an hour ago.” Max pitched the can into a nearby wastebasket and slumped, as much as he could, in the plastic chair. “You off soon?”
“Three more hours. Go away.”
“So you ready for tomorrow?”
“It’s my birthday,” Alex said with his eyes shut. “It’s not something I have to get ready for. Other people have to get ready for it. You, for example. Go buy me something expensive. You make the big bucks.”
“Exactly,” Max said. “And you know why.”
Alex groaned and rolled away from his brother, who lunged to get the five-pack of beer as it tipped toward the floor.
“Hey!” Max said. “Avoid reality if you have to, but don’t spill the beer.”
Alex kept his back to him. “I’m not avoiding reality. I’m avoiding you. Go away.”
“I am reality, buddy,” Max said, and Alex heard the scrape of the plastic chair as his brother sat down again and the clank as he put the cans on the floor. “I ran into Dad just now. He was looking for you.”
Alex groaned again.
Max’s voice was sympathetic. “Yeah, I know. He wants to have dinner with you tomorrow.”
“No,” Alex said.
“I told him you would. Hell, it’s not like you could get out of it. He said to meet him at The Levee at seven. For drinks first.”
“Oh, hell.” Alex rolled onto his back again and stared at the stained acoustic ceiling. “You could have told him I was sick. You could have told him that you’d diagnosed me with something ugly and catching.”
“I’m a gynecologist,” Max said. “What was I supposed to tell him? You can’t do dinner because you got a yeast infection?”
“Would he have noticed?”
“Yeah,” Max said. “He was working, so he was sober.”
“Great. Just what I wanted on my birthday, to pour the old man into a cab at midnight.”
“I took care of that,” Max said. “I told him we had plans at nine. He understood.”
Alex gave him a withering look. “So I get to pour him into a cab at nine. Thank you.”
“It gets worse.” Max beamed at him, cheerful as always. “He said your mother’s coming to town tomorrow.”
Alex sat up. “My mother’s flying in for my birthday?”
“No,” Max said. “She’s flying in for a one-day seminar on the new laser technology. It just worked out that it’s your birthday.”
“Thank God.” Alex flopped back down on the pillow. “I thought she was going maternal on me.”
“She told Dad she wants to have lunch with you,” Max said. “Noon at the Hilton. Be on time, she’s speaking at one.” He picked up another beer from the floor and cracked it. “It’s a shame you’re still on duty. You could have one of these.”
“My mother,” Alex said to the ceiling. “An hour with my mother.”
“You’ve got an hour with my mother, too,” Max said after he’d taken another swig. “She wants to have a drink with you at four. She has surgery at one, so she figures she’ll be free by then.”
“I can stand an hour with your mother,” Alex said. “I think.”
“And I imagine Stella will be calling,” Max began.
“She already did.” Alex rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Breakfast tomorrow before she makes her rounds.”
Max winced. “Do you suppose she does everything in the morning because she’s the oldest?”
“No, she does everything in the morning because she’s a pain in the ass,” Alex said. “Even if she is my favorite relative.”
“Hey!” Max straightened in his chair. “What about me? I kept you from having to spend the entire evening justifying your lack of career to the old man. You owe me.”
“I have a career,” Alex said for the millionth time. “I’m a doctor.”
“Yeah, but you picked the wrong specialty,” Max said. “You have to pick upscale, not ER. They made me, now they’re going to make you. Cardiologist, oncologist, gynecologist—”
“No,” Alex said. “I like what I’m doing. Go away. I’m trying to sleep.”
A dark-haired little nurse poked her head in the door. “Hey, Alex, we need you. Accident coming in.” She disappeared again before he sat up.
Alex swung his feet around to the side of the bed and glared at Max. “If it hadn’t been for you, I could have had a whole fifteen minutes of unconsciousness.”
“That’s another thing,” Max said. “If you weren’t an ER specialist, she’d have called you Dr. Moore.”
The nurse poked her head back in. “Alex, let’s go. Oh, hi, Max. Didn’t see you there.” She frowned at him. “Get rid of that beer now.”
“Hi, Zandy.” Max lifted his beer to her. “You’re looking good.”
She was gone before he finished his sentence.
“The respect she has for you is awesome,” Alex said. “Must be because you’re not an ER specialist.”
“I dated her once,” Max said.
“That explains it.” Alex stood up and headed for the door. “Go away. I have to work.”
“Don’t forget tomorrow,” Max called after him. “Family day. The whole Farkle family.”
“Right,” Alex muttered under his breath as he strode down the green-tiled hall. “Dr. Farkle, and Dr. Farkle, and Dr. Farkle, and Dr. Farkle, and Dr. Farkle.”
“What?” Zandy asked him as she tried to catch up with him.
“Don’t ever go into the family business, Zan,” Alex said. “It’s hell being low man on the dynasty.”
“They trying to talk you out of the ER?” Zandy skipped a couple of times to keep up with him, her legs a good six inches shorter than his, so he slowed for her.
“Yep,” Alex said.
“Don’t do it.”
Alex looked down at her, surprised. “No?”
“No,” Zandy said. “You need this place. And it needs you. Ignore them. They’re all suits.”
Alex grinned at her. “Even Max?”
“Max
