“Rafe.” She smiled at Rafe, and he embraced her gently, too. “I’m sorry. For everything.”
He stepped back. “It’s not all on you. We both should have done things differently.”
It was all so cordial. Like a happy family reunion.Kumbaya.
“Jay.” Dr. Babe held out a hand to me. “Aimee’s told me lots about you.”
I shook his hand briefly. “Yeah, well. That information seems to have only flowed in one direction. I was in the dark about you… which is kind of a running theme.”
Fuck. I really hadn’t intended to do that.
Aimee made a distressed noise.
Rafe moved to stand closer to me, still in sentinel mode, which made me want to curl up against him.
“Sorry,” I mumbled.
Interestingly, Dr. Babe made the same instinctive move toward my sister, but he didn’t rush to comfort her or shoot me an angry look or anything. Instead, he ducked his head to meet Aimee’s eyes and asked, “Y’okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Um. Can we all sit down?”
“Sure.” I took a seat on the end of a sofa close to her chair, and Rafe sat on the sofa beside me, close but not touching. Dr. Babe seated himself in a chair on the other side of Aimee’s.
“First, tell me again that you’re okay,” I blurted. Because she looked fuckingawful.
“I’m okay,” she promised. “I’m really good. As good as a person who had heart surgery four days ago could possibly be, right?” She gave Dr. Babe a look, and he nodded in confirmation.
“I’m honestly closer to perfect than I’ve been in years. I just, um… I didn’t sleep very well, knowing you guys were coming today. So.” She lifted one delicate hand to touch her hair. “I have so much to say, I don’t know where to start.”
“The beginning would be good,” Dr. Babe suggested.
His simple comment drew my ire like a lightning rod.
“Actually, I’d kinda like to know whoyouare first,” I interrupted. “Are you Aimee’s doctor?” I was pretty sure there were laws about calling patientsbabe. If not, I was gonna make sure some got written.
“Nope!” Dr. Babe said brightly. “She’s technically my brother’s patient. I’m just here to answer any medical questions you might have. And for Aimee’s moral support.” He sat forward and lifted Aimee’s hand from her armrest to cradle it in his own.
I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t like the way he looked at her, but Aimee clearly did. She freakin’glowedas she looked at him.
So, okay. I would back off. If Rafe and I could cut through so much of the bullshit between us, surely Aimee and I could do the same, and the first step was to stop being so damn prickly.
“The beginningwouldbe good,” Rafe said, jumping in to save me once again. He’d always been good at that. “I already told Jay everything about your diagnosis and how we ended up making our deal—”
“You mean us getting married,” Aimee clarified with a wince. “Yeah.” She took a breath like she was bracing herself. “Okay. This is good. So you know Dr. Corlia misdiagnosed me for years—?”
I nodded. “And Dad wouldn’t want it to get around that he’d ever taken you to a specialist, since that might make it seem like he didn’t trust his golf buddy. I could kick him for that.”
“Right. Same. And all the while, I had a hole in my heart that meant that my blood wasn’t supplying enough oxygen to my body, and nobody knew—” She broke off with a head shake. “Until I collapsed.”
“I know this part, too,” I said softly. “You were sick and had to quit your job. You didn’t have health insurance or money. And you kept me out of the loop because you didn’t want to disrupt my career.” I couldn’t hide a glimmer of bitterness, and I shot Rafe a glance that he met unflinchingly. “I understand why you did that, even if I completely disagree with it.”
“I was feeling weak, Jay. Telling you… Having you come home… I would have felt even weaker.”
Weaker? I thought we’d always made each other stronger.
“So, yeah. I asked Rafe to do me that favor. To marry me and get me on his health insurance. Because I knew he wanted to protect your career as much as I did. And I swear, I never for a second thought my super-straight brother would have a problem with it.” Her mouth twisted to one side, and I winced at the reminder of how my own secrets had caused all this, too.
“I moved to the Key with Rafe and the Goodmans.” She gave Rafe a small smile. “And my Florida cardiologist prescribed medication that helped me… sort of. But it had side effects. Pretty debilitating ones. I couldn’t work. And I…” Aimee pushed her lips together and took a breath through her nose. “I wasn’t going to be able to have kids either. It hit me hard. Really hard. You know I always wanted that—kids of my own, a career working with them, all of it. But the meds I was on weren’t safe during pregnancy, and my heart wouldn’t have withstood the strain without them. I felt like shit, you know? Physically, yeah, but emotionally, too. Rafe was doing his best. Beale was being his usual awesome self. The people on the Key were… you know. The usual.”
