Page 7 of The Doctor's Simple Life

Not a surprise, exactly, but still not what I wanted to hear. I extend the search radius — I don’t care how much I have to tip the driver. I’ll pay anything for a good meal. Anything.

The nearest place that delivers has an eye-watering fee and an hour-and-a-half wait, but I order a ton of stuff anyway and try my best not to look at the price. That doesn’t matter. If I get enough food now, I’ll have leftovers for a few days. That’s at least a few more days before I have to brave the inevitably devastating shelves of the local grocery store.

I slump back in my seat.

One whole month.

That is, if this place doesn’t kill me first.

CHAPTER 4

SIENNA

Iarrive early at the hospital, wanting to make sure everything is set up for Reece and his first day. I do not have faith that this is going to go well at all. This isn’t the first first-day that I’ve ever supervised, but it is the first time I’ll have to babysit a doctor who’s a few years my senior and should know what he’s doing.

I’m sure he is a good doctor — good enough, anyway. I’m just not certain that our clients are going to be anything like the patients he’s used to.

He’s probably used to treating people like dirt, and that’s not going to stand in my hospital. And if he thinks I’m going to let it slide, he’s in for a world of revelations.

He breezes in late. I do my best not to make a snippy comment about it.

“Good morning,” I say. “I was expecting you a little earlier.”

Guess I fail at not being judgy.

Reece shrugs me off as if to saywho cares?I clench my fists hard to stop myself from looking like I do, too much.

Whatever he may think, this hospital is my life. I’m not about to have him sit here and disrespect me and the people who I know like family.

“Well,” I say breezily. “I hope you had a great night last night. All settled in? Sleep well?”

He grunts, and I take that to be a no.

I take a deep breath. “Okay, well, I thought we should take it easy today, get you used to how we work here. How about a quick tour of the place, then I’ll get you set up on our system. Sound good?”

He grunts again. “Yeah, whatever.”

What kind of doctor are you, anyway?I force myself not to say.

Without giving him any more time to argue or sulk, I stand up and gesture to the door. We step out of my — our — office and I try not to think about what he must think of my setup.

I like my office. It’s got plants and posters and all the things I need to keep me cheerful during the day. I have a picture of Gramma on the desk and a whole section of my wall dedicated to pictures that kids have drawn for me over the years.

Maybe that’s tacky, but it makes me smile. It makes me remember why I love my job.

Systematically, I lead Reece around all our facilities. I think we’re pretty state of the art, but he sniffs in disdain at almost all of them.

He’s unimpressed by everything from our operating rooms to our coffee machine. Nothing here is modern enough for him. Nothing is new or up-to-date enough. And even though everything works perfectly fine and gets a service check every single year, it’s just not good enough.

And he feels like he has to let me know, loudly, every single time.

I force a smile onto my face. To do anything else will mean that I’m going to yell at him, and unlike him, I do have a reputation for being a nice, kind, and good person. I don’t need some ass like him ruining what everyone else thinks of me.

Just as we’re about to conclude the tour, we pass Giselle in a corridor. She grins at us, then I see her eyes widen at the sight of Reece. “Well, hello there,” she says, smiling her very best smile at him. “Welcome to Silverbell General. We’re so happy to have you here.”

I shoot her a look that says,Are we?And then I see the way she’s looking him up and down, sizing him up like he’s a racehorse. I stare firmly at her, trying to dissuade her from doing anything stupid, but she just raises both eyebrows at me and grins.

Reece was completely oblivious to the silent conversation we just had, the one where Giselle saidOh, isn’t he dreamy?and I saidDon’t even think about it, which is kind of a relief. I can’t imagine how unbearable he would be if we tickled his ego.

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