kind of questions?” Maizie asked.
She told her godmother the first thing that she remembered. “Dr. Dolan wanted to know why I left San Francisco.”
It was obvious by the tone of Maizie’s response that the woman thought this was a good thing. There was almost excitement in the older woman’s voice as she asked, “And did you tell him that it was to nurse your poor sick mother?”
“Yes, I did, Aunt Maizie,” Kayley replied dutifully, smiling at the question.
There was a time when she would have resented being treated like a child, but now that her mother was gone, she had to admit she rather liked it. It took her back to when she was younger and was still someone’s little girl. Something that she was never going to be again, she thought sadly.
“And what did he say?”
“Something strange, actually,” Kayley answered. “I’m paraphrasing but he said that at least I was lucky enough to be able to be there to share some time with my mother before she died.”
“That’s because he was serving overseas when his wife was killed,” Maizie told her.
Kayley was surprised that Maizie knew that. But then again, Maizie always seemed to know everything.
“The physician’s assistant he’s sharing with another doctor told me something about that,” Kayley admitted.
Maizie’s tone brightened a little as she asked, “And then what did he say?”
“He didn’t,” Kayley told her. “He became very quiet and just stared at my résumé. Then the physician’s assistant stuck her head in to tell him that his next patient was becoming restless. That’s when Dr. Dolan thanked me for coming in and told me that he would be in touch.” Kayley sighed deeply. She was feeling rather dejected. This was the first interview she’d landed since her mother had died and it hadn’t gone very well. “Doesn’t sound very hopeful, does it, Aunt Maizie?” she asked.
“Oh, on the contrary, dear. It sounds very hopeful,” Maizie assured her. “Just remember, not everyone jumps into things the way you and I do,” she told her goddaughter. “Some people are quite slow and deliberate. They need to think things over before they make a decision.”
Kayley really wanted to believe that, but she didn’t quite see it that way. “The other physician’s assistant told me that Dr. Dolan had already interviewed five other candidates for the position and he’d turned each one of them down.”
“Did she happen to tell you why?” Maizie asked.
Kayley sighed again, feeling more and more certain that she was never going to hear from the doctor again—or if she did, it was going to be because he was turning her down and he didn’t like leaving any loose ends.
“No, she hadn’t a clue.”
As was her custom—because she had always been such an optimist—Maizie took the information in stride. “Well, you’ll get the job, dear. He rejected the first five applicants. Six is your lucky number.”
Kayley couldn’t help but laugh at Maizie’s unorthodox reasoning. “Since when?”
“Why, since right now, of course, dear. I’m sure of it. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Well, if your bones feel it, then it’s bound to happen,” Kayley said, humoring the woman although she was definitely not optimistic about the outcome. Still, she loved Maizie for trying to bolster her self-confidence this way.
“Listen, Kayley, I have to show a house to a client in half an hour, but I’m free afterward. Why don’t you come over for dinner, say at about six thirty? I could use the company.”
Kayley knew that her godmother was constantly on the go. She had a busy social life as well as a family consisting of her daughter, her son-in-law and a number of grandchildren she was quite proud of. Aunt Maizie didn’t need company. If anything, she needed an occasional moment of solitude. She was proposing the get-together for her sake.
“Thank you, Aunt Maizie, but I’m fine, really,” Kayley told her, begging off. “I’ve got some correspondence to catch up on and there’s a pint of ice cream that’s been calling my name since I walked in the door.”
Maizie wasn’t one to force her will on someone else, even when she meant well. “Well, if you’re sure,” she said, her voice trailing off.
“I’m sure,” Kayley assured her. Then, for good measure, because she could almost hear the hesitance in her godmother’s voice, she added what she hoped was an emphatic “Really.”
She heard the small resigned sigh that escaped from her godmother before Aunt Maizie said, “Call me the minute you get the job.”
Thanks for the positive pep talk, but I’m pretty sure I’m not getting the job, Aunt Maizie.
Out loud, Kayley cheerfully promised her, “I will. Now, I’ve got to go, Aunt Maizie. The ice cream’s melting and it really tastes much better if I use a spoon to eat it, not a straw.”
“I’ll let you go, then,” Maizie said. “I’ve got that house to show. Think positive, Kayley. Good things happen when you’re positive,” she advised just before she hung up.
“I am thinking positive,” Kayley said to the receiver as she replaced it in the cradle. “I’m positive he’s not going to call.”
Turning away from the phone, Kayley grabbed the bag with the ice cream in it and hurried into the kitchen with it. She could tell that the ice cream was already getting soft.
After taking a spoon out of the drawer, she crossed to the kitchen table and removed the pint out of the bag. She’d bypassed using the ice-cream scoop and a bowl. There was no reason to get either dirty. She intended to eat the whole thing in one sitting anyway.
“C’mon, rum raisin, you and I are going to make beautiful music together. Console me,” she said to the container as she took the lid off and dug her spoon in the cream-colored semisoft surface.
Kayley closed her eyes, savoring the first bite as she slid it between her lips.
Although it tasted delicious as always, it didn’t assuage the gaping disappointment she felt burrowing deep into her chest.
She needed a job.
Maybe not this very minute, but soon.
Very soon.
Some people would have eagerly jumped at having so much free time stretching before them, using it to catch up on their reading, watch movies they hadn’t gotten around to seeing and in general just enjoy themselves. But she had never been any good at kicking back and doing nothing. The way she saw it, free time didn’t mean anything if that was all there was. It was precious only if it was very limited and doled out a tiny bit at a time.
She took another mouthful of ice cream, hoping it would console her. But it didn’t.
“Wonderful,” she murmured, licking the spoon clean before sinking it into the container again. “Thirty-two years old and I’m sitting in the middle of my kitchen swallowing empty calories,
