front of the window looking out over the city.
I’d been all confidence for the staff, and it wasn’t a lie – I truly believed in myself and my mission. And more than that, doubt didn’t come naturally to me. But I’d made some big promises. The plans had existed solely in my mind for the last year, and now they were out in the open. And I wouldn’t go back on my word. Pitt Medical Group was about to have its biggest year yet, and I needed to be ready for it.
I didn’t get two sips into my coffee, however, before a chime sounded through my office – the sound meant my secretary, Hannah, wanted my attention.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Dr. Pitt,” she answered. “Your brother’s here to see you.”
Now, that’s a surprise. My brother, Andrew, as far as I knew, had been up to his ears in work at the law practice in Denver where he’d been hired. Why he was in White Pines, I could only guess.
“Send him in.”
“Of course.”
I set my coffee on my desk and turned to the door just in time to watch it open and Andrew saunter in like he owned the building.
“Afternoon,” he said, serious as ever.
Andrew was tall and good-looking with short, dark hair and a trim face. He was dressed in a well-fitted suit, one that wordlessly spoke to his new status as a highly paid lawyer. His eyes were a deep brown, and his mouth was in a flat line.
It was still somewhat strange to have a brother in my life, something I was still wrapping my head around. We weren’t simply brothers – we were long-lost brothers, having only found one another again after decades of being separated. Or, to be specific, he’d found me.
Our biological mother had given me up as a baby, my father a nameless man who hadn’t bothered to stick around to do the right thing. When she’d had Andrew two years later, she’d been in a position to keep him.
He’d done some research over the last few years and eventually tracked me down. As such, we were back in one another’s lives. It was good to have him, of course, but our relationship was…strained. It didn’t help matters that Andrew was just so damn serious all the time.
I glanced down and saw something in his hand. “Good to see you, Andrew,” I said, stepping over to him and giving a handshake that quickly turned into a hearty, back-slapping hug.
“I assume you had something to do with that crowd of thunderstruck doctors I passed on the way in?”
I grinned, pleased that I’d shaken them up a bit. “You assume correctly. I just finished laying out my plans for the next several years. Gave them a hell of a lot to process.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
I glanced at what was in his hand – a rolled-up magazine. I laughed a bit as I realized what it was.
“And it also looks like you’re picking up a little celebrity status along the way.”
He handed the magazine to me, though I didn’t need to take it to know who was on the cover. It was me, of course. The magazine was Forbes, and the shot was of me in my suit, a clean, white lab coat on over it. I was seated in my office behind the desk, a serious expression on my face. The headline read “Dr. Duncan Pitt – The Future of Medicine Will See You Now.”
“I can’t believe I let them talk me into that,” I said, shaking my head as I stared at it.
A small grin appeared on Andrew’s lips – not a common sight. “You say that like they had to twist your arm.” He took a seat in one of the chairs in the meeting area in my office. “Come on, Duncan – you’re getting a little taste of fame and you like it. No shame in that.”
I unbuttoned my suit jacket and sat down on the edge of the desk. “Fame has nothing to do with it. The reason I did that piece was because I want to attract talent. The more my name gets out there, the more likely it is that the best doctors in the country, hell, the world, know that Pitt Medical Group is the health care institution of the future.”
The grin stayed on his face. “That’s very noble of you. Not sure if I buy it, but noble all the same.”
“Please. You really think I want to be famous?