“Hmm.” Chloe’s brows arched. “Dr. Wu said you would fit in well here. Now I understand what he meant.”
Bryson smiled to himself as he walked down the powder-blue corridor toward the rear of the hospital. He stepped into his office first and changed into clean scrubs. Then he walked over to the last room on the right, which served as the in-house daycare for the staff’s pets. He found Bella curled up against a three-foot-tall teddy bear in the corner of the room.
“What are you doing there?” Bryson said, scooping her into his arms. “That thing would smother you if it fell over.”
“I had my eyes on her,” called a teenager who was trying to wrangle a shih tzu with pink bows tied around its ears.
She came over and offered a hand to Bryson. “I’m Aurora, Dr. Guidry’s daughter. I take over for Elizabeth in the afternoons. She said to tell you that Bella did great but will probably be exhausted tonight because she played with the other dogs all day.”
“You made some new friends today, Belly Welly?”
Bella licked his cheek, then turned in toward his chest and went back to sleep.
“Thanks for looking after my girl,” Bryson said to the teen. It was her mother, Dr. Jennifer Guidry, who had first sought him out. He’d met the ortho-surgeon at a symposium in Chicago last fall and later discovered that she had gone there with the sole purpose of luring Bryson back to Louisiana.
He secured Bella in her pet carrier and, after making one last sweep through the recovery wing, exited the back of the building and into the employee parking lot. His cell started ringing with a number he recognized but couldn’t place. Bryson climbed into his Jeep and waited for the phone to connect to the vehicle’s Bluetooth before answering.
“Hello, this is Bryson Mitchell,” he said as he strapped in Bella’s carrier.
“Hey there, Bryson. It’s Odessa.”
Ah, it was the number for The Sanctuary.That’swhy it seemed familiar. He’d removed it from his contacts years ago, after scrolling past it one too many times and experiencing that pain in his chest that struck whenever he encountered something that reminded him of Evie.
He cleared his throat.
“Hey, Odessa. What’s going on?” Bryson asked as he backed out of his designated parking spot. When he’d pulled in this morning, the first thing he did was snap a pic of the metal sign with his name on it and send it to his brothers and nephews. He was back home to stay. The sign made it official.
“I’m calling on behalf of Dr. Landry. He needs to talk to you. Today,” Odessa emphasized.
Bryson slammed on his brakes.
“What’s wrong? Is Doc sick?”
“No, no. It’s nothing like that. Just… can you come to The Sanctuary?”
Bryson pulled back into his parking spot and brought up the calendar on his phone. He had a call with an old colleague from the team at Tuskegee scheduled for six, but he could push that to Wednesday.
Still, why would Doc want to meet with him when they’d just gotten together for lunch a few days ago? And why did he want to meet in person? Couldn’t he just call?
“Bryson, you still there?” Odessa asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, sorry about that,” Bryson said. He put the car in reverse again and slowly backed out. “Tell Doc I’ll be right over.”
“He also asked if you could stop over at Maple Street Animal Clinic and see if Evie is available to join you. It’s on your way.”
He slammed on the brakes again.
“He’s tried calling her cell phone, but it’s going directly to voicemail,” Odessa continued. “I tried calling the clinic, but they must be busy there today. I was put on hold twice. What Doc wants to discuss concerns you both, so it would be better if you’re both here.”
Doc wanted to see both him and Evie? Together?
What in the hell had he done to piss off the universe?
It’s not that he wanted to avoid Evie forever, but he needed more time. He had to mentally prepare himself before sharing space again with the one person who had affected him more than any other woman. The one who’d gotten away.
The one youletget away. The one you pushed away when you ran like a coward. The one you practically handed over to Cameron Broussard.
Fuck his brain right now.
