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And she’d be heartbroken all over again when he left.
Gene put his phone down with a smile and started on the plate of eggs and toast in front of him.
“Thanks for breakfast, Mom.”
Martha Rowland gestured to the cell phone on the table. “Was that Amanda?”
“Uh, huh.”
“How’s she feeling?”
Mom joined Gene and his dad at the breakfast table with her own plate.
“She’s fine.”
“But is she, though? She was just in a car accident two days ago,” Mom said.
“With minor injuries,” Gene pointed out.
Mom huffed. “So minor that you were concerned enough to stay with her overnight. I say you should’ve stayed with her another night and made sure she’s completely fine.”
“Amanda just needed rest,” Gene assured his mother. “She went straight to bed after eating the casserole you dropped off. She had a good appetite and all her faculties about her. I had no reason to stay with her.”
“But you would stay if she’d asked you?”
Gene eyed his mom with a frown. “What are you getting at?”
“Leave the boy alone, Martha,” Douglas, Gene’s dad, finally chimed in. “The whole town is already talking about them. You want to throw more gasoline on the fire?”
Gene ignored how his dad still referred to him and his siblings as the boy or the girl, though they were all adults—especially since he was in his thirties. “What fire? There’s no fire. People whose opinions I care about know I was only helping a friend.”
“You should care more about what the people in town say because they will be your patients. You’ll need their trust if you ever want to take over Dr. Bloom’s practice,” Dad said.
“I’m only exploring the possibility for now, Dad,” Gene patiently reminded.
He didn’t even know what he was leaning toward: joining the family practice permanently, returning to the ER, or a whole new adventure all together like joining Doctors Without Borders. Each option had its pros and cons, and Gene wasn’t ready to make that decision yet.
“Now, you leave him alone, Douglas,” Mom said. “Gene has to make up his own mind.”
“Thank you, Mom.” Gene flashed her a smile.
“So, are you going to check on Amanda today?” Mom returned to her line of inquiry.
Gene sighed but was resigned to answer. “I’ll stop by Sanctuary later and see how she’s doing.”
Mom’s smile widened. “Oh, good.”
“I asked her to take it easy, but Amanda doesn’t seem the type who can relax,” Gene said. “She insisted on finding a girl she saw during the accident. If I hadn’t caught on, she would’ve hiked the woods by herself yesterday.”
“What girl?” Dad asked, then turned to his wife. “You heard about this, honey?”
Mom shook her head.
“No. Only about the accident and Gene taking Amanda home after. There was no mention of any other girl involved in the car crash. What is this about a girl?”
Gene’s brow rose at the info—or lack of info, really. He was surprised that little tidbit wasn’t a part of the rumors going around.
“Amanda claimed she crashed her car because she was avoiding a girl who ran into the road out of nowhere.”
