LITMIR.BIZ

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on business.

      GloryAnn listened as he described each case, glanced at the file for the child’s name then struck up some silly conversation with them. It irritated him that she spent so much time talking nonsense when there was so much to be done. The sheath of amber hair falling over one shoulder bugged him. So did the way she met each patient’s stare with that reassuring smile.

      Finally they arrived at the patient she’d treated last night. She smiled at the boy, held his hand as Jared examined him.

      “He’s going to need these burns peeled soon.” A giggle from behind him drew Jared’s attention to the laughing child. He half turned, caught a glimpse of GloryAnn making funny faces. “Dr. Cranbrook?”

      “I heard you.” She straightened.

      “May I ask what you were doing?”

      “Taking his mind off what you were doing.” She pulled a small plastic disk from her pocket, showed the boy how to move it so the steel ball inside would follow the path. “You try it, Tony,” she encouraged.

      Tony did and giggled at his success. GloryAnn turned to Jared, lifted one eyebrow and inquired, “Shall we see Joseph?”

      “If you’ve finished playing.”

      “For now.” She said, tongue in cheek.

      Jared fought his impatience down. Her heels clicked on the marble floor. She hummed a little song about sunshine and flowers. Normally, extraneous noise irritated him, but Jared found himself relaxing as the soft melody carried down the hall.

      Joseph was in pain. Jared checked him over quickly before increasing his meds. GloryAnn’s attention focused on the boy.

      “Do you have anything he could listen to?” Her hand grasped the small fingers and cradled them when he moaned.

      “I beg your pardon?”

      “A radio? A CD player, perhaps? Something to take his mind off his pain when his family isn’t here with him?” She paid him little heed, her focus on the boy. “He’s going to have to lie still for quite a while. We could make that easier if we gave him something else to think about.”

      “Such as?”

      “Is there someone who could read to him in his language?”

      “Dr. Cranbrook, we don’t have the staff or the time to entertain—” He stopped midsentence, a rap on the glass window interrupting him. His mother-in-law stood outside, beckoning.

      “Not again.” She’d already called him twice this morning.

      “Dr. Steele?” GloryAnn glanced from him to the woman.

      “I’ll be a moment. Excuse me.” Jared strode to the door, stepped into the hall so Dr. Cranbrook wouldn’t overhear.

      “Aloha, Jared, ku’u lei.” My child.

      At least Kahlia had remembered his request not to enter the room without gowning up. She grasped his shoulders, enveloped him in a hearty hug, something he’d never grown used to from Diana’s big Hawaiian family.

      “You don’t return my calls. How are you?”

      “I’m fine. Busy,” he added, hoping she got the message.

      “You’re always busy. Too busy for family.” She shook her gray head. “Pono and I are holding a birthday party for Grandma tomorrow evening. You will be there?”

      There was no point in arguing with Kahlia, she would only keep nagging him. Diana and Nicholas had been her whole life. She and Pono had doted on their daughter and lavished affection on their tiny grandson. Jared couldn’t blame her for needing someone to fill the gap in her heart. He just wished she’d chosen someone else so he didn’t have to keep struggling through the reminders of what they’d all lost.

      “Grandma’s birthday, Jared?” she prodded.

      “I’ll try.”

      “Who’s that?” Kahlia inclined her head toward the woman now bent over the bed playing some kind of finger game that coaxed a smile from Joseph’s parched lips.

      “Our new doctor. GloryAnn Cranbrook. She arrived yesterday.”

      “Lovely. Will you bring her along?”

      “I don’t think so, Kahlia. She has work to do.” Jared took another tack. “Or she could go in my place.”

      Kahlia’s dark eyes scolded. “Always you try to avoid us. We are your family, Jared. We are here for you.”

      I lost my family.

      He clamped his teeth together to stifle the words. Kahlia had mourned enough. They all had. Sooner or later she would accept that he had to get on with his life. Away from here.

      “Excuse me, I’ve been paged.” GloryAnn eased past, strode down the hall, hair flying behind her like a silken kite.

      “She looks so young, a mere child.”

      “She’s extremely well qualified.” Jared barely recalled the list of credentials he’d scanned earlier. “Elizabeth Wisdom sent her to fill in for six months.”

      “Elizabeth is a good friend to Agapé. Where does this woman go after six months?”

      “I have no idea.” Jared suddenly realized he knew little about his new coworker. Thankfully he was paged next. “Excuse me, Kahlia. I’ve got to go. Leave me a note about the party. I’ll come if I can.”

      “But I wanted to—oh, never mind.”

      Ashamed of his rudeness, Jared bent and brushed her cheek with his lips. “Bye.”

      By the time he’d dealt with their newest patient and completed two debrading procedures, Jared was more than ready for lunch. He picked up a tray from the cafeteria and moved outside, drawing in deep cleansing breaths and exhaling fully to purify his lungs.

      GloryAnn sat on one end of the patio, watching sailboats cruise past their tiny cove. He could hardly ignore her, though at the moment Jared craved nothing more than silence, respite from the weeping children he’d had to hurt to help.

      “May I join you?”

      “Certainly.” She blinked as if awakening from a dream, her smile inviting. “I’m enjoying this weather.”

      “You’ll want to watch your skin. Even though it seems temperate, the sun is strong. A tropical burn is painful, Dr. Cranbrook.”

      Clearly irritated, she set down her bottle of juice hard enough that a few droplets decorated her fingers. “Why do you always talk to me like that, Dr. Steele?”

      “Like what?” Unused to being challenged, Jared froze, his sandwich halfway to his mouth.

      “Like I’m a silly child who can’t look after herself, let alone anyone else. ‘Don’t get too close to the patients, watch the sun, don’t get the patients too excited with silly games.’ It’s insulting.”

      Though neither her voice nor her demeanor changed, anger darkened her green irises.

      “I’m sorry if I offended you. I merely wanted to point out that this climate is different than the one you’re used to. Sunburn is unpleasant and can be dangerous.”

      “And you think I don’t know that?” GloryAnn put the lid back on her bottle and tightened it so much her fingertips turned white. “I put on sunscreen this morning, SPF 70, and I’ve been out here—” she checked her watch “—ten minutes. Hardly long enough, don’t you agree?”

      Jared decided it was better not to answer, so he concentrated on chewing the roast beef he’d selected.

      “I assure you I am qualified to be here, Dr. Steele. If you feel that isn’t so, or if you would prefer someone else, I suggest you contact Elizabeth Wisdom, because until I hear otherwise

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