Page 26 of Stone Vows

“Sorry, son. It appears you’ve been getting the wrath of a woman scorned. Although you think she’d have long gotten over it by now.”

“Scorned?” I ask. “What did you do to her?”

“I broke up with her to date your mother.”

I roll my eyes and let my head fall back as I look up at the ceiling. “Great. Just absolutely fucking perfect.”

“Don’t curse in front of Mallory,” Dad reprimands me.

“Sorry.”

“Details, Dad,” Chad says. “How long were you and Dr. Redman together?”

“Not long, a month or so,” he says. “It was near the end of our third year. We had different specialties, obviously, but it was a smaller hospital, so residents pretty much all knew each other, despite their different fields of study. But when your mom joined the program as an intern, I only had eyes for her. I ended it with Louise before I asked your mom out. But she always knew why I left her.”

“One month?” I ask. “She’s making my life a living hell because she dated you for one month over thirty years ago?”

Dad laughs again. “It appears I’m a hard man to get over.”

Great. I have to spend the next four weeks with a woman who hates my father. How’d I get so lucky?

But then I think of all the experiences I’ve had this week. Tiny, lifeless babies that fit in my hand notwithstanding, I’d say it’s been one hell of a week. And I surmise that despite the wicked witch of OB, I am, in fact, pretty damn lucky.

Chapter Twelve

Gina climbs off me and blows out a long breath. “Wow,” she says. “Thanks, doctor, I needed that.”

I laugh. “I’m here to serve.”

“And serve me well, you have,” she says, lying down beside me. “Twice.”

For once, neither of us is in a hurry to get anywhere. No pagers are going off. Rounds don’t start for fifteen minutes. It’s quiet. Almost eerily so.

Red runs an even tighter ship than Manning down in the ER. She has us pulling on-call duty every third night. Gina was on call last night, and based on her ragged appearance, it doesn’t look like she had much sleep.

“Busy night?” I ask.

“You have no idea.” She buries her head into the crook of my neck. She’s never done this before. This is dangerously close to cuddling.

We don’t cuddle.

I take a beat and try to decide if I like it. But while the jury is still out, I figure I should test the waters, so I slip my arm around her.

She sighs audibly into my shoulder. I take that to mean she’s already decidedshelikes it.

I stare down at her long brown hair before I pull it from the confines of her hair tie. I run my fingers through it. I’m not sure why I’ve always been attracted to brunettes. Maybe because, like every other kid on my street, I had a crush on Mallory Shaffer growing up—the girl who is now married to, and having a kid with, my brother.

I never told Chad that. He’d probably have kicked the shit out of me if I had. He was always super protective of her, even though they were nothing more than best friends back then.

And although I don’t share my middle brother’s infamous and highly-televised sexual promiscuity, I’ve dated my fair share of women. Or should I say, I’ve dated my fair share of brunettes. I twist a chunk of Gina’s dark hair around my fingers. Yes, I’m definitely a brunette man.

Gina cranes her neck to look up at me. “We can tell each other stuff, can’t we, Kyle? I mean, we’ve got each other’s backs, right?”

My body stiffens. “You didn’t kill a patient last night, did you?”

“No, nothing like that. Not yet anyway. But I did disobey an order Dr. Anders gave me. Or rather, I ordered labs she told me not to order. I know it could cost my patient a lot of money. But I really felt strongly that she needed them. I’ll take the heat. Even if I’m wrong and the labs don’t show anything, I still stand by my decision. But I was too chicken to tell Dr. Anders what I did. I figured I’d just wait for her to see it in the chart. Dr. Redman will probably have my ass when Anders tells her.”

“I did something I haven’t told anyone about, either,” I say.

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