16
During the lunch break the following day, Evie found Charlie in the garden level’s tiny office, looking rumpled and adorable, with textbooks sprawled across the desk. “Sorry to interrupt, but I can’t make out your handwriting on this script for Silas Yoder. He called in about needing something for a rash.”
Charlie immediately stood up, squinting at the note he’d written. “Ah, sorry about that. It’s supposed to be 2.5% hydrocortisone. One refill.”
She glanced at the barely legible cursive and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe ... you might want to write in all caps.”
He sat back in his chair. “Noted,” he said, sounding genuinely appreciative of the suggestion, as if the thought had never dawned on him before. It was one of the things she liked about him. He was so open to new ideas that improved things. No. Ideas that improvedhim. Coachable Charlie.
She looked past him at the stack of books on the top of the desk. “What’s all this?”
“Cram time,” he said, lifting one of the books. “Wren keeps reminding me that board exams are right around the corner.”
“When’s the exam?”
“End of August. Too soon for me, not soon enough for Wren.” He shot Evie a wry grin. “I’ve never been much of a test-taker. Frankly, I’ve never been one of those guys who loves school. Or books, for that matter. Takes me too long to read.”
“But you’re a med school grad. You must’ve done something right.”
“Well, just barely. I have Wren to thank for that. She basically tutored me through medical school.”
Another Wren reference. A significant one.
Those were the moments when Evie felt confused, to say the least. Obviously, Charlie and Wren had history. But were they a couple?
She could just ask. But she couldn’t make herself.
Probably because she didn’t want to know the answer.
“I really just scraped by,” he said with a smirk. “I’m living proof that miracles happen.”
Evie crossed her arms, leaning against the doorjamb. “You know, most people don’t even get this far.”
He looked at her, a hint of appreciation in his eyes. “True. But there’s always another mountain, and right now, it’s called the final board exam.”
“I thought the pass rate was pretty high—96 to 98 percent?”
Charlie sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, and I seem to always be in that 2 to 4 percent that gives statisticians something to talk about. Wren’s been reminding me of that too.”
Evie’s heart softened at the sight of him, hunched over the cluttered desk, struggling to focus. He looked so scruffy, so earnest, and yet so defeated. She hesitated, then offered, “Maybe ... I could help?”
His head snapped up, eyes bright with hope. “Really? You’d do that? Be my study partner?”
Was he kidding? She was practically doing cartwheels—though only in her head, of course. She shrugged, playing itcool. “Sure. It’d be good for me too. You know, lifelong learning and all that.”
He leaped up and dashed past her, returning with a chair from the waiting room. With an exaggerated flourish, he set it down. “Your throne awaits, m’lady,” he said.
She couldn’t help but laugh as she took the seat next to him. Their shoulders brushed as he shifted the book to rest between them, and she suddenly wished she’d taken the time to wash her hair this morning instead of just throwing it into a ponytail.
At the end of their lunch hour, he closed the book and looked at her with such genuine admiration that she felt a sudden warmth creeping up her neck. “You’re really something, you know?”
But she wasn’t.
And yet he made her feel so special. It was new to her, having someone view her as extraordinary. A man someone, especially.
So another routine started to take shape, where Evie and Charlie would have lunch together when the office closed for a break—which only happened when Dok and Wren were out on calls. Evie’d quiz him on whatever he was studying that day—whether it was the cardiac cycle, pharmacology, or pathophysiology—and found herself enjoying it more than she expected.
It wasn’t just about being around Charlie, though that was definitely part of it. Most of it. But she was soaking up knowledge too, and what he was expected to know went way beyond what she’d learned for her nursing school exams. It was fascinating, even if it was all theory and not the hands-on patient care she was used to.
