birth, hadn’t they? His parents were successful and well-to-do. He’d topped his classes without visible effort. His divorce from Alison—who was as attractive, bright and successful as he was himself—was surely the only glitch in the glittering, perfect mechanism of his life.
Poor man, she might easily have drawled, how tragic it must be to have to live such a Camelot-like existence!
Only this wasn’t the face of a man who’d lived all his life in Camelot.
‘Is that really true, Maggie?’ he said, his voice low. ‘Was it as strong as that? You couldn’t stand me? That night at Gerry Berkov’s party when we sat out by the pool and talked, I thought…that we respected each other, at least. You used to get on my case about not treating Alison the way she deserved—about being late to pick her up, forgetting her birthday and not calling her when I said I would—and you were right about that. I was a jerk about things like that when I was twenty.’
‘Yes, you were,’ she agreed, masking her dismay with a confident nod.
‘And if that’s the sum total of what you feel for me then, yes, tonight has been a complete waste of my time as well as yours. That wasn’t intended as an attack just now. I was teasing you. And I guess I was trading on the fact that there was a little bit more between us than a shallow, trivial sort of dislike. I’ve always respected you. I thought that maybe two worthy and well-matched adversaries could make peace after all this time.’
‘Trading on?’ She picked up on the phrase straight away. Ignored that other very interesting phrase, ‘worthy and well-matched adversaries’. ‘What do you want from me, Will? Of course, I should have realised. You said we’d “talk” over dinner. You want something. A favour. But what is it?’
Her pager vibrated again. With a sound of impatience she pulled it from her pocket, set it on the table and ignored it. A few minutes wouldn’t hurt. She was a family physician, not a microsurgeon or a trauma-team doctor. Real emergencies went right to the hospital in an ambulance. They didn’t call her. She wanted answers from Will before she followed up on her patient.
But he wasn’t buying that. Watched her hand as she pushed the pager aside while her eyes were still fixed on him. There was a little twist to his lips.
‘Aren’t you going to call your service?’ he drawled. ‘Don’t you have to deal with that? Couldn’t it be important?’
She recognised how exactly his questions parroted her own self-important phrasing to him earlier and saw the smile on his face. A wicked, tempting smile now. Teasing her again? It softened those dark eyes still further. It invited much more than a mere smile in reply. It was seductive, damn it, even when he wasn’t trying! She burned yet again.
It would have been so refreshing if time had taught her how to act rationally with this man!
‘OK. I’ll deal with it,’ she said. ‘And then I want some straight talking from you, Will.’
‘You’ll get it,’ he promised. A habitual confidence rang in his tone. It was clear that, whatever he wanted from her, he hadn’t come crawling.
Once more, she sought the quiet alcove beside the still-life painting to make her call, but this time the outcome wasn’t as simple. It was another case of fever in a child, a fourteen-year-old.
‘I’m worried about him, Dr Lawless,’ Kathy Sullivan said. ‘He’s vomited twice, and he feels so hot. He says his joints hurt, and so does his neck.’
‘Does he have a rash?’
‘I haven’t noticed one. But I’ve kept him in the dark because the light is bothering him, so maybe there is something.’
‘Could you check for me, Kathy?’
‘Surely, if you’ll wait.’
‘I’ll be here.’
Maggie heard the clatter of the phone and Kathy’s slow, heavy footsteps. She came back a minute or two later. ‘There is a little bit of something on his chest,’ she said. ‘Looks like poison ivy. He was clearing the yard for me yesterday.’
‘I’m going to come over and take a look at him. Has he been away on camp or anything?’
‘No, not yet. That’s right at the end of summer this year. What is it you’re thinking, Dr Lawless?’
Meningitis. She didn’t want to say it. Neither did she want to wait. The symptoms were ambiguous, and the disease was most common in children under the age of five, but it was frequently fatal if treatment was delayed.
‘Let’s wait until I take a look at him, OK?’ she told Kathy, then put down the phone and hurried back to the table. ‘I need to leave,’ she told Will. ‘I shouldn’t be long, but it can’t wait.’
‘Let me come along,’ he suggested at once, already on his feet. ‘I’ll tell the waiter we’ll be back for coffee and dessert. They know I’m staying at the hotel.’
‘There’s no need—’
‘There is. I want to.’
He strode off and found their waiter. She didn’t linger, but he caught up to her quickly. It was a warm summer evening, and neither of them needed jackets. In fact, Will had taken off the jacket of his suit and it hung from one finger.
‘What’s the problem? What kinds of things do you usually get called out for?’ he asked.
She sighed. Why did he want this detail? OK, she’d give it to him.
‘It varies,’ she answered. ‘Depends on the patient’s circumstances. In a case like this, I’d normally tell the child’s parents to drive him straight to the hospital emergency room, then I’d call the ER to let them know he was coming, but this is a single mother. She’s not well, she doesn’t have much money, she has very basic health insurance cover—no ambulance—and she doesn’t drive. Her brother comes up from Albany every weekend to help her with shopping and stuff. I like her, and—’
‘Do you have many patients in that sort of situation in your practice?’
‘Some. This little family is one of the best. My heart goes out to the mother and her son every time I see them. They only live a few minutes’ drive from here. Tonight I want to save them an ambulance trip to Wayans Falls if it’s not necessary, and I want to start giving Matthew treatment while we wait for the ambulance to get here if it is.’
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Some form of meningitis, but it could just be flu and poison ivy. Why are you asking all these questions, Will?’
She risked a glance at him, and wished she hadn’t. He was frowning, and his mouth was straight and closed. She could have touched him if she’d reached out her hand, asked him with soft concern to tell her what was on his mind…
‘Because I’m interested in joining your practice, if you’ll have me,’ he answered calmly.
It almost knocked the ground out from under her feet.
