Page 48 of Perfect Imperfections

“Yes! Fine, yes, I’m going out with Ellie, and I want her to have a fantastic time, but I’m a little rusty in the impressing women department, so give me your best recommendations, please. Happy?”

“Ecstatic.”

Oddly enough, his brother did sound overjoyed about the situation. Maybe Gavin was just happy he was the brother with more knowledge, for once.

“Okay, here’s what you need to do.”

CHAPTER 17

After another fifteen minutes talking to his brother, he had a list of restaurants, after dinner activities, and a suggestion for a very public make out point and zero clothes. He would be ignoring that last one. The lack of clothes idea he liked, but Sullivan had never been much of an exhibitionist. His brother, on the other hand…

“Dr. Green?”

The door to his office opened and Chuck, one of the RNs, popped his head in.

“Yes?”

“Your first appointment is here. Mrs. Wilkins. Room six.”

“Thanks, Chuck. I’ll be right there.”

Time to start the day. Good thing he handled all that business because from here until he went to pick up Charlotte, his day would be jam-packed with patients, charts, and the general chaos that came with the medical health profession.

He left his office, heading down the hall to room six. Knocking softly, he announced himself before entering.

“Hello, Mrs. Wilkins. How are you today?”

The elderly white woman on the table gave him a wide smile. “I’m doing okay, Dr. Green. But I have this tiny tickle that won’t go away.”

“Let’s have a quick look.”

Stepping up to the in-room sink, he washed and dried his hands before moving to the exam table.

“Has your grandson been smoking in the house again?”

He knew he wasn’t supposed to have favorite patients, but he really liked Mrs. Wilkins. She reminded him of his late grandmother. They were both sweet as apple pie, which was why he worried about her. Mrs. Wilkins would never turn anyone away. Recently, her wayward grandson had come to live with her after getting kicked out of three different relatives’ homes. The guy was in his early twenties and apparently liked to party far too much. He wasn’t a bad kid, per se, he just needed to screw his head on straight. And he also needed to stop smoking around his asthmatic grandmother.

“Oh no. Derrick is a sweet boy. He promised me he quit those death sticks. He knows how I feel about them after what they did to his grandpa.”

Mr. Wilkins had passed away ten years ago from stage four metastatic lung cancer. The man had smoked like a chimney since the day he turned fourteen. A shame more people hadn’t known of the dangers of smoking back then. Then again, people knew now, and they still smoked. He’d bet his medical degree “Sweet Derrick” was still sucking on cancer sticks. The sad truth was smoking was an incredibly hard habit to break.

He placed his stethoscope in his ears, instructing Mrs. Wilkins to take a few deep breaths.

“Hmmmmm.” He didn’t like the sound of her lungs. Asthma was a tricky disease. It could change over time due to any number of factors. He often saw his asthma patients regularly. Especially the elderly patients like Mrs. Wilkins who had other health issues to contend with.

“Oh dear, it’s never good when a doctor says mmmmm.” The old woman chuckled. “Oops is also bad.”

He couldn’t fight a smile around her. “Don’t you worry. It’s nothing too serious, but I would like to order a new scan of your lungs.”

No need to upset the patient. He’d review the scans and then discuss the proper steps to take. Hopefully nothing was wrong, and it was just this spring’s ridiculous amount of pollen. Allergies had taken a steep rise in the past few weeks.

“You’re the doc, doc.”

He made a note on her chart. “Anything else you’d like to discuss today?”

“I’d like to ask who’s responsible for that happy smile you had on your face when you walked in the door.”

His hand slipped, pen streaking black ink across the signature box. Oh well, didn’t look much different from normal. The stereotype was true where he was concerned. He had crappy handwriting.

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