“Hey, Kelsey.” Marsha, a floor nurse, stuck her head in the door. “You’re still doing the diabetic class this morning, aren’t you? We’ve had a couple of calls about it.”
“I am.”
“The new hospitalist is going to stop by and introduce himself.”
Kelsey wrinkled up her nose. “Who is it again?”
“Dr. King.”
“Okay. I’ll be on the lookout for him.”
When Marsha left Kelsey said, “I guess a good nutritionist’s work is never done.”
Molly laughed. “I guess you’re right.”
Kelsey settled into the chair behind her desk and reviewed the patients she needed to speak to before they were discharged that day. She didn’t have the most popular job with the patients but it was a necessary one. No one liked being told what they could or couldn’t eat.
“Have you heard anything about this new doctor?” Kelsey asked. Not that it really mattered. She planned on being gone soon enough that it wouldn’t affect her one way or another what type of person he was.
“All I’ve heard is that he’s supposed to be excellent. I do know they didn’t have to hunt him, he came looking for the position.”
“Here? I wonder why? We certainly aren’t a hotbed of cutting-edge medical care.”
Molly looked at her. “Not everyone feels a need to live somewhere else, be at the cutting edge. Some of us are perfectly fine living with the sand, sea, and surf.”
As a child Kelsey had been also. Now all she wanted was to put the ugly memories behind her. But she couldn’t do that if she stayed in Golden Shores. She’d tried. She acted out to forget. “Still mad at me about applying for the job?”
“Yeah, can’t you tell?”
“I may not get it.”
“You’ll get it and I’ll be stuck with another office mate, be looking for a new roommate.” Molly looked at her. “But I won’t be finding a new best friend.”
“I love you too, Moll.”
“It’s mutual.” A second later she whirled round again. “Oh, I forgot to mention the word around the hospital is that the new doc is gorgeous. There’s already a betting pool started on who he’ll ask out first. Nancy in the business office, Charlotte in the lab, or you.”
“Really?” Kelsey couldn’t seem to live down the good-time-girl rep she’d gained as a high-school and college student. It was hard to convince people who had known her during those times to take her seriously now. She wanted to go somewhere she could start afresh.
“Yeah. I’m putting my money on you. I need a new bathing suit so do what you can to help me out.”
“I don’t think so.” Both woman mentioned were very attractive and seemed to make a point of meeting and dating the newest and most attractive men at the hospital, from the emergency crew to the administration office to the latest unattached doctor. Kelsey had moved past those fun and games.
Kelsey checked the large round clock on the wall and picked up the folder she’d laid out the night before that included pamphlets and handouts for the diabetes class.
“Got to go. We going to meet for lunch?”
“Sure. Whichever one of us gets to the table under the tree first claims it.”
“Will do.”
Late September beside the coast made it pleasant to eat outside. She and Molly, along with other staff members, fought over the coveted table under the large oak tree where the sun wouldn’t beam down on them at noon. The other tables and chairs placed around the area weren’t always as lucky.
Kelsey gathered her folder to her chest and went out the door. “Later.”
Jordon drove up Main Street on his way to the hospital. He remembered the road well. He’d traveled it hundreds of times with his parents. As an only child he’d done almost everything with them.
Golden Shores hadn’t changed much through the years. It was still a sleepy beach town that grew even more relaxed after the summer crowd had gone home. The storefronts were neat and in good repair. Baskets of late summer flowers, blooming yellow, red and blue, hung from the light poles at each intersection. This small insignificant town had been the last place he’d felt like he’d had a real home.
Pulling his SUV into the palm-lined drive of the hospital and following the signs to the designated doctors’ parking lot, he found an open spot. Stepping out of the vehicle, he inhaled deeply. The spicy scent of salt filled his nostrils. After spending so many years in snow during the winter, it was going to be nice to live here.
Jordon rolled his wrist and checked his watch. He was due for a meeting in twenty minutes. Last week he’d spent an entire day in Personnel, being issued his ID and getting acquainted with hospital procedures. Thank goodness he had no plans to ever leave so he’d not have to sit through one of those again.
With a quirk to his lips he punched in the number he’d been given for the doctors’ entrance. He’d left the high-tech world of a large northern Virginia hospital where swiping a card for entry was the norm to the simple but effective push-button code.
Twenty minutes and two wrong turns later, he found the education classroom he was looking for. He stopped and double-checked the plaque by the door. This was the correct place.
Inside, a soft raspy voice said, “Today I’m going to be sharing some tips on how to eat well and at the same time tasty.”
Looking into the room through the open door, he saw a dozen or so people sitting in chairs arranged in rows.
A man almost as round as he was tall said in a gruff voice. “All I can tell is that I can have a half a head of lettuce and nothing about that is tasty.”
Everyone in the room laughed.
The voice responded, “Now, Mr. Franklin. You know that should only be a quarter of a head.”
Again everyone chuckled.
Jordon stepped into the room and came to a jerking halt. The woman from the party was standing in front of the room. It was her voice he’d heard.
They stared at each other. She looked very familiar for some reason. He’d thought about her a couple of times since their meeting, trying to figure out where he knew her from. Could she be one of Chad’s sisters? What if she was? Would she recognize him?
What he could remember of the youngest was that she had been around all the time. She’d been sweet, cute even, but way too young. He’d thought then, if you were just a little older …
Today her hair lay along her head in a boyish cut. And she wore bangs, pink and black glasses with polka dots on them, a simple hot-pink shirt and black slacks. Above her shoulders she seemed to come from a more unconventional world and below them from a conservative one.
So
