Page 56 of The Bitter Rival

“You’re fine. Now, let’s make sure today you think about any questions you may have before your exam. Whether it’s about completing an x-ray or something on your test.”

“Thanks, Jeff.”

Sebastian

Well, this day has started with a bang. I’ve had a crap morning in the OR. At both hospitals. I was only scheduled to be in surgery at Mary Immaculate, however, there was an add-on in the early afternoon at St. Luke’s.

The first surgery was pretty straightforward, however, the surgical assistant was new, and many of the usual surgical tools were replaced with something I wasn’t as comfortable with. This made the handoff of instrumentation clumsy at best. I lived in fear of something falling onto the floor.

At St. Luke’s, fall on the floor, it did. Not just one, but two surgical instruments. This caused delay and more agitation. I’m starting to think I can’t make it through a simple procedure without it occurring.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, I dropped by the emergency room to see if I could catch Nick and Kat together and instead see Isabella all over a damn firefighter. I’d been trying to locate Nick. He was on call today and not in his office. Living on the lake, I wondered if they might be interested in taking this dog off of my hands if I can’t find a home for it.

I’ve been beating myself up about it. I have no claim to Isabella. I need to shit or get off the pot. I know this is relatively new territory for me, but I need to just make a decision or risk losing that girl to someone who has the balls to go after what he wants. I used to be the king of accepting a challenge. So what was it about this that had me so afraid? My only painful rejection by a female had occurred almost seventeen years ago. I needed to man up.

Searching the ER, I’d come up short. Heading for my car, I send a text to Nick.

4:35 p.m.

Bas: Hey, tried to catch you. You weren’t in your office or in the ER. Give me a shout if you get a chance.

I walk toward my car and head for home. It’s ridiculous that while I’m trying to find a home for Boomerang, I’m equally excited to see that damned dog after the day I’ve had.

Thirty minutes later, I return home and park the car in the garage. As I enter, it’s eerily quiet. I walk the hallways, calling Boomerang. I don’t know what possessed me to name the damn thing, except I didn’t want to keep calling him Dog.

As I come out of my bedroom, I see Sam sitting on a chaise lounge by the pool. “Hey, have you seen a dog?”

“A brown one? Yeah, why?”

“Because he’s not here.”

“Youhave a dog?”

“No. He’s a stray. Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? You just asked if I meant ‘the brown one,’ and he’s suddenly not here?”

“I came in and realized I left something in my car. So I went back to get it, and when I came back to the front door, he was standing in the yard. He kept tilting his head, looking at me funny.”

Ha, I’d think he was crazy if I hadn’t seen the dog do the same thing myself.I wave my hand in akeep-goingmotion.

“That’s it.”

“What’s it?”

“That’s where I saw the dog,” Sam states slowly, enunciating each syllable like I’m a dunce.

“So he just ran off?”

“I don’t know. He was in the yard, and then he wasn’t. So I guess so.”

I’m suddenly hit with an overwhelming sense of disappointment. I have no idea why, as I’ve never entertained having a dog. Just in the twenty-four hours since he’s been here, I’ve had to clean up small piles of dog hair that he’d shed all over my expensive rugs and hardwood floors. Not to mention, he probably belongs to someone.

Looking at Sam cuts through the thoughts of the dog and his whereabouts, and it quickly dawns on me… “Why are you back here? You’re like a runny nose in winter. I can’t get rid of you.”

“Where’s the love?”

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