Hero For the Asking (Reed Sisters: Holding out for a Hero 2) - Page 45

"I won't. He wouldn't let me, anyway. Like you, he refuses to talk about it. I'm so sorry, Spring."

"So am I. But I'll get over it." Maybe. Like when she was too old to remember.

"Happy birthday, Sis."

"Thanks for calling, Summer."

She hung up the phone and buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. Happy birthday, sweet Spring.

* * *

It hadn't been one of her better days. It was ninety-seven degrees on this second Monday in July, the humidity was hovering at eighty-three percent and the air conditioner in Spring's offices had gone out. A frantic call had been put in to the repairman, but he hadn't shown up yet. Thanks to one woman who'd insisted on telling Spring her entire history of eye problems, covering some sixty-five years, Spring was running a bit late with her appointments. There were people sweltering in the waiting room, a small child was crying lustily as he waited for his brother to be fitted for glasses and the telephone hadn't stopped ringing all day.

Kelsey's dark hair was damp around her flushed face as she scrambled to keep up with calls and appointments. Spring's assistant, Andi, was dashing from one examining room to the other and Spring was trying to convince a very vain young woman that her particular vision problem did not lend itself to contact lenses. The woman left in a huff, informing Spring that she would get a second opinion.

"She'll find someone who'll fit her for contacts, you know," Andi predicted glumly.

"Yes, I know. And she'll be sorry later." Spring sighed as she swept a damp tendril of limp silvery hair back from her own glasses, which were causing her face to sweat. At times like this she considered getting contact lenses herself. The main reason she hadn't was because she thought they were just too much trouble. "Is the repairman here yet?"

"Yes, he just walked in. Kelsey took him straight to the compressor and told him she'd chain him to it if he didn't have it working in half an hour or less."

Spring laughed tiredly. "Sounds like Kelsey. How many more do we have?"

Andi checked the clipboard she held. "Mrs. Gray is in Room One. Needs a new prescription for her reading glasses. I just took Danny Gipson into Two. His glasses are in; you just need to fit them. We've got one more waiting in the lobby—a woman in her twenties who's been having headaches. Oh, and there's one last appointment due later, but he's not here yet."

"Maybe he'll be running late, too, and he won't have to wait in this heat. Do you have Mrs. Gray's file with you?"

Twenty minutes later Spring sat back on her stool, smiling with satisfaction at the seven-year-old boy grinning back at her, two of his front teeth notably absent. His freckled face was now enhanced by a stylish pair of glasses, through which his green eyes sparkled. "I see good through these, Dr. Reed," he informed her.

"That's great, Danny. Now you'll start making home runs every time you're up to bat, I'll bet."

He chuckled in pleasure. "Well, sometimes, maybe. I sure was glad to find out I'm not a klutz. Just blind."

Spring wrinkled her nose at him and affectionately ruffled his sandy hair, causing the gold bracelet on her wrist to sparkle in the bright office lighting. "You're not blind, Danny. You're just a little nearsighted. It happens to the best of us." She tapped her own plastic frames.

"Am I done now, Dr. Reed?"

"Yes, you are. What's your hurry?"

"I gotta go beat up Bobby Clary."

Spring's eyes widened in surprise. "Why would you want to beat up Bobby Clary?" she demanded.

"'Cause he's gonna call me 'Four Eyes,'" Danny replied happily. "See ya, Dr. Reed," he added, scrambling out of the examining chair.

"Don't break those glasses, Danny!" she called after him. Something told her she'd be seeing quite a bit of Danny.

The repairman had worked some kind of magic with the air conditioner, and already the offices were feeling cooler. Spring sighed in relief as she stepped into her office half an hour later after seeing her next-to-last patient. "Did our final appointment ever arrive?" she asked Andi.

"He's in Room Two." Andi rolled her expressive blue eyes. "And is he something! Kelsey's already given him her phone number."

Spring groaned dramatically and straightened her glasses. "What am I going to have to do to keep her from chasing after my patients?" she asked teasingly, glad to know that Kelsey's flirtatiousness remained within the bounds of good taste—while in the office, anyway. "What's this guy's name?"

Andi checked her clipboard. "Mr. Crowe. He's dressed kind of loud, but he's totally hot. Wait until you see him. Need any help?"

"I think I can manage, thank you." Spring's smile had faded a bit at the description of the man's clothing. Tiny reminders like that hurt, even after four months. Clay was still as firmly entrenched in her mind and heart as he'd been the night they'd made love, even though she hadn't heard another thing from him since the arrival of the bracelet she'd worn every day since her birthday.

Spring checked her appearance in a wall mirror before going in for her final appointment of the trying day. Her hair was still pinned up, though the tendrils that had escaped had frizzed a bit from the humid heat. Her makeup had long since faded from perspiration. The white lab coat she wore as a uniform over her plum cotton shirtdress was badly wrinkled. She looked as if she'd just put in a long, hard day. Oh, well, she thought in rueful resignation, it was just as well that she wasn't interested in the "hot" man waiting in Room Two. Kelsey could have him.

Tags: Gina Wilkins Reed Sisters: Holding out for a Hero Romance
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