From what he’d heard of the little guy’s heart, surgery was almost a guarantee. But promises were wasted words when he was talking about a heart the size of a plum. And, with their past, if Rhiann had sought him out, surely she already knew things were bad.
“I can’t lose him,” she whispered, her lips feathering across the baby’s forehead. The shadows in her eyes darkened as she processed his words. “He’s all I have. Please, help him.”
A mother’s love visibly permeated her every move. It had brought her here today, despite knowing she’d have to face him again. That courage ripped open something deep in Patrick’s chest, and he knew it would take more than a hastily slapped-on bandage to patch the gaping hole Rhiann’s reappearance in his life had rent.
He stood abruptly, the stool rolling back into the wall with a rattling thud that echoed in the quiet stillness of the exam room. Fighting back the emotion that Rhiann kissing her child had triggered, he snapped out a quick response. “Levi needs an echo and a heart catherization. Once we get the results of those, we can go from there. I’ll have my nurse schedule the tests.”
Leaving the door to slam shut behind his rushed exit, Patrick strode down the hall to the nurses’ station. He shoved the laptop across the counter. “Schedule these tests for Exam Three and get them out of here now.”
He turned toward his office, heedless of the stares coming from his staff, but he didn’t miss the muttered conversation behind him.
“I wonder what the mom in three said that turned the temp down on the Ice Castle? Geez...”
“Right? I didn’t know he could get any colder.”
He ignored their words and walked away.
Thankfully, Levi had been his last patient of the day. Shutting the door, Patrick leaned back against the smooth wood and closed his eyes, trying to shove all the pain back into the depths of his mind. He tugged at the tie around his neck, loosening the silk that threatened his air supply.
Nothing could have prepared him for Rhiann’s return to his life.
Nothing.
Inhaling deeply, he focused on the abstract painting behind his desk. His late wife had painted the simple lines, with bold and contrasting colors, to help ground him when he found himself overwhelmed by the emotions and heartbreak that came with being a pediatric heart surgeon. Mallory had been deeply aware of his need to keep his environment outside the operating room calm. She’d known him better than he’d known himself at times.
He followed the lines across the canvas with his eyes, from light to dark, then back to light, while he took several slow, deep breaths.
He had to pull it together.
His nerve endings were twitching at the memories assaulting his consciousness, overpowering his present with painful reminders of the past.
Of all the people to walk into his practice today, it had had to be Rhiann—the one person he’d never wanted to see again. He’d wanted to rage at her and have her removed from his sight. He’d wanted to pull her into his arms and find out just what her perfectly pink lips tasted like.
There was just something about her... Something that had always fascinated him almost as much as it had angered him. Rhiann had been his first crush, his unattainable first love, but they’d never been on the same page when it came to a relationship. Then he’d met Mallory, and Rhiann’s role as his best friend had been locked in.
At least until she’d betrayed his trust...
And now she had to be the first woman to catch his interest in three years.
The dark shadows under her eyes told him she wasn’t sleeping, and he didn’t have to wonder why. The way her clothes hung off a frame much thinner than he remembered had brought back protective instincts he would rather not have had reawakened.
Just for that he wanted to hate Rhiann.
Hate her for making him feel.
He’d tried not to notice how Levi’s illness was affecting her. They weren’t friends anymore and it shouldn’t matter to him at all that she’d lost the dead weight from her life by divorcing that idiot Pete.
But it did matter.
Too much.
He’d almost told her to get out.
Almost.
But then he’d looked down at the little boy in her arms and found himself unable to banish her from his life once more. When he’d opened his mouth to tell her to go he’d heard himself say instead that they’d run some tests. Why? Because the blue tint to her tiny son’s skin reminded him of who he was and why Rhiann had come back into his life. And, regardless of how Rhiann had betrayed him, he couldn’t take all that resentment out on an innocent baby. Even if he wanted to hurt her like she’d hurt him, he couldn’t bring himself to say no to Levi.
Instead of being a robust and active toddler, the frail eighteen-month-old Levi was the size of a nine-month-old. His little heart wasn’t pumping right and his every breath seemed a struggle.
He hadn’t got out of Rhiann’s lap to run around the exam room. He hadn’t crinkled the paper on the table with delighted giggles. He hadn’t torn pages from the books and magazines. No, he’d only sat in Rhiann’s arms and barely reacted to the exam.
Levi was a very sick little boy who urgently needed Patrick’s help. And he’d help Levi. But not because he was Rhiann’s son. He’d help Levi because it was the right thing to do, both as a physician and as a human being. He’d help Levi and then Rhiann could get out of his life once more, like he wanted.
Seeing Levi snuggle into Rhiann’s embrace had triggered a heated assault on his emotions. The wall of ice surrounding Patrick’s heart had thickened again, though, when he’d read Levi’s birthdate on the chart. It was exactly two years later than his own daughter’s due date.
But his sweet little Everly had never drawn a breath.
Everly would never snuggle into his embrace.
And the woman who had just begged him to save her son’s life had been the one who’d cost him everything.
With a single angry gesture he swept everything from his desk into the floor. Files and stationery fluttered down without much sound, but the metal organizer tray clattered as it hit the floor and bounced.
A tentative knock preceded a soft, “Are you okay in there, Dr. Scott?”
“Leave me alone,” he snarled in response.
The “Jerk...” his nurse muttered was only just audible.
He sank down onto the floor and leaned against the door. Taking some deep breaths, he stared at the platinum band on his left hand. His whispered words were too soft for anyone outside to hear.
“I miss you so much, Mallory. I don’t know how to go on without you.”
Copyright © 2020 by Allie Kincheloe
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ISBN: 9781488066337
Tempted by the Single Mom
Copyright © 2020 by Caroline Anderson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblanc
e to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Tempted by the Single Mom Page 18
