Breaking News by Fern Michaels Read Free Book Online Page B

yourselves. If you so much as hint to Dr. Becker about such . . . nonsense, then you will be riding a bird to the hospital. Or a taxi.”
    Toots shut off the engine. Pulling her sun visor down, she peered in the small vanity mirror. She smacked her lips together and fluffed her hair before closing the mirror.
    â€œI guess you like what you see. I wonder if Dr. Becker will?” Bernice asked as she retrieved her handbag from the floor.
    â€œI don’t know and don’t care. Come on, let’s get this over with. I have much more exciting things to do than hang around a hospital.”
    Bernice clambered to get out of the Range Rover. But before she had a chance to close the passenger door, Toots was at her side. “Be careful. I don’t want the therapist to think you’re not well taken care of.” Without being too pushy, Toots led Bernice through the hospital doors and then inside the elevator and up to the third floor, where the physical therapy center was located.
    The center was divided up into sections according to the patients’ different levels of ability, beyond the required initial phase tackled while still in the hospital. Bernice had completed that phase with flying colors. After three days, she’d walked up and down the halls like a prostitute searching for her next john. Toots smiled when she recalled Sophie telling this to Bernice. She had recuperated faster than expected of a woman her age and had been sent home, promising to change her lifestyle. Bernice had followed the doctor’s orders to the letter, and then some.
    Now she was nearing the end of phase three. When it was successfully completed, she would be allowed to continue her therapy at home, as long as she continued to go to doctor appointments and all of her blood work remained normal. And so far, good old Bernice had passed this third phase with flying colors, too. Toots intended to keep her friend around for a while and did whatever she could to assist Bernice in her quest for good health. Though she would not smoke around Bernice, she knew she had to seriously give up the habit. Yes, she’d cut way down, but cutting down and quitting were two different things.
    When they reached what Toots called “perspiration paradise,” a room filled with all kinds of exercise equipment, and the smells to go along with it, Bernice shooed her away. “Go have coffee, or have a piece of cake in the cafeteria. I’m going to be here for a while, and I don’t need you to babysit.”
    They went through this same routine three times a week. Toots rolled her eyes, took Bernice’s handbag for safekeeping, then headed for the bank of elevators. “Just so you know, I don’t eat the dried-up cake they serve in the cafeteria. I plan to have a bowl of Froot Loops.” Toots was noted for her sweet tooth. For a period of time, she’d actually called herself a vegan; but when she had to resort to using soy milk, she’d given up her attempt at a vegan lifestyle. It was either whole milk or nothing at all for her.
    â€œYeah, you just watch what happens if you keep eating that junk and smoking those nasty cigarettes. You’re going to be right here alongside me, only I’ll be the one running after that sexy, hot doctor,” Bernice said to Toots right before the elevator doors opened.
    â€œDid I hear someone say ‘sexy, hot doctor’?” Dr. Phil Becker asked as he entered the physical therapy room.
    â€œYou did, but you just missed her.” Bernice nodded toward the elevator. “She’s going to the cafeteria. And then I’m sure she’ll run outside to huff a smoke or two.”
    At sixty-eight, Dr. Phil Becker could’ve passed himself off as ten years younger if he were of a mind to do so. More than six feet tall, with the lean build of a runner, a thick mop of curly brown hair, and eyes so blue that one noticed them from a distance, he was far from