No small talk here. The man’s bedside manner really needed work. But then, she wasn’t looking for a friend, Kayley reminded herself. She was looking for an employer.
“Well, I’m originally from around here. Staying in Bedford just seemed like the right thing to do. To be honest, I like living in Southern California a lot more than living up in San Francisco. I find that the people are friendlier—and the weather is certainly better,” she ended with a smile.
There wasn’t a single shred of emotion on his face as he said, “I see.”
She could see that her answer had made the man thoughtful and she couldn’t imagine why it would have that kind of an effect on him. She wasn’t certain exactly what sort of an answer the doctor wanted. All that she could do was be honest.
“And, when you get right down to it, this is home,” she added, hoping to move the interview along past what was clearly a sticking point for the doctor for some reason.
Luke nodded. Her response had reminded him that he hadn’t been able to get back for Jill’s last breath, her last moments.
Realizing that he’d been silent longer than he’d intended, Luke picked up her résumé again and took a breath.
“I’m going to have to check these references out,” he informed her.
She’d been braced for a rejection, and she instantly perked up. “Of course.” He sounded as if he was about to get up and leave the room. “Is there anything you want to ask me while I’m here?”
“Yes.” He looked into her eyes, trying not to get lost in them. “Why a physician’s assistant? Why not a doctor?”
“Frankly, there wasn’t enough money for me to go to medical school for the length of time it would take me to become a doctor. I was working part-time already and I didn’t want to incur a staggering debt that was going to follow me around for the next thirty or so years.” She smiled as she added, “Becoming a physician’s assistant was as close to becoming a doctor as I could get. And I was always interested in helping people. In healing them.”
For a long moment, the doctor merely stared at her. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking and she wondered if she had talked too much.
Mentally, Kayley crossed her fingers.
There was a knock on the exam room door and the next moment, Rachel stuck her head in.
“I’m really sorry to interrupt, Doctor, but your next patient is getting very restless. Mr. Jeffers says he has an appointment with his lawyer right after he sees you and he’s worried that he’s going to be late. His lawyer charges by the quarter of the hour—whether he’s there or not.”
Having delivered her message, Rachel flashed an apologetic look in Kayley’s direction.
Luke rose from his stool. “Tell Mr. Jeffers I’ll be right with him.” Turning back to Kayley, he told her, “Thank you for coming in, Ms. Quartermain. I’ll be in touch.”
Her heart sank a little. Kayley knew what that meant: Don’t hold your breath.
Still, she wasn’t about to be rude. There was protocol to follow. Kayley forced a smile to her lips and went through the motions.
“I’ll look forward to your call, Doctor,” she told him—or rather his back because Dr. Dolan was already walking out the door and on his way to his impatient patient.
“Well, I tried,” she murmured, sticking her hands into her pockets. Her right hand touched the penny she’d found right outside the office. “I guess this wasn’t our lucky day after all, Mom,” she whispered just before she walked out of the exam room.
* * *
Giving in to impulse, Kayley stopped at the supermarket and picked up a consoling pint of rum raisin ice cream. She was tempted to buy two, but she knew that she had absolutely no willpower when she felt this disappointed. That meant that if she bought two pints, she would wind up eating two pints—in one sitting.
Keeping this in mind, Kayley restrained herself, took only the single pint to the checkout counter and then hurried out of the store before she weakened and went back for another one.
With the supermarket doors closing behind her, she stepped off the curb—and saw yet another penny.
“Nice try, Mom,” she said with a touch of sarcasm. “But I’m not buying it.”
Kayley walked right by the lone penny and was halfway to her car when her desire to think the best of every situation got the better of her. She stopped, turned around and retraced her steps until she was looking down at the penny again.
Picking the coin up, she found that unlike the shiny one she’d found earlier in front of the medical building, this one was old, worn and sticky. Apparently, some sort of gummy substance had been spilled on it.
Still, now that she’d picked it up, she couldn’t just toss it aside. Holding on to the coin, she headed back to where she had parked her car.
“Okay, so sue me. I’m an idiot and I have to believe in something,” she muttered as she opened her car. “I have to believe it’s going to be all right.”
Leaning over in her seat, she put the pint of ice cream on the passenger-side floor. Then she buckled up and drove home planning her evening: consuming a pint of rum raisin ice cream and watching an old movie on one of the classic-movie channels.
* * *
Her landline was ringing when she walked in.
Hoping against hope, Kayley dropped her purse on the floor next to the door and, still carrying the bag of ice cream, she quickly made her way over to the phone that was sitting on one of the two side tables bracketing the sofa.
Kayley grabbed the receiver and uttered a breathless “Hello?”
“How did it go?” the cheerful, maternal voice on the other end of the line asked.
Kayley suppressed the sigh that rose to her lips. It was her fairy godmother, calling to check on her. She should have guessed.
“I don’t know yet,” she told Maizie, temporarily sinking down on the sofa. She tried not to sound as dejected as she felt when she added, “Dr. Dolan said they’d be in touch.”
“Yes, but how did it go?” Maizie repeated with a touch of eagerness in her voice. “You must have some sort of impression about the way the interview with Dr. Dolan went.”
“As a matter of fact, yes, I do,” Kayley answered. “It went fast.”
There was a pause on Maizie’s end. “I’m not sure I understand,” she said.
“The doctor squeezed my interview between seeing two patients. That didn’t exactly give him much time to talk to me,” Kayley explained. Then, because Maizie had gone out of her way to arrange this interview for her, Kayley
