Diagnosis_ danger - By Marie Ferrarella & Jenna Mills Page 0,1

her eyes and leaned back in her chair for just a moment. She knew she should be making a hasty retreat before someone called the office with yet another emergency, but she just couldn’t make herself get up. Besides, escape was never a sure thing, not where she was concerned. The answering service had her number. As did a few of the more worried patients, like Mrs. Sands. And there was no question that, if someone called, she would go.

Natalya shifted in her seat and her shoulders announced their displeasure. God, she hoped the tub was free. Although there were two bathrooms in the apartment, only one had a tub.

That was what she got for sharing a place with two of her sisters. Not that Sasha was going to be there much longer. Now that sexy-as-all-hell Detective Anthony Santini had finally proposed to her older sister, Natalya was certain they’d be getting married soon. That left her and Kady—until Tatania joined them come June.

Little Tania, a doctor. Wow. And Marja wasn’t far behind.

Natalya smiled to herself. She had no right to be weary. Her parents, now they had a right to be weary. There were times she wondered how her parents had done it. Granted, she and Sasha helped out with any spare money they earned, but putting five daughters through medical school even took a toll on families who were far better off then hers. Still, it was her parents’ dream—admittedly her mother’s more than her father’s—to have all of their children become doctors.

That—she’d heard more than once—was the reason why they had left their native Poland in the first place: to give the family they were planning all the advantages they never had. All the advantages that a country like the United States could give. And no amount of sacrifices for either of them had been too much to achieve this goal.

Natalya suddenly realized that her eyes had closed.

“If you don’t move in the next couple of minutes, Nat, you’re going to fall asleep right here,” she muttered under her breath.

Hands gripping the armrests on her office chair, she was about to propel herself into a standing position when she heard the beginning notes of “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothing” break through the silence.

Resigned, Natalya removed her hands from the armrests and fished out her cell phone from her skirt pocket. So much for making an escape.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself together and looked down at the LED screen on her phone. The name that flashed across it told her that her caller wasn’t the parents of one of her patients.

It was Clancy.

She stifled a groan. “I’m too tired, Clancy,” she protested to the ringing phone.

She and Clancy Donovan had been best friends since the time she’d come to his defense in the school cafeteria when three bullies had ganged up on him. Ever for the underdog, she’d shamed the bullies into backing off. Even at ten, she’d always known what to say or do in any given situation.

The cell phone rang again. She continued to look at it, working her lower lip between her teeth.

She’d forgotten. Forgotten that she’d promised Clancy to go with him to that new show that was opening at the art gallery tonight. Mrs. Levinson and her overactive twins, in for their child care checkups, had knocked that right out of her memory bank. It was around that time that she’d begun to fantasize about soaking in a hot tub until the end of time.

For a second, Natalya debated not answering the phone. After all, there were times when she did shut off her cell phone because it interfered with some of the equipment at the hospital.

But that would be just the coward’s way out. She didn’t believe in deception. And Clancy would be crushed if he ever found out that she’d deliberately ignored him.

Bracing herself—because Clancy was not the type to give up once he had set his mind to something—she flipped open the phone and placed it against her ear.

“Hi, Clancy. Look, I know I said I was going to go with you to that gallery opening tonight, but I am just wiped out.” She knew how much he hated going anywhere alone so she quickly added, “I could see if Kady’s doing anything.”

Her younger sister, Leokadia, thought that Clancy was a little strange, but, like her, she regarded him as a lost soul. And Kady had come to appreciate the fact that Clancy was steadfast. He took the