Chapter Six
Boys?Matt’s gaze followed as Dr. Vogue made her way out of the room, her heeled boots clacking a tattoo of disapproval. Boys? Was that really how she saw him? As a hopeless kid always in need of an older sis to help him out of a jam?
Not that he was above getting help, but he did not want Rose Chance seeing him as a boy. He definitely saw her as a woman and would really like it if, when she turned her stunning, sapphire eyes his way she saw a man standing in front of her.
He stomped out behind her, and might have brooded over how to change her mind except that his pager went off. Blood and mayhem called. Taking off at a jog, he had to go on manly business to save lives. He didn’t have time to worry about what one sexy GP thought of him.
The emergency turned out to be a massive heart attack victim who needed an emergency coronary bypass. When he got into the chest cavity he discovered four blockages. After he’d finished, he took a long, hot shower. In the doctors’ lounge he turned on his cell and called James Chance, and was asked to leave a message, which he did.
Then he headed to the cafeteria and settled at a table with an ER surgeon, Vin Shah, and an anesthetist, Bill Topley.
“So, you in for Friday night?” Bill asked him.
He could barely remember what day it was, never mind what he was supposed to do Friday. “Friday night?”
“Yeah. Poker with the boys.”
Boys again. The word rankled. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
* * *
Monday was always a busy day for Rose as all her patients who’d come down with something on the weekend or injured themselves wanted to see her. Rose tried to limit seeing patients to her posted office hours, but it wasn’t easy. Today was a perfect example. A mom came in for her annual check up and dragged in two of her kids, one with an ear infection and one who had a severe case of tonsillitis. So, she didn’t see one patient. She saw three. She never understood why people thought a busy doctor could squeeze in a couple of extra kids. Did they think because they were small they took up less of her time?
Lunch had been a salad from the deli downstairs, grabbed at three o’clock, then she’d dealt with not only her regular patients but a couple of walk-ins. A bladder infection and the victim of a fairly minor car accident. Finally, at nearly five-thirty, as she was tidying up her desk, her receptionist/nurse rang through. “I’ve got one more patient for you, Dr. Chance.”
Since Deirdre did not add patients after the office was officially closed, she knew this was no ordinary patient. “Who is it, Deirdre?”
“It’s your father.”
Her eyes opened wide. Her father wasn’t one of her patients. She suspected he wanted to surprise her and take her out for sushi or something, so she smiled and said, “Send him in.”
But when Jack Chance entered her office it was clear he didn’t have sushi on his mind. “Dad? What’s the matter? You look awful.” His skin was gray and he seemed completely out of it.
“I don’t know. I don’t feel good. I’m dizzy. Didn’t want to worry your mother.”
He barely got to the word mother when he passed out. She ran forward, grabbing him before he hit the floor, yelling for Deirdre.
She did an EKG immediately, and as she’d feared she saw an abnormal heart rhythm. “I suspect a third degree heart block,” she said to Deirdre as she called 911.
Her dad came to while she was doing his EKG. He looked surprised to see her.
“Did you drive all this way? By yourself?”
The man was barely functioning, how he’d driven more than sixty miles was beyond comprehension.
“I wasn’t feeling this bad when I started out,” he said. “I was planning to invite you out for dinner.” He panted out the words. “Surprise you.”
She smiled at him. “You sure did surprise me. Ambulance is on its way. Let’s get you to hospital.”
He hated hospitals but was too ill to argue. After the paramedics hooked him up with oxygen and strapped him into a stretcher, she jumped into her car and raced the few minutes to the hospital.
When she got to the ER, it was blessedly quiet. She consulted with Vin Shah, the emergency doc who ordered a full rainbow of blood tests and another EKG. He said, “He’s got cardiomyopathy. Your dad just bought himself a pacemaker.”
She nodded. “Who’s the cardio-thoracic surgeon on duty?”
“Dr. Ogilvie.”
Dr. Ogilvie was near retirement age and his best years were long behind him in Rose’s opinion. No way he was cutting into the man she loved most in all the world. She exchanged a glance with Vin. “Where’s Matt Vasilopolous?”
