The Good Doctor. Karen Smith Rose

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СКАЧАТЬ Sandra.

      “Hello,” came a breathless voice after the fourth ring.

      “Violet? It’s Peter Clark.”

      “Oh, Peter. Hi.”

      He heard the rustle of bags. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

      “No, this is fine. I was just setting down the groceries. I stopped at the store on the way back from the Double Crown.”

      “You saw Ryan today?”

      “Yes. I had brunch with him and Lily and the governor’s daughter. But we didn’t have a chance to talk. Lily’s so worried about him. She sees the stress he’s under. She and I went riding this afternoon and I’m afraid she’s imagining all kinds of things.”

      “Hopefully, soon we can put both of their minds to rest. My colleague in Houston has made arrangements for Ryan’s MRI on Saturday. We have to be there by ten. Since our appointment with him for the results is later in the day, I’m wondering if we should stay in Houston overnight. Ryan might be tired. Can you talk to him about it and see how he feels? I can clear my schedule to drive back Sunday morning. One of my partners can cover for me.”

      “With no questions asked?”

      “With no questions asked.”

      A multitude of questions raced through his head concerning Violet. He wondered what her life had been like growing up with Lacey and Patrick Fortune and four brothers. As the only daughter, had she been a tomboy? Somehow he doubted that.

      “I’ll talk to Ryan,” Violet assured him. “He mentioned that he and Lily will be attending a fund-raiser for San Juan Hospital at the Madison Hotel on Friday night. He told me the money would be used for high-tech equipment in the pediatrics wing that’s a memorial to your mother.”

      “Ryan and Lily have always been supportive of fund-raising attempts for the pediatrics wing. Lily was instrumental in helping me launch the first fund drive.”

      Despite the good cause, this was one event Peter didn’t want to be reminded of, thanks to his sisters and that god-awful bachelor auction. In spite of himself, he couldn’t help asking, “Will you be attending the fund-raiser with them?”

      “I’m thinking about it. My brother Miles is one of the bachelors being auctioned off.”

      “I wonder who bribed him,” Peter grumbled.

      “Uh-oh,” she said with a laugh. “Does that mean somebody bribed you?”

      “No, with me it was blackmail. My sisters warned me that if I didn’t volunteer, they’d list my name in the personal ads on the Internet.”

      When Violet began laughing again, he liked the sound of it. He didn’t feel at all as if she were laughing at him, but rather laughing with him.

      Finally, she said, “Thank you, Peter. That felt good. I haven’t had much to smile about lately.”

      “Because you’re worried about Ryan?”

      “Yes.” She paused then went on, “I came to Red Rock to get away from my practice for a little while.”

      “That burnout we discussed?”

      There was more silence and he suddenly wondered if she’d confided in anyone about her real reasons for coming to Red Rock. Irrationally, he wanted her to confide in him.

      “Yes.”

      When she didn’t go on, he said, “Burnout happens.”

      “I guess it does, but this time when I lost a patient, not only her husband questioned my judgment. I did, too.”

      “You’re a perfectionist,” he said kindly, without criticism.

      “Aren’t you?” she shot back. “Don’t we have to be?”

      The first day they’d talked, he’d felt a bond with Violet because of Ryan. Now he realized they had another bond, too—their work. “We have to use our skill the best way we know how. We can be perfectionists but we’re not God.”

      When she took a deep breath, he heard it. As doctors, they had power, but sometimes they didn’t realize their power was finite.

      “You’re right, of course,” she murmured. “And usually I take what happens in stride. For the past couple of months I haven’t been able to do that. I took a cruise to get some perspective.”

      “Did it help?”

      “It was a distraction but no, it didn’t help.”

      “Maybe once we know what’s going on with Ryan you’ll find perspective again.”

      “Maybe.” She sounded doubtful.

      Peter’s pager beeped. “I’m being paged,” he said to Violet. “Hold on a minute.”

      Seeing the extension number, he knew he had to go. “I have to check on a patient, Violet.”

      “I know the sound of a pager when I hear it,” she assured him with complete understanding. “I’ll talk to Ryan and one of us will be in contact with you.”

      In spite of the conversation they’d just had, Peter hoped that person would be Ryan. Violet Fortune was simply too interesting, too intriguing and too beautiful for his peace of mind.

      However, when he said goodbye, he wondered if she would be at the bachelor auction Friday night.

      Whether she was or wasn’t didn’t matter. He was going to sleepwalk through it, get it over with and take whoever bought him to the Riverwalk the following weekend. That would be his contribution to charity.

      Giving up fistfuls of money would be a hell of a lot easier.

      As Peter headed to the third floor to answer his page, he couldn’t sweep Violet from his thoughts. At least not until he stopped at the nurses’ desk in Pediatric ICU, learned which patient needed him and went down the hall to Celeste Bowlan’s room. The six-year-old was crying and nothing the nurses tried could console her. For whatever reason, Peter’s presence always seemed to calm her. He strode toward her bed now, his heart going out to the little orphan with the straggly straight black hair, bangs and huge dark eyes.

      “Hey there,” he said softly. “Nurse Carmelita told me you’re having a bad day.”

      When Celeste turned her tearstained face to his, he saw her desolation and sorrow. Over a year ago she’d been staying with a babysitter when her parents, who had gone out for the evening, had been involved in a three-car pileup. They’d both died on impact.

      Celeste had been entered into the system and placed with a foster family. But her foster family hadn’t cherished her as her parents had. Apparently her foster father had been a closet alcoholic who’d been driving drunk with Celeste in the car. They’d been in an accident, and Celeste’s back had been fractured. Along with spinal injuries, a lung had collapsed, and she’d experienced belly trauma. Peter was going to operate to fuse her spine, but he had to wait СКАЧАТЬ