Chapter 6

Josie

“Dr. Ives,” I hear from behind me, and turn to see one of the nurses poking her head into the on-call office.

“What’s up?” I say with a smile. While most nurses are all about brisk efficiency in their communications, I always make sure I have a welcoming tone when they need something. I’ve seen too many asshole doctors cause undue stress on nurses with their attitudes.

“Dr. Mills asked for your assistance in exam number two,” she says. “Six-year-old needing some stitches.”

I nod and push up out of my chair, bending over to lock the computer screen on the keyboard. I head over to exam two with my shoulders squared, because putting stitches into a kid is often a job for two doctors.

Kevin Mills smiles at me when I walk in. He’s sitting on a stool next to the bed, a little blond boy lying there with a piece of gauze taped to the top of his forehead. On the other side of the bed is a young woman in her midtwenties whom I presume is the boy’s mother.

“Ahhh, here’s Dr. Ives now,” Kevin says to the little boy as I walk in. “She’s the best doctor in the entire emergency room, next to me of course, so she’s going to help me make you all better.”

The little boy looks at me dubiously with the threat of imminent tears shining in his eyes.

“Dr. Ives, this is Peter. He took a little fall off the monkey bars and has a bit of a cut on his head.”

I give Peter a warm, reassuring smile as I step forward to take a look.

“Hi, Peter. My name is Dr. Ives, but you can call me Josie. I’m going to take a quick peek at the cut so we can decide how to best fix you up.”

More tears well up in the little boy’s eyes. A quick glance at his mom and I see she’s got matching ones in hers. I smile confidently at her and turn back to Peter. When I pull the bandage back he asks me in a tremulous voice, “Are you going to stick a needle in me?”

I take in the laceration, which is only about a centimeter long, but it’s deep. It’s near his hairline, so scarring won’t be much of an issue.

Pressing the bandage back down, I bend over and give him a tiny tap on his chest. “Peter, we are going to have to put a few stitches in your skin to close the cut. But you won’t feel it because we’re going to give you some medicine first.”

Apparently this is not Peter’s first rodeo because he says, “But you have to put a needle in me to give me the medicine, right?”

I look at him knowingly. “Have you done this before?”

He shakes his head and the first tears slide down his face. “No, but my big brother had to have them once.”

Peter’s mother leans over and strokes his face. “It won’t hurt very much, honey, and then you won’t feel anything.”

Little Peter isn’t having any of it. He starts shaking his head and crying in earnest. “I don’t want to. Please don’t make me, Mommy.”

A slight glance over to Kevin, who shoots me back the same knowing look.

This is not going to be easy.

But with kids, it never is.

“I owe you one, Josie,” Kevin says as we walk out of the exam room. Helping him put stitches in the little boy put me forty-five minutes over my shift. But that’s okay. I can’t remember a day I ever left the emergency room on time, and that’s just the nature of the beast.

“Not a problem,” I tell him as we walk down to the medical staff’s locker room. “It will be less than two weeks before I will need your assistance in the same exact way.”

Kevin laughs as he follows me into the locker room. “How is it that either you or I could single-handedly work on a traumatic brain injury case or a gunshot wound to the chest, but give us a little boy with tears and we can’t do it alone?”

“That’s why pediatrics is a specialty all unto its own,” I say with a chuckle. I go to my locker, unlock and open it to pull my purse out. Most doctors bring in a gym bag with a change of clothes, but since I never go anywhere but home, I’m comfortable wearing my scrubs out of here.

Kevin’s also off shift, so he pulls his stuff out of his locker at the end of the row. He gives me a quick glance and says, “We never had that golden touch that Aiden had with patients. He could calm a snarling, drunk beast with a broken leg or have a kid smiling as he stitched him up.”

A simultaneous feeling of fondness and bitterness hits me all at once at the mention of Aiden’s name.

Kevin doesn’t notice and continues to ramble on. “Remember in residency? Most people felt he was just cold and detached, but he really wasn’t. He just projected such utter calm that people were naturally put at ease by him.”

My throat closes and I have to cough to open it up. “Yeah…He had that special gift.”

“Oh shit, Josie,” Kevin says apologetically, and I turn to look at him. His expression is regretful. “I wasn’t thinking. Just memories came flooding back.”

Boy, did they come flooding back. I can go most days without ever thinking of Aiden. Three years of residency at Duke together where we fell in love and planned to conquer the world together. Kevin and Aidan were pretty tight during those years, and the three of us hung out a lot along with a fellow colleague that Kevin had been dating at the time.

“It’s all right,” I assure him as I hitch my purse over my shoulder while giving him a lackluster smile. “Those were good memories.”

His eyes are doleful as he returns my gaze.

Knowing.

I hate myself for it, but I clear my throat, fiddle with the strap on my purse. Not able to look him in the eye, I ask, “Have you heard from him lately?”

Kevin’s silent a moment and it forces me to look up at him. He thankfully wipes his face free of sympathy or pity, and shakes his head with a wry smile. “Nah…he’s too much of a globetrotter to stay in constant contact. I got an email from him about six months ago. He was in Yemen. Battling a cholera outbreak in the middle of a war.”

My stomach flips and threatens to hurl on me. The thought of Aiden in so much danger, all while still being pissed at him for choosing that life over one here with me, causes extreme emotions within me. That’s why I try not to think of him most days, and most days I’m pretty damn successful.

“Saving the world,” I mutter under my breath, then I change my expression to one of cool indifference. “Well, I got to get going. Lots to do tonight.”

New puzzle of kittens playing in a basketful of yarn.

God…no wonder Aiden chose a dangerous, exciting life working in impoverished war-torn countries. How could I have possibly kept his interest for the long term?

“Have a good night, Josie,” Kevin says as he puts his gym bag on a bench and starts pulling out workout clothes. He’s clearly going to take advantage of the small gym here at the hospital.

“Back at ya,” I say lightly as I turn for the door.

My shoulders are tight with tension as I walk the back corridors to the emergency room lobby. All the ugly feelings of bitterness toward Aiden for choosing a life for us I didn’t want. For making me fall in love with him and leading me on to believe that we’d be together forever.

For tossing all of our plans to get married, build a life together, and the happily ever after that never occurred.

All because he “got a calling” two years ago to join Doctors Without Borders, and that appealed to him more than I did.

There’s a small internal voice inside of me calling out weakly, telling me I’m not exactly being fair to Aiden. It’s not like I didn’t know he had a passion for that type of work. And it’s not like he didn’t talk about it to some extent as we were making grand plans after we completed our residency. Mostly, it’s not like he didn’t ask me to come with him so we could be together. But I push that voice aside. I choose not to let the hurt and anger dominate my thoughts, or otherwise I’d succumb to heartbreak again. And that’s something I decided I wouldn’t do anymore.

Aiden is my past, and my future is without him.

I keep my head ducked as I walk through the lobby, slipping out the sliding doors and past security. Turning right, I head toward the east parking lot, my thoughts still vacillating between Aiden and kittens. My hand jams down into my purse, roots around, and comes up with my keys. My head lifts as I near my car and I come to a dead halt as I see Reed leaning back against the hood. There’s a paper bag on the asphalt at his feet.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask, and I know the irritation in my voice is because I’m angry over Kevin bringing up Aiden, which has in turn brought me down.

Reed isn’t fazed and gives me a cocky grin. Bending down, he reaches into the bag and pulls out a six-pack of beer and a box, which he shakes. “Got beer and a new puzzle. You and me, girl…it’s on tonight.”

I look around the parking lot, then back to Reed as I start walking toward him. “Where’s your Tahoe?”

“Had Marek drop me off,” he says as he puts the beer and puzzle back in the bag. “We swung by the store first so I could stock up on essentials. You’re about an hour past quitting time, which is par for the course, so I knew I’d be in for a little bit of a wait.”

I come to a stop before him, looking up with a slight grin over his assumption I’d be free to drink and work on a puzzle tonight. “I could have had plans tonight, you know. Then what would you have done?”

“I’d have Ubered my way home,” he says with a careless shrug, but then I get warmed down to my toes when he adds, “Been thoroughly disappointed, but I’d have survived.”

Reed had been out of town this past weekend. He went to the beach with Marek and Holt for a little sun and relaxation, or as I assume to mean, chasing after hot women in bikinis.

Admittedly, that sort of stuck in my craw a little. Not that it should bother me, because Reed is nothing but a friend.

A friend who for the last two days has texted me constantly while he was away. Funny texts, stupid texts, one butt dial that resulted in an hour-long conversation, and even a late-night text that simply said, Wish you were here. We’re having a blast.

That sort of made me think that he really meant it, but surely just as a friend. Because…we’re friends. Nothing more.

“Give me your keys, Doc,” Reed says as he holds his hand out. “You look exhausted.”

I don’t even think about it, but toss them to him. He catches them easily and then surprises me by stepping past me to the passenger door. He opens it for me and I get in, feeling both awkward and charmed at the same time.

I shamelessly gawk at Reed as he crosses back in front my vehicle. He’s tanned and glowing from a few days at the ocean and walks with the assured grace of someone who is completely confident with not one worry in the world. That’s just one of the things that makes him so damn attractive.

Reed has to adjust the driver’s seat backward before he can slide in, but once he gets settled, he turns to look at me. “I do believe I missed you, Doc.”

I just blink at him, because his tone is light, but his eyes are locked on mine as if he’s trying to convey some type of deep message.

“Overload of Beach Barbies?” I tease, more as a defense mechanism than anything.

He shakes his head. “Not a single one to be had. Well, not by me at least. Marek and Holt weren’t so discerning, though.”

I snort, because as much of a playboy as I know Reed to be, I know Marek and Holt are even worse than he is. We’ve all hung out a time or two, so I’ve observed it. I’ve also had Reed entertain me with stories of their past exploits while we labored over puzzles or lounged by the pool on my days off.

“You up for beer and puzzle or just want a good night’s sleep?” he asks as he starts my car.

“Beer and puzzle,” I tell him without thought.

Because the truth is, I missed him too.

And for the rest of the night and into the next few weeks, Aiden doesn’t cross my mind again.