“Probably not going to get too far without this,” he said, holding the purse out.
“No, probably not. Thanks.”
His fingertips brushed mine as I took the purse from him, those same fingertips that had just been taking a sample from inside of me and feeling my breasts for any abnormal lumps.
“Um, okay, bye,” I said as I dug my keys out of the bottom of my purse and got back into my car. I drove out of there as fast as I could.
Chapter Four
Cole
HIPAA privacy laws prevented me from mentioning anything to Ben about my encounter at the office the other day with Allie, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about it. Now, I found myself glancing over toward her house every once in a while, wondering what she was up to, if her car was parked in the driveway. I normally wasn’t the one to make the calls back to patients (Kathy or Danielle handled that), but when the results of Allie’s urine culture had come back in, I called her up to tell her she had a UTI and I’d need to write her a script for an antibiotic.
One of the playground moms had dropped off a loaf of orange poppy seed bread that we hadn’t cut into yet. I grabbed the plastic-wrapped loaf.
“Come on, bud,” I said to Declan.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he jumped up, abandoning his pile of Duplo LEGOs.
“We’re going to go next door.”
“To see Miss Allie?”
“We’re going to give her this as a welcome present.”
He tilted his head and frowned at the loaf. “Didn’t Harper’s mom give that to us?”
“She did, but she’ll probably be by next week with something else.”
“Are you allowed to give away presents like that?”
“Sure,” I said. “It’s called re-gifting.”
We walked next door and found Allie in the side yard by the shed, engaged in a serious battle of wills with a rather decrepit-looking lawn mower. She had on a pair of cut-offs and a black tank top, and her dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, little wisps plastered to her sweaty forehead. She didn’t see us approach, and she gave the lawn mower a little kick.
“Fucker,” she said.
Declan’s eyes widened, and he clapped his hand over his mouth. His movement must have caught Allie’s eye because she looked up, a horrified expression crossing her face when she saw that it was us.
“Oh my God,” she said. “I didn’t realize that you guys were there. I totally didn’t just say that.”
“Say what?” I asked, even though it was clear that we had both heard her.
“Dad tells me to say mothertrucker,” Declan said.
I nudged him. “Hey now. We’ve actually both been working on not using language that we shouldn’t, right?” I nodded toward the lawn mower. “You need any help with that?”
She gave me a sheepish look. “Well... I had these grand visions of getting up and mowing the lawn and then maybe pruning some of those bushes, but... I seem to have run into a bit of a road block.”
“Mind if I take a look?”
“Go ahead,” she said, brushing the wisps of hair back from her forehead.
“Oh, we brought you this,” I said, handing her the orange poppy seed bread. “It’s a belated housewarming gift.”
Declan looked up at me as Allie took it. “I thought you said it was a re-gift.”
I ignored him and went over to the lawn mower, though I could see that Allie was trying to hide her smile. “It’s got fuel in it?” I asked.