She didn’t know why, but she didn’t want Eric to know about her mother and father and Deidre. She already felt vulnerable enough around him as it was. Sometimes, she got the impression he saw right through her armor to her insecurities…her weaknesses.
It was the combination of her weakness when it came to resolving her past and her weakness for him that had her treading like she was on paper-thin ice.
Eric completed the finishing touches on Brendan’s bandages while Jenny jumped several inches in the air. She was trying to assess the success of her Halloween costume in the decorative mirror hanging on the wall in his office and coming up a few inches short.
He affixed the bandage and sat back to study his work. He’d originally thought to use only a smidgeon of the fake blood he’d purchased, but Brendan had gleefully encouraged a more liberal dosage.
Jenny, who Eric had dressed as a physician, had complained that people would think she was a very bad doctor given her patient’s copious bleeding.
“Better hurry,” Brendan said anxiously. “My mom will be here any minute. She sounded surprised when I told her to pick us up in your office.”
“Was she worried?” Eric asked, interested in how Colleen would respond to the special plan he, Brendan, Jenny and Brigit had cooked up for Halloween.
“No. She trusts you,” Brendan said. “She thinks you’re the best doctor at the hospital. She just sounded confused about why Jenny and I were at your office.”
Eric did a double take in the process of walking across the room. “Best doctor at the hospital?” he asked, stunned. He removed the mirror from the wall and held it at hip level. Jenny grinned widely as she admired herself in her surgeon’s outfit. Luckily, Eric knew a very petite female surgeon who had recently shrunk a set of scrubs in the wash. Only minimal safety-pin
usage had been required to fit Jenny’s wand-thin frame. The fact that she wore several layers of clothes beneath the scrubs helped. “Where did you get the idea your mom thought that?”
“She said so. I heard her telling my aunt Deidre on the phone yesterday,” Brendan said matter-of-factly as he sailed across the office on his crutches in order to inspect his costume in the mirror alongside his sister. Eric had seen a lot of kids use crutches, but no one moved more quickly and effortlessly than Brendan.
Eric absorbed this fascinating tidbit of information as the children vied for a central place before the mirror. He wanted to ask more about what Colleen had said about him, but he couldn’t figure out how to without seeming obvious.
“It’s not very realistic,” Brendan said, inspecting the pair of them in the mirror. “Who would believe that a doctor could be so much shorter than her patient?”
“Who would believe that a patient would be bleeding so much when they have such a good doctor?” seven-year-old Jenny responded with admirable quickness.
Eric smiled. He liked Jenny’s feistiness. He’d met her last summer at the fundraiser for The Family Center. Jenny had been surprisingly focused and determined on the task of dunking Harbor Town’s mayor, Tony Tejada, in the dunking booth, despite the fact that her small arm wasn’t quite up to the task of hurling a baseball the full distance required. Tony had agreed nonchalantly when Eric had suggested moving the mark up a few feet to give Jenny a fighting chance. Tony’d paid for underestimating Jenny’s resolve and skill. The tall, slender, seemingly delicate girl had felled the mayor on her first attempt at the newly designated mark. She and Eric had shared a satisfied grin as Tony sputtered and thrashed around in the water behind them. When she’d recognized Eric after Brendan’s surgery, they’d quickly resumed their budding friendship.
Did he like Jenny because she reminded him so much of her mother, minus the defensiveness? Eric suspected that was part of it. One thing was for certain: Jenny was a force to be reckoned with, just like Colleen.
“Lots of doctors are shorter than their patients. I’d imagine that’s typically the case with Dr. Leung, the lady who gave us Jenny’s scrubs,” Eric told Brendan mildly. “A good surgeon has a strong heart, a quick brain, a sharp eye and a steady hand. I’d say Jenny has all the makings of one.”
Brendan gave a big-brother snort at this, but Jenny just smiled up at Eric proudly. She jumped and hooted in excitement when someone knocked.
“Look at our costumes, Mommy!” she squealed as she flung open the door. “Eric helped us. See? A real stethoscope…and look at my surgeon’s pants and shirt and hat and see this here?” She reached into her pocket. “This is one of those things…a tongue presser…”
Colleen glanced at him in the middle of Jenny’s exuberant demonstration of tongue-depressor use, her aquamarine eyes wide in amazement. She’d obviously just come from work. She looked very lovely, wearing a soft-looking, fuzzy ivory sweater, a skirt and a pair of calf-hugging leather boots. Her briefcase hung on her shoulder and her hair was styled up on her head with a few wisps brushing her cheeks.
“And I’m the patient,” Brendan said, grinning. “Eric said if I had to use the crutches, I might as well have them work for me instead of against me.”
“He was overenthusiastic with the blood,” Eric said as he hung the mirror back on the wall. “But I might have gone a little crazy with the bandages.”
Colleen laughed as she examined her son’s costume. “You’re right. Every square inch of him is bloodied or bandaged.” Her gaze met his. Her curving mouth and sparkling eyes made him feel a little…
…warm.
“Mom was in on this, too? She said she dropped them off at your office half an hour ago. How long have you four been planning this little scheme?”
“Just since Brendan’s appointment yesterday,” Eric replied. “He was so disappointed about not being able to get rid of his crutches before Halloween, I wanted to do something to help.”
“Now I don’t mind the crutches at all,” Brendan said as he flew across the room in order to retrieve his empty candy bag. “Can we go now? It’s almost four o’clock. All the good candy will be gone.”
“The good candy doesn’t disappear in the first minute, Brendan,” Colleen remonstrated with a laugh. She shook her head and glanced at Eric. “Thank you for helping them with their costumes. They’re fantastic…and so realistic.”
“Only if I’m a psycho-doctor,” Jenny mumbled darkly as she eyed her bloody patient.
Colleen burst out laughing. Eric caught her eye and grew two degrees hotter. She had an amazing laugh.