Page 19 of Silver Fox's Intern Dilemma

"I know, Daddy. I'm sorry. I just want to watch." Leah climbed onto his lap, and I smiled at the sweet interaction.

"Well, how about we read you a bedtime story instead?” I offered, glancing at the bookshelf across the room. Jack had a big collection of books, some novels, some textbooks. But there was a shelf dedicated to children's books, and Leah's eyes lit up as I said that.

"Yeah?" she said, looking at her father.

"I like that idea," he told her, and she scrambled off his lap and ran across the room. "We don't have to do this. You should be studying. Let me take her into her room and I'll read to her."

"Nonsense. I love kids. I told you that. Besides, she clearly likes me, and it's good for her to have positive role models." I waved off Jack's concern knowing I could come back and use this software any time.

Leah chose the book,The Hungry Caterpillar, and this time climbed onto my lap. I noticed Jack feign jealousy, but he was joking. He scooted closer to me as I opened the hard cover and started reading. Leah got so into it that she was making funny voices and reciting things the insects were saying, and I realized she had the book memorized. We moved on to another book, then another, and when she asked for a fourth, Jack drew the line.

"Bedtime, little miss." He took the books from her and set them on the coffee table, and she pouted.

"But just one more," she whined, and he was firm.

"Go put on your pajamas and brush your teeth. I'll come tuck you in." He chased her off, but before she ran out of the room, she gave me a big hug.

"See you later, Sophia," she said sadly and then ran away.

Jack chuckled. "Oh, the drama," he whined in even more dramatic tones and said, "I'll be right back.

Without skipping a beat, I dived back into the simulation. The technology was incredible. I found myself so engrossed in it that I hardly noticed that he came back into the room. Thenhe left again, and I heard the dishes clattering as he finished cleaning up from supper. When I finished two more quick surgery simulations, my eyes were tired. I didn't want to just leave without saying goodbye, so I decided to tidy up while waiting for Jack to come back.

I closed his laptop and turned the Bluetooth mouse off. Then I picked up the stack of books and walked over to the bookshelf to replace them, quickly finding Jack had alphabetized the whole lot. It made me grin at how organized and meticulous he was. Then my eyes scanned the towering shelf loaded with so many good titles. He had psychology books, surgical books, smutty romance novels, and one with the title, "Addicted to Cheating." I started to get the idea that maybe his divorce really was as unhappy as he claimed.

"Lots of good ones," Jack said, almost startling me. "You can borrow anything you like." I never heard him come back into the room, let alone walk up behind me.

"These are really great, Jack. I don't know how I'd even have time to read them all." I grinned at the odd collection and tried to just soak in the titles. He really did have similar interests and tastes as me.

"Ah, you'd be surprised. A few pages a day equates to a whole book in a few months." He reached up and pulled one off the shelf calledAbnormalPsychology. It had a picture of a woman holding her head on the cover and just the title appealed to me. "I loved this one when I took my psych classes. So interesting how the brain works."

"But you didn’t become a neurologist?" I was joking, but Jack took it more seriously.

"Not even on the cards. I was more fascinated by the internal organs and how they cooperate to make the body function." He slid the book back into its spot on the shelf and pulled anotherone down. "The Basics of Saving a Life." He tapped the cover and said, "This one is a good one. You should read it."

I scrunched my nose and took it from his hand. "It's a military book?" I asked, not understanding why he'd even have this one.

"Yes. I enlisted for a single tour, twenty-four months. After reading this in basic training, I knew I wanted to be a surgeon. Back then, it would have been a field surgeon, but they aren’t given the same title or licensing as someone who went to college and graduated from med school. I left the army when my time was up and went back to school."

I looked up from the cover of the book as I heard the nostalgic tone in his voice. "Which is why you're only just chief resident at what, forty?" My honest stab at his age made him wince and press his hand to his chest as if I had mortally wounded him.

"I look that old?" he asked, chuckling, but before I could answer and feel stupid, he continued. "I'm thirty-eight, and yes. That's part of the reason I got a late start. When you don't start your bachelor’s until you're twenty-one, it makes eight years of schooling and five of residency delayed."

I thought about it for a second and asked, "But then you'd only be thirty-six.” I let my statement hang in the air, and he pressed his lips into a line as if he didn't want to respond, but he coughed up an answer as he moved toward the couch.

"Well, it would have been perfect if my marriage wouldn't have been what it was. Add to that a child, and well, life got in the way." He slumped onto the couch, and I thought of how my delayed start had me starting my residency only one year earlier than his. It wasn't all bad. He knew what he wanted and he was being successful. And being older while learning probably was what had given him the edge he had, what had made him that much more successful than the other residents in his rotation.

"Would it be so bad?" I asked, sitting gingerly next to him on the couch. I placed the book on the coffee table next to his laptop and angled my body to face him.

"Would what be bad?" he asked, seeming confused. So I helped him out.

"If there was a spark here." I pointed to him, then to myself. "If we hit it off. If we found that we have a lot in common and we like each other."

I'd been waiting to ask that all evening. I thoroughly enjoyed every second I spent with him now, especially when his daughter was around. He was kind and compassionate, despite my first impression of his being stodgy and a bit cocky. In fact, he wasn't at all cocky or braggadocious. He was humble and confident.

"Think about your studies, Sophia." My name on his lips was heaven. He hadn't said it in ten days, and I was aching to hear it. It soothed a deep need in my mind. "You'll be distracted. The board and HR will hound us. We'd have to sneak around. It would cause problems at work. We just can’t.”

"Jack, I've never felt a connection like this with anyone in my life. You’re easy to talk to. You know what I’m going to say before I say it. We have all the same interests and hobbies, yet we're both independent enough to not demand each other's attention. It makes sense. I know you feel it too." My body felt on edge all of a sudden, hoping he didn't react negatively. Rejection would suck so badly.

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