perfect for you.”
“Yeah, but sometimes I’m not sure if I have the right to teach other people.” I bowed my head, reliving that moment over and over, the distinct lack of sound once he flatlined. The constant beep of the monitor was annoying, but once that sound was gone…you missed it more than anything.
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” she said gently. “They wouldn’t have offered you the position if they didn’t think you deserved it. Anytime I’ve had schooling, the intangible lessons that come from education have taught me more than the education itself.”
I stared at her, unsure what that meant.
“Sometimes teachers attempted to get their lessons across, but I never got it, no matter how hard they tried. But I admired their commitment and compassion toward me, and I integrated that into my life so I could help someone who wasn’t understanding something themselves. Theoretically, another surgeon could take your position and teach those students just as well, but they’re going to miss the intangible lessons you can impart, like compassion, kindness, heart, humility…and the million other qualities that you possess. You’ll remind them what’s important about the profession—which is the patient. It’ll inspire them in a way they won’t be inspired by somebody else. So, I think you should take that position more than somebody else because I know how doctors can be, showing off their ridiculous penthouses and their fleet of cars, caring about the money and the fame. But you aren’t like that, Dex.”
My mouth was frozen in place because I had no idea what to say to that. All I could do was stare at her and absorb the enormous compliment she’d just paid me. When we worked together as concierges, I noticed her kindness and her warmth, but now I was seeing so much more of her that I’d missed previously.
When she knew I wouldn’t respond, she cleared her throat and changed the subject. “So, your brother is a what? An aerosol manufacturer or something?”
I reduced my loud laugh to a chuckle because I didn’t want to embarrass her for misunderstanding what I’d said. “He’s an aeronautical engineer. He builds rockets and rovers, stuff like that. After leaving NASA, he started his own company, but he works in collaboration with them now. He’s also a professor to graduate students at the university. And he runs an internship program at his company for new engineers.”
Now she was the one who looked like she had no idea what to say.
“Yeah, he’s an overachiever.”
The shock slowly waned, and her smile came through. “Damn, I’ve never even heard of someone like that before.”
“He’s a lot like my dad. You know, quiet, contemplative, a little bitchy, a super genius.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’re just like that.”
I rolled my eyes as I released a chuckle. “Trust me, if you knew us better, you would see how different we are. Daisy and I got a lot from our mom, which allows us to have a sense of humor, and you know, talk to people. Derek is basically a second version of my father. It doesn’t seem like he got any distinguishable traits from his mother.”
“His mother?” she asked.
“Sorry, we have different moms.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah. My dad was married a long-ass time ago. He says he got it right the second time.” I couldn’t imagine myself getting it right the second time, not after the first one. It ended badly and that left me broken, but the worst part was how happy I’d been at the time. If a perfect marriage couldn’t last, then nothing would.
“And your sister?”
“She’s a doctor too.”
“Wow, that genius gene really runs in the family, huh?”
“Well, my sister is an idiot, so she clearly didn’t inherit it.”
She smiled because she knew I was kidding. “What kind of doctor is she?”
“She started as a general practitioner, but then she moved into this other sector and became a diagnostician, which is a kinda weird specialty that doesn’t quite exist. She works with a team of doctors at a clinic here and tries to correctly diagnose people who have already been to other doctors a million times with no answers. It’s a hard job that requires knowledge of every discipline, along with investigative work and collaboration. She’s deeply, deeply invested in her patients, so she doesn’t stop until she figures it out.”
Her smile softened as she looked at me. “For thinking she’s an idiot, you speak really highly of her.”
“Yeah, don’t tell her