was doing, or even just to fucking apologize.
So once again, he was the wrecking ball that caused the damage and I was the one trying to hold it all together. But that was just Craig. He hadn’t changed and never would. I just had to remember that from now on.
Adi sniffed as she stepped away from me, glancing up into my eyes before nodding. “I know you’re here, Mommy. I just wish I hadn’t gotten onto the stupid motorcycle.”
“I know.” I gently encircled her wrist and crouched down in front of her, keeping my gaze on hers. “But listen to me, baby. Sometimes, bad things happen in life. We can’t go back to change them, so we have to get through them and learn from them. The key is never to make the same mistake twice.”
A lesson I had learned the hard way, especially now. I didn’t know how I would handle any future requests from Craig to see Adi, but it certainly wouldn’t be with blind fucking faith that he wouldn’t hurt his own daughter.
My phone ringing from the counter distracted me, but Adi was already turning back to her sandwich anyway. A hospital number flashed on my screen and I froze on the spot. I’d taken some time off, but I’d been surprised that they hadn’t called me in yet regardless.
I wasn’t ready to leave Adi, though. Two weeks just wasn’t enough after everything she’d been through and was still going through.
But if I didn’t answer, I risked losing my job. Since I definitely couldn’t afford for that to happen, I brushed my apprehension aside and took the damn call.
“Hi, this is April.”
“April?” a deep masculine voice that sent shivers rolling down my spine said. “Hi. I, uh, I wasn’t sure you were going to answer.” Even when Chris stumbled over his words as if he hadn’t been expecting me to answer, he still managed to sound sexy. “This is Chris Matthews. From the hospital. I treated your daughter a couple of weeks ago.”
“Yeah, I know who you are.” I smiled, shaking my head. “It’s not like I would’ve forgotten the doctor who helped my baby this fast, even if I hadn’t known you before.”
A low, rumbling kind of chuckle came from his end of the line, and my knees nearly buckled at the sound. “I suppose that’s true. Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you by implying you forgot me.”
“You haven’t offended me.” I didn’t take offense easily, but I also didn’t usually go weak in the knees because of the sound of a man’s amusement either. “What’s up?”
He cleared his throat, and I got the feeling that he was actually nervous about this call, which was extremely fucking weird. “I wanted to check in on you and Adi, find out how you’re doing.”
Right, because even Doctor Sexy cares more about Adi than her own damn father.
I released a slow breath through my nostrils. “She’s doing better, but she’s still having some problems with her arm. We’ve done everything the doctor told us to do when she was discharged, but the going has been slow.”
Chris didn’t skip a beat. “Bring her in next week. I can do some light exercises with her, gauge how far she’s come, and we can work out a treatment plan for her from there?”
My eyebrows shot up, but I was already shaking my head. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think I can afford a doctor like you. You’re kind of a big shot, you know?”
He chuckled again, and it had the same effect on my knees as before. What the hell is wrong with me?
“I don’t need money, April,” he said, his tone firm and confident. If he’d been anyone else, I probably would’ve felt like they were bragging but not with him. He’d simply stated a fact, nothing patronizing or condescending about it. “Bring her in next week, please? I’d love to take a look at her and see what we can do to help her regain her full mobility. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
Even if he didn’t need money and wasn’t being a prick about it, it still didn’t sit well with me to be regarded as a charity case. Not by him or anyone else.
But since he’d offered to do the physical therapy with Adi before, I’d gone to check up on what it would cost us to go see him. His sessions were way out of our price range, which was why I