Page 2 of At Last

Once I’ve pulled the portable stirrups out, I order Elise to strip down for me while I secure them to the side of the bed with clamps, then gesture for her to lay down. This is one of those naked appointments, as she calls them.

Her feet up in the stirrups, legs spread, bottom to the edge of the bed, the appointment is as comfortable as I can make it. Her body visibly tenses, as everyone’s does, when I don my gloves and lube her up. She shudders at the speculum. No one likes a cold, metal cylinder shoved up inside their lady bits. But as most of my female patients are, she’s a trooper.

She’s healed nicely and the insides look good.

After Elise is dressed, I hand her off a script for birth control as well as an already filled case. The woman needs to start them ASAP. When her biker husband gets home, after already having had to go six weeks without getting any, I know where his head—both his heads—will be at.

But neither Elise, Boss nor I want her preggers with baby number two just yet. And from what Elise has shared, her man isn’t the best with condom usage.

“Any big plans tonight?” Elise asks while slipping her yoga pants back on, an innocent question, but it jars just the same.

Much to her chagrin, I have to wake the baby to check him out, too. He squirms and coos. Not the case at his last checkup where I neglected to blow on the stethoscope to warm the metal. Gunner wailed. A meltdown of epic-newborn proportions.

Boss looked ready to rip my head clean from my body. And it wasn’t because I made his son cry. It was because I made his son cry after we’d finally,finallygotten him tostop crying.

Two weeks straight of colicky baby crying, the new parents were about ready to crack. We’d nixed the breast milk, but had to figure out a formula which wouldn’t cause gas.

With too many choices, on about formula number five, we hit. So enter me and my stethoscope mishap. Despite a miserable boy, I miss the newborn stage.

Gunner is a happy baby now. Incredible what a change in diet did for his constitution. They’re doing a great job with him. Thus far he checks out completely healthy.

We leave her bedroom. She and a wide awake, wriggly Gun walk me through the common area, where the glutton for punishment that I am, looks for Duke again. The MCs president. I’ve known him as long as I’ve been coming here. As Elise’s doctor, at first. But being a family practitioner, I started caring for a few of the brothers as well.

But not Duke. He’s strong and charismatic. Personally, I think he’s so tough, he scares the illnesses away. And for some reason, he can’t stand the sight of me. He legitimately bristles whenever I come around. Then we end up snapping at each other or are reduced to speaking in sarcasms, like in the hallway earlier.

A damn shame because when he has those tattoos on display, and he’s in full MC President mode, exuding all that power and badass-ness, even though he’s normally not my type,lord help me… I’d put hand to forehead and swoon if I didn’t think Elise would want to know why. I’m not in the mind to give up that ditty of information about myself just yet, if ever.

She continues out into the paved courtyard with me, and we stop at the trunk of my Jeep Grand Cherokee. I flip the hatch door and begin to heft boxes inside. My Cherokee color is Cayenne, and it’s sexy as hell. I let Jade pick it, she liked that it matches our hair. When we moved to the mountains, I upgraded from our little sedan. I didn’t think a sedan would be safe on slick winter mountain roads.

“Caitlin,” Elise says to grab my attention.Oops. “Any big plans tonight?” she asks again, I assume, because she asks it with a bit of emphasis. I’ve been in Thornbriar for months and still haven’t managed to form any real friendships. Acquaintances, sure. Yet every night when I’m done doctoring, my butt is at home on my sofa watching television with my four-year-old. Most people don’t even know I have a daughter.

She’s at daycare during my office hours. I usually stop by the grocery store before I pick her up to avoid the inevitable “I want… I want… I want” in a preschooler’s whine. I love the girl but that gets annoying.

My little Jade, anyone who has seen her eyes knows why I gave her that name. It’s our extremely Irish heritage. She’s the spitting image of her mama. Both my parents were born over there. Jade had been born when I was living there taking care of my grandmother before she passed. Though, my little girl happens to be much more popular. She’s going to her first friend sleepover tonight. So no, no plans. A Friday night and I’ll be where I usually am.

“Nope,” I answer Elise. “My ass will be sitting on the couch watching the History Channel.”

“Why don’t you come hang? Trish is coming over with Sneak. Maryanne will be here too because Tommy is working and won’t be home ‘til late. We’re having a girl’s night in.” She pauses, then, “And I think Duke’ll be there, too. I mean, as an FYI.” Although her words sound benign, spoken in a casual tone, she keeps peering over my shoulder, out toward the gate and main road.

“Do I need to bring anything?” I ask, peering over my shoulder as well. When I turn back to look at her, she’s wearing a troubled face, I guess, which wipes any thoughts of ‘Duke beingthere’ out of my mind.

Though, she clears it quickly enough. From troubled to blank. “Just your cute face and an appetite for junk food and gossip,” she jokes. “The prospects have already done the shopping. There’ll be alcohol for those of us who can drink and fake-ohol for those who can’t. And we’re making our own pizzas.”

“Wow… um… sure. If you think it’ll be alright with the guys.”

“Please, you’d be doing them a favor, not having to keep me company.” She shifts Gun in her arms. “Most of them would prefer to be off getting laid.”

She just had to tell me that, right? Now I have images of sexy bikers getting laid, or rather one sexy biker, in particular, getting laid, sifting through my head. “Right. Then what time should I be back?”

“Seven is when the other girls are showing. Is that too late?”

“Sounds perfect to me.” I finish packing up my car and move to say goodbye to Elise and Gun when she grabs my elbow softly to stop me from leaving. “What’s up?” I ask.

“Nothing… uh… be careful, okay?”

That’s an odd sendoff, adding to her odd behavior out here. So I take advantage and ask, “Be careful of what?”

“It’s really probably nothing.”

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