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Beauti-ful women probably threw themselves at him on a daily basis.
No doubt, the good doctor wouldn t object to having a brief, torrid affair with her, if the opportunity fell
into his lap, but no way would he be seriously interested in someone like her.
The plain truth was, with her background and up-bringing, she wasn t cut out for an affair. She d feel so
guilty and gauche she d be sure to botch the whole thing up within twenty-four hours.
Besides, if she ever got up the nerve to carry on an affair and her brothers found out, they d skin Mark
alive, never mind that none of them lived like a monk.
Casey sighed. It was a double standard, but she had given up fighting against it at some point during her
teens. That was just the way it was when you grew up in a household with four protective older brothers.
The sexual revolution may have changed the way society in general looked at premarital relations
between consent-ing adults, but to the male of the species that standard did not apply to a sister.
Particularly a baby sister.
Poor things. They couldn t help it. It was bred into their bones something to do with that primitive,
tes-tosterone-driven need to keep the females of their tribe safe and inviolate.
Everyone else in the room burst into laughter, rein-ing in Casey s drifting thoughts. Looking around, she
realized that Mark had said something that the others found hilarious.
  Oh, Mark, you re terrible, Mary Kate sputtered through her giggles.
Still guffawing, Dennis stood bent over, holding his side, and Casey s parents were both wiping away
tears of mirth.
Casey forced a smile and pretended to get the joke but remained silent.
Paying closer attention, she realized that during those few minutes while she d been lost in thought Mark
had succeeded in winning over her parents and cousin. They were all now chatting as though they d
known one an-other for years.
Though she knew she was being irrational, she couldn t help but feel betrayed somehow. Didn t they
know that this man was a danger to her emotional well-being?
Apparently not. The next thing she knew, Mark was asking her to have a cup of coffee with him, and
every-one else was urging her to accept.
 I m hoping to twist her arm some more and per-suade her to give a talk to my niece s Softball team,
he explained, glancing around at the others.
 Really? A talk about what? Casey s father asked.
 Several topics, actually. Career opportunities for fe-males within the police department. Safety for
women. That sort of thing.
 That s a great idea, her cousin declared.  Casey, you should do it.
 I think so, too, her mother seconded.
 I m, uh& I m thinking about it.
 Then let s go have that coffee and give me a chance to convince you.
 No, really. I can t, Casey insisted.  I have to go. Ac-tually, I was on my way home when I bumped
into you.
 C mon, Tiger, since when do you turn down a cup of coffee? Anyway, it s about time for your next fix.
You haven t had a cup for about an hour. Dennis shot Mark a confiding look.  Casey s addicted to
coffee. Consider this fair warning. She turns into a snarling, wild-eyed, rav-ing maniac when the caffeine
level in her blood gets low.
 Oh, come on. I m not that bad, Casey objected, but her offended tone was wasted on her family.
They broke into a chorus of groans and laughter.
 Oh, no? Dennis looked at Mark again.  For exam-ple, at one time the brass thought it would be
cheaper and less messy and time-consuming to install vending machines at each precinct station house
rather than col-lecting money from everyone to stock our refrigerator with goodies and making our own
coffee. Sounds like a good idea, right? Right. The vending-machine coffee was lousy, of course, but then
all station house coffee is, so no one complained too much.
  Well, one day Casey begins to have withdrawal symp-toms, so she puts a quarter in the coffee machine
and 
 Dennis, I m sure Dr. Adams isn t interested in this, Casey protested.
 Oh, no. I m fascinated, he insisted, grinning.  Please, go on, Dennis.
 Well, the cup comes down, topples over, and all the coffee goes down the drain. She snarls a few
unprint-able words and tries again. Same thing happens. By now, her teeth are gritted and steam is
coming out of her ears and everyone within hearing or visual range is looking for cover. On the third try,
with her last quar-ter, mind you, the cup topples again and Casey loses it.
 She grabs hold of the machine, which has to weigh a couple of hundred pounds, and she s yelling all
sorts of colorful curses and kicking the thing and shaking it back and forth until it s rocking so hard it
eventually topples over and crashes to the floor, spewing hot cof-fee and spitting out cups like quarters
out of a slot ma-chine. She might have been crushed if she hadn t jumped out of the way in time.
By then Casey could feel her cheeks burning and the others were laughing, but Dennis wasn t through.
Like most Irish, he was a born storyteller, so he waited for the laughter to die down, then grinned and
delivered the punch line.
 The next day the coffee machine was removed and we ve been making our own brew ever since.
 Yeah, and my daughter received a chewing-out from her boss, which she richly deserved, and had to
reim-burse the vending-machine company for the repairs, her father added.
 And the story of how Casey killed the coffee ma-chine has become legend at the MPD, Maureen put
in.
 Wow. Mark looked at Casey with laughter still dancing in his eyes.  You actually destroyed a vending
machine?
She shrugged.  I wanted a cup of coffee.
 Ah, I see. Well, I certainly wouldn t want you to have a caffeine fit here. I m not sure the hospital
would be so forgiving if you destroyed one of their machines. So, c mon, let me buy you a cup.
 Go on, Mary Kate urged.  It s not as though you have to go home. All you re going to do when you
get there is make a pot of coffee and have dinner in front of the TV like you always do.
 You haven t eaten? In that case, let me take you to dinner.
 Oh, no, I couldn t do that. I m not dressed for going out to dinner.
 Neither am I, but don t worry. You look fine. Mark took her elbow and began to steer her toward the
door.  Where I m taking you, there s no dress code. In fact, it s close, so they re used to doctors in
scrubs dropping in.
At the door, he stopped and smiled back at the oth-ers, who were watching them with avid interest.
 Nice to meet you all. I m looking forward to July 4.
  The hospital cafeteria? That s where we re eat-ing? Casey said moments later when they stepped off
the elevator.
 I told you it was casual. I have to stick around for a while to monitor my patient. C mon, grab a tray.
For hospital food, it s not bad.
As they went through the serving line, Mark joked with the women servers and the cashier. Casey
couldn t help but notice that they and everyone else in the cafe-teria were eyeing her with interest.
He picked a corner table as far away from the other people as they could get, but that didn t stop the
curi-ous glances. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]