Page 5 of Resisting You

“Drama’s on high today, I see,” Lane said.

Frey grimaced. “I think I might be getting fired. Or maybe suspended if I’m lucky.”

Lane was quiet for a long moment. “Are you serious?”

Frey groaned, then recounted the entire story. “There’s a part of me that thinks maybe Renato did this on purpose,” he said when he was finished. “Like, this is the penultimate prank.”

Lane spluttered. “You think he drew the dick on his patient and blamed you to get you fired?”

“Call me a conspiracy theorist, but what better way to get rid of me, right?”

“Except wouldn’t the guy remember drawing the dick on his own knee?” Lane pressed.

“People going in for elective amputations are on a lot of drugs. The amnesia kind of drugs. It’ll probably come back eventually, but by that time, I could be living under a bridge with my son,” Frey said, dropping his forehead down on the counter.

“Yes, because all of your friends with spare rooms would totally let you and your son live under a bridge,” Lane said dryly. “Bowen owns a whole house he’s not using.”

Frey grinned in spite of himself. “So has he officially forgiven me for trying to set him up with someone who wasn’t you?”

Lane chuckled. “Yes. And that’ll be solid when I put this ring on his finger.”

Frey held back a small squeal. “Shut up.”

“Going to, because he’s going to be home any minute, and we’re not talking about me right now. Tell me how bad this really is. Did you get sent home from work?”

Frey sighed and took a long drink of his water before peering around the corner to make sure Rex was still asleep. “No. But I got kicked out of the OR, and I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss what happened.”

“So you can explain it all then. People like you, Frey,” Lane said softly. “I’m a thousand percent sure that this doctor isn’t trying to set you up to be fired. And he might be an asshole, but there has to be some reason in him.”

“There isn’t,” Frey snarled, then took a calming breath. “I’m just…tired. I left one absurdly stressful department so I wouldn’t be such an emotional wreck every time I came home to my son, and somehow, this is even worse.”

“Can you be transferred back?” Lane asked.

He could. Maybe. Probably. But he wasn’t any good to anyone in L & D when he kept falling apart at the sight of medically fragile babies. He was one incident away from being fired for that alone. He couldn’t risk his whole world crumbling. Not after working so hard to give Rex the stable life he deserved.

“I just need a break or something,” he said.

“Want me to watch the kiddo so you can go out?” Lane offered. “You have a phone full of hookups. Maybe a night away would be good for you.”

He winced. He hated—hated—that his best friend believed the lies. But he wasn’t sure he was ready to come clean. “Let me think about it. Right now, I just need to get this sandwich to digest and get through tomorrow.”

“Why don’t you and Rex come over for dinner tomorrow after your shift. Come over early, and he can help me make homemade chicken nuggets,” Lane said.

Frey wanted to cry. “Yeah?”

“Yes. I love you,” Lane said. He was the kind of guy who had been deprived of love for far too long, and he was fucking precious with it now that he had it in abundance. It still made Frey’s chest ache when he heard just how genuinely he meant those words.

“I love you too, honey. So much. And Rex will totally be excited.”

“Good. We’ll see you tomorrow. And call me again if you need to vent more,” Lane said.

“Will do.” He hung up knowing full well the last thing he would do that night was burden his friend. No matter how much he might need it.

Chapter Two

In the years Renato had been a surgeon, he’d never met a nurse like Frey Millie. He’d met and worked with the most incompetent wastes of space that had no business being passed in nursing school, but those people were easy to handle. Having them fired made sense.

Frey did not make sense.

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