Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
To new friends and blind dates. May you both be in my life forever.
CHAPTER FOUR
Gaines
I drag myself out of the hospital shortly before midnight.
“Another night, another cardiologist on the loose.”
I don’t need to glance to my left to know who said that. “Go to hell, Dr. Scott.”
“Been there. Done that,” he quips. “I thought you punched out hours ago. Why are you just leaving now?”
I look to my right and the steady stream of traffic whizzing past us on the street. Lenox Hill Hospital is a hotbed of activity every hour of every day of each week of the year. Illness and tragedy never takes a minute off.
“I stumbled into the middle of a cardiac event when I was picking up my dinner,” I confess. “One thing lead to another and I had to make a repeat appearance in the CCU.”
“Is that a humble brag I hear?” He cups his left hand over his ear. “You saved another life out in the wild, didn’t you, Morgan? Jesus, you’re a goddamn show-off.”
I laugh that off. “What about you? Why aren’t you at home with Chloe and Elena?”
Evan’s wife and daughter are his world.
He shows up here to fill the role of the best vascular surgeon on staff, but his heart belongs at home with the two people he loves most.
He scrubs a hand over the back of his neck. “Emergency surgery.”
I nod. “Sounds like it was a hell of a Friday night all the way around.”
“I’m about to grab a burger.” He shakes a finger at me. “Keep your opinion as a cardiologist to yourself. I’m fucking starving and I’m guessing you didn’t wolf down that takeout because you were too busy being the hero again.”
“Fuck you.” I chuckle. “I’m in for a burger and fries.”
“You break the rules and you look like that?” He shoves both hands in the front pockets of his pants. “How the hell are you still single at what… thirty-four? Thirty-five?”
“Thirty-six,” I correct him without bothering to point out that we’re almost the same age and he’s in as good of shape as I am.
“If you pull the plug and marry the right woman you could live longer, Gaines.” He leans back. “I read an article about that somewhere.”
“Not in a medical journal.”
He chuckles. “No. It was probably in a magazine in the ED waiting room.”
“You hang out in the waiting room in the ED?”
“You should check out the snack selection in the vending machines they have in there.” He whistles. “This man could live on that alone.”
“A burger is better.” I point toward the corner. “Let’s hop on the subway. I know a good spot to grab food not far from your place.”
“Are you going to walk me home after you buy me dinner?” He bats his eyelashes. “You’re such a gentleman.”
Shaking my head I take off down the sidewalk. “It’s your turn to buy dinner and you’re on your own after that. I need to get home to bed. It’s been a hell of a long night.”
“This feels like the longest day of the year,” Mrs. Robinson says as she studies my face.
She arrived at the hospital shortly after I did this morning with her four-year-old daughter in tow. I knew who she was before she introduced herself to me. Her son has her nose and shares her eye color.
She gave me a rundown on her family history but not one word of that included the information I requested. I wanted to know if anyone on her side or her husband’s suffered from the same cardiac issue that her son is facing.
That lead to an unwanted confession about her not knowing who her son’s father is, along with a tear-filled retelling of the conversation she had with her husband about that. Apparently, Daxton is still in the dark regarding his paternity.
It seems she’s not the only Robinson family member carrying a secret. Daxton knew about his heart condition before he left Indiana months ago after landing a job at a recruiting firm in Manhattan. He was bound and determined to accept the position. He boarded a plane with the medications he needed to temporarily manage his condition, but he was aware that the pills he takes every morning weren’t a long-term solution.
His cardiologist in Indianapolis filled me in on all of that when I reached out to him first thing today. He asked me to keep him updated on Daxton’s progress, and I’ll honor that because I heard the concern in his voice.
I heard it in Daxton’s mom’s voice too when I asked her for a moment alone.
Her daughter, Saylor, is currently with one of our nursing staff in a private family gathering room while I explain to Mrs. Robinson the procedure her son is facing.
“The treatment for Daxton’s condition requires an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. The doctor on staff who specializes in cardiac electrophysiology will handle that,” I tell her.