Page 16 of Healed Hearts

I’m about to have a full meltdown about the things I’m reading when the door opens. Wren screeches an excited, “Holden!” and I jump from my seat, practically shoving my phone in his face.

He looks up at me in alarm, and I realize how fucking crazy I look right now. Genuinely, I do. But something about Holden feels trustworthy, and he’s a medical professional, and we have a connection—at least I feel like we do. God knows I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. “Does she have cancer?” I blurt out, not slowing long enough to even allow him to answer me. “Is that why you all called us back here? The doctor told us stuff, but I didn’t understand it, so I started searching and all this stuff is, well, look at it,” I say, waving my phone in front of his face, so quickly he has no hope of seeing what’s on the screen. “Her mom had cancer. Do you think that’s why? I read that it can be a genetic thing. Is that true? Holy shit. Is she going to die?” My voice cracks at the end, the fear taking my breath and my ability to speak.

Holden’s eyes are wide with shock for a second, but he recovers quickly. “Sit.”

I don’t have it in me to deny him. I wouldn’t want to. Plus, I’m freaking the fuck out, and he’s this steady calm and I kind of need that right now. So, I do what he says and sit down.

“Give me your phone,” he says, holding his hand out to me. I blink at him, confused.

“Why?”

He arches a brow at me. “Now, Julian. Phone.” I place it in his hand, and he skims the page before blacking out the screen and sliding it into his pocket.

“Why did you do that?” I ask.

“Because you’re freaking out. Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to look at Doctor Google?” His lips are tipped up in a smirk, and it makes warmth flood my stomach.

I shake my head. “No, I guess not,” I mumble, something about his expression calming me down.

Holden kneels in front of me. “Doctor Google is bad, Julian,” he says, staring into my eyes. I really need him to stop doing that, or I’m going to fall in love.

Wren giggles, and we both turn our attention to her at the same time. “Hello, Miss Wren. How are you doing today?” he asks her. You can hear the smile in his voice. Look, I know it’s his job to do this, but he’s so confident and competent with her, and it’s all… ugh.It’s literally his job to be, Julian. Get it together.

“Good,” Wren says, lifting her doll to show him.

“Ooo. She’s so pretty. She has beautiful curls like you do.” I watch, transfixed, as Wren touches her hair and gives him a blinding smile. “Give me just a minute to talk to your daddy, and we’ll play with her together, okay?”

She nods at him with bright, happy eyes.

Holden turns back to me with a soft smile that makes my stomach flip. No. He really can’t be this attractive. I won’t be able to manage.

“Okay. First off. I would like to apologize to you. It was low of me to act like I didn’t know who you were.” So hewaspretending like he didn’t know me. “To be fair, I was freaking out because you… well, you kinda… actually, that doesn’t matter. I’m awkward,” he says with a self-deprecating chuckle. It matters to me, but I get the feeling he’s not going to finish his thought, even if I ask him to.

He clears his throat. “And second off. We don’t look at our phones for medical diagnoses. Yes, Wren’s blood work came back a little off. I don’t want to scare you, but yes, leukemia is a possibility. I’m hopeful that’s not the case because we didn’t see any blast cells, which is really common with leukemia.”

I let out a huge breath of relief. “But,” he continues. “There definitelyissomething going on, and wewillneed to run moretests. We want to rule out other things before we go freaking out about cancer, okay? Many things can cause these symptoms and the low blood counts.”

I find myself nodding, completely captivated by the confident way he talks, the way he holds himself. He smiles at me, giving my thigh a gentle pat as he stands. The touch was fleeting, but I felt it all the way to my toes. What is it about this man that gets me so fucked up inside?

He pulls my phone from his pocket and holds it out to me. “Unlock it for me?” I do as he asks and hand it back to him. Green eyes sparkle as he types for a second before handing it back to me. I reach up to grab it, but he doesn’t let go. “Promise you won’t use the internet for medical research?”

I find it surprisingly easy to agree. “Yeah, I promise.”

The smile I get in return pretty much guarantees I’ll do anything he asks of me. Holy hell, I’m in way over my head here.

“Great,” he says. “I saved my number in your phone. If you have questions, or you’re freaking out, text me, and I’ll try to help explain things.”

I feel my eyes widen. He gave me his phone number? “Thank you,” I force myself to say.

“No problem. Now, let’s get Wren here taken care of. I believe I promised some doll playing. Let’s ask Daddy some questions while we play, yeah?” he asks as he steps closer to Wren and sits beside her on the exam table, picking up the doll sitting next to her. He smiles down at her, and my heart skips a whole beat in my chest. Maybe I’m the one who needs medical attention. I wonder if he works with adults too. Nope, shut that down.

I clear my throat and he turns to me. “So, what’s Wren’s diet like? Plenty of fruits and veggies?”

“She’s not a picky eater. She eats anything I put in front of her. So, yeah, dinner usually has at least one, sometimes two vegetables. And she usually has fruit with breakfast.”

Holden smiles. “Oh, that is so good! I bet that’s really yummy, huh?” he asks, turning his attention back to her. She nods at him, a slight smile on her lips and a dusty pink flush on her cheeks.

“She eats a pretty well-rounded diet, honestly. The only thing she doesn’t care for is broccoli, but she will eat it if I give her ranch or cheese sauce.”

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