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Page 5 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)

THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

“ Y ou’re ready early this morning, Dillion,” she heard the following Tuesday.

Dillion turned from putting her coffee cup in the dishwasher to see her mother standing there.

Since her mother watched Gianna for her, she had a key to the house. It wasn’t as if she expected her mother to ever sit at home all day. Leigh Patrick didn’t do that when Dillion was a kid either.

And though many might not want their mother watching and helping raise their child, Dillion didn’t feel as if she had much of a choice.

Leigh Patrick was the best, even if she was nosier than Dillion cared.

Take the good with the bad.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said.

“Everything okay?” her mother asked, walking over to help herself to a cup of coffee.

“The usual,” she said.

Her mother would take that as her trying to balance her career, single motherhood, and business ownership. They’d thought she was nuts buying the practice, but she knew in her mind she could grow it to so much more.

She had business ownership in her blood, just not as her father would have wished.

“We knew you might be biting off more than you could chew. I’d ask if there was anything I could do to help, but I know there isn’t.”

“You help me more than I can ever repay,” she said.

And since her mother never let her pay her for Gianna’s care, it was even more frustrating.

It’s not like her parents needed the money, but she felt as if she was taking advantage of things tying her mother down every day.

“That trip to Greenland is more than enough. I still can’t believe you gave us that as a Christmas gift. Dillion, it is too much when you’ve got so much more to spend money on.”

She rolled her eyes. “Mom, you know I’m doing fine. More than fine.”

She had no student loans at all. Very few medical professionals could say that.

Her parents were wealthy.

She grew up wanting for nothing and still to this day, she wouldn’t if she said the word.

She never asked for financial help, but that didn’t stop her father from taking care of things without her knowledge in the past.

This was something she was doing on her own and they knew it.

But it didn’t mean that she couldn’t give back to show her appreciation for all they’d done for her.

It was her mother’s dream to go to Greenland. Her father wasn’t cheap by any means, but he always found one reason or another to not go on vacation.

She took it out of his hands this time.

“It’s not that. Who is going to watch Gianna while we are gone? It’s nine days.”

“Once you tell me when you’re going, then I’ll flex my time to get her to Pre-K and pick her up.

My PAs can still work without me there. The practice won’t shut down.

Or I can go in for a few hours and have Gianna in the backroom watching TV.

I’ll figure it out. Do you know how many dermatologist offices only work a few days a week?

And I’m open for five. But you need a break. ”

“ You need the break,” her mother said firmly. “If we are going on vacation, then you need to do it too. Promise me that.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said.

It’s not as if she wanted another topic in her head keeping her up at night.

Like the sexy Jax Hollister that she dreamed of.

She woke up in a sweat, her body on fire in more than one location, her heart racing.

It felt so real when she was touching him.

That’s it. She was doing all the work and he was letting her.

Never in her life had she been the one to make any move and yet there she was in her dream, breaking out and going for it.

Was it a sign? Or was she lonely? Horny?

Probably all of the above.

“Do more than think about it.”

There was no arguing. Since she was up and ready early, she might as well go into the office rather than sit here and let her life get dissected in greater detail than the first frog she’d cut into in high school biology.

“I will,” she said passive-aggressively. When her mother laughed, she knew she’d been caught lying.

“Is Gianna still sleeping?”

“Yes,” she said. “What did you two do yesterday to tire her out so much?”

Her mother laughed. “I had errands to run, so we went food shopping, then went to see your father. You know he loves entertaining her at work, so he might have had her running up and down the showroom on some dares.”

She rolled her eyes. Her father did that to her as a kid too.

Dylan Patrick owned the biggest luxury car dealership group in North Carolina, but his first home base was in Durham.

“Did he have the stopwatch out timing to see if she could keep beating her previous time?”

Leigh smiled. “You know your father.”

“He’ll never change. I bet he tries to get her to take over the business,” she said.

“Your father never pushed you and he won’t his granddaughter. He might hope that you’ll have more kids someday that are interested in it.”

“Mom,” she said. “I’m out of here.”

Her mother laughed again, but Dillion grabbed her purse and bag, slipped her shoes on that she’d pulled out of her closet earlier, and then drove to work fifteen minutes away.

She was the first one into her office at seven thirty, but not the first car in the parking lot.

Her practice didn’t open until eight thirty, but most started to come in a little after eight. She supposed she was lucky that way that they weren’t rushing in with two minutes to spare.

With her laptop on, she went through her emails and results, saw that Jax’s came in last night. She scanned it to see everything tested negative.

Normally she’d have one of her nurses call with the results, but since she was sitting here and alone, she could do it and leave him a message.

Most people didn’t answer their cell phones if they didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello,” he said on the second ring.

She cleared her throat. “Hi, Jax, this is Dr. Patrick calling with your results.”

“Oh, hi,” he said. “I didn’t expect to hear from you personally. I hope everything is okay. Normally when the doctor calls that means it isn’t good news.”

She grimaced when she felt her body heat up over the sound of his voice again. Why did this keep happening to her with him?

“It’s good news,” she said. “Everything came back negative. I was in the office early and thought I’d place the call myself.”

“I do the same half the time,” he said. “It’s easier or quicker to do it myself than explain to someone else.”

“The curse of being the boss,” she said, laughing.

“People don’t often understand it’s a curse,” he said. “Until they have to be the ones making the decisions.”

“I’m glad to know someone else thinks that too,” she said. She never had small talk like this with patients and here she was doing it again with Jax. “How is your rash doing? I hope you’re seeing improvement since I haven’t heard otherwise.”

She’d told him to call her office if it didn’t get better.

“Almost gone,” he said.

“Perfect,” she said. “Make sure you continue to use the cream as directed even if it goes away.”

“I’m good at following orders,” he said, laughing.

“My mother would tell you I’m not so good at following them,” she said. Her jaw dropped, appalled she just volunteered that!

He laughed. “I think all mothers say that. Mine would agree with it.”

She needed to end this conversation now before she got even more inappropriate.

“If everything looks good,” she said. “You don’t need to schedule a follow-up, but please call the office if you have any questions or concerns.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Have a great day.”

“You too,” she said and hung up, then put her head on the desk.

Why did she feel so nervous and giddy over that call?

“Everything okay?”

She lifted her head quickly to see Marcy standing in her doorway.

“Yes,” she said.

“Are you sure? You never have your head down like that.”

“Power nap,” she lied. “I didn’t sleep well. Sometimes I can get away with a few minutes and be good to go.”

“Must be a doctor thing,” Marcy said. “Power naps only make me more tired so I don’t give in. I’ll just have caffeine and sugar. I brought donuts in if you want one.”

“Yes, please,” she said. “You’re early. Must be the theme of the day.”

“Bryan had to be dropped off for band practice early,” Marcy said of her middle school-aged son. “So I killed some time getting donuts and came in.”

She stood up and followed Marcy to the break room and saw the box on the table, opened it, and picked one covered in chocolate frosting.

“This is going to hit the spot. Better than a power nap.”

When she bit in, cream oozed out the back all over her finger.

Her face flushed over an erotic thought that popped into her head.

She rushed out of the room before Marcy could comment on it.

Holy crap, she needed to get control of herself!