I make an appointment, Doctor?”
“Yes. Although I don’t think you’re going to need it, Elena. I have a feeling the next time I see you it will be in Labor and Delivery at Mercy Medical.”
The woman crossed her fingers. “From your mouth to God’s ear.”
Rebecca hugged her. “Very soon you’ll be holding your baby.”
“I can’t wait.”
Gabe’s chest tightened painfully. The woman’s pregnancy glow hurt his eyes, and the overwhelming feeling of emptiness and loss hurt his heart. And that was why he hated being here.
Rebecca glanced into the office, waved goodbye to her patient, then came inside. “Is Amy all right?”
“You tell me. Not only am I kept out of that particular loop, apparently further information from this office won’t be forthcoming. At least not anytime in the near future.”
She walked behind her desk but didn’t sit in the chair. When she met his gaze, her brown eyes were shadowed and puzzled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“And I have no idea what’s going on. Did you or did you not promise to take my sister as a patient?”
“You know I did.”
“Then why was she turned away?”
The puzzled look intensified. “Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“When I asked Amy about her ultrasound appointment, she said she didn’t have one because when she called there were no openings.”
“That’s not possible,” Rebecca said, shaking her head.
“Define ‘not possible.’”
“She’s an existing patient. The next very important step of her treatment is an ultrasound. I want the test done stat—ASAP,” she translated. “No way would she be denied an office visit.”
“Well, she was.” He folded his arms over his chest and stared at her.
She glared back. “She’s your sister, but she’s a mixed-up, hormonal teenager. And I’m not going to argue with you, Gabe. Grace answers the phone and makes most of the appointments. If she’s unavailable, I do it myself. I’ll clear this up right now.”
The look she flashed him just before leaving the room was rife with irritation, and he had the absurd thought that she was beautiful when she was angry. He didn’t like his next thought any better. He wanted to see what kind of curves she had going on under her shapeless white coat. That kind of thinking felt like cheating. Cheating felt like crap and was just another in a growing list of reasons why he didn’t want to be here.
Rebecca returned, looking grim, a stark contrast to how she’d looked with her patient Elena. “Amy never called here, Gabe.”
“What?”
“Like I said, Grace or I would have talked to her. If she’d called, we would have scheduled an appointment that was convenient for her or we’d have fit her in. Neither of us has spoken with her. I’m quite sure she never contacted the office.”
He rubbed his neck. “Amy lied to me?”
Rebecca shrugged as she slid her hands into the pockets of her lab coat. “She’s trying to avoid her pregnancy. The problem with avoiding your problems is that when you bury your head in the sand you leave your—”
“Backside exposed,” he finished.
“Pretty much.” The look she gave him was guarded. “The thing is, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. What we do know is that your sister is troubled. But sooner or later she’s got to face what’s happening to her. She ran away from home, but for her sake and the baby’s, she’s got to stop running.”
“She ran to me and I don’t know why.”
“Me, neither.”
Her look was wary and suspicious and made him feel more like crap than he had before. She definitely acted differently with him than she had with Amy, Grace or her patients. The weird thing is that he noticed at all. Since losing Hannah he’d been all work—no social life, extracurricular activities or interpersonal interaction. But through circumstances beyond his control he’d become responsible for his pregnant sister and was feeling a man/woman kind of vibe for her doctor.
He wasn’t very happy about either situation. Ignoring this “thing” with Rebecca was a piece of cake, compared with ignoring the fact that his sister was going to have a baby. And Hannah’s words echoed through his mind.
The baby is the most important thing.
“Okay.” Gabe nodded. “I get the point.”
“If you say so.”
“Look, Doc, I’m sorry about storming in here. It won’t happen again.”
“Right.”
Her hostility was showing, and part of him didn’t like that. But he couldn’t afford to care. One crisis at a time. Right now that crisis was getting Amy in here for the test.
“On my way out I’ll stop and make an appointment for the ultrasound. You have my word that my sister will show up for it.”
“Okay.”
Her tone said she didn’t believe him, and he wanted to say her cynicism was showing, but that would prolong a meeting that had definitely not been his finest hour. Actually, dignity was the least of his problems. The fact that he’d been tempted to prolong this meeting at all had taken him by surprise.
After stopping to schedule the appointment, he left the office and realized getting out of there fast wasn’t as much about saving face as it was the fact that he wanted to pull sexy Dr. Hamilton into his arms and kiss the daylights out of her.
That was bad enough. Worse was that he had to bring Amy back to see the doc again. All of that begged the question: Which god had he pissed off, and what penance could he do to stop the harassment?
Chapter Three
Rebecca stood with Gabe in the hallway outside the exam room where his sister was going to have her ultrasound.
“What’s going on? Grace said you needed to see me.”
Poor Grace was getting worn-out being their go-between, Rebecca thought. If it was up to her she wouldn’t see him at all, but she wasn’t the pregnant teenager who was on the other side of that door waiting for a test she didn’t understand and trying really hard not to let anyone see that she was scared spitless. Ultrasound technology wasn’t invasive or painful, which made it an extremely useful diagnostic tool for gathering information.
Most expectant mothers were excited at the prospect of “meeting” their child for the first time. The majority of them brought along the expectant father to share in the joy. But Amy had no one, at least no one she felt she could count on. No one
