Nerves crashed into me like someone had dumped a bucket of them over my head. He nodded and lifted the clipboard in his hands but didn’t look down at it. “Adi has a pinched nerve in her neck. I was hoping once the swelling went down that we might be able to fix it without surgery, but that’s no longer an option.”
Blood rushed from my head, making me dizzy. Chris must have moved to me because suddenly his hand was on my shoulder and his eyes were hovering in front of mine.
“April?” He said my name like I meant something to him. “Are you okay?”
I dragged in a breath and nodded, forcing my body to calm the hell down. “I’m fine. I just… she’s only nine.”
“I know, but the doctors won’t let anything happen to her. I’ve spoken to a very good friend of mine who’s an orthopedic surgeon here and he’s agreed to do Adi’s operation. He’s the guy I’d pick to do surgery on me.”
“Wait, why don’t you do it?” I asked, and Adi nodded along with me.
Chris’s lips twisted as he shook his head. “I wish I could, but I only ever perform surgery here when there’s really no one else available. I’m rusty and I hate to say it but not the best man for the job.”
“Well, I suppose there are modest surgeons out there after all,” I muttered but then felt a flush spreading across my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I should really just keep my mouth shut.”
He flashed me a lopsided smile. “Feel free to speak your mind with me, April. I know this is a big shock and it’s a lot to process, but I promise you I wouldn’t be recommending it if there was any other way.”
“Will you be there?” Adi asked softly.
He turned to her. “If you want me to be, then I will be. I’ll also be there after to help you recover. You, me, and Hunter are going to spend so much time together, you’ll be begging us to leave you alone rather than being here.”
Her lips curled into a hesitant smile. “Really?”
“Really.” He moved to the side of her bed and held his fist up for her to bump with her good one. When she did, he let out a cheer. “There we go! Team Adi for the win.”
Chris turned back to me, questions in the soft green of his eyes. “What do you say? Can we go ahead and schedule the surgery?”
Fear wracked every fiber of my being, but I didn’t let it show. If Adi suspected I was afraid, then she would be too.
I glanced down at her, begging whoever the gods of tears were to keep mine at bay for now. “Sure, let’s do it. Team Adi for the win, right?”
“Yeah,” Chris said, coming closer to me to bump his shoulder into mine and lowering his voice. “Try not to worry, okay? We’ll take good care of her.”
That was easy for him to say. “Asking me not to worry is like asking the summer sun not to shine, but I know you’ll take care of her. You have to Chris. Please. She’s everything to me.”
To my utter surprise, he enveloped me in a big hug and crushed me against his strong chest. “We will, April. Trust me, okay?”
I nodded, but that didn’t mean I would stop worrying. I would never stop worrying, not until the whole ordeal was over. And even then? I hadn’t stopped worrying since they placed her in my arms, and I doubted I ever would.
Wasn’t that just part of being a mother?
Chapter 5
CHRIS
Another day, another shift.
I walked into the hospital with a burrito in hand, tearing off a bite with my teeth as I pushed my way through the revolving doors at the front. The administration was finally starting to bring in more staff members, but the going was slow, and the turnaround, as always, was too great for them to keep up with.
Sometimes, it felt like this place was a sausage machine. Whatever they put in just came out the other end and kept right on going. Announcements crackled over the intercom. People rushed by me without a second glance, and the waiting room was overflowing.
Just another day in paradise.
Personally, I had a love-hate relationship with this place. Whenever I thought the time had come to leave it, it would show me exactly why I had to stay. The day would come when I’d make my way out of those doors for good, but it wasn’t today.
I still got too high on the adrenaline of being there, still loved the thrill of the next minute too much. At the same time, the physical therapy room was something of a sanctuary for me.
No matter how many patients we had with us or waiting outside, our sessions were like tiny bursts of peace. It was only when the ER came calling that I really received that dose of excitement, and since there were more doctors down there now, it had been a couple of weeks since I’d been called in.
As I had every day for the last two weeks, I snuck a peek at the front desk as I headed for the stairwell. Instead of April’s bright red hair, I was met with the same curly blonde hair of the woman who had been acting as the temporary receptionist since Adi’s accident.
As far as I knew, April hadn’t been back since. I didn’t know why I’d been keeping tabs, but I’d even put out feelers to try to find out if she’d switched to a different shift. I’d been told she hadn’t. She’d apparently just put in for personal leave and no one knew when or if she’d be back.
Jogging up the stairs, I again wondered why I’d even gone through the effort of asking. I’d had hundreds of kids of single parents as my patients over the years, but none of them had held my interest like April and Adi had.
Hunter had suggested that it might be because April was such a knockout, but that didn’t make sense either. We’d been working in the same hospital for years, and while she’d definitely caught my eye in that time, I’d never even thought about speaking to her or asking her out.
In fact, the first real conversation we’d had was after Adi’s accident and April hadn’t exactly been at her best. Which begged the question, was I a sucker for punishment or just plain stupid?
I hadn’t been able to answer yet, and I doubted I’d be able to anytime soon. The fact of the matter was that I just didn’t know why I couldn’t get those two out of my head.
April popped into my brain at the most inopportune times, like late at night when I finally crawled into bed or early in the morning when I was in the shower. It was always to wonder whether that smart mouth of hers extended to every part of her life or to picture her long hair wrapped around my fist.
There were rumors around the hospital that I got plenty of action. For that matter, those same rumors seemed to circulate through the entire city. It seemed one couldn’t make a bit of money without garnering the attention of the public eye. If you made more than a bit in one go, people tended to like talking about you.
And yet, for all the speculated action I was getting, it’d been months since I’d actually gotten any. Not that I was complaining. I didn’t have time for complicated, and as soon as my name or money got involved, complicated became the name of the game.
It was one possible option for why I couldn’t get April out of my head. I just needed to get laid.
Adi occupied my mind while I was at work. I couldn’t stop wondering how she was doing after her surgery and why they hadn’t made an appointment with us yet.
I shoved through the doors of the physical training room, still deep in thought until I saw Hunter lying beneath one of the machines. Frowning as I tried to figure out what he was doing, I kicked his foot when I reached him.
“Is that broken?” I asked, confused as I gave the thing a quick scan. “It seems to be fine. There’s not much that can go wrong with it.”
Hunter’s arms flexed as he pulled himself out and smirked up at me. “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with it. I was just trying to reverse engineer your billion-dollar machine.”
“That’s not even mine, but if you wanted to reverse engineer it, you could just ask for the patent. I’d hand it over in a heartbeat.”
He waved a hand at me before jumping up. “It’s pointless. I’m never going to make anything like this.”
“Don’t say t
hat.” I pointed at his chest, the burrito in my other hand now ice cold and long forgotten. “You can do anything you—”
He laughed, smacking my hand away. “It’s not because I don’t think I’m smart enough, idiot. I’m just too busy with other stuff.”
“Right.” I tossed the half-eaten burrito in the trash and folded my arms. “Like what? Lying in wait so you can set me up like this?”
“Among other things.” He shrugged. “I’ve also been putting money against myself on when you’re going to man up and admit you’ve been thinking about the receptionist and her daughter.”
“What?” I scoffed, my shoulders coming up. “That’s crazy.”
“So you haven’t been making me take a detour to the cafeteria just so you can walk past the front desk?” He gave me a pointed look. “I call bullshit.”
I raked a hand through my hair and turned my back on him, heading to the small office to change. “Fine, I just want to check on them, okay? She’s one of us. I’m worried about a patient. That’s it.”
“Why are you so concerned about this one patient?” he asked, following me and leaning against the door as I swapped shirts.
No one would be able to see me past his hulking frame, and since we hit the gym together regularly, it wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen before. “I’m not only concerned about her. I just want to make sure her daughter is okay.”
Hunter, of course, saw right through me. “You’re a doctor, bro. It’s okay to check on patients or their moms.”
He made a silly face as he said it, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a good point.
“Fine. I’ll call them, but my interest is strictly professional.”
“Sure.” He gave me an exaggerated wink before tapping on the frame with his knuckles. “I’m going to go back to my machine if you’d like to make a call.”
He turned and left without another word. I went to close the door, then finished changing while mulling over what he’d said. I was a doctor and she was my patient’s mother. Plus, she was a co-worker. Being worried about her and checking up on her wouldn’t be crossing any sort of line.
I sank down into the threadbare office chair behind the desk and logged into the hospital system. I didn’t have her number, but our employer would.
After I’d made the promise to Adi that I’d be there for her, calling when I hadn’t heard from them for so long was only proper. The surgery had gone well. I’d kept my word and had been there while it happened.
There was no medical reason I knew of that April shouldn’t have been back at work and Adi should’ve started physical therapy by now. Calling them wasn’t only proper. It was the right thing to do.
Keep telling yourself that, Matthews. Maybe if I started believing that was the true reason for my call, it would somehow become true. It was a long shot, though, considering I already knew it wasn’t.
I was calling her because I was curious and because I wanted to speak to her, not because it was the right thing to do. But she never had to know that. Nor did she have to know about the dirty fucking places my mind went to these days whenever I heard her name.
No, it was best that part stayed my secret. I wanted to know whether her smart mouth was still smart when she was between the sheets. I definitely didn’t need to find out what that mouth was capable of if she turned her sharp words against me.
I’d really rather she just used it on me. Not that I planned on ever letting her find out that little tidbit of information either.
Chapter 6
APRIL
Adi sighed and set a jar of mayonnaise down on the counter with a bit more of a thump than was necessary. She was moving around better, but she was still in a neck brace, and her arm wasn’t quite cooperating yet.
I felt her frustration with the jar echoing as a ripple in my own chest. Walking around the small kitchen table to give her a hug around the shoulders, I bent down to drop a kiss on top of her head.
“Let me help you with that, sweetheart.” I cracked the mayonnaise jar open and handed it over. “How are you feeling this morning?”
She shrugged, but the desperation in her eyes gave her away. “I’m okay, but my arm still doesn’t want to work, Mommy.”
Her voice cracked on the last part of her sentence and she sucked in a deep, long breath to get it back under control. Adi had been born an adult, but seeing her trying to act like everything was okay even now was like a flaming lance being twisted in my heart.
“You don’t have to act all tough with me, baby,” I said softly, pulling the plate with the sandwich she had been making closer. “It’s okay to feel what you’re feeling. You’re angry, sad, scared, and you’re in pain. You don’t have to hide any of that from me.”
Tears suddenly glistened in her eyes as she wrapped her good arm around me. “Will I ever get better?”
“Yes,” I said confidently. “You and I are going to do everything in our power to make sure you’re back to one-hundred percent in no time. It’s only been two weeks. I know it feels like a long time, but if you think about it, it’s not such a long time when your body has to heal.”
“I know, but…” She trailed off, drawing in a shuddering breath that told me she was still trying to hold back tears.
I held on to her tighter. “I’m so sorry this happened to you, angel. If I could take all the pain away from you and take it myself instead, I’d have done it in a heartbeat. But I’m right here for you, every step of the way.”
Craig, the asshole responsible for all this, was nowhere to be found, of course. We hadn’t heard a peep from him since he got removed from the hospital. He hadn’t contacted me about contributing to Adi’s medical expenses, to find out how she was doing, or even just to fucking apologize.
So once again, he was the wrecking ball that caused the damage and I was the one trying to hold it all together. But that was just Craig. He hadn’t changed and never would. I just had to remember that from now on.
Adi sniffed as she stepped away from me, glancing up into my eyes before nodding. “I know you’re here, Mommy. I just wish I hadn’t gotten onto the stupid motorcycle.”
“I know.” I gently encircled her wrist and crouched down in front of her, keeping my gaze on hers. “But listen to me, baby. Sometimes, bad things happen in life. We can’t go back to change them, so we have to get through them and learn from them. The key is never to make the same mistake twice.”
A lesson I had learned the hard way, especially now. I didn’t know how I would handle any future requests from Craig to see Adi, but it certainly wouldn’t be with blind fucking faith that he wouldn’t hurt his own daughter.
My phone ringing from the counter distracted me, but Adi was already turning back to her sandwich anyway. A hospital number flashed on my screen and I froze on the spot. I’d taken some time off, but I’d been surprised that they hadn’t called me in yet regardless.
I wasn’t ready to leave Adi, though. Two weeks just wasn’t enough after everything she’d been through and was still going through.
But if I didn’t answer, I risked losing my job. Since I definitely couldn’t afford for that to happen, I brushed my apprehension aside and took the damn call.
“Hi, this is April.”
“April?” a deep masculine voice that sent shivers rolling down my spine said. “Hi. I, uh, I wasn’t sure you were going to answer.” Even when Chris stumbled over his words as if he hadn’t been expecting me to answer, he still managed to sound sexy. “This is Chris Matthews. From the hospital. I treated your daughter a couple of weeks ago.”
“Yeah, I know who you are.” I smiled, shaking my head. “It’s not like I would’ve forgotten the doctor who helped my baby this fast, even if I hadn’t known you before.”
A low, rumbling kind of chuckle came from his end of the line, and my knees nearly buckled at the sound. “I suppose that’s true. Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you by implying you forgot me.”
“You haven’t offended me.” I
didn’t take offense easily, but I also didn’t usually go weak in the knees because of the sound of a man’s amusement either. “What’s up?”
He cleared his throat, and I got the feeling that he was actually nervous about this call, which was extremely fucking weird. “I wanted to check in on you and Adi, find out how you’re doing.”
Right, because even Doctor Sexy cares more about Adi than her own damn father.
I released a slow breath through my nostrils. “She’s doing better, but she’s still having some problems with her arm. We’ve done everything the doctor told us to do when she was discharged, but the going has been slow.”
Chris didn’t skip a beat. “Bring her in next week. I can do some light exercises with her, gauge how far she’s come, and we can work out a treatment plan for her from there?”
My eyebrows shot up, but I was already shaking my head. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think I can afford a doctor like you. You’re kind of a big shot, you know?”
He chuckled again, and it had the same effect on my knees as before. What the hell is wrong with me?
“I don’t need money, April,” he said, his tone firm and confident. If he’d been anyone else, I probably would’ve felt like they were bragging but not with him. He’d simply stated a fact, nothing patronizing or condescending about it. “Bring her in next week, please? I’d love to take a look at her and see what we can do to help her regain her full mobility. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
Even if he didn’t need money and wasn’t being a prick about it, it still didn’t sit well with me to be regarded as a charity case. Not by him or anyone else.
But since he’d offered to do the physical therapy with Adi before, I’d gone to check up on what it would cost us to go see him. His sessions were way out of our price range, which was why I hadn’t made an appointment with him.
I’d figured the surgeon had given us rehabilitation exercises and that those were good enough. He hadn’t mentioned anything about physical therapy being a requirement, so I thought we’d be okay by ourselves.
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