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Julie Vaughn followed the nurse named Cathy into the exam room at her ob/gyn’s office. It was time for her annual, but it was also time for her to act on the pledge she’d made to herself to get back out in the dating scene. Which meant asking Dr. Nizer for a birth control prescription today.
No way was she going to rely on condoms. She had a six-year-old daughter as proof that method often failed. Not that she would trade her precious Molly for anything.
“Did you have a fun Memorial Day last weekend? Are you ready for the summer to begin?” Cathy asked her.
Before Julie could reply with an obligatory, “Sure,” the nurse told her to step onto the scale. Julie quickly slipped out of her ballet flats, but that didn’t help much.
“Looks like we gained a little weight since last year,” Cathy said in a teasing tone.
We?Julie hated when people did that cutesy scolding thing. It reminded her of a teacher she’d had in boarding school.
“And our blood pressure is a little high today,” Ms. Happy Nurse added, after squeezing the cuff on Julie’s arm.
“I always get white coat in a doctor’s office,” she grumbled.
Cathy tilted her head. “Aww. Well, Dr. T’s bedside manner is very calming.”
“Dr. T? I have an appointment with Dr. Nizer.”
“The receptionist didn’t tell you?” Cathy tsked and shook her head.
“What? Did Dr. Nizer retire?”
“No, Dr. N is traveling with his family this summer. Our newest ob/gyn is filling in for him.”
Julie had been with Dr. Nizer for years and hated having someone new thrown at her. Although, as life’s surprises went, she supposed this was hardly monumental. Still, Julie was getting sick of surprises. Things changing in her life that she did not expect.
Seeing what was no doubt an annoyed expression on Julie’s face, the nurse said, “You can reschedule if you’d like, but it really is best not to put off your annual exam.”
And if Julie planned on fulfilling her summer quest to find a father figure for her daughter, she needed that birth control prescription. “I’ll stay.”
“You won’t be sorry,” the nurse said. “Dr. T is absolutely wonderful. All the women who come here are half in love with him. Even the uppity Mrs. Harbrow,” she added in a gossipy whisper.
Julie shook her head, thinking of Mrs. Harbrow, a blueblood septuagenarian who enjoyed intimidating the poor souls she looked down on in their Southampton community. “Poor souls” meaning people who were only double-digit millionaires.
Cathy handed her a paper hospital gown. “Take everything off. Put this on open to the front and have a seat on the exam table.” Then she left the room to give her privacy.
Julie carefully folded her linen trousers and silk blouse and set them on the side chair, leaving her bra and panties on top of the pile. She hated wrinkled clothes and wondered whya practice in a posh town like this with a tastefully decorated waiting room did not at least have hooks of some kind for patients to hang their clothes.
Wrapped in the paper robe, she took a seat on the edge of the exam table. At a knock on the door, she said, “Come in.”
Cathy strode in with a big smile and behind her was Dr. T.
Oh. My. God.
Her breath caught in her chest and she wanted to go tearing out of the office, but wearing nothing more than the stupid paper exam gown saved her from that cowardly move.
Dr. T was Noah Taylor.
His eyes went wide when he saw her, but then he masked his surprise with a neutral doctor face and looked down at the tablet in his hand—that he obviously had not checked yet or he would have recognized her name. She hadn’t changed it since the days when they were together.
Seven years ago.
Seven years since she’d last spoken to him. Or seen him.
Seven years since the day she’d given his marriage proposal a big fat no.
