“Why do you boys always have to push thelimits?” she challenged, sipping her coffee.
I shrugged. “Because we can, I guess?”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s good Mum’s babysitting you then, huh?”
“I wouldn’t call it babysitting.”
“Oh, right, sorry. Man sitting.”
I chuckled. “You’re worse than my sisters.”
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“That’s not a compliment,” I challenged.
“It is to me,” she retorted. “Your sisters are amazing. Not only are they smart, they’re gorgeous, and they have skin like glass.”
“You’re all of those things too, Poppy.”
She gave me another cheeky grin.
“Oh, I see what you just did. You’re diabolical.”
“Thank you.” She laughed. “I won’t tell Devon you think I’m gorgeous, smart, funny and have skin like glass.”
“I never said you were funny.” I grabbed a piece of bacon and bit into it with a grin.
“Oh, I’m hilarious.”
I would never say this to her, but shewashilarious, and the fact she’d taken time out of her morning to check on me meant a hell of a lot.
Waverly
TWO WEEKS LATER, I noticed Gio was back on my schedule. It was for a home visit the next day, but I was still certain it was too soon. I pulled up his most recent x-ray, surprised to see he’d actually gone in yesterday to have new ones taken, and I frowned. Way too early to do anything significant.
And I had a feeling he knew that. So why did he want me to come to him now?
There were no additional notes from Dr. Kraft, so I sat back in my chair and pondered all the reasons the drop-dead gorgeous Gio Rossi might need me to come to him, and pay my exorbitant rate.
Outside of anything professional, I could come up with nothing.
A knock on my open door drew my attention to my colleague, Kelsey.
I smiled. “Hey, Kels.”
“Hey, your ten o’clock is here. I offered to be the messenger since I’m heading into a consult.”
“Oh, great, thanks. Um, do you have a minute to give me a second set of eyes, actually?”
“Sure.”
I showed her Gio’s x-ray.
“Right there,” I said, pointing to the x-ray. “See this area? There was a full-thickness tear of the subscapularis, and I’m concerned it’s not healing enough.”
Kelsey examined the x-ray for a few moments and frowned.
“Uh, oh. Why the face? It’s bad, right?”
