Page 49 of The One Who Never Left: Colter

Dr. Porter started, “If you want, I can⁠—”

“I’ve got this,” Colter interrupted.

There was a pause, so long it began to carry a thick and irritated weight.

Colter finally looked at his mentor and an expression appeared on his face that was unfamiliar. It wasn’t the easy confidence he wore with clients or the quiet warmth he reserved for Lynlee. This was a kind of authority that didn’t need to raise its voice to be heard.

Dr. Porter studied him, clearly unused to being shut down. Sutton could almost feel the shift in power, like a pressure change before a storm broke.

“You’re sure?” Porter asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Another silence stretched. Sutton watched and then Dr. Porter’s shoulders sag just a fraction, the resistance easing.

“You always did hate being babysat,” Porter muttered.

“Learned from the best.”

That earned him a reluctant nod. Dr. Porter reached for his coat, already conceding ground. “Call me if his pressure drops or if you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

Porter paused at the door, his voice softer when he spoke again. “Then I’ll leave you to it.”

Colter didn’t say anything—just inclined his head, accepting the words without ceremony. Dr. Porter took that as his cue and left, the door clicking shut behind him.

The clinic exhaled and then Colter stepped back from the window. Something in Sutton shifted too, a quiet understanding settling in.

This wasn’t just a man good at his job. This was a man who’d learned how to stand his ground—and stay.

“I can call Dr. Lee,” Sutton offered.

Colter met her gaze, his expression bordering on exhaustion and adrenalin. “He’s not on call.”

“But you just said⁠—”

“I know what I said.”

A lie so casually delivered it barely registered as one—unless you happened to be the reigning, undefeated, three-time champion of casually delivered lies. It was a double standard and she knew it—she was the undisputed queen of white lies—but she’d never known Colter to lie about anything that mattered. Seeing him do it now unsettled her in a way she couldn’t quite name.

Sensing he needed a hand, she offered, “I can stay another hour, maybe two. But I can’t do overnight.”

“I’ve got it.”

“Call if anything shifts. Anything at all...”

Sutton watched Colter exhale and drag a hand down his face, the tension he’d been carrying all evening finally cracking through. Patches needed eyes on him, constant ones, and if something went wrong, Colter couldn’t be in two places at once.

She saw the calculation flicker across his face before he even said a word. The quick dismissal of one option and the refusal of another. She knew that there was no world where he’d ask Dr. Porter to stay. He’d sooner stitch with one hand tied behind his back.

That left her.

“I’ll be okay,” he assured her, but she didn’t feel assured in the slightest.

Fifteen minutes later, Sutton was at the front desk, wrapping up notes from the day so she could pick Lynlee up from daycare. Her hair pulled back, shoulders aching, frustration coursed through her veins.

Why did he have to be so stubborn? It was like he didn’t want her to see him at his most vulnerable. And after all the conversations they’d had, the secret coffee delivery, the time he’d spent with Lynlee, that pissed her off.