Upon a Midnight Clear (Legend, Colorado 2)

"Characteristics. Qualities."

"The coat thing, that's a definite."

"Okay, we've got the guy giving you his coat… very chivalrous," Barbara said, drawing a number one in the air.

"And the flowers."

"Okay, we've got a guy giving away his coat and bringing flowers," she said, drawing a big number two in the air. "One more."

"And he must like my rear end."

"Just your rear end?" Barbara asked. "Why not go for the whole package? Don't you want a guy that thinks you're perfect? This is Mr. Right, after all."

"Exactly," Kim said good-naturedly, pretending to slam her fist down as she played along with her friend. "He must like my whole package!"

"Excellent!" Barbara said, laughing and clapping her hands together. "He must think you're perfect."

As their laughter died down, Kim shook her head. "Listen to me. Rambling on about my dream man. Good thing you're not taking me seriously."

Barbara nodded knowingly. "So that's why you're so cranky. Depressed about your love life."

Kim shrugged. "Usually I don't mind being single," she said, "but the holidays can be tough when you're alone. I always get this kind of vague, uncomfortable feeling that I'm missing something." She sighed. "I don't know. It's like New Year's Eve. I'm always convinced everyone is having a really good time except me."

Barbara's lips curled up into a dreamy smile. "I had a great time last New Year's. I was dating Frank, remember? I had been dating him for… well, we'd been on five dates, and he hadn't even tried to kiss me. He waited until the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. It was so romantic," she said dreamily. She shook her head as her mood suddenly changed for the worse. "Of course, I had to go and dump him for Rick." Then she added quickly, "The doctor," as if to distinguish him from any other Rick she might have dated. Barbara had dated Rick for about five months. When he left town for a new residency program, their relationship had ended.

"Don't fed bad about Rick," Kim said. "I know you were impressed by the whole doctor thing, but believe me, being the wife of a doctor stinks. They work all the time. You'd never see him."

Barbara shrugged. "I can think of worse things."

"They're a strange breed. Especially… what was Rick… a surgeon or something?"

"A thoracic surgeon," Barbara said. "Just like your dad."

Kim's father was the chief of thoracic surgery at St Mary's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan—at least, that was his job fifteen years ago, when Kim had last spoken with him.

Kim rolled her eyes. 'Take it from me, you made the right decision," Kim said, "dropping him."

"I didn't drop him, he dropped me."

"He did you a favor. My mother was one of the loneliest people I knew. She gave up everything for my dad, and he never even noticed." Kim hesitated as she remembered her mother. She had died last year and Kim missed her terribly. She remembered the anguish her mother had suffered, loving a man whose obsession with his career rendered him incapable of returning her feelings. "My dad's patients and his career always came first—before my mother, before me. If you had kids, you'd have to raise them yourself. He'd be on call all the time, and when he wasn't…"

"He'd be with me in our eight-bedroom house on the water…"

"He'd be trying to arrange a way to sneak out with one of the nurses he had his eye on."

"Oh! That snake!" she said, smiling as she raised her fist up in the air. "I'll throw the book at him. I'll take him for every cent he has." She smiled. "That's a pleasant thought. Do I get to keep the house?"

"If you're looking to live in a huge house on the water, can I give you a suggestion?"

"Marry a dentist?"

"No, something even more novel. How about getting that law degree you keep talking about?"

"So I can defend myself in my divorce settlement with my doctor? Excellent idea," Barbara joked. "Think of all the money I'll save." Barbara's smile faded and she hesitated.

Kim rarely spoke of her past, and Barbara thought she might try to

take advantage of the direction the conversation had taken. "Kim," she said finally. "What happened between you and your father? What made you stop speaking with each other? Did you have a fight?"