Time for Love , The McCarthys of Gansett Island, Book 9 Page 16

  Oblivious to his presence behind them, they chatted about the new grandchild they had on the way and how excited they were for Joe and Janey. And then they dropped a bomb that David hadn’t seen coming. Janey had decided to forgo veterinary school for motherhood.

  “Of course we’re thrilled that she and Joe and the baby will be staying close by,” Mrs. McCarthy said. “But we hope that maybe she’ll still get to finish school at some point. That was always her dream.”

  The words were like a knife to David’s heart, since he’d been responsible for denying her that dream when they were together. Her parents had never forgiven him for steering her away from vet school, which he now knew had been a big mistake on his part.

  At the time, he’d thought it was the right thing because he didn’t want them to be in debt for the rest of their lives. With hindsight, however, he could see how Janey had lost something important to her when he encouraged her to forgo that dream.

  Mrs. McCarthy’s cell phone rang, and she excused herself from the conversation. “Oh my goodness,” she said. “Is she okay?”

  David held his breath as he waited to hear what was wrong and whether it would change his plans for the evening.

  “Yes, of course,” Mrs. McCarthy said. “We’ll be right there.”

  “What’s the matter?” Big Mac asked.

  “That was Joe. Janey fainted. She’s okay, but I guess it scared the hell out of them.” To her husband, she said, “I’m sorry about dinner, but I want to go check on her.”

  “So do I.”

  “I hope she’s okay,” Jenny said. “Please give them my regards.”

  “We will, honey,” Mrs. McCarthy said. “Enjoy your evening.”

  As they rushed by Jenny and Mason, Mr. McCarthy noticed David. He stopped his wife from going past them. “David…”

  “Mr. McCarthy, Mrs. McCarthy. Nice to see you.”

  Mr. McCarthy looked rattled, but he still took note of Daisy on David’s arm. “Yes, um, you too. I wonder… I mean, I know you’re not working right now, but…”

  David didn’t want to confess to having overheard their conversation with Jenny. “What can I do for you?”

  “Damn, this is awkward, but Janey… She fainted. Is that something we need to be concerned about?”

  David recalled what Victoria had said about Janey’s blood pressure being slightly elevated at her last appointment. “Possibly. If it’s okay with Janey, I could come by and do a quick check of her vitals to make sure everything’s all right.”

  “Would you do that? Really?”

  “Sure, no problem. Better safe than sorry, right?”

  “Thank you so much. We’re heading there now.”

  “Janey has my number if she’d like me to come by. It’s up to her—and Joe.”

  Mr. McCarthy nodded in understanding.

  “We hope she’s okay,” Daisy said.

  “Thank you, Daisy,” Mrs. McCarthy said as she dragged her husband out the door.

  “Sorry about that,” David said when they were gone. While they were talking to the McCarthys, Jenny and Mason had been taken to a table.

  “It’s no problem.”

  With his arm around her, he spoke close to her ear. “My job is often going to get in the way of our plans. I hope you know that I’d always rather be with you.”

  She smiled up at him, dazzling him with the affection she directed his way. “That’s nice of you to say.”

  “It’s a disclaimer that hopefully gets me out of lots of trouble for things such as tending to my pregnant ex-fiancée when I’m supposed to be spending the evening with you.”

  “I’m sure you’ll think of some way to make it up to me,” she said as they were shown to their table.

  Her saucy and unexpected reply took David right back to the previous night they’d spent together. Suddenly, he was hungry for much more than food.

  Their entrées arrived at the same moment his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. With an apologetic glance at Daisy, David retrieved the phone and saw Janey’s number on the caller ID. Why, after all this time, his belly still did a flip-flop at the thought of talking to her would be something he would ponder later when Daisy wasn’t sitting a foot from him. “Hi, there.” He thought about going outside to take the call but didn’t want Daisy to think he had anything to hide where Janey was concerned. So he stayed at the table but kept his voice down so he wouldn’t annoy the other diners.

  “Hi, David. I’m so sorry to bother you, but my parents and Joe are freaking out about the fainting thing. My dad told me you generously offered to come by. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary, but they all do.”

  “Tell me how you were feeling before you fainted.”

  “A little nauseous, and I had a headache most of the day.”

  “Any swelling or puffiness in your arms or legs?”

  “My ankles are swollen, and I had to take my rings off yesterday because they were making my fingers hurt.”

  David didn’t like what he was hearing in light of what he already knew about her elevated blood pressure. “I’m going to come by to check your blood pressure and take a quick look. Is that okay?”

  “I guess so. I just hate to interrupt your date.”

  “It’s fine, Janey. That’s my job. I’m happy to do it.”

  “Well, you’re a very good sport. Thank you. You know we moved, right?”

  “I heard that from someone. What’s the address?”

  She gave it to him, and he wrote it on a paper cocktail napkin. “I’ll be there soon.”

  “Thanks, David.”

  He tucked the phone back into his pocket and tried to refocus on Daisy and his chicken marsala, but his brain was spinning over what Janey had told him. He was afraid she might be working up to preeclampsia, which could be a very serious situation for her and the baby.

  “Why don’t we get the food to go so you can take care of Janey?” Daisy suggested.

  “No, it’s fine. An extra half hour won’t make a difference.”

  “David, it’s okay to admit that you’re worried about her, and you want to make sure she’s all right. You cared about her for a long time, and that doesn’t end just because the relationship did.”

  Relieved that she seemed to get his dilemma without needing him to spell it out, he took her hand and brought it to his lips, delighting in the flush that infused her cheeks. “Thank you for understanding. How about I check on Janey and then I’ll go back to your house to watch a movie?”

  “That sounds perfect.”

  “Sorry about dinner,” David said as he signaled for the waiter. “I’ll make it up to you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “Yes, I do, Daisy. I’m being called away from our date to go check on my ex-fiancée, who may or may not be looking at a pregnancy complication. Most women would say at the very least that calls for some sparkly jewelry or some such thing.”

  Her laughter filled him with warmth and pleasure at knowing he’d managed to take her mind off her troubles, even for a little while. “Well, if you think that’s what it’ll take to get back into my good graces, knock yourself out, Dr. Lawrence. But the movie would’ve been more than enough.”

  “Damn me and my big mouth,” he said as he signed the credit card slip.

  He took her home and insisted on seeing her safely inside, even though she said it wasn’t necessary. “It is necessary.” He handed her both boxes of takeout. “Keep this warm for me. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

  She ran a finger down the middle of his chest. “I’ll be waiting.”

  The words and gesture made his mouth go dry with lust. “Are you trying to make sure I think only of you while I’m with my ex?”

  “That would be very devious of me.”

  His soft laughter brought a smile to her face. “Trust me when I tell you I think about you all the time.”

  “I think about you, too. Pretty much all the time.”

  “Glad we ha
ve that in common.”

  She went up on tiptoes to kiss him. “Take care of Janey, and don’t worry about me. Do your job.”

  “See you soon.” He left her with another quick kiss and made sure she was inside with the door locked before he returned to his car. Since David never knew when he might be called on to help someone, he kept a medical bag in his car. He had everything he needed to do a perfunctory exam. On the way to Janey’s house, David tried to think about anything other than where he was going and who he was going to see. This was about his job and nothing more.

  “Keep telling yourself that,” he said out loud. “Maybe you’ll actually believe it by the time you get there.” To take his mind off his task, he made a quick call to Victoria.

  “Hey, David,” she said, sounding out of breath. “What’s up?”

  “I wanted to let you know that Janey McCarthy, er Cantrell, I mean, fainted tonight. I’m going to her house now to check on her.”

  “Yikes, that’s awkward. You want me to do it?”

  “It’s okay. I ran into her parents, they told me about it, and I offered.”

  “That’s nice of you.”

  “It’s my job.”

  “It’s your ex.”

  “Believe me, I know.”

  “Tell her to come in and see me in the morning. I’ll make some time around nine thirty.”

  “Will do.”

  “So I met this guy. Oh my God, he’s amazing. He’s Irish. So sexy.”

  “How’d you meet him?”

  “He came into the Beachcomber, and we totally hit it off. I think I might be in love.”

  “Honestly, Victoria, with some guy right off the ferry?”

  “He’s not just some guy. He’s Seamus O’Grady’s cousin, Shannon. Yum, yum, yum.”

  “Spare me the gory details.”

  “The details are quite gory, and they’re going to get even gorier before he leaves if I have anything to say about it.”

  “Lalalala, gotta go.”

  Victoria was laughing when he disconnected the call.

  At times she drove him crazy treating him like her best girlfriend, but most of the time she was a good friend and an excellent colleague. David would’ve lost his mind a long time ago without her help with women’s health and midwifery at the clinic. He had all he could do to stay on top of the other demands.

  Every light seemed to be on in Janey and Joe’s big contemporary home when David pulled into the driveway. The place was nice. Really nice. But then what did he expect? As the owner of the ferry company that serviced the island, Joe was loaded, and Janey’s family wasn’t exactly poor either.

  “Knock it off,” he grumbled. “What does it matter to you what they have or where they live?” It didn’t matter to him. Janey was his past, and he’d moved on. He was feeling hopeful again, even happy since he’d been seeing Daisy, and he chose to focus on that rather than the mistakes of the past as he approached a front door illuminated by a porch light.

  He pushed the doorbell and waited.

  Joe came to the door, looking a bit frazzled—and happy to see him, which was a first since the nose-punching incident. “David, come in. Thanks so much for coming over. We really appreciate it.”

  “Sure.” David followed Joe through a nice living room and kitchen to a screened-in porch, where Janey was reclined on a chaise. Even hugely pregnant she was gorgeous, and the sight of her brought back a slew of memories he wouldn’t have thought would be so easily resurrected after all the time they’d been apart.

  “Hey,” she said, seeming embarrassed as she smiled at him. “I fear this is much ado about nothing, but thanks for coming.”

  “No problem.”

  “It’s not much ado about nothing, Princess,” her father said as he hovered at the foot of the chaise. “You fainted. That’s not nothing.”

  “Is it okay if I check your pulse?” David asked Janey.

  Seeming as uncomfortable as he felt, she extended her arm. As he pressed his fingers against her pressure point, he thought of how many years they’d spent together, how many times he’d held that hand or woken to her face on the pillow next to his. A pervasive sense of sadness filled him over how cavalier he’d been with something so precious.

  “Your heart rate is a little fast. Have you been exerting yourself at all?”

  “No, not really.”

  “We haven’t let her do much of anything,” Joe said as he paced from one end of the porch to the other.

  “Joe, sit down,” Janey said.

  “I’d rather stand up, if it’s just the same to you.”

  “Joe.”

  He went to the end of the chaise and raised her feet to make room for him to sit with her. That’s when David noticed how swollen her ankles were.

  “How long have they been like that?”

  “A couple of days,” Janey said. “Just since it got really hot.”

  “Any headache, blurred vision, sensitivity to light or abdominal pain?”

  “A few headaches here and there, but none of the rest.”

  David applied the blood pressure cuff and reached for his stethoscope. As he pumped up the cuff, he caught her watching him and gave her a small smile, hoping to calm her.

  “It’s funny,” she said.

  “What is?”

  “Seeing you in doctor mode.”

  “Finally, huh?”

  She smiled and stayed silent while he took her blood pressure.

  Shit, he thought, 140 over 90, definitely higher than it should be. “Do you remember what your BP was the last time Victoria took it?”

  “I think it was 130 over 70.”

  So it was creeping up. “When you fainted, did you hurt anything?”

  “Just my elbow and my pride.” She held up her arm so he could see the bluish tinge to the skin below the bone.

  “It bends the way it’s supposed to?”

  “Yep.” She extended her arm to demonstrate.

  “You didn’t hit your head, did you?”

  “I caught her,” Joe said.

  “Good thing,” David said. “You probably saved her from being seriously injured.”

  “What would cause the fainting?” Joe asked.

  “Did you eat enough today?” David asked Janey.

  “I was a little nauseous earlier, so I didn’t have lunch,” she confessed sheepishly.

  “Damn it, Janey!” Joe said. “You can’t skip meals right now. What if I hadn’t been here to catch you when you fell?”

  Nudged by his wife, Big Mac approached Joe and put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go outside and get some air, son.”

  “I don’t want air. I want to know why she’s skipping meals when she shouldn’t be.”

  “Joseph,” Janey said sternly, “go with my dad or deal with my wrath. Your choice.”

  Joe scowled at her but let Big Mac lead him out of the room.

  David smiled at Janey.

  “Ugh, he’s driving me crazy with his hovering.”

  “He’s not wrong, you know,” David said. “You really can’t skip meals at this stage in your pregnancy. The baby is drawing a lot of nutrients from you, so you need to take in enough for both of you.”

  “I know, but I felt so gross I couldn’t imagine eating anything.”

  “Somehow you have to get it in.”

  “I’ll try harder.”

  “Let me take a closer look at this swelling.” He pressed his fingers against her left ankle and counted the seconds it took for the dents left by his fingers to disappear. Three seconds on the left side and four on the right.

  “What does that mean, David?” Linda McCarthy asked.

  “It’s a simple diagnostic test to tell whether the edema—or the fluid buildup—is something we need to be concerned about.”

  “Is it?” Janey asked.

  “I’m going to tell you the truth, Janey. I don’t love what I’m seeing here. The elevated BP, the edema, the fact that it took four seconds for my finger
imprint to disappear and the nausea are all possible signs of preeclampsia or pregnancy-induced hypertension.”

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Linda asked.

  “It can be if left untreated. We’re going to need some more information before I can say for certain if it’s something to worry about. Can you come into the clinic around nine thirty tomorrow? I’d like to run a urinalysis and put a monitor on the baby for a couple of hours just to be sure everything is okay.”

  “Sure,” Janey said hesitantly. “No problem.”

  “Going forward, I want you on full bed rest. Do you understand what that means?”

  Janey groaned and dropped her head back against the chaise. “Seriously?”

  “I’m afraid so. For now, I’ll allow trips to the bathroom and a quick shower every day, but that’s it. Otherwise, you’re in bed or on your chaise or wherever you’re most comfortable. And I’d prefer for you to spend as much time as you can on your left side, which promotes circulation.”

  “It’s summer, and I can’t do anything?”

  “What is it that you want to do?”

  “Mac and Maddie are having a big cookout this weekend that I’ve been looking forward to for weeks.”

  “If Joe carries you to the car, and Mac has a lounge chair waiting for you at his house, I don’t see why you couldn’t go. It’s all about you exerting yourself as little as possible.”

  “We can do it, Janey,” Linda said. “Dad and I will help, and everyone else will, too. If David thinks it’s what’s best for you and the baby, then we’ll help you do nothing.”

  “I do think it’s for the best,” David said, “or I’d never put you through it.”

  She closed her eyes and blew out a long, deep breath.

  “What’re you thinking?” Linda asked.

  “That I’ll go mad being stuck in bed for two months.”

  “We won’t let you go mad, honey. We’ll all be here to keep you entertained.”

  “I know.” She glanced up at her mother. “Could you give me just a minute with David?”

  Linda seemed hesitant to leave them alone together. “Oh, um, sure. I’ll be right outside with Dad and Joe.”

  When they were alone, David said, “Why’d you do that, Janey? Your husband won’t appreciate that I’m in here with you.”

  “You’re my doctor. Why would he possibly object?”