Page 44 of Auctioned to Dr. Daddy

Tabitha holds up the picture that she’s drawn, offering it to me. “For Demi!”

The picture is a crayon drawing of what at first glance looks like a dinosaur, and on second glance, I realize it’s a horse. My heart skips a beat. I can practically feel the conflict start. Tabitha must really like Demi.

“I’ll give it to her,” I promise, turning back to the call. “Sorry. You wanted, what, a temporary transfer out here?”

I’m distracted now, trying to figure out what to do with Demi. Maybe I’ll push a little harder, see what’s really going on. Let her know that I’m here, no matter what it is, and that I want her more than she realizes. I want more than what we’ve had this whole time.

“Yeah,” says Tyler. Is it me, or does he sound disappointed at that? “Think you can pull that off? I figure you all need the help so… It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Sure,” I tell him. “I’ll see what I can do.”

We chat a few moments more, but Tyler gets off, citing a shift starting soon, and that just leaves me with two more calls on my roster. With a deep breath, I give Mom a ring but she doesn’t pick up. And Emma… I’ll call her back later.

I’ve got enough on my mind for the night.

It’s all still there in the morning, too, when I get Tabitha dressed and dropped off at Kay’s. My shift doesn’t have a full overlap with Demi’s. She comes in several hours after I do, looking as gorgeous as ever, and gives me a soft smile.

“Hey,” she says.

I can see the question in her eyes—she wants to know how mad at her I am.

I pull the folded-up picture out of the deep inner pocket of my doctor’s coat and hand it to her. “Here. Tabby drew this for you.”

“That’s so sweet,” says Demi. She unfolds the picture, and her face lights up. “It's a horse!”

“She takes herself to be a little artist,” I say, with a chuckle. “And she made me promise to give you that as soon as I see you.”

“I love it,” says Demi. “And it reminds me that I wanted to ask you something. When this whole rainy spell stops, do you want to take me up on that old offer and bring Tabby out to the farm for a bit? I think that it could end up being a lot of fun.”

It’s not the conversation that I had been hoping to have… But standing in the middle of the hospital isn’t the right time to try and get her to have a deep talk about this. I opt for making that conversation some other time.

“We’d love to.” Reaching out, I tuck a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “You know, she’s really happy when she gets to see you. Are all kids like that?”

“I’ve never been around a lot of kids,” admits Demi.

We make a quick detour to my office, where she stores the picture for the time being, and then get started on our rounds.

“The farm doesn’t have any young riders. It’s actually just me and Mindy out there these days. She had a son who would come by with his wife, but she passed away. And Mindy doesn’t do much active dressage work anymore.”

“You’re just a natural with them, then. That’s not something to take lightly,” I say, thinking back to the first year that we had Tabitha. Emma and I both had to work so hard to figure out what we were supposed to do.

The tips of her ears go bright red, and she looks away for a moment, her brows pinch together. Then she lets out a huff of laughter and says, “I don’t know about a natural. I’ll settle for Tabitha liking me though.”

“No, you’re a natural. And she’ll have a great time at the farm. I’m sure of it.”

Chapter Twenty

Demi

Therainlastsforalmost a solid week, though it gets a little bit lighter with each passing day.

A lot of people have put in for their vacation time so that they can stay home and deal with family problems in the wake of the storm.

I know that Carter’s taken a few days off to try and help fix his mother’s roof, which started to leak a few days back, and Josie’s talking about cashing in on her vacation the moment the rain stops.

It’s been busy for everyone, but I feel like the EMTs and the ambulance drivers must have had a hell of a time out in that weather.

I say as much when we’re both in the cafeteria together, and Josie shakes her head. “You’ve got no idea. I’m just lucky that I didn’t get stuck with that new driver, Ash. I would have been worried that he would have crashed the whole ambulance.”

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