Read Online Dr. Dad by Judith Arnold - Free Book Online

out.
    â€œI’ll wait in the gift shop,” she said as soon as they entered the hospital’s main lobby.
    â€œYou’ll come upstairs to pediatrics with me,” he told her. She was not going to set the agenda, especially not after she’d been so snotty in the car.
    Pouting, she followed him down the hall, shuffling her feet and affecting that slouching posture he’d noticed yesterday. They reached the elevator and he jabbed the button. When the doors slid open, he saw a familiar face inside: Allison Winslow, a nurse in the neonatal unit of the pediatrics wing.
    â€œAllison!” he greeted her with a rush of relief. Here was a friend, an ally, someone who wouldn’t get into a snit over nonsense. He’d known Allison for as long as they’d both been practicing at Arlington Memorial. She’d watched over many of his youngest patients, the newborns and day-olds who remained at the hospital while their mothers recuperated from childbirth. As far as he was concerned, Allison was the heart and soul of her department.
    She grinned. “Hey, Toby, what brings you here? Did you pull a Saturday shift?”
    â€œNo, I’m just stopping by to see how a patient of mine is bearing up. Do you remember my daughter? Lindsey, this is Nurse Winslow,” he introduced them.
    â€œOr is it McCoy?” Allison had gotten married a year ago.
    â€œStill Winslow,” she told him. “It’s a tradition in my family. No matter what—or who —happens to us, we always remain Nurse Winslow.”
    â€œAllison is the third generation of nurses in her family,” Toby told his daughter, who looked painfully bored by the conversation.
    Allison smiled at her. “Of course I remember you, Lindsey. You were at the July Fourth barbecue last year, weren’t you?”
    â€œYeah, right,” Lindsey mumbled, studying her thumbnail. As soon as the elevator doors slid open, she bolted, shouting over her shoulder, “I’ll be in the kiddy gift shop,” as she jogged down the hall.
    Toby let out a long, weary breath. It was one thing for her to be rude to him, but quite another for her to be rude to Allison. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “She’s in a foul mood this morning.”
    Allison gazed down the hall after her. “She’s changed so much since last summer.”
    â€œTell me about it.” Dejection echoed in every word.
    â€œShe’s practically a teenager.”
    â€œShe hasn’t even turned eleven yet. She’s too young to be a teenager. She’s just acting like one.” He scruffed a hand through his hair, wondering whether Lindsey was deliberately trying to embarrass him by behaving like a brat in front of his colleagues, or whether she was completely indifferent about how she cameacross to others. “I wish I knew how to get through to her. Sometimes…” Like last night, he thought. “Sometimes she’s the most wonderful kid in the world. Other times, it’s as though her body has been inhabited by some alien creature.”
    â€œI bet she feels that way, too,” Allison remarked thoughtfully.
    He turned to her, puzzled. Attired in a powder-blue T-shirt under a white coat and white slacks, with her stethoscope draped around her neck and her long, curly hair held back from her face with a barrette, she looked both professional and blessedly confident, not the least bit offended by Lindsey’s behavior.
    â€œWhat do you mean—she feels that way?”
    â€œAs though she doesn’t know who’s in her body. Or what happened to her old body. Or who she is.”
    â€œI survived adolescence,” he argued. “I don’t recall it being all that confusing.”
    â€œYou’re you,” Allison pointed out. “Lindsey’s Lindsey. Besides, you’re a guy, which makes a big difference.”
    He swallowed a groan. This was part of it, he knew, part of what