Page 18 of Doctorshipped
My phone rings, snapping me out of these pesky thoughts about Jayme.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Grant. How are you? How’s my granddaughter? How’s the new home? How's the town?”
“I’m fine. Fiona’s fine. The home’s fine. The town is … fine.”
“You sound rattled.”
“I don’t sound rattled. I don’t get rattled. It’s just been a long few days with the flight and the move.”
“How is a one and a half hour flight part of a long few days?”
“You have no idea.” I mutter.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Just glad to be here.”
“Is Fiona around? I’d love for her to tour me through the house.”
“Let me get her.”
I stand, grateful he’s deferring to Fiona. It almost felt like he was going to squeeze details about Jayme out of me and I need to minimize thoughts of her. She’s been an intrusion ever since the first moment I saw her.
I pop my head out the doors of my office and call Fiona. She comes running down the stairs.
“Gramps is on the phone. He wants the grand tour of our new home. Will you do the honors?”
Fiona beams, takes my phone and starts into my office. I stand in the hallway, looking around at what will ultimately be our waiting room across the hall. There’s a knock at the door. I hear Fiona’s voice from inside my office telling Dad about Jayme and how she’s an author and she’s going to tutor her. I can’t believe the level to which this woman has burrowed into our lives. She’s like a tick, only cuter and more fascinating. But still as unwelcome.
The knock comes again.
“Coming,” I say as I walk over and open the door.
“Well, hello,” an elderly woman says to me. She’s flanked by two other seniors. All three of them are holding casserole dishes. “You’re the new doctor in town.”
“So they say,” I admit.
“I’m Virginia, but everyone calls me Memaw whether I’m their grandmother or not. This is Esther, and this is Mabel. We thought we’d bring you some of our home cooking since you just moved in.”
She looks at me with an expression of expectation.
Esther says, “Normally this is where you’d ask us in.”
“Oh, excuse me,” I say. “Come in.”
I prop the screen door open with my arm and all three women walk under it into my foyer and straight through to the kitchen as though they own the place. Fiona comes out of my office and sees their retreating backs.
“Who’s that, Daddy?”
“Those are three local women. They brought home cooked meals for us.”
My dad chimes in from the FaceTime call he and Fiona obviously switched to for his tour.
“Come on, Gramps. I’ll introduce you,” Fiona says.
She walks ahead of me toward the kitchen. When she gets there, she holds up the phone and introduces my dad. Each of the women introduces herself, and at the end of the introductions, Memaw adds, “Esther here is single. Mabel’s dating Walt, and I’m engaged to be married if I can ever get Bill to set a date. I keep telling that man we’ll be dead before we have a chance to consummate our marriage.”
