Page 41 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
Cue a big ol’ wave of embarrassment washing over me. Of course, it’s just another member of the clinic’s staff. Who else would it be?
Six weeks after Bernice’s unexpected move to Vegas, I’m still on edge for some reason, even though it looks like she was right about me not needing to worry.
I remind myself for the thousandth time that if Waylon, the Reaper president—who glimpsed me standing outside with Bernice that fateful day—knew I also had a secret baby, Vengeance would have already been at my door.
“Sorry,” Dennis says. His handsome face squints with embarrassment of his own. “I didn’t mean to scare you while you were doing my job.”
“Oh, I wasn’t trying to steal your job. You were out to lunch, and this teacher from the Louisville Deaf Oral School came in with what turned out to be an ear infection.” I turn the computer screen toward him to show him the patient’s discharge paperwork. “I would have asked her to wait for you since I don’t sign, but she had to get back by one pm for her next class.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining,” he assures me. “I checked in on her, and she said you guys got along just fine with notes. Want me to fill out the rest of the paperwork?”
“No, I’ve got it. Truth be told, I’m grateful for the distraction from my nerves.”
“Oh yeah.” He glances at his watch. “Ten more minutes until your big meeting with Glendaver-Zhang.”
Dennis was one of those guys who called other doctors by their last names, no matter how much a mouthful it was.
“Nine more minutes,” I correct. “Though, of course, I’m heading over as soon as I finish filling out this paperwork since five minutes early is on time.”
“Really?” he asks with a wincing smile. “Because I saw Glendaver-Zhang still outside, eating lunch with her husband and kid when I came back in. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be on time.”
I finish the rest of the patient paperwork and close out the screen as I inform him, “And that’s why I sent her a list of pre-meeting suggestions for improvements to the clinic, including adding budget to implement a shared calendar with alerts—so that none of us have any excuse to be late for scheduled meetings.”
He looks to the side a little warily. “Well, Glendaver-Zhang can be weird about tech. But good luck.”
“Thanks,” I say. “Hopefully, I can convince her to let me do things my way while she’s out on maternity leave. I’ll report back after the meeting.”
Figuring our conversation is done, I head toward the back of the clinic, where the ob-gyn suite of examination rooms and offices are located. But Dennis follows, rushing to keep up with my quick stride.
“Hey, you know how my mama came to live with me after my wife—I mean, my ex-wife—split?”
“Sure,” I nod, though I’m not sure why Dennis is bringing up his mom or the wife who walked out on him and their three-year-old near the start of the pandemic to “find herself” along with a bunch of other Black expats in Merida, Mexico.
“Okay, well, the boys always got along back when they were both in Miss Minerva’s daycare, so I was thinking you might be open to her babysitting the both of them tonight.”
I tilt my head, trying to figure out why he’s asking me if I’m okay with his mother babysitting my kid. Then the penny drops.
I stop walking. “Wait, are you asking me out?”
He stops too and regards me with an embarrassed squint. “Uh…yes? I thought it might be fun to, you know, celebrate your big accomplishment. And maybe get to know each other outside of work, if you’re okay with that.”
I scan him up and down in a new light. I should be more than okay with that. Dennis is handsome and easy enough to talk to. He’s also been welcoming from day one on the job. He never seemed to judge me, like a few of the other members of the clinic’s staff did, for daring to start my ob-gyn career at the Women with Disabilities Clinic heavily pregnant and without any father in sight.
In fact, he complimented me for finishing my residency and securing a job while incubating a whole new life in my womb. Over the years, we’ve also bonded over the fact that I went to Rydell, an all-women’s college, for my undergrad, while he attended Morehouse, an all-male college. And we’ve had a few interesting conversations about Morehouse deciding to take a less conservative stand than Rydell on accepting students who identify as opposite of the sex they were assigned at birth.
He’s not as liberal as me on the subject. But he’s not completely awful either. Nor is he extreme or violent or, you know, a criminal biker.
Also, there’s only one of him.
