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“Meh.” My fingers flipped up from the desk to blow him off. Because even if I wanted to discuss my relationship problems, it would never be with him. “Don’t they all?”
A quick laugh to agree made his shoulders jerk forward as he nodded. “Yeah. Doctors can be a bunch of damn spoiled crybabies. Can’t they?” His fingers waved away from the arm they rested on as he shook his head. “I didn’t mean to pry or anything, especially given me and Dom’s history. I just wanted to make sure everything was...” Two fingers wiggled back at me as he sighed. “I wasn’t sure whether you two were hanging out again, but I thought I should check up on you and make sure you’re alright.”
I don’t think any man liked their girlfriends getting too much attention from other guys, and Dom wasn’t any different. Though Travis had always been one he hated a little more than the rest. Sinking back into my chair, I couldn’t help but find out why that was. “What history?”
Turning his chin slightly with that can’t-wait-to-start-some-shit jerk of his eyes, Travis laughed. “Are you kidding?”
My mouth twisted back at him as I shook my head. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Digging his fingernails into his cheek, he flipped them away long enough to say, “The whole fight at the baseball field thing.” Pressing his knuckles on his chin when I just kept shaking my head, he made a popping noise with his tongue. “Knocked me out cold. Ringing any bells for you?”
“Wow.” Country boys drinking beer and duking it out on a warm summer night was as sacred as church on a Sunday morning around here. I’d seen Dom get into about a hundred fights while we dated, but why he kept that one from me did pique my interest a little. “No. I’m fairly certain I would remember something like that.”
Nodding at the floor, he grinned, thinking he’d planted the seed of doubt in me. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to start anything over something that happened twenty-some years ago. I just” — he peeked up at the something dropping on the floor and yelling right above our heads — “thought I should give you a heads up about what you might be walking into today.”
He shrugged as he lifted his chin to someone in the hallway, the smug little sigh in his voice inviting me to betray the one person in my life who would never do the same to me. “He gets like this occasionally, but you probably know that better than anyone. Huh?”
Honestly, it wasn’t the Dom I knew at all.
Sure, he had a short fuse when stressed and aggravated, but who didn’t? From what I recall, he only ever lost his temper when taking up for someone he perceived to be weaker in some way. How could I ever be mad about that? “No. I can’t say I do. It must be all the stress from work or something, because he doesn’t act that way around me.”
His wide eyes bounced around me for a moment, still so surprised I never fell for any of his tactics. Tapping his fingers on the doorway when the silence grew too long, he shot me with his finger gun on the way out. “Anyhow, I’ll talk to you after lunch.”
Since we were sixteen, Dom always seemed to pop up in the nick of time to save me when I got in over my head with something. So, when the little red notification on my computer screen told me he’d put in an order for me to see one of his patients upstairs, I understood that was my signal to rescue him for once.
40
Equal
Faith
Blanketed in a thick coat of disinfectant-scented heaviness, the unit’s air slowed my movements when I exited the staircase.
Stopping at the opening in the wall when it became the nurses’ station, I took a deep breath to gather my courage and peeked around the corner.
Every head was down, and not even the alarms dared to make a peep. So, I startled the charge nurse enough to make her flinch when I cleared my throat. “Sorry about that, Kim.” I bent my fingers over the edge of the counter as I peeked over it at her. “I was hoping to catch a quick rundown from my consult’s nurse.”
Cracking the stress from her neck, Kim flopped her head from side to side. “Sorry, she’s at lunch right now.” Scrolling through the screen on her desktop, she nodded and spoke slowly as she concentrated on pulling up the right chart. “But I can go through it with you real quick.”
The bent-up piece of paper from my pocket unfolded, and I clicked my pen as I waited. “Thanks a bunch.”
She popped the inside of her cheek with her tongue and skimmed over the chart. “Okay. Admitted with a small area of ischemia to the frontal lobe. The family reports that her speech was clear when they visited the patient two days ago, but they realized she was having difficulty finding words this morning. No other deficits noted. No difficulty swallowing. Speech consult and discharge when labs at therapeutic levels.”
While I shoved my paper back into my pocket, I looked over the glass-lined rooms. “Which bed?”
She nodded to the darkened one right across from us. “Two. But she actually just dozed off about a half hour ago.”
I wrinkled my nose back at her. “Dang. I should have called first. I hate waking them up for stuff that’s not super urgent.”
Squishing air back and forth between my cheeks as I decided if I should bother him since everything seemed calmer, I widened my eyes at her. “Is Doctor Vasser in his office, by any chance?”
In a yellow paper gown put on backward over his aqua-blue scrubs, Mark hummed out a warning as he turned around in his chair. “You might want to shoot him an email instead.” He jerked his head down the hall, rolling his eyes toward Dom’s door. “He’s in rare form today.”
Grinning back at him, I scratched my forehead. “Yeah. I kind of heard that through the grapevine, but I promise not to rile him up.” Flapping air through my lips, I made the sign of the cross over my body on my way past him. “Well, say a little prayer for me.”
His snooty nose giggle faded as I stopped before the heavy wooden door and gently knocked. “Hey, Dom, it’s Faith. Are you busy?” Only silence and the squeak of his chair answered me for a second, and I backed away a step. “Um. Okay, I’ll try again …”
The door swung away, and his fingers came out of the darkened room and bent for me. “No. Come on in. It’s alright.” Shutting the door behind us, he wiggled his fingers by his ear as his dark-rimmed eyes struggled to stay open. “Sorry I couldn’t meet you for lunch. It’s been kind of crazy this morning.”
