When the party broke up, she tidied the conference room with the others, grabbed her purse and her card of signatures and went out to the front desk to call a cab.
She was dialing when one of the nurses said, “He’s back.”
Lizzie didn’t pay much attention as her call was answered by the taxi company. “Hi, I’d like a cab—”
“You don’t need one, Lizzie. Your friend’s back. And…wow is all I can say.”
Lizzie frowned then leaned over the desk and looked out the double doors. A rental car was parked in front and Sean was lounging against the side of it, facing the community center. Wearing jeans and a New England Patriots T-shirt, he looked sexy as hell with his thick arms crossed over his chest and his sunglasses on.
Lizzie mumbled something to the cab folks, put the phone down and walked over to the door. “He isn’t supposed to be here.”
“Honey, man like that shows up for you, I’d say he’s supposed to be here. And that you won the lottery.”
As Sean lifted his hand and waved to her, she realized she was just staring at him like an idiot. Shaking herself into focus, she gave a quick hug to her colleague then gathered her things and pushed open the door. The evening was a balmy benediction as she stepped outside.
“Um…I thought you were going back to New York.”
“I did. Flew in for the meeting I had and came back. I figured I’d stop by here on the way home from Logan. How’s your car?”
“Still getting worked on. I…I can’t believe you came back.”
“I have an ulterior motive.”
She swallowed. “You do?”
“Yeah, can you give me a tour?” He nodded at the center. “Or is it too late at night?”
He wanted to see the center? “Ah…of course. The director is still here. I can introduce you to her and she can—”#p#分页标题#e#
“No, I want you to take me around. I want to see it through your eyes.”
“Okay. But…Sean, why?”
“I’m always interested in businesses, but in this case, I might be able to help. The governor of this fine state happens to have been my college roommate and I’m not above hard-core lobbying for the right cause.”
As Sean smiled, she found herself returning the expression. And tried not to let her heart soar. “Anything you could do would be appreciated, but I don’t think it’s the governor, actually. The legislature has been blocking his bid to get more funding to us. That’s where the bottleneck is.”
“Well, I’m glad to know your fine governor is already onboard. It will make things so much easier on him when I start hammering him about your statehouse.” Sean stepped out of the car. “Shall we?”
Lizzie took him inside and led the way to Denisha’s office so they could make sure the tour was okay. When Denisha gave her approval, Lizzie showed Sean around the exam rooms and talked to him about some of the patients they treated.
On the way to the lab facilities, she stopped in the doorway of the radiology room. “We really need better equipment. We have to send some patients out to other facilities to get certain films done and that is a hassle for them—more expensive, too. The advantage to us being in the community is that folks don’t have to travel when they’re sick. We’re right here. And because we’re user-friendly, important health screens for breast cancer and diabetes and high blood pressure are more likely to be conducted because patients adhere to their yearly checkups more often. If this center closes, or has to outsource too much, I really worry about the people we serve.”
Sean frowned. “How tight is your budget?”
“Reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare are not what they once were and our expenses are always higher so it’s a thousand small cuts. If this continues, we’re not going to be able to meet the standard of patient care because we’ll be too understaffed and technologically compromised. And we aren’t the only clinic in this situation. There are a number of facilities just like this, serving at-risk populations as we do. I mean…they.”
Sean shook his head as the two of them came back to the front desk. “Does this place have an endowment? I mean, what kind of philanthropic support do you get?”
“Some. Not enough. And no, we don’t have an endowment.”
Denisha came out of her office. “Did you enjoy your tour?”
Sean offered his hand and they shook. “You’re doing really wonderful work here.”