Page 211 of The Doctors Will See You Now

The exact kind of man I want to spend my life with…

“Wow. This is so sweet, Scott…” I briefly paused as I tried to find the right words—tried not to belittle the gesture with a smartass remark like I normally would. My saliva felt thicker than normal as I murmured the heartfelt truth. “It’s probably one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me.”

“It’s never too late to accomplish your dreams, Harlow,” he answered with tenderness in his voice. “If this is still your dream, then I know you can achieve it.”

“You really think that?”

“I’m certain of it,” he said and then held out his hand. “Ready to play doctor for the day?”

I smiled. “I’m ready.”

My day in the ER had careened by in a blur of adorable tiny humans. Scott and I had managed to see twenty pediatric patients in a matter of three and a half hours, and I’d found myself mesmerized and invigorated by the experience.

Sure and precise and way too much fun, he awed me as a physician. Dr. Shepard was an asset to the city of New York. He had a friendly and playful bedside manner, and even during the most emergent situations, he always found a way to get his patients to relax and laugh, while giving them nothing less than top-notch care.

He was a good doctor, and, I was quickly finding, an even better man.

And I couldn’t deny working side by side with him—obviously, with Scott doing most of the actual medical work while I watched—had been the most fun I’d had in a long time. Having already cleared the necessary paperwork with the hospital, he’d handed a permission form to each family we’d worked with and explained that I was simply an intern and not an actual physician. And thankfully, not one family had turned down my participation.

“All right, Dr. Paige,” he said with a grin as he handed me the patient’s medical chart. “We’ve got one last patient to see. Go ahead and give me the rundown on what to expect.”

I grinned and scanned the chart for the pertinent details. “Josie Morrows. Age five. No significant past medical history. Came in about an hour ago after she fell out of a tree. Only injury appears to be a small gash to forehead.”

“Hmm…a head injury? That feels oddly familiar…” he teased, and I nudged him with my elbow.

“Shut up,” I muttered, and he chuckled as we headed toward Josie in Bay Six.

Scott winked as he pulled the curtain back to reveal an adorable little girl with a big white bandage taped across her entire forehead. She sat on the exam table with her legs swinging back and forth while her mother stood beside her.

“Hi, Josie,” Scott greeted. “I’m Dr. Shepard, and this is Ms. Paige. It looks like someone took a little fall today, huh?

“Yep.” She nodded, and her blond curls bounced with the motion. “Out of a tree in my backyard.”

“It’s a big tree, but she didn’t get very high,” her mother chimed in. “One I told her not to climb, by the way,” she added with a disappointed glance in her daughter’s direction.

Josie frowned. “But Joey did it first!”

Her mother sighed. “Yes, but you’re five and he’s ten. That’s a big difference, sweetheart. You’re too little to climb that tree.”

“Ugh,” she muttered and looked at me. “My brother always gets to do everything. It stinks.”

I grinned. “Yeah, but one day you’ll be ten too. And then your mom might let you climb trees like your brother.”

Josie’s blue eyes brightened. “And then maybe I won’t get a cut on my head, huh?”

“Exactly,” Scott said as he slipped on exam gloves. “Okay, Josie, I need to make sure you didn’t injure anything else besides your head, okay?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

While he did a quick assessment of the patient, I donned a pair of gloves and got the supplies ready to clean the wound. I was surprised and a bit relieved how quickly everything I’d learned in college was coming back to me. It was like it was yesterday that I was taking pre-med classes and doing short internships at various hospitals in the city.

“Can I remove the bandage so Ms. Paige and I can see the cut, Josie?” Scott asked once he had finished his assessment.

She nodded slowly, but I didn’t miss the hesitancy in her response. I couldn’t blame her. Head injuries weren’t any fun at twenty-nine; I couldn’t imagine how scary they were at five. Fucking Barron the Bore and the Case of the Glass Headboard taught me that.

“You know,” I mused as Scott winked at me and slowly, carefully, removed the bandage. “I once got a cut on my forehead.”

Josie’s curious eyes met mine. “You did?”