Page 37 of Stone Vows

My head is so messed up right now. Gina is touching me inappropriately in front of a patient. And she used my first name. Is she trying to stake her claim on me? Or is she simply reacting to the already inappropriate situation I’ve put us all in?

Elizabeth is staring at Gina’s hand on my shoulder. She doesn’t seem upset about it. Doesn’t seem happy either. She just seems . . . pensive. Then she turns back to the television.

“Do you like baseball?” she asks Gina after an awkward few moments of silence.

“Sports aren’t really my thing,” Gina says.

“That’s too bad,” she says. “I was going to ask you to join us. We have a ton of food leftover.”

Elizabeth doesn’t seem nearly as uncomfortable as I am. Maybe I was reading this wrong all along. She hasn’t given me any indication that she sees me as anything more than her doctor. I’m overworked. I’m tired. I’m taking pity on a girl who has nothing and no one and it’s clouded my judgment.

They warned us about this in medical school. Getting too involved with our patients. Making things personal. Damn Dr. Redman for putting me in this position.

“I can see that,” Gina says, eyeing the mostly-full food containers. “Dr. Stone is always doing such nice things for his patients.”

“I’ll bet he is,” Elizabeth says, eyeing me with a bit of a smart-ass smirk. “Do you take them all Jell-O?”

I can’t help my laugh as I shake my head at the private joke.

Gina’s pager goes off and I’ve never been so relieved to be saved by the proverbial bell. She bids goodbye to Elizabeth and then leans down to whisper something in my ear. “I know something we can do with Jell-O later. You can eat it off me. Or maybe out of me.”

For the second time tonight, my dick twitches. And I watch her leave the room, wondering why I would ever dream of messing up the good thing I have going with her for a crapload of complication.

“She seems nice,” Elizabeth says. “And she’s pretty. Is she your girlfriend?”

My eyes snap to hers at the unexpectedly personal question. She doesn’t ask personal questions. Not even when we play ‘Never have I ever.’

“Girlfriend? No. Gina is . . . to be honest, I don’t know what she is.” I sigh.

“From the looks of it, I’d say she wants to be.”

I nod hesitantly. I know. I’ve known for a while now. But for the life of me, I just can’t figure out if it’s the relationship I don’t want, or the woman.

Chapter Seventeen

“Did Dr. Redman finally give you more patients?” Elizabeth asks when I check on her a few days later.

“Nope,” I say, looking over the notes in her chart. “It’s still just you.”

“Oh,” she says. “I figured since I haven’t seen much of you for the last couple of days that she must have finally let you out of the doghouse.”

She’s right. I haven’t been to see her much. In fact, I’ve done everything I cannotto see her. I’ve done my duty, making sure she and the baby are okay, but other than that, I’ve all but relinquished my babysitting duties to the nurses.

I’ve even gone so far as to seek out more scut. Labs, blood draws, hell, even enemas. Anything to keep me busy enough so I don’t have time to socialize.

I went too far. I’m sticking to professionalism from here on out.

“No new patients,” I tell her. “Just a lot of busy work.”

“Your other sister-in-law came to see me yesterday,” she says.

I look up from her chart. “Charlie was here?”

“Yeah, I like her. She watched a whole game with me.”

I feel guilty that I left early the other night. But I had to. It wasn’t fair to Gina to have to watch me like that with another woman. It wasn’t fair to Elizabeth when what I was doing was crossing the line. It wasn’t even fair to me—putting myself in that situation.

I’m grateful to my sisters-in-law for stepping up. Especially now that I’m stepping away.

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