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“What do you want to know?” Anger mixed with hurt and something else I can’t place radiates off her in waves.
“Whatever it is that has you driving all night to see me. It’s not like you to pick up and leave work without planning it. You practically live at the hospital.”
She looks down at her hands. “I lost my job. And got dumped.”
I start to stand, but the sudden movement sends pain shooting through my chest. “Ow, shit.” I catch my breath a moment before speaking. “What the hell happened?”
Her head turns and she stares out the back door, where the small yard is covered in colorful leaves. “You need to rake your yard,” she says, her voice flat.
I scoff. “Yep, I’ll get right on that.” I nudge her knee with my own. “You’re stalling, Livvie.”
“So, you know I was dating that ER doctor, right?”
“Samuel?”Why the hell didn’t he go by Sam like normal guys?
“Yeah. Anyway, last week, he misdiagnosed a kid that came into the ER with cold symptoms. When I saw blood on the child’s pillow, I called for a neurosurgeon, and it ended up not being a cold, but something the kid needed surgery for right away. I told Samuel what happened and he was livid with me. Said I made him look like a fool.”
I clench my fists, envisioning my fist plowing into this douchebag’s nose. When she runs a hand through her hair and rolls her lips inward, I stay quiet and let her continue.
“I couldn’t understand and he wouldn’t speak to me. Then yesterday, right after I clocked out after being on a twenty-four-hour shift, I’m called into a boardroom. Samuel is there, as well as his boss, my boss, and legal. Long story short, he lied about what happened, and somehow his initials ended up on the electronic documents of the things that I’d done that saved this kid’s life. And mine were on the misdiagnosis documents.”
Her gaze meets mine before she continues. “Evidently, the parents were threatening to sue the hospital if they didn’t get rid of the doctor who wouldn’t help their kid. And if I left quietly, the hospital would give me a glowing reference for my next job.”
My head is on the verge of fucking exploding. If I ever see this fucker, then he’s a dead man. I’m trying to stay calm because that’s what it looks like she needs.
But it’s a struggle.
Before I can say anything, she delivers the coup de grâce.
“Then while I was in the locker room clearing out, he comes in and says I need to get anything I left at his apartment as soon as possible because”—her cheeks flush and her gaze darts away—“his girlfriend was moving back to Dallas and she’d be arriving today.”
I shoot up from my seated position, this time ignoring the pain. “What the ever-loving fuck?”
I start to pace the room, barely able to contain my rage. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch. I’m going back to Dallas with you and I’m going to kick his ass.”
Olivia crosses the room and stands in my path, her hands on my chest. “No, he’s not worth all that.”
I look down into her sky-blue eyes that are pleading with me. My jaw tightens. “It must have been serious. You lived with him.”
“I didn’t live with him. I just left a few things there from time to time when I stayed over.”
“Was it serious? Do you love him?”
Her gaze searches mine. I can’t read her and I’m always able to read her. Frustration goes up another notch.
“No and no. I hadn’t dated him for that long. I’m humiliated more than anything by the fact that he fooled me into thinking he was a decent man and a good doctor.”
She drops her head, but her hands stay on my chest. It’s the second time she’s touched me there, and I’m all mixed up about it.
Over the years, Olivia and I have touched more times than I can count. Hugs, playful shoves, tickle wars, headlocks. She’s even had her hand on my chest before.
But this…this is different. It’s as though she’s feeling what I feel.
Which will never happen, no matter how bad I want it.
“But you know what the worst part of my day was, Caleb?” Her head lifts and she meets my eyes. “The worst part was getting that phone call from Aidan…” She stops, her voice shaky. She wets her lips before continuing. “Telling me you’d been in a wreck.”
I whisk away a stray hair from her face and place it behind her ear. “He told you I was banged up but fine.”
