Page 17 of Resisting You

But it didn’t matter so long as everyone did their jobs.

“Hey, Dr. Agosti. Are you doing rounds?” Aminah asked with a small frown.

He shook his head. “No. I just stopped by to grab something out of my locker.” He swore he saw Cole’s mouth twitch into a smirk, but when he looked again, the man was busy on the computer. “I wanted to let you know that Frey won’t be back on shift.”

At that, Cole’s gaze shot up. “What? Why?” His tone was definitely accusatory, and Renato supposed he’d earned that, considering he’d kicked Frey out of the OR.

“His son is being brought in for an injury. Frey said it wasn’t anything to worry about, but it sounded like it might be serious,” Renato answered.

Cole shot up. “Do you mind if I head downstairs to call him?”

“Go, but I’m logging this as your lunch, so grab something to eat on your way back,” Aminah said.

Cole was out of there before Renato could take a full breath, and when they were alone, he turned back to the one remaining nurse. “Have you met his son?”

Aminah’s brows shot up. “Rex? Yeah, he comes by sometimes. A few weeks ago, his mentor guy was working with him on medical phrases, so they stopped by to say hi and practice with him a little.”

Renato’s brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”

Aminah lifted her hands. “You know,” she hesitated, then spelled, ‘ASL.’

“His son’s learning sign language?”

Aminah laughed. “I mean, he’s Deaf, so…yeah? The guy who takes him a few times a week teaches him how to communicate with hearing people in certain situations, like if he gets sent to the ER.”

Renato’s knees felt weak with surprise. He had no idea. No idea. He supposed it made sense that Frey wouldn’t have introduced his son to Renato, considering how much they couldn’t stand each other, but it stung all the same.

“He gets vertigo,” Aminah said in the silence between them.

Renato frowned. “His son?”

“Mm. Something to do with his condition. Frey doesn’t really talk about it, and no one asks because you know…”

It wasn’t anyone’s business. Renato understood that. People pressed him in the beginning when Grady had passed, but he wasn’t in the mood to share those intimate details with people who knew the bare minimum about him. “Are you going to be okay without him?”

Aminah laughed. “Why? You volunteering to take a nursing shift?”

Renato held up his hands. “You wouldn’t want me to. But maybe I can make a call or something.”

“We’ve got it.” She smiled sweetly at him, which he wasn’t sure he deserved. He wasn’t cruel to her, but he wasn’t very kind to anyone on the floor. And maybe that was something he should work on. “But if we need anything, I’ll page you. Sound fair?”

“More than.”

He was halfway to his office when he was paged by peds ED, and somehow, he just knew. He didn’t know how, but he felt like he was trembling when the nurse answered his call.

“Consult on X-rays,” she said, her tone snappy. “Patient is under ten.”

He wanted more information than that, but also, he didn’t. He wanted to run and hide in his office and let someone else take it, but he knew better than that. So, he put one foot in front of the other and somehow made his way to the pediatric emergency department.

Renato had never really given children a thought. He had a decent enough bedside manner to deal with kids when they were his patients. They always seemed to like him. He even had a small pinboard in his office with cards and drawings kids had done for him over the years. But it wasn’t his main area of focus.

Still, he always felt soothed when he turned from sterile white walls and paintings of watercolor succulents to the brightly colored animals and pseudo-jungle themes that the children all seemed to enjoy. He wasn’t really sure why either. Little ones were always so…chaotic.

They were brutal and honest sometimes, and other times terrible little liars who could give the smartest sociopath a run for their money. They were subjected to their own ego and natures without thoughts of morality or social propriety.

And in a small way, he was jealous of that. He’d lived his entire life trying to please other people—whether it was friends, family, his husband, or his colleagues. It was only in the last few years that he’d gotten really tired of trying to be something else for the comfort of others.

It was easier to be a dick—especially since that’s what everyone assumed he was anyway.

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