Hitting the Right Note (8 page)

S
he was standing by the nurses' station when he finally showed up. She almost missed him completely, thanks to her nurse friend, Janice, who had been talking her ear off for half an hour. But if it wasn't for Janice she wouldn't have figured out his schedule anyway, so she couldn't complain.

“Dr. Massri!”

He turned the corner and kept walking. But she wasn't letting him get away that easily. Grateful that she had chosen Converses that morning, she took off in a run-walk down the hospital corridor after him.

“Hey! Dr. Simon Massri,” she called, drawing eyes to her. “I know you can hear me!”

She noticed someone say something to him. He suddenly stopped, then pulled earbuds out of his ears and turned around.

“Think you can get away from me? Nice try,” JJ said, stopping dead in front of him, hands on her hips. “What's this about you leaving? How are you supposed to help Sheree through her pregnancy if you're not here?”

Sheree had shared with JJ the news about the doctor's potential departure the day after she got back from her Deacon Hill audition. With only two days before rehearsals for Deacon Hill's tour started in full force, she knew she had little time to convince Dr. Massri to change his mind.

His mouth was slightly open, but he didn't answer. Just stared at her. Well, not so much her, but her crown. Then after what seemed like forever, he said, “Your hair . . .”

JJ blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Your hair. . . it was short”—he motioned to the mass of curls that haloed her face and escaped down her shoulders—“but now it's long again. . . like before. . . but . . .”

JJ folded her arms and let him hang himself trying to find words. He scratched his head in confusion and she shook her head. Clearly this mixed-race man didn't have many black women in his world.

His brow furrowed. “Didn't you cut it?”

“No, it was just a wig,” JJ said with a grin. “It's more convenient for shows to have it that way. You just caught me in between visits to Tracy.”

“Tracy?”

JJ rolled her eyes. “Never mind that. Can we get back to the subject at hand? You're leaving?”

He was still staring at her hair. JJ snapped her fingers above her head to grab his attention. She had never seen him act this strange before.

“Oh! Uh . . . yeah. I've been asked to go to Malawi to do physician-level training with nurses and health care staff who work in rural hospitals.”

“So tell them you can't go,” JJ said.

His left eyebrow shot up to his hairline.

“You can't just leave my sister like this.”

He looked confused. “I thought she was your sister-in-law . . .”

“She needs you,” JJ continued, ignoring his comment.

“You're the one who realized something was wrong with her pregnancy and figured out that it was a placental abruption. Without that we might have lost my nephew.”

“Look, I understand your concern,” Simon said, going into physician-speaking-to-family mode. “But you have nothing to worry about. This is one of the best maternity wards in North America, with some of the best OBs. Your sister will get nothing but the best care—”

“I'm not your patient. Stop patronizing me.”

“I'm not.”

“You are,” JJ countered, hands on her hips. “And you know it. I know this is a decent hospital.”

“Then you also know Mrs. Isaacs will be fine.”

“I can't be sure of that unless you're here,” JJ said.

Simon shrugged and began to back away. “I'm sorry. I've already made a commitment.”

He turned and began to walk away, but JJ wasn't done yet.

“So change it,” she said, following him down the hall. “Tell them you have an emergency. Tell them you'll come in three and a half months. Sheree will be due by then. As soon as the baby is born, you can take the next flight out.”

He glanced across at her, eyebrows furrowed. “Is this how things work in your world? You just ask people to drop everything to do what you want and they say yes?”

“No,” JJ said, stopping suddenly.

When he realized that she wasn't still walking with him, he stopped and turned around to look at her.

“In my world, I never ask anyone for anything,” JJ said. “There aren't many people to ask anyway. But this is not for me, it's for Sheree. She's doing the best she can with this baby, but it's hard for her, hard for all of us.”

JJ's gaze dropped, the emotion rushing through her making it hard for her to look at him. She had come to realize that the ties binding her family together had lately become nothing more than a single thin cord, and she was afraid that the weight of another tragedy, another disappointment, would break that cord and scatter them so far it would be impossible for them to reconnect once more. Sheree and Dean needed this baby to be okay for their marriage to have even a possibility of working. Sydney and Sheree needed this baby to be okay to cement their tentative truce of forgiveness. They all needed this baby so their family could be whole in ways it hadn't been for a long time. And JJ was afraid that might not happen if this man, who had more giftedness in his pinkie finger than all the hospital staff combined, didn't stick around.

“You can't go,” she said, looking up at him. “Please.”

Everything was all over her face. She could see it in his eyes as he looked at her, just like she could see him struggle with what she was asking him to do.

“You really love her, don't you.”

Love? Sheree?

JJ had never thought about it. But now that she had. . .

She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

He tapped his clipboard against his fingers as he chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully. Full brown lips, with the slightest hue of pink underneath. JJ was surprised at how difficult she found it to pull her eyes away from his mouth. Then he turned his intense eyes on her and JJ lost her breath for a moment.

“You have somewhere to be right now?” he asked after a long moment.

She blinked, surprised at his question. “Uh, well, I was gonna run over to the studio to get some time in, then go do some work at my mother's shop . . .”

He glanced at his watch, then moved off down the hallway. “Come with me.”

She scurried to catch up with him, his long legs making it a challenge.

“Where are we going?”

“Wait here,” he answered as he ducked into an office. Through the glass window she saw him talk with someone she couldn't see. He laughed for a moment before handing over the clipboard and heading back to her.

“I need to go somewhere,” he said, heading back the way they had come. “Come with me and I'll consider sticking around for the next few months.”

JJ was confused. “Wait. Go with you? As in leave the hospital with you?”

He glanced at his watch again, prompting JJ to look at her own. It was barely after seven a.m.

“If we leave now, we should be back before nine.”

She should ask more questions. Find out where they were going and for what purpose. Because truth be told, regardless of their history and their most recent re-acquaintance, she really did not know this man. How could she even consider going anywhere with him? Especially given how confused her emotions were around him?

“Okay, let's go,” JJ said.

She tried to keep up with him as he took off down the corridor.

 

She really needed to start going to bed earlier.

JJ sat up with a start, momentarily disoriented.

Something was pressing against her chest. She reached up her hand to touch it. Seat belt? As she blinked, clearing the sleep from her eyes, she noticed the open road ahead of her. Nothing but fields on either side and not a house in sight. She looked across at the beautiful man sitting in the driver's seat, his profile highlighted by the morning sun, his long locks like thin ropes pulled back from his strong face. The morning's events came rushing back to her.

The sound of something instrumental whispered in her ears. Her eyes floated over to the console and, after observing the CD player going, widened when she saw the time: 9:21 a.m. She shrieked.

“I thought we weren't going far!” She sat forward suddenly, only to be forced back by the seat belt.

“We aren't,” Simon said, his eyes still on the road.

“We've been driving for two hours!”

“We're almost there.”

“Where is there? You said we would be back by nine!”

“Yeah. Nine p.m.”

JJ felt another scream bubble up in her throat as momentary panic swept through her. “Simon! I have a life, a schedule. My boyfr—I mean manager, is going to be wondering where I am. What if they call me in for rehearsal?”

“It's a Sunday.”

“My Sundays are very busy, mister.”

“Look, if you want, I can have someone take you back, but you were the one who begged me to stay for your sister, and you agreed to help me out today as part of that deal.”

“I didn't know helping you out would require me to go cross-country.”

“Not across the country,” Simon corrected. “Just a little out of town. But if that's too much for you, I can turn around. It's up to you, Judith.”

She turned to look at him. Normally she preferred JJ, but something about the way his faint British accent wrapped around her name made her like it when he said it. Again, the control center in her brain reminded her that she did not know the person sitting next to her. But somewhere, in some irrational depth of her mind, she wanted to trust him, if for no other reason than to learn more about this intriguing man whom she had spent a whole year of her life thinking about. A year that could have stretched into two, had she not managed to convince herself she would never see him again. Sydney would definitely kill her for what she was about to say.

“Okay, fine,” she said with a sigh. “But you still didn't answer my question. Where are we going? I don't think we've known each other long enough for you to be taking me long distance.”

“But just long enough for you to know my schedule, right?” His narrowed eyes stole a glance at her. “How did you even know what time I started this morning?”

“Nurse tipped me off . . .”

Simon shook his head. “So much for confidentiality.”

“Don't worry. I'm a special case. I used to volunteer there when I was in college. Plus I spent a lot of time in that hospital when my brother was transferred there last year.”

JJ frowned as she remembered Dean. Simon noticed.

“This the same brother who's the father of your sister-in-law's baby?”

JJ nodded and looked out the passenger window. Simon whistled.

“Sounds like there's a story there.”

JJ grunted. “You have no idea. Let's just say my family is better than TV.” She glanced over at him then back out the window. “I don't even know why I'm telling you all this.”

“'Course you do,” Simon said with a roguish smile that gave her a peek into his personality. “I'm the man who saved your life.”

“It was a panic attack!”

“There is some research that suggests prolonged panic attacks can have adverse cardiological effects that can lead to fatalities.”

JJ scowled. “Show-off.”

He chuckled. JJ liked the sound of his laugh. She turned her head to the window so he wouldn't see her smile.

“So you mentioned studio and manager,” Simon said a few moments later. “You're a singer?”

“Yes,” JJ answered. “An aspiring one, I guess. But maybe not so aspiring anymore, since I just landed a major contract.”

“Congratulations,” Simon said, a smile in his voice. “For your own record?”

“Not that, but almost as good,” JJ said, her mouth spreading into a grin. “For a tour. I'll be a backing vocalist for a major R & B artist.”

“Hmm,” Simon murmured, nodding his head. “You sound excited.”

“I am,” JJ said, sitting up in her seat. “This is an amazing opportunity for me. I'll be meeting people in the industry who can help get me where I want to be.”

“Well, good for you, Judith,” he said. “When do I get to hear you sing?”

“When you tell me you'll stay and take over Sheree's care.”

His lips quirked. “That's a high ticket price.”

“But so worth it,” she breathed in a husky tone. His eyebrows shot up and his head whipped around. She laughed at the surprised and curious expression on his face. She could have a lot of fun with Simon Massri.

“What about you, Mr. Big-Shot Physician?” JJ asked. “I never guessed I would see you in Canada. Not that I'm complaining, but it wasn't one of the places on your list of work locations. I would have remembered that.”

“Would you?” Simon asked, just before he made a left turn onto a narrow two-lane road. “That was a long time ago.”

“I have the memory of an elephant,” JJ said proudly. “Great for learning other people's songs on the fly.”

“Well, let's see it at work,” Simon challenged. “What do you remember about me?”

JJ cleared her throat and shook the unexpected thoughts from her head.

“Let's see,” she began. “You were born in London, but your mom is actually Irish and your dad is Egyptian. You have lived all over the world because your family moved a lot. You have two brothers who live in London. You started out a GP but decided to specialize in maternal and newborn care. You love the outdoors, hate the winter, and hate cell phones even more. You've worked in India, Thailand, almost every country in Africa, Pakistan, Qatar, Brazil. . . and Ecuador?” She looked at him.