Page 10

Ten

If I was a Care Bear, I’d have a taco on my belly.

— Chevy to Keely

CHEVY

“Maybe not like you,” I agreed with her. “But I’ve had some pretty gnarly episodes myself. Luckily no one was there to witness them.”

She sighed. “What are you doing here so late? Aren’t you usually here at the crack of dawn?”

Usually.

Only, I’d gotten a call last night that I needed to deal with, and I’d called another anesthesiologist to take over for me until I could get there this morning.

Dr. McCain had agreed, leaving me free to take care of business today.

I was tired as fuck, though, and hoped to catch a few hours in the breakroom between patients.

Hopefully no emergencies came in, giving me that time.

“Had something come up last night that I needed to take care of, and I just got back,” I explained.

“That explains the motorcycle stuff,” she teased as she walked.

Motorcycle stuff.

Gosh, I liked her.

She was so fuckin’ cute.

“Won’t do to be ridin’ around not protecting my body. My sister would lose her shit,” I admitted.

Had lost her shit enough that we’d gotten to the point where we just wore the gear so we didn’t piss her off.

Though, I was fairly sure I’d give my sister the world if she asked for it.

“Smart woman,” she said. “When I was ten or so, we were moving from Las Vegas to Texas, and we were driving along one of the major highways and we watched as some woman and man were riding and hit a slick patch of water or something. The bike went one way, and they went another. I remember being so in awe as they went sliding because their leather and helmet took the brunt of the impact. He had some patches on his back from where his leather jacket had ridden up and allowed the ground to get to the exposed skin. She was fine.”

“Your mom actually stopped?” I asked curiously.

“No,” she snorted. “She slowed down near the bike, I’m assuming to look for anything valuable. But it was completely torn to shreds. The man took his helmet off and went to crouch in front of the woman to make sure she was okay, and my mom drove out of there like our car was on fire.”

The story sounded familiar.

If I remembered correctly, Cakes had experienced something similar to that.

It also might explain the mother taking off if she had recognized Cakes and Cally.

Webber had some of his friends take care of the DNA test for him, but things were starting to add up the more I talked to Aella.

The DNA test would only confirm my suspicions.

“The more I learn about your mother, the more I don’t like her,” I admitted.

“Same.” She sighed.

I pressed the up button for the elevator, despite wanting to take the stairs, and she waved at me. “I’m taking the stairs.”

I followed her. “I was being a gentleman and taking the elevator with you because most women wouldn’t be taking the stairs.”

“I’m not most women,” she pointed out.

No. No, she was not.

I took the steps two at a time, like usual, and she took them at the speed of light, easily keeping up with me despite only taking one at a time.

By the time we got up to the surgery floor, we were both slightly breathless.

“You work out a lot?” I wondered.

“Not really,” she admitted. “I just get my exercise in when I can. There’s no time for exercise.”

I grinned. “There’s always time.”

“Well, between school and work and my side hustles, there’s really not.”

I wanted to know what her side hustles were so badly.

Though, I guess I did know one of them.

I’d overheard her talking to a fellow student a while back as she talked about her life, and how she sold feet pictures to get by.

I wasn’t necessarily a foot man, but the idea of some other dirtbag out there seeing her feet really fuckin’ pissed me off.

Two years ago when Aella had walked into my life, whether she knew it or not, she’d gained a stalker.

I watched her every chance I could get at work.

I even had Apollo find the website where she sold her feet pics so I could stalk her that way, too.

I was a goner for her, and she had no clue.

“Oh, thank God you’re here,” Dru called out the moment we made it into the nurses’ station. “I need you stat. I was just about to page you.”

“What’s going on?” I asked, immediately in work mode.

Aella took my leather jacket from me—I always left my Truth Tellers MC cut at home when I was working—and waved her hand.

I walked with Dru, boots, jeans and all, down the hall to a patient’s room.

“He came in yesterday for vomiting and nausea,” Dru explained. “He’s ten years old. The doctor on call kept him through the night, and he was supposed to be transferred to Children’s in a couple of hours. They suspected appendicitis. Anyway, long story short, he’s in a bad way. The appendix needs to come out now, and Dr. McCain is in surgery right now.”

“Chart?” I asked, wanting to review everything before I walked into the room.

“I got it, Dru. Thank you,” Dr. Marsh said, dismissing her.

I gritted my teeth.

I didn’t like Dr. Marsh.

He was a good doctor, from what I could tell, but I didn’t like the way he treated the nurses and techs on the floor. I didn’t like it even more that he made them feel uncomfortable every time he came into the room.

He always stood too close. Touched too much. Let his eyes linger too long.

It was a perfect storm of smarmy, and I couldn’t stand the guy.

I hated that I had to deal with him today, though.

As a surgeon, he was the best.

He was smart as fuck, quick as a whip, and extremely competent.

As a person, though…

The next few hours were going to really suck.

Marsh gave me the rundown of everything I would need to know as I reviewed the chart.

I nodded.

Like I always did, I said, “I’ll go check in with the family, then meet you in the operating room.”

Dr. Marsh rolled his eyes.

Emergent cases, you never really got to see your patients before you were in there doing your thing.

But when they were alert, I always wanted to introduce myself to the family.

“We have about ten minutes or so.” Dr. Marsh looked frustrated then. “We’ve had a bad morning. Almost all of the operating rooms are in use but one, and they’re cleaning up from the previous surgery. Not fast enough, but they’re getting it done.”

You could only go so fast and it be considered clean and sterile.

In medical shows, they didn’t show you the amount of time that it took to get the room ready again.

Nor did they show you all the work that the surgical technicians had to go through beforehand to make sure the OR was ready for work.

Dr. Marsh likely figured the room magically appeared ready and didn’t think about how it got to that point.

Though, he would be the first to complain if something wasn’t the way he wanted it.

“Sure thing,” I said as I knocked on the patient’s open door.

Three sets of eyes looked up, and two of them looked freaked out.

I smiled at them and held out my hand, introducing myself.

“I’m Dr. Clayborne,” I said as I shook the mom’s hand first, then the dad’s. “I’ll be the anesthesiologist.”

“Ford Spurlock,” the man introduced himself. The woman looked too freaked out to get a coherent word out. “This is our son, Chevy.”

I grinned at that name.

“Nice name,” I said as I turned to the little boy who was lying in his hospital bed with a bunch of tubes and stickers on him. “How are you feeling?”

“Bad,” he rasped.

I squatted down until my ass met my calves and heard the chain of my wallet hit the floor.

The dog tags that I hadn’t taken off since I was eighteen and entering the military slid free of my shirt with the movement as well, catching his eyes.

“I’ll bet,” I said. “But when I get you put to sleep, you’ll feel really great.”

Not so great when you wake up…

Not that I’d tell him that. I didn’t want him too scared.

“I don’t want to go to sleep,” he grumbled.

I grinned. “Yeah? Well, you won’t have to stay that way for long. Only long enough for us to get that mad appendix out of your belly.”

“I’m scared,” he said. “What if I don’t wake up?”

This kid was too young to be worrying about that.

Just as I was about to explain in detail what I was waiting for, Dru arrived with the medication that I usually administered to young patients.

I liked Dru.

We worked well together, and she knew what I’d ask for before I asked, though technically it wasn’t allowed.

I checked the dosage, then confirmed with her that it was what I actually wanted, then turned around to the kid.

“This stuff is kind of sweet tasting. When you drink it, it’s going to make you calm,” I said.

He was reluctant to drink it, but the kid’s dad helped him out.

Once he had it down, I started to explain to the kid what would happen next.

When I’d first started out, I’d do all the explaining to the parents, thinking that it was best to address them. However, I found that kids liked to ask questions, and this way I could explain it in a way he would understand.

“What’s going to happen,” I said to the kid, “is you’re going to put a mask on your nose, and the stuff that you start to smell is going to make you really sleepy.”

The kid’s eyes widened. “And I’ll go to sleep?”

“You will,” I explained. “You won’t even know you’re asleep, either.”

“Wow,” he said. “I hate going to sleep, are you sure that I have to?”

I chuckled.

“Did you know that you have the same name as me?” I asked to distract him.

The medicine I’d given him would kick in quickly, I just had to wait for it to calm him down.

“What?” His eyes went huge. “That’s so cool. I didn’t know that anyone had our name but me! And sometimes my momma calls my dad Chevy. His real name is Ford, though. Not nearly as cool as Chevy.”

The two parents across the room in their chairs, looking nervous as all fuck, grinned despite their feelings.

“Chevy is always the superior name,” I agreed. “Back to going to sleep. You don’t have any red hair under that cap, do you?”

He narrowed his eyes. “What’s wrong with red hair?”

“Nothing,” I replied, noting his sudden fierceness. “Only, sometimes when you have red hair, you react to sleepy stuff way differently. Redheads are kind of special.”

He yanked off his cap and I saw his blonde hair.

“Nope, no red in sight,” I said. “Did you dye your hair before you came?”

He wrinkled his nose. “No, my momma used to do that. And Dad says that it’s a lot of money. So I’ll probably never do it.”

“Good,” I said. “I hear that it fries some of your brain cells each time you do it.”

The woman across the room snorted.

The dad outright laughed.

I leaned into him, my hands on my knees, and said, “Do you have any questions for me?”

“Can I bring my stuffed animal?” he asked, raising it up from the bed.

It was a brown bear that looked like it’d seen better days. “I don’t see why not.”

He grinned, and the corners of his smile were wonky.

Excellent.

Exactly what I wanted.

Patting his thigh, I said, “I’ll see you in just a little bit, okay?”

“Yeah.” He sounded high.

Perfect.

I stood up and offered my hand to both parents again. “You have any questions?”

The mom leaned into the dad and said, “No. Thank you.”

I winked at her and left the room, finding Aella at the door of the room ready to get the patient wheeled back to me.

I winked at her and headed for the OR.

Time to get to work.