Page 58 of Dr. Brandt

He laughed. “Better watch that mouth around my mom, Doc.” He shook his head, “Sorry she’s been jumping your case about that. I have no idea why she is, either, because I’ve heard her use every word in the book. It’s weird.”

“She’s a great mom, and I can say that with authority because I’ve met many amazing moms in my profession. Yours is one of the best and most caring ones I know.”

“Sounds like you might have a thing for her,” he said with a yawn, and I started to think I was keeping the poor kid up when all he wanted to do was close his eyes.

Seizures were no damn joke. Not only did they pause space and time while you went through them but coming out of them took your ass out also. It was like having your brain suddenly be rebooted.

“Get some sleep, buddy. We can shoot the shit later,” I said. “Oh, and don’t tell your mom I’m a closet curser.”

“Ha,” was all he said, and that’s when I left to let the poor kid get some rest.

I wasn’t prepared for the feelings I’d been experiencing since I’d been here with Jackson and Jessa. I was reminded of the fond times I’d spent with my father before I went away to college and the mornings that I’d spent drinking coffee and talking with my mom—family things. I hadn’t felt anything like this since my parents passed away, the warm and fuzzy feelings, and I didn’t want to fight it. It was like I’d been hypothermic, and someone had wrapped a warm blanket around me.

I had these renewed yet different feelings for Jessa. How did any of this happen? I mean, I never would have described myself as lonely before. If I wanted a woman’s company, it wasn’t hard to attain. Go out, have some beers, and bring whichever gal I’d choose to the nicest hotel suite around until it was time for me to go again. Voila. Done and done. No strings and no one to disrupt my career and the kids who needed me to be the best doctor I could be.

No, I wasn’t lonely; I didn’t think so, anyway. On the contrary, I was the happiest asshole on the planet. I owned lots of real estate, two Cessna airplanes, and a luxury helicopter company that flew tourists all over the coast. I even hired a man to run my father’s company after he passed away so I wouldn’t be distracted by it.

Hell, outside of being a very successful pediatric neurosurgeon, I found a way to enjoy life and live it to its fullest. I was the poster child for living each day as if it were your last, and because of that, I wasn’t going to deny these feelings.

I wanted to believe that Jessa was feeling this way too. She had a look in her eye when I locked eyes with her before we got into the car, a look that made me think she was staring into my soul, and she loved what she found.

There was a reason fate brought my girl and son into my life. And I wasn’t going to ignore that.

Even though we were in a house with my friends, I didn’t give a fuck. I would find a way to start new with my Jessa. The past was in the past for a reason, but the present was where I thrived. My decisions in the here and now would create the future, and that future was looking brighter than the sun moving toward the horizon.

It was time to bring this bottle of wine and blanket to my lady and prove that we were back in each other’s lives for more reasons than one.

“Hey,” I said, trying to act casual and not like some guy who’d been reading inspirational quotes on Instagram all day.

“I was kidding about the wine,” she said, shaking her head and laughing.

“You are so beautiful. You know that?” I said precisely what I felt when my eyes searched her sparkling ones. “I was such a dipshit to walk away from you.”

“Yes, you were,” she arched a playful eyebrow at me. “Now, pour me a glass when we get down to the beach, so I can enjoy it without falling.”

The house was on the cliff, but the trail to the beach was anything but treacherous, thanks to the wooden stairs leading safely down.

Once we reached the bottom, I poured the merlot and handed her the glass. “Hopefully, this will enhance your walk. Listen,” I grew more serious, “I want—”

Fuck. My brain froze. What the hell was I going to say? More than that, why was I so goddamn nervous?

“You want?” Jessa answered with a laugh. She took a sip of her wine while I poured mine fuller than usual. “Maybe you want to tell me why you’re acting so weird?” She took the chenille throw blanket from my hands and wrapped it around her shoulders. “How about this? I want to take a walk and enjoy this crisp ocean air while I watch the waves crash into the shit-stained rocks.”

I smiled and set the wine bottle down next to where I’d kicked off my shoes in the sand. Jessa’s shoes were tossed off to the side, and once I put everything together, I walked toward her on the wet sand.

I slowed some, taking in this view of the woman as she moved gracefully along the shoreline. The wind breezed through her hair, tossing her golden locks in circles, as she watched the waves spraying up after crashing against the rocks in the ocean.

The fog muted the sun, making it chillier than it should’ve been.

“As I was saying before,” I announced as I came up to her side, “You’re a good mom. I mean that.”

“Thank you, Cameron,” she said, her eyes slightly more relaxed after a few sips of wine. “And you’re a great doctor. I’m not just saying that, either. For you to take on Jacks as a patient, then diagnose him so quickly, and take this personal time with him, it means a lot to me.” Her features became more serious, “I wish I were confident about this surgery, but I’m hoping that will come. And soon.”

“Jackson has six months to a year at the absolute most before I cannot operate on him,” I said, my mind functioning much better in surgeon mode than lover-boy mode. “That doesn’t mean I want you to take that amount of time to decide. However, I can see his spirit will pull him through recovery, and even though some areas may be problematic, there will also be areas where he will recover better than I anticipate.”

“Yeah,” she answered, pulling her fingers through her long hair. “I’m just going to need a bit of time. Thank you, though.”

“For what?” I asked, wondering if her brain was misfiring like mine was currently.

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