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They walked down the hall and he opened the door. As soon as they were inside, he turned to face her.
“Yes, I broke the man’s rib, but I saved his life. Don’t ever question what I do again,” he said.
What the hell had just happened? Why was he acting this way? It wasn’t like she didn’t think he did a good job, she just made a statement.
“I wasn’t questioning your decision, I was merely making an observation.”
“Well, don’t,” he said.
Stunned, she stared at him. He’d never acted this way before and she didn’t appreciate what he was doing now.
Why was he acting like this?
CHAPTER12
In practice together, his parents had made his life miserable with their disagreements until finally, his mother had dissolved the practice and went out on her own. She’d walked away from him and his father, and to this day, he felt the abandonment.
It was one thing to end their practice, but quite another to leave her child and husband. Thank goodness he’d been in high school and old enough to know that he was going to college and eventually to medical school.
And he’d made the decision right then that he would never get involved with another doctor and yet Hannah was his best friend.
Today, she’d done exactly what his mother did to his father. He could see the anger in her expression and suddenly all his doubts regarding the two of them working together and then living together overwhelmed him.
He would never return to the horror of what he’d witnessed growing up. Two adults screaming at one another because they shared the same profession and didn’t always agree.
Yes, his mother had mental issues, but most of the time she was normal except when it came to his father, who seemed to trigger her having an episode. Strange that as a boy he’d learned when to avoid her and what not to say to her.
But he would never live through that kind of situation again. Never.
“I can’t do this.”
Her face crumbled. “All because I made an observation? I didn’t say you did anything wrong. It’s common when you do CPR to break the patient’s rib. I’m kind of at a loss as to what is going on here. Why are you acting this way?”
“We work together. And I promised myself I’d never get involved with anyone I work with. And yet for the last three days, we’ve been fucking like rabbits and becoming more than friends.”
She nodded. “What does that have to do with me telling you, you broke the man’s rib? I’m so confused.”
“This could ruin our friendship.”
“I agree. But it could also be the best thing that’s ever happened to us. You asked me to come with you on this trip because you were uncertain about how to handle the fact that your father had remarried. You wanted me to pretend to be your fiancée. Why are you lying to them? Why are you asking me to do this when I have wanted to be your girlfriend for years? Everything was going great until I said something you didn’t like. That’s never happened before when I disagreed with you.”
His chest seized. That moment on the elevator reminded him of his parents. Of how they’d ruined their relationship because they worked together. Of the arguments they had over the smallest things. Of how his mother criticized his father all the time for his work as a doctor, a parent, and even a lover.
Would this be how it would eventually become with Hannah?
Going to meet his father and new stepmother, he’d needed Hannah’s presence beside him helping him to stay calm and not let his emotions take over. Yes, he’d asked her to be his fake fiancée, but he hadn’t known about her feelings at the time.
All he’d known was that he wanted to avoid questions about the two of them and this seemed like a good idea. But sometimes even a smart man had stupid ideas.
Oh hell, he’d been avoiding recognizing the emotions that were subtle between them. He’d known she wanted more and ignored it. He’d been afraid, and today his fears were justified.
“I’m afraid, Hannah,” he said. “I’m afraid of our jobs tearing us apart like it did my adoptive parents. My mother criticized my father all the time for the decisions he made regarding his patients. If you were to scream at me, shouting that I was an idiot, or run out of the house and leave, it would wreck me. I can’t do this. I promised myself as a young man that I would never marry anyone who was in the same profession as me.”
Turning to face him, she sighed. “You think I would do that to you? I didn’t criticize you on the elevator. I stated a fact and didn’t make a judgment call. You’re the one upset about this. To me it was nothing. I’m not your mother, Noah. We’re not your parents. How we create our relationship is between us and has nothing to do with them.”
“But you don’t understand. They worked together. And look how bad it turned out,” he said wishing she could see his point, remembering all the times his parents had fought over the stupidest stuff.
She walked up close to him. “I’ve never screamed at you. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to let you know my opinion. We’re not always going to agree, but I will never partake in screaming at you. If we were to marry and have children, they would never see or hear us fight. We may have a heated discussion that we will take to the bedroom away from them. But I’m not raising children in a hostile environment and that’s what it sounds like you were raised in as a child.”
