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squeeze all of her classes into three days. So, she’d spend Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at school, and Tuesday and Thursday at the hospital. But since school didn’t start for a week and a half, Lauren had opted to spend all of the following week working with her mom. Mickey’s insurance covered most of the damage, but he was requiring Lauren to pay his deductible, as well as the amount insurance wasn’t going to cover. The whole situation sucked. If Lauren had a real job like her friends did, paying Mickey back wouldn’t be such a production. Lauren hated that her life wasn’t where it should have been by that point, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She had spent the past several years working as hard as she could to make up for her major screw-up at Dartmouth. At least this time she didn’t need to leave the state to escape her problems.
    Dr. Jacobs had offered to pay Lauren eleven dollars an hour, and she’d agreed to a nine-hour workday. The only thing that hadn’t been discussed was what Lauren would actually be
doing
at the hospital. Dr. Jacobs was a general practitioner who was based out of the hospital but also had a satellite office in the area.
    But as she and her mom walked through the hospital lobby the day after her hearing, Lauren figured she’d find out soon enough. Her mom took her to security and got her a badge before they headed up to the third floor, where Dr. Jacobs’ office was.
    As soon as they entered, Lauren’s mom began introducing her around. All of the nurses and receptionists seemed pleasant enough, though Lauren noticed that they were all closer to her mom’s age than her own. Notthat it mattered. Lauren had just been hoping that there’d be someone around her age that she could maybe have some fun with—help the time pass more quickly.
    No such luck,
Lauren thought.
    *   *   *
    Scott had been behind all morning. It only took one chatty patient to throw off his entire schedule. He’d now be forced to cut other appointments short so he could get back on track. Scott loved his job, and wanted to make sure that every person who came through his office received the same level of attention as everyone else. But with his schedule backed up, he’d be hard-pressed to do that.
    And the fact that it was Pam’s delinquent daughter’s first day didn’t help his mood. He didn’t know why he let himself get talked into these things. What the hell did he care if some spoiled brat had legal problems? That had nothing to do with him. But he liked Pam and wanted to help her out if he could. Though he swore to himself, if this girl had piercings all over her face or some kind of weird hair color, she’d have to go. Scott couldn’t have his patients made uncomfortable because some rebel without a cause didn’t know how to behave in public. He avoided hiring young people for exactly that reason. They were unpredictable and self-absorbed. Never mind that Scott was just twenty-nine himself. He was more mature than most.
Driven
. He didn’t have time for childish bullshit.
    He stopped around the corner from the main nurses’ station, looking at a patient chart, when he heard Pam introducing her daughter to the other women. Scott took a deep breath and rolled his eyes.
May as well get this nightmare over with.
With disinterest and haughty body language, he rounded the corner.
    And then he saw her. His feet immediately cemented themselves to the ground and his arms fell to his sides.
No way. That can’t be Pam’s daughter.
    He took in the girl, older than he’d expected. Of course he hadn’t asked her specific age. Pam had said she was finishing up her degree, which he figured put her around twenty-one. But this girl looked older than that. Her light brown hair fell past her shoulders, and she wore a blue and purple silk scarf as a headband. She was petite, maybe five three, with small but perky breasts that complemented her thin frame perfectly. And her eyes. God, he