Page 91 of Fierce-Jax

“Sorry, it’s been a rough few mornings getting Gianna out of the house. I can’t wait until my mother is back,” she said. “I’m not sure what I was thinking sending them on that trip.”

She thought her mother needed a vacation and now she did too.

“What you need is a man in your life to help you out,” Marcy said. “Stop trying to do it all on your own.”

Dillion was just about to say that she had a man in her life when her patient walked in early.

It was for the best, as enough of her life got aired out to a stranger today.

29

A PANIC MOMENT

“Jax, there is a Dr. Patrick on the line for you and she asked to interrupt you.”

He jumped up from the chair he was in while doing supervision with one of his managers and walked to his desk.

“What’s going on?” he asked quickly. If his employee thought it was odd that he answered a call from a doctor that way, he didn’t care.

For a guy whose heart rarely raced in an emergency, it was now.

“I’m so sorry, Jax,” she said. “I’m in a bind. One of my PAs went home sick and my patients are piling up and I’ve got an emergency. I can’t get out to get Gianna by four. Is there any way possible you can get her for me? At any time between now and four?”

He looked at his watch and saw it was two. He would finish with Kent in under thirty minutes. Plenty enough time to run out and grab his girlfriend’s daughter since her parents were still on their Greenland vacation and not returning until Sunday night.

Dillion had been struggling to do it alone this week, even admitting to being pulled over for speeding two days ago.

He’d told her he could help out but didn’t think Ms. Independent would take him up on it.

He was more than thrilled she was and wouldn’t say no.

“Sure,” he said. “Not a problem.”

“Thank you so much,” she said. “If you can run down to grab my key, you can take my car because of the car seat. Text me when you’re on the way to get them. I’m going to call her daycare center now and let them know you’ll pick her up.”

He hung up a minute later and returned to his chair.

“Everything okay?” Kent asked him.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just need to run out by two thirty. We are almost done.”

“I don’t have much more to go over,” Kent said.

He talked with Kent for fifteen more minutes, then texted Dillion to say he could get her key whenever she wanted him to come down. She said she’d meet him in the hall in five minutes.

He took that as she didn’t want her staff to know what was going on, but then he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with Gianna once he had her.

He left his office and walked to the elevator to go down to Dillion’s floor. He’d been waiting for her to come give him the key.

She was all but speed walking out the door and marching toward him.

“Slow down,” he said. “You might get another ticket. Everything okay?”

She batted his arm. “I said I was getting a drink quickly. I’ve got a patient waiting to be numbed now. It was too late to call and start canceling appointments so Noelle and I are hoping to cover Marcy’s patients this afternoon. I said I’d do it before I realized I had to get Gianna.”

He was walking with her down the stairs to the first floor vending machines. “I’m glad you called me.”

“I had a panic moment. I didn’t even have staff to send. We all have patients. I’m not sure what I would have done. I don’t even have numbers for her friends’ mothers. How stupid is that?”