Kyle balled his fist, wanting to punch something. “How did you get this number?” he growled.
“Take it easy, man,” Ascott laughed. “I got it from your secretary. Nice woman, by the way.”
Kyle rose to his feet. “How dare you call me!” He could feel the vein in his neck pulsing.
“I called out of concern for P. J. The hospital administration is worried about her relationship with you. Your mother was P. J.’s patient and that makes the situation sticky.”
“Are you the one who raised the concern?” Kyle yelled.
“No, I would never do that.”
“Maybe we should meet face to face, handle this like men.”
A shaky laugh came through the phone. “I called you in good faith out of my concern for P. J. She’s worked hard to get where she is. It would be a shame for her to lose it all over you.”
Heat blasted through Kyle’s veins like a blowtorch. “This is none of your business.”
“P. J. is my friend. Last night, when she was at my penthouse, the two of us had a long talk about her career and her hopes for the future.”
The air left Kyle’s lungs the instant before he went stone cold. “What did you say?”
“Last night, when P. J. was at my penthouse—”
“You’re lying,” Kyle thundered. “P. J. would never go to your penthouse.” Sweat beaded across the bridge of Kyle’s nose. Had P. J. gone to Ascott’s place? Was that why he couldn’t reach her? He heard a knock at the door before his mother opened it and stuck her head in.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
He nodded, moving the phone away from his mouth. “I’m fine,” he assured her as he forced a smile. He could tell from the concerned look on her face that she wasn’t buying it. “I’ll explain later,” he said quietly as he turned his full attention back to the phone.
“P. J. has big hopes and dreams for her future. If you care anything at all about her, then you won’t stand in her way.”
If Ascott were here, Kyle would have punched him into next week. It was all he could do to keep his voice even. “This is none of your concern.”
“P. J. is my friend. Somebody has to look out for her because you sure as heck are not.”
Kyle swore. He looked toward the door, realized his mom was still there. Her eyes were as large as plates. “This conversation is over,” Kyle barked. “Don’t ever call me again.” He ended the call and threw the phone down on his desk.
“What was that about?” his mom asked.
He rubbed a hand over his forehead. “P. J.” Now that the anger had drained, he felt weary and pushed up against the wall. Had P. J. gone to Ascott’s penthouse? Why would she do that?
“What’s wrong?”
After Kyle told her everything, she shook her head. “You need to go and talk to P. J. right now.”
He pushed out a hard breath. “As much as I hate to admit it, Ascott is right about P. J.’s career. Her mentor warned her to end her relationship with me.” A brittle laugh scratched his throat. “I promised P. J.’s dad that I wouldn’t stand in the way of her career, and now here I am.”
Marigold lifted her chin, her eyes flashing with determination. “P. J. loves you. She knows the risks. You heard what she said that night in your apartment. She thinks everything will be fine. I think you should listen to her.”
He threw up his hands. “Of course she would say that!” His voice caught. “But what happens when everything’s not okay.” Tears rose in his eyes. “You and I both know that things don’t always work out for the best.”
Sympathy touched her features. “You’re talking about Annie,” she said softly.
He bit his lower lip.
Marigold looked him in the eye. “You love P. J., and she loves you. You owe it to yourself and to her to go and talk about it.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “Are you saying I just pick up and go now?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
He raked both hands through his hair. “Maybe I should.” A heavy coat of gloom settled around him. “I couldn’t live with myself if I were the cause of hurting P. J.’s career. Think about all of the good she does in the world.” His voice quivered. “What she did for you.”
“I know. But I have to believe that it will all work out for the best.”
Kyle felt a wave of tenderness for his mom, always the eternal optimist. “How can you be so sure?”
A smile touched her lips. “Because the sun rises every morning, heralding a new day.” She touched her chest, tears shimmering in her eyes. “Because I prayed for a miracle and God gave me a new heart.” She gave him a loving look. “Because I see the transformation that has taken place in you ever since Priscilla came into your life. You’ve started living again.” A wise smile curved her lips. “And, so has she. Go to her. Work this out. You’ll see, everything will be okay.”
A single tear rolled down his cheek. “How did I ever get so lucky as to have a mother like you?”
She chuckled and answered with a cheeky, “Just don’t ever forget it.”
He crossed the distance between them and gave her a tight hug. “Thanks, Mom,” he said.
She smiled. “Get out of here. Time’s a wasting.”
When Kyle reached the hospital, he parked and went up to the third floor to P. J.’s office, but she was wasn’t there. He figured she’d probably be rounding on her hospital patients. When he walked through the regular hospital floor past the nurse’s station, all eyes followed him, and a couple of the nurses smiled as if they recognized him. He stopped at the CCU doors and pressed the button to speak to the secretary over the intercom. From behind him at the nurse’s desk, someone called out, “I’ve got it.” The intercom buzzed and the doors unlocked with a loud click.
Kyle strode into the CCU and heard P. J.’s lilting laughter. There were two tall cabinets in the middle of the nurse’s station with a walkway in between them. He spotted P. J. through the opening. His heart skipped a beat. She was beautiful. So incredible. Surely, there had to be an explanation for her going to Ascott’s penthouse … if she even had. The more Kyle thought about it, the more he was starting to not believe anything Ascott said. It was obvious that the man wanted P. J. for himself. There was still the issue of P. J.’s career and the hospital administration no-dating-patients policy. Even that was a gray area, however, because Kyle wasn’t P. J.’s patient.
No one had seen Kyle yet. It was dark where he stood, and the nurses’ station was brightly lit. All the nurses and P. J. were on the far side of the station, and he was nearly hidden by the cabinets.
P. J. was talking to someone in front of her and laughing. Suddenly the person slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Kyle shifted so he could see who it was. Ascott! That vulture. He planted a kiss square on her mouth.
Kyle’s vision closed in around him. His peripheral went black. All he could see was P. J., there in Ascott’s arms, laughing at first and now kissing him. His mind swirled, his pulse pounding in his ears. Silently he backed away. He had to get out of here. Had to escape.
The doors banged as he went out of the CCU. He turned and stumbled down the hallway, pausing for a brief moment to hold onto the wall. He looked up and saw the nurses at the other station watching him curiously. Willing his feet to move forward, he went out the stairway door and back to his car.
It had been a busy day at the hospital. P. J. had done two procedures early in the morning. After she ate lunch with the residents and fellows in the physicians’ lounge, she rounded on her half dozen patients recuperating on the cardiac floor, and then on the other three in the CCU. She didn’t have afternoon clinic hours on her surgery days, so she hung out in the nurses’ station of the CCU. It was after two-thirty when Ascott walked in, or rather blew in like a tornado, sending a stack of papers from the corner of the nurses’ desk scattering across the floor. He ignored the mess he’d caused. “Good afternoon, everyone!” he boisterously excla
imed.
One of the older shift nurses had dealt with rowdy young party-boy doctors before. She put a finger to her lips. “Shhh. You must be one of the new residents. Please keep it down. This is the coronary intensive care unit. We can’t have too much noise.”
Ascott held up a hand and turned it like he was turning a volume dial. “You got it, Toots,” he said in a coarse whisper. “And I’m not a resident. I’m here on a fellowship.” The nurse, who was at least twice his age, huffed loudly and stomped off.
Not caring to have any interaction with Ascott, P. J. walked out of the doctors’ dictation room on the side of the nurses’ station. She looked down, reading a report, as she walked slowly. The next thing she knew, Ascott was beside her. He flipped the back of her papers. “Hey, Red. Did you have fun last night at my party?”
She shrugged, not liking the intimacy in his tone. “Yeah, it was fine. Angela wanted to go, so we went.” P. J. turned her attention to the approaching nurse, grateful for the interruption. “Hey, Florina. How was your Easter?”
“Was it Easter? I guess I missed it. I’ve been here the whole time.” She held up her phone, grinning. “But look at this. My grand baby got a toy mixer, you know, like you use for making cake batter in the kitchen. We put the batteries in it and he put the thing straight into his afro.” She hit the play button on her phone, and they watched the three-year-old first turn on the mixer, then look surprised, then with an expression of sheer terror start to scream and panic as he tried to outrun the devilish device spinning in his curly locks.
P. J. put her hand up to her mouth and gasped. She couldn’t help but giggle. Florina started to laugh along with the adults in the background of her video as the baby struggled, and P. J. joined her. They couldn’t control themselves. The little boy ran around the room, the plastic mixer dangling harmlessly but terrifyingly from his head.
Ascott leaned in for a peek, slipping an arm around P. J.’s waist as he did so. She was distracted and didn’t notice him leaning in closer, as though he wanted to see the phone. Suddenly he jerked her around in front of him and planted a kiss on her mouth.
The file P. J. was holding tumbled to the floor, its contents scattering. The nurses’ station went silent in shock. P. J. was too surprised to react at first, but after three or four seconds, she shoved him away with both hands. Wisely, she counted to five before reacting. She heard the banging of the CCU doors as someone went out, unseen because of the tall cabinets in the nurses’ station. For a moment, the only sounds were beeping monitors in patient rooms and a mother’s voice coming from Florina’s phone, trying to calm a terrified baby with a mixer in his hair.
“Ascott Carter! What in the world do you think you’re doing?” P. J. exclaimed as she bent down to retrieve the file and papers.
“What? It was a friendly kiss.”
She straightened to her full height, tucking the file under her arm. “No! No! No!” she fumed. “Who does that in the middle of a nurses’ station to someone they don’t even have a relationship with?”
He looked shocked. “We have a relationship. You were at my penthouse last night.”
P. J. felt heat blast her face as she looked around at the shocked expressions of the nurses. Her voice sounded small in her own ears as she tried to defend herself. “I only went to his penthouse because he had a party. Lots of other staff members were there.” Angela stepped up beside her. “Actually, P. J. went to that party because I talked her into it.” She gave Ascott a withering look. “Consider our date tonight cancelled,” she growled. Angela put a hand on P. J.’s arm. “Handle this the right way, Dr. Bandy,” she said meaningfully. “The university has policies against sexual harassment and also against physical violence. Don’t get yourself in trouble.”
Out of nowhere, Florina slid in between them. She took a step back so she had enough room to swing and let Ascott have it with a full-hand slap to the face. She turned around to P. J. “I took care of it for you, girl.”
Ascott’s jaw dropped to the floor. He shook an angry finger in Florina’s face. “You, you, nurse! I’ll have your job for this.”
Florina stood her ground and rocked her head back and forth as she spat out angry words. “I’ll meet you in front of the Board. I’m looking forward to it.”
After several tense seconds, Ascott spun around and marched angrily out of the nurses’ station. He briefly stopped in a room and must have done his charting on the bedside computer, because when he came out, he didn’t pause. As he speed-walked to the exit, he glared first at Florina and then at P. J. The charge nurse looked up from the incident report she was filling out and watched him leave. “That’s going to be the shortest cardiac fellowship in history,” she said, shaking her head.
Florina put an arm around P. J.’s shoulder. “Don’t worry honey, you didn’t do anything wrong. The four of us saw what happened. We’ll stand up for you.” The others nodded and murmured in agreement.
“I guess you were right about him,” Angela said with a weak smile. She hugged her arms. “The jerk!”
P. J. nodded. A minute later, she gathered up her pen and stethoscope and left.
Once in the hall outside the CCU, P. J. pulled out her phone with shaky hands. She hit the speed dial for Kyle. There was no answer.
P. J. needed to talk to someone. She hung up on Kyle’s ringing phone and called her mother. “Mom, you’ll never guess what happened,” she began, and told her all about it. “This could get ugly fast. I have to file a formal complaint against Ascott, and he might get kicked out of the program. He’ll probably lawyer up really quick and fight it. I’m going to be fine, but I’ve got to do this to protect the other women who work here. If I don’t stand up to him, he’ll just prey on someone else.”
“You’re right, Priscilla. This has to be done.” She paused. “It could get personal. Are you ready for that?”
Anger burned through her veins. “Absolutely. I can handle it.”
“I know you can, dear. Your dad and I’ll back you all the way.”
“Thanks.” Her stomach fisted. P. J. didn’t need this right now. She blew out a heavy breath. “Okay Mom, I’m at my clinic. I have to go sit down with the department chair. He’s going to send me to the university’s harassment officer. Once I’ve talked to him, the process can’t be stopped. I’m sure Ascott kissed me on impulse, but he has to learn that he can’t do that.” No, this went beyond an impulse kiss. Ascott was insinuating that P. J. was with him at his penthouse. The man was a snake! Now, she was more certain than ever that he was the one who’d raised the concern about her and Kyle. Well, Ascott was about to get a taste of his own medicine. She realized her mother was speaking.
“Whether they expel him or merely slap him on the wrist, you go do the right thing, just like you always have.”
“I will, Mom. Thanks.”
P. J. hung up and called Kyle again. Still no answer. “Why aren’t you answering your phone?” she muttered.
P. J. had to let Dr. Stone know what had happened. She marched to the cardiology department, her gait intense and strictly business. She went straight to Dr. Stone’s office. His door was open, and he was seated behind his desk, sorting through a stack of papers. She knocked. “May I barge in?”
“Always. How can I help?”
P. J. closed the door and took a seat across the desk from the older doctor, who was her supervisor, teacher, mentor, and friend. It wasn’t going to be easy to burden him with this. “I have to tell you something, and it’s unpleasant.”
“Don’t hold back. What is it?”
She laid out the whole ugly episode with Ascott. Dr. Stone listened intently. A few seconds after she started, he pulled out a pad of paper and began taking notes. He didn’t interrupt her but waited until she was done, nodding every now and then. When she was done, he tapped his mouth with the pen. “All right. This has to go to the compliance committee for investigation. I hate to ask this, but is it going to hurt your feelings if he’s expelled for it?
”
Heat washed up her neck. “I don’t want to ruin anyone.”
“He’s already a cardiologist. He’s here just to go further, but if he’s blown that chance, he still has a great career out there. It won’t ruin him. On the other hand, if he just gets a slap on the wrist, will you take that personally?”
P. J. thought for a moment. “No. Maybe it will be enough just to rattle his cage and make him smarten up.”
“I agree. I’m not allowed to just sit on this. I’m required to send it upstream to my superiors for a full investigation. I don’t want you to feel any guilt or personal angst over whatever happens. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He paused, then looked her in the eyes. “You didn’t, did you?”
“No, of course not!”
“And this isn’t retaliation for any perceived or real prior offense he may have committed?”
Her eyebrow arched. “You mean Ascott raising the concern about me dating Kyle?”
He blinked a few times. “I never told you who raised the concern.”
She grunted softly. “You didn’t have to.”
He took in a deep breath. “Ascott’s lawyers could make this out to be retaliation on your part.”
“It’s nothing of the sort,” she fired back.
He nodded. “I believe you. If the topic comes up, I want you to be just as forceful with them as you have been with me.” He kept staring at her. “Is there anything else?”
“No. That’s it.” She rose to her feet. “Thanks for listening to me,” she said as stood. When she got to the door, Dr. Stone called her name. She turned.
“You’re a good doctor and a good person. This will all be okay.” A smile touched his lips. “You have a bright future ahead of you.”
“Thanks,” she said as she hurriedly walked away, blinking to stay the tears of frustration that Ascott had caused.
She’d done the right thing by telling Dr. Stone. “Onward and forward,” she said under her breath, feeling a little better about the situation.
Winning the Doc's Heart Page 14