The Family Doctor. Bobby Hutchinson

very idea made her long for something sweet. Kate headed for the kitchen. She needed chocolate chip cookies, and she needed them right away.

      CHAPTER FIVE

      THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, Kate set the homemade cookies she’d brought Tony on the bedside table, hoping she didn’t appear as awkward as she felt. “Hi, Tony. It’s good to see you looking so much better.”

      “Cookies?” His voice was gravelly and still weak.

      “Yup. I baked them myself, I guarantee there’re no eggs in them. I found a recipe in an allergy cookbook.”

      “Thanks, Kate.” She was rewarded with a smile, but she still felt uncomfortable. Maybe she should have brought him flowers or a magazine instead of the cookies. They seemed too—too intimate.

      Cookies are cookies. There’s nothing sensual about them.

      She was relieved that he was alone, but she was also disturbed by it. He was lying on top of the sheets, wearing a pale blue short-sleeved T-shirt and a pair of loose-fitting black track shorts. He had great muscles in his arms—and his legs, too. She swallowed. She’d never really seen his body this uncovered.

      His silky hair was rumpled, but he’d had a shave. Although he was still pale, he looked more like himself again. She noticed that he was too long for the standard hospital bed. His uninjured foot stuck out of the bars at the end of the bed. It was long and narrow. Elegant. Sexy.

      Sexy? Get a grip here, Lewis. How could a foot be sexy? She jerked her attention away from his foot and cleared her throat.

      “They told me at the desk they’d sprung you from ICU this morning. This room is nice, great view.” She walked over to the window and pretended to gaze down on the small interior courtyard, giving herself time to collect her ridiculous thoughts.

      “If you’ve got to be a patient, I guess this is as good as any.” He sounded grumpy, and Kate’s guard went up. If the tightness of his jaw and the narrow-eyed look he gave her were any indication, he was in a bad mood.

      She decided to get down to business. “The nurse said you wanted to speak to me?” Kate turned from the window and sat down in the chair beside the bed. She tried to put aside the slight nervousness she felt. There was also the stupid sexual tension that zipped through her, caused by her ridiculous awareness that he was in bed. She could smell the shampoo he’d used on his hair. Or maybe it was aftershave?

      For heaven’s sake, Lewis, concentrate on his concerns and get your mind out of the gutter.

      After all, he was a patient first, chief of staff second, attractive male third—way, way down the list. It was her job to do everything she could to set his mind at ease. And just because he was lying in bed, there was no reason to think lascivious thoughts.

      “You’re the only person I could think of who might pay attention and treat me like an adult,” he began in a disgruntled voice. “I’m finding out first-hand just how few rights patients have in this place. It’s appalling.” He tried to sit up straighter and swore when the movement hurt his ankle.

      It was petty to feel triumphant at the fact he needed her, but she couldn’t help it. Ashamed of her reaction, Kate made a move to assist him, but he waved her away with an impatient gesture. She flopped back down in the chair and tugged her skirt closer to her knees. Why had she worn this snug knit thing, anyhow? She should have put on something loose and long around him.

      “I asked to see my chart this morning,” he continued, totally oblivious to the way her mind was deviating from the issue, “and I was refused.” He sounded irate. “In the ER, I demanded a look at the CAT scan and was told that wasn’t possible. Well, that’s just not good enough.” His eyes darkened and he said between gritted teeth, “I want a full accounting of what happened, Kate. I want to know exactly who screwed up and why. Some of it I already know. The mix-up with the X rays—now that was a fiasco.” He shook his head in disgust. “The whole thing’s a damned fiasco, come to that. What’s gone on in my case is exactly the sort of thing I’ve done my best to prevent at this hospital. It’s inexcusable, from start to finish.” He smacked a fist down on the bedcover and roared, “There’ll be a full inquiry the moment I’m out of this bed, I can assure you of that.”

      Kate had anticipated this, but the full effect of his wrath was still disconcerting. She’d come prepared, however. She breathed deeply, drew a small notebook out of her jacket pocket, recrossed her legs and referred to it as she outlined, in a quiet voice, the exact series of events that had led to his respiratory arrest.

      “You slipped on a candy wrapper in the lobby and went to the ER several hours later, where there was a mix-up with the X rays.”

      “Inexcusable. Absolute inefficiency.”

      She let him emote, and then she went on with the accounting.

      “You had a severe gastrointestinal response to the acetaminophen you’d taken for pain.”

      “Are you trying to insinuate that what happened was my own fault?”

      It would have been easy to cower. He was intimidating, the way he was glowering at her. She retaliated with dignity. “Absolutely not. In fact, what I’m trying to establish is that we should forget fault altogether.”

      “Easy for you to say. You’re not the one lying in this bed.” He gave her a pitying look, as though she was some dimwitted do-gooder beyond sensible reasoning.

      But at least he listened without interrupting after that.

      Each time she glanced at his face, however, she could see that he was growing more outraged by the moment. His skin was flushed, his dark eyes glared, the frown between his brows deepened.

      She swallowed and went on with the recital. She referred to everyone involved by name so he’d be reminded that they were individuals.

      “The cook, Rene Lalonde, was in my office this morning. He’s terribly upset. He feels personally responsible for what happened with the broth, and he’s also really worried about his job. He’s recently moved his family out here from Quebec, and now he’s afraid he’ll be out of work. He has three small kids and his wife is pregnant with their fourth.”

      Tony snorted. “He must know I can’t just fire him, he’s a member of the union. Anyhow, I have no intentions of firing him. But it was negligent of him to add those damned eggshells to what was supposed to be a clear broth. He definitely deserves a reprimand, and I intend to be the one to give it to him.”

      Kate knew she shouldn’t defend the man, but she couldn’t help it. “He was doing the best he knew how. Mistakes are simply opportunities to learn.”

      “Literally over my dead body. I came that close, Kate,” he said, eyes narrowed, finger and thumb millimeters apart.

      She was tempted to say that close only counted in horseshoes but managed to restrain herself.

      “Fortunately, you’ve made an amazingly fast recovery,” she said instead. Was he really like his mother, always expecting the worst?

      Kate thought of his sister, Georgia, and reminded herself of the things she had revealed, how good and kind Tony was to his family, what a great father he was to his daughter. Maybe Kate could appeal to that generous part of him.

      “People make mistakes,” she began. “No one did anything deliberate.”

      “What about that mix-up with the X rays? That was inexcusable. That was negligence. I actually thought for a few hours that I had sarcoma. Thank God the other patient didn’t get my results. I blame the ER staff for such incompetence.”

      “I can imagine how terrible the whole thing was for you, but blaming only makes you the problem. The thing we should concentrate on is the solution, don’t you agree?”

      He didn’t respond, and he didn’t seem mollified by her sympathy or her appeals to reason. She reverted to facts. “The ER was unusually busy that