Chapter one.
Click…Click
I heard as my heels hit the floor of the hospital with every step I took.
I smiled as I walked into the small oncology room where there were a few people sitting around getting chemo.
"Hola Kate" said a small petite older Latin woman with kind, rich warm brown eyes. She could not be more than 5 feet tall with a scarf wrapped around her head. She was doing wonderful with chemotherapy after a couple of bad rounds. I hope she would beat cancer. She is a strong woman.
"Hola Maria" I replied my smile getting wider as I crouched next to her kissing her cheek.
"How are you feeling today?" I asked as I reached for her chart. Even though I was not her doctor I liked to keep an eye on her. She was the first person that was nice to me in Charming and I could never repay her for her kindness.
"Tired, but hopeful" she responded her smile widening. Ah.
"Your son?" I asked knowing full well that it was him, every time she talked about him she smiles widely and says how proud she is to be his mother. Since her diagnose he has done everything to get her better no matter how big or small. I do not know him but could not help but respect him for it.
"When will he be back?" I asked.
"Doctor Mathews to trauma one, Doctor Mathews to trauma one" come over the intercom. Time to get to work.
"Sorry Maria, our visit is going to gave to be cut short" I say apologizing.
"It's fine, cariño" she says smiling kindly to me and leaning back into her seat warping a fluffy blanket around her. I walk to the closet and grab a hospital blanket around her. She tries to stop me, but I shake my head. She lets out a laugh as I tuck the blanket closer to her. I kiss her cheek again before walking out the room.
As I walk towards the trauma room I could not help but pray that I was right about Maria getting better. She really was a big reason why I choose to stay in Charming rather than going back to Seattle. I was only supposed to be here 3 months while a doctor was on maternity leave. I guess that is how it is with small towns, everyone was weary towards new comes. I am not sure what had just happened, but it had to be something big. It seemed that everyone was walking on egg shells. I tried not to get involved in any gossip and I stayed out of it. Maybe another reason I was so attached to Maria was that I had yet to make any real friends, but between walking 80 plus hours a week and just trying to sleep it did not leave much time for anything else. I was glad that Doctor Knowles would be back in rotation next week because that would cut down my hours between 40 and 50. Even though I did not have any children I could understand why she choose to take a longer maternity leave. It could not be easy having 2 kids under 2 years old. I did not know her very much, but she seemed nice enough.
A few hours after walking out of surgery I was glad it had been a routine rapture appendix on a healthy male. He should be good to leave in a couple of days and with light visibility scaring. I walked out of the on-call room after showering and changing into a pair of comfortable jeans and t-shirt knowing I was just heading home to get some sleep. I normally like to dress up when at work with slack or pencil skirts and a nice blouse with comfortable 3-inch-thick heel shoes.
I got into my small maroon 4 door Honda civic a few years old. As soon as I turned on the engine I was reminded that it had been two days that I parked in this spot and before walking away I had promised my baby I would take it to a mechanic shop on my next day off as there was a small rattling noise. I looked down at my phone and realizing it was past 5 pm and that most likely the one shop in town would be closed.
''I promise I will take you tomorrow morning baby" I said out loud gently rubbing my hand on the dashboard and steering wheel.
As I walked out of my car I let out a frustrated sign. The lawn of the property I was renting was very over grown and it was in my lease that I would be taking care of it. Tomorrow. I promised myself I would take care of it. I would find a rental that would let me rent a lawnmower for a couple of hours to cut down my grass. But for now, all I want is to crawl into bed and sleep for the next 12 hours.
Beep…. beep…. beep
I got up walking into the bathroom taking care of my private business and washing my face and brushing my teeth. Once I was done I walked to my closet where I changed into some dark capris leggings and an old Washington university t-shirt. I grabbed my favorite running shoes and walked past the empty living room and to the dinning room where I sat down and put the shoes on. I grabbed my headphones from the table and arm band before walking out the door. I started running my usual running route.
Running was something that I genuinely enjoyed. When I was younger I hated taking physical classes in school. But now it was a way to destress and relax. It also worked great to clear my mind. And now that I was getting closer to 30 in the next couple of years. As a doctor I know that exercising is very important. I tried to run at least 3 times a week and more if I could. Specially how I ate on my days off. I love fatty foods like burgers, wings, and have an undying love of Mexican food, and as a Texas native I was very disappointed to realize that there was not a single Mexican restaurant or Mexican grocery store in town. The closest was in Oakland and I had been there a couple of times, but with my crazy schedule I have not been able to really explore much of Oakland. But from the couple of times I have been I realized that there was a large Hispanic community unlike Charming that from what I have seen about 95 percent was white.
40 minutes later I was walking back into the house and into the master bedroom. The house was bare with just the necessities. The living room is completely empty, and the dining room has just a small dinning room table with mismatching chairs that the previous tenant left. The only thing that was new was my king size bed which I had splurged on. When I interviewed on the phone with Margaret Murphy she explained to me that I would be working long hours with a day maybe 2 days off depending if they needed me in the hospital, and I knew that I would be needing a good bed even if I only get to sleep in it 3 or so nights a week in it. The bed and a small dresser were the only items in my room. I know I need to buy a lot to make this more my home. Again, I was glad that Doctor Knowles would be back next week it would give me a much need break and more free time where I can go buy furniture and other much need things.
After walking out the shower in my favorite oversized dark purple towel I put a pair of boy shorts panties with a lacy trim and a matching bra. I always liked wearing cute undergarment it gave me confidence it did not matter if I was wearing an old pair of jeans and plain t-shirts the undergarment made me feel sexy for myself. Looking ay myself in the mirror I saw 5'6 with full C cup breast, an average size ass, size 8 with pale skin that clearly had not seen much sun lately, with dark brown shoulder length hair and plain hazel eyes. I am pretty I like to think. I put on a pair of dark gray jeans and black tank top with thick straps and a pair of sporty flats. To be honest this was my usual attire out of work. Comfortable clothes and comfortable shoes but I did like to dress up outside of work occasionally.
A few minutes later I walked towards my car. I figure I could drop my car off at the shop and walk to the diner to grab something to eat maybe walk around buy a few things for the house and look at furniture. I was not sure where the mechanic shop was exactly, but I knew it was on main street and had driven in front of it a few times. After driving a bit, I found it. As I was getting out of the car a guy with curly brown hair wearing a leather vest stopped me from walking away from my car.
"Sorry sweetheart, we are closed today" he said smiling at me.
"Oh… I am sorry I did not know" I said, "Do you know of the closet mechanic shop?" I asked. I wanted to get my car taken care of today knowing I have a long list of things I need to do before my night shift tomorrow night.
"Miles!" we both turned to the voice.
"Yeah Chibs?" Chibs that was his name, I have seen him a few times dropping and picking up Maria from the hospital and the last time she had to stay a couple of nights when she was very sick he spends a night keeping an eye on her. He noticed me and walked toward us with a small frown on his face.
"Doctor" he greeted "Everything okay with Maria? Did you get the results?" he asked referring to her last set of tests a couple of days ago.
"No, I am sorry I did not mean to scare you. It is not about Maria. I saw her yesterday and she looks better she has gain a bit of weight. We won't have her result until next week" he looked relieved.
"How can we help you doc?" he asked with a charming smile.
"Call me Kate" I replied "My car has been making a funny noise I was going to see if you guys can check it, but I understand that it is closed today. Can you tell me where the closest shop is?"
"You do not want to take your car to the Bridles" he said shaking his head.
"Lowell!" he yelled and a couple of seconds later a small petite man walked towards us.
"Yes?" he asked looking between the three of us.
"Look at the Doc's car" Chibs answered.
"It's not necessary" I argued "You guys are closed".
"Doc, it's not a problem" he said waving his hand. "Maria is inside" he said pointing to a one story brick building.
"If you're sure about the car, I can come back in a couple of hours. I don't want to disturb anyone" I said looking at the building where people were walking in and out of the building with a lot of bikes parked in front.
"Maria would love to see you" he said pulling his arm lightly around my shoulders and pulling me with him towards the door. Walking into the room I could tell that this was clearly a celebration there were men everywhere wearing leather vests and a lot of women leaving very little to the imagination. Classic rock playing while there were a few men playing pool and a couple of poker games going in the room. He pulled me towards the bar where Maria's back was turned towards me, she was facing a Hispanic man, with a bald head and clearly full of tattoos on his arms and neck. He was very handsome from what I could tell.
"Maria, look who is here?" Chibs said as we get closer to them. Maria turned around and looked at me clearly surprised to see me here.
"Mija, everything okay?" she asked worried.
"Yes, Maria." I said smiling to her "I did not realize the shop would be closed. I brought my car to get looked at because there is a rattling noise" I said as Chibs all put pushed me to sit next to her.
"I will leave you, I am going to check on Lowell to see about your car" Chibs said walking away after giving a nod to the man sitting next to Maria.
"Oh, I'm glad! How are you today cariño?" she asked.
"I am good, very excited to be off work today" I said. She knew how much I was looking towards my days off the last couple of weeks knowing I was stretching myself thin.
"I am glad" she said running her hand gently down my arm.
"This is my son Happy" she said pointing to the man next to her letting a wide smile grace her face.
"Hello Happy" I said smiling to him, I stretch my arm towards him. He looked at my arm and then to my face directly to my eyes. From far I could tell he was handsome and his eyes were breath taking they were the same as Maria's a dark rich brown but there was a strength in them that was beautiful.
"Hello" he greeted shaking my hand gently but firmly. His voice was deep, rough, and rich. His hand was large with strong fingers and from our hand shake I could see his muscles flexing.
"This is Kate" said Maria "She has been a God send in the hospital, keeping me company and looking after me" she gushed. I looked down feeling a small blush coming to my face. I looked back up to meet his eyes and I could see he wanted to say something.
"Thank you" he said to me while looking directly at my eyes. He stood up and kissed her head before walking away.
"Sorry about him" Maria said. I looked at her confused "He is not very talkative" she replied.
"It's okay, there is nothing wrong with that" we talked for a bit catching up on her chemotherapy and my plans for the rest of the day.
"Sorry Doc, it looks like we will have to replace a part in the motor, we have already ordered it, should be here first thing in the morning" Chibs said intercepting us.
"Oh… that's fine, thank you" of course it would happen when I had a day to try to be proactive and get a few things done.
"Can you let her borrow the Toyota?" asked Maria looking between me and Chibs.
"No, it's fine" I said quickly.
"It's no problem" said Chibs "It's a borrower for when the customer needs a car, rather than renting one. It's a complementary service" he said winking at me. He walked away, and a couple of minutes later walk back with keys in his hand.
"Thanks" I said to both before walking out of the door.
The rest of the day I walked in and out of the shops on main street. I ordered a black L shaped leather couch with matching side tables and lamps, 4 wooded chairs to match the table already in the house that would be delivered the next week. A few art pieces and decorative pieces for the living room and my bedroom. I felt pretty good about my purchases. I knew I still need a lot more things but for today it was enough. I wanted to go home take a nice bubble bath and get some sleep and hopefully stop thinking about Happy, I could not seem to keep him out of my mind. I was trying to remember every small detail that Maria ever mentioned about him to the actual man I met today. I would have never guess that he would do so much for his mom from just looking at him. Part of me wanted to know more about him but there was a larger part of me that knew that he was a patience's son and that I was no ready for a relationship yet.