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Zola
“Dr. Zola, am I gonna die?”
Sadie Hart was the kind of patient that broke your heart. At just nine years old, she’d spent more time in the hospital than any child should. That had made her wise and brave enough to face the idea of death with a stoicism usually reserved for the terminally ill.
I sat down on the hospital bed beside her and took her hands in mine. It was overly familiar for a patient-doctor relationship, but when you deal with kids with heart problems, this was part of the job. Sadie’s coppery red curls stood up in all directions, her pale skin finally getting some color back.
“No, Sadie, you are not going to die.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure, yeah. As long as you do what you’re supposed to, my job will be easy. It’ll take some time before you feel back to normal completely, but I think you’re gonna be all right, Sadie.”
She smiled up at me like I was some kind of hero instead of just a medical professional. “All right. That means I’ll get to kiss boys?”
“Lots of boys is my guess.” I could see the little heartbreaker she would grow up to be. With my help.
“Really?”
I nodded, unable to help smiling at the way that news brightened her day. “Yes, really.” I looked over my shoulder, then slid my gaze left and right before I leaned in with a whisper. “Just don’t tell your parents I said so.”
Was there anything in the world better than the sound of a child giggling? If there was, I hadn’t heard it yet. That laughter, it was one of the things that made pediatric cardiology easier on those really hard days. The only thing better, was sending patients like Sadie home with a clean bill of health and yearly checkups. “It’s our secret.” She put one finger to her lips.
“Pinky swear.” I held up a pinky just as the door opened and Dr. Drew Wright appeared, his trademark scowl darkening his good looks. “Dr. Wright.”
“Dr. Ross,” he practically growled, his gaze on my raised pinky finger just as Sadie hooked hers around it.
“Pinky swear,” she proclaimed loudly. “Hi, Dr. Drew.”
He spared a brief smile and greeting for Sadie before turning that familiar scowl my way. “A moment, please?”
I nodded and turned back to Sadie. “I need to go. Dr. Drew needs my help.” She snickered and I knew if he was standing there, Drew would hate it, but I didn’t care. I moved to Jackson’s Ridge months ago, and still he hadn’t warmed up to me, not even a little. He treated me like I was a first year resident, while everyone else in the hospital looked at me like the capable professional that I was. “See you later, kiddo.” I sighed as I straightened my lab coat and prepared myself for another run-in with Dr. Wright. I’d settled into Jackson’s Ridge easily, even making a few friends to hang out with on occasion. I spent time with Granddaddy, who was a crazy old man with a lot of fun stories. And he was a good cook. The only person who I seemed to rub the wrong way, was Drew.
“Bye, Dr. Zola!”
I joined Drew in the hall where he was speaking quietly into one of the internal phones placed on the walls all around the medical center complex. It gave me time to take him in. It really was too bad that his default expression was a scowl, at least where I was concerned, because the man was gorgeous. Truly gorgeous. Some might say his chestnut brown hair and deep royal blue eyes were normal or boring, but they weren’t. The natural blond highlights within his chocolate brown locks gave him the kind of coloring women paid hundreds of dollars to achieve. His blue eyes were riddled with flecks of gold, and the deep grooves around his eyes and mouth said he wasn’t always scowling. Maybe it’s just me. Drew was a big man, a few inches over six feet, with broad shoulders that tapered down to a narrow waist, and powerful thighs that spoke of past athleticism. Yeah, he was hot. A hot jerk.
Weren’t they always though?
“Sorry,” he offered up blandly when he finished the call.
“Sure you are,” I shot back because I just couldn’t help it. If he didn’t want to have an amicable working relationship, then I would get my kicks by teasing him. “What’s up, Dr. Wright?”
Drew’s jaw, dusted with at least two days’ growth, clenched at my words but I maintained a perfectly plain smile. “You should have told me you were seeing a patient today.”
I bit my tongue to stop the first words that came to mind from flying out inappropriately. The man was determined to make every single hour of this two year fellowship an ordeal. “Why?” I folded my arms, ready for yet another confrontation.
