statement he’d told her that he meant nothing by his offer and given her the perfect opportunity to laugh and say that Craig was her brother, her cousin, or some casual friend she barely knew…but she didn’t.

“Craig would understand,” she said, her smile fading a little. “A ride home is…no big deal.”

Jonah forced a smile as he shut off the water and allowed his hands to drip into the sink. “Well, you’re going to need help carrying the beast to the waiting room so we can clean up in here. By tomorrow morning, not even the county health department will be able to tell that we’ve treated anything other than Homo sapiens in this clinic.”