Starting with a Kiss

Warmed by her friend’s enthusiasm, Abby laughed at the nonsense. “Afraid all my baby patients will distrust my skills?”

“I guess not. Wait until Jeb sees you. He’ll have a fit and dump Sara like a hot potato.”

Abby paused as she hung up another new dress. “I hope not.”

“What? Did I miss something?” Kim asked in mock surprise as she handed Abby another dress.

“Actually,” she said, turning toward Kim, “I don’t want Jeb.”

Kim sat on the bed and stared at her. “I thought that was what all this was about,” she said, waving her hand around.

“At first. But I’ve been thinking about it and now I don’t want Jeb to change a thing.”

Kim’s eyes narrowed as if she were deep in thought. “Another man?”

“Hardly,” Abby scoffed. But despite her best efforts, the image of Greg Hastings rose. She frowned and resumed her task. She wasn’t even sure she liked the man. She didn’t trust his motives in offering help, and she sure didn’t want to be reminded he’d been her escort at one of the most embarrassing events of her life.

Yet…

Making plans with Kim to go out Sunday afternoon to the movies, Abby finished putting away her things and, once her friend left, prepared a light dinner.

She no longer wanted to knock Jeb off his feet, but the thought of changing her image made her sparkle. It was past time. She’d spent all the years since the end of her relationship with Terry devoted to studying to become a doctor. Now that she’d achieved her goal, it was time to branch out and see what else life had to offer.

Monday flew by with extra appointments squeezed in for those children who had become ill over the weekend.

Tuesday was a disaster. One of Abby’s patients was given the wrong medicine and had an immediate allergic reaction. While she responded to that, appointments stacked up.

Then she spilled coffee on a brand-new skirt and her lab coat and walked around feeling damp all afternoon. Twice she lost her train of thought when listening to consulting physicians regarding treatment for critical patients, and had to ask them to repeat themselves. Both times the frustrated physicians grew sarcastic, asking if she really wanted to listen to them, or would prefer daydreaming for some new and more effective way of treating patients?

It was raining when she left the hospital, and she had neither coat nor umbrella. Her car was parked far from the entrance and she was soaked by the time she reached it. To top it off, her period started and she felt achy and cranky.

She arrived home tired, wet and disgusted with everything. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to deal with sarcastic, unsympathetic male doctors or to live alone in the city. She’d never had such a rotten day at home. Maybe she should have returned to Yreka and opened a private practice there. Small towns in northern California always needed physicians.

A quick warm shower went a long way toward making her feel better, but she was still slightly depressed and feeling weepy. If she’d been home, her mom and dad would take pains to cheer her up. She’d have the ranch animals to take care of, to take her mind off all the mistakes and stress and sardonic comments. But here she was alone, feeling dumb, clumsy and down. Some of it had to be because of the weather. Who expected rain in San Francisco in May?

Unable to settle on any one thing during the evening, Abby waited impatiently until she thought she could go to sleep. Bedtime couldn’t come too early.

Changing into her nightgown, she was just about to climb into bed when the phone rang.

“Abigail?”

“Yes.” It was Greg Hastings. “Is something wrong?” Why was he calling her so late? Or, more appropriately, why was he calling at all?

“Are you all right? Your voice sounds funny.”

“Of course I’m fine.” Immediately classifying the incidents of the day as minor annoyances, she sat down, ready to duel with Dr. Hastings.

“Rumor has it Dr. Peters was less than congenial over the bed of that liver patient.”

“Trust the rumor mill to have picked up on that. And it was Jesse Mitchell. He’s my patient but not responding to treatment. I thought Dr. Peters might help. Rose, I suppose,” she said, resigned to the far-flung reach of hospital gossip.

“Naturally. What happened?”

Abby told him about the incident, and then expanded to include her entire day, embellishing each incident, making sure he understood the appalling gaffes she’d made with the other doctors, all the time wearing a lab coat with a huge coffee stain on it. She wasn’t sure, but once or twice she thought she heard Greg chuckle. That was as far as she could go to dispel the rumors.

“Are you laughing at me, Doctor?” she asked suspiciously, her spirits inexplicably rising.

“And if I were?”

“I’ll have you know these were serious incidents.”

“Right, and I have a bridge to sell you.”

“I know, the Golden Gate.”

“Right. I called about the conference.”

“At eleven o’clock at night? Couldn’t it wait until I was at work?”

“I tried work, three times today.”

“Oh.” She thought about the small stack of pink phone messages waiting on her desk. She’d had her secretary pull any urgent ones, and every one relating to her patients. The rest she’d left to deal with tomorrow.

“It was a hectic day, sorry I didn’t get back to you.” She bet he ran his life with more order. Did he ever have to wait until the next day to return calls?

“No problem. We can talk now, unless I’m keeping you up.”

“I was ready for bed,” she said without thinking, then could have bitten her tongue. It felt strange to talk to him wearing only her nightgown. But there was no reason he had to know what she was wearing.

Idly she wondered if she could sound seductive and sexy on the phone. Not that she’d ever try such a thing with Greg Hastings!

“Are you wearing some prissy long white virginal gown?” he said, his voice suddenly rough.

She frowned. How had he known that? Was that her image? Prissy and virginal? No, quiet and mousy. Is that what mousy women wore? No wonder she needed to change her image. No woman of thirty wanted to be thought of as prissy and virginal!

She didn’t answer right away. He thought he was so smart. Could she shake that assurance a little? Show him she wasn’t as predictable as he thought? Without further thought, she blurted out, “Actually I’m wearing a cream-colored silk teddy. It is cut really high on the sides. It’s plunging in front and back and covered in lots of sheer lace with tiny straps that I hope will hold it up during the night.” She’d seen the teddy at Pam’s, but never in her life imagined wearing such a frilly concoction. Still, Greg didn’t need to know that.

His groan was clear across the telephone wire.

“What are you wearing?” she asked, hoping the laughter in her voice wasn’t transmitted.

“Nothing. Not a stitch.”

Liquid heat coursed through her instantly as she pictured his powerful, sexy body lying on white sheets. She knew his shoulders were wide, his chest muscles hard, with no extra flab anywhere. She blinked. Raised on a ranch, and trained as a doctor, she had a healthy understanding of the human body and procreation. She could picture Greg, and her breathing became difficult.

“Abby?” His low voice reverberated gently against her ear.

“What?” she said, glad he couldn’t see her. Why had she thought she could sound sexy on the phone? Just the thought of him on the other end of the line naked in bed was shattering her equilibrium.