Doctor Charmer (Doctors of Eastport General)

21. Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

Reggie

“ Y ou really didn’t have to give up your bed.” Ivy steps out of my bedroom into the open-design living room dressed in a college T-shirt that barely reaches her upper thighs. She must’ve gotten too warm in my oversized flannel pajamas I forced her to wear last evening. I’m standing in the kitchen behind the counter. My eyes snap to her long, bare legs, an enticement I can’t believe I was able to resist last evening.

“Wouldn’t be much of a gentleman if I let you sleep on the sofa or the crappy pull-out bed.”

She steps around the counter and pulls me into a warm good-morning kiss.

“Good morning to you too,” I joke, enjoying having her in my space. A comfort and a treat I’ve not enjoyed in a very long time.

“A thousand sweet kisses,” she says and presses her lips to my cheek. “That’s my goal today.”

I would shake my head at her claim, but we probably shared half that many last night. It was nearly four in the morning by the time my head hit my pillow.

I reach for her, my hand at the back of her neck. I steal a hungry kiss lathered in desire. “And a hundred not-so-sweet ones.”

“I like the way you think.” Her smile melts my heart, and I can’t believe she’s here. She steps around me and steals a strip of bacon from the serving tray, and I nod toward the coffee waiting for her on the counter.

“A girl could get used to this.” She grabs the coffee mug and presses her backside to the counter, facing me. “Your mattress was like sleeping on a cloud. You’re making it difficult for me to return to the hotel.”

Since she provides the opening, I run with it. “Griffin should be released in a few days.” She nibbles on another piece of bacon, her eyes begging me to complete my thought. “I’m suspended and could use some company.”

“Are you asking me to shack up with you, Dr. Charmer?” She presses her hands to her chest, eyes wide with amusement. “I do declare,” she jokes. I finish scrambling the eggs and scoop them onto the serving plate next to the bacon.

I start to give her a smart retort, a charming remark worthy of my name. But I stop myself, Angie’s words ringing in my head. “I’d like you to stay. I like having you here.” I share my truth, my heart’s desire.

She slips her coffee cup to the countertop, her arm around my waist. She presses her cheek into my chest, and I wrap an arm around her. “Are you sure? One night is one thing. This…”

“Is what I want. That is if you want the same.”

She presses her chin to my center chest, looking up. She tips up and kisses my chin, a quick peck. “I think I’d like that.”

“Me too.”

She spins out of my hug and scoops up the plate in one hand and her coffee in the other, leading me to my dining room table.

“Since we’re having a serious conversation, can we address the elephant in the room?”

I nod. “The suspension.”

“Yes.”

“It’ll be history in sixteen hours,” I say with confidence I shouldn’t. “I’ll handle it.”

“You’re going to sign?”

I shake my head. “I can’t.”

“You won’t.”

I nod. The difference is important.

“I don’t know hospital politics. Are they bluffing? Can you lose your job over this?”

“Dr. Riggs doesn’t bluff. If HR tells him I’m in noncompliance, he will fire me.”

She takes a long, slow sip of her coffee, and I suspect I know what is coming next. “Reggie. I spent the night at your house. Slept in your bed. I’m sitting here half-naked. You say this isn’t about you being in a relationship with someone. Help me understand.”

She’s right. I’ve been so focused on not compromising my position that I’ve not considered the compromises she’s making. She’s here. She trusts me. “You’re right, I’m sorry.” I take a long exhale. “No one knows what I’m about to tell you.”

“Not even your bestie, Dr. Angie?” She’s smart. Observant.

“No one,” I repeat, and she leans back, blowing out a breath, then mouthing the word wow.

“Three years ago, I did a three-month volunteer stint overseas. A nonprofit similar to Doctors without Borders.” I begin to unravel a tale I never thought I’d find myself repeating.

“I knew you were a good man,” she whispers so low I realize the words aren’t meant for my ears.

“I left the ER in charge of Dr. Harriman. He’s a very capable physician—not my first choice, but the administration convinced me he needed a win. He’s ten years my senior, and I beat him out for the department head four years prior.” I drum my fingers against the top of the table to give myself something to do.

“Three months. What could go wrong, right?” It’s a rhetorical question, and Ivy doesn’t give me a response. “I returned, and everything appeared in order, at first.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and gather myself. Just recalling the moment brings back all the feelings. The anger. Do no harm is what we are taught. But on that day, when I found out what he had done, I nearly tested that principle.

“Someone that reports to me—a woman, a young woman, no more than twenty-two at the time…” I open my eyes and notice my hands balled into tight fists next to my plate. I push back the bile in my throat. “The very married Dr. Harriman was having an affair with her.”

I look up at Ivy’s gaze, her calculating gaze trying to decipher my reaction. “She was half his age, and he was her boss.”

“Was it consensual?” Ivy asks the logical question.

I shake my head. “But I’ve never been able to prove it.” I exhale, the frustration still evident. “I don’t think it started that way. But by the time I returned and found out, he had convinced her otherwise. Only once did she admit she felt pressured the first time, that he hinted if she didn’t cooperate, he’d get her fired. I promised her anonymity, told her if she came forward, I’d back her up, HR would launch an investigation, and he’d be the one fired.” I pause and look over at Ivy. She’s hanging on to every word but doesn’t interrupt. She must sense how hard this is for me and wants me to get it all out.

“She went to him, asking him if their relationship had a chance. Of course, he said yes. He told her everything she wanted to hear and not to come forward. Continues to fill her head with false truths and twisted lies. She refused to file a complaint. I failed her.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ivy says.

“It’s my department.”

“It wasn’t your department when it happened. You were overseas. This woman. You said she was twenty-two. She was an adult.”

I hear Ivy leap to my defense. I’ve said each of these justifications in my head. None of them mattered. Not when I see her at the mixers, staring longingly at the door, waiting for a man who is home with his wife. She ignores the other men her age at the hospital because of the lines Dr. Harriman spews.

“Wait a second… three years ago.” Ivy connects the pieces quicker than I expected. “At the reception, they said something about three years. The HR policy.”

I nod. “When the annual colleague fraternization paperwork circulated, I went to her and said this was the perfect opportunity to out Dr. Harriman. I told her she had to disclose the relationship. I’d make sure the confidential document leaked, and if his didn’t match hers, he’d be outed as the lying, cheating lowlife he is.”

“But that didn’t happen, did it?”

I shake my head. “He was one step ahead of me. He had already convinced her to sign it, threatening to ruin her career and get her fired if she said anything. She signed the attestation, not realizing by signing it, she was the one jeopardizing her career.”

“Oh my.” Ivy hangs her head into her hand. “That’s why you refuse to sign. You’re protecting her.”

“As department head, I have to sign and submit for my entire group. If I don’t sign, they’re not submitted for anyone that reports to me.”

“And she still works for you three years later?”

I nod. “I restructured my entire department to have some of the lab folks report directly to the ER.”

“And she works in the lab?”

I nod. Ivy doesn’t miss a thing. At this rate, she’ll have Sarah’s name soon.

“And she’s still involved with him. This has been going on for three years. How is that possible?”

I shake my head. “Last year when I came to her, she defended him. Said he told her she’s the love of his life, and he’s just waiting for the right time to leave his wife for her. She believed his sharp tongue.”

“Yeah, women fall for the charm.” She shoots me a wink with the twist of my moniker. I know she’s trying to defuse the tension with humor. It’s what she does. I appreciate the thought, but I don’t want to ever be lumped in the same thought as that lowlife.

“I gave her the option to have HR investigate, and she refused again. Signed the papers without a thought that it might blow back on her.”

“And you refused to sign again this year?”

I nod. “The last two years, we have had a different HR rep. Someone that knew me for a decade. It was easy enough to have them overlook the non-submission with a smile, a wink, and a hint that a married person was involved. She connected the pieces, the assumption that someone with my reputation might sleep with a married colleague and wouldn’t want it getting out.”

The minute I say it, I realize it’s the wrong thing to say. Ivy crosses her arms. “So it’s okay for others to believe you can destroy a marriage while despising Dr. Harriman for the same behavior. Why do you do that? Why are you so intent on not letting people see the real you?”

The question isn’t foreign. I’ve heard it throughout the years. The rare moments when I’ve had a girlfriend. A cycle that repeats itself—at least, it did for many years. I’d lower my barrier, show my true self, only to have them leave. They always have.

The erratic hours of an ER physician, the enticement of moving to a big city too strong a pull, an ex returning to their lives—there’s always been a reason. Never a reason for them to stay. Twenty years of dating with the same outcome. So forgive me for placing my heart deep inside a cement tomb and surrounding it with charm barricades.

And even then, two years ago, I tried again. Even with my history. I unearthed my heart and put it on a plate, admitting to Angie my feelings for her. One final swing at the prize. She knew me. Had known me for over a decade. Yet, that wasn’t enough for her to choose me over a man she had just met.

That was the final wake-up call for me. That’s when I stopped dating. Two years. Until last night. “Does it really matter? After tomorrow, none of it will matter. We have a new person in HR, and they’ve escalated. I’m on the radar of the head of the hospital.”

“It matters.” She continues to fight a battle I have no interest in fighting. Not when there’s a more pressing battle in front of us.

“It won’t. Louise has had me in her scope from the moment she moved into the position.”

“Not surprising, given the whispers in the hospital about your reputation. And you wonder how you got on her radar.” The corners of her eyes wrinkle in frustration. “If she knew you, the real you, she might actually have let this pass.”

“Too late for that. It’s been escalated. All the way up to the head of the hospital.”

Ivy taps a finger to her chin in thought. I’ve turned this problem every which way and back. Ivy doesn’t know the structure of the hospital, the players, the rules. But she’s proven in a short time how perceptive she can be.

Angie is right: I never ask for help. Maybe Ivy can show me the way.

“If this woman knowingly lies on an HR form, knowing what it could mean… Why don’t you just sign and submit and let the cards fall as they might? She’s an adult. She is obviously okay with flouting rules, including breaking marriage vows. She’s put you in an impossible position and probably has no clue what you’re doing. Am I right?”

Like I said, perceptive. I nod.

“Don’t go down with her.”

Ivy gives me the same advice I know Angie would if I brought this mess to her doorstep.

“I won’t do that. Dr. Harriman has messed with her head. He’s whispered so many lies in her ears she’s not acting in her own best interest. He told her what she wanted to hear just to get what he wants. It’s what us men do.”

“Don’t you dare lump yourself in that category, Reggie. Not with him.”

“How can you say that with such conviction? Ten hours ago, you thought I might be in another relationship, guilty of the same offense. You stormed out of my office believing that.”

She lays her palms flat on the top of the table. “I left because I knew you weren’t being truthful. I knew you were hiding something. You refused to talk, just like you are doing with HR. They know you are hiding something, and unless you come clean, they will have to assume the worst. They can’t walk out the door, so they’ll have no choice but to have you walked out.”

I can’t fault her logic. “You might want to consider a career in law if this whole volleyball thing doesn’t work out.”

“You first. You’re the one that might be looking for another career.”

“Touché.”

“So, my brilliant argument isn’t working, is it?”

I shake my head. “I have to protect her until she can open her own eyes.” I should feel defeated, but I feel the opposite. I realize that for the first time in three years, the load I’ve been carrying is a tad lighter because I’ve shared my secret.

“Protecting others is your love language,” Ivy says, pushing away from the table and standing. “It just so happens to be mine as well.”

Ivy pushes back and steps around the table. She doesn’t stop until her arms are wrapped around my neck, a warm kiss on my neck. “A good man.” This time, her whisper is meant for my ears.

“We have about sixteen hours. What are we going to do about this?” Ivy dives in and immediately picks up the baton, happy to join my team to help figure out my problem. I already know she’ll be a wonderful teammate. But I’ve yet to draw up a game plan.

I give her a quick kiss on her cheek and wave her back to her chair to eat. She quirks a brow. “What’s the plan?”

I shrug. “I don’t have a clue.”