Page 53 of Sinful in Scrubs

“I thought something was wrong. I thought you were hurt.”

“No, child. You are always so dramatic.”

I looked at her.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I was overly dramatic. Maybe that’s why I let Marcus seduce me. Maybe that’s why I thought there was something between us when his reaction to me this afternoon clearly showed there wasn’t.

Maybe it was all in my head—that Kevin was out to get me and that I was overly dramatizing my complete lack of professional integrity. I folded my arms and collapsed further onto the table with a groan.

“This is why I’m going to be single forever,” I complained out loud, as if all of my previous whining hadn’t been inside my head.

“What am I going to do with you?” I asked into my arms.

“You’re going to have tea, is what you’re going to do,” Grandmother responded, as if tea was the answer to everything.

When the aromatic smell drifted up to my nose as she placed the steaming cup in front of me, I wrapped my fingers around the delicate China cup. Maybe she was right. Maybe tea was the answer to everything.

I let myself enjoy the tea before I checked the time. There were still three hours left in my shift.

“I’m glad that nothing was seriously wrong,” I said as I set down the cup. “But I’m going to have to go back to work now.”

“You always work so much, dear.”

“It’s my job,” I said, slowly getting to my feet.

I leaned over and gave her a hug.

I was wrong. The tea wasn’t nearly as good as her hugs.

I needed to get back to work. And I needed to call James Collins to get this reprimand nonsense off my record, because that’s what a professional did.

24

MARCUS

With a grunt and a squeal of anger, Lily announced that she hated me just before slamming her bedroom door in my face, again. I was getting really sick and tired of this attitude from her.

Didn’t she know we were all struggling?

Maybe I should have let her cry out her frustration on her own. Her mother would have known how to handle this. I was at a complete loss with this child. I couldn’t just walk away and let her think she could get away with this behavior. It was fully unacceptable.

I took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping into her room.

“Get out,” she screamed as she rolled in on herself, clutching a pillow over her head.

I was feeling it myself, the struggle, the pain, the loss.

I pulled the pillow from her head. “You do not have to speak, but you will listen.”

She folded her arms, stuck out her lower lip in a pout, and leveled her most intense glare at me.

“I don’t know where this attitude is coming from, but it is getting worse, and I’m done with it. So you need to figure out how to curb this,” I said, circling my hands in her general direction. “And participate appropriately in our family setting.”

Her pout turned into a glower as she continued to not speak.

“So you think not talking to me is the best approach to take here?” I crossed my arms and stared right back at her. Damn, she looked like her mother more and more every day, but the attitude was straight up, one hundred percent me. Her mother had been a calm and soothing presence in our life. She knew how to unruffle the messiest of feathers. She was the peacemaker. I was the bull in a China shop, and unfortunately, that probably wasn’t the best approach when dealing with Lily and her grievances.

She needed calm. She needed the soothing attitude that Blair would have known how to approach this with.

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