Count on Me (Bayview Heights Trilogy) (8 page)

“He’s pond scum!” Erica blurted out. “We don’t want to work with him.”

Zoe gentled her voice. “Please don’t call him that, Erica. He’s a brilliant doctor with a heart of gold. He wants to help people more than anyone I know. And this clinic is a big asset to the community and the school.”

Erica scowled. “He hurt you.” For all their sophistication, these girls were still young in so many ways.

Swallowing hard, Zoe counted to ten. “Yes, he did, though I don’t think it’s really any of your concern.”

“Why not?” Ashley said. “We talk about boys with you. You’ve helped me a lot with Evan.”

“I’m a teacher. That’s my job.”

Julia rolled her eyes in a theatrical gesture. “You’re more than our teacher. We love you. And we hate him for hurting you.”

Spontaneously Zoe reached out and squeezed Julia’s hand. “Jules, he didn’t hurt me intentionally. I guess you know the story. But just to set the record straight, he went back to his wife—that’s all he did. Men and women have problems like this, where it’s nobody’s fault.”

“What happened?” Erica asked candidly. “Why’s he here, then?”

Zoe shifted uneasily. “It didn’t work out between them.”

“You’re not getting back with him, are you?” she asked, clearly horrified.

“Girls, I really don’t want to get into a discussion of my personal life.”

“All right,” Julia said. “But just tell us that.”

Zoe knew when to give in with kids. They did love her, and they were worried. “No, I’m not getting back with him. And I am a bit uncomfortable having to work with him now. But remember how I told you I thought Hemingway was right—anybody can handle things well when life is good. It’s when things get rough that you have to come through. It’s called—”

“Grace under pressure.” Erica’s tone had been impatient.

“Yes, honey, it is. And we all need to behave well during this difficult time.”

Obviously Erica hadn’t agreed. She’d walked out then, and Zoe hadn’t had a chance to talk to her since...

Zoe was brought back to the present by Kurt’s announcement.

“First I’d like to introduce the counselors.”

“Hi, everyone.” Seth came to stand beside Zoe as he scanned the crowd. “Lacey here?” he asked.

“Right up front,” Zoe answered. She watched Seth smile at his petite wife.

“She’s writing a feature for the paper,” he said proudly.

“Good.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed. “I forgot
he’d
be here.”

“Who?”

“Linc McKenna.” Zoe saw the handsome high-school counselor standing next to Lacey lean over, say something to her and make her smile. Zoe remembered that Lacey had dated McKenna briefly before she and Seth had gotten together.

“Most of you know Linc McKenna,” Kurt continued as if addressing Seth’s statement. “He’s a school counselor and will be the clinic’s liaison with the high school. He’ll help us with all aspects of educational coordination. We’re lucky to get him. He has a masters from Cornell and has worked with in other similar situations.”

“Harrumph,” Seth grumbled, sticking his hands in the pockets of his suitcoat.

“Back off, buddy,” Zoe whispered. The Taylors had a marriage made in heaven, and certainly Seth had nothing to worry about there.

“Next is our drug-and-alcohol counselor, Mark Grayson.”

Zoe watched a tall reed-thin man wave to the crowd. He looked impossibly young with his poet’s face, longish hair and earring winking from underneath.

“Mark’s got three years’ experience at City Hospital and has had a number of internships in New York. He’s a certified alcohol counselor and we’re lucky to get him, too.”

Zoe watched Kurt smile warmly at the man. Then he introduced Louise Sheffield, a PhD from Columbia, retired for ten years to raise her kids. An old friend of Kurt’s, she’d agreed to come back at his urging. He’d told Zoe stories of the miracles the woman had worked with hard-core kids.

Next he introduced Diane Diaz, a nurse. She was a petite woman who lived in town and had two children in high school.

“As you probably know, Dr. Max Johnson runs the Planned Parenthood program, which operates out of South Avenue, but he’ll be moving the division in with us.” A big black man with steel-gray hair and a friendly smile stepped out to be seen. Zoe knew him well, and she liked and respected the hardworking, often beleaguered counselor.

“On the medical side, I’ll be handling the checkups, pediatric care and minor medical mishaps, along with Dr. Abraham Frank, who will be joining us in November. We’re also fortunate to have a premed student from Columbia—John Battaglia.”

“Yummy,” she heard Shondra say.

“De-licious,” Shelley added.

All the girls but Erica giggled over Johnny. Dressed in a black T-shirt and black denims under his battered black leather jacket, he saluted the crowd and stepped back next to Mitch, whom she hadn’t noticed before.

A former At Risk student, Johnny had practically been adopted by the Lansings when Mitch had broken up the gang to which the boy had belonged. In those five years he’d become a vital part of the Lansing family. And for three years he’d worked at Kurt’s clinic. Mitch had gotten him the job when he was in high school and he’d continued during his first two years at Columbia. When the clinic in Bayview Heights got the go-ahead, he’d gleefully switched to this one and freed himself up on Thursdays through Saturdays. He planned to live with Mitch and Cassie in the new house for that part of the week. The Lansings were elated to have him back even part-time, and had added a suite of rooms at one end of their new house for him. They’d all move in next week.

“That’s it.” Kurt smiled again and thanked everyone for coming.

The mayor handed Kurt scissors to cut the big red ribbon. They’d all go inside now, have a short reception, then Kurt would meet with Zoe’s volunteers, who’d start work tomorrow.

Taking a deep breath, she watched the girls file in ahead of her, and with Seth behind her, she inched slowly forward, repeating the mantra in her head.
Grace under pressure. Grace under pressure. Grace under pressure.

Damn, she never did like Hemingway.

o0o

IT WAS LIKE facing a teenage firing squad. They sat stiffly in the conference room, itching to take shots at him, but instead, they’d been ordered to hold their fire. He expected nothing less after Zoe got through with them yesterday.

Zoe was cool and collected in the midst of them. She’d taken off her raincoat and wore a tailored navy suit with a red blouse. Her hair was a fluffy mass and fell onto her forehead in sexy bangs. The overhead lights in the small conference room winked off of her dangling red-jeweled earrings. Though he wasn’t close enough, he swore he could smell her perfume.

“Good afternoon,” he said simply.

“Afternoon,” the lone boy, Dan, returned cheerfully. He sat close to Julia, a little away from the other girls. Dressed in all black, he reminded Kurt of a young Johnny Battaglia.

Little by little the kids acknowledged him.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Good afternoon.”

Holding up a sheet of paper, he said, “I have several jobs available here, but I thought I’d give you my opinion first on where you might be the most helpful and the most effective.”

Zoe’s eyes shone with approval. He might be a personal failure with her, but he knew his job, and he knew volunteers.

“I’ve studied your résumés carefully and made notes during our discussion last week. I tried to match your interests, your talents and particularly your goals in life with the positions we have open. In some ways I’ve mimicked the shadowing program you have at school.”

The shadowing program was a project where students paired up with adults who worked in a profession the teenagers thought they might want to pursue; it had been implemented by Zoe and Linc McKenna. A slight smile breached Zoe’s lips at the reference.

“Let’s start alphabetically. By the way, if you disagree with your placement, I’ll change it.” Tongue-in- cheek, he added, “We wouldn’t want any unhappy workers here.” He sat on the desk, and made eye contact with each girl. All of them, except Erica, shifted uncomfortably.

“Dan Caruso. I’ve put you in the nursery. You expressed an interest in working with little kids, and since we’ve got an area set up for patients’ children and pediatric patients who are waiting to be seen, I thought you might like that.”

“Yeah, I would,” Dan said casually, but the shine in the boy’s eyes told Kurt he’d made the right choice.

One down.

“Ashley Emerson.” He smiled at the girl and she smiled back weakly. Kurt had noticed she’d come late and looked rather pale, despite her cheerful pink sweater and slacks. “Planned Parenthood. With Max Johnson. You indicated a desire to work with teens on life choices.”

Ashley went paler, nodded, then shared a worried glance with Rachel.

“Shondra and Erica, you’ll work in the medical facility. Shondra, as you expressed an interest in studying medicine, you’ll work with the new doctor, Abraham Frank, when he comes. Erica, you’ll be with me in administration.” He smiled. “Both of you will help out John Battaglia.”

Erica’s face flushed. “I don’t want that.”

“You don’t want to work with John?”

“I don’t want to work with you.”

Shondra kicked her under the table.

“All right, Erica. Stay after everyone leaves. We’ll discuss this.”

He read the other placements by rote, his mind whirling. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake with the Case girl. He didn’t think he had; he trusted his professional instincts. It was his personal instincts that weren’t worth a whole lot these days.

He finished with the students. Julia would work with Louise and Linc, the psychologists; Rachel Thompson, who wanted to be a nurse, and Shelley Marco, who was going into sports training, would help out Diane.

“Of course time frames and hours will vary—I’m leaving you to schedule that with your respective ‘bosses.’” He glanced at the clock. “Why don’t you go find them and see what they have in mind for what you’ll do and when you’ll start.” He smiled warmly at Erica. “Stay with me, Erica. Shondra, you can meet with John in my office.”

Slowly everyone but Zoe and Erica filed out.

Zoe stood. “I’d like to talk to Erica first.”

Kurt shook his head. “You’ve already talked to Erica. I think it’s time she and I had a little chat.” He took in the girl’s stony features, tight lips. “Alone.”

One of the Zoe’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t think—”

“I want to talk to him alone.”

Zoe shifted her gaze. “Erica, we discussed this.”

“I’ll be polite. But you taught us to express our opinions. I want to do that.” She raked Kurt with an adult glare. “Alone.”

Glancing from Kurt to Erica, Zoe shrugged, squeezed the girl’s arm and left with, “I’ll be right outside.”

Kurt studied Erica as she scrutinized him. In an arena, they’d be circling each other, figuring out how to go for the jugular. But he’d taken an oath to heal, not hurt, and he’d already planned this encounter. He began without preamble. “I assigned you to work with me primarily because it will help you in the college-application process. Clinic-administration experience will look good on your résumé.”

The girl swallowed hard. She wore a simple white ribbed shirt and beige skirt. Tall and lanky, she would have been nondescript if it wasn’t for her penetrating dark blue eyes. With typical teenage bravado, she flipped her hair back off her shoulder. “I won’t have any trouble getting into college.”

“Every bit helps. You’ve applied to Georgetown.”

She nodded.

“I went there.”

Her face fell. He was sorry to hit below the belt, but a lot was at stake here. And sometimes the cure was worse, initially, than the disease.

“I also picked you to work with me because I can tell you don’t like me and I thought it would help if you got to know me.”

“I don’t want to get to know you.”

He glanced out the window. His daughter had interned him well in teenage girlhood. He faced Erica squarely with his best doctor gaze. “I hurt someone you love, Erica, and I regret it more than I can say. If I could change that, I’d do so in a second. But since I can’t, I’d like to keep Ms. Caufield from getting hurt further.” He waved his hand around the clinic. “This is a terrible situation to put her in. I want to be able to count on you to make it as easy as possible for her.”

Bingo! The teenage bravado faded. The child surfaced.

And the love. Did Zoe have any idea how much these kids loved her?

How much he did?

 I have some things to say to you, Zoe. Important things. Your fortieth birthday is the perfect time.

He’d been ready to tell her he loved her, had loved her for a long time. And wanted to marry her. God, how had he gone so wrong?

Erica sank back into the chair and flipped the pages of her notebook. Then she raised troubled eyes to his. “You think I can help her with this?”

“Absolutely.”

“I won’t ever like you.”

He was surprised at the little zing of pain that caused. “I don’t expect you to. But if you stay here, you’ll have to work at getting along with me.”

“For Ms. Caufield.”

“Yes.”

She stood. “I’ll try.”

He held out his hand. “Truce?”

The girl stared at it with a faint flash of disgust on her face. “Sure.” She shook his hand. “Let’s go find Ms. Caufield.” But she didn’t move. “If you ever...do anything to her, hurt her again, you’ll have to deal with me.”

Kurt should have felt like laughing; he outweighed the girl by at least fifty pounds. He was older, wiser, had dealt with junkies and hoodlums for years in his city clinic.

But he wasn’t amused. Instead, he was very sad.

“I won’t hurt her, Erica. I promise.”

She snorted.

Rightly so. His promises weren’t worth much these days.

Sighing, he followed her out; later he’d bury himself in work.

o0o

DR. LOUISE SHEFFIELD was a motherly looking woman with a perky smile and animated eyes. Julia liked her on sight. And Mr. McKenna, hunk track coach, was cool—he’d come to see all her plays. She was damn lucky to have them and not Dr. Lansing.