Page 93 of Dr. Off Limits

Sutton

It was Sunday, which meant libraries were shut and art galleries were overrun with tourists. But I needed a place to think—somewhere to calm my rising anxiety over my next steps with work and with Jacob. I wasn’t sure there was a next step with Jacob, but I needed to clear my head to be sure.

I was on a mission to find myself a rowing boat to lie in.

The conversation with Parker and Tristan had helped me realize I needed to understand that my background didn’t make me a worse doctor. And that I shouldn’t care what people thought. I wasn’t fully on board that ship, but I was staring at the gangplank—it was a start. The thought that Jacob might be waiting for me on the other side was enough for me to want to commit to believing in myself more. I’d get there. I always did.

I just couldn’t see Jacob giving up what he needed for me.

I needed to figure out a way through for him. Maybe the rowing boat would help.

The forecast had said it was going to rain all day, but the blue sky and bright sun proved the weathermen wrong. I’d slipped on my favorite summer dress—blue and white striped with blue puffy sleeves—and taken the bus to Hyde Park. It was the only place I could remember seeing rowing boats in London—on the Serpentine.

People were probably going to think I’d lost it when I wanted to take out a boat by myself. The emergency services were probably going to get called when I pulled in the oars and lay down, but I didn’t care. The people around would all be strangers. They wouldn’t dictate my day. It would be good training for me.

As I came down the knoll by the boat hire station, I couldn’t help but smile at the smattering of pedalos and rowing boats across the water. People enjoying the weather with their lovers and friends and children. Everyone was having so much fun and didn’t seem to be thinking too much about anything at all.

I took a seat on the grass and enjoyed the view. There was a couple drinking champagne in one boat. What were they celebrating? An engagement? A first date? Three girlfriends were in another boat, organized like an Olympic team.

The pedalos seemed to be less cause for shrieks and laughter. The peddlers were far more sedate, without the need to coordinate the oars and the direction of their boats. The entire scene reminded me a little of Norfolk and the Cove family—noisy and all over the place, but full of fun.

One boat had obviously come untied from the side and had drifted, captainless, toward the bank nearest me. Someone needed to rescue that boat.

Just as I was wondering whether I should report it, a man sat up in the boat. He’d been there all along, lying down out of sight.

My heart began to clatter in my ribcage and my breath caught in my throat. I knew that short, blonde hair and tanned skin.

It couldn’t be, could it?

I stood, as if height was going to give me a better look, when the man in the boat turned his head and looked straight at me.

No mistaking those blue eyes or the gaze that told me he knew me better than I knew myself.

We locked eyes and I waved.

How was he here?

Why was he here?

Without thinking, I started walking toward him like I was a magnet and he was my north.

He stood, but the boat wobbled and he sat again, picked up the oars and began rowing toward the boat drop-off point. I followed the outline of the bank to meet him.

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