Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (66 page)

“
Okay
, so you
take the fellowship
. How long
will
you
be in Seattle? I take it that’
s where you’
ll
go.”
Joel’s expression was serious
,
edging into unhappy
.

“A
year, maybe longer
if I decide
to work w
ith someone at one of the Level-
Three
facilities. Why do you ask?”
Does he get it, that I’m thinking of leaving? Now that we’re together? Maybe
because
we’re together?

“I thought that might be related to your mention of me, you,
us.”

“You’ve always been good at reading minds,
Joe
l
. A
t least
mine
.”
She concentrated on her salmon to give herself time before tackling those other
topics.

“That’s ’
cause I
love
you, babe
.
So, how does that fellowship relate?”

“It means I won’t be here for a year and we’ll be
calling things off, or at least
…
yes, off.”

His brow furrowed and he
took off his glasses to rub his
nose
. “I don’t see w
hy. Seattle isn’t that far away.
I could visit you—or you could visit me.
Long weekends. That sort of thing.
”
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Angela
shook
her he
ad. “No. I’ll
be
too
busy
studying
or
working the clinical services.
I wouldn’t h
ave much time off. W
e’d have to put
off
what we
’ve been doing.
”

“
I survived when you left
me
for med school, didn’t I?”

More squinting at me. He’s pissed
.
“Ah, but
you jumped
right into another relationship
after I left
—or was your good buddy lying to me about
Roxy
,
the one
with the snappy black eyes?”

“That
was
just
a
crazy
fling.
”
He
pushed his plate away.
“And I was young and
stupid.
Now, I’m old and
tired
,
tired and
old.”

Angela laughed. “Old?
That’s
not
an
acceptable answer. You don’t act all that old in bed.”

“T
hat’s different. You make me feel young,
but
look
at this.
” He sniffed. “
I spotted
two
gray hairs the other day.
”
H
e leaned his head
forward
so that she could see where he was pointing, then turned his
face
upward
and kissed her.

She kissed him back.
“Your h
air’s not gray, just a bit more
blond
than red
in places
—probably bleached by the sun
.
Besides
, on men, it means you’
re ‘d
istinguished,’ and ‘experienced
.
’
” She air-quoted. “
If
they
were on my head, I’d be old.”

He laughed. “Back to
the topic at hand.
You. Me. Us.” H
e snagged another kiss. “When are you going to
agree
t
hat we can’t live without each
other and we should
shack up
together
?”

“That’s what we’ve been doing—on the weekends, and occasional other days,” she replied, p
lac
ing her
empty
plate
on top of his
.

“I mean permanently.” He
took
the
plate
s
and placed them in
the galley
sink
. “My brother asked me the other day when you were going to make an honest man of me.”

“He did, did he?” Angela
smirk
ed. “You
r brother has things mixed up.
I seem to recall
you
running when you had the chance
to make us permanent
.”
But she was the one who’d refused to accept his first proposal
, the second one, too
.

He frowned.
“I didn’t see you chasing me all
that hard when I got cold feet.
”

Angela stood up and rested her hand on
Joe
l
’s shoulder
before sliding her fingers into his auburn hair
. “We aren’t getting anywhere with this conversation. You want to stay here. I’m not sure I do.”

They cleaned up the galley
together
and headed back to the harbor. By the light of the moon
, they enjoyed the rest of the
bottle of wine, and retired to his
house
, where he reminded Angela between kisses how well
they
fit together, complr
menting one another
,
understanding each other’s needs
and desires.

She didn’t argue
.
But a
t dawn, Angela drove home to shower and prepare for work
.

When
Joel
arrived at
the office, Bronnie welcomed him
with
an
announcement
.
“Your new
extern
is here
. What do you want me to do with her?”

“What do you mean? Show her in and let’s
pu
t her to work.”

“
S
he’s
wearing heels and
look
s like she’s going to a cotillion.”

“Whatever that is.”

Exaggerating her English accent, Bronnie said,
“A dance, you dunce. A fancy dance.
It’s a g
ood thing
Danni
’s not here. She’d probably laugh herself silly.”

“I wish
she were. When did she say she’ll
be
back
?”

“Not
un
til Friday. She’s in class
Monday through Thursday.
She reserved
Friday and Saturday
for us
,
and
Sunday
afternoon if you need
her
.”

“
Remind me
. W
hat’s this dancer’s name
again
?”

“Here are her papers. Lucille
Evelyn
Lamont.”

“
Okay
, send Lucy in.”
Joe
l
scanned the paperwork.
She
come
s
highly
recommended, but heels? What i
s
she
thinking?

A knock sounded on his office door.
“Come on in, Lucy,” he
waved
in the general direction of the little couch opposite his desk.

“My name is Lucille, D
octor
Taylor.” T
he young woman
pat
ted
her
carefully coifed
blond hair with
one
hand
, her nails manicured and paint
ed
a subtle pink
.

“
Lucille.
” He scanned her resumé again.
“
Do you live nearby?”

“I beg your pardon?”
The other
hand brushed across the bun at the
nape
of her neck.

“Where are you living?”
Joe
l
repeated,
look
ing
over the tops of his glasses
at her.

“I rented an apartment in town,
about
ten
blocks from here. I have my own car.”

“Good. I want you to go home and change into
something that isn’t afraid of a little dirt
. You’
re too dressed up for what we’ll be doing today
—in the back
. Jeans and a short-sleeve
d
shirt will do. I
’ll find
a lab coat for you. W
ear comfortable shoes. Those
spikes there,
those heels
,
will be killing your feet within an hour.”

“But—”

“Yes?” He watched as she stood up.

“I was told I would be your
extern
. No o
ne said anything about my doing
…
um,
you know, work in the back.”

“Lucille,
why don’t you
sit
down
and
t
ell me what you expect
to
do
.” 
He
listened while she
re
cit
ed
a
list of
clinical
procedures she expected to
observe and
the
lab
tests
she antici
pat
ed conducting.
“And, of course, I’ll be
look
ing up research a
rticles in the medical library
for you
,
eventually
assisting you with
certain
procedures
,
and the like.
”

“I see.
No one said you would be seeing
customer
s, perhaps even
look
ing over the cows and sheep at some of the farms around here?”

“
Well,
yes,” she replied earnestly. “But I thought I would be doing surgery with you
later
in the year and, of course, I
will be seeing
pat
ients,
you know, dogs and cats
, mostly
. And, your laboratory—when Bronwyn showed me around
—
I didn’t see that.
Yours i
s a small animal hospital.
But
y
ou just mentioned cows and sheep
. I thought most
of your practice was
pets.”

“The bulk of the practice
is
small animals.” He
clamped his jaw together and ground his molars
.

“But you mentioned cows and sheep. A
ren’t
farm animals
usually tended at a
large
animal hospital?
  And where is
your
medical library?”

He turned
toward
her
,
forcing a
smile
.
“The bulk of my medical library is on the shelves behind you. When I can’t find things there, I go to
the
town
library
and order something with the help of my good friend, Madge, who has an
in
with someone at the University of Washington down the road
or at your alma mater over the mountains
.
The lab? You walked by it
,
in that little anteroom off the main treatment
area
near the kitchen
. Those two microscopes and the supplies in the nearby cabinet is our lab. I mostly send out complicated stuff to the place that does the lab work for the human doctors in
town
.”