AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ahmad looked at her with wide eyes. “What do you know about LeBron James and Steph Curry?”
“I know enough,” London said, taking hold of Ahmad’s IV stand and guiding it back to the bed. She stood by as he climbed in, smiling at his Marvel Comics pajama bottoms.
“Are you ready for next week’s surgery?” London asked.
He nodded. “Not sure my mom is, but she’s coming around.”
The fifteen-year-old had undergone eight surgeries in the last three years. London had been there for seven of them. She’d witnessed the toll it had taken on his family, how frightened his parents were every time their son was wheeled into the operating room. She could not fathom what it was like to wait helplessly while a team of strangers took a scalpel to your child.
“Don’t worry about your mom,” London told him. “I’ll put her mind at ease as much as possible before the surgery. Will she and your dad be here later today?”
“After they get off work,” he said.
“I’ll try to drop back in. Meanwhile, no more basketball for you. Your body needs rest.”
“That’s okay. I was tired of kicking his ass anyway,” Ahmad said.
“Sir,” London said in a chastising tone.
“His butt.”
“Hey, I let you win,” Drew said. “Do you think I brought my A game to a kid with cancer?”
“Don’t even try it, dude. You were huffing and puffing like a chain-smoker by the second game,” Ahmad said.
“That was acting. I wanted you to think you were getting to me.” Drew looked over at London. “That’s a lie. He was kicking my ass—butt,” he amended.
She burst out laughing. “No more basketball foreitherof you.”
“Thanks for the game,” Drew said, holding his fist out to Ahmad. The fifteen-year-old bumped it with his own fist, then picked up his cell phone. And, just like that, both London and Drew had been dismissed.
“Hey,” Drew said once they were out of Ahmad’s room. “I hope that was okay. You know, the little pickup basketball game.”
“It’s fine. As long as he doesn’t overexert himself. It’s actually good for him—anything to take his mind off the fact that he’s facing another long surgery next week.”
“He seems like a good kid.” Drew glanced up and down the corridor, then at his watch. “Can we go to your office for a few minutes? Well, more like twenty minutes.”
London narrowed her eyes at him. “You remember what I said about doing”—she looked around them and lowered her voice to a whisper—“those things here at the hospital.”
He leaned toward her and whispered back, “Get your mind out of the gutter, Dr. Kelley. This has nothing to do withthose things.” Drew laughed. “No, really, it’s about an outpatient program here at County. I want your take on how effective you think it’s been this past year.”
Okay, so maybe she was a little disappointed he had work on his mind instead of…things. Which was ridiculous because they were following her rules when it came to this line between the personal and professional.
“I have evening rounds in like one minute,” London said. “But I should be done in about forty-five. Maybe an hour.”
“Will that be the end of your shift?”
“If nothing comes through the ER between now and then.”
“In that case, I’ll wait for you. And, if I’m doing my math correctly”—he looked at his watch again—“you’ll be done just in time for me to take you to dinner at an actual restaurant. Likefriends. Isn’t that something?”
She rolled her eyes. “You just don’t know when to quit,” she said as she started toward the next patient’s room. She couldn’t hold back her grin at the sound of Drew’s laughter behind her.
18
This is not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to take you out for dinner,” Drew said as he walked side by side with London along the greenbelt that flanked the Colorado River.
“Too bad. This is what I felt like eating.” She took a huge bite out of the giant pretzel he’d bought her from a street vendor.
