Page 40 of The Doctor's Simple Life

Doesn’t mean I don’t miss the precision and concentration of surgery.

“Hello, Dr. Westbrook. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to help.”

He looks me up and down in surprise. “Don’t you do facelifts and that kind of thing? And where’s young Miss Hale? It’s said that you two are joined at the hip.”

“She’s my supervisor,” I say, trying to put to bed any ideas he might have or be spreading about us. “And yes, I am mostly a cosmetic surgeon, but I still spent a hell of a lot of time studying for stuff like bypasses.”

“It’s good to know you’re on my team, then,” he says, not quite smiling but not quite as skeptical as before. “I’m sure you’re an expert.”

I turn on my very best grin for him. “I assure you, I am.”

The grin either does nothing, or he is already in his best possible pre-op mood because his face falls a little. “But whereisMiss Hale? Isn’t she meant to be here?”

“She has other duties,” I say with a shrug. It’s not a lie; she is busy. This morning, we visited Mr. Betancourt together, making sure he was good to go for the procedure, so I guess it makes sense that he expects her to be here.

But we’re trying to make an effort not to be, as he says, joined at the hip. If it’s getting out as gossip among patients, it’s definitely spreading around the hospital. And Sienna wants to be a little more careful than I do to avoid a scandal.

Professional dignity means a lot to her. It’s admirable.

It makes me want to push her against a wall and kiss her. Then again, everything does these days.

“Shame,” says Mr. Betancourt. “I like her. She’s a damn fine nurse.”

“That she is,” I agree. “One of the best.”

He raises a probing eyebrow at me, but I say nothing else. I’m starting to get a name around here. People I’ve never met before are starting to recognize me and talk to me. Everyone knows Sienna, of course, and now they’re starting to drag me into their community.

I should definitely hate that. I should despise the way there’s no store I can go into without being known. And no patients who I meet who don’t expect to see Sienna with me. But I don’t think I do.

Turns out that being a regular in stores is kind of nice. Sharing a part of myself, even if it’s small, with the everyday people around me isn’t as awful as I’d always thought.

Makes concealing my and Sienna’s affair harder, though.

Mr. Betancourt keeps staring at me like he’s expecting me to crack, but I don’t. I just smile again and get him comfortable. Something which has never been my job before.

Something which I don’t think I hate at all.

CHAPTER 20

SIENNA

“Oh, do we have to?” Reece whispers, pouting hard at me.

“Yes,” I say, pushing him gently in the chest to try and encourage him to move. “We do.”

“But she’s so irritating!”

“Yes, I know that. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do our jobs.”

“Can’t you just do it?”

I shake my head at him in disbelief. And here I was, starting to think he was getting better at nursing without complaining. “Will you just grow up? I thought you were supposed to be a real doctor.”

He huffs at that. “I am a real doctor.”

“Okay. Act like it, then.”

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