Page 10 of The Goalie in Room 1

Tell Maxie I’m an orthopedic surgeon. I have access to power tools, and I always need to practice using them.

Three dots.

Gone.

Back again.

Phoenix

He called you a cunt.

A laugh burst out of me.

Me

Now I definitely need to examine him.

Phoenix

I’ll warn him.

I slipped my phone into my pocket and tugged on my lab coat.

Maxie wasn’t dying. Whatever it was, Phoenix had it handled, at least until I could get there. Which wouldn’t be until after I dealt with the stuff here. And first on that list was a patient I needed to check on in recovery and a family I needed to update in the waiting room.

At the door to the lounge, I took a deep breath before pulling it open. Back to being Dr. Vale.

The large, stately brick facade of the mansion that housed Halo House came into view as I rounded the bend, my headlights slashing through the twilight. The home looked as beautiful and serene as ever. It should. I was hours past my intended arrival.

I walked into the house to find the handyman coming down the grand central staircase with his toolbox in one hand and a drill in the other. Outside the OR, I wasn’t the least bit handy. Like me, the handyman donated his time and craft to the cause. Unlike me, he was an extremely skilled craftsman and could build or fix pretty much anything the house or the residents needed.

“Hey, Doc!”

“Hey! How’re things?”

“Good, Phoenix is with Maxie.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

He nodded and went on his way, and I did the same, the two of us going in opposite directions. In the kitchen, I found Phoenix coaxing Maxie to drink from a steaming mug that held chicken broth, if my nose was to be believed.

Maxie’s nose wrinkled, and he pushed the mug away. “Yeah. No. I’m not drinking chicken juice.”

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Sounds like someone is being a bad patient.”

Maxie gasped and turned, his butt spinning on the chair seat beneath him. His eyes grew round as saucers, making him look like a Kewpie doll.

“Oh no! Nuh-uh. Not you.”

That cracked me up even more. Maxie was a little too stinking cute for words. He was adorable. Not my type, but even if he were, I wouldn’t pursue him. He needed a Daddy who could devote more time to him than I ever could.

“Oh yes. Me. The last thing this house needs is you spreading around your cooties.”

His mouth fell open with another gasp. “I don’t have cooties!”

I grinned as I pulled out my stethoscope. “I think the doctor would know that better than the little who refuses to drink his chicken broth so he can feel better.”

He pouted and huffed while I listened to his lungs.