Page 9 of Scrubbing In
“Jace is such a sweet boy, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
“Mom, no. Absolutely not.”
When she humphs, Dad puts his arm around her shoulder and brings her into his side. He whispers in her ear, then places a kiss on her head.
My parents have always been affectionate and modeled that their relationship is a priority to keep our entire family strong and close. But seeing them tonight hits different.
Enchanting green eyes flash in my mind and I rub at the aching pinch in my chest.
Thoughts of Leena have been swirling inside my head since I turned around to find her gone this morning. I don’t even know the woman, but I felt inexplicably drawn to her, a pull to know everything about her.
“Are you feeling alright, Julian?” Mom prods, breaking into my wandering thoughts.
Sitting up in my chair, I sigh, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“What’s wrong?” she asks in a tone that won’t accept anything but the truth, as only a mother can when she knows her child is lying.
“I . . . I met someone today?—”
“Tell me everything,” Mom demands, cutting me off.
“There’s not much to tell. I met a woman and then messed it up by not getting her number. Or her last name.”
“Oh, my sweet boy,” she tries to console me, and I cringe.
“You’d think being a surgeon, you wouldn’t be so stupid.” Cole’s dig would irritate me if I couldn’t hear the sympathy mixed with his own regret lacing the words. A familiar haunted look appears on his face.
Mom reaches out to grip his hand but solemnly tells me, “If it’s meant to be, you’ll see her again.”
Clearing my throat, I smile to appease my mom, ending this conversation for Cole’s benefit and mine.
But I can’t deny how the earlier ache in my chest now feels warmer, a spark of hope ignited that I will see my girl again.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Leena
“Hey, Leena.”Looking up, I try to smooth my face into a relaxed mask as Tasha, a scrub tech, approaches me just after our morning staff huddle. “I just told Diego I could stay to finish his cases today, so you won’t need to send anyone to relieve me. Unless you add another doctor to follow, then yeah, I will need relief.”
She gives me a saccharine smile, no doubt in response to whatever my face shows. My mouth may not say what I’m thinking, but I’m cursed with an expressive face that definitely does. It usually reveals all before I can mask my thoughts, though I am getting better at controlling it.
I try really hard to not let Tasha’s personal relationship with Diego, aka Dr. Merritt, irritate me, but it’s extremely difficult, like a papercut I’m reminded of each time I rub hand sanitizer on my hands, constantly being rubbed in my face.
Back then, they tried to keep what was going on between them under wraps as he was married at the time. They just did a really poor job of hiding their affair. After months of “sneaking around,” they stopped any pretense of hiding altogether. Now they flaunt it openly, going above mine and my boss’s head to always have Tasha assigned to his cases. They’ve used hisposition as Chief of Surgery and repeatedly gone to the Director of Surgical Services to “request” that she staff his rooms when she was assigned elsewhere. Getting those text messages or phone calls from my boss’s boss on multiple occasions would make my stomach turn. Now when she’s scheduled, I assign her to his room or leave her free if he’s not working on the off chance he adds on an emergent case in the General Surgery Trauma block.
Nodding, I watch as she spins on her heel and saunters off toward her room.
Taking my phone out, I open my to-do list but stare unseeingly at endless tasks. Frowning as my mind strays to Julian for the umpteenth time this morning.
Was he blowing me off? Or should I have stuck around for his call to end?
Charlie hip bumps me, bringing me back from my spiraling thoughts. “Why do you look like that?” she asks with a hushed voice.
“What?! I don’tlookany way,” I retort back with finger quotes. Trying to escape her uncanny ability to read my every thought, I attempt to rush off but am hindered by my limping hobble.
Damn rambunctious little boys and their scooters.
She easily moves with me but pulls me to a stop outside OR room two, staring at me skeptically, waiting for me to crack. “Okay! Fine. I was thinking about Julian again.”
