He’d thought she might back off and let him breathe a bit. Let him come back to her, because he always would.
Hadn’t quite worked out that way.
“Friends? You and me?” Ivey asked.
Why the hell not? Stranger things had happened. He’d seen them firsthand in his ER.
*****
Ivey and Jeff could not be buddies.
On the other hand, he was the only other member on the subcommittee, and he could exert a deep influence on the other doctors. Someone had put him there because they trusted his judgment. And if she wanted this to go well, it would be important to have Jeff on her side.
Like old times.
And he had asked her out to lunch. Not a date, just friends. He wanted to show her a decent place to eat near the hospital. Something he’d do for any colleague.
“Well, what do you say?” He was still waiting for an answer.
“All right,” she said, because she’d always had impulse control problems around him.
She hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t to walk. Still, she slipped her tablet in her bag and followed Jeff’s long strides. Across the street from the hospital and two blocks to the east stood a little diner Ivey remembered all too well.
“Mama’s Kitchen? I remember this place,” she said as he held open the door to the diner.
“Under new ownership. I heard that Em and her husband Si took over about three years ago. I’m a regular.”
Good thing the place was under new ownership because the old owner, Mr. Peterson, was a sixty-year-old man who hated kids. He’d inherited the place from his mother, the original Mama. The man hated teenagers in particular, and when she and Jeff used to come in here and sit at the booth in the corner, he would yell, “Let me see some daylight between you two!”
The aromatic smell of coffee, sizzling bacon, and burgers permeated the diner. No doubt about it, this place smelled like a mother’s kitchen should, as long as the mother didn’t care about cholesterol and calories.
“Hey, Si, would you look who’s here.” The woman who greeted them had short salt-and-pepper hair and earnest blue eyes.
A ponytailed man Ivey assumed was Si ducked his head through the kitchen partition, bumped it, and rubbed his forehead. “Damn this thing. What did you say?”
“I said your favorite doctor is here,” Em shouted back at his puzzled look, then waved him off. “Never mind. He can’t hear me back there.”
They followed Em to a booth, and before they sat down, Jeff introduced Ivey. “She used to come here also.”
“Ah.” Em leaned down and rubbed Ivey’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, dear. That blue ribbon is long since gone. You’ll find I’m apolitical in every way. I love everyone as long as they eat.”
When Em walked away, Ivey couldn’t help but ask. “What blue ribbon?”
The menu suddenly seemed of deep interest to Jeff, a man who by his account should have it memorized. “After we broke up, some of the business people in town took sides. Those who liked me hung blue ribbons in their establishment. Those who liked you put up pink ones.”
He looked so serious, and that’s what kept her from laughing. “Is that supposed to be a joke? I’d forgotten about your weird sense of humor.”
He continued reading the menu as if it were a medical journal. “Mr. Peterson put up a blue ribbon, but that was before Em bought the place. She took it down.”
“Aunt Lucy mentioned something about people taking sides, but I thought she was exaggerating as usual.” Blue and pink ribbons? Had the whole town gone mad together?
“How many pink ribbons were there?” It would be nice to know who her real friends were.
He met her eyes. “I didn’t count. I thought it was as ridiculous as you do.”
“But Mr. Peterson had a blue ribbon. He always liked you better.”
“You were the one who used to practically sit in my lap every time we were here.”
Ivey felt flushed at hearing the truth stated so matter-of-factly. Even if Jeff had never