Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
The moment was almost too much for me.
Thankfully, she pulled away. “Bye, Dex.”
“Bye, sweetheart.” I gave her a smile but could barely contain the emotion that formed in my eyes, the pain of her predicament, that she wasn’t born with a healthy heart and she’d had to endure this discomfort her entire life. But I also felt honored that I could heal her, that I could give her the life she deserved. I hated how attached I became to people, how easily I loved strangers, because it made me vulnerable to heartbreak. But I couldn’t stop myself. It was who I was. I was just born this way.
When she walked away, her mother came up to me, her hands pressed tightly together in a symbol of gratitude. “Thank you for saving my daughter’s life.”
I rose to my feet and gave her a nod. “It’s my pleasure. Truly.”
She pulled out a necklace for her purse. It was green with a cross on the chain. She blessed me then placed the necklace in my hand. “Thank you for everything you do. We lost hope…that anyone would ever help her, and then we found you…the best doctor in the world…who has a heart.”
My eyes watered, and this was becoming way too fucking much for me. I appreciated the praise, but I felt like I didn’t deserve it. But I also knew that I deserved it more than anyone else because I put the patients first…not my paycheck.
She closed my hand around the necklace then bowed to place her forehead against my knuckles. Silently, they walked away and left my office, leaving me to digest the intensity of the emotions they evoked in me.
I opened my fingers and looked at the necklace she’d placed there, black and green. I stared for a while before I unclasped the hook and put it around my neck, adding it to the other cross that I hadn’t removed. Now I wore two.
Sicily returned to me, her eyes wet like her emotions were haywire. “Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this…”
I wouldn’t know what to do without her, someone who put in the effort and the time to keep up with me, who didn’t just clock out at five o’clock to head home. I didn’t only value her commitment, but her heart. Because she cared about my patients as much as I did, was just as personally and emotionally invested.
That was the most important characteristic of all.
My arm moved around her waist, and I pulled her into me, my body moving on instinct, bringing her close into my chest, my arm circling around the small of her back, feeling her petite frame in an intimate way. My chin rested on the top of her head, and I held her that way in my office, smelling her hair, feeling her heart pound against my stomach.
Her arms circled my waist, and she came even closer, leaning on me, using me as a crutch of support. She inhaled a deep breath, and then her heart rate started to slow, started to turn to a rate of peace. It was like she slipped between the sheets and was ready to drift off.
I had patients waiting for me in the lobby, I was behind schedule, but I ignored all of that because I needed this right now.
And she did too.
11
Sicily
Since Ginny’s appointment took much longer than we anticipated, it bled into the other time slots, making the entire day chaotic. But we didn’t rush through our other patients to make up for the time because that wouldn’t be right. They deserved their full thirty-minute window.
By the time the last patient left, it was after six in the evening.
I got Dex his dinner, and he barely looked at me as he leaned over his desk and did all the paperwork that was required of him. I worked in the lobby and finished up the billing. I also sent an automated text message to everyone who had an appointment later in the week to make sure they were coming.
Not that we ever got cancelations.
Andrea went home, and then I let the cleaners come inside and vacuum the carpets and clean the patient rooms. Dex stayed in his office, the door shut, having no regard for the time because his brain was focused so intensely.
When I had nothing else to do, I continued to sit in my chair, looking at the clock, knowing I should go home and have some dinner myself, but I didn’t like to leave the office before Dex unless it was work-related.
But I had no idea how long he would be there.
I shut down my computer and grabbed my purse before I stepped into his office.
He looked up from the document he was working on, his dinner gone because he’d scarfed it down the second I placed it in front of him. He was like a dog that couldn’t help himself, but a really cute dog. I loved that he loved the food I brought for him, that he was so enamored of my mother’s pie. “Good, you’re going home. Don’t want you to stay on my account.” His hair was a little messy because he sometimes fingered it when he stared at scans on his computer, his gaze hardening with concentration, his brilliant mind working furiously to see things that no one else had the brilliance to see.