Fishing’ sign,” he argued with amusement in his eyes when he glanced at me. “If it’s our own place, we can just hang it on the door whenever we want.”
“Again, I don’t think that’s how it works.” Swells tugged at my line and gulls cawed and darted overhead. They might not be well loved by beachgoers, but there was something about them in this environment that made it feel right.
It relaxed me more than I had been in a while. Tension melted out of my muscles as a gentle breeze cooled my skin. Hunter has a point. We really should do this more often.
“Maybe we could designate a certain time slot on a specific day that we use to get out of the office,” I said. “We might not always be able to fit fishing into that break, but we could try for a couple of times a week.”
“That’s the spirit.” Hunter grinned, crab-walking over to give me a high-five before going back to his spot. “Are you really thinking about it then?”
“I don’t know.” I narrowed my eyes as I considered his question. “I’d like to go private, but is now the right time? There’s a lot more to it than just making a decision and going for it.”
“Why?” He frowned and jabbed a thumb at his chest. “I could take care of the business side of things. I took some classes in college.”
“I didn’t know you took business classes,” I said. “You’ve never mentioned it before, but it would come in useful if we decided to do this.”
“Maybe I should’ve said I was enrolled in business classes. I might or might not have taken the actual classes.”
I rolled my eyes at my friend. He liked to joke around, often pretending to be dumb when the truth was that the guy was extremely smart.
“Even so, I’m sure you’ll do just fine running the business. But that’s not the only thing we’d have to think about. We’d need the space, the equipment, and marketing for a start. We’ll probably also have to hire someone to handle the admin and scheduling. Plus, we’d have to leave the hospital. Are you really ready to leave all our patients?”
He sighed and lifted his cap to run his hand through his hair before shaking his head. “No. I don’t think I’d be able to leave them.”
“There you have it then. Until we’re ready to leave them all, we can’t go anywhere.” That was the long and short of it and the reason I still hadn’t left the hospital.
“We could offer to keep treating them,” he said after pausing for a minute. “Some of them might look us up and come with us when we leave.”
“I’m sure some will but not all of them would be able to afford private rates.” An image of April and Adi at our first session flashed in my mind.
As if Hunter had seen right into my brain, his eyebrows arched and he shot me a questioning look. “You’ve always said you weren’t in this for the money. Maybe it’s time to put that money where your mouth is. But speaking of the Adams family, have you heard from April again?”
“I meant it then, and I mean it now, but other people don’t know that. Potential clients aren’t going to walk into a private practice expecting to be treated for free or at discounted rates. They’re still going to go to the hospital for that.”
“Are you purposely avoiding answering the part about April?” he asked, suspicion heightening his voice.
“No, I was just answering the important questions in the context of our discussion about private practice. Are we done with that?”
“We’re just putting it on the backburner for now.” He grinned. “So April? You heard from her?”
I sighed. “Yes, actually, I have. We had lunch together yesterday.”
“You did?” He spun around to face me, fishing rod dangling from the limp fingers of his right hand. If he got a bite now, the entire rod would disappear into the water, but he didn’t even seem to notice.
“Where did you take her?”
“I ran into her at the cafeteria. We had lunch there.”
Hunter’s eyes widened before a dry chuckle slipped out of him. “You’re a motherfucking billionaire and you couldn’t think of a better place to take her than the hospital? I love their burger special—don’t get me wrong—but I don’t think it’s the ideal location for a first date when you can literally afford to fly the girl to Paris.”