Knave of Broken Hearts (6 page)

“Sir, are you okay?” A nurse standing behind the front desk ran through a door into the reception room. Other people who had been waiting jumped up or leaned forward. He was making a scene, but he couldn’t catch his breath. He staggered a couple of steps and flopped into a chair. The nurse grabbed his shoulder. “Sir, put your head down.” She didn’t wait for him to comply but shoved his face into his lap. A few more inches, he could have sucked his own dick, which he’d probably have to do now since he’d managed to lose his girlfriend. “I’m fine.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m fine. I just ran up the stairs.”

The nurse took her hand off his back and let him rise to sitting. Another woman shoved a paper cup of water at him.
Try for nonchalant again.
“Sure know how to get your attention, don’t I?” He sucked in some deep breaths. Man, the air felt so sweet.

“Do you have an appointment?” The nurse seemed to want to return to normality.

“As opposed to dropping in for a heart attack?”

She grinned. “Yes, as opposed to that.” The nurse was probably in her midtwenties with sleek brown hair pulled back at her neck in a tail, wide blue eyes, and dimples that wouldn’t quit. “I’m Jim Carney. You’re working me in at four. I was trying not to be late and overdid it.”

“Your zeal is commendable. Why don’t you come back with me? We need to reward such devotion to punctuality.”

Truth was, he still felt light-headed. Trying to recover some particle of macho, he stood, squared his shoulders, and followed her. When they got to an examining room, she stepped aside, let him enter, and closed the door partway. He flashed the lopsided grin. “Do I have to put on a paper dress?”

“No, removing your shirt will do fine. The doctor doesn’t find many hearts below the waist.”

He laughed—loud. “What’s your name?”

“Andrea.”

“I would have bet no one could make me laugh right now. Does the doctor know you’re so good at your job?”

“Oh yeah. He pays me the big bucks.”

He laughed again.

“Are you bragging about your outrageous salary again, Andrea?” The silky voice came from outside the exam room. Jim looked up as the door pushed inward and a man in a white lab coat backed in carrying a chart he was reading.

Andrea smiled. “I have to extol your virtues.”

“Ah yes, because certainly no one else will.” He turned, extended a narrow, long-fingered hand, and Jim looked up into the face that had launched a thousand wet dreams.
Mr. Beautiful. Yaoi man.
The doctor smiled. “Hello, I’m Ken Tanaka.”

D
ID
I
just make that
eep
sound?

The doctor must have heard it, because he cocked his head. “I know you.” A slow smile spread across his face. Damn yeah, he remembered.

“You just kept me from crashing to the ground at the wedding last night. You look pretty different today.” As if he wouldn’t know those lips anywhere.

“Of course, I remember.” He glanced at the nurse. “I’ll take it from here, Andrea.”

She flashed a grin that might have just been friendly or might have had more significance. “Yes, Doctor.” She turned to Jim and touched his arm. “Be sure to tell the doctor about your weakness and shortness of breath after running up the stairs, okay?”

Well, hell, how much undermining could his manhood take?

Dr. Tanaka leaned against the examining table, his long legs in dark trousers crossed at the ankle. “Good to see you again.”

“It’s a weird coincidence.” Cosmic, in fact.

“I suppose. A number of us go to the same club—the man I went to the wedding with, the people who own this building, me.” He smiled. “So what happened with your shortness of breath?”

“Your hair’s really different.” Did he just say that?

Another grin. “Yes, I try for serious and professional in the office. At parties, not so much.”

“So you’re really a cardiologist?”

“What, you think I play one on TV?”

“I just never saw a cardiologist who, you know, looked like you.”

He laughed. “I’d say thank you, but I have no idea if that was a compliment. I also don’t know how many cardiologists you’ve seen.”

Jim shrugged. “I hardly even go to a general practitioner, much less a fancy heart doctor.” But he certainly knew one extremely well.

Tanaka struck a beauty-queen pose. “Very fancy.”

“Yeah, well that’s another thing. I guess I never thought about a cardiologist being, you know, gay.”

Ken raised an arched black brow. “We’re everywhere.”

“Nothing on it. I just don’t know much about doctors.” That he was willing to admit.

“So why don’t you take off your shirt and tell me what’s going on with you?”

“Oh, okay.” He pulled the T-shirt over his head and wrapped his arms around his chest.

“You cold?” Tanaka pulled out another damned stethoscope.

Jim dropped his arms. “Not really.”

“You certainly look fit.” Tanaka grinned, and Jim felt a warm flush that started somewhere below his belt. A picture of his cardiologist dancing like some sexy snake with the gray-haired man the previous night flashed in his mind.

“Thanks.”

The combination of the cool stethoscope and the warm hand gave Jim shivers in very inconvenient places. Thank God, no paper dress or the damned thing would have turned into a flying flag. He folded his hands in his lap as the doc listened all over his chest and back.

Tanaka stood up. “What were the symptoms Andrea was describing?”

“No biggie. I just ran up four flights of stairs at top speed and got light-headed.”

“That will certainly do it.” Tanaka stepped back and looked at Jim. “You can put your shirt on.”

“That’s all there is?”

“Actually, I’m going to schedule you for an echocardiogram. I suspect you have mitral valve prolapse.”

Jim’s heart really leaped. “What’s that?”

“It’s not much to worry about. It’s a leaking in your mitral valve that may cause some regurgitation. It’s quite common, and most people have few if any symptoms. It’s just good to know about it so we can keep an eye on it.”

“Sometimes my heart beats really hard.”

Tanaka grinned. “I’m glad to hear that.”

Hell, doctors weren’t supposed to be so flirty, were they? “It can get a little scary.”

“It may be related to the mitral valve or may be another cause. Let’s get the echo first and we’ll go from there.” He ripped a page from his prescription pad. “There’s a lab here in the building.”

“I think everything is in this building.”

“We try.”

“Uh, I work construction. It’s pretty tough duty. Should I be cutting back?”

“Quite the contrary. Assuming it’s mitral valve prolapse, exercise is good for you. And I’m sure your body is used to the rigors of your job. But eating right and getting good sleep is never bad advice.”

Jim cracked half a grin. “Sounds like bad advice to me.”

Tanaka laughed. “Also relieving stress.”

“Yeah, right.”

Tanaka cocked his head. “Do you have any unusual stress right now?”

Jim snorted.

“Ah, I see. Getting married, divorced, having a baby?”

“I guess my stress is pretty small potatoes compared to that kind of stuff, but I’m overseeing a job for a friend and I don’t want, uh, anything to go wrong. Plus my brother just showed up on my doorstep and needs some looking after. With a cat.”

The doc laughed. “That sounds like a fair amount of pressure to me. Do you know how to meditate?’

Jim snorted again.

“I’ll ask Andrea to give you a worksheet on the steps. Meditation is hard, but making the effort actually reduces stress.”

He shrugged. “I hate to take the instructions when I know I probably won’t do anything with it.”

“It’s okay. Just take a look. It’s there in case you need it. My receptionist will make you an appointment for the echocardiogram. Then you’ll come see me again.”

“Oh, okay.”
Don’t be so damned happy about that, Carney.

At the desk, Andrea stood behind the receptionist. She flashed a big smile. “So Doctor’s sending you for an echo.”

“Yeah.” The words pushed out. “Does it hurt?”

“No. It’s just an ultrasound. Have you ever had one of those?”

“Uh, I don’t think so. Maybe.”

“Anyway, they’ll just put some cool gel on your chest and press a wand against it. No discomfort at all.”

“Thanks.”

The receptionist put her hand over the phone. “They can take you tomorrow at 4:30. Does that work for you?”

“Sure. I’m working downstairs so I can just jog—” He looked at Andrea and grinned. “—uh, walk slowly to the lab from there.”

The receptionist went back to the phone, confirming his appointment.

Andrea beamed. “Okay. See you later.” Her dark hair flipped as she walked back into the inner sanctum of the office. The receptionist handed Jim his appointment card and a sheet of paper with meditation instructions on it. Just what he needed.
Not.

Out in the hall, he stopped. He had a weird ticker that might or might not be a problem. And he had a doctor who made his heart beat hard. Further down the damned rabbit hole.

This time he took the elevator to the lobby. Quiet had started to settle in on the building. After hours. He pushed through the plastic. Charlie was still there. The other guys had left. Jim slapped Charlie’s shoulder. “Hey, thanks, man.”

“Took you a while. Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I mean, kind of. I have something called a mitral valve collapse or something. I have to go get an echo thing tomorrow. The doc said it’s not much to worry about.”

“Shit, man, that’s crap.”

“No worries. Thanks for taking care of the owner. What else did she say?”

“Not much. Pretty thing. She loosened up a little while we talked. She said she’d let us know if they’re changing tenants by tomorrow noon.”

“If she does, I gotta get the architect to design and sign off on new plans.”

“The guy Billy uses?”

“Yeah. I don’t really know him, but he’s familiar with the job. I’m not in touch with any other architects. Are you?

Charlie shook his head. “Billy’s guy has his number on the plans.”

Jim walked to where the suite drawings were spread out on a pile of wood. He found the number and dialed it. Two rings. “Hello, you’ve reached Brian Oliver, architecture and planning. Our office will be closed for one week with limited e-mail availability. Please leave a message and we’ll get back to you on our return.” Billy clicked off. “Well, damn. He’s gone.”

Charlie frowned. “Maybe the owner won’t change tenants.”

“Right. Maybe.” He tried to smooth out the lines that must be popping on his forehead. No use worrying Charlie. “Thanks for being so great. I about busted a gut when you started explaining Billy’s philosophy of demolition.”

Charlie laughed. “By the way, she sure asked a lot of questions about you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Like were you married or did you have a girlfriend kind of questions.”

“Nah. It was you she was charmed by.”

“If you say so.”

“Go on home. We’ll worry about this tomorrow.”

“Want to go for a beer?”

“No. Believe it or not, my kid brother dropped out of the clouds onto my doorstep last night. I need to go home and see how he’s doing.”

“Man. You weren’t expecting him?”

“No. Long story. I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”

“Okay. Watch out for that ticker.”

“Going to.”

Charlie waved, and Jim followed him through the plastic into the lobby of the building.
Real quiet now.
Jim sat on one of the guest chairs by the window. It wasn’t dark yet since it was rising June, and the early evening light filtered in. Who could he call? He started flipping through his contacts. There had to be an architect in there somewhere. He was not going to bother Billy. Billy trusted him. Hollering for help at the first hurdle was chickenshit.

He made it to the
S’s
before slight panic set in. Maybe he could call one of the other contractors he’d worked for and ask for a referral.
Yeah. Tomorrow.
That was starting pretty far back, and he hated for the contractors to think he’d gone into competition with them, but he couldn’t think of another option. He ran a hand through his too-long hair.

“It doesn’t appear you’re working hard at relieving stress, Mr. Carney.” The soft voice danced with humor.

Jim didn’t even have to look up. His cock did. “Maybe I should try some meditation right here.” He closed his eyes. “Ommmm.”

Tanaka laughed. It sounded like music. “Point taken. But you seem to be upset about something. I should repeat that the mitral valve prolapse is not a cause for deep concern. Honest.”

Jim breathed out slowly and looked at the doctor. He’d taken off his white coat and wore dress slacks, a white shirt, and a sport coat. The hair was still brushed back off his face, not flopping like a silk curtain the way it did at the wedding. “Actually, it’s an issue with the job I’m managing. I need an architect who can do some last-minute tenant improvement plans, and the guy my boss uses is on vacation.”

“Doesn’t he have a backup?”

Jim shook his head. “Probably. But my boss is Billy Ballew. You know, he’s on his honeymoon, and I don’t want to bother him if I can avoid it. But I guess I may have to.”

Tanaka folded his arms and stared at Jim. “I happen to know an architect who might be able to help.”

“Seriously? I can’t ask you to do that.” But man, he sure wanted to.

“Yes, well, he’s a, uh, social acquaintance. In fact, he was my date at the wedding last night.” He grinned.

“I don’t want to put you in an awkward position with your boyfriend.” He swallowed hard.

“He’s definitely not my boyfriend. In fact, he’s a pain in the ass, but he owes me a favor. Want me to call him?”

“I’m not completely sure I’m going to need an architect yet. The building owner said she’d know by noon tomorrow.”