Page 71 of Torn In Two

“Isn’t that why you’re telling me though? Because you want advice?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know why I’m telling you.”

“Do you want me to guess?”

He glared at me. “Do I?”

I sniggered. The answering questions with questions thing was annoying at times, though it was effective, which was why I did it. It wasn’t my place as a doctor to push my own beliefs and opinions onto a patient. Only to help them sort out how they felt about a situation. And clearly, Hawk needed to talk to someone. “You don’t have anyone else to confide in,” I stated. “Either your friends and family wouldn’t accept it, or you just think they wouldn’t. Third option being it’s you who doesn’t want to accept whatever happened between you and Hayden.”

He thought that over for a minute. “I think I’d rather clean bedpans than talk this over with you.”

I nodded, not wanting to rush him. “Fair call. But I’ll be over at your place for my first session with Hayley Jade after I finish up here tonight, in case you change your mind.”

“I won’t.”

“Also fair enough.” I chuckled, watching him walk away. But then I called him back. “Hawk?”

He stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“When are you going to get your GED so we can start training you properly?”

He paused. “Never.”

I sighed at his stubbornness. “That’s a waste of natural talent. You know that, right? You’re good with the patients. Surprisingly good, considering…”

“Considering I’m a biker.”

I smiled. “I was going to say considering you’re an asshole the rest of the time, but sure, let’s go with biker if you prefer.”

He scowled and, laughing, I walked past him.

“Seriously, Hawk. Get your GED. I can point you in the right direction after that. Don’t be too proud to ask for what you want. I’m in your corner, and I’m pretty smart. I can help.”

He glared at me. “Why?”

I frowned. “Why what?”

“Why help me? I’m a high school dropout from Saint View.”

“You’re more than that.”

“You don’t know me.”

I shrugged. “I don’t. But I’m a psychologist. So I pay attention to people, and maybe I see more than you think I do.”

“Don’t you doctors deal with facts? Sounds to me like you’re just doing a lot of assuming.”

That he didn’t want people to know he was actually a good guy on the inside was what made him so fascinating to me. Despite his assumptions, I had been paying attention, because he was with Kara.

And Kara was damn hard to ignore, even when I’d vowed to just be her friend.

I eyed Hawk and the stubborn set of his jaw. Besides Kara, had he ever had anyone see the good in him? The good I saw every day he worked here? It kinda pissed me off that perhaps nobody had ever seen the potential in him. “You’re a man who held a little girl, who isn’t his, because it made her feel safe in a scary hospital where people were trying to poke and prod her. You’re a man who protected that girl’s mother when you thought she was in danger.”

“I punched you in the face.”

“Sure. I was the perceived danger in that situation, and your intuition was way off, but you did what you thought was right. I respect that, otherwise, I wouldn’t be standing here, trying to make you believe you’re worth more than you think you are.”

Hawk breathed out slowly, giving in to my badgering. “I failed the GED already.”

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