Page 165 of Bad Blood

And his temper.

46

A Faulty Plan

Dax

Saturday, June 10 th

6:06 p.m.

Liam is losing his shit.

I take a deep breath, count to ten. I mute the TV, drop my feet from the coffee table, and lean forward with my elbows on my knees. “Liam.”

“Hmmm?”

“You’re gonna wear a hole in the floor.”

He comes to a dead stop, rubbing his knuckles over his hip. “Did she respond?”

“No.” I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, assuming he’s referencing the drawn-out text he slyly sent from my phone to Brighton about his grand idea. His need to know what she’s said is annoying.

“That’s a pretty urgent-sounding text, right? Do you think she’s worried?”

“Or busy. I told you—everything’s fine.” I drop my head back against the cushion, close my eyes, and pinch the bridge of my nose.

“But what if she can’t come over? Or meet? What’s his problem with her, anyway? Sounds like there’s some kind of bad blood between them.”

“I think you need to worry more about the X-rays you didn’t get and what she’s going to do when she finds out.”

“I’m fine,” he says as he coughs once and clears his throat. The recliner scoots back when he plops into it. “You know how I mentioned my idea about talking to Dr. Matthews.” He pauses, raking a hand through his tufts of hair. “And asking to transfer my care to him from Brighton—I left something out. Do you think it could get her in trouble?” He tenses as soon as the words are out of his mouth.

I let this process.

His lips fall into a straight line. He scoots to the edge of the seat.

It’s obvious my silence is killing him. Now he knows what it feels like.

“You have the best doctor in New York, you’re in the middle of treatment, and everything is going great, and you want to transfer to a different doctor, right?”

He hangs his head but nods.

“Sounds like you’re an idiot. But if you’re playing toward his ego, I think it might work. Wait, wait, wait . . .” I hold up my hand. “You think she might get in trouble? You haven’t come up with an idea about why you want to transfer?”

I pull my phone off the cushion next to me, open the text thread, and see she still hasn’t responded.

“That’s the only piece I’m missing, but I think this could work.”

“What do you plan to say to Dr. Matthews? Like, why do you want to change?”

“It would be for personal reasons.”

“She wasn’t supposed to take you on as a patient in the first place. If you ask to change, he’s going to want to know why.”

“That’s why I text her. I want to get her opinion on things.”

“We can come up with something else.”

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