Page 13 of Yours Truly

But sometimes even the most thorough due diligence couldn’t show you the heart of a thing…

Zander was waiting for my reply.

Normally after a day like today I’d just want to go home. But I needed to have a positive social interaction so the last one wouldn’t be all I could think about. If I didn’t put something between me and what happened, I’d fixate on it the rest of the night.

“Sure,” I said. “Let me get changed. I’ll meet you guys there.”

I found them in the restaurant thirty minutes later. Gibson waved me over with a friendly smile. He was one of those easy people everyone liked.

Gibson and I went way back. We’d never worked together, but we’d had the same job for the last few years and ended up at enough of the same conferences to get pretty well acquainted. Plus he knew Mom. Most doctors did. She was a well-respected physician in her own right.

He smiled at me as I sat down. “Maddox. How’s the new job treating you?”

“Good,” I lied.

“And how’s Amy?” he asked.

“Fine. We broke up eight months ago.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Ouch. I didn’t know that. I’m sorry. Is that why you transferred?”

I picked up a menu and looked at it, though I didn’t need to. I’d already checked it out online. “In part, yes,” I said. “She’s getting married, actually. To Jeremiah.”

Zander stared at me. “Are you kidding me?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Gibson leaned back in the booth. “And what does your mother have to say about that?”

“Plenty,” I mumbled.

Zander nodded at me. “At least you got the dog,” he said.

“There is that.”

I’d adopted Lieutenant Dan when Amy and I were together. He was my dog, but we’d shared him pretty equally, and Amy loved him just as much as I did. I half-expected her to ask for partial custody, but luckily she didn’t fight me on it. She didn’t fight me for much, come to think of it. There was nothing to fight over. We’d never lived together, didn’t have kids.

I looked up at Gibson over the menu. “Hey, I wanted to ask you something. There’s a doctor here, Briana—Zander, I think you’re treating her brother?”

“Dr. Ortiz,” Gibson said a little warily. “Is she giving you problems?”

“No. She said something to me about you pulling strings for me? She seemed upset about it. Do you know what that’s about?”

He blew a breath through his lips. “She’s up to replace me when I go. I mentioned to her that I’ve put off retiring to give the staff a chance to get to know you before we vote on the next chief. She was not happy with me.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. Well, that would do it.

“I have no interest in the position, Gibson.”

He looked surprised. “No? I just assumed you’d take a stab at it. You took a pretty big step down coming here.”

“My chief days are over. I came here to simplify my life.” And was failing miserably…

He let out a sigh. “Okay. Well, I can respect that.”

“Seems a little unfair to delay the vote on my behalf,” I said. “I can understand why she’d be frustrated.”

“Eh, it wouldn’t have mattered,” Gibson said dismissively. “No shade to you, I’m sure you’d put up a heck of a fight, but it’d be a landslide in her favor no matter how long I waited. Her team loves her and she’s a hell of a physician.”