Page 27 of Stone Vows

“Really?” She puts her hand over my heart and holds it there. “Will you tellme?”

While it’s not entirely true about me not tellinganyone, I figure we’re sharing here. So I decide to bite the bullet and see how she reacts to my revelation.

“I’m paying for a patient’s entire hospital stay.”

“And by entire stay, you mean . . .”

“I mean my patient, myonepatient who is pregnant and on bed rest until she delivers. I think she might be homeless, although she won’t admit it. She walks dogs to get cash, Gina. She was admitted with only the clothes on her back. She has nothing. And nobody has come to visit her.”

“Oh, my God, that’s so sad,” she says. “But if she’s homeless, what’s the point in paying her bill? You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip. We have to treat her anyway.”

“I don’t know. Just a feeling, I guess. I didn’t want her stuck in some shared hospital room without windows for weeks on end, which is what we both know would have happened.”

“So you’re saying she’s better than the other homeless people we treat?”

“No, of course not,” I say. “I don’t know why I did it exactly. I can’t explain it. She’s not telling me her whole story. But I get the idea that there’s more to her than meets the eye.”

She wraps her leg around my leg and squeezes me tightly against her.

Yeah, definitely cuddling.

“You are a bleeding heart, Dr. Stone.”

“So, you don’t think I crossed a line?” I ask.

“We wouldn’t be good doctors if we didn’t cross the line sometimes,” she says.

I nod, somewhat relieved that Gina doesn’t have a problem with this.

“Oh, and I found out why Red has it out for me. She was my dad’s girlfriend during residency. He broke up with her for my mom.”

She laughs. “Seriously? Oh, Kyle, it sucks to be you right now. Good thing obstetrics isn’t your specialty.”

“No shit,” I say.

Gina’s pager goes off. She stretches up to kiss me. This is new, too. I mean, we kiss all the time. But only when we’re fucking. Never after.

“I might miss rounds. Depends on what’s up,” she says. “So, I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah, see you later,” I say, gathering my scrubs off the floor.

We don’t ever round on Elizabeth. And we won’t unless anything changes. As Dr. Redman said, her case doesn’t interest her.

As it turns out, Gina does, in fact, miss rounds.Damn. Must mean she has a good case. I don’t ever get paged. Not unless the other residents are busy. It was just my luck that they were all fucking busy when the Beaumonts came in. I mainly spend my days fetching labs, drawing blood, and covering non-emergent cases. I’m nothing more than a glorified nurse. I’m the low man. And now I know that’s how it’ll be.

Three and a half weeks of being Redman’s slave. Then I’ll be free from her.

Then something happens. My heart misses a beat. And if I’m not mistaken, it happened when I thought that in three and a half weeks, I’ll not only be free from Red, but from my one and only patient.

I shake off the notion and head to the cafeteria after rounds for a quick breakfast of a bagel and some coffee. On my way out, something on the dessert cart catches my eye.

I walk over and pick out six various cups of Jell-O, earning me an amused look from the cashier.

“Research,” I say.

She furrows her brow at me as I laugh, grabbing two spoons before I head out the door.

Chapter Thirteen

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