The Doctor's Healing Love (Contemporary BWWM Romance)

by Tiana Cole

  He tried his parents, who actually had understood about the whole situation when Richard had sat down with them to tell them all about Ben and his mother: this understanding was something he'd wished Chloe would do.

  After the fourth ring, he remembered they'd left the day before for another weeklong trip to some festival. He began to panic so much that he felt the walls closing in on him.

  He wanted to throw his phone across the room and scream.

  Ben came into the living room at this point. Richard had just finished getting his breakfast ready when the phone had rang from the babysitter. He ushered his son into the kitchen and to the table. While Ben ate, he thought about the options he had, and it all came down to one thing: he had no options. There was no one left to call.

  “Well, buddy, it looks like you are coming to work with me today.” Richard made the best decision he could. It wasn’t the proper decision and it would probably only cause more problems, but it was the best one he could come up with on this day.

  ***

  “Okay, here are some crayons and a big fat coloring book. Your cars are in this red bag. I’ll be back after I go see Mrs. Jessie in the room. Julia will be right outside in the hallway, okay?”

  Ben nodded his head to his father, acknowledging every word he said. Richard wasn’t sure how well this would work, but he knew there wasn’t any other choice. He had packed everything he could think of to keep Ben entertained for his shift. Julia said she would keep an eye on him while Richard saw patients, but he knew that was subjective to her job, which came first. He gave a quick survey of the office, making sure there wasn’t anything that could harm his son or put his son in danger. He spotted a hazard and quickly grabbed the packages of drug samples that he had placed on his desk the day after a pharmaceutical rep had left them there during his visit to Richard's office.

  He gave his son a quick kiss on the top of his head and headed out of his office, leaving the door wide open. ‘It’s Friday,’ he thought to himself, smiling as he headed toward the first waiting room. He was definitely glad Chloe had talked him into only doing emergency visits on Saturdays instead of opening the office for appointments. He looked forward to his free weekends, especially when it came to spending more and more time with his son.

  He had just turned to open the room’s door when he noticed Chloe standing outside her office door. He wanted to go and talk to her, but he had patients waiting. She gave him a slight unexpected smile and this lifted his heart as he headed in to see his first patient for the day.

  Chloe stood and watched Ben as he opened a bag that was lying on the floor. He pulled out a few colorful toy cars and placed them on the floor. She could tell he wasn’t happy, and could she blame him? His whole entire world had been uprooted. He’d not only lost a mother, but was also now living with a man he'd never met until a few short days ago. She knew what both Richard and Ben felt like, unfortunately. After losing her mother, she was devastated and after learning about Richard’s past in the most horrible way possible, she was just as sad as Ben.

  Chloe headed into her office, and her heart ached for the little boy. She could be helping him with his new life instead of holding a grudge against his father. She knew she’d be able to do it. Not as well as his own mother, but she was willing to try her best for him. Deep in her heart she knew that Richard wouldn’t really think about leaving her. He had proposed. That wasn’t the case with Ben’s mother. As she thought about it more, it seemed like a tough decision for Richard to have made. He left her because she got pregnant at a monumental time in his life: a time when he had just been granted his degree and was ready to work to become the best doctor in his small hometown.

  She looked down at the pile of papers on her desk. She had so much work to do, but was it really that important right now? Could she possibly continue being miserable and distract herself on a principle which really didn’t involve her? A undeniable flutter in her stomach gave her the answer she’d been searching for months to find.

  Preparing to step out of the office, she could hear Richard speaking to someone. She peeked out of her door and discovered him sitting on a chair beside where Ben was sprawled on the floor with his cars. She didn’t know if she was completely ready for this or not, but she knew this was what she needed to do.

  With a deep breath, she stepped out of her office and walked down the hall. When she reached the doorway, both the father and the son looked at her. She didn’t make eye contact with Richard, because now wasn’t the time or the place for that conversation. Instead, she knelt down on the floor beside Ben and smiled widely.

  “Hello, Ben. My name is Chloe.”

  “Hello.” The boy leaned more toward his father, a small blush appearing on his cheeks as he watched Chloe wave. Richard ruffled his hair.

  “I saw you playing here on the floor and wondered if you would want some company. Can I play with you?”

  “You play with cars?” he asked with his mouth agape.

  “I did when I was your age. I was what they called a tomboy back in my day.”

  Ben looked from Chloe to his father. He felt like he needed to confirm Chloe’s friendliness.

  “Are you sure? I know how…” Richard’s hopes were rising, but he worried that Chloe was doing this for reasons other than a relationship with him. Maybe it was because she had some complex for kids that she had known, or even worse, maybe she was carrying out some sort of revenge plot using his son; but he knew she wasn’t an evil person and ruining his life wasn’t in her plans.

  “I’m fine.” She gave him a smile that made his hopes rise even higher. “What do you say, Ben? I would love to play cars with you. I’m great at it.”

  Ben looked from Chloe to his father again for the second time. He was very careful, and rightfully so. He knew not to talk and play willingly with strangers. Richard nodded his head, which helped the boy make his decision firmly. With more enthusiasm and animation than Chloe had seen the few times she had been around him, he nodded his head.

  “Why don’t we gather all your stuff and go into my office? My floor isn’t so crammed with stuff.”

  Ben quickly started to put his cars back into the bag with energy and he was excited like she hadn’t seen before. Chloe stood up and reached for the items that Richard had put on the desk.

  “Thank you,” Richard said, as he touched her hand. She looked at it and took a moment. The touch made her insides tingle.

  “I couldn’t stand to see him all by himself,” she told Richard.

  “I know. The babysitter has that stomach bug and I had nowhere else for him to go,” he tried to explain. He scratched the back of his head, hoping that with that clarification he didn’t seem like a neglectful father any longer.

  “Hopefully, my boss will understand if I don’t get all my paperwork done today.” She spoke to him in the third person as Ben looked up, waiting for her to lead the way.

  “I believe your boss will forever be grateful for you helping out.” Richard played along. He smirked at her and allowed the corner of his eyes to crinkle.

  Chloe smiled and felt a tug on her pant leg. She looked down to see Ben standing there, all ready with his toys. His eyes screamed for some fun and a companion. She reached out her hand and he took it, all the shyness and reluctance gone and replaced with warmth. Without saying anything else to Richard, she led his son down the hall to her office, eager to spend some time with the little boy.

  He stopped when they entered her office and stared straight ahead. “What’s wrong?” She looked down at him and could see a frown appear on his face. His bottom lip quivered before he could find the words to speak.

  “It smells like my mom,” he shared, with his voice barely above a whisper. Chloe took a concentrated whiff of her own office.

  Chloe had become so used to the air freshener that sometimes she didn’t even smell it anymore. It was a Hawaiian scent.

  “I bet you miss her,” she said to him. He nodded his head and tears beg
an to form in his eyes. She didn’t want him to be upset, but she also knew that he probably needed to talk and needed to let out his pain. “You know, I lost my grandmother last year, and even now I miss her,” she shared, picking a more recent story.

  “You do?”

  “Yes. At first I tried not to let anyone know, but then I learned that my mother also missed her. Whenever I start to miss her now, I call my mom and we talk about her. It really helps me.” It didn’t matter if she told the truth. It wasn’t about her right now: it was about what she could say to make Ben feel better, and to have him learn that talking to others about his feelings was the only way he’d be able to stop hurting so badly all the time something reminded him of his mother.

  Ben took a few more steps into the room. It was clear he was still hesitant. Chloe wasn’t going to push him.

  “What would you like to do first?” Chloe asked, trying to distract him from what he was thinking about.

  “Do you know how to play Uno?” he asked with his eyebrows raised.

  “It’s one of my favorites.” She smiled and nodded encouragingly.

  “Dad doesn’t know how to play.” He told her this fact, practically laughing at his father’s lack of knowledge of the game.

  “We will have to teach him,” Chloe declared.

  A smile spread across Ben's face, replacing the sad look he'd had since stepping into the room. He took the bag that was in Chloe’s hand and started to dig through it. He pulled out the familiar red box.

  They worked together to clear off the papers and other items that were sprawled across Chloe’s desk. Once there was no sign of paperwork, Chloe pushed her chair over to him and she took one of the other chairs on the other side. It wasn’t long before they were laughing and talking while playing their second game of Uno, with Ben having won the first one quickly. He was a clever boy, and Chloe barely tried to let him win.

  “My mom and I would play this all the time.”

  He didn’t look at her when he said this. She didn’t say anything in response. She just continued to play. Another hand, and he started to tell her about some of the other things that his mom would do with him. Chloe realized she had been holding her breath since Ben's first 'mom' comment, and she finally let the stale air out. She could tell from his voice that this time it was different from earlier. He still missed his mom, but talking about these memories didn’t seem to hurt quite as much. They were happy stories and thus, they made him feel happy. He loved his mother and that was obvious by the way he recalled the memories so vividly. He began saying things that even she would say and changing his voice to a deeper, more mother-like tone to indicate that.

  “Why don’t we draw a dragon over in this corner?”

  “Yes.”

  Richard stepped into the doorway of Chloe’s office to find her desk clear except for a piece of the paper they used on the patient beds. There were markers and crayons spread out everywhere. Chloe and Ben were leaning over the paper, both of them with markers in their hands. She was just as focused on their masterpiece as he was.

  “Okay. You work on the dragon and I’ll finish the castle,” Chloe instructed him when they took a moment to look at the mote and drawbridge they had just finished coloring together.

  “Can you draw the dragon? I don’t want to mess it up.” Ben frowned.

  “You won’t.” Chloe placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile. “I, on the other hand, am horrible at drawing dragons. I’m more of a dog person.”

  Richard watched as Ben leaned closer to the paper and started to draw. His tongue stuck out slightly from the corner of his lips. This was something Richard also tended to do when he was focused on a project.

  This was the first trait that Richard had actually realized that Ben got from him. It was almost remarkable that a son who didn’t even know him for very long had received a mannerism from his father.

  “Hi daddy! Look what Chloe and I are making,” Ben shouted proudly.

  Richard stepped into the room and towards the desk. The paper was full of drawings, all pertaining to castles, knights, horses, and dragons.

  “Ben was saying how his mother had put up this giant painting of a castle in his bedroom back when he lived at his old house, so I suggested we make a picture to hang in his new bedroom,” Chloe explained.

  “Is that okay, daddy?” Ben asked, curling his lips downward and widening his eyes, causing his eyebrows to raise and round out. There was no possible way Richard could say no to such a perfectly executed puppy-dog face.

  “It is fine with me. This looks fabulous.” Richard looked at Chloe and mouthed a thank you. She just nodded her head at him, acknowledging his thanks. “Why don’t we clean all this up and you can finish it at home after supper. I’m sure Chloe would like to go home after her full day, and I’m all done with patients.”

  “Can Chloe come over and finish the picture with me, please? She’s a good drawer,” Ben begged his father.

  “I have no problem with that, but only if she wants to. Plus, we could stop and get supper before heading back to the house, so the dining room table would be all ready for your project and we wouldn’t even have to do dishes.”

  The pleading look in both Richard’s and Ben’s eyes as they looked at Chloe was too much for her to handle. There was no way she could possibly refuse either of them, let alone both at one time. And if she went over to the house, she would be able to talk to Richard after Ben went to bed. It seemed like a perfect opportunity.

  “I don’t see why it would be a problem. We can’t possibly hang a half-finished picture on your wall. And maybe your dad could help us draw some more animals for this poster.”

  The two males shared a smile between the two of them, silently congratulating each other for getting Chloe to agree. Chloe could feel things changing already. The fact that Ben was learning that it was okay to talk about his mom had really made a positive change in him. He was opening up to Chloe so quickly it almost felt like their meeting was destined to happen. Richard could see how comfortable his son was around Chloe, and this was a whole new experience for a kid like him who clung so tightly to people he knew, as Ben had never clung to any women because they weren’t like his mother. It seemed like Chloe was an exception to that rule. Now if she could only muster up the courage to tell Richard about the baby she held in her stomach everything would be on the table. Her hand went to her stomach out of automatic reflex. Richard gave her an odd look, noticing her movements. With that, Chloe didn’t leave any time for him to think more about it.

  “Let’s get all this stuff cleaned up. I’m starving.” She quickly helped the boys to clean up their supplies and they were out of the office, headed to grab dinner and continue working on the artwork.

  Chapter 16

  Richard unlocked the front door of his home and then stepped out of the way so Ben, who wouldn’t let go of Chloe’s hand, could march through first. With a tug on her arm, Ben encouraged Chloe to head into the house by his side.

  They had stopped at the local pizza place to dine. They ordered a hardy buffalo ranch pizza, which Richard had discovered was Ben’s favorite dish. They managed to talk and laugh throughout the whole meal, taking little to no breaks to chew their food. Ben would occasionally mention his mother while explaining something animatedly, and each time, Richard could tell that his son wasn’t expressing himself in a sad way. It was obvious that Ben was starting to feel a little better about the situation he had been so tragically thrown into at such a young age. And Richard himself was starting realize how much more positive he was also feeling about the situation. With every milestone, it felt like he was getting closer to understanding the true meaning of being a father.

  But he knew that almost all of the occurrences and positive revelations of the day were due to Chloe’s presence. If she didn’t decide to make the choice to spend the day with Ben earlier at the office, they still would have been clashing heads at every turn. There was just something about her
that drew people in, while also allowing them to talk about whatever was bothering them. She never intimidated a soul, but she was also never pushed around or disrespected. Her aura was as beautiful as she was, and Richard loved her to pieces.

  Chloe carried in the rolled-up paper that they had used earlier to create the mural that they had started to prepare to hang on Ben’s wall. Ben carried the leftover pizza, which he didn’t let anyone else hold - not even on the ride home. Richard carried everything else that was left. Once they were through the door, Ben ran toward the kitchen, making sure he placed the food somewhere that he could go back to it later should he become hungry again, and Chloe headed toward the dining room to prepare the workplace for their project.

  Richard placed the rest of their baggage on the foyer table. By the time he'd reached the dining room, Ben and Chloe had the paper unrolled and were starting the new additions they had discussed during dinner.

  “Here, daddy,” Ben held a marker out to his father.

  Richard took the marker and joined in with the fantastic art creation for Ben’s wall. His job was to draw some animals, which he did happen to know how to do - although the type of animal was not specified. Chloe continued to work on adding details to the castle, and Ben worked on creating the big, flame-throwing dragon, which they had agreed would be their centerpiece.

  It was almost nine o'clock when they finished the mural and together, they took it into Ben’s room. They hung it temporarily on the wall with tape, but Richard promise he would plan to take it to be framed over the weekend.

  “Okay, I think it’s time for bed.”

  “Aaahhh, no it’s not!”

  “It’s already past your bedtime. You’re lucky it is Friday night.”

  “Can Chloe read me a book?” He held his hand out to her; he already knew what was going to be said, and he knew he’d have his way as a result.

  “If she is okay with that, then we’ll find the best book for her to read.” Richard looked at Chloe, wondering what she was going to do.