Page 102 of The Doctors Will See You Now

Me: Sure, Mom. I’ll stay at Will’s.

Jazzercise Janet: Yay! Your father brought home this *very sexy* movie, and he’s going to be so excited we can watch it.

Ew. Gross. Sometimes it was truly a hardship having a mom who was so open and willing to tell you everything.

Me: Jesus, Mom. Let’s just end this conversation before it steers to places I don’t want to know anything about.

Jazzercise Janet: Pornography is a very healthy, sexual expression and outlet, Melody. It isn’t anything to be ashamed about.

Me: OMG. Goodbye, Mom.

Note to self: Move out of Bill and Janet’s ASAP.

Even though I stayed at Will’s a lot, I really needed to get my own place. If anything, it was a backup plan. A safe house. A place far, far away from walking in on Bill and Janet enjoying very sexy movie time. That was for sure one sight I did not want to witness.

Note to self: Schedule apartment showings ASAP.

I glanced at the time on my phone and saw that it was already half past six. The office was a complete ghost town, and I still had one more patient call I wanted to make before I left for the night.

Shit. I had to get moving if I wanted to be out of here before seven.

I pulled up Bethany Hyland’s contact information and tapped the call button.

“Melody,” she greeted with a smile in her voice. “I had a feeling you’d be checking up on me today.”

The happiness in her tone had me grinning ear to ear. “How did your appointment with the specialist go?”

“It went really, really well,” she answered, and I immediately breathed out a sigh of relief.

Bethany was twenty-six weeks into her pregnancy, and at her last ultrasound, we’d found a concerning spot on her baby’s heart. We had to refer her to a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist for further testing, but unfortunately for Bethany, her insurance was barely covering the additional expenses an evaluation like that would cost. And in her case, it was either go to the specialist or use the money to put food on the table for her family. Times had been hard for her family after her husband lost his job.

But after numerous phone calls and a lot of persistence, I’d managed to convince Dr. Wilton, a physician Will worked closely with on difficult cases that required extensive monitoring of the baby throughout pregnancy, to take on her case pro bono.

“What did Dr. Wilton say?” I asked, too curious to wait for the final report to come in from their office.

“She said that she has no current concerns and she doesn’t think we have anything to worry about, but she wanted to follow me for the rest of my pregnancy,” she explained. “Dr. Wilton was so kind, Melody. I’m so thankful you were able to find her for us. Sometimes, I wonder if you’re an actual angel. I’m not sure you’ll ever know how grateful I am for what you’ve done for me and my baby.”

My heart grew inside my chest, and tears pricked my eyes at her kind words.

“I do know, Bethany,” I said through the emotion clogging my throat. “And I’m so very happy your appointment with Dr. Wilton went so well today.”

“Me too.”

“Well, I’m going to head out of the office for the night, but I’ll see you next week at your appointment with Dr. Cummings.”

“Thanks again, Melody,” she said.

“You’re very welcome. Have a good night, okay?”

“You too.”

I ended the call and with a thankful, happy smile etched across my lips. I closed up shop for the night, shutting down my computer and heading out of the nurses’ office. As I pulled my purse out of my locker in the break room, a white envelope sticking straight out of the middle pocket stared back at me.

Fingers crossed this is my bonus for enduring the Goddess Cup of hell… I thought to myself as I dragged it out of my purse and slid my index finger underneath the seal. A folded white piece of paper with a key taped to the front sat inside.

My mouth crested into a huge goofy smile once I’d scanned the note scribbled inside. Immediately, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent Will a quick text.

Me: The weirdest thing happened to me today.