“Helping out how?” she asks slowly, her brown eyes more cautious than they usually are.
“Dealing with the phones, customers, whatever,” I tell her calmly, even though I can tell she’s at the very least concerned. “Take the day off. Will’s got it covered.”
Her eyes linger on him. “Um. Are you sure?”
“You’ve been complaining about needing a day off for weeks,” I remind her with raised eyebrows.
She stares at me for a moment, then back at Will, who’s gone unnaturally still. “Full pay?”
“Full pay.”
“Awesome, thanks, boss!” she says, her apprehension gone in the face of a day off. “Don’t forget to water the plants!”
The door shuts behind her before either of us says anything, and it’s a long, tense moment before Will turns to look at me. I smile, giving him a pat on the shoulder that leaves my hand tingling. “So, you’re answering phones today.”
He scowls, shrugging my hand off of him. “I don’t know how to answer phones.”
“You pick it up and talk into it. Pretty self-explanatory.”
“You could’ve told me that before I came with you.”
“Would you have come?” He crosses his arms. “Come on,” I say, ignoring his attitude. “I’ll show you around before the first patient.”
The tour consists of the two functioning exam rooms, a small lab, my office, and a break room in the back with a coffee maker I overpaid for and still can’t use without Victoria’s help.
He stops outside exam room one, staring at a watercolor painting of the Rosehill water tower. “Did Addie do this?”
I nod. “Yeah. There’s more in the break room if you—” He doesn’t wait for me to finish my sentence, starting toward the break room while I follow behind, stopping where three of her paintings hang on the otherwise empty wall.
Will stands in front of them, scanning the pictures. “Wow. She’s good.”
“She’s very good.”
He nods, still looking, and there’s something sad on his face. The look of a man who didn’t get to watch his niece grow up when he looks away from them. “Alright,” he says. “Let’s get this over with.”
Chapter 4
My first patient of the morning is Earl.
He’s a regular. Seventy years old, has been coming to see me since I started my own practice a decade ago, and I think most of the time he comes in, he’s looking for something to do, but I don’t mind.
“New fella out front,” he says, settling onto the exam table while I put my gloves and stethoscope on.
“Mhm.” I wrap the blood pressure cuff around his arm. “How’s the hip been?”
“Who is he?”
“Will Davis.” I pump the cuff. “Stay still, please.”
Earl stays as still as he can, but he also keeps talking. I’m not sure the old man is capable ofnottalking. “Davis boy. Right. Heard he was in the pokey.”
“He was.” I jot down the reading. Better than last month.
“He gonna be around?”
I pull up his chart on my laptop. “For the time being.”
He sighs, shifting on the table, making the paper crinkle. “Some folks ‘round town ain’t gonna like that, Nolan.”
