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him.“Would you at least come take a look and see how long you think it would take to straighten it out?” Dr. Hockmann stopped walking and faced her. A streetlight illuminated his handsome face. She had become leery of handsome guys in high school. Often so full of themselves. Hank was handsome, but in a rugged sort of way, and he never really seemed aware of it. Brandon was sort of average. Not ugly, but not nearly as handsome as the doctor, or even as Hank.
    But she admitted, she liked the idea of mucking around in other people’s stuff. And she liked the satisfaction of making order out of chaos. She was convincing herself to take the job, or at least consider it.
    “Okay,” she said. “I’ll come take a look.”
    “Great!” The doctor took her arm and they continued their walk. “You grow up here in Newport?”
    “Yes.” She forced herself to relax and not pull away from him. “It’s a great place to grow up. So much interesting history, and you learn a lot by osmosis, it seems. It has a small-town feel to it, even with a rather large population, especially if you count the other towns on the island. Everyone seems to know everyone else. A lot of the time that’s because our parents grew up here, and their parents, as well.” She was babbling again. She was nervous, and she hated the feeling. It wasn’t something she was used to. Even though her father died when she was young, it still felt as if she had two parents because Uncle Bob had lived with them since before she was born. Way back, someone with his bad hearing had a hard time finding work. So her parents had given him a home.
    “Sounds nice.”
    “Where did you grow up?” she asked and felt him stiffen.
    “Ohio.”
    “Wow, the whole state?” She laughed a nervous laugh.
    He let go of her arm. “Yeah,” he said. “The whole state. We moved around a lot.”
    “Oh.”
    They had come to a cross street, and by unspoken agreement turned around and headed home in silence.
    When they reached Tina’s front door, they turned to face each other, and the doctor gave her an intense look. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and she wanted to know what he was thinking.
    “See you tomorrow?” he asked.
    “Sure. What would be a good time?”
    “Let us get settled. Around ten?”
    “Great.” She could sleep late. “See you then.” She turned to leave.
    “‘Bye, Tina,” he said, his voice sounding somewhat strange.
    “Goodbye, Doctor Hockmann.”
    “Call me Ted.”
    “Ted,” she said and opened the door. She turned to watch him walk away, unsettled but somewhat intrigued, as well.
    “Who was that?” her mother demanded, making her start.
    Tina faced her slowly. “Dr. Hockmann.”
    Her mother’s expression was first puzzled, then pleased. “Oh, our new doctor. How nice. My, he’s good-looking.”
    “Yeah.”
    “You don’t seem impressed.”
    She didn’t want to share her misgivings with her mother. “He’s okay, but you know I’m always leery of such handsome men.”
    “That’s so silly,” Laura said.
    Tina shrugged. “He asked me to help him straighten up his office. Seems Dr. Stevenson left everything in a bit of disarray.”
    Laura made a face. “Well, maybe something good will come out of this organization business after all.”
    “I’m sure,” Tina said, dryly. She smiled at her mother and went upstairs, throwing a “goodnight” over her shoulder.
    ***
    The next morning, Tuesday, was chilly and damp. Tina arrived at the doctor’s office promptly at ten. She figured it wasn’t a good idea to be late—showed a lack of organization. She hadn’t heard from Rachel, and although she was dying to find out what was going on, she refrained from calling her. As she hung up her coat on a tree in the reception area, Dr. Hockmann’s receptionist gave her a friendly greeting.
    Three patients sat in the reception room, all reading magazines. A TV was on low, but no one was watching it.
    Sylvia Anderson, the