Something's Gotta Give

Chapter 3

Penny had been up and dressed for half an hour when she heard the front door open and close. She walked to the end of the hallway and saw Dr. Evers leaning against the door, deep in thought. Her first thought was that he was so handsome with his mussed hair and shadowed jawline. Her second thought was that he looked exhausted but not unpleased.

"Would you like some coffee?" she softly asked so as not to disturb his guests sleeping upstairs.

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded as he started towards the stairs. "I'll bring up your coffee. Would you like breakfast now or when the Eastons get up?"

"I have to go back to the hospital in about an hour, so breakfast now would be best."

Penny nodded, forcing herself to turn away from him and move towards the kitchen. She missed the glance over his shoulder that he gave her as if he was trying to figure out the answer to a puzzling question.

She had his coffee made in a matter of minutes and took it up to his study, noting that it looked precisely as it had the night before, which could only mean that he had been at the hospital all night. She had turned to leave when she heard his phone ring behind her. Frowning, she looked over her shoulder as she started to leave the room, thinking it was odd that he didn't have his phone. He always had his phone. No sooner had she had the thought than she walked right into a solid wall of muscle. She automatically put up her hand to brace herself and found it resting on a hair-covered chest.

Her first thought was how odd her hand looked on a man's naked chest, and her next thought was that it was a nicely broad and muscular chest with a strong heartbeat underneath, and her final thought was a jumbled mess as she quickly pulled her hand away from the bare chest. She allowed her gaze to dart upwards, where it encountered a pair of warm brown eyes that gave the impression that they were laughing at her.

Penny swallowed hard then stepped away. "Sorry, your phone distracted me, and I wasn't looking where I was going." She moved around him and headed for the stairs but not before she noted that he was only wearing a towel around his waist. "Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes," she softly said as she turned the corner of the stairs.

A few minutes later, she was in the process of removing the omelet from the pan when Dr. Evers walked in carrying his coffee cup. "I'll eat in here if that's all right. It'll save time."

The phone call he had received must have been important if he was in that big of a rush.

Without making a fuss, Penny handed him a fork and the plate with the omelet and then took his cup to refill it, noting that he looked refreshed as if he had gotten a nap as well as a shower. Perhaps he had gotten some good news. "Did everything turn out alright last night?" Penny asked as she carried his coffee back over to him. She had never asked him a question about his work before, but, somehow, all of a sudden, it seemed an acceptable thing to do.

"It did," he said in between huge bites of food.

Penny laid a few slices of toast in front of him, afraid that she hadn't made enough to eat. "Good, I said a prayer that it would." She smiled as she turned away, missing his shocked expression at her revelation.

"That was nice of you." He stood as he drank a few more sips of coffee. "Do you do that often?"

"What, pray?"

"Pray for my patients and me?" He set the mug down and reached for his suit jacket, which he had laid across one of the benches at the table.

"Now and then, when I know that's where you've gone."