Page 13 of The Doctor's Promise
Kit smiled. “How’s it been? I hear you got yourself a sugar daddy.”
Noemi winced, and Kit put his hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I’m kidding. I meant the clinic. Lazlo wouldn’t shut up about it.”
Noemi chuckled. “Let me show you around. Believe me, I’ll be needing some of your skills if I’m going to make a success of it.”
They walked to the Thomasina Ballentine Clinic, and Kit stopped outside the front door, looking up at the signage. “You know, I used to know her stepbrother, Drew. He’s something in the church… I don’t know.”
“I never met him. I met her fiancée, of course. They have the cutest little boy.”
“Feeling broody, kid?” Kit grinned at her as always, flirting. Noemi laughed.
“If the next line out of your mouth is about having my eggs fertilized…”
“Gah, as if I’d be that unoriginal.” He hooked an arm around her shoulders. “But now that you mention it…”
She pushed him away, laughing. “Dude, this isn’t Grey’s Anatomy.”
Kit made a face. “What, no shagging in the on-call room?”
“None.” She made a disapproving face. “So unhygienic.”
“Says the girl who watches Dr. Mike’s YouTube channel religiously, but never with anyone else present.”
Noemi giggled. “You have a filthy mind, Vaughan. Now, act doctorly, and come with me.”
Kit’s arrivalseemed to give everyone a boost. He signed a three-year contract with a delighted Lazlo, and Noemi helped him find an apartment in the city. He also made friends with Mouse, and Noemi would take Mouse over to his neighborhood to walk before her shifts.
Within a couple of weeks, Kit had made himself at home. Despite his flirtatious manner, he was an exemplary surgeon, and Noemi loved to watch him operate.
Dieter’s nose was only slightly out of joint. Even he could see Kit’s presence had lifted the morale of the staff. Still, he renewed his advances to Noemi, who very gently let him down. “Is it because of the blonde Australian?” Dieter asked her when she’d turned down his third invitation to dinner.
No, it’s because of the dark Italian…
Noemi couldn’t get Rafael out of her head. They hadn’t seen each other since that night, but every time she looked at Mouse, she remembered her dog’s head resting so peacefully on Rafa’s knee, how natural it seemed for them to be sitting together on his rug, spending time together. God, she dreamed about his lips on hers…
“For the love of God, stop it.” She cussed softly as she sat in the ladies’ restroom, then jumped when she heard Ally’s voice.
“You talking to yourself again, hon?”
Noemi exited the stall and washed her hands as she heard the other toilet flush. Ally grinned at her as she joined her at the sink. “You okay?”
Noemi hesitated, then checked they were alone. “Hypothetical.”
“Okay.”
“There’s someone I’ve been… He’s… a friend. Sort of.”
“Before you go on, if you’ve fucked Kit Vaughan…” Ally said warningly.
“Not Kit, he’s all yours,” Noemi laughed. “No, this is someone… not at the hospital. Kind of. He’s a friend of a patient, let’s say. We’re sort of friends. But, I can’t stop thinking about him.”
“Then fuck him, if that’s what you want.” Ally shrugged, and Noemi wishes she too could be twenty-five and as confident as Ally.
“But it would ruin our friendship.”
“Are you really that good friends with him?”
Again, Noemi hesitated, and Ally made a face. “See? Jeez, Noe, when was the last time you got laid?”
