He had no plans on charging the patients he’d see. He had no concerns when it came to him making a living—not with who his family was or his investments. At close to one hundred, he’d amassed a great wealth.
But he'd been utterly wrong in his assumptions.
On the first day Scott had opened his practice, his waiting room had been swamped with new patients. Truthfully, Scott had been overwhelmed until Marlow had walked in and helped him out. It was as if the man had known he’d needed help, or someone had sent him because they’d known what Scott was in for—namely Rosemary Vale.
The former mayor was more like family than a friend. But according to Marlow, the first time he’d met Rosemary was when Scott had introduced them.
Scott thought he would've had his life together by now, but he wasn’t anywhere close. He was still figuring things out, just like any other person.
Age has nothing to do with how your life should be going.
“Hey, boss. What are you doing here so early?” Scott turned when he heard Marlow behind him.
“Early? What are you talking about? This is my usual time,” he said looking at his watch and then at the clock on the wall office, before realizing he was an hour early.
“I keep telling you to get a cellphone. Come out of the dark ages, old man.” Marlow snorted as he walked over to stand behind his desk.
“I don’t need a cellphone, what would I do with it? My patients know how to get in touch with me,” he grumbled.
“You are the only man I know who refuses to come into the twenty-first century when it comes to technology.”
“Do we have to go through this every morning?”
“Yup, I’m going to bug you until you buy one,” Marlow answered. “I had to nag you just to get a computer. If I left everything up to you, we would still be using quills and parchment paper. So yeah, I will not rest until you get a cellphone.”
“Then I’ll go with the same answer I give you every other day. The underworld will freeze over before I get a cellphone. Now tell me what’s on my agenda for today.”
“No, you don’t,” Marlow said, narrowing his eyes at Scott. “Just because you’re one hour early, you think you’re going to take away my me-time?”
“Your ‘me-time?’” Scott said in confusion.
“Yup, this is the time I take for myself before my mean old boss shows up and expects me to be at his beck and call.” Marlow walked around his desk, grabbing Scott by the hand, and started ushering him out the door. “I need to consume two cups of coffee, check my social media accounts, and have my bagel.”
“Mean old boss? When have I ever been mean? And couldn’t you have done those things before you came into the office?”
“Scott, I say this with love. Find something to do for one hour and leave me to my morning ritual. You can understand that as a dominant, can’t you?”
Scott didn’t get a chance to answer, because he was shoved out of the office, the door closing in his face. “Hey. Did you forget I’m your boss, and I can fire you?” He didn’t get a response, but he also didn’t expect one. Truthfully, he would never fire Marlow. He was the best assistant Scott could ever find.
Sighing, Scott looked down the long hallway and was happy that no one had been there to see him get kicked out of his office by his assistant.
How embarrassing.
Seeing that he was going to be locked out of his office for the next hour, Scott decided maybe it was an excellent time to take a walk.
I could use a cup of coffee.
Scott’s office was within walking distance to Bella’s Diner, and it would be open for the morning breakfast rush. As he got on the elevator, he noticed people were giving him strange looks. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen him before. He shared a building with them.
Maybe it’s because they’ve never seen you outside so early.
Ignoring the onlookers, Scott got off the elevator and went to do something he hadn’t been able to do in a while, and relax with his coffee before he had to go back to the office. He hadn’t been able to do that in the past few weeks. His busiest times were during the winter and late spring. Just before the summer season hit, his patients seemed to need him more. As a psychiatrist, he tried his best to listen and help them with their problems.
Scott knew he was skilled at his job, but there were things he hadn’t learned in medical school that he was facing daily. That’s where his powers of empathy came in. He didn’t use his empathic abilities on every patient—only with his most difficult cases. There were also times he felt as if he wasn’t doing anything in regard to his patients, but he wasn’t going to stop trying.
Scott knew what one of the common threads where. It didn’t matter if they were shifters or humans, a lot of his patients were dealing with loneliness and not having a mate. He’d seen a rise in new patients in the past few months, when it seemed love had found its way to Vale Valley.
Scott couldn’t say he was exempt from what his patients were dealing with, because he was an unmated vampire who wasn’t sure if he was ready to find love.
