Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“Jesus, finally,” she said by way of greeting. “I was starting to think you’d disappeared.”
“Tell me about the SERA job,” I said, cutting straight to the point.
“Trace needs a medical director for the summer session. It’s eight weeks long, starts in a week—”
“A week?” I nearly knocked into a woman as I stopped abruptly.
“Yup. It’s a last-minute opening since the previous guy left unexpectedly. Kismet, right?”
The word brought back memories, and I shook my head slowly, though she couldn’t see me. “Ella, that’s impossible. I can’t just—”
“Can’t what? Leave the job that’s slowly killing you? Escape the city that’s become a prison? Get the hell away from Kari’s family and their petty revenge schemes?”
When she put it like that…
“Tommy.” Her voice was gentle now, the teasing edge gone. “When’s the last time you were happy? Really, genuinely happy?”
The question hit me like a physical blow. I knew the answer immediately, though I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. Six months ago. On a beach in Hawaii, with Foster Blake’s hands in my hair and his mouth on mine.
“It’s complicated,” I said finally, resuming my walk home.
“It doesn’t have to be. Look, I’m not asking you to move out here permanently and give up your big career. I’m asking you to take a break that will help you fall in love with your work again… and spend the summer in Legacy near your very favorite cousin, while you’re at it.”
“I mean, it would be nice to see Alex again,” I teased.
“Asshole,” she said fondly. “Now say, ‘Thank you, Ella, that’s a brilliant idea,’ and maybe I’ll forgive you enough to tell you about the potential opening at Stanford.”
I stared up at the buildings around me, all glass and steel and artificial light. Somewhere in the city, Kari was probably at another charity dinner, making connections and advancing her career. Her mother was probably at her club, having drinks with influential doctors and administrators while discussing ways to make my life more difficult.
And here I was, standing in the middle of the crowded sidewalk, seriously considering throwing away everything I’d worked for to spend eight weeks in Montana teaching wilderness medicine to a bunch of adrenaline junkies.
It should have been an easy decision. My career was here, in a big city with the world’s best level one trauma centers, highly respected physicians, and the kind of recognition and upward mobility my high-achieving self demanded.
The smart decision was to stay, to weather the political storm, to keep building toward the kind of career that would make my parents proud and secure my financial future.
But smart decisions had led me to nearly marrying someone I didn’t love. Smart decisions had led me to a job that was slowly crushing my spirit.
Maybe it was time to make a decision with my heart instead of my head.
“Thank you, Ella, that’s a brilliant idea,” I repeated obediently. “And if you can help me figure out how to get out of here in only a week without screwing up my career…” I took a deep breath of the fetid air around me and let it out. “I’ll do it.”
By the time I hung up, my hands had stopped shaking, and something that felt dangerously like hope was unfurling in my chest.
Six hours later, I handed in my resignation.
And six days after that, I boarded a plane to Montana.
5
FOSTER
I tossed another dart at the board across my office, smirking when it hit just to the left of the smiling doctor’s face. The photo, snagged from a hospital website after weeks of obsessing about the stranger from Hawaii, didn’t do Tommy Marian justice. It didn’t capture the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed or how his face had flushed when I’d kissed him outside the pool bar.
It also didn’t capture the way I’d felt after not only learning he was straight but then witnessing him with his arm around his fucking fiancée the following day.
I huffed out a noise of incredulity. Even now, six months later, I couldn’t believe his audacity.
To send me a note thanking me for the conversation and the kiss… while on the eve of his very own wedding? Who did that?
Assholes, that’s who.
He was no better than Matthew, who’d not only slept with my best deputy but also convinced the guy to move to New York with him and get a job with the NYPD. The loss of the deputy had angered me more than the loss of a faithless lover.
I threw another dart, and this one stuck right between Dr. Marian’s eyes.
Served him right.
I was angry at Tommy Marian. Angry at him for pinning me with those twinkly hazel eyes. For clearly wanting to have his cake and eat it, too. For luring me down the dangerous path of letting myself want someone again, when he was so epically unavailable.