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He’s leaning against the receptionist desk, bitching with one of the nurses. When he sees me, his scowl deepens.
“Ask your friend,” he says and then tosses his patient file on the desk. I glance at the name. NICK THATCHER.
Of course he’s giving Donovan trouble.
“I’ve got this,” I tell him. I take the file. “Which room?”
Donovan lets out a tight sigh. “This way.”
I follow him to the exam room. We go inside, and there’s Nick, sitting on the table.
We were tight. For a long time. He’s an asshole 90 percent of the time, but when he cares about you, he’s about as loyal as they come, and I can respect that in a guy. But we’ve grown apart since—especially since—my divorce from Nadine.
Which is funny, because she never liked him, either.
The first thing I notice about him is he looks like he hasn’t slept. His hair is scraggly, and his eyes look bloodshot. When he sees me, he grins and lifts a palm. “My man!”
“Sup, brother?” I clasp hands with him, keeping it friendly, even as I can feel Donovan’s disapproval behind me. “You doing alright?”
“Yeah, healthy as a horse. Just getting my yearly.”
“Well, you’re in good hands.” I pat Donovan on the shoulder. “Donovan’s the best doctor in the hospital.”
Nick’s smile doesn’t drop, but his eyes harden. “Nah, man,” he says. “He’s not touching me.”
“What’s the problem?” I push.
He snorts on a laugh. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“We don’t have to do this,” Donovan mutters beside me and shifts his weight from one foot to the other.
But I can’t let it go. I lift a palm. “Hold up. Donovan is literally the best doctor in this entire hospital.”
“Who, dick boy?” Nick says, with a jagged grin, and the words hit my ears strange.
I’d forgotten we used to call Donovan that.
Worse—I’d forgotten I was the one that coined the term.
It’d seemed funny and harmless when we were teenagers. It feels like chewing on pebbles now.
Donovan goes red at the old nickname, and I feel anger start to boil in my gut.
I try to keep my voice controlled. “If you don’t want the best of the best, that’s fine, but you can check yourself in somewhere else.”
Nick’s gaze flickers between the two of us. “Oh, yeah. It makes sense now. Why you stopped hanging out. Why you left that fox of a wife of yours. You two are too busy sucking each other off now, huh?”
My lips thin. “You’re overstepping, Nick.”
“I’m overstepping?” He sneers. “You think no one saw you two pawing at each other on New Year’s? Makes me fucking sick. Does your dad know about it?”
I set my jaw. Donovan lifts his hands. “Alright, I’m out. You two have fun.”
Donovan starts to leave, but that must get under Nick’s skin, because he hisses, “Sure, just run away, you fucking—”
And then he says that word. My father’s favorite F word. And my blood goes cold.
My pulse quiets. The hospital vanishes around me. I stop thinking about Donovan, about Nick, about anything. All I can think of is that word. I turn to him. “What’d you say?” I ask him.
