arrived surprisingly quickly, and after making note of the date in her diary, she pondered the booking.
She’d never done any work for hospitals before, and while the hosting hospital wasn’t Manny’s, what were the odds of landing a job like this after she’d started dating a doctor? Had he put in a good word for her?
She didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed. He’d already helped her out enough with the New Zealand jobs. She wasn’t some charity case. But she immediately felt bad for being prickly. Who cared how the referral came her way? She needed the work, she needed the money; she should be thankful rather than self-sabotaging.
Was she trying to find faults with Manny because he was too perfect?
And did his perfection accentuate her imperfections, playing into every one of her insecurities?
She had to be careful, because if she got too caught up in analyzing their differences, she could ruin the best thing to happen to her. She wanted to believe in him, to be grateful for this new, sparkly relationship.
But could they ever have a real relationship if she withheld the truth?
It was too early to reveal her true self to him, but there’d come a time soon when she would have to, and that day terrified her.
48
Manny had worked twelve hours straight and wanted to head home, have a shower, and fall into bed. But the moment he glimpsed Izzy’s text message on his cell, “please come see me,” he shelved his fatigue and hightailed it to her place.
She must have her test results.
She wanted to deliver them in person.
Which could only mean one thing.
Bad news.
How many times had he been on the opposite side of this scenario, the one imparting the bad news? Too many to count, and it never got easier. No matter how calm his voice, how stoic his expression, how much he steeled his nerve, watching the faces of patients’ loved ones crumple when he imparted a serious diagnosis never failed to gut him.
Now he could be on the receiving end, and he couldn’t contemplate a world without Izzy in it. She’d been his rock, his everything, for so long. She’d got him through the dark time after his mom’s death, when the guilt threatened to overwhelm him. She badgered him and nagged him but she loved him irrevocably, and the thought of her having a terminal illness made him want to retch.
Considering the badly injured, mutilated patients from the car pileup he’d attended to for the last twelve hours, he shouldn’t speed, but he made it to Izzy’s in record time. He parked out the front and turned off the engine, then sat in the car for a full minute, gripping the steering wheel and resting his forehead against it. Exhaustion made his head spin, but it was more than that. Being light-headed stemmed from what he’d face when he walked inside his grandmother’s house.
After dragging in several calming breaths, he straightened, shook out his arms, and got out of the car. Mustering every ounce of calm, he strode to the front door and let himself in. He couldn’t avoid this any longer. He needed to know what they were dealing with. Now.
The aroma of beef masala chops emanated from the kitchen, and he followed the tantalizing smell. They’d been his favorite from childhood and reserved for special occasions. He hated that he’d forever associate something he loved with the news he knew wouldn’t be good.
“I made your favorite,” Izzy said, tapping a wooden spoon against the edge of the pot before re-covering it. “Thought you might be hungry after a long shift.”
He crossed the kitchen to drop a kiss on her cheek. “How did you know I was on a long shift?”
“Because you would’ve been here thirty minutes after my text otherwise.”
“True,” he said, glad she’d brought it up rather than hedging around the news she had to impart. “You got your results?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“Sit. Have some masala chai.”
Manny didn’t want tea. He didn’t want anything other than good news, but he’d given up wishing for things that could never happen around the time he’d pushed his mom to exercise and she’d dropped dead of a heart attack.
“Okay,” he said, knowing this was part of a ritual, a long-established way of Izzy getting her nerves under control. He’d seen it countless times before. The day he’d got a scholarship to attend a lauded private school. The day his final high school grades came out. The day he was offered