Elizabeth Bevarly - A Doctor In Her Stocking

Reed was about to ask for those onion rings again, but Seth gestured toward the other table and piped up, “What was that all about?”

Donna smiled, one of those too-bright, why-don’t-youcome-up-to-my-place-and-see-my-etchings? kind of smiles. And Seth, naturally, returned it with one of his own. Seth always had liked brash, blousy brunettes. And brash, blousy blondes. Brash, blousy redheads, too. And really, they didn’t have to be brash. Or blousy, either, for that matter. As long as they were breathing.

“That,” Donna said, “was yet another one of Mindy’s good deeds. The kid’s got a heart of gold. Go figure.”

Well, that certainly perked Seth right up, Reed noticed. Not that Seth needed perking. He was just about the perkiest damned man on the planet already.

“Good deed?” he echoed. “Heart of gold? Gosh, that’s really, really interesting. And just who, may I ask, is Mindy?”

Donna jutted her stubby pencil over her shoulder, toward the pretty—pregnant—blond waitress who had commanded so much of Reed’s attention. “She’s a total sweetheart, that’s who Mindy is,” she told them. “Like I said, go figure. In the last year, her house burned to the ground, her husband got himself killed and every nickel she had left went to straightening out the mess he’d made of their lives. And now she’s being evicted from her crummy apartment so the scumbag landlord can turn it into a co-op. And she’s five months preggers, to boot. And broke. And all she has is this lousy-paying job to get her through. But even at that, she bought the old guy dinner tonight, because it’s his eightieth birthday.”

“Oh, really? ” Seth asked with much interest, folding an elbow onto the table and cupping his chin in his palm. “My, but that was certainly a nice thing for her to do.”

Reed frowned, knowing where this was going. “So that must be her grandfather or something, right?” he asked, jerking his head toward the elderly man across the way.

Donna shook her head, her dark ponytail dancing when she did. “Naw, she never saw the guy before tonight. He’s homeless, I think. Prob’ly usually gets his dinner out of the Dumpster out back.”

“Oh, really? ” Seth reiterated. “She’d never met him before tonight? He was a total stranger to her?”

“Yeah, but on account of it’s his birthday, he came in and ordered a bowl of chili, ‘cause he wanted to celebrate. But Mindy thought he should get more than just a bowl of chili, so she used some of her tips to buy him a cuppa coffee and a steak sandwich and a piece a peach pie to go with.”

“Oh, really? ”

Donna, finally, gave him a funny look. “Yeah, really. Boy, it doesn’t take much to interest you, does it?”

Seth threw her a salacious grin and cocked one blond eyebrow. “You might be surprised.”

Donna tossed him a pretty lascivious smile right back. “Oh, yeah?”

Reed cleared his throat in a manner that was by no means discreet. “Uh, do you think you could go ahead and place that order now?” he asked. He was, after all, going to take a bite out of the table if someone didn’t put something edible in front of him soon.

“Yeah, sure thing,” Donna said, turning.

Reed was about to add that extra part about onion rings before she could get away, but before he had a chance Seth caught her gently by the elbow and said, “So this Mindy has nothing in the world, is about to be bounced out of her apartment, along with her unborn child, but she squeezed out a few bucks from her tips just so this old guy she’d never met before could have a decent birthday dinner?”

Donna scrunched up her shoulders and let them drop. “Didn’t I just say that?”

Reed nodded and released her. “Yeah, you did. But I wanted to make sure my friend here heard all the details.”

“I heard,” Reed muttered.

As always, Seth ignored him. “Thanks, Donna,” he said instead, releasing their waitress so that she could place their order. Finally.

“No problem, big guy,” she returned with a bright smile. “I’ll be right back with your coffee.”

And then she was gone. Before Reed could tell her how much he wanted those onion rings. He sighed with much disappointment.

“Did you hear that, Reed?” Seth asked, turning to sit forward at the table again.

“I heard,” Reed repeated.

“Mindy, that big, selfless, generous sweetheart, did that out of the goodness of her heart.”

“I heard. ”

“Just because it was the right thing to do. ”

“I heard. ”

“Because she’s a kind, decent human being. ”

“I heard, dammit.”

Seth leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms with much satisfaction, grinning triumphantly. “Can you imagine?”

Reed ground his teeth hard. “According to our waitress, she’s also pregnant,” he pointed out. “It was probably just some kind of maternal instinct or hormonal reaction kicking in.”

Seth chuckled. “Yeah, you wish.”

There was no way Reed was going to get out of this one, he thought. Seth had gotten lucky tonight. He’d taken a chance that they’d encounter some bleeding heart like himself, and for once in his life, the guy’s gamble had played out. Which meant no golfing vacation in Scotland. No bottle of thirty-sixyear-old, single-malt scotch. But worse than all that, now Reed was going to have to do something…nice…for somebody.

In a word, ew.

“All right, you win,” he conceded. “I’ll perform a good deed. Can I just write a check to the Salvation Army?”

Seth smiled. “Of course you can. But don’t think for a moment that doing so will settle our wager.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.”

“You have to perform a good deed, ” his friend reminded him. “A physical act of niceness and goodwill. Check writing is too impersonal. But by all means, you can include a check to some deserving organization as part of your payment for your debt.”

“Fine.”

“But you know who could probably really use a helping hand right about now?” Seth added.

Reed narrowed his eyes. He could tell by the other man’s tone of voice that he wasn’t going to like the suggestion that would inevitably follow.

“Mindy, that’s who.”

Yep, Reed had known he wasn’t going to like his friend’s suggestion at all.

“I mean, think about it,” Seth continued. “She’s pregnant, she’s about to be evicted. And just three weeks before Christmas, too. Evicted, do you believe that? What kind of scumbag landlord does such a thing?”

Reed frowned at him. “Uh, yeah, I do believe that, Seth. I’m the one who expects the worst from everybody, remember?”

Seth gave that some thought. “Oh, yeah. Well, there you have it. Sometimes you’re right. Not usually,” he quickly interjected when Reed opened his mouth to pounce on the concession. “But sometimes. Anyway, getting back to Mindy.”

“I’d rather not.”

“I think she’d be a likely recipient for your goodwill,” Seth went on, ignoring, as always, Reed’s objection.

“Fine. Then I’ll write her a check.”

Seth shook his head. Vehemently. “No, no, no, no, no. You’re missing the whole point. You have to do something nice for her. A good deed. ”

“Hey, writing a check is doing something. It involves a physical activity.”

Seth made a face at him. “You know what I mean.” Then, before Reed could utter another word, his friend lifted a hand and called out, “Oh, Mindy! Excuse me, Mindy?”

Reed squeezed his eyes shut tight. He could not believe what was happening. He felt as if he was in seventh grade again and his best buddy, Bobby Weatherly, was about to reveal the crush Reed had had on Susan Middleton. Man, that had been humiliating. To this day, Reed simply could not speak to any woman named Susan without feeling embarrassed. Now it looked as if he was going to have the same problem with all future Mindys.