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Drew approached every contract with the goal of performing beyond the client’s expectations, but when it came tothisparticular contract, he couldn’t help but feel more invested than usual. More than 70 percent of Travis County Hospital’s patients lived below the poverty line. He’d been in their shoes. Hell, it was only a few years ago that he’d stopped waking up in a cold sweat, fearing everything would come crashing down on him and he’d end up right back in their shoes.
It wasn’t hyperbole to assume that some of the people who walked through this hospital’s doors would die if County were no longer an option for them. It was his job to make sure it never came to that.
Which meant he and London would have to put their differences aside. She may not like it, but they were on the same team.
“I’ve apologized,” Drew said. “Whether you accept my apology is up to you, but I can’t let this, or you, disrupt my work.”
“I’ma disruption?” She barked out a harsh laugh. “This ismyhospital. You’re the interloper here.”
“Dr. Coleman and the rest of the hospital’s administration don’t see me as an interloper. They brought me here. I suggest you get on board.”
For half a breath, Drew was certain she was going to deck him. Instead, she marched to the door. “Get out, Drew. If you see me in the hallway, pretend you don’t know me.”
Even though he knew she was probably the angriest she had ever been with him, her words still shocked and stung.
As he moved past her, he caught the subtle floral scent he’d consumed while skimming his lips along her neck, and behind her ear, and in the bend of her knee this weekend. A brutal pang of longing spasmed within his chest.
He stopped just after crossing the threshold and turned.
“For what it’s worth, I really am sorry I didn’t just tell you the truth from the very beginning, London.”
“It’s Dr. Kelley,” she said.
Then she shut the door in his face.
8
London had never been so grateful for an emergency bowel obstruction in all her life.
Two patients had been brought into the ER within the last hour, both needing immediate attention. As much as she hated to see anyone in pain, she’d desperately needed the distraction this case had brought to her day.
Anything to keep her mind off that shady son of a bitch.
Her hand tightened into a fist just at the thought of Drew Sullivan and what he’d done. He could take that pitiful excuse for an apology he’d tried to feed her and choke on it.
The worst thing—the absoluteworstthing inallof this—was that she still wanted that motherfucker!
She’d specifically told him that she didn’t want to sleep with someone she would have to see every day. Heknewhe would be working at her hospital and he’d said nothing! It was low-down and she would never forgive him.
She would consider fucking him again, though.
“No, you will not!” London scolded.
She mentally collected all thoughts of Drew and locked them away. She had more important things to focus on, namely the fifteen-year-old who had been on her operating table an hour ago.
The teen girl, who had been brought in by her cheerleading coach after collapsing in pain at a competition, had more scar tissue in her large intestine than London had ever seen in a patient, which meant she’d had multiple procedures done. London had spent the past half hour reviewing records that had been emailed from Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Brownsville, where the girl lived. She wanted to have some answers for her parents when they arrived following the five-hour drive up from the border town.
Although London had seen the distress in countless eyes before, she couldn’t imagine the anxiety parents faced in this situation. Now that she had operated on their daughter, it was her job to put them at ease and figure out what could be done to prevent these repeated bowel obstructions from occurring.
There was a knock on her door.
“Come in,” London said without looking up from the iPad she cradled in her lap.
“Heard you scrubbed in on that interesting bowel obstruction case,” Aleshia Williams said as she entered the office. “I just saw the scans that were ordered before surgery. It looks pretty nasty.”
“It is, thank goodness.” London gasped as she looked up at Aleshia, whose expression was rightly horrified. “That came out the wrong way,” London said.
She set the iPad on the desk and rubbed her temples. “It’s not that I’m happy this poor girl’s intestines are so scarred. It’s just been…it’s been a damn day.” She took a sip of lukewarm water from the refillable water bottle Taylor had bought her. “I needed the distraction of this case.”
