The Proteus Cure Read Free Page A

his touch. Feeling his muscular arm around her reminded her how long it had been since a man had held her. She breathed his scent, Irish Spring, just like Dek used to wear.
    Paul released her. “… don’t you think?”
    Sheila stared at him. What had he said? Her mind had wandered off. He brought back feelings … she’d felt a
connection
.
    God, what a high school thing to think.
    “What?” she asked, her voice shaky.
    “Don’t you think it’s just matter of time before Tethys wins the Nobel? They’ve pretty much wrapped up a cure for cancer. If that doesn’t warrant a trip to Sweden, I don’t know what does.”
    “It’s not us. It’s VecGen’s development. We just administer it.”
    “So modest.” He cleared his throat. “I was thinking… Want to go to lunch? To uh, to celebrate about Sean?”
    Sheila looked at her watch. “I can’t. I’ve got back-to-back patients till late today.”
    “I can hang around. Afternoon coffee?”
    Sheila took a mental step back. Was he hitting on her? She’d never thought of him
that
way. Rarely thought of anyone that way. After Dek, work had become her life. But she liked Paul. Had liked him for a long time from the little she knew of him. Looked forward to seeing his smile every week.
    “I don’t mind waiting,” Paul said. “I can bother some more patients. I’m sure someone wants to hear about Dickens.” He grinned and shrugged. “Or not.”
    She was tempted. It was
just
coffee, not a marriage proposal.
    “All right. I’d like that.”
    “Me too.”
    He held her gaze and Sheila didn’t seem able to say anything else or move from the spot. But it was a good immobility. A surge of long-forgotten excitement rushed through her.
    ”Okay then,” he said.
    She broke eye contact and noticed that her heart rate had kicked up. “Three o’clock? We’ll meet by the river in the parking lot. Coog wants to practice some skateboard moves. We can watch.”
    “Okay, see you then,” she said.
    “Looking forward to it.”
    He turned and walked down the hall. She stood for a minute, enjoying the feeling of being interested in something other than work.
    Work! She needed to call a patient.
    The chart was back in her office, so she put on her leather coat and gloves, and then headed outside.
    Early December and unseasonably warm. By now they should have been buried in snow but the predicted high today was forty-five. She knew it was only a matter of time before they’d be into the single-digits of winter.
    There’s New England for you.
    The clang and clatter of heavy machinery echoed through the air from the construction site of the new wing. She couldn’t wait for it to be finished. No matter how much refurbishing they underwent, these old buildings were still so, well, old.
    She kicked at the brown leaves as they blew into her path. A crisp morning. Tethys and its surrounding town of Bradfield sat amid rolling hills. Down the slope to her right the Copper River glistened, winding past the campus, down through the center of their little village, and on into the woods.
    A month ago an Autumn-in-New England postcard. Today the trees stood bare and the massive surrounding hills blocked the sun. The grass had gone into hibernation. A clear sky today, but soon the snow would come and she’d be hurrying through a Winter-in-New England postcard.
    All the buildings at Tethys Medical Center looked the same: majestic, old, solid structures with granite block walls nearly black with age. Stately but intimidating.
    All this used to be Bradfield College, a medical school built in 1890. It went under in the eighties and sat empty until Tethys Medical Center stepped in about a dozen years ago and bought it. After major renovations the Admin building kept its purpose, the men’s dorm became the Tethys Cancer Center, the women’s dorm the Tethys Birthing Center, a fertility clinic, the classroom building the lab. The smaller dormitories and faculty housing became homes for the