Page 47 of Merry Little Heartbreak

“I doubt that would be necessary. You’ve had glowing reviews from all three attendings in the ER. As you know, we have the flexibility to design your training program how we see fit. As a practicing physician, you don’t really need an entire year of residency in the ER.”

“The sooner the better. I’ve started looking at properties in the area but want to be sure I have a job.”

The director laughed. “This will be my top priority, Dr. Maguire.”

“Thanks,” Drake said, but he was already moving for the door.

Once he left the director’s office, Drake took the stairs back down to emergency. He didn’t want to wait until he signed the contract to tell Margo. Maybe there was some other reason she didn’t tell him about the possible promotion, but he wasn’t going to hold anything back.

But once he found her in the ER, she was already with a patient, and it looked like Armageddon had struck while he was gone for ten minutes. They must have received multiple cases because Dalton was still there, even though his shift had ended.

“Jump in, Maguire. Multiple car crash victims from a ten-car pileup. More on the way,” Dalton called to him.

He’d have to wait to tell Margo after their shift. It was three days until Christmas, and she’d warned him they would only get busier and crazier cases would arrive. Obviously, she had been through this multiple years in a row.

Chapter Nineteen

Margo

Margo had been on her feet for the first six hours of her shift when the director called her to come see him before he left for the holiday. When she finally had a chance to leave the ER for ten minutes, she went right to his office and found him logging off his computer.

“Oh, good. You caught me before I had to go. My husband’s family is arriving from Toledo, and I have to get to the airport, but I wanted you to hear it from me.”

A crushing feeling washed over her.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this. The board thinks we need to hire an educator for the residents, someone who can create lesson plans and has a background in recruiting.”

She didn’t even realize how she’d hung all her plans on getting that resident position, a chance to reinvent herself, have something for herself. But the board found her lacking. Now what?

“I didn’t get the deputy position?” Margo said, slumping into the chairs across from her desk.

“No. And . . .”

“Oh, it gets worse. Okay, hit me with it,” she said.

“Dr. Maguire countered the board’s offer for a position in the plastic surgery department with a request to work in the ER.”

Margo sat straight up. “He did?” She couldn’t help but smile at the idea that Drake would really be staying. She had wanted to believe him but just couldn’t trust it until he accepted a job.

“You knew he was interested in the ER?”

“Yes, sort of, but I thought it was a passing fascination, and I really didn’t think he would move from LA. I just assumed once his family stuff was sorted, he would be gone again.”

The director looked at her with pity.

“Dr. Monroe, there are only four attending physician positions in the Mercy ER with no budget to add a fifth.”

She met her sad eyes. “They’ll give him my job? My contract is up in a few months, and they’ll want Drake.”

The director nodded. “I advised the board first thing this morning, and they have authorized me to make him a very generous offer. They’re hoping to convince him to move over to the plastics department in a few years.”

“Wow, and did the board express any regret about having to let me go? Won’t they offer me something else?”

“Margo, this is the side of this job I hate. Your talent as an exceptional physician is not to be judged by some board of wealthy businessmen and women. I shouldn’t have to tell you this is their loss or that any ER would be lucky to have you. But the real question is, what do you want? You have been exhausted with the ER and managing the residents. You want to practice medicine but not at the cost of having a life outside the hospital. You can wait for the board to make you an offer, or you can figure out what you want. And go after it.”

“What do I want? I haven’t had a choice since medical school to decide what medicine I want to practice. And even if I choose, that doesn’t mean Mercy will have a position or give it to me?”

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