6. Close Knit Community
6
CLOSE KNIT COMMUNITY
“I s this going to be a Monday morning routine?” Justine asked the following week when she saw Garrett at the counter before his office opened.
He’d just placed a bag there and it smelled like bagels.
“Do you want it to be?” he asked. “Or is someone else over here trying to sweeten you up to jump the line?”
She laughed when he said it. She would try to make amends for how she reacted last week.
Her first week went better than she expected. She was going to blame that first day on nerves more than anything.
That and all the changes in her life in a short period of time.
And she had other people stopping in to see her in the past week. Some brought food, others just a smile and introduction.
In Boston no one was this personable. Maybe that was why she started out the way she had here.
Troy had told her it was always like this on the island. Like a close-knit community.
“You might not have been the only one to bring me food,” she said, reaching for the bag and opening it. They were still warm. “Yum.”
He put another bag on the counter. “Cream cheese if you don’t have any.”
“We don’t,” she said, smiling. “I’m going to get fat if you keep doing this. I ate two of the donuts last week. I never eat donuts.”
He laughed, two dimples popping out that she hadn’t noticed before.
“I’m not sure it’s possible for you to get fat. You’re just a little thing.”
“I’ve been told that before,” she said. “It’s not fun to be the shortest of all your friends.”
She wasn’t sure why she volunteered that piece of information when she hated to talk about personal things at work.
“I didn’t have that problem,” he said.
Her eyes traveled half the length of him. Just what she could see. She’d peg him a few inches over six feet.
“Lucky you,” she said. “Anything I can help you with or you just wanted to make sure your patients got their medications on time? And I should apologize if I was out of line last week. First day jitters and all.”
Once she got into a routine, it wasn’t that hard to get his stuff together quickly and it was only three days a week. One day this week it was just three patients.
“I have no complaints,” he said. “How was your first week after those jitters went away?”
“Not bad,” she said. “Glad there are no complaints.”
She hadn’t heard any from anyone either, but she’d been running like crazy trying to get things out on time until she got a good handle on who was who and where things were located.
“What are you doing back here?”
Garrett turned his head to the man who walked to the counter. “Making nice, what about you?”
“Guess you beat me to it,” the guy said, then turned to her.
“Dr. Mills. Another one of my cousins.”
“Do I have to guess which one you are?” she asked. “I can safely say not Ava or Gabriela.”
Garrett laughed. “Gabriela is my sister.”
“Ava is mine,” the other doctor said. “I’m Hudson. ER,” he added, his hand coming out. “My twin, Carson, doesn't have as many needs as me in terms of the pharmacy.”
“The radiologist,” Justine said. She remembered that now.
“That’s him. He spends his time looking at pictures,” Hudson said.
She nodded. “My sister says I spend my time counting.”
Garrett laughed. “We all have our little jokes. My sister soothes crying toddlers or makes them cry. Depends on the day.”
“So then Michael and Richard are your fathers?” she asked. She was figuring it out now.
“My father is Richard,” Garrett said. “He’s in oncology with me but rarely on the island.”
She saw Richard was a department head.
“Michael is my father,” Hudson said, “and not here much unless they are short-staffed or he’s on the island and there is an emergency and they need a surgeon.”
“Got it,” she said. “Whether I remember it or not, who knows?”
“You’ll remember it,” Troy said, coming in. “Hi, Dr. Mills. Both of you. Dang, who brought food and what is it? I love it when everyone sucks up to us.”
Her jaw dropped when they were both called out on it. “Garrett brought us bagels this morning. Hudson is just saying hi. Guess he needs to catch up.”
Garrett smirked when she said that and she hoped he accepted her apology and realized she wasn’t always so uptight.
Hudson laughed. “Challenge accepted. My wife is a great baker. I’ll see what I can get her to make. It’s better than store-bought stuff by lazy single men.”
That answered something without her even having to ask about Garrett.
Interesting.
“I don’t have twins keeping me up at night either,” Garrett said to Hudson. “How are they doing?”
“My two are sleeping through the night,” Hudson said. “Finally. Didn’t think it was going to happen. Good lord, they are going to be one next month. Carson has it worse.”
“Do I want to know why?” she asked.
“My twin’s twins are only seven months old. Teething at the same time and neither can get comfortable. So yeah, I’m glad we are past that now and found what worked.”
“You are a twin and you both have twins?” she asked. “Only a few months apart?”
“One of those funny island things,” Garrett said.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t go there.”
“I keep trying to talk to her about it and she wants no part of it,” Troy said.
“I don’t believe in those things,” she said. “I’m practical.”
Garrett laughed. “I say that too.”
“He can say it all he wants,” Hudson said. “Once it hits him, he’ll understand.”
She put her fingers in her ears. “I don’t want to know.”
She’d done a good job avoiding talking about the island.
It sounded like gossip and drama to her. She had plenty enough of that in her life that she wanted to forget about and didn’t need to get sucked into anyone else’s.
“I’m out of here,” Hudson said. “Going home to see my wife and kids before they leave.”
“See ya,” Garrett said.
“I’m going to bring these bagels to the back,” Troy said. “And punch in.”
She watched her breakfast move away. “I’ll be there to get one soon,” she said. “Thank you again for bringing them. It beats the granola bar I’d be eating. I don’t have much of an appetite so early in the morning.”
“What time do you start?” he asked.
“Our shifts are six to six. I’m days for a month, then I’ll switch it up to nights and rotate back to days.”
“One of the things I’ve never had to deal with once I got out of my residency,” he said. “But I’m on call all the time, so it’s not much different.”
“Not if it’s waking you up all the time,” she said.
“Sometimes,” he said. “But not often. Here it’s a bit harder being the only one on the island, but they will take on call in Boston and deal with it there and call only if need be. It’s not like I can do much if someone has to be seen. They get sent to the ER after hours or I call for them to get in, then go there if I have to, which isn’t often.”
“My father used to get calls at all hours of the night,” she said.
“Your father is a doctor?” he asked.
Crap. She let that slip somehow and wasn’t sure how.
The last thing she wanted known was what she was going through back home to reach here.
Talking to Garrett was much easier than she was used to doing with a guy, which was probably why it happened.
Maybe because there was no pressure here. She told herself that anyone at the hospital was off-limits.
“He was,” she said. “A surgeon. He passed a few months ago.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said. “And I need to get to work. My computer is dinging.”
“I hear it,” he said, smiling. “Sorry for pulling you away. I won’t ride you too hard if my patients are a bit late, but I think I’ve only got three today again.”
She nodded her head. “We’ll get it to you on time.”
Garrett left and she went back to the computer to see how much was building up, but it wasn’t bad. Some dings were emails and she’d push them off for now.
“I made you one,” Troy said, coming back out. “Didn’t know if you wanted it toasted or not.”
“This is good,” she said, taking a big bite. She’d have to finish it before she could fill her scripts, so she went to the emails to take care of that while Troy filled things for her.
The two of them worked quickly and got caught up before the other tech showed up.
When someone from Garrett’s office came to get their meds, she stopped to look over and see if it might be him.
She didn’t know what would make her think that, but Troy had said it’d happened before when the nurses were busy and he could run down faster.
But it was a woman she hadn’t seen before and got back to work wondering when she might see Garrett again and then told herself to cut it out.