by Doyle, Jen
But the man didn’t let up. “You’re his supervisor? Aren’t you the one who told Taylor Bradshaw she’d be okay, and then you blinded her?”
The flash of emotion hit so hard that Karen had to grab the edges of the table. She knew she hadn’t told Taylor everything would be fine, because she never did—she never knew. She’d said that she’d get the tumor, and she had. No one could’ve predicted that Taylor would develop a blood clot in her visual cortex, but there was a reason that there were eight million caveats about having surgery. Because things could go wrong. To have her competence called into question in front of this entire room was exactly why she kept to herself. Why she resisted having relationships, especially with, say, Tuck, who was so much a part of this community that it might actually require surgery to remove him.
He’d made it to Justin now, gripping his shoulder and saying something to him that she could tell was reassuring. And that was...good. Because she had nothing reassuring to say to Justin right now and she was glad that Tuck could. Except then Gary noticed as well, and roared, “Take your hands off my son!”
Karen’s heart started beating wildly. Domestic dispute. This was how these things started—and then escalated quickly. “Mr. Hale.”
The man’s attention swung to her again and then a smile came over his face. A not very nice smile, especially as he said, “Oh, that’s right. You’re his new girlfriend.” He whirled back to Tuck. “Are you taking her side, Tuck?”
She wasn’t at her best. Karen knew that. But it shouldn’t have felt like a slap when Tuck calmly replied, “She’s not my girlfriend, Gary, and I’m not taking any sides. I think it’s time for us to take this out of the room.”
Karen sat back again, glad that at this moment the attention was on the two men and not her. Because she knew she was better at her job than almost anyone else in her field and that one man with zero direct knowledge of a particular situation wasn’t going to change that. And she knew that it didn’t matter one bit if the people here believed what he said, or if Tuck and his friends thought badly of her and her ability. But above all, because she’d just watched the man she’d been about to change her life for tell an entire room of people that she wasn’t worth it. That he didn’t believe in her enough to take her side. That maybe he thought it was Karen’s fault that Taylor was blind, too.
She closed her eyes and counted to ten, the increasingly raised voices just background noise. Everything was noise. And she’d let all that buzzing get to her because it had felt oh, so good. But she knew her place in the world, and it wasn’t here in Inspiration, no matter how much she’d like it to be. It certainly wasn’t playing nice just so she could make friends. No, it was in her apartment with a cup of hot chocolate and a bright pink fleece Snuggie wrapped around her while she watched TV.
Alone.
Leaning forward again, she said into the microphone, “Mr. Hale.” And when that wasn’t enough to interrupt his diatribe about her and her colleagues’ lack of competence and, yes, something highly suggestive about the back of Tuck’s truck, “Mr. Hale!”
That was enough to get not just his attention, but everyone else’s in the room. She very deliberately kept her eyes on him, not even so much glancing in Tuck’s direction. “We’re not going to talk about Justin anymore, and I am not going to talk about Taylor. I’ve had to tell far too many parents very much like yourself that their child died on the operating table. Or that the damage their child suffered is irreversible. Or that...” Her voice broke a little but she managed to contain it. “That their beautiful three-year-old baby has an inoperable brain tumor. So you can be damn sure that I’m thinking of bigger things than whether a scout is at the next game.”
Okay. So maybe she sounded a little close to hysteria. She made every attempt to dial it back down. “Every single one of the children in this room deserves a future where they can walk, run, and, yes, see. So if that means I have to have a knockdown drag-out fight with a parent who refuses to hear something he doesn’t want to hear, then so be it.” Seething, she scanned the room. “Does anyone else have a question?”
It took every ounce of strength she had to sit back in her chair and let the next person speak without rushing from the room. She had no idea what the question was, just that Deke asked it and somehow managed to bring the tension down by about two million degrees. Things came to a close fairly soon afterward.
Since she had a feeling no one was going to approach her after that mess, she summoned all the steel Tuck seemed to think ran up her spine and went over to Coach O’Reilly. “I am so sorry. That didn’t end quite the way we’d planned.” He carried a lot on his shoulders, too. They all did.
“I’m glad you said it, because they can’t fire you.”
Right, although her hospital’s board of directors could—and they most likely wouldn’t be too happy with her when they heard about this debacle. She gave as big a smile as she could, which, granted, wasn’t much. “I hope he’s the exception and not the rule.”
He shrugged. “Mostly.” But then he nodded and briefly clasped her shoulder before stepping down off the platform into the waiting arms of his wife. The look they shared spoke volumes, and was clearly fortifying. The slight slump of his shoulders disappeared, and his smile grew bright as he stepped away from her and moved through the crowd to talk to various kids.
With her own arms wrapped tightly around herself, Karen just stood there and wished more than anything Tuck had been waiting there for her. That he would have made it clear to everyone around them that he did believe in her and that he had her back.
But Tuck was nowhere to be found.
So she grabbed her bag, nodded at the others, and headed out the door with her head held as high as it could be. Oh, Bruiser, I hope you’re ready for me. Because this one was going to be big.
Chapter Seventeen
Freaking hell. Tuck should have known Justin’s dad would cause trouble. One look at Deke’s face would have confirmed it.
But Tuck had been too focused on Karen. On how nicely she fit up there at the head of that room. Of all the things he wanted to do to her once they got back to his place.
Goddamn it.
Looking around as the crowd broke up, Tuck saw it was Deke, in fact, who’d managed to get Gary out of the room and out to the parking lot before any more damage could be done. Which was good. Because Tuck was afraid he might have hauled off and hit the man. And since he’d known as soon as he’d spoken that he’d just cut Karen down in front of everyone, he was already on the verge of losing it. Approaching Gary in the middle of that crowd would have been just as bad a mistake. He used a side door to meet them outside.
“You’re damn right I’m going to take your keys,” Deke was saying. “I don’t give a crap that I didn’t serve you. You’re at the fucking high school—in front of your kid, for Christ’s sake.”
That’s when Gary saw Tuck. He actually surged forward and, God help him, Tuck wanted to surge right back. It was the first time in his life he wished he wasn’t wearing his uniform.
“Your girlfriend is screwing up my kid’s life!”
Girlfriend. There was that word again. He’d only meant to bring down the tension in the room. But as he’d spoken he’d realized he’d let his own anger and frustration come out. Other than that one—indirect—admission of what she’d told Taylor, she still wouldn’t even admit they were dating.
Which, after today, they might not be.
But that was beside the point at the moment. And, yes, Tuck also wished she’d said something other than what she did, but that wasn’t Karen. “She’s trying to save Justin’s life.”
And the man knew it. But he just couldn’t let it go. “He could be the next Nate Hawkins. They just have to let him play.”
Tuck got it. Oh, how he got it. Seeing the way Justin stood there so stoically as his fath
er lost it had gotten to Tuck—so much it had been physically painful. He couldn’t even look in Karen’s direction because of the truth he could see in her eyes. But none of that changed the facts. “He cracked his head on the boards and was out cold for almost ten minutes. They kept him at the hospital for two days. You seriously want to take that chance?”
Tuck clenched his hands at his sides. Now he was the one losing it. He was angry for Justin, pissed at Justin’s dad. But he was flat-out irate with himself. He’d hated the way Gary had come at Karen. He’d hated that he put her there because he wanted to have her be a part of the place he called home when this was exactly the situation she’d been afraid of.
Well, no. Not exactly. She probably would have expected the man who loved her to maybe speak up and have her Goddamn back.
“Oh, look,” Gary said, his eyes on something over Tuck’s shoulder. “There’s your girlfriend now. You should go to her. Someone’s going to need to hold her hand when we slap that lawsuit on her. If Taylor doesn’t do it, you sure as hell know I will.”
That was it. Tuck had had it. He lunged.
“Tuck!” Deke yelled, turning just enough to absorb the brunt of it, slamming into Tuck and pushing him back. “Do not do this. He’s drunk. And he’s got nothing to lose right now. You do.”
Deke’s words were babble in Tuck’s ear. All he could see was red and all he could feel was the need to shut Gary up. The man had no idea what Karen went through every day. What she saw and what she wanted Justin’s family to never have to experience.
But Deke was right. Tuck took a step back, only then realizing a crowd had gathered. He attempted to pull himself together as he stared Gary down. “If you even think about driving that car before you’re sobered up, I will haul you down to the station. And I know this all sucks beyond words, but if you even think about going after Karen I will take you down.”
Tuck looked at Deke, who nodded. “I’ve got this. Just walk away.”
Yeah. Tuck was going to do that. Deke was definitely a better person to be dealing with Gary right now.
It probably wasn’t a good thing that not one other person tried to so much as approach him as he stalked through the crowd and headed directly for Karen. Then again, he didn’t want to talk to any of them right now. He might’ve actually growled. And it was twenty freaking degrees outside. Why the hell didn’t they get in their cars in the first place?
He caught her just as she was climbing into Bruiser. “Where are you going?”
“You really need to ask?” She reached for the door to close it. He blocked it with his body.
She frowned. “I don’t belong here, Tuck. That was just made eminently clear.”
“You do belong here.” He reached for her but she pulled away so he just dropped his hand uselessly to his side. “I want you here.”
He knew he deserved her outraged laugh, but, damn, it still cut him deep.
She wouldn’t look at him. Placing her hands on the steering wheel, she stared straight ahead before closing her eyes. “I was so close. I was going to tell you at dinner. I even had an appointment set up for tomorrow with the real estate agent to see if there was a place in town, maybe even one out by you.” She gripped the steering wheel harder. “But I can’t do it. I know how these things work.” Only then did she turn to him, the look in her eyes almost killing him. “I believed you, though. I fell for every word you said.” For a moment everything felt right; felt like she was actually going to let him at least try to tell her why. But then she snapped out of it and started the engine. “I should have trusted myself.”
“So...what? You’re just going to go back to your empty apartment? Wrap yourself up in that Snuggie?” Yes, he was getting desperate. He knew how to give everyone else what they needed. But he had absolutely no clue how to focus on the things he wanted. How to tell her how badly he wanted her in his life. That, yes, he’d fallen in love with her. He gripped the door, keeping it open as she glared at him and tried to close it.
“Look... Maybe we don’t need to come into town. We can just stay at my house and you go do your thing while I go do mine. As long as we can just come back home and be together.” Right? That’s what his dad had said. “It could work. We could make it work.”
This time when she turned to him, he knew he had failed. Again. That he’d broken her. He just had no idea how.
“What were you thinking about when that all happened?” Her voice was utterly devoid of emotion. “When Gary came at me. What was your first thought?”
Tuck’s first thought was that he wanted to kill the guy. Then to get Justin out of there and tell him that somehow his life was going to turn out okay. “I... I didn’t want Justin to hear what you were going to say.” He... Fuck. “I wanted you not to say it.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she hadn’t lessened her grip on the steering wheel. But unlike the other times he’d seen her cry, she was in complete control. Clearly, she’d known exactly what his response would be.
“It’s the right answer, Tuck. They’re your family. You take care of them and they trust you to. But they’re not mine. And I won’t sugarcoat.” Her voice had softened. She even reached out to caress Tuck’s cheek and he wanted desperately to grab her hand but he was afraid if he did, he’d never let her go.
“I know this is a shitty thing,” she said, “and Justin has to make some very hard choices. But I won’t tell him something just because it’s what he wants to hear. Or because it’s what you want to.” She pulled her hand back and straightened up that damn spine of hers. “If I’m going to live my life alone, I won’t pretend otherwise. I’d rather have my Snuggie and Bruiser and know they’re all I’ve got, than just be the person you come to at night because you don’t like what I might tell people during the day.”
Damn it. “Karen...”
Despite how calm she seemed, he could see how close to the edge she was. He wanted to hold her; that was his job. But when she turned to him again, he knew it was too late even as she said, “I fell for you, Tuck. I really did. And I want that life more than I ever thought I could. But I need to know you have my back in every way. Not just the ways you want to.” She reached for the door again. “Now please let me go.”
Her voice was shaking. Her lips trembled. He knew she’d pull Bruiser over at the first moment she could so she could cry in the one place she felt safe. And he wanted to tell her she was wrong. That he did have her back. But he knew that in the one moment he’d had to prove it to her, he’d blown it entirely.
The second he stepped away from the car, she slammed the door shut and pulled away. Staring after her, Tuck realized that only now did he understand what Deke meant. Because he hadn’t realized until that moment what he truly had to lose. And now it was gone.
Chapter Eighteen
Another Christmas, another disappointment. And since Karen had actually allowed herself to have high hopes after those last few weeks with Tuck, this one was even worse than the ones that had come before.
Even Ryan had gotten into the spirit, so damn freaking Christmassy.
“What?” he had asked after being forced into confirming he was going to be a Christmas caroler in Inspiration’s pageant. “I don’t mind the bells if Tim’s wearing them.”
Karen rolled her eyes, knowing exactly the turn the conversation was about to take. Sure enough, Misty’s eyes widened as she murmured, “Like that commercial. Where the guys have the bells on their—”
“So what’s everybody doing for Christmas Day?” Karen asked. She did like Misty. The woman was too sweet for words. And Karen knew that since she and Tuck had broken up, Misty should absolutely have a shot.
But, no. Selfish as it may be, Karen wasn’t ready to facilitate anything of the sort.
With Ryan dating Tim, though, and the other nurses having families of their own, Karen
had given everyone she possibly could the day off and would be working with a skeleton team. Which was fine. The cardiologists had to be at full alert, but for neurosurgeons, Christmas was generally a manageable day.
“Dr. C, can I talk to you for minute?”
Karen whirled around to see Gabe. Her stomach churned a little. Taylor had been released to a rehab center a few days before and by all accounts she was doing incredibly well. They’d be keeping a very close eye on her, but the tumor really hadn’t been the problem so her rehab in that sense shouldn’t be too difficult. The real issue, of course, was her sight, and that wasn’t something that could be easily fixed. There were some experimental treatments out there and Karen was scouring the research, but there was no good answer in the short term.
And there was no reason for Gabe to be here. “Is everything okay?”
He nodded.
Given what had happened in Inspiration, Karen had to be very careful about what she said. She’d gotten a dressing down from the head of the hospital, and she was sure that if anyone knew Gabe was here, they’d insist she bring a lawyer in with her. Hell, if this was Gary Hale, Karen would be the one insisting. Word had spread that he’d threatened a lawsuit and once that concept became part of the conversation, everyone was on their guard. Plus he’d said it in front of half the town, apparently, so Karen wasn’t overly surprised it had gotten back to her.
But if the Bradshaws were going to sue her, so be it. She knew she tended to come up very close to that line and had always known some day she might step over it. Given the circumstances of this case, she couldn’t quite regret it.
“Why don’t you come on up to my office?” And she led the way.
When Gabe sat down across from her, he looked down at the desk. He was holding a baseball cap in his hands, and he was squeezing it pretty tightly so she was ready when he said, “We heard what happened with Gary Hale.”
