Page 28 of Rescuing Dr. Marian
“Forgive me for thinking you deserve better than a sister who calls you hurtful names,” I hissed.
He let out a breath and seemed to deflate. “It’s a term of affection.”
I scoffed. “That’s a shitty way to show someone affection.”
Tommy’s eyes met mine again. “Don’t tell me Anna never calls you names.”
My eyes flashed to his.He remembered my sister’s name?
I didn’t want to interpret it as anything meaningful, like him caring enough to remember. A man who’d succeeded at medical school probably had a crack-shot memory. That was all.
“She’s been known to throw anasshatmy way a time or two,” I admitted before stepping back, if only to keep myself from forgetting what the word “dealbreaker” meant and doing something stupid. “But Anna would never have called me a derogatory name in public.”
“I told you it’s not like that,” he snapped.
Once we were loaded up in my sheriff’s vehicle and Chick was sniffing happily through the partial opening in the nearest window, I noticed Tommy clenching his hands together in his lap so hard his knuckles were white.
No ring, I noticed for the first time, but plenty of people who worked with their hands didn’t wear them.
“Then whatisit like?”
“It’s an inside joke,” he muttered. “You know what? Never mind. We don’t need to talk. Let’s just go back to SERA and let this day fucking end, okay?”
I glanced over at him as I shifted into gear. Once again, Tommy looked tired and stressed. I wanted to know why. Wanted to know what had happened in Hawaii after I left. But none of it was my business.
I cleared my throat. “So are you, like, taking a summersabbatical or something?” I asked, trying to be normal. To ask him the kind of question a professional peer might ask. “I’m surprised the hospital let you go.”
Tommy kept his gaze focused away from me and out the passenger window as we moved slowly through the pedestrian traffic in town.
“They didn’t have to. I quit.”
The surprising words sat between us like a fishing hook with an irresistible lure dangling from it.
So I bit.
“You quit? St. Ignatius is the top trauma hospital in the Northeast. A dream job for a high achiever like you. Why the fuck would you leave?”
He turned to me, eyebrows dipping in confusion. “How did you know I was at St. Ignatius?”
Embarrassment prickled my skin. “You must have told me that night. Does it matter?”
“Well, no. I just?—”
“Wait, you’re at SERA permanently?” I blurted, suddenly wondering if he’d done it. If he’d made the big change from big-city trauma ER to practicing the medicine he seemed drawn to. My heart leapt at the idea he’d be so close, only a few hours’ drive instead of a day’s worth of airline travel?—
“No. God, no. It’s only temporary. I’m interviewing for positions back home.” He cleared his throat. “In California.”
I raked my bottom teeth over my upper lip and nodded. “Right. Sure. Of course.”
Tommy looked like he wanted to say something more, explain or maybe even judge me for being less than enthusiastic.But he didn’t. He faced out the window on the opposite side of the truck.
The tension was killing me. This man who’d lived inside my head as a living, breathing obsession was sitting eighteen inches away from me in my own damned truck.
And he seemed a million miles away.
I swallowed and focused on the road out of town. SERA was several miles away on a large plot of land at the base of Slingshot Mountain. The sun was already behind the peak, and shadows filled the valley around us.
“Thank you,” he said softly without turning to look at me. “For caring. About what Hazel said. I promise she didn’t mean anything by it, but I do appreciate you standing up for me. Especially after…” He shrugged.
