The Doctor Who Has No Ambition (Soulless Book 9)

by Victoria Quinn

  There was no answer.

  “Daisy? You home?”

  “It’s my brother.” Her voice was audible through the doorway, and then her footsteps came a moment later.

  She must have company. I shouldn’t have dropped by without texting her first. I just wasn’t in the right state of mind.

  The door opened a moment later, and she was in a black dress and heels, like she had plans that evening. Her bubbly and positive personality quickly faded away when she saw the look on my face. Then she turned back into the apartment. “Babe, let’s do a rain check.”

  I looked past her and saw the good-looking guy on the couch, wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with dark jeans. He had blond hair and blue eyes, classically handsome good looks. “I didn’t mean to interrupt, Daisy. We’ll talk tomorrow—”

  “No, it’s fine.” She walked over to him on the couch and looked down at him. “Tomorrow?”

  He finished his glass of wine before he rose to his feet. “Sure. Text me.” He looked down at her, gave her a charming smile before he kissed her on the mouth. “You’re worth the wait.” He walked toward me standing by the door. “Mason.” He extended his hand to shake mine. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Dex. You too. I apologize for ruining your date.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” He walked out and shut the door behind him.

  I turned to Daisy and set the beer and folder on the coffee table. “I should have texted first—”

  “Forget about him.” She smoothed out her dress before she sat on the couch. “What happened? You look like shit.” She slipped off her heels and helped herself to one of the beers.

  I took a seat beside her and twisted off the cap of my beer. “Is that the guy you told me about?”

  “Yes,” she blurted. “But let’s talk about him later.” She waved me off. “What the hell happened?”

  It meant the world to me that she dropped everything for me and didn’t hesitate. No matter how much she liked this guy, I was her priority. “Dad put me through the wringer…”

  “What does that mean?” She took a drink then set the bottom of the beer on her thigh. Her dark hair was in curls down one shoulder, and she had large gold earrings in her lobes. Her legs were crossed, and she sat with perfect posture.

  “This woman emailed me a week ago and asked me to operate on her husband, but I told her I wasn’t practicing anymore. Apparently, she went to Dad’s office and asked for his help. So, when I got off work today, Mom invited me up for dinner, and I basically walked into an intervention.” I took a drink and set it on the coffee table. “The woman was there and begged me to take her husband as a patient, while Dad sat there.”

  Her eyes widened. “Whoa…”

  “He totally ambushed me. Fucking bullshit.”

  Speechless, she just stared at me, like she didn’t know what to say. “That doesn’t sound like Dad.”

  “Why do you think I’m so pissed off?” I grabbed the beer and took another drink, staring at her coffee table in her large living room, a vase of flowers sitting on the table. Her apartment was sleek and modern, with pops of color from flowers and throw pillows. “He crossed a line. I’m not a child anymore. I’m a grown-ass man, and he had no right to do that. He needs to accept my decision and move on.”

  She watched me, her eyes observant like Mom’s, but her hair dark like Dad’s.

  “We had words… Things went south. He said he’s never been so disappointed in one of his kids, that I’m weak and pathetic…shit like that.”

  Her eyes widened as she took a deep breath.

  “I told him to fuck off.”

  She couldn’t hide her increased surprise.

  “Mom came after me, but I told her to let me go.”

  Daisy was good with words like Mom was, but now it seemed like she had nothing to say.

  I looked at her and waited for her to take my side, to agree that Dad behaved like a dick.

  But she just looked at me, her expression contemplative. “What?”

  “You don’t have anything to say to that?”

  “It’s not that.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I just… I’m having a hard time imagining all that. I’ve never seen Dad behave like that. That’s…not him. He probably shouldn’t have set up that meeting, especially without warning you, but that woman went to him and wore him down. You know how Dad is. If someone needs help, he can’t say no. He always has a full list of patients for his rotations, but when someone asks him to make an exception, he always says yes. He works longer hours and stays at the hospital until late in the night to make it work.”

  I looked away, irritated by that answer.

  “I think Dad deserves the benefit of the doubt. We both know he’s the best guy in the world. Cut him some slack.”

  “I’m nearly thirty—”

  “I’m a grown woman too, but he’s always watching my back, Dex. That’s just how he is. He cares. He loves us. I’m not going to complain that our father loves us when I know lots of people who have fathers who couldn’t care less about them.”

  I felt like I was talking to a different version of Mom. “Forget it.” I rubbed my hands together and sighed in irritation, wanting support rather than opposition.

  She was quiet for a long time. “I’m sorry I’m not saying what you want to hear, but that’s not what family does. I think the real reason you’re upset is because Dad isn’t letting you get your way. He’s not letting you hide in your hole any longer. He’s forcing you to confront your past and defeat it. He’s being a dad.”

  “No, he’s being a control freak.”

  “Dex.” She softened her voice.

  I refused to look at her. “He’s just annoyed that I’m the black sheep, that his other two kids are successful professionals, and I’m the loser of the bunch.”

  “Dex, come on.”

  I grabbed my beer again.

  “I get you’re mad, but don’t make shit up. That’s not how he is, and you know it. Not once did they encourage us to do anything. They let us choose how we wanted to spend our lives. You and I just happened to follow in his footsteps. He treats everyone from all walks of life with respect and without judgment.”

  “I came over here, hoping to talk this out—”

  “And that’s what we’re doing. I’m talking some sense into you because that’s what you need.”

  I turned back to look at my sister.

  “You would do it for me.”

  I released a quiet breath.

  “And I agree with him, Dex. It hurts me that you’ve abandoned your entire identity because of what happened. I sympathize with your pain and the trauma that you endured, but it’s time to get back up and carry on. You’re such a brilliant physician who cares about his patients—not the fame, not the fortune, not the ego…the patients. I admire you, and you’re the kind of doctor I’ve always wanted to be.”

  “Stop.”

  “Do I ever blow smoke up your ass?”

  I shook my head.

  “I tell you when you’re an idiot. I tell you when you’re wrong. So, when I tell you that I admire your work and your brilliance, I mean that shit. Dad gave you tough love. Now toughen up.”

  I almost didn’t show up for work.

  But that would be unprofessional, and it would be really shitty to put my mom in that position when she had been hesitant to give me the job in the first place. It would make her look bad in front of everyone, and she didn’t deserve that embarrassment.

  When I walked into the office, she was at the desk, and her eyes were on me as she watched me approach. Clearly, she hadn’t expected me to show up.

  I dropped the letter of resignation on her desk and kept going. I’d officially put in my two weeks and would just have to get through it before I could leave and move on with my life. It was a bit sad because I actually liked this job.

  I sat at my desk and pulled up my schedule.

  Mom read the letter before she turned in her chair
to look at me. “Does this mean you’re going to help Mrs. Torres?”

  I didn’t look at her as I read through the instructions for the day. “No. Just don’t want to work here anymore.” I grabbed the things I needed and walked off without looking at her once, just getting to work, just getting through the day.

  I worked on the three-screen desktop and tried to flush out all the issues, but it was complicated. This guy must have downloaded a shit-ton of porn to fry his computer like this. He was an old guy, so he probably didn’t understand he could just stream everything.

  The door opened, and Sicily entered, holding two vases of flowers. “Hey, I haven’t seen you all week.” She carried the vases to the table and set them down gently, but she struggled because they were heavy.

  I didn’t get up to help. “Busy.” I kept working.

  She turned to me and studied me. “Everything okay?”

  My father’s face was still fresh in my mind, that pissed-off look on his face, the threat he gave me before I walked out. The interaction haunted me as much as he promised it would, but that just made me angrier with him.

  “Dex?”

  I hadn’t talked to him or seen him since the incident, and that was a few days ago. He had no intention of apologizing, and neither did I.

  Sicily came to the desk and stood right in front of me. “Dex?”

  I snapped out of my thoughts and lifted my eyes to look at her. “Hmm?”

  “You sure everything is alright?”

  Nothing was alright. My life ended a year ago, and it was steadily getting worse…when I’d thought it couldn’t get worse. “I’m fine. Just have a lot of work to do.”

  She continued to study me with that concern in her eyes, having a natural warmth that most people didn’t have. She cared about people easily, let people in quicker than she should. That was probably why she’d ended up with a cheating asshole without realizing it. But you know what they say…bad things happen to good people. “If you ever need to talk—”

  “I don’t need to talk. Let’s just get back to work, alright?” I dropped my gaze back to the screen and ignored her.

  She lingered for another moment, but then walked away and left me alone.

  My two weeks wasn’t close to up, and Mom started to interview people.

  Good. She took me seriously.

  I didn’t have another job lined up because I was too lazy to look. It was hard to get something that paid well without utilizing a degree, but my degree was only applicable to one thing—medicine. So, I would have to get a job in a lab or something, something relevant but not straight-up medicine. It would pay my bills, and I wouldn’t have to deal with patients.

  Sicily looked at me a lot, but she kept her distance. Everyone else did too, like they knew they should just leave me alone.

  Good call.

  At the end of the day, I packed up my things and prepared to get the hell out of there.

  Then Dad approached the office, dressed in his hoodie and jeans, his satchel over his shoulder. He clearly wasn’t there for Mom because she wasn’t there, and his eyes were on me. They weren’t venomous anymore. They were soft, gentle, as if he was ready to bury the hatchet.

  Well, I wasn’t.

  I grabbed my bag and put it over my shoulder as I rose to my feet.

  He continued to stare at me, his dark eyes waiting for me to look him in the eye.

  I walked right past him.

  “Son.”

  I kept walking.

  He didn’t call after me again. He didn’t follow me. He let me go.

  A knock sounded on my door.

  I was on my laptop on the couch, submitting my resume for a laboratory position because my undergraduate degree was in analytical chemistry. My eyes flicked to the door, wary of who was on the other side.

  The knock sounded again.

  I sighed and put the laptop on the coffee table before I peeked through the hole.

  It was Derek.

  But I wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t there to watch the game. If that were what he wanted, he would invite me over so he could be with his kids at the same time.

  I opened the door but didn’t invite him inside. “I’d invite you in, but I’m not in the mood for a lecture. Now, if you’d like to watch the game and talk about your rockets or whatever, I’m down with that.”

  He stared at me the exact same way Dad did, and it was in that moment that I really saw how similar their features were, their mannerisms, their brooding natures.

  “Alright, then have a good night.” I started to shut the door.

  He pushed it back open. “Dex, come on.”

  “Come on, what?” I walked back to the couch and closed my laptop.

  He took a seat beside me and sighed. “How long is this going to go on?”

  I shrugged. “That’s up to him.”

  Derek turned quiet.

  “All he has to do is apologize.”

  “For what, exactly?”

  “You’re on his side… Got it.”

  “I’m not on his side. I just don’t understand what he needs to apologize for.”

  “You only heard his side of the story.” I hadn’t told Derek what happened.

  “I don’t know what his side of the story is because he hasn’t said anything to me about it.”

  I turned to look at him.

  “Daisy told me.”

  I felt the disappointment hit me hard.

  “When I try to talk to Dad about it, he won’t say anything. He doesn’t want to talk about it.”

  “Yeah, I know how that is.” I didn’t want to talk about being a doctor anymore. I didn’t want to talk about Catherine anymore. I just wanted to be left in peace.

  “Talk it out and move on.”

  “I’ll move on when he moves on.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “He needs to stop sticking his nose in my business. My life is my own—and he has no say in it.”

  He turned quiet again and stared at my laptop on the table. “Look, I know you’ve been in a rough place for a while now, so I know that you aren’t quite yourself. Because my brother wouldn’t think or act this way if he were in the right state of mind. You would see that Dad is just trying to help you.”

  I dropped my gaze.

  “I know you know I’m right. You want us to leave you alone and let you drown, but we’re never going to do that. We let you float on a raft for a while, but now we’re going to teach you how to swim again—because that’s what families do. This probably isn’t the right thing to say and I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m trying to convey, but as a family, we’re unanimous about this. We all agree with Dad—because all he wants is the best for you. This life, what you’re doing, it not the best for you.”

  I stared at the table as my lungs drew breath, as I felt a blast of depression hit me harder than it ever had.

  “It’s time, Dex. It’s time to move on.”

  15

  Sicily

  Dex turned into someone I didn’t recognize.

  His warmth had turned to ice.

  His humor had dried up.

  His gorgeous eyes had dulled like a burned-out Christmas light.

  He wasn’t the man I’d met, the man I’d looked forward to seeing every day at work. Something had changed his identity, had changed his foundation, and turned into him a lifeless version of who he used to be.

  It broke my heart.

  I tried talking to him a couple times, but all he did was shut me out.

  I stopped trying.

  At the end of the day, he packed up his things then shook hands with Matt. “It’s been fun.”

  I turned in my seat and watched them.

  “We’re going to miss you, man.” Matt shook his hand. “You’ll be hard to replace.”

  “I doubt that,” Dex said. “Cleo will find someone a million times better.” He turned to the girls and said goodbye.

  Wait, was he leaving?
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  Cleo wasn’t there, so I didn’t ask.

  After Dex said goodbye to the rest of the staff, he just walked out…without saying a word to me.

  What the hell?

  Cleo had talked about my working for him at his practice, but that never came up again. And then he just left without saying goodbye to me, like we had never been friends, like we had never had a connection, like he didn’t hold me outside the elevator when I cried my eyes out.

  I was pissed.

  I left my desk and went after him. “Excuse me? I don’t get a goodbye?”

  He stopped but didn’t turn around.

  “What the hell, Dex? You barely say a word to me for two weeks, and now you’re quitting? Did I do something to offend you?” It was unprofessional to yell at someone in the lobby when I was on the clock, but I couldn’t control my hurt.

  He turned around and faced me, one hand gripping the strap of his satchel. With dead eyes, he looked at me. “I’m sorry. I just…it was too hard to say goodbye to you.”

  I smiled softly.

  He came closer to me. “Take care, alright?”

  “Wait, why are you leaving? Are you going back to medicine?”

  He shook his head. “Medicine isn’t for me. I got a job in a lab.”

  “I… Why?”

  He shrugged. “It was time for me to leave.”

  That wasn’t a sufficient explanation at all, but I didn’t press further when it was clearly pointless. “I…I’m really going to miss you.” It just tumbled out of my mouth with no filter at all. This might be the last time I ever saw him, so I didn’t play it cool.

  His eyes softened slightly as he took a breath. “Yeah…me too.” His brown eyes lightened a bit as they looked into my face, but a moment later, they were dull again. “You’re going to do great here. They’re lucky to have you.” He turned away again.

  “Wait.” I wasn’t going to let this guy just walk out of my life when I felt a connection to him, when I enjoyed seeing him every day, when he seemed too good to be true. “You wanna…go out sometime?” I’d promised myself I would never ask out a guy again, not after what happened with Vince, but if I didn’t take this chance now, I would regret it.