Page 97 of The Doctors Will See You Now

If only I could find a way to make it happen…

I’d been spending so many hours of my days—and nights—making sure our lower-income patients had everything they needed. But the fact that there was so little support out there for most of them was breaking my heart.

I was only one person.

I could only make so many phone calls.

I could only personally follow so many patients.

And knowing I could only do so much—and that there were so many women out there who needed help—was becoming an emotional hardship for me. What had started out as something that felt important had quickly morphed into something that felt a lot like my purpose.

I honestly think I needed those patients as much they needed someone like me. And somehow, someway, I felt like my career would eventually need to revolve around focusing less on just typical nursing jobs and more on case-managing women like Carmen.

“You’re one of the good ones, Melody,” Georgia complimented with a tender smile. “Those patients are lucky to have you. Hell, my brother is lucky to have you. He better not fuck it up,” she added with a playful wink, and I laughed softly. I was pretty sure I was the one lucky to have Will.

The squeal of the microphone reverberating through the speakers pulled our attention to the front of the room. “Sorry for the interruption, ladies and gentleman,” the auctioneer announced. “We’ll now resume bidding on the last half of the lots. The next item up for bid is lot number 175. It’s an oil on canvas called Mademoiselle X by famous French Impressionist painter, Maurice Ehlinger. He was renowned for his stylized nudes on canvas, and…”

Georgia and I both glanced at each other with wide eyes.

Jesus…not another nude…

“Here we go,” she muttered before our attention shifted toward Cassie.

“Hey, uh, Cass,” I tried, but it was too late, she was already glaring at the old lady—before the auctioneer had even opened up the bidding.

He pointed to the painting and proudly announced to the crowd, “We’ll start the bidding at two hundred.”

“One thousand!” Cassie exclaimed, and the auctioneer’s eyes went wide.

“Uh…Okay…” he stuttered into the microphone. “Do I have eleven hundred?”

The old lady gave a quick raise of her hand to indicate her bid.

“Fifty-five thousand!” Cassie shouted. Understandably, the old lady just shrugged into her seat when the auctioneer looked in her direction. Holy fuckballs, she’d just upped the bid by nearly fifty-four thousand dollars!

“Fifty-five thousand going once…going twice…sold to the…well…the very exuberant lady to the left.”

“Hell motherfluffing yes,” Cassie cheered loud enough for all of New York City to hear. And she sealed the envelope of crazy by pointedly staring at her bidding opponent while moving two of her fingers between her eyes and the old lady’s. “I’m watching you,” she mouthed, and the little woman quickly broke eye contact.

I didn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of Cassie’s wrath. Her kind of crazy appeared to have no limit or boundaries.

“Uh…” Georgia looked toward Cass. “You do realize that painting is only worth like two thousand, right?”

“So?”

“You just paid fifty-five thousand for it,” I reminded her, and she shrugged.

“Thatcher paid fifty-five thousand for it.”

“And do you think he’ll mind that you’ve spent one hundred thousand dollars on paintings today?” Georgia asked.

Yeah, I should probably mention here that Cassie and Thatch are loaded.

Like, they could probably buy three yachts tomorrow, and it wouldn’t even put a dent in their savings. I don’t know if I will ever get used to knowing people that rich.

“No way,” Cassie disputed. “I haven’t spent that much today.”

“Actually, you have,” I added, but it didn’t matter. Cassie’s sights were already set on the next lot up for bidding, and like a homing device, once the auctioneer announced the item, her focus darted directly to the old lady across the aisle.