Heart Like Mine Read Free

it out, Millie. We always do.”
    â€œOkay.” She looked somewhat appeased, but he knew from experience that it was likely to last all of three-point-five seconds. “Oh—Therese just delivered a hot coffee to your desk. Just saying.”
    â€œYou’re just trying to lure me back down the hallway.”
    â€œIt’s possible, but in my defense, you know I’d let you hide in the on-call room if I could spare you for a few hours.”
    â€œI know.” He yawned inadvertently.
    â€œHere.” Millie leaned down, reaching for Kaya. “Give me this child, and you go drink that coffee. Then maybe I’ll let you near the patients. No zombie docs walking the halls on my watch.”
    He handed Kaya gently to her, trying not to jostle the little girl awake, then leaned back in the chair to stretch.
    â€œOh. One more thing.” Millie turned back from the doorway. “Therese just took an interesting call for you. Somebody from finance.”
    Josh felt his eyes widen. Calls from finance were never good news. “What about?”
    â€œNo idea.” She shrugged. “You know Therese. She’ll want to tell you herself.”
    As Millie headed down the hallway, Josh smiled, despite a sudden edginess. Oh, he knew Therese, all right. She was the ward secretary, which meant she had her pulse on every phone call and document that passed through the floor. She maintained the schedules, she decided which patients got which rooms, and she decided which staff members got to eat lunch—and when. Her level of control over pediatrics was monumental, but Josh had learned quickly that though she was as tough as nails on the outside, she had a heart of gold.
    That’s why she had fresh flowers on her desk every Monday morning, courtesy of an autodelivery he’d set up his first month at Mercy. He had her birthday on his calendar, and he made sure his friend Josie helped him pick out just the right present for any occasion that required gift giving.
    And that is why he generally got to eat lunch … sometimes.
    He took a deep breath, pushing out of the rocking chair. He paused in the doorway, sighing as he looked toward the nurses’ station. The hallway was an absolute anthill of ordered yet frenzied activity, and he wasn’t at all sure he was ready to deal with the day.
    But he had to. They were already short on doctors, short on nurses … short on everything.
    Yes, it looked like Tuesday was shaping up to be a no-lunch day.
    The finance office would have to wait.
    *   *   *
    Six hours later, Josh was walking by the nurses’ station on his way to a patient room when Therese leaned over the counter and waved him down. “Dr. Mackenzie, when you have a second, I need to go over some things with you.”
    He looked at his watch as he stopped and turned back. Christ —how had it turned into afternoon already? His stomach growled, and he realized he hadn’t eaten since inhaling a bowl of microwaved oatmeal in the break room at seven thirty this morning.
    â€œI’ll make a deal with you, Therese. If you can score me a sandwich, I’ll be your slave.”
    She laughed, rolling her eyes. “Already got me a slave at home. I just need some signatures right now.”
    She handed a signature pad across the counter, turning her computer screen so he could see what he was signing off on. As he clicked through orders for therapies and meds, she shuffled some message slips. All hospital messaging was computerized these days, but since Josh never had time to actually sit down in his office, they’d resorted to the old-fashioned pink-slip method as a backup.
    â€œWant the rundown?” She held the stack up, fanning them out like playing cards.
    â€œLay ’em on me.”
    â€œDr. Peterson needs a callback on Ian. Radiology results are in on the little guy in Room 4, and Sasha’s got a spinal tap scheduled