Page 6 of Promised Secret
He giggled, mouth wide open in a toothy smile sprinkled with holes from the loss of his baby teeth. The sight reminded me just how much I hated showing my holey smile when I was a kid. Unlike my patient here, I was a pretty vain thing back then, caring about how I looked to others.
It was more like I’d always wanted to present the best of myself. Flaws had to be hidden and out of sight.
I’d now learned that wasn’t the case. Humans weren’t perfect. We weren’t designed to be. But that didn’t make us anything less than fucking amazing.
It was people like the kid sitting in front of me, smiling and so proud to show off his wounds, that reminded me of that over and over again. They weren’t afraid of displaying their vulnerability and how they’d conquered it.
I ruffled the kid’s hair, then walked him and his dad out of the clinic. He turned around, waving his hand high above his head at me as he walked backward. I waved back and laughed when his dad wrangled him to turn forward again.
When I first returned to Kither Springs to start working at the family clinic, I had my hesitations. It was a huge culture shock from the busy hospital in the city where I’d done my residency, and I honestly thought I’d get bored with how slow it would be.
Instead, it was the opposite. The kids in town now all knew me as Doctor Dan, and that made me seem cool in their eyes. Their enthusiasm toward me was boundless, as they always scrambled to show me one thing or another.
I found myself more connected to the community than ever, despite having lived here my entire life. Well, aside from the period I was away for higher education.
“That was the last appointment for the morning,” my receptionist told me while checking the schedule on her computer.
“Thanks, I’ll take my lunch now. I wouldn’t be opposed to a lunch date,” I said, giving her my most charming smile.
Rosa rolled her eyes and continued clacking away on her keyboard. She’d worked at the clinic for years. She’d started back when I was a teenager, so she was now immune to my charms.
Though it wasn’t like I’d start up something with someone from the clinic, especially not someone who was already married. I might be known as the playboy doctor in town, but even I knew to keep my work and personal life separate.
“If you want company, you know where to find it. Your brother is just around the corner and probably due for his lunch break soon, too.”
My facial muscles stiffened, but not enough for her to notice. I’d gotten good at masking my emotions over the years.
“Maybe I want company from someone I don’t live with. Have you ever thought about that?” I replied, and she rolled her eyes again.
When Frederick came from the back, I leaned against the reception desk and faced him, elbows out on both sides of me. “How about you, Frederick? Wanna grab some lunch? My treat,” I said, waggling my eyebrows.
His expression didn’t even change from his usual frozen one as he held up a paper bag and replied, “Next time. I brought sandwiches.”
I let out the most dramatic sigh and turned back to Rosa. “Can you believe that? I was rejected forsandwiches!”
She snickered.
“They’re good sandwiches,” Frederick insisted, still sounding as serious as ever.
He came to my side and dropped his paper bag in front of him. He towered over my six-foot frame. He was undoubtedly the biggest man I’d seen, with bulky muscles that suited a professional boxer, not a nurse.
When he first applied for the open nurse position a year ago, I was skeptical if he was the right person for the job. The man didn’t smile once during the entire interview, and I worried his serious face and large build would scare away the kids and elderly, who were a huge portion of ourclientele. It didn’t help matters that he was an out-of-towner, which meant I had no frame of reference for his character.
But something told me to take a chance on him. I think it was his eyes that were filled with determination, but there was something sad about them, too. They reminded me so much of my first meeting with Clay that I decided to give Frederick a chance.
It was a good thing, too, because he was fucking amazing at his job. He was always on top of his work, and I didn’t think the man missed a vein once in his professional life. And contrary to my worries, the kids loved his huge size and always asked him to pick them up.
Frederick would grumble and moan about it, but he always complied with their requests. Babies loved himtoo and giggled their way through their shots whenever he administered them.
Maybe they were able to see through to his kind soul. What our year working together taught me was that he was a giant teddy bear.
Except for when you calledhimFredorFreddy, then the claws came out. I had to learn that the hard way. Hehatedthose nicknames. But aside from that, he didn’t have a mean bone in his body.
“I can save them for dinner if you really want some company for lunch,” he offered.
I turned to him and pounced. He caught my hug with a grunt.
“You’re really the best, you know that, right? If you didn’t work for me, I’d totally take you on a date,” I told him.
