LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

However, the chief of staff had intervened, forcing Tamara to reconsider her hasty decision. Two years had passed since that incident, and Doctors Killeen and Wolcott had kept a respectable distance and were overly polite with each other to the point of ridiculousness.

      Brian Killeen’s impassive expression didn’t change with Tamara’s greeting. “Dr. Luna, please excuse me for a moment. I’d like to have a few words with Dr. Wolcott.” Cupping her elbow, he led Tamara away from the nurses’ station.

      She affected the same expression. “Yes, Dr. Killeen?”

      He dropped his hand. “I wanted to tell you that I’ve approved your vacation request. I know you wanted it to begin Monday, but if you want to begin today, then you have my approval. I also wanted to tell you that a directive has come down from the corporation that we must cut back on overtime. Effective September first, we will no longer have twelve-hour shifts. We’re now mandated to eight-hour shifts.”

      Tamara blinked once in an attempt to process what she’d just heard. The E.R. was the most under-staffed department in the hospital. With the faltering economy and loss of jobs, those who were no longer employed were left without health care, which tended to burden hospital emergency rooms with an increase in indigent patients.

      “But that’s going to put our patients at risk,” she argued softly.

      Brian stared at Dr. Tamara Wolcott. He may have come down hard on her, but he would be the first to admit that she was an excellent doctor. She’d never been one to complain. He’d found her to be one of the most dedicated doctors in the E.R.

      “We’re going to use residents and interns to pick up the slack. And I want you to think about becoming my assistant. You don’t have to give me an answer until after you return from vacation.”

      The request shocked Tamara. She and Brian had never actually gotten along because of his bullying.

      “Assist you how, Dr. Killeen?”

      “I want you to supervise the interns.”

      “The only thing I’ll say is that I’ll think about it.”

      Thick black eyebrows lowered over his icy orbs. “What’s there to think about, Tamara? Perhaps next year you’ll become Head of Emergency Medicine.”

      Her eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me?” she whispered.

      A rare smile softened the hard line of his mouth. “The only thing I’m going to say is that you should think about my offer.” The smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “Because you’re dressed in street clothes I assume you’ve completed your shift.”

      “I have.”

      “Then go home, Dr. Wolcott, I don’t want to see you in this hospital for a month.”

      Stunned and shocked, Tamara blinked as if coming out of a trance. Not only had Brian called her Tamara for the first time and approved her four-week vacation request, but he’d also recommended her for a supervisory position. Although she was not suspicious by nature, she knew Dr. Brian Killeen hadn’t told her everything. Perhaps, she mused, he’d been promised a position at another hospital. And if he had, then it was most likely Chief of Staff. There was no way Dr. Blowhard, as the E.R. staff called him out of earshot, would accept anything less than chief.

      “I’ll see you in a month.” She was going to take him up on the offer to begin her vacation now. It’d been more than a year since she’d taken a day off for personal leave. Half the summer was over and Tamara planned to take advantage of the warm weather to do all of the things she’d put off doing.

      Tamara turned on her heel and headed for the elevator that would take her to the lobby where Rodney had promised to wait for her. She found him leaning against the information desk talking to a volunteer. He straightened and followed her out into the early-morning sun.

      Reaching for Tamara’s hand, Rodney pulled her along as he whistled sharply through his teeth for a taxi that had just pulled up to the curb in front of the hospital. Opening the rear door, he waited for her to get in before he slid in beside her.

      “East Seventh between Second and Third avenues,” she said to the driver as he started the meter.”

      Rodney, wearing a baseball cap to protect his hair and face from the sun, placed a knapsack between his feet, then turned to stare at Tamara. “Have you ever walked from the hospital to your place?”

      Tamara, who’d closed her eyes, nodded. “I’ve done it a few times. Most times I’m too exhausted to do anything but collapse when I get home.”

      “I don’t know how you do it, Wolcott.”

      She opened her eyes, staring at his face. It was the color of a toasted pecan. Tamara had known Rodney Fox for more than three years, yet this was the first time she actually looked closely at him, finding him quite nice on the eyes. His face was angular and on the thin side, but his features were delicately balanced. She’d told him that he wasn’t her type, but then again he could’ve been her type if she hadn’t put up a barrier to keep all men at a distance.

      It had taken being trapped in an elevator with Duncan Gilmore for her to realize not all men were like Edward Bennett. Rodney’s love life was like a soap opera—there was always drama before he and his girlfriend reconciled. What Tamara found odd was that Rodney had moved out of his own apartment, and she wondered if this break was final.

      “Do what, Fox?”

      “Work around the clock without falling on your face.”

      “You did it when you were on call.”

      “I know,” Rodney said, “but that’s when I was a resident. But as an E.R. physician you never catch a break.”

      Tamara smiled. “Give me a twenty-minute nap and I’m raring to go again. Working the E.R. is like a rush. I always find myself swept up in the chaos whenever a new patient is brought in.”

      “I can think of other things that give me a rush. Like sex,” he added quickly when Tamara gave him a curious look.

      She wanted to tell Rodney she didn’t know about that, because it’d been a long time since she’d had sex. The last man she’d slept with was her husband, and at thirty-six years her senior, his sex drive wasn’t what it had been. This suited Tamara because it left more time for her to concentrate on her studies. Weeks would go by before they made love, and when they did she found it satisfying and also gratifying.

      “You need more than sex,” she countered.

      “Without sex and babies the world wouldn’t need pediatricians.”

      “You’re right about that. You can put us out in the middle of the block,” Tamara said to the cabbie, raising her voice to be heard through the Plexiglas partition.

      Reaching into the pocket of his jeans, Rodney took out a bill and pushed it through the slot. “Keep the change.” He opened the door, got out and helped Tamara. “I’m serious when I say that I’ll pay half your rent.”

      Tamara stood on the sidewalk outside her apartment building staring up at Dr. Rodney Fox. “What about your co-op?”

      “I’m putting it on the market. I told Isis she can live there until I find a buyer.”

      “That may take a while, given the real-estate market.”

      “True. But I’m not going to put her out on the street.”

      Unlike what Edward did to me, Tamara mused. Rodney deserved more than a woman who used him like a yo-yo. Unfortunately, Isis hadn’t realized what she had. Hopefully she would come to her senses before it was too late.

      “Come on, let’s go upstairs. Let me warn you that you’ll get your share of exercise walking up and down five flights. Most of the tenants are thirty-and fortysomething professional couples, which means you’ll be able to sleep during the day. It is usually louder on the weekends,

Скачать книгу