Page 82 of Flirting with 40

“She was this little girl who had been beaten within an inch of her life, and I froze. All the years of training I went through flew out the window.”

“You’re human.”

He emits a snort. “Yeah, well, when her dad came barreling in with his crisp dress shirt and expensive watch like some elite asshole, he claimed she fell down the stairs and demanded that I do my job and save his little girl. Shit, I took one look at the blood and bruises on his knuckles, and I knew. I knew he was the one who’d hurt her, and if I hadn’t, her sudden cry when she saw him and the way she gripped my hand would have told me. And that gasp? God, Blakely, it will forever be etched in my mind. Total fear and helplessness and—shit. Just fucking brutal. But not more brutal than what he did to her.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“Let’s just say he didn’t want her to say anything.” He gives a laugh but it’s self-deprecating at best. “I refused to leave her alone with that fucker. I told him he couldn’t be in with her while I worked on her. And I swear when he leaned over to whisper something in her ear, he threatened her. Her eyes grew so huge and her chin quivered as she held back tears. I shoved him out of the room. I was busy fighting him to keep him away from his own daughter when she slipped into a coma.” His voice is barely audible. “There I was, reacting to him and betraying the one principle I’m supposed to live by, do no harm.”

“I don’t understand. You were trying to make her safe.”

“I was her doctor, and instead of checking her for a brain bleed like I should have been doing, I was busy provoking him.”

“You can’t blame yourself for a natural reaction.”

“But that’s my job, Blakely. That’s the oath I took. I reacted to the outside when all I should have been focused on was the inside. I let my emotions get the better of me when I should have been one hundred percent focused on Ivy. I lost minutes to him, minutes that could have meant assessing her injuries and saving her from further damage.”

I scoot closer to him and lean my head on his shoulder. “No one would blame you for your reaction, but I understand why you feel how you do.” I press a kiss to his shoulder and then rest my chin there as I stare at his profile. The strong nose and thick lashes. The proud chin and stubble he’s let grow during our time here. My heart swells. “So that’s why you were suspended? Because you were dealing with him and not treating her? I don’t understand.”

“Let’s just say I didn’t exactly trust the fucker. After we got her stable and moved her to the ICU, I made my case to the cops that he may look like the doting single dad who never left her bedside, but I was and still am certain he was the one who hurt her. I wanted him nowhere near her.”

“Understandably.”

“Where my story fell short was that her injuries could have been caused by a fall down the stairs. But I saw the blood on his knuckles he’d washed off. I saw the terror in her eyes before she fell unconscious. It didn’t matter how insistent I was because he had already convinced the police that he was some pillar of the fucking community who’d never hurt a soul. It’s my word against his until Ivy wakes up and can give her account.”

“I’m at a loss for words.” I squeeze his hand tighter, hating this story, hating that he’s reliving it just so I can hear it, but asking him to stop isn’t something I can do. He’s bleeding, so I won’t let him bleed alone.

“Yeah, well, where they saw a doting father who sat by her bedside day in and day out, I saw a man willing to protect his reputation and life by any and all means. He’d hurt her that badly, who said he wasn’t going to take it a step further? So I prohibited him from being in the ICU. I moved her to a different room when he got my superior involved. I then convinced a guard she was in danger and had him stand in her room whenever he was present. That is what got me suspended. He complained to someone he knows on the hospital board, and I was suspended from my residency program as well as blocked from her case pending review.”

“And Ivy?”

“She’s been in a coma since. Her other injuries have healed, but her brain, her cognitive function, is what we are waiting on. She needs to wake up. She needs to . . .” He lifts his free hand in defeat. “Can I tell you how much I hate saying I need her to wake up? It sounds fucking selfish. Her waking up and telling the truth will clear me from wrongdoing and put that fucker in jail. I’d get my job back, my life back. But that isn’t what I mean when I say it. I just want her to wake up because she deserves a chance at knowing what life is like without a hand being raised to her.”

He’s amazing. The thought runs through my head over and over, but I don’t voice it because I know he’d just refute it. He only sees a little girl he didn’t help when he wouldn’t have been able to prevent the situation in the first place.

“Is that who you were talking about on the phone yesterday?”

He nods but keeps his eyes straight ahead. “I was having John check on her status for me.”

I slide my arm around him, and he slips his around me so I can snuggle in beside him and offer comfort. “No change?”

“No change.”

“So, it’s a waiting game then?”

“Pretty much. The reason I couldn’t drive up here with you was because I had a meeting with the heads of the residency program. They were asking questions and reviewing my actions to discuss my suspension, but in the end, they want to hear from Ivy. If she says her dad abused her, then I look like a hero trying to protect her. If I’m wrong, then we shall see.”

“And if you aren’t reinstated in the program?” I ask.

“Then at least I was booted for a worthy cause.”

The fact that he cares more about a little girl than his own career says so much more about the man he is than anything.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

He turns and looks at me finally. “Thank you for listening.”

“Of course. Any time. Is there—”