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“I know, how annoying.” Jonathan rolled his eyes. “How dare she be positive with the patients?”
“Jonathan, you know as well as I do that we can’t be positive all the time in this line of work,” Dominic said. “Sometimes you have to be realistic.”
“But realism is no reason to be negative,” Jonathan said. “If I’m honest, Dom, you take things too far in that direction. You’re nothopefulwith the patients. They need to be told the truth and not have any punches pulled, it’s true, but they also need reasons to hold on to hope. You don’t give them that. You give them the bare facts and nothing else. If Emily is the kind of doctor who can make her patients believe they have a reason to keep fighting, I think that’s someone we want around here very much.”
“As long as she’s not giving people false hope,” Dominic said. “You know young doctors can fall into that trap.”
“You think that’s what it is? Is that why you say she’s naive?”
“That’s why I worry she is.”
“Even if it’s true, it’s hardly the worst thing our interns have going on,” Jonathan said. “There are plenty who have more egregious flaws. I think you don’t like her because it bothers you to see a pretty young woman showing up to work every day with a smile on her face.”
“Who said she was pretty?” Dominic asked.
Jonathan raised an eyebrow. “Did I strike a nerve?”
“I’m just not concerned with what she looks like,” Dominic said. “She’s one of my interns, not some girl I ran into at a bar. I think you’re just trying to push me into a conversation about how long it’s been since I’ve dated again.”
“I’m not doing that,” Jonathan said. “Obviously you’re not going to date one of the interns.”
“Of course I’m not.”
“That doesn’t mean you haven’t noticed her,” Jonathan said. “I mean, you’ve got to admit, she’s cute.”
“I’m not having this conversation,” Dominic said.
The truth was that he had noticed. Of course he had. Emily was far and away the most attractive of all the interns, even though she didn’t go out of her way to spruce herself up for the work day like Sara did. She was always fresh-faced, her hair in a simple bun or ponytail. Her scrubs fit her well and he had noticed herfigure, but that was really the only style choice she’d made that contributed to his noticing her in that way.
It was something else about her. The way her whole face lit up when she was posed an interesting question, or the sympathy in her eyes when she dealt with patients. She was in this line of work for good reasons, that couldn’t be denied. And Jonathan was right about one thing — Dominic wasn’t used to seeing a bright smile at the beginning of his workday.
He’d gotten used to it, he realized.
He had gotten used to walking into the hospital and seeing her beaming — never at him, but at someone.
If he had to cut her at the end of three months, he would miss that smile. And that wasn’t a good enough reason not to cut someone.
He sighed, wondering what he was going to do. Could he be objective about Emily Swinton? Was Jonathan right that she was one of the best interns — in which case could he justify keeping her around? Or did he just want her around because he had, in spite of everything, started to like her and towanther around?
He sort of wished theyhadmet at a bar instead of at work. Had that been the case, he would have been able to flirt with her, take her home, get to know her better — and then let her go.
As things stood, he had no idea what role she should have in his life. He didn’t know how to face the fact that what Jonathan had said was absolutely true — he had an interest in Emily that went beyond what was strictly professional. He was both perpetually annoyed by her sunny optimism and, at the same time, found himself strangely drawn to it.
And either way, it was a distraction he didn’t need, and something that would make it that much harder for him to simply do his job.
CHAPTER 6
EMILY
“Everyone gather around, please,” Dr. Berger said. “We have a hard job today.”
Everyone drew close, waiting to hear what he had to say.
Dr. Berger cleared his throat. “One of our patients has taken a turn for the worse,” he said. “We were exploring our last treatment option for him, and now that treatment has failed. Today we’re going to have to speak to his family, to let them know that there’s nothing more we can do.”
The group was quiet. Emily felt as if a lead weight had settled into the pit of her stomach, and she noticed that even Chad wasn’t his usual talkative self. Even he seemed to have been affected by the seriousness of the moment.
“Which patient?” someone asked.
