Page 6 of Be My Reason

“Got it covered,” I assure him, as I gather my hair into a messy bun and throw on last night’s clothes. “But it is so sweet of you to ask.” I give him a quick peck on the cheek and head out to the kitchen to wait in a trance for the automatic coffee maker to finish brewing my sanity.

I sit at the bar, tracing my finger over the shiny, smooth scar on the back of my right hand as I think back to when I met Michael. Although it was almost two years ago, it seems like just yesterday. I was twenty-three and starting out with the bakery when I suffered a pretty bad burn to my hand that landed me in the hospital. He was a first-year resident doing his ER rotation.

“Miss Vaughn?” he said, entering the room while looking down at the paperwork so that I could only see the top of his head. “It says here that you burned your right hand. Can you tell me what happened?” He fumbled a bit with the paperwork and snuck a look behind him. Then he looked up at me all nervous-like, but obviously trying to look like he knew what he was doing.

Oh, this doctor is seriouslygood looking, I thought. I had all but forgotten about my hand that, merely a moment before, felt like it was searing over hot coals lit on fire from the depths of hell. Thank God that I didn’t have to remove any clothing or get into a compromising position in front of Doctor Adonis. I shook my head at the horrid thought.

“B-Brooklyn,” I said quietly.Dang it! I thought. Did I just stutter? What am I, twelve?

“Brooklyn? Is that where you sustained the burn?” he questioned, with a little furrow between his eyes like he was trying to figure something out. “Is that an area of Savannah? I’m pretty new here . . . uh, to Savannah, not the hospital. Well, I’m a first-year so I am new to the hospital, but what I meant to say was that I don’t know much about the area. I haven’t been exploring yet but I hope to very soon if I can find a local to show me around.” He looked at me long and deep like I hadn’t just burned the crap out of my hand and wasn’t in need of medical attention.

“Ahem,” I heard. I looked behind him to find the source of the interruption. There was another doctor standing in the doorway staring him down. That seemed to get him to regain his composure rather quickly.

Red crept up his face which brought out the auburn in his light hair, making him appear sexier, if at all possible. “So, you were saying about Brooklyn?” He was flustered just like I was.

Was he flirting with me? Why would he be? He was a doctor for heaven’s sake and I’m me. I couldn’t pull my eyes away and was probably beginning to look a little stupid staring up at him like that.

“Yes.Uh, no. I mean, yes I got burned at Brooklyn’s. It’s my bakery and I was so stupid wearing a bracelet while getting my trays from the oven. It got caught and I couldn’t pull it loose and my hand started burning and it smelled awful and there was screaming and maybe a little crying, and finally it came out but I broke my bracelet so Emma is going to freak because she gave it to me for my birthday . . .” Oh, God kill me now! Just stop talking, I thought. He probably assumed I was crazy, going on and on like that.

Then I added, “But, it’s also my name.” I looked up into those grey-as-steel eyes and tried to get myself together.Was my mascara running? Why didn’t I look in the mirror before arriving? Of course it’s running, you dimwit, I thought. You were crying which also means your eyes are puffy and you look like hell in general.

“Your name?” he said, still looking confused from my rambling.

“Brooklyn. It’s my name. You called me Miss Vaughn. Please call me Brooklyn, well . . . Lyn,” I squeaked out, thankful that I could complete a sentence.

He smirked.Did that mean he thought I liked him? Well, okay maybe I did but that didn’t mean he should smirk at me. “Okay, Brooklyn or Lyn, the girl and the bakery, call me Doctor Michael. Let’s have a look at this.” Back in full doc mode then because, well I was hurt and, well, I could only guess that was his boss still standing behind him with that stern look on his face. But don’t think I didn’t see him look up at me repeatedly with a gorgeous grin only to catch me staring right back at him. Damn that guy in the doorway, I thought. Leave hot Doctor Michael and me alone!

I smile to myself when I remember that Michael referred to his boss as a ‘cockblocker.’

Let’s just say I was completely bummed that Dr.Cockblocker never left that doorway and a follow up visit with Michael was not going to be required. On the way home that day, I had even started considering other ‘accidents’ I could have to send me back to the ER.

To think that this same man, my Doctor Michael, will be mine for the rest of my life.Well, as soon as we can get around to setting a wedding date that is. With his rigorous schedule, we may never get around to it. His specialty, pediatric cardiology, is especially strenuous since it is in fact, two specialties. After this year he will have to get a fellowship somewhere which presents a whole new set of problems. Although he works at Memorial Health here in Savannah now, he will need a children’s hospital for his fellowship and he will have to go where the offers are. Right now, the closest option is still more than three hours away at Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta.Three hours. Can we survive a long-distance marriage?

I don’t think I could bring myself to close Brooklyn’s.I put blood, sweat and tears into my bakery. It is the one thing I’ve accomplished in my twenty-five years that is all mine. Okay, so maybe I’m just barely breaking even after paying my expenses. I can’t even begin to think of relocating the shop, I could never get as good a deal on rent as I have now. My best friend and roommate, Emma, owns the space where my bakery is along with our two-bedroom apartment directly upstairs in a trendy little area of Savannah. I know the going rate for retail space and she more than cut it in half for me. Plus, I couldn’t leave her high and dry. What am I thinking? I can’t live without Emma. I can’t leave Savannah, can I? But I can’t live without Michael either.

“. . . coffee?”

What?

“Sweetheart, did you hear me?” Michael says, ripping me from my nightmare of having to choose between my best friend—my female soulmate, my surrogate sister—and my fiancé.

“Do you have time for a quick coffee?” he asks again, looking at me so sweetly.

“Of course I do.” I smile weakly, happy to be torn from my depressing thoughts of tough choices ahead. “I have a few minutes before swinging by the shop to make sure Kaitlyn is all set up and then I’ll meet Emma at my apartment.”

“Are you excited to go to Raleigh?”he asks, pouring my coffee.

“Mmm hmm,” I mumble.

“I’m sorry that I can’t be the one to experience it with you for the first time.” He frowns. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise that when I make Attending, I’ll have more time for vacations and then you and I will have lots of firsts together.”

“We already have lots of firsts,” I assure him. “First fiancé, first ER injury, first Christmas as a couple—”

“But notthefirst,” he interrupts, looking sad. “I wish we would have had our first time together. I hate the idea that some horny little shmuck who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants had you before me.”

I sputter my coffee onto the counter. “Oh my God, Michael, I can’t believe you just said ‘dick’! You are always so clinical. And why would you make me think of that loser anyway?”

“Okay, penis,” he acquiesces. “You know, he may have been a horny little shmuck, but he most definitely was not a loser if he set his sights on you.”Could he get any sweeter?“What was his name, Nick, Norman, Neil?”

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