by Marie Force
“I’ll have a ginger ale,” Quinn said.
“Make it two,” Mallory said.
The waiter’s face visibly fell with disappointment when he realized they wouldn’t be drinking. “I’ll be right back.”
“He needs to work on his stage face,” Quinn said.
“I know! We ruined his night.”
“It is kind of a relief to be out with someone who gets it. I get tired of explaining that I don’t drink. People are always curious about why.”
“I know what you mean. For so many people, socializing of any kind means drinking. It did for me until it became a problem.”
“You said you’ve been sober ten years?”
Mallory nodded. “Other than a brief slipup last year after I lost my mother and met my father for the first time along with the rest of my family.”
“Those are big things to deal with all at once.”
“It was a rough time in more ways than one. The thing that really freaked me out was that I never even gave ten years of sobriety a thought when I drank wine with my dad and beer with my brother and champagne at my other brother’s wedding. It wasn’t much, but I certainly knew better.”
“You were focused on fitting into your new family and took your eye off the ball with your sobriety.”
“Which we both know is something that can’t happen.”
“Well, now you’re aware that it’s possible to lose your focus, so next time you’re in a situation where it would be convenient to drink, you won’t.”
“I certainly hope not. Have you had any tests over the last two years?”
“Every day is a test. Every day is a decision to stick with it, to not go back to the dark place.”
Mallory nodded in agreement, wishing he would elaborate but refusing to push for details. If and when he wanted to say more, he would. Or he wouldn’t. Either way had to be fine with her.
They took a few minutes to examine the menu and to compare notes on what looked good. When the waiter returned, she ordered a shrimp dish and he went with the swordfish.
“I’m allergic to tree nuts,” Quinn told the waiter. “Anything to worry about with the swordfish?”
“No, sir,” the waiter replied, “but I’ll let the chef know just the same.”
“Thank you.”
“Tree nuts, huh?” Mallory asked when they were alone. “Have you ever had a severe reaction?”
“Just once when I was a kid, which is how we found out I’m allergic.”
“Where’s your EpiPen?”
Smiling, he said, “Always the ER nurse. It’s in my back pocket.”
“Good to know.” Then she remembered what she’d ordered for dinner. “You’re not allergic to shellfish or anything else, are you?”
“Nope, just the nuts.”
“It’s been a shellfish kind of day for me,” Mallory said. “I had a lobster roll for lunch with my dad.” After a pause, she added, “I really love saying that out loud. My dad.”
“It must’ve been weird to meet him for the first time.”
“Actually, it wasn’t. Mostly because he’s incredible. He was totally shocked, don’t get me wrong, but he said and did all the right things—much more than I expected, in fact.”
“What did you expect?”
“Nothing, really. I remember being on the ferry that morning and feeling sick with nerves. It had been exactly a week since I’d found the letter my mother left me that told me where I could find him. Part of me was incredibly excited just to see him and to fill in that blank, you know? The other half was terrified that he’d say there was no way he could be my father.”
“I’m trying to see it from his point of view. A gorgeous woman shows up and says she’s his daughter. What that must be like.”
Mallory was stuck on his description of her as “gorgeous.” Certain her face must be bright red, she cleared her throat and gave thanks for the low lighting. “After he read the letter, he was stunned speechless for a minute, and I’ve since discovered that’s a rare thing.”
“I haven’t met him, but I’ve heard great things. Everyone likes him.”
“It’s impossible not to like him.”
“So what did he say when you told him?”
“He said I look just like his mother.” Mallory could still remember the wallop of that revelation. “I look nothing at all like my mother, so I’ve always wondered where my looks came from. Later, my dad showed me a picture of my grandmother as a young woman, and the resemblance is uncanny. That and the letter my mother had given me were why he never questioned my claim.”
“That’s so cool.”
“I know. I was overwhelmed by that. That picture of our grandmother made things easier with my siblings, too.”
“Were you afraid they wouldn’t believe you?”
“I wouldn’t have blamed them. My father and his wife, Linda, have been very successful. Here I am out of the blue claiming to be the daughter he never knew he had. They were pretty cool about it, mostly because he asked them to be. It was hardest on Janey. She was used to being his only daughter.”
“Something like this brings out the best and worst in people.”
“I’ve seen only the best of my family. I got very, very lucky. When I arrived the other day, they were waiting to help me unpack and move into my new place. What I thought would take three days took three hours thanks to their help. Of course, my dad was right in the middle of it, bossing everyone around.”
“And you loved it.”
“I did. I can’t deny it. I’ve never had a tribe to rely upon. It’s taken some getting used to.”
“You’re used to flying solo, and now that’s not possible.”
She appreciated that he understood. “It was my choice to move out here and live in the middle of the scrum.”
“True.”
“I’m dominating the conversation. Tell me about you.”
“Your story is far more interesting than mine.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“Let’s see. We grew up in Paramus, New Jersey, which is just outside of New York City.”
“Who is we? You and Jared and who else?”
“Two older sisters, Katherine and Melissa. They’re both married with five kids between them. Kath is a lawyer and Mel works for Jared’s company. We also have a younger brother, Cooper. He’s in grad school in Boston.”
“What number are you?”
“Three out of five. Middle child and first son, who was given our mother’s maiden name for a first name.”
“I like it. It’s not a name you hear every day.”
“I like it now, but not so much when I was a kid and wished I had a name like Tom or Mike.”
Smiling, Mallory said, “Isn’t the middle child the one who causes all the trouble?”
“That’s me. I’m the reason we had rules, or so the others say.”
Mallory laughed at the face he made. “So you’re the black sheep?”
“I guess so, although I never set out to be the rebel. Just sort of worked out that way.”
“How so?”
“I got into a lot of trouble when I was a kid. Drinking, smoking pot, running with the wrong crowd. You know the drill. The day I turned eighteen, my dad took me to an army recruiter and told me to sign on the dotted line.”
“Whoa. That’s pretty hard-core.”
“Though I wanted to kill him at the time, he saved my life. I was going nowhere fast until the army got ahold of me and showed me there’s more to life than me, myself and I. At first, I railed against the structure, the authority figures, the rules. The dreaded rules. There were so many of them.” He took a sip of his ginger ale. “But they wore me down over time. They forced me to grow up and get my head out of my ass. I had this drill sergeant… You’ve seen An Officer and a Gentleman, right?”
“Only a hundred times. Hello, Richard Gere in uniform.”
The comment earned her one of his rare laughs, and oh, what l
aughter did to his handsome face. Dear God…
“My guy made Louis Gossett Junior’s character look like a pussycat. He worked me hard. Made me hate him. Later he said it was because he saw potential in me, but you couldn’t tell me that at the time. I thought he hated me.”
“When did you find out he didn’t?”
“Years after boot camp. I was a lieutenant colonel when I ran into him at a retirement party for a mutual friend. He told me then that he’d always known I would go the distance.”
“That must’ve felt good.”
“It did. We became friends after that, and we’re still in close touch to this day. He’s someone I truly admire.”
“That’s a great story. Your dad must be proud of your career, too.”
“He is. Of course, he also likes to pat himself on the back for dragging me to the recruiter.”
Mallory laughed. “Likes to say ‘I told you so,’ huh?”
“Loves it.”
“So how’d you go from enlisted to trauma surgeon officer?”
“That’s a whole other story.”
Chapter 8
While they ate, Quinn told her about starting out as a medic and applying to a program that put soldiers through college and medical school in exchange for army service afterward.
“To me it was a no-brainer. I got a free education and only owed them eight years after medical school. I’d planned to be a GP, but surgery really called to me and that’s where I ended up. The years I owed the army coincided with a pretty intense period of conflict, so I rotated between tours in Iraq and Afghanistan doing front-line combat surgery and stints stateside at Walter Reed, tending to the wounded. Then I got hurt, and that was that.”
Though he struck a matter-of-fact tone, she could see that he was anything but. “That must’ve been tough.”
“More than two years later, it still is.”
“What’ve you been up to for the last couple of years?”
“Rehabbing my leg and figuring out what’s next.”
“And is this it? The new facility, the new job?”
“I guess we’ll see. The jury is still out.”
“Funny how we’re both in this odd state of flux as we stare down forty. It’s not what I expected, that’s for sure.”
“What did you expect?”
Mallory thought about that for a minute. “I thought I’d be thinking about sending kids off to college by now. Instead, I’m contemplating a career change as well as an address change.”
“You thought you’d be a young mom?”
Mallory nodded and decided to be honest with him. “I was married at twenty-two and planned to have kids as soon as my husband and I finished our residencies.”
“What happened?”
“My twenty-seven-year-old husband dropped dead in the OR from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.”
“Oh God. I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you. All my plans changed after that.”
“I’m sure. I don’t know what to say.”
“It was a long time ago, and while I’ll never forget him, I have figured out how to live without him. That took a while.” Mallory put down her fork and blotted her lips with the cloth napkin. “I haven’t talked about him in a long time, and I’ve told two people about him today.”
“You told your dad.”
Mallory nodded. “I wanted him to know.”
“I’m honored that you told me.”
“You should be,” she said with a teasing smile. “I don’t tell my sad story to just anyone. I haven’t even told my siblings about him.”
“I’m sure you will. When the time is right.”
“Probably.”
“So you were a doctor.”
“I wondered if you’d picked up on that part.”
“It caught my attention.”
“After Ryan died, I walked away from the residency and just about everything else, for that matter. By the time I emerged from the fog of grief and alcoholism, I barely recognized myself, let alone my so-called career. I had no desire to pick up where I left off.”
“That’s understandable.”
“My mom didn’t understand at all how I could ‘throw away’ all that time and education and money, and after a while I began to agree with her. I got my nursing degree, and I’ve never looked back.”
“No regrets?”
“None. I made a much better nurse than doctor. I liked being on the front lines with the patients and their families. By the time I was promoted into management, I was ready for a change and embraced that challenge. It all worked out the way it was meant to, I suppose.”
“You never got married again?”
“Once, very briefly, but it didn’t last a month. That was a huge mistake that occurred during the drinking years. What about you?”
“Never came close. Girlfriends here and there, but army life makes for complicated relationships, especially when you’re deployed more than you’re home.”
“That has to be hard.”
“It’s all complicated. Civilian life has its own challenges.”
The waiter came by to clear their plates and offer dessert.
“Split something?” Mallory asked.
“Sure. You choose.”
After studying the dessert menu, she settled on flourless chocolate cake that was served with vanilla ice cream.
Quinn also ordered coffee.
“If I drank coffee at this hour, I’d be up until tomorrow afternoon.”
“Since I quit drinking, I sleep like a dead man. Coffee or not.”
“I have a complicated relationship with sleep.” She tapped on her temple. “That’s when my brain decides to thoroughly rehash every difficult thing I’ve ever been through.”
“My sister Kath is like that. She swears by melatonin.”
“That worked for me for a while but not anymore. I’ve been sleeping better since I got laid off. I’m sure that’s not a coincidence.”
“You miss the job?”
“Not even kinda, which is surprising. I thought I would, but I don’t. I miss the people I worked with, but they keep in touch. I do miss having somewhere to be every day, but that’s about to change when I start back to work part time for Mason.”
“Have you done that before?”
She nodded. “I made paramedic training and regular shifts on the rescue mandatory for my senior nurses in the ER. I was one of six who decided to get fully certified. Who knew that would come in handy someday?”
“You’re way overqualified to work on the rescue. For that matter, you’re overqualified to work with me.”
“Are you rescinding your offer, Dr. James?”
“Hell no. I need you.” His gaze met hers, intense and sexy. “After that first morning we met, I’d planned to ask around about you before you showed up at my meeting.”
“Because you wanted me to work for you?”
“Among other reasons.”
“What other reasons?”
“You’re very pretty, but of course that’s not news to you.”
Mallory laughed at his certainty. “It’s news to me that you think so.”
“I do. I thought so the first time I laid eyes on you.”
“When I was sweaty and winded?”
“Uh-huh.” He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw. “And then when I saw you were also very capable and calm under pressure, you became even more attractive. I wondered where you’d disappeared to when you stopped coming to meetings. Mason said you were back home in Providence getting ready to move out for the summer, which was very good news.”
“You… you asked Mason about me?”
Nodding, he said, “After I saw you having coffee with him at the diner, I figured he might know your deal.”
“And the reason you offered me a job—”
“Was because I think you’d be great at it. Not for any other reason.”
“You’re making this complicated,” she said softly.
“
I don’t mean to. I’d like very much to work with you in a professional capacity, and I’m enjoying—also very much—getting to know you personally.”
“Other than Ryan, who I was married to before we began our residencies, I’ve never dated anyone I work with.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it? Just ‘okay’?”
“Good to know.” He took a bite of the cake that she had thus far managed to ignore. Watching him was far more interesting than dessert. “Second time for everything?”
“I haven’t decided anything yet,” she said, putting extra emphasis on the word anything.
“Fair enough.”
Because he’d opened the “this could be more than just friends having a casual dinner” door, she found the courage to press for details. “What’ve you been doing since you left the army?”
He sighed and then looked her square in the eye. “Fighting a losing battle to save the lower half of my leg and then learning to walk again.”
“You… You’re…”
“An amputee. Yes.”
“Oh.”
“You’re the first person, other than my medical team, to know that.”
Mallory failed to hide her shock at that revelation. “You haven’t told anyone? Not even your family?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
Quinn shrugged and pushed a chunk of cake around on the plate with his fork. “It wasn’t intentional. At first, I was so out of it that I couldn’t have called them if I wanted to.”
“How did it happen?”
“The base where I worked was hit with shell fire. I took shrapnel to the leg, the worst of it hitting my knee, which was completely shattered. I don’t remember much about the first forty-eight hours, but apparently I ordered them not to contact my family.”
“How come?”
“There was nothing they could do. I was being taken to Germany, and I didn’t want my parents flying over there or worrying needlessly.”
“So they still don’t know you were injured?”
“They know and that it was bad enough to end my career, but they haven’t pressed me for details. My brother Coop started a rumor that I’d had my dick blown off, thus the secrecy.”