Page 19 of Doctorshipped
Fiona giggles. I hear Dad’s laughter through the phone.
Esther turns to me. “We hear you're single too. So sorry to hear about your wife. There are plenty of eligible women here in town. Don’t you worry.”
“Oh, yes,” Mabel says to the other two women, more than to me. “There’s Cherry. Wouldn’t that be lovely. Fiona here could have a brother.”
“And, if he doesn’t want another child right away, there’s Ella Mae,” Memaw adds. “Though it’ll take a special man to handle that girl, as we all know.”
“True, true,” Esther says. “Too bad Walt’s daughter’s all the way in New York. They’d make a cute couple, dontcha think?”
“Oh, they would.” Memaw nods.
“If only Jayme would lose the notion that she wants to remain single, she’d be such a catch,” Mabel says.
“I don’t understand a young woman wanting to be single,” Esther says.
“You’re single,” Memaw points out.
“Have you had a look at the men our age in this town? You had to find Bill the next town over and Mabel here has Walt. There’s not a single man left who wouldn’t drive me batty before driving me right into the grave.”
The other two women shake their heads. And then they seem to realize they had gotten sidetracked from their intention of talking about me. They continue rattling on various names of women in town, granddaughters or nieces within a fifty mile radius, all as though Fiona and I aren’t even in the kitchen with them.
“I’m not that kind of single,” I finally say loudly enough to get their attention. They pause and look at me as if I just walked in.
I look Fiona in the eyes. “I’m focused on being a dad to my daughter and a physician to the town. I’m not here to date or get into a relationship of any sort.”
Just as I suspected, this town is full of busybodies. I wonder what they heard about Margot.
“Don’t you listen to him,” my dad says from his place on the other side of the phone.
I had forgotten he was even there in all the commotion.
Then Dad unhelpfully adds, “My son might come across as stern, but he’s got a heart in there somewhere, and he could use a rekindling of his dating life.”
“Agreed,” my daughter says.
Agreed? Since when did she want me to start dating?
“Not agreed,” I say. “Well, thank you ladies so much for stopping by. Oh, and Walt, did you say?” I turn to Mabel.
“Yes. He’s my boyfriend.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
“He’s only at the garage a couple days a week nowadays. Otherwise, he’s home puttering about, or sitting on a bench in the yard watching the birds come to his feeders, or tending the little vegetable garden he put in. You want me to have him call you?”
“No. That’s alright. I’ll call him.”
I start to attempt to corral the women toward the front door. They look befuddled. They also show no signs of budging from their spots in my kitchen.
“Aren’t you going to offer us something to drink?” Mabel asks.
“Actually, I’m reviewing patient files today, so I’m working. Another time,” I say, trying to be as cordial as I can be, especially since both my dad and Fiona are watching me like hawks.
I know they’ll critique my interactions later, rating my capacity to be hospitable, and giving me platitudes about kindness and catching flies with honey—as if anyone wants to catch flies. Only cheery people make up platitudes, and they’re always built on nonsensical ideas like that one.
“Well, we don’t mean to intrude,” Esther says.
“Actually, I think we do,” Mabel admits, causing Fiona to giggle again.
