Doctor Charmer (Doctors of Eastport General)

19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Reggie

I stand in total darkness for ten minutes. Ten minutes feels like ten hours. I huff out a frustrated breath, feeling a pain I thought I’d never feel again—heartache.

I click on my desk lamp, plopping hard to the chair, and press the speaker button phone on my desk phone. I press the pre-programmed number, dialing the number of the last person who made me feel anything like this.

“Reggie? Is everything okay at the hospital?” I hear the surprise in Angie’s voice. “I have you on speaker. Brayton and I are driving to that country line-dancing spot I was telling you about.”

I shake my head at the ridiculousness of two African Americans in the wilds of Rhode Island, traipsing across the state to hit up every country line dance honky-tonk bar in a seventy-five-mile radius. I couldn’t be happier for her.

“Sorry, Brayton, nothing personal, but Angie, can you take me off speaker?”

I only catch a bit of her whisper to her fiancé before the line clicks over. “What’s up?”

Angie is my best friend, and I’m encroaching on her holiday time, so I don’t beat around the bush. “Don’t drink too much tonight. I just got suspended, and Dr. Riggs is going to reach out to have you cover the ER tomorrow.”

Angie sucks at covering her phone, and I catch her whisper to Brayton, “ Reggie got himself suspended. ”

“ And you are surprised, why? ” Brayton’s response comes through unfiltered. Like I said, she sucks at covering her phone.

“ Reggie, what did you do?” She’s back.

“It’s what I didn’t do. The attestation.”

“You still refusing to sign?” she asks, familiar with my act but not my reason. “Why is Dr. Riggs involved?”

I rub my hands through my hair. “HR escalated. He confronted me. I was in a pissy mood, and the rest is history.”

“I pushed you on this two years ago. And you refused to tell me why you wouldn’t sign. I’m assuming nothing’s changed. You’re still not telling me your reason?”

“That’s right. Nothing’s changed. Make your joke like everyone else does.”

“ We’re here. ” I hear Brayton’s not-so-quiet whisper. They’ve reached their destination. Angie will stay on the phone with me all night if warranted, but Brayton doesn’t have our history or her tolerance. We had our standoff in his early days when he suspected correctly that I had feelings for Angie. But we’ve all come a long way since then.

“Reg, this is me. I’ve not brought it up in three years because I know if you feel this strongly about it, you have your reasons. I know you. I know your heart. This isn’t about you. You’re protecting someone.”

My head drops with her words, my eyes closing. Her words salve my soul. I knew she was the right person to call. She knows me, all of me. “Thank you for that.”

“No thanks required. If you weren’t such a protective ass with your heart, others would see it too.” Her words cut, breaking skin and bringing pain. “I have no idea who you’re protecting, but I know if you’re doing the fighting, she must be someone who can’t protect herself. You know you don’t have to go into battle alone. Say the word.”

My heart warms with her support. I’m a lucky bastard that the crush I carried for so many years didn’t ruin our friendship. “It’s not your fight.”

“Doesn’t sound like it’s yours either, yet here we are. Now, are you going to tell me what got you into a pissy mood because when I left you were all googly-eyed with Ivy. Even Brayton wanted to yell for you two to get a room.”

“She heard about the suspension. I couldn’t tell her why I won’t sign it.”

I wait for Angie to connect the dots. “Does she know about your moniker?”

“Had called me Dr. Charmer thirty times before the party even started.”

“So, she thinks…”

“Why would she be any different?” I lift my head and stare at the doorway. The image of Ivy standing there, her eyes pleading with me to explain.

“Because you refuse to let people in,” Angie berates me. “Drop the charm and have a genuine conversation with her. Let her see the man beneath the image. Show her the Wizard is just a PR stunt that got out of control.”

“Drop it. I called to give you the heads-up about coverage for tomorrow.”

“Bull,” she shouts. Angie never shouts.

“ What did he say to you? Do I have to turn this car around and show him how to speak to a woman? ” Brayton snaps to her defense, and a part of me is glad to see she has a knight in shining armor in her court. But she doesn’t need one. Never has. I picture her lifting a single finger in his direction, silencing him.

“You called because you’re tired of being the charming doctor. You want to take a chance with Ivy but have no clue how.”

She cuts right to the heart of the matter. Have I been this blatant all day? I think of the comments from Nurse Reynolds. Has it been right in the open all along? “I let her go. I let her leave thinking I’m hiding something from her.”

“Because you are, dumbass,” she continues to pile on. “You are hiding the fact that you are a good man with a good heart who sacrifices for others when no one is looking. For the life of me, I don’t know why you think you need to hide this.” I start to speak, but she cuts me off. “And if you are about to spout some nonsense that you have a reputation to protect, I’m going to jump through this phone and smack you. Look at the calendar. You’re not twenty-five any longer. Hell, you’re not even thirty-five.

“You called me for some tough love. Well, here it is. Stop hiding. Find her. Tell her. Show her who you are. You said she left already, which means you have absolutely nothing to lose by doing this.”

“She’s gone.”

“There’s this wonderful device we’re speaking on called a phone. Or better yet, she still has two kids in the hospital — it may be after visiting hours, but there is no way she leaves the hospital without checking in on her students. Hang up the phone and go get her before she leaves the hospital. Tell her how you feel. Show her the heart I know. It’s bigger than you think.”

“ Enough pumping up his ego. It’s already too big for his head. ” Brayton’s words cause me to chuckle. Her words are so simple, so straightforward. It’s what my instincts wanted me to do all along. Speak.

“Enjoy the dancing. You’re the best.” I give her back the rest of her night.

“Call me tomorrow with the update, and we can talk about what you’re going to do with HR next.”

“Good night, Angie. Thank Brayton for me.” I click off the line with a lightness I didn’t possess ten minutes earlier. Angie always knows how to make me see what is important.

I hop to my feet and race through the door, down the hall, hitting the steps two at a time again.

It takes less than a minute for me to reach the fifth floor, my feet making a beeline to Griffin’s room. I ignore the overnight nurses clocking me on the floor; the hospital gossip mill will be working overtime with my activities this evening.

I push into the room. It’s quiet, Griffin scrolling on his phone, Chelsea sleeping. I scan, looking for Ivy, and come up empty.

“Dude, come on, no more needles.”

I shake my head. “I’m not here for that. I’m looking for Coach.”

Chelsea stirs from the noise, her eyes opening as she wipes a hand across them. “Wha… What’s going on?”

“Nothing, you can go back to sleep. Dr. Morgan is looking for Coach,” Griffin says.

She shifts, sitting up in the bed, a soft smile on her face. “I bet he is. It’s the dress, right?” she says in my direction. “I helped her with her makeup.”

“She was just here a minute ago, grabbed her bag with her clothes from earlier, and raced out.” Griffin gives me the info I’m seeking.

“Thanks.”

“Hey, Doc,” Chelsea calls me, and I freeze at the doorway. “I’ve never seen Coach nervous before.” She pauses. “Like ever. We had a truck barreling at us, and she never once shook.” I recall what she did with the volleyballs. A split-second decision that could only be made by someone who never rattles.

“I know,” I say, unsure of what else to say.

“Dude,” Griffin says, glancing at Chelsea as if to say you believe this guy?

Chelsea smiles at me, and I know I’m missing something.

“Tonight, she was nervous. Had me redo her makeup six times. Griff and I had to practically push her out of the room, or she’d miss the party. You make her nervous.”

I want to dismiss her words, but I don’t have time for a debate. If I’ve just missed Ivy, she’s headed to the lobby to grab a cab back to the hotel. I have no clue which hotel she’s staying at, so I need to catch her before she gets in the car service.

“She’s not the only one.” I give the words Chelsea was hoping to hear. It won’t matter if I don’t catch up to Ivy. I race out the door and down the stairwell three steps at a time. I jump at the ground-floor door, my hip crashing against it, slamming it open. The door bangs hard against the doorstop, a harsh crash echoing across the vast lobby. I begin to race and ignore the startled faces of the security guards.

I hear the pants of my breath as I rush toward the exit. I’m out the door just as I spot her. She’s bending down, tossing a bag into the back seat of a cab twenty yards away from me.

“Ivy!” I shout. Snow crunches beneath my feet, and I continue to rush toward her, trying to maintain my balance on the ice. “Wait.”

She pops her head out of the cab, whipping back the hood of her coat to see better. She gives me the look I expect, a why is this crazy man yelling at me look.

I ignore the look, I ignore the snow falling in my face, I ignore the fact that it’s freezing outside and I’m not wearing a coat. I ignore everything except her.

“You win.” I stop a foot in front of her, the glint of the overhead hospital lights reflected in her beautifully dark eyes. “You were always going to win. From the moment we first spoke, and you put me in my place, I knew. Every time I turned up the charm, and you sent it back to me in spades, you won. Every time I walked into a room and saw you there, you won.” I reach forward, my hand cupping her face.

“Every time you called me out for leaning into my reputation, you won.” I brush a sprinkling of snow off her cheek. “I don’t have a secret girlfriend somewhere. There is no one else. No one else I’m interested in other than you. You win.”

Her lips part to speak, but I react first. I slam my lips to hers. I kiss her. First. She wins.

Lips locked; the shock of my sudden move must fade for her as her lips soften. She twists her neck for a better angle and kisses me back.

“Reggie…” My name on her lips is the greatest Christmas gift this holiday season. “Tell me this isn’t a game to you. That this is…”

“The start of something I want.” I address her concern, and her gaze bores into mine, reading me like only she can.

She tips forward up on her toes and presses her lips to mine. This kiss differs from my rushed stake-in-the-ground kiss. Hers lacks the hesitancy of mine. It’s softer, quieter, gentler.

Our lips part, and our kiss intensifies. Her hands are in my hair, combing it as she peppers kisses down my collarbone. “You must be freezing.”

I shake my head. “Never been hotter in my life.”

“Come back to the hotel with me,” she offers, surprising me. “I don’t want to be alone. Not tonight.”

She offers exactly what I want, but I know myself. “You, me in a tiny hotel room? All night? There’s no way I’m not going to…” I don’t complete the sentence on purpose, painting the picture for her. We are moving a million miles an hour.

“Are you saying you can’t resist me, Dr. Morgan? You don’t trust yourself to be alone with me?” she teases.

“Not in the confines of a two-hundred-square-foot hotel room, no.” I don’t even try to deny my attraction to her.

She rewards my admission with a soft kiss on the corner of my lip. “I get it. But I’m not about to let you out of my sights. I want to celebrate my victory.”

I feel the same way. The words are out of my mouth before I’ve thought it through. “Come home with me. Stay at my place.”

Her eyes flash with something I can’t read.

“It’s much larger than two hundred square feet, I promise. And I have a pull-out couch in my home office. I’ll be the perfect gentleman.”

She slips her hand into mine, leaning forward to whisper. “That’s not what I heard.”

I press my lips behind her ear, stealing another kiss. “Don’t believe the hype.”