AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now I open my eyes and laugh. “You’re the one who keeps coming back. Go. Get out of here.” I put both hands against his chest like I’m going to push him away. As if I’d ever push him away.
He wraps his fingers around both of my hands, and seriously, I could live like this.
“I’ll be back,” he says. “If you want to stay.”
I nod and smile. “You already said that,” I tell him. “But someone else needs you now.”
He nods. Lifting my hands from his chest, he kisses first my left palm, then my right. If he keeps this up, I’ll pass out and he’ll have two emergencies to deal with.
“It’s fine. Go.”
I know what’s going to happen when he walks down those steps. He’ll give whoever stands at the door pressing the buzzer all his attention for as long as it’s needed. Because he’s good at his job.
Apparently he’s good at a whole lot of things.
19
SAGE
Ithink about the times I’ve rung that clinic buzzer, knowing that the doctor would come and make me feel better.
Never, not once, did it cross my mind what the doctor might have been doing when I rang it.
I’m still blushing a little as I cover the cheese platter and put it in his fridge. I pack up the other snacks just in case he’s gone for the night. The persistent ringing of the buzzer suggested someone was pretty seriously in need of Grayson’s attention. I mean, I should know. I’m pretty seriously in need myself.
I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket.
It’s a text from Tessie.‘Where are you? Can you come to the clinic? I need you.’
It’s Tessie? Ringing that horrible bell? She must be really hurt. And probably scared.
‘Be right there.’
I shove my feet into my shoes and grab my coat, pulling the door closed tight behind me. I clatter down the stairs with my shoes half on. There’s a door at the bottom of the stairs to outside and one into the clinic, but I’m not about to help myself to that one. I’m definitely not going to wander through the hallway of patient rooms and Grayson’s office.
I push the exit door open and feel a blast of cold fall evening air. By the time I walk around to the clinic’s entry, the breeze has cleared most of the heart-shaped soap bubbles out of my brain. Now I can focus totally on Tessie and whatever happened to her.
Through the front door’s glass, I can see Grayson leading Hayes Kline through the connecting door and into the exam rooms. Tessie stands in the lobby staring after them. I knock on the glass and she turns. Tears are running down her face, and she looks awful. There’s dirt smudged on her coat and her cheeks.
She does a double take and then runs for the door.
Half of her words come to me as the door opens. I can guess at the other half. “How did you get here so fast?”
I shake my head and pull her in for a hug. “Are you okay? Why aren’t you in the clinic getting checked out?”
Her words come out shaky and damp. “Hayes has to go first. He’s really sick.”
“What happened?” I ask, leading her to one of the waiting room chairs. I sit next to her and she clutches my hands.
She huddles in the chair, leaning over her knees, squeezing my hands.
Eventually she catches her breath enough to tell me the story.
“I’m so sorry, Sage,” she begins.
I shake that off, pulling one of my hands free so I can bat away her apology and then rub circles on her back. Does she think I’m annoyed that she interrupted our date? “Don’t even think about it. It’s nothing.”
She looks at me, her eyebrows low and scrunched together. “What’s nothing?” she asks.
