by Anthology
Still, he couldn’t help teasing her. “You’re going to have to prove it to me. To us,” Harlan insisted. “Because from where I’m standing you look like an old fuddy-duddy.”
She spared a smile at Renee, stomping her feet and shaking her bottom to show off her brand-new mint-green bathing suit. “Please don’t insult me in front of the kiddo. She’s going to pick up your foul language and then where will we be? I’ll be trapped in a house with two foul-mouthed individuals!”
“Who’s insulting you? You positively insisted that you were fun. We just haven’t seen it yet. Have we, darling?” Harlan looked down at Renee, who was tugging his hand in her eagerness to get going. “Come on. It’s a beautiful day and I know for a fact you want to race me down the Challenger.”
He used his head to gesture toward the dual water slides that looked like they were four stories tall.
Olympia followed his gaze. Swallowed hard. “Don’t you think Renee is a little young for the water park? Maybe we should come back when she’s a little older and can enjoy it.”
“I’ve never been to a water park before, but I’m old enough.” Her sweet voice still held the hint of a French accent, and although she said the words with her little nose in the air, it was adorable nonetheless.
“I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. There are pools to swim in, new friends to play with, and these giant slides where you can go really fast.” He looked back at Olympia. “And she won’t be let out of our sight. I think you’re stalling because you know I’ll win,” Harlan teased.
Both woman and girl eyed each other. Skeptical of how this would play out. “Do you think Harlan can beat me to the bottom on that big slide?” Olympia asked Renee.
Renee shook her head. “No way. You’re the fastest!” Then she jerked away from Harlan’s grip, leaping ahead, bound and determined to splash around in the kiddie pool. “Come on, Oly.” She still couldn’t pronounce Olympia. “I want to go play!”
Olympia and Harlan set off at a jog to keep up with the little girl, who more resembled a roadrunner than a child. “What time did your mom say they were getting here?”
“We’re supposed to meet them by the hot dog stand at ten thirty. We have a few minutes to splash around in the kiddie pool. I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep Renee from it even if we tried,” he said.
“Hey, hey, don’t go out of my sight!” She lunged forward and took Renee by the hand. “I think I see them. Isn’t that Reggie?” Olympia gestured toward a familiar head of hair. “They’re early.”
“They’re never early.”
“Well, they are today.”
“How about this. Let’s pretend we don’t see them,” Harlan said, letting his gaze linger on her. “Have a little alone time to ourselves.”
Harlan couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was glowing, her hair left down in a loose braid flowing past her shoulders. It hadn’t taken much effort to get her out of her shell, not once she’d committed to the idea. To the idea of growth and change and, yes, even love.
And every day had been a beautiful adventure.
Olympia’s face warmed. “You’re serious?”
“Oh, I’m deadly serious. A little family time. The three of us. My parents and siblings can wait for a little while.” Harlan shifted to her other side, gripping her hand and pulling her closer. “I want to savor this moment.”
“I think you want to be able to take pictures of Renee’s first time at the water park without anyone getting in the way.”
It was true. Since he’d moved into the house with them six months ago, he’d done nothing but take photos to commemorate everything. Her first time trying boxed macaroni and cheese, haircuts, Christmas together…there was nothing he didn’t capture. Today was no exception.
Staring at Olympia, he couldn’t help leaning in to kiss her.
“What was that for?” she asked when they broke apart. Her lashes fluttered and Harlan was content to see a dreamy smile.
“That, my dear, was because I simply couldn’t resist.”
Olympia trusted him. Loved him. And it was more than he could ask for. He knew, when they tucked Renee into bed that night, and the moon began to rise, she wouldn’t hesitate to be with him.
But now, in the water park, the very air singing with laughter and joy, Harlan added his own voice to the melody.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BREA VIRAGH is a contemporary and paranormal romance writer based in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is a proud Gryffindor, a graduate of Brakebills, and a member of Fairy Tail. When she isn’t writing and daydreaming about her newest project, her hobbies include binge-watching HGTV, scouring thrift shops for goodies, and maintaining her alpha status among her puppy and three cats.
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LOVE, DOCTOR
An Inner Harbor Novella
by M.C. CERNY
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I’ve taken liberties with the laws surrounding work Visas and immigration status to make it work for this story. I consulted an immigration attorney and learned that there are plenty of grey areas to be debated. Any factual errors are mine alone.
Thanks for reading.
XO
CHAPTER ONE
Piper
Coffee jostles as I hum Justin Timberlake’s song, Can’t Stop The Feeling, skipping out of the dinging elevator. Brightly painted walls of the pediatric oncology floor don’t change the seriousness of why I’m here. The eagerness to see Maisy’s smiling face and her Troll movie inspired hair keeps me going. There’s nothing magical about my goddaughter having cancer, it’s downright awful, but we find ways to manage.
Sniffles from inside the doorway stop me in my tracks. My chest constricts with a sharp pang. I hold back a wave of emotion bracing myself for the unexpected inside Maisy’s hospital room. It isn’t unusual for Diana to be weepy. This has been a hard road getting Maisy into the right hospital for treatment. To say there have been ups and downs is an understatement.
“Diana?” Peering inside the room, Maisy is sound asleep. Her little body wrapped in blankets and her mouth a relaxed cupid’s bow buffered by rosy cheeks. A tuft of pink hair peeks out from her pillows. I smile and then frown thinking that the chemo will steal every strand of her baby fine locks before this is over. We dyed it pink in the sink a week ago as a kind nurse hunted the staff locker room for a blow dryer to help us finish her hair.
She looks like any other four-year-old ready to wake up and cause mischief despite the wires and tubes that hold her rebel heart hostage. My best friend holds back tears and my heart drops when the sniffles become a long-muted sob she’s been holding back. Panicking I almost drop the large coffees juggled between my hands. Scalding the corner of soft skin between my thumb and palm I put them on the nightstand. Kneeling in front of her clutching her icy hands I speak.
“Di what’s going on?”
“Piper, thank goodness you’re here.” Scanning her pinched features, I wonder if she’s left the hospital since Maisy started this new treatment. Construction at the gym I co-owned kept me from getting here sooner. Unkempt hair that looks like three days’ worth of dry shampoo sticks up. Her files from work spread out on a tray table. This room has become a makeshift office and home the past few months.
Swallowing the lump in my throat attempting to keep it together I ask, “What is it honey? Is it–”
She interrupts my thoughts as we look over the sweet angelic face that looks like a mini-Diana. She brushes back tears from her face speaking.
“No. Maisy is doing well. We’re so hopeful, and Dr. Milo is great. He’s talking about remission.”
“But?” She doesn’t fool me with her glances darting around the room.
She waves her shaking hand and I take it in mine to keep her focused.
“Dr. Milo is having issues. The nurses have been chatting.” I bet they’ve been chatting. Some of them are great, and I love those, but others are catty wenches look
ing for a hookup.
“What kind of issues?” When Diana confided in me at Christmas that Maisy was sick I dropped everything in Austin to come home. We took her to countless doctors and specialists before coming here. I gave up my job, moved into my parents’ house to save money, and opened a new gym location with my friend Jax that gave me flexible hours to help Diana and Maisy. If she asked me to move to Alaska tomorrow, I would.
Diana exhales with exhaustion. “Dr. Milo might have to leave.” Maisy’s doctor is a huge part of her path to remission utilizing a combination of treatments through his research.
“Leave the hospital?” I inquire but Diana shakes her head.
Except for the few run ins since Maisy’s diagnosis I don’t know the doctor that well. Diana tells me he has an amazing bedside manner with kids and best of all he seems to be the only one able to calm Diana down when she’s feeling anxious. I wish I could do more, but in a way, I rely on him too when I can’t be here for her.
The things I do know about him run toward the more questionable such as the tight ass in his dress pants that I have shamelessly admired from afar. Those white coats he wears over his neatly buttoned dress shirts cover some pretty broad shoulders. The feisty side of me wonders how the coat would look rumpled up on my bedroom floor, except for the whole temporarily living at my parents’ house thing. I know those strong shoulders have a lot of parents in the children’s ward leaning on him which makes him a hundred times sexier to me. It would be a shame for him to have to leave the hospital.
A flash of heat courses through my body that has no relation to the coffee I chugged on my way here. Last time I saw the doctor, he was on his phone. A phone he slipped in his pocket that did nothing to hide the ridge of his package any woman could appreciate. Thank god he also carried a clipboard to cover it walking down the hallway.
“Piper?” Diana is looking at me oddly and guilt replaces the daydream.
I cough. “Is he getting a new job?”
I hope it’s not a job. Or a girlfriend.
Diana’s eyes flutter shut before opening with a pained expression. “It’s not a job.”
I sigh relieved.
“He’s not the only one at the hospital though. There are some pretty awesome doctors on the team, right?” I try reassuring her but her face scrunches into a tearful frown.
Way to go Piper.
“He has to leave in a few weeks.” She explains as we glance in Maisy’s direction.
“Why?” I urge her to drink the coffee. I can’t get an answer out of a distraught uncaffeinated Diana. She takes a sip coughing into her hand waving me away.
“I heard the other doctor in the department wants to do a different treatment, but this one works. It finally works and I don’t want to change anything right now.” Her hand clenches.
“What? Why would they change a treatment that works?” I’m confused. Maisy’s condition was initially hard to diagnose. Diana used her paralegal skills and hours of research doing a mother’s due diligence to find out what was making her baby sick. She could talk about it better than most doctors.
She mumbles things about work Visas and immigration, but all I can hear is that Maisy, sweet Maisy might lose her doctor and the best chance for a cure. I love this incredible little girl like my own.
“We’ll do anything to make her better. I’ll do anything I can to help.” I solemnly promise.
Diana stands pacing the room. “I’m going to have to marry him to keep him here.”
The pounding worry in my heart skips a beat.
Did she?
What did she?
When I said do anything that wasn’t what I meant.
“Wait, whoa! Hold on a second here.” I put my hand up to stop her but she continues pacing the room in shaking steps between the steady beep of monitors. I hand her a new tissue from the already decimated tissue box to replace the rumpled one in her hands.
“Pip it’s the only way. I asked Naomi and it’s legal.” Naomi Whitehall is her boss and our mutual friend who works as a successful lawyer for a large firm in Baltimore. I can’t imagine Naomi is okay with this idea.
“I don’t care about legal, I care about you.” Imploring I watch her cry in earnest. I know how fearful Diana is of getting into a relationship. Her ex-husband is an abusive prick and had I known in the beginning I would have never left for Austin. I would have stayed and kicked Allen’s ass prior to her divorce last year. Heck, even a fake relationship is making her panic. It makes me panic equally as much.
“You can’t marry him Diana.” I help her sit back down and stick the coffee cup under her nose encouraging her to drink. I resume pacing the room back and forth making tread marks with my sneakers on the tile.
“Yes.” She shakes her head.
“No,” I shake back and she bites her fist, eyes squeezed shut.
She whimpers. “I have to.”
“There’s gotta be another way.” But I can’t think of one.
My stomach knots impossibly tight thinking of the little girl I love more than anything laying helpless in the bed. I hope she’s resting and not listening to her mother and TeeTee Piper discussing grownup things. This kid slept through a tropical storm last summer on our impromptu girls’ vacation to North Carolina. Still we shouldn’t be in here talking about this.
“Come on.” I take her hand and guide her just outside the door.
“I can do it, Piper.” She says between trembles. I give her a side eye that asks her how the last date worked out. Not so well considering she had a major freak out when the police detective moved in for a kiss goodnight and she slugged him in the eye. He took it in stride, but he didn’t call her back for a second date. Her unused online dating profile has since been renamed Slugger and probably explains why no one messages her.
I chide her. “Diana.”
“I can do anything for my daughter.” I know she can. I also know she’s stubborn enough to work through her fear despite how it might affect her.
My hands rest on her shoulders rubbing down her arms.
“No Diana, this is a terrible idea.” I hand her a bag filled with a gooey pastry hoping the shock of sugar will kick some sense into her.
She crinkles the bag open peering inside.
“Cherry Danish?” She sniffles.
“Yeah, I figured we could binge today.” Our joke between the two of us. I am a health nut, personal trainer, and Scorpio. Diana is a paralegal, and a Danish aficionado with a knockout right hook as any Leo should be.
“But it’s not Friday.” Through her exhalations I shrug.
“Sometimes a crisis just calls for a food fix.”
She’s stuck on this idea that somehow marrying Dr. Milo will fix everything and, in this case, I can overlook a little emotional eating feeling as helpless as Diana.
“I’m single.”
I lean down again warming her hands holding the coffee in mine. “Being single isn’t a reason to do this, let alone…” Yeah, nobody needed to remind us what a deadbeat Allen turned out. When he learned that Maisy had a form of acute myeloid leukemia, the asshole divorced Diana quicker than an annulment with a Vegas stripper. He left her high and dry paying for hospital treatments and insurance out of her own pocket. The only good thing was Naomi’s boss Rex helped with the divorce so she got the house paid off, but not much else from the deadbeat.
“But then he could treat her and he wouldn’t have to leave.” I look up for a moment channeling much needed patience. I’m not sure this is a problem we can solve. You can’t trust hospital gossip.
Shaking my head, no, I hate being the one to crush her solution, “Doctors can’t treat family.” My best friend since the second grade radiates with anxiety and I can’t blame her. Maisy started responding to the treatments in the last few weeks under the care of Dr. Milo here at the pediatric oncology unit. Nothing is going to convince her otherwise that any change won’t jeopardize her health.
“But Piper, they’re sending Dr. Mil
o back. Who will treat Maisy?” My heart hurts for my goddaughter and I feel at a loss of what to do.
“Well, surely he has working papers? A passport? What does he need to stay?” I have no clue what is required for foreign doctors to remain in the US. It isn’t the standard work-related problem like filling out tax forms and health care documents. I certainly didn’t know the science behind cancer. I sculpted bodies in a gym for a living while cancer ravaged them. I didn’t want him to leave any more than she did.
“I’m scared, Piper. Maisy is my baby. My one and only. I don’t know what I would do without her. I’d do anything to get her healthy and keep her safe.”
“I know you would Diana, but marriage? That’s a bit much and even if you could, I think the hospital has all kinds of rules about that don’t they?”
“I guess they do.”
“I’m sure he as an attorney looking into whatever this mess is.”
“Well, you marry him then. He’s hot.” She’s right about him being hot. Dr. Milo is a legend among the staff and patients. Glimpses in the hallway fuel my fantasies while I work on getting the gym up and running with Jax. By the end of the day I’m physically exhausted, but horny as heck.
Groaning, “Diana, I would do anything for the two of you, but marry a stranger? Even a hot one? Come on.” The idea is ludacris.
“You could do worse.” Diana isn’t far off the mark. I had done worse. Way worse. In the past, my dating track record looked more like something from a Nightmare on Elm Street hence the ready supply of box wine I keep stashed at my parent’s house now that I’m temporarily taking up residence there. The last guy I dated lives in Austin and probably snorts whey protein like an addict.
“Diana…” I warn her. She turns her big blue eyes on me and I’m lost in my loyalty and love for her and Maisy.
