Page 38 of Dr. Alaska
“Any of our jobs in healthcare are important. And not just healthcare. To undermine what a person does, who they are…” She huffed. “Work’s not everything. I get it. We all have lives outside of medicine that are meaningful. But wanting someone to participate in their life outside of work is different than degrading the work they’re doing.”
“What the—” Mav stopped himself. “Never mind. Not going to say what I’m thinking.”
“Hey, I picked him. There’s not much you can say that I haven’t thought.” She held up a hand when he opened his mouth. “How we ended up married is a long story that involved my residency training, plus exhaustion and long hours sprinkled with naivete and combined with his excellent acting ability.”
“Huh.”
“He liked to play the part of a rising local politician. Enjoyed the finer things in life, without looking at the price tags.”
“Guessing you supplied those finer things in life?”
“My paycheck sure did, and I was way too busy and way too trusting to realize what he was doing until he had dug us into a hell of a hole. Debt that we couldn’t show anyone because it might tarnish his squeaky clean, successful image.”
“He sounds swell.”
“What you want to say is that I sure picked a winner, huh?” Her dry laugh chilled the air a few more degrees. “Short answer? After we were married, he was not the same guy. Took me a minute to figure it out.” She shrugged. “Anyway, that’s my baggage. Not that it’s a contest at all,” Lee said, kicking her boot toe into the hip-deep snow on the side of the trail.
“Not a lot of respect for you or what you did.”
She gave another curt nod. “Case in point. Healthcare worker schedule logistics. You and I know that changing schedules are part of the territory and we work around it, and we understand if there are last-minute situations, right? Not my ex. Medical emergencies that cut into his plans or if I was committed to take call on a day he wanted to add a social function, he’d flip out.”
Mav rolled a thick gloved hand into a fist. “Not physically.”
“No. More like emotional manipulation and meanness.” One corner of her mouth dropped. “Well, then there was the cheating. And I mentioned draining my savings account.”
“You’re kidding.”
She shook her head, head ducked but cheeks pink, like she was both embarrassed and pissed. “After the divorce papers were served, he was so mad that he filed a HIPAA whistleblower suit on me, alleging that I had discovered his affair by accessing a patient’s chart and reading the chart notes.”
His jaw dropped. “What?”
“Apparently, his girlfriend was at some point a patient in my hospital. I had no idea.”
“I assume everything got cleared up.”
“Totally. With electronic medical records nowadays, every log-in and every click is tracked. I never was in that chart.” She rubbed her nose with the back of her mitten.
“This is unreal. I can’t believe someone would go to those lengths to hurt you.”
At her sad smile, he stepped forward then stopped himself as she drawled, “If I’m lyin’, I’m dyin’.”
“What does that mean?”
“Means yes, he did those things. And yes, they happened without me knowing at first. Yes, I was a little clueless and too busy to see what was going on.” With a jut of her jaw, she added, “But he can’t do those things to me anymore.”
Mav took a few seconds to pull his thoughts together. Her ex was as useless as moose droppings. It took a real tool to go that deep into the well of asshole-ness.
Of course she felt gun-shy. Exposed. Probably financially vulnerable.
Mav rocked back on his heels as an intense need hit him. He wanted to be the man who proved to Lee that not all men were like that guy. He wanted to be the exact opposite. He wanted to provide for her, even if that only went as far as supporting the work she did.
Also, he wanted five minutes of polite, civil, one-on-one… conversation… with the ex.
Her voice cut through his dark thoughts. “Uh, sorry. I don’t normally go into my history. I don’t normally vent. It’s not fair for you, and it puts a damper on the nice day.”
“It’s your story to tell. You decide what to tell me. Besides, the day is nice with you in it.” He unclenched his rolled fist. “It means a lot that you shared that with me.” He rested his gloved hand on her shoulder, needing to anchor his churning thoughts and ground his anger. Needing to support her.
“Um, you, too, for sharing about your past.” She gave an icy laugh. “Guess we both have issues we’re dealing with.” Lee rested her cheek against his hand. He couldn’t feel her skin, but the gesture cracked open something inside of his chest.
