Fools Rush in(24)

“No, I don’t.” (I already knew this. If someone this magnificent lived within a fifty-mile radius, I would have known about him.) He went on. “I was born in Brooklyn, actually, but I’ve been away at school so long, that doesn’t seem like home anymore.”

“Where did you go to school?” I asked, sneaking another look at him. Mmm.

“I finished my Ph.D. in marine biology last year,” he answered, smiling gleamingly again. “In Miami. But I got a grant to do some research up here, and I just moved about a month ago.”

“Marine biology. That’s interesting,” I said. “If you don’t like needles, you should look away now.” I was about to inject his hand with local anesthesia, and he did indeed look away.

“Youch!” he yelped, jumping. “That stings!”

“I know, I’m sorry. But it won’t hurt in a minute. Cruel to be kind. So what are you doing up here on the Cape?”

“I’m studying the mating habits of horseshoe crabs,” he answered.

“Really!” I said, squelching a giggle.

“Yes, it’s fascinating,” he went on, and proceeded to tell me about the sexual patterns of the strange and prehistoric horseshoe crab. I made the appropriate murmurs of interest as he went on, carefully stitching up his rather elegant hand. Before he even knew it, I was done.

“Ta-da!” I announced, cutting the last tie. “What do you think?”

He examined the stitches carefully before turning his soulful Mediterranean eyes on me.

“You did a great job, Doctor,” he said, and my pulse jumped.

“All in a day’s work, Doctor,” I replied. I put a sterile gauze bandage over the wound and taped it into place, instructing him on keeping the cut clean and coming back for suture removal.

“Is your tetanus shot up to date?” I asked, rakishly snapping off my latex gloves and tossing them in the hazardous-waste bin.

“Just last year,” he answered. He scootched off the exam table. Alas, he was kind of short, maybe only five foot seven or so, but hey! Those eyelashes made up for a lot.

“Dr. Barnes, can I ask you something?” he said.

Anything and yes yes yes. “Sure, and call me Millie,” I said.

“I know we just met, but do you think you’d like to have dinner with me some night? I hardly know anyone up here, and I’d love to get to know you better.”

Oh my GOD! “I think that might be possible,” I answered calmly. “I’m working days all this week, so my nights are free.” Whoops! Too available. “If you give me a call here, maybe we can set something up.”

“That would be great.” He smiled again and again, my insides clenched with heat. Lorenzo sidled past me and went to settle up with Sienna. Jill came down the hall to pump me for details, but I headed her off at the pass.

“Mrs. Doyle, that humerus fracture needs a follow-up X-ray, so if you don’t mind, could you schedule that?” We had no humerus fracture. Jill jumped right in.

“Of course, Dr. Barnes. Anything else?”

“Yes. Mrs. Donahue needs a refill on her Coumadin, so if you could call that into the pharmacy, that would be great. And please make sure we’re restocked on suture kits in Room One, and don’t forget that we…should…should…okay, he’s gone!”

Sienna came leaping back to join us the minute Lorenzo Bellefiore walked out the door. We huddled around the small window in the doctor’s office that was, we had found, excellent for spying. Our newest and most favorite patient drove off, and then, like the three females we so clearly were, began with the high-pitched histrionics.

“Oh my God! Did you see his ass?” Sienna gushed.

“Oh my God, yes I did!” Jill answered with equal fervor.

“Ladies…ladies…I have an announcement to make,” I said, grinning hugely. “That man just asked me out.”

We were still squealing when Dr. Bala came in an hour later.

OF COURSE, I HADN’T FORGOTTEN about my humiliation and degradation of earlier that morning, but Lorenzo’s Mediterranean interruption happily microscoped that event. This romantic-stranger thing never happened to me. And I could use a distraction from Joe, having been reduced in ego to the size of a deer tick. Furthermore, it would be rather fantastic for Joe to see me out with a man whose beauty nearly equaled his.

That night, I called Katie. She was tickled that I was going out on a date and, like a good friend, pumped me for every single detail of our encounter. I was happy to oblige, sighing with delight over Lorenzo’s name/eyes/smile/lashes/hands/smell. And when Lorenzo called the next day to set a date, my happiness continued.

I HAD A FEW DAYS TO KILL before the big date, so I made a list. I loved lists. They comforted and protected me, minimized the margin of error and kept me focused, and I was going to need a lot of focus. I made the following list.

1. Call Curtis and Mitch for clothing suggestions.

2. Get hair trimmed by someone other than P-town psycho.

3. Clean house. (I wasn’t planning on having Lorenzo either pick me up or drop me off—my brother-in-law was a cop, after all, and I had been warned many times about strange men—but cleaning my house made me feel more together.)

4. Arrange to have Joe at the restaurant where I would be going with Lorenzo.