body does some weirdly effective stuff in its quest to fight off sickness.”
Sophia continued to hold Bryson’s hand between hers though she looked at Ryker. “You’re a doctor?”
Ryker sighed before he nodded. “I’m a pediatrician, to be exact.”
She stared at him for a moment. “I’m so glad.” He lifted his brows at her response. “If you didn’t have that expertise, you wouldn’t have known what was wrong with Bryson.”
He seemed to consider her words before responding. “I think you would have gotten him to the ER on your own.”
Sophia hoped that was true. “Maybe. But probably not as soon as you did.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Bryson’s here, and that’s all that matters.”
“Why aren’t you working as a pediatrician anymore?” Sophia asked.
Ryker looked at her for a moment, then his gaze moved to Bryson. For a moment, Sophia wasn’t sure he was going to answer her question, let alone respond in any way.
“When all this is over, maybe we can exchange stories,” he said without looking at her.
“What?”
“I suspect you have a story about your and Bryson’s life before you came back to New Hope.” Sophia tensed at his words. “I have a story about why I’m not a practising pediatrician. When Bryson is better and back home, I’ll tell you my story if you tell me yours.” He glanced at her. “You don’t have to agree right now.”
Sophia was glad he said that because right then, she didn’t want to share her story with him. She didn’t want to see judgment on his face when she revealed all the bad decisions she’d made and how those decisions had negatively impacted Bryson.
“Right now, let’s just focus on Bryson, and I’ll do my best to explain things to you if you have questions.”
“Thank you,” Sophia said.
Ryker gave her a small smile, softening the tension on his face. “I am more than happy to help you with Bryson. He’s…special.”
That was something Sophia could absolutely agree with. But in that moment, she was also thinking that Ryker was pretty special himself. Thinking those kinds of thoughts might lead to heartache later, but right then, Sophia found she didn’t care.
She was beyond grateful for Ryker’s actions, and the fact that he’d been willing to risk revealing a fact about himself that he’d kept private in order to help Bryson, showed that he was a good man. Someone she was happy to know and happy to have in Bryson’s life in whatever manner he wanted to be.
~*~
Ryker waited for regret to fill him. He’d known there was a chance that coming into the ER with Bryson the way he had would expose his background to Sophia. Of course, the risk had sky-rocketed when the doctor attending Bryson in the ER had been a former classmate and casual friend from Seattle.
Being outside of Seattle, he hadn’t considered that he might come across someone he knew. But as luck would have it, his old friend had somehow ended up in the hospital closest to New Hope Falls that had an ER.
But the regret didn’t come. Even though he wouldn’t have thought he wanted to involve himself in a medical situation, especially with a child, he was glad he’d been able to in this case. Helping Bryson and Sophia brought on absolutely no regret. The only thing he would have changed would have been Bryson needing medical help, to begin with.
He wished that the little boy had never gotten sick at all. But since that wasn’t something he could change, Ryker was happy to be able to use his medical knowledge to help them in any way he could.
Thankfully, the feeling of panic had lessened considerably, but the feeling of helplessness still weighed heavily on him. There was nothing he could do to help Bryson beyond what he’d done already. From this point on, someone else would be responsible for Bryson’s care.
Ryker actually itched to be the one in charge of this particular case. He knew that Fred Barkman was an excellent doctor, but like he’d told Sophia, Bryson was special. He was important to Ryker. Just like the woman sitting beside him was.
The doctor came back into the room, giving Ryker a nod before focusing on Sophia. “After consulting with some of my colleagues, I’ve made the decision that it would be best for Bryson to be transferred to PNW Children’s Hospital in Seattle.”
“What?”
Ryker could hear the panic in Sophia’s voice. He leaned forward and reached out to cover her hands where they held Bryson’s.
Fred gave him a