Was he her doctor? she couldn’t help wondering, still trying to get her bearings.
“Hey, slow down,” he cautioned, catching hold of her by her shoulders to steady her. “You create quite a jolt when you walk into a person.”
Startled, Kayley tried to back up. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to walk into you.”
“Well, that’s comforting,” he commented drolly. Dropping his hands to his sides, he said, “Rachel tells me that you’re here to talk about the physician’s assistant opening in the staff.”
As subtly as she could, she drew in a breath and then answered, “Yes, I am.”
Nodding, the doctor gestured toward the chair. “Please, sit down.”
Kayley turned and went back into the room, feeling as if she were moving in slow motion. She took a seat as he’d instructed.
Looking up, she saw that the doctor had followed her in and sat down on a stool, the seat she assumed he would have taken when talking with a patient.
He skimmed the résumé that she’d sent via email and that he’d printed up. “I see that all of your experience has been in San Francisco.” Setting the paper down, he stared at her. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile in his expression. “Why did you leave your last place of employment?”
“I had to,” she told him simply.
“Had to?” Luke repeated. The first thing that occurred to him was that she had been asked to leave. “Were you terminated?”
His question jolted her. “Oh no, I wasn’t fired. I found out that my mother had cancer and I came back to take care of her.”
He gave no indication of what he was thinking when he began to ask, “Did she—”
“Make it?” Kayley supplied, guessing at what the doctor was about to ask. She shook her head. “No, she didn’t.”
“Oh.” That wasn’t what he’d been expecting to hear. Over the last nine months, he felt as if everyone had gone on with their lives and he was the only one to have faced such a glaring loss.
The situation felt awkward and for a moment, he had no idea what to say. Finally, he told her, “Well, at least you got to be with her before she passed on.” With all his heart, he wished that he had had that same good fortune. There were so many things that had been left unsaid. He would have given anything to have had even just one last day with Jill.
But that simply wasn’t in the cards.
“Yes, I did,” Kayley replied. What else could she have said? she thought, shifting in her seat.
“So, why are you looking for a position in Bedford?” he asked her bluntly. “Why not just go back to the Bay Area?”
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,