The Police Chief's Lady. Jacqueline Diamond

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      Chapter Three

      Ethan made frequent uninvited appearances in Jenni’s mind over the next few days. As if she didn’t have enough to do with getting to know her staff, meeting patients and searching for an apartment. Now she also had to deal with the shiver of excitement that ran through her every time she thought about that annoying man.

      Until recently, she hadn’t understood what people meant when they talked about chemistry. Jenni had dated plenty of guys and had been intimately involved with several, yet they’d vanished from her awareness when they were out of sight. She certainly hadn’t anticipated running into them on the street, imagining she saw their broad shoulders and feeling disappointed if the man turned out to be someone else.

      The good thing about chemistry, she discovered, was that it waned over time. By Friday, she hardly thought of Ethan at all, except once in the dry goods store when she caught a whiff of the same aftershave lotion and had to fight the impulse to invent a pretext to drop by the police station.

      Why his wife had left him wasn’t hard to imagine. Despite his bluff appeal, the man was bullheaded and judgmental. He’d made no bones about the fact that he was seeking an excuse to pry into poor people’s lives, either, although she was willing to give him credit for caring about the children. As a father himself, he’d need to be a total monster not to have a soft spot for kids.

      She still believed he’d been wrong to bring up her past in front of the city council. Ethan might claim he was doing his duty, but she doubted he’d have behaved the same way if he’d come across negative information regarding her competitor.

      Thank goodness most people she met that first week didn’t appear to share his reservations about her. The clinic staff, far from clinging to some other candidate or the memory of the two departed doctors, greeted Jenni with enthusiasm, although perhaps that was due to their having lacked an MD on staff for months.

      “You can’t believe what a load I’ve been carrying,” Estelle Fellows, the nurse practitioner and business manager, told Jenni. “I’m qualified to handle basic family care and the state of Tennessee allows me to write prescriptions, but without a doctor around, I feel like I’m walking a tightrope without a net.”

      “You must be exhausted.” Jenni had sympathized after learning that Estelle had four kids. The eldest, nineteen-year-old Patsy, worked as office receptionist.

      “And the hours!” Estelle went on, ruffling her short dark hair in frustration. “People think that because I’m the pastor’s wife, I’m at their beck and call any old time. I hope they treat you with more respect!” Her husband, Ben, Jenni had learned, worked two jobs, as police captain and as minister, so theirs was indeed a busy household.

      “I just hope they accept me.”

      “I’d say they already have.”

      Sure enough, a steady stream of patients dropped in once word spread that the new doctor was on board. Some people must have saved up their ailments, while others, Jenni got the feeling, mostly wanted to take a look at the new girl in town.

      She handled a couple of evening emergencies that week, one involving a broken arm and the other a baby with asthma. The on-call arrangement included her, Estelle and a Mill Valley doctor who lived halfway between the towns.

      Estelle continued to treat those patients who requested her services, brought Jenni up to speed on the remaining clients and, at her request, gleefully left early a couple of afternoons to be with her younger children, who were on vacation. Later, she promised, she’d gear up to handle vaccinations and back-to-school exams.

      A younger nurse, Yvonne Johnson, assisted Jenni in the office. If Estelle had been welcoming, Yvonne was downright effusive.

      “I am so glad they hired a woman!” she said as the two of them ate sandwiches together in the clinic’s lunchroom on Friday. Yvonne was a striking young woman with long silver СКАЧАТЬ