Page 19 of The Family She Needs

‘Don’t need no doctor. When you get to my age all they do is find too many things wrong with you and try to make you eat rabbit food and drink nothing but water.’

Logan stepped back onto the path. ‘Come with me to the surgery while everyone’s at lunch.’

‘This thing that’s laying everyone low... It’s a twenty-four-hour bug?’

‘Yes, with another day thrown in to get over it.’

‘Then I ain’t got that.’ Jonty turned towards the gate that led to his house.

Oh, no, you don’t.

‘Let’s go. I’ll just take your temp, and I promise not to tell Karina to put your food through a blender before serving it.’

‘Huh. That girl will do whatever she chooses, whether you or I like it or not.’ But he changed direction, now aiming for the surgery.

Jonty wasn’t getting any argument from him about Karina.

In the consulting room he said, ‘Right, park your backside on that chair. Do you feel nauseous?’ When Jonty dipped his head in acknowledgment, he continued. ‘Any fever? Sweats? Day or night?’

‘Some.’ Jonty turned his hat over and over in his gnarled hands.

He’s afraid. He thinks he’s got something serious and doesn’t want to know. At his age who can blame him?

‘What else?’ Logan lounged on the end of the desk, as if he had all the time in the world to listen to this old guy.

‘My gut hurts lots and the toilet stuff’s not so good.’

‘Any blood in your stools?’ When Jonty raised an eyebrow in question he gave a more basic term for stools, then asked, ‘Is it black?’

‘A bit.’

‘Up on the bed now and I’ll check your stomach.’

Jonty stared at him, that hat almost spinning now. ‘I don’t want you finding anything I can’t deal with. You understand?’

‘I do. Completely. But let me put it this way—what if you’ve got something easily treatable?’

‘What are my chances? I’m too old these days.’

Logan put up a smile. ‘You’re also fit and very alert.’

Faded green eyes met his gaze and finally Jonty said, ‘Thanks, lad.’ He clambered onto the bed. ‘Don’t take too long. I’ve got to pick up those pipes so we can fix the drive in the morning.’

Logan warmed his hands under hot water, mulling over Jonty’s symptoms and which tests to order. Those tests would be the hardest to obtain. Jonty would fight him all the way. But he had an ace up his sleeve. Karina. Jonty’s Achilles’ Heel. He adored her as much as she did him. He might grizzle about it, but they’d get those tests done if she told him to.

Listening to Jonty as he listed his symptoms of stomach pain, dark stools, weight loss and tiredness, Logan began considering Crohn’s disease.

‘Ever have any mouth ulcers?’

‘One or two.’

‘Right...’ Now he knew which boxes to tick on the lab form.

* * *

It was late afternoon when Karina tracked him down in the tea room, getting a coffee. ‘Mickey’s very quiet since he got back from kindy. I hope he’s not sickening for something.’

The boy was sitting in the corner, colouring in a picture of an elephant, and his desultory manner underlined Karina’s comment. Still...

‘Stop worrying. If he’s crook we’ll know soon enough. There’s one plus. His urinary frequency seems to have stopped.’

‘How can I not worry? Tell me that, Logan.’

He didn’t get a chance.

Leeann strode into the room, saying to Karina, ‘Becca phoned and said to remind you it’s Friday night.’

‘I’ll call her back and tell her no.’ Karina looked despondent.

‘What does Friday night have in store?’

‘Drinks at the pub. But I’m too tired to be bothered today.’

‘Well, I’m not. It sounds like the best idea in ages. We’ve had a big day, so let’s go unwind for a bit. Who normally looks after Mickey when you go out? Jonty?’

She looked stunned and she dipped her head.

‘Come on, Karina.’ He dropped an arm over her shoulders, squeezed her gently against him. ‘It will be good to have some adult time.’

Leeann hadn’t finished. ‘Becca also said, Karina, that you should bring the doctor everyone’s talking about.’

Logan laughed. ‘There you go. I’m officially invited.’

‘Wait till I see Becca,’ Karina snapped as her face coloured a beautiful shade of red. ‘I’m going to kill her. Slowly. Painfully.’

‘You sure know how to make me feel wanted.’ Logan dropped his arm and picked up his coffee. ‘Just as well I’ve got a thick skin.’

* * *

‘He’s yummy!’ Becca leaned close to Karina the instant Logan stood up to go for another round of drinks. ‘No wonder you didn’t want to bring him along for the rest of us to get to know him.’

‘I didn’t want to bring him because I have him in my face twenty-four-seven as it is.’ She winced at her own unfairness. ‘I just wanted some time to think without him there, to not think about anything except having some fun.’

‘You’re not seriously telling me you don’t have fun with the yummy doctor?’ Becca laughed. ‘Come on, Karina, you’re not made of ice.’

Her face flushed. ‘Unfortunately.’

‘Aha, so you are interested in him?’ Her friend looked too darned delighted with that.

‘Here you go, ladies.’ Logan placed replenished beers in front of them and took his seat next to Karina. This time he managed to place the length of his leg against hers.

On her other side she got one of Becca’s elbows in her ribs. ‘Nice...’

‘Shut up,’ Karina whispered back, and adjusted her chair to put space between her and Logan. Picking up her drink, she tried to focus on the crowd and who was there that she knew.

Logan leaned closer. ‘You any good at pool?’

‘I know one end of a cue from the other.’

‘She’ll beat the pants off you,’ Becca’s brother informed him.

‘Let’s give it a whirl.’ Logan stood and reached down for her hand. ‘I haven’t played for a while, but I bet I can beat you.’

‘Now, there’s a challenge.’ Tugging her hand free of his, and feeling the instant cool where his fingers had been, she strode across to the table and began setting it up.

‘Heads or tails?’ He stood beside her, flicking a coin up and down in his right hand.

‘Heads.’

The coin slapped onto the back of his han

d. ‘Heads it is.’

Karina chose a cue and went to the end of the table. Bending over to line up with the triangle of balls, she mentally crossed her fingers that she wouldn’t make too much of an idiot of herself, then aimed the cue ball to break up the triangle. She could play, and sometimes she even won, but a champion she was not. As her first shot showed.

Hard as she tried, she couldn’t ignore Logan when he nudged her aside.

‘Let me show you how it’s done, girl.’

Rolling her eyes, she laughed. ‘You don’t have a problem with self-belief, do you?’

‘I’ll have you know I beat the Nigerian health centre staff every time.’ He winked. ‘The fact we used sticks for cues and apples for balls had nothing to do with it.’

He sank three balls before missing a difficult shot.

‘What did you use for a table?’ Lining up her next ball, she leaned over the edge of the table for better access. The resounding thunk as the ball hit the side of the pocket and dropped in made her chuckle. ‘Take that.’ Thunk. ‘And that—and that.’

‘A tin table with hats nailed to each corner.’

Laughter bubbled up just as she moved her cue. It slewed sideways and she missed her target. ‘Look what you made me do.’

‘Excuses, excuses. Again, let me show you how it’s done.’

‘Smarty-pants,’ she coughed out around her laughter.

Then she got an eyeful of neat, butt-filled pants as he leaned so far over the table it was a wonder his feet remained on the floor. The laughter dried up; as did her mouth. Oh, my. Now, there was a sight for sore eyes. Any eyes.

‘Looks like the drinks are on you.’

Logan’s voice penetrated the heat haze in her brain.

‘Why?’ A glance at the table gave her the answer. ‘The best of three?’

She began emptying the pockets and putting the balls back into the wooden triangle.

‘You’re on. But first I need my beer. It’s hot work, playing nice to a lady.’

‘That was nice? Distracting me and then sneaking balls into pockets when I wasn’t looking?’

Don’t ask me where my gaze was.

‘All part of the plan. Win by means foul or fair.’ He brought their beers across. ‘Get that inside you and see if it doesn’t improve your eyesight.’

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