Tom looked up from his desk to find both Adam and Enid standing there.

“How’re you doing with the crutches?” Enid asked in her no-nonsense voice.

“Pretty good,” Tom said. “I’ve got the hang of them now, and only a week and a half to go until I get the cast off. Why?”

“We’re going to lunch,” Adam said in his flat, I’m-the-boss voice. “And you’re coming with us.”

Tom wondered if this was it. If they were going to have to suspend him because of the whole thing with Ross.

From what Tom knew—which he’d heard from Adam, who’d heard it from Luke, who’d heard it from Ross—the hospital wanted to do an investigation just to make sure that everything was on the up and up, and Ross would be called before the board.

Tom had gotten a call about it from hospital administration, saying that someone was going to come by and get an official statement from him. Adam had told him that he’d be there representing Tom as his lawyer, just in case.

“It should all be cut and dried,” Adam had told him. “You guys didn’t do anything wrong. But I guess there were one or two things that were just enough of a coincidence that it’s made them want to look into things further.”

Tom wanted to track Jeremy down and sock him right in the jaw.

But now, heading out to lunch with Adam and Enid … Tom couldn’t help but wonder if he was the one who was now in trouble.

He wanted to ask if everything was okay, but it felt like all he’d been doing lately was ask if people were okay, or have people ask him if he was okay. It was almost enough to make him want to scream—except, y’know, there would go his dignity.

Adam and Enid picked a café that was just across the street, probably keeping Tom’s crutches in mind. Once they ordered, Tom pointed from one to the other. “All right. Spill. Am I in trouble?”

Enid shook her head. “We just wanted to talk about what was going on. I know Adam talked with you about it on the legal side of things, but we want to make sure you’re okay as our friend, not just as a client or coworker.”

Tom shrugged. “I’m all right.”

“Yeah?” Adam asked. “Because you’ve been sulking for a week now. It’s like you’re a puppy that got left out in the rain. It’s depressing.”

“Thanks, Adam, I’ve always appreciated your honesty.”

Adam shrugged. “This was before we heard about the whole investigation. And we know that’s going to blow over. So. What’s really going on?”

“You sound so nonchalant about it,” Tom blurted out. “You say we all know it’s going to blow over, just like that.”

“They don’t really—or this reporter doesn’t really—have anything,” Tom said. “You’re too smart to get caught up in some torrid affair, and I know Ross would never cross the line with a patient. Even though you two had just been a casual hookup, if he’d recognized you before he started operating, he would’ve insisted on another doctor taking over. That’s how seriously he takes his job and his oaths.”

“Ross didn’t seem to think it would blow over,” Tom said before he could stop himself. “He broke up with me about it.”

He explained what had happened, and only described Jeremy as a pissed-off ex, and didn’t go into any further details about it.

“I’m going to put on my lawyer cap here,” Enid said. “You try to break up with him. He says no. You then text him your concerns about backlash at the firm. Then he breaks up with you. Sounds to me like he didn’t really want to leave; he was trying to separate himself from you so that the firm wouldn’t receive any of the backlash that you’d worried about.”

“Then he would’ve said so, right?” Tom asked.

“I don’t know, did you really give him a chance?” Adam asked. “And take it from me, we’re not always the best at communicating. Especially when we’re stressed. It probably didn’t come out right, but I know Ross. He’s very protective. I guarantee you he was worried I’d have to fire you.”

“You wouldn’t fire me,” Tom said, because yeah, he’d been a little scared of that, but he knew it was irrational.

“Most bosses would, or at the very least suspend you,” Adam said. “High-profile clients learning that an employee who handles their confidential information could have very well violated one of the big no-nos in medical practice? That’s a cause for concern. Some of them could get nasty, and a lot of people who work in high-profile firms would just kick you to the curb instead of risk losing any clients.”

“But, I mean, Ross has to know that you wouldn’t do that to me.”

“What if I was pressured into it?” Adam countered. “What if I had too many clients bearing down on me? Threatening to stop using our services?”

Tom stared at him. “Have—have we had that?”

“No, and even if we did I’d tell them to go fuck themselves, but Ross might think that I’d be forced to cave, and more importantly, he wouldn’t want to put me in that position. He was doing what he thought he had to do to protect you and me, his lover and his friend.”

“Wow, call me his lover, that doesn’t sound torrid at all.”

“Stop nitpicking to try and distract from the main point,” Enid said casually, as their food arrived.

Tom glared. This was the problem when discussing something with two lawyers. They saw right through him.

“Look, I know you two were just starting to get to know each other,” Adam said, his voice softening. “But I’ve known Ross for years. I remember hearing about him from Luke and the others from when he was a kid. He’s always been very protective of the people that he cares about. He’s used to sacrificing a lot for them.

“If he thought that this was going to end up hurting you or me, or both of us, then he’d back off. And I think that’s what happened. He was willing to risk his own neck and stay with you, but when he realized that it could hurt you as well, he did what he thought he had to do to keep you safe.

“I’m not saying it was the right thing, but his heart was in the right place. He does care, Tom. You weren’t his first relationship—the first person he even considered having a relationship with—in such a long time for no reason.”

Tom felt like a scolded child. “Are you saying I shouldn’t have let him break up with me?”

“I’m not saying what you should or shouldn’t have done,” Adam replied. “I’m just pointing out Ross’s side of things. I think you should try and reach out to him.”

“I can’t do that now,” Tom replied. “Now in the middle of all of this.”

“Do you want to?” Enid asked. “Or are you just thinking up another excuse to hide the fact that you don’t want to reach out to him at all?”

Tom stared at her.

Enid shrugged. “You’ve always talked about how important work is, and how you don’t have time and don’t want to go out and meet people.”

It was all true, but … he’d…

“You look like there’s something you want to spit out,” Adam said, because Adam ate sarcasm for breakfast and believed that subtlety was a sign of weakness.

“It’s not an excuse,” Tom said quietly. “I—I want to be with him. If he cares about me, that is.”

“Trust me, he cares,” Adam replied.

“He’s got a point, though,” Enid said, turning to Adam. “He probably shouldn’t talk to Ross at this point and add more of a mess to it already with their getting together.”

“Great,” Tom said. “So you get me to admit I’m in love with him, and then you tell him I can’t even get back together with him?”

“Hey, I didn’t say that you said you were in love with him, you just blurted that out all on your own,” Enid observed.

“If you change your story now, it’s just going to confuse people,” Adam said.

“Ross is nervous,” Tom said. “He has to be, if he’s cutting me off to protect me; it means he thinks it’ll go against him, which is ridiculous, but this … ex of his is an asshole, he’s got Ross all paranoid. Can you represent him? At the official hearing or whatever it is that they’re calling it? Just in case he gets it all mixed up, or lets his emotions get ahead of him?”

Adam snorted. “I’d do it even if you didn’t ask me. But of course. I’ll be sure to tell him that you asked me to do it.”

Tom could feel his face heating up and he glared. “You’re having way too much fun with this whole thing, aren’t you?”

“What can I say? We haven’t had this much drama since Paul disrupted an entire restaurant to tell Davis he was sorry,” Adam replied.

“He’s never going to live that down, is he?” Enid asked.

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Adam said, gleeful.

“Right, so, back to my boyfriend possibly losing his job,” Tom said testily. “You’ll make sure that Jeremy hasn’t screwed it all up and they understand what really happened, right?”

Adam nodded, solemn again. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

Tom nodded, feeling something inside of his chest settle. Adam was the best. He’d make sure that everything was taken care of with Ross’s job.

The matter of his relationship with Ross, however. That, Adam couldn’t do for him. Tom would have to talk to Ross. He’d have to apologize for making assumptions and not letting him explain.

But all of that would have to wait until after the hearing, apparently. Or whatever it was called.

Adam would take care of it, Tom reminded himself. He just had to worry about what came after—and if Ross would still want him when everything was said and done.