Page 14 of Nothing to Deny

“What were you doing over there this late?” Baer’s voice drifted from inside.

“I dunno,” came the grumbled response.

“Pres,” Baer said, softening a little. “Where’s Charlie? You’ve gotta tell me, man. Was he out there? Is he in trouble?”

“No! No, I didn’t take him. I promise… He stayed home.”

With his mother? Why wouldn’t the mother notice the second child missing? If that’s indeed what this Pres was saying. Curiosity got the better of her. As the pair continued to discuss the veracity of what was being said, she rolled her shoulder on the wall to peek around the edge of the doorframe.

The curtain was pulled part way around the rail, but she could see the boy in the bed, brown hair and dark eyes as Baer said at the front desk. Even though he was young, probably on the brink of being a teenager, she could already see he had the same coloring and features as the man standing on the other side of the bed looking down at him.

His son. Was this Baer’s son? Is this why he did what he did? To support his children? Did that mean he had a wife? Where was this boy’s mother? Were the two separated or had something happened to her? If they were still together, did she have a problem with what her husband did for a living? So many questions…

Oh, God, she’d kissed him. Guilt came quick. His poor wife. What she must endure knowing her husband was out there… And Baer, he had to share himself with other women just to support his family. What debt must they have? Why were they in this position? And just like that, she’d made up a whole narrative in her head. So much for questions.

“Whoa, ho,” the kid said all of a sudden, startling her. “Are you hitting that?”

Blinking and pushing upright, stunned, her eyes darted from the wide-eyed kid sitting in the bed, arm on a table set at his side, to Baer whipping around to glare at her. Soon as Baer registered who the kid was talking about, he smacked the boy on the back of the head.

“You show the lady respect.”

The kid ducked forward, rubbing his head as he turned a smile on her. “You’re hot… Really hot… Can’t you do better than my stupid brother?”

That revelation prompted a step deeper into the room. “Your…”

“Did you lose a bet?”

“He’s your brother?” she asked Baer.

The kid snorted out a laugh. “She think you were the old man?” His amusement waned to a frown. “How’s your girlfriend not know you don’t have kids?”

“We’re just friends,” she said, speaking so Baer didn’t need to come up with anything. Having injected herself into the scenario, it wasn’t right that he be expected to explain her presence. Edging nearer, she pointed to the chart at the end of the bed. “May I?”

“You a doctor?” the kid asked. “Wow, you’re a doctor?”

“She’s an imposter.”

The male voice in the doorway spun her around. As always, the sight of Trey Zarden brought a smile to her lips.

“An imposter you say,” she said, going over to accept his one-armed hug. “You didn’t call me.”

Prodding a finger into his chest, she jabbed at him, gritting her teeth in a grimace.

“‘Cause all you ever want to do is poach me,” Zard said. “I’ve told you, Angel. I want sex from you. Not money.”

“How unprofessional,” she joked and pointed at what he was holding. “Those the x-rays.”

He held them up for her to take. “Yep.” Slipping them from their folder, she carried them to the light box on the wall. “Just a distal torus,” he said, moving in beside her as she waited for the lights to flicker on.

“Thank God,” she said, examining the x-ray.

“Cause?”

“Fall, we think,” Zard said. “Kid’s been kind of tight-lipped…”

“Any internal damage?”

“No,” he said. “Though, I’ve gotta say, I was relieved to hear you were on this…” Leaning closer, he whispered above her ear. “No insurance.”

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