Page 17 of Family Bonds- Garrett & Justine

Losing a patient was never easy.

Losing one that way was harder. Then to have it on the heels of two others in a short period of time and he was just ill over it all in his life.

Add Taylor’s reaction during that time and he was lucky he didn’t shatter.

There was nothing he could have done for any of them and told himself not to get attached to patients, but he had to Linda. She reminded him of his mother and it was hard not to just chat with her weekly.

A stupid cold that she couldn’t shake pushed her treatments off for over a month and in that time, her cancer had spread.

He never saw it coming and wished he had. He was more devastated over that than another patient’s death and told himself never to do it again.

Never get that close.

And when Zach’s case landed on his desk, he knew it wasn’t going to be good. His parents wanted chemo right away, but he waited to run more tests. It was the right decision and backed by two other doctors.

Nothing was going to save Zach, it was about buying time, but his parents didn’t want to accept that. Maybe he wouldn’t have either.

There’d been a time in his life when his parents had to make those decisions too.

Shit.

He wasn’t going down a road that was going to make him crash soon.

He braced his hands on the walls and let out a shout that actually burned his vocal cords.

It was the only place he could do it and not worry that someone would come running panicked there was something wrong with him.

Once it was all out of his system, he washed his hair and the rest of his body and got out.

Dried off and in sweats and a T-shirt, he grabbed a beer and headed to his deck to watch the sunset. It was chilly enough for him to reach back into the door and grab a sweatshirt off the hook.

“Garrett,” he heard.

Shit. So much for a quiet drink on the deck before he watched some mind-numbing show on TV.

“Hi, Vanessa,” he said to his neighbor who walked from her backyard to his and then came over to the stairs and up on his deck. Not even invited.

“I see we both have the same idea tonight,” Vanessa said with a full glass of wine in her hand. She worked in sales or something and had been living on the island for a few years. Most of her job was remote, she’d told him.

Anytime she saw him here, she tried to come and make time with him.

He’d peg her a few years older than him and definitely on the prowl.

He wasn’t interested.

Looking at her long dark hair, almost black and curly, pulled into a ponytail, he realized he was more interested in the blonde’s looks he’d seen today.

“Guess we do,” he said, taking a swig of his beer. He hadn’t even poured it into a glass, just grabbed it out of the fridge and came here.

He wasn’t one for drinking during the week, but today felt like the day for it and he wasn’t sure the reason.

Normally he had better control over his emotions and reactions.

Guess he wasn’t as relaxed as he thought he was yet.

“Do you mind?” Vanessa asked, pulling out a chair and sitting.

What was he going to do? Tell her no and to get lost?

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