“Bite me.” He grimaced as he stood up straight, stretching his arms over his head, wincing. “Shouldn’t you be off doing paperwork or something?” he threw back.
“Asshole,” I muttered, slapping him on the back and heading toward the office to get started. This was the part of the job I hated the most, but it was a necessary evil.
While I waited for the computer to load, I went in search of coffee. Mondayitis was a real problem, and I had an acute case.
I’d barely sat back down again and taken the first sip when Franklin yelled and we were running out the door.
Some calls that came in turned your stomach.
It wasn’t my job to wish and hope, but there were days when you knew it wasn’t going to be good news and it was all you had. It didn’t stop me from pushing myself to the point of exhaustion trying.
Forty minutes later, I watched as a swarm of nurses and doctors surrounded the unresponsive seven-year-old we’d wheeled through the heavy glass doors.
James Jefferies had been battling cancer since he was two.
He was in remission.
At least he was supposed to be.
When a doctor came flying around the corner, her long brown hair tied in a high ponytail, a ponytail that’d make Isla envious, I stepped to the side to let her by. She was a woman on a mission, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to let anyone get in her way.
“Fuck,” she swore as her sneakers squeaked on the linoleum floor.
“Liam!” she yelled, and the guy sitting behind the high-topped counter poked his head up.
“What’s up?”
“My glasses.”
“Where are they?”
“My office.”
“On it,” he promised, yanking off his headset and already moving.
“Fuck! It’s James,” she swore again before turning back to where the little boy needed her.
5
CHARLOTTE
‘I did not come backfor this. I did not come back for this,’ I chanted as I ran through the halls.
The moment they knew who was in the back of the ambulance I’d been paged. I didn’t want to be paged. I never wanted to see James Jefferies again. He shouldn’t be here. He couldn’t be here. He’d spent so many nights in hospital already. So many birthdays were wasted hooked up to machines or undergoing painful procedures when he should be out there riding skateboards or kicking soccer balls or whatever the hell it was that kids did when they weren’t sick.
Skimming over his file, I brought myself up to speed making sure the ER nurses let me know the moment they arrived.
The moment I was called, I was running through the halls, almost knocking down an orderly and taking out a patient.
How was it only three days ago I was lying on a beach in the Maldives enjoying my honeymoon?
I might not have had a loving husband. I didn’t get my princess moment. That one moment where I walked down the aisle looking like the most beautiful woman in the world. And I may have missed out on stuffing myself on slices of caramel mudcake with that delicious thick white icing that was sure to send me into a sugar coma. But I wasn’t giving up my honeymoon.
After Mason had moved me into his place, albeit temporarily until I had a chance to come to terms with what that fuckwit had done and buy everything from a new bed to a new toothbrush, I’d been lost. True to his word, Mason got a cleaning crew in and got my apartment cleaned up. It was a shame cleaning up the craptastrophy of my life wasn’t as easy as making a few phone calls.
Making a list, I started at the top.
Planning my dream wedding had been exciting.
