no-driving chauffeur ASAP.
Although Drake knew next to nothing about the lady he was pushing in the chair, he found himself intrigued by the fact that she didn’t act as if he were the Second Coming. She didn’t seem impressed by him at all, and the novelty of her reaction was a welcome breath of fresh air. Everywhere he went, women swarmed over him like carrion beetles. Not this one.She looked like she’d rather sock him, and he respected that even as he wondered if the city was going to have yet another lawsuit on its hands because of the accident.
A short while later Lacy was wheeled into the X-ray department. A few people were seated in the large room, waiting to be seen, and the mayor’s entrance made every one wide-eyed. The female attendant looked as if she might faint when she saw him, but quickly pulled herself together.
“Good morning, Mayor—Dr. Randolph,” she gushed.
“’Morning, Denise. This is Lacy Green. She was in a car accident this morning and needs her ankle and neck X-rayed. Is Reg Carson in the building somewhere?”
Denise, a short round woman with breasts so prominent they pressed against her white coat as if trying to escape, gave Lacy a sympathetic smile. “I’ll find out. In the meantime, come this way. Which ankle, honey?”
“Right.”
Drake rolled Lacy to a small examination room and Denise closed the door. “Dr. Randolph, if you’ll take her boot off, I’ll page Dr. Carson, get these other patients started, and be right back.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Denise.”
Denise exited and the mayor knelt in front of Lacy in the chair. Their eyes held. Lacy felt something pass between them that made her pulse jump just enough to be noticeable, but the last time she’d had dealings with a man as prominent and handsome as this, she’dlost everything, and she had no plans on going there again. “Who’s Dr. Carson?”
“Friend of mine. He’s an orthopedic surgeon on the staff here.” Drake didn’t let her coolness deter him. The more she pulled back, the more intrigued he became. He placed his hands on her boot. “Let’s see if we can get this off.”
Lacy wasn’t having it. Letting him remove her footwear smacked of an intimacy she didn’t want to encourage. “I got it,” she said evenly.
But she didn’t. Not only did her neck hurt when she leaned down to reach the boot hidden beneath her long brown suede skirt, but the ankle was so swollen the attempts to remove it brought her nothing but pain. Hurting, she exhaled an angry, frustrated sigh and leaned back against the chair.
“Let me try,” he said gently.
She nodded for him to go ahead, but his actions only made the pain flare again, so he stopped and told her, “We may have to cut it.”
Lacy sighed with frustration. The black boots had cost her eighty-five dollars on sale at Marshall Field’s. Although the mayor’s suggestion made sense, the reality of having to slice through the soft leather only added to an already messed up day.
Denise came back, papers in hand. “Can’t get it off?”
Grim, Lacy said, “No.”
Denise took what appeared to be a capped pen from her pocket, but when the cap was removed, a small silver scalpel caught the light. She handed the instrument to Drake. “Dr. Carson is on his way,” shesaid, then shook her head sadly. “Those are killer boots, girlfriend.”
“Were,” Lacy corrected her, and raised her suede skirt to her knee.
The boots were knee high, so the incision began at the top. Drake worked slowly and carefully until the halves of the leather fell away to reveal the sheer black-stockinged leg beneath. He drew the boot off. Silently admiring her leg and the purple polish on the toes of her well-formed foot, he keep his face impassive, concentrating instead on the large knot that had once been her ankle.
Grateful to be free of the confining boot, Lacy gingerly moved her toes, only to wince at the pain.
“Sorry about the boot,” he said.
“I’ll add them