The Doctor Who Has No Chance - Victoria Quinn Page 0,47
because I wasn’t meant to see it in the first place.
But there was still a low wall around my heart, a slight resistance, a slight fear…like this could all end tomorrow.
I sat in the armchair in the corner and took his notes on the laptop, watching him interact with his new patient, a three-year-old boy who had a hole in his heart. The dysfunction was actually more common than I realized, and most of the patients who came in were kids like him.
Dex sat on the couch beside him, his stethoscope in his ears, the metal tip pressed against the boy’s t-shirt. He gave the boy a smile as he listened to his heart pump the blood, when it was flooding between two different sections of the atrium. He leaned back and returned the stethoscope to around his neck. “It’s just a little hole. About this big.” He made a circle with his fingers. “All I have to do is close it up, and you’ll be good as new.” Dex grabbed his shoulder and gave him an affectionate squeeze.
He seemed to be too young to really understand, but he mimicked Dex’s movements and made a circle himself. “Like that?”
“Yep.” He took the boy’s hand in his and put his fingers into a fist. “And then it’s gonna look like this. No hole.”
The boy looked at his closed fists.
“You like to ride bikes?”
He nodded.
“You’re gonna be riding your bike longer and farther than you did before. You’re gonna feel so much better. I do this all the time, taking care of brave little boys and girls, and every single one of them is very happy.”
He nodded again, staring at Dex’s face like he was a little shy.
Dex gave him a gentle pat on the back and looked at his mother. “You’ve got a handsome boy here.”
The parents loved Dex even more than the kids did. “I know. And he’s so sweet too.” She ran her fingers through his hair.
“I’ll get it on the schedule,” Dex said. “Then you’ve gotta take him to Disney World to celebrate.”
His eyes widened, and he looked at his mom. “Can we? Can we?”
“Whoops,” Dex said with a chuckle. “Sorry…”
She smiled and kissed the little boy’s forehead. “Absolutely. It’s a great idea.” They said their goodbyes before they departed.
Dex waved before moving back to his spot on the other couch. He grabbed his tablet and quickly pulled up something he needed. It was getting warmer with every passing week, the humidity starting to arrive, so Dex stuck with jeans and a tee every day.
I moved to the couch across from him. “That boy was so cute.”
“I know, right?” He grinned as he looked at his tablet.
“You’re gonna be a great father.” The words were out of my mouth without further thought, just jumping into the universe and having a distinct echo. “I don’t mean, like, we’re gonna have kids or anything—”
“Thanks.” He lifted his chin and looked at me, still wearing his smile. “I’ve always wanted to be a father. Someday. We’ll get there.” He dropped his chin and read his tablet again, like I hadn’t just said something that could have ruined the entire day.
“I didn’t know that.”
“What?”
“That you’ve always wanted to be a father.”
He looked up and stared at me. “Not so much when I was younger, but then Derek had this really special relationship with Lizzie, and I started to think about my relationship with my own father, and yada-yada…and I just knew. It’ll happen when it’s meant to happen.” He went back to reading his screen but then abruptly looked up. “Wait, you wanna have kids, right?”
I chuckled. “Uh, yeah.”
“Phew, alright.” He went back to reading.
I had stuff to do, but I chose to stare at him for a while, picturing the two of us together, with a couple kids running around, living happily ever after, having the reality Catherine could have had…but she threw it away.
One bitch’s garbage was another woman’s treasure, right?
I was sitting at the desk in the lobby at the end of the day when the elevator doors opened and Daisy walked in. She wore a green dress with sandals, looking like she was ready for a spring day but also the office. Her thick hair was in a high ponytail, showing off her face and slender neck.
Why the hell would Mason let her go? He was a good-looking guy, but…