Family Practice. Marisa Carroll

didn’t approve of the casualness of his dress but she had to admit the clothes suited his warm skin tone, dull gold hair and military bearing.

      “Is something wrong?” She came out from behind her desk as she noted Zach’s grim expression with a sinking sensation in her chest.

      “We’ve got wiring problems,” Zach announced.

      “Oh, boy,” J.R. muttered under his breath. “That’s not good news.”

      “You’re right. It’s not. Evidently the breaker box is going to have to be changed.”

      J.R. whistled softly. “That’s going to cost a pretty penny. Are you sure?” Zach nodded. “Well, it can’t be helped. Let’s go hear what the man has to say.”

      The two men stepped back so that Callie could lead the way into the staff room at the back of the building. They joined Bonnie Highway, copper-skinned, dark-haired and stout, and Leola Townley, tall and fair with light brown hair and the sharply etched features of her Finnish logger ancestors. They were both staring at the open circuit box as though it contained a nest of snakes. Callie hid a grin.

      Rudy, whom she remembered owned a construction business in town, and a middle-aged balding man in jeans and a wrinkled cotton shirt were discussing the wiring, the inspector pointing out problems with the beam of his pencil-size flashlight, Rudy shaking his head and jotting notes on a clipboard. They broke off as the newcomers entered the room. Zach made a quick introduction, Callie first and then J.R.

      “We have a serious problem here, Dr. Layman,” the man explained. “Whoever put this box in must have wired it up blindfolded.”

      “The building’s over twenty years old. I don’t even remember who the original electrician was,” J.R. admitted.

      Rudy lifted his shoulders in a brief shrug. “Before my time.”

      “It has to be replaced,” the inspector said, his voice pleasant but implacable. “There’s no way I can approve any upgrades to this box. It’s a miracle you haven’t had a fire before now.”

      “How long will it take?” Callie asked. “We’re trying to run a medical practice here.”

      “Three days,” Rudy replied. “Have to go to Petoskey for a bigger box. Then get hold of the power company to shut off the juice. Replace the box, run new wire, run new ground wire, too, put in the new receptacles, then get Art to okay all of it before we get the power switched on again.”

      “Is that as quickly as it can be done?” Callie asked, dismayed. “We’re already behind schedule because of the water break.”

      “I’ll do my best,” Rudy promised.

      “I’ll give you my home phone and my cell number,” the inspector offered. “I’ll come as soon as I can get here when Rudy calls.”

      “Thank you,” Callie said, smiling in relief. “We’re grateful for your cooperation. Can we finish seeing patients this afternoon, Rudy, or do you have to shut off the electricity right away?”

      “I’ll head to the electrical supply place in Petoskey once I figure out everything we need. You go ahead and finish out your day.”

      “Shall I start rescheduling our Friday patients?” Leola asked Callie after Rudy and the inspector had gone outside with J.R. to mark the location of the underground electric cable.

      “That’s a good idea. Don’t you agree, Zach?”

      “Yes, unless you want to set up a tent and examine patients in the parking lot.”

      She wasn’t certain if he was joking or not, so she decided to respond as if it was a serious suggestion. “I don’t believe that’s necessary.”

      “I’ll make sure the meds are taken care of, Dr. Layman,” Bonnie promised. “I’ve still got plenty of room in my basement fridge from the first go-round. Is there anything else you want us to do?” She included Zach in the question.

      “No,” he responded. “Why don’t you switch on the answering machine and take a lunch break while you have the chance?”

      “Yes,” Callie agreed, wishing she’d thought of suggesting it first. “It’s almost 12:30. You both are already late for your break. Our afternoon patients will be showing up before you know it.”

      The phone at the reception desk rang and both women rolled their eyes. “You get our lunch bags out of the fridge,” Leola said, “and I’ll answer the phone.”

      “I’ll call the Petoskey hospital and inform them what we’re up against,” Zach offered, pulling his stethoscope out of his coat pocket and wrapping it around his neck. For a split second as she watched his movements, Callie remembered the heat and strength of his touch on her arm and she shivered. “We’ll have to get their okay to close the office Friday.”

      “I guess we have no choice. We can’t function without electricity.” More work-arounds, more improvising, more confusion, more failures. “I should never have left Ann Arbor,” she said before she could stop herself.

      Zach gave her a long, steady look. “Hey,” he said. “Rudy’s the Marine, not me, but it’s time we apply a little Corps philosophy to the situation.”

      “What philosophy would that be?” she asked suspiciously.

      “Improvise. Adapt. Overcome,” he said.

      “Improvise? Adapt? Overcome? I don’t understand.” She hated how uptight and prissy she sounded, but she was not in the mood for word games.

      “We’re improvising like hell right now, right?” He grinned, a very appealing, very handsome grin.

      “I suppose we are,” she admitted reluctantly.

      “Next we adapt so we can overcome this latest cluster...fluff,” he said, hesitating until he came up with a sufficiently mild substitute for what he’d obviously really wanted to say. “We just got handed Friday off whether we wanted it or not. Do you have plans?”

      “My plans were to be here doing what I was hired to do.”

      “Now you have room on your calendar to do something else.”

      “What do you suggest?”

      “Go fishing with me.”

      “Absolutely not,” she said. “That’s an absurd suggestion. If we do anything together it will be to discuss which of our patients you’ll be assigning to my care. We have put it off long enough.”

      “Why can’t we do that after we’ve gone fishing?”

      A little curl of anger stirred inside her. He’d avoided discussing transitioning some of his patients to her, as if he didn’t want to give them up, as if he didn’t think she could hack it. This man was getting on her nerves.

      “Stop making light of the situation, Zach. We’d get more done here working in the dark than we would after we’ve been out on the lake in a boat.”

      The humor faded from his eyes. “I’m sorry, Dr. Layman. You’re right. It was a bad idea. If you want to talk about the patients, we can do that from home. We don’t need the internet or access to the hospital network. We’ll do it low-tech. I’ll give you thumbnail sketches of our patient roster and you can choose the ones you consider the best fit. Is that acceptable?”

      “Yes.” She was ashamed of losing her temper. It was unprofessional. She hated appearing unprofessional. “Yes, I agree that would be a better solution. We should have done it days ago.”

      “In a perfect world we would have. This is not a perfect world. I’ll be over at eight.”

      “Eight?” She’d hoped she might be able to sleep in for an hour or so in the morning.

      “Improvise, adapt, overcome, Dr. Layman. Remember? I still plan on going fishing. So