Page 22 of Finally Yours
“Dr. Powers is due at the hospital this afternoon for a consult. Might want to prepare yourself for her arrival.” She arches an eyebrow.
Shit. Fuck my life.
I muster up a half smile. “Thanks for the heads up, Nurse Vicky. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Nurse Vicky finally turns and walks away, leaving my shell-shocked figure behind. I sit down in a nearby chair with a thunk.What kind of shit show would Madeline Powers leave in her wake?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jealousy is an ugly, ugly emotion. So, why does it rear its head exactly when you need it to the least? -Lyla
Lyla
“I heard Dr. Madeline Powers is in from Atlanta to do a consult on that patient in 304. You know the guy with the glioblastoma? Wonder if she’ll pick up right where she left off with Dr. Cannon?” The nurse in front of me giggles while talking to her companion, not knowing that her words have shocked me into inaction. I stop to stand stock still in the lunch line.
The guy with the tray behind me bumps into my back and mutters sorry before I finally get my butt in gear.Dr. Madeline Powers?Brunette, tall, thin beautiful brain surgeon that Asher dated for six months Madeline Powers? Their affair three years ago was before my time here, but I’ve heard plenty about it. I even met the woman at the Gala benefitting the hospital a few years ago when I went with my father. She was intimidating to say the least.
What’s more intimidating is that she’s the only woman that I’ve known Asher to be in a relationship with. It was serious enough that I think they were exclusive until she got a more prestigious job in Atlanta. Their relationship scared me to death because I thought Asher may have finally met his match. I was so damn relieved when she moved away.
My gut clenches as I follow the behind the gossipy nurse named Kaitlyn.
“I heard they almost got married, that Dr. Cannon was just so in love with her and was devastated when she left,” she whispers to another nurse who works on the floor below me.
Marriage? I never heard that before.I thought they were just dating, albeit exclusively. And he loved her? My eyes fill with tears. Maybe it’s just me he can’t say the words too? What if this whole time I’ve been fooling myself? What if this woman is the reason he’s been holding himself back? He’s not scared, but still in love with someone else.
I take a deep breath and focus on my ham sandwich. Nope, not going to go there. Not until I’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth. I don’t know anything about this woman. Maybe she’s the one who’s heart got broken. Maybe he broke up with her? Maybe we’ll even be on friendly terms when we meet. And we will meet, considering 304 is my patient. Sergeant Davis is a sweet man in his forties with a family and a dire prognosis. If Dr. Powers can help him, then I’m all for it. I try to mentally prepare myself for working with my lover’s ex-girlfriend. Maybe she won’t be half bad.
She’s worse than I could have ever imagined. Dr. Powers makes Nurse Vicky look like Glenda the Good Witch. The woman immediately sucks all the air out of the room and makes everyone feel like an idiot in her presence. And, what’s worse, is that she has no bedside manner at all. By the time we leave the room, she makes sure that everyone in the room is crying, including his wife and two young daughters.
Nurse Vicky walks off, shaking her head in disgust. Even she, it seems, takes issue with the way Dr. Powers handled the family in there.
I turn to her, incensed and unable to keep my mouth shut, “Did you really have to dash all their hopes like that?”
Her brown eyes study me shrewdly, “You would have had me give them false hope?”
I shake my head. “No, but there has to be a way that’s gentler than what you just did in there.”
Dr. Powers had used some very technical terms to justify not operating on Sergeant Davis. In the end, she told his family there was zero chance of any meaningful recovery if he did have the surgery and that he would die slowly without it. Basically, she had given them no good choices in a very harsh manner.
“I understand the need to present the family with realistic news, but did you have to do it in such a rude manner? And you brushed off each and every one of their questions. You never expressed any sympathy with their situation at all.” The look in his youngest daughter’s eyes will haunt me for a long time to come.
She arches an eyebrow. “You would rather I sit down and hold hands with them? Act like some chipper Pollyanna? I’m a doctor who gives real life-saving advice, not a nurse that’s not even out of school?” She looks down her nose at me and I feel the anger get stuck in my throat.
My face reddens and I ball my hands into fists by my sides. I want to tell her where she can stuff her shitty attitude, but instead I step back. I need to get away from her before I say something I regret.
“I’m just saying maybe things could have been said to them in a softer manner,” I say in a quieter voice. “Perhaps I’m wrong though.” It takes everything within me to say that last sentence, but the truth is she ranks so far above me on the totem pole we’re not even in the same realm.
She cocks her head to the side, giving me a glare that would have made me wilt a few years ago. I square my shoulders.I’m made of a little sterner stuff these days. “I’m glad you can finally see sense.” She pauses. “You know, I think I recognize you. Aren’t you the daughter of Dr. Kennedy? The little poppet I met a few years ago that followed my Asher around like a lost puppy?” she inquires. Her mouth curves up in a mocking smile. “I remember, he could barely take two steps without you nipping at his heels. You had such a crush on him. Too bad, he barely noticed you.”
I know my cheeks are on fire as I slowly nod. “I am Dr. Kennedy’s daughter. He passed away a couple of years ago. But you’re mistaken about Dr. Cannon. We’ve always been friends. He was a friend of my father’s and he’s a friend of mine. No crush here.” I give her a slight smile and bite my tongue against all the things I want to say.
She chuckles. “You’re friends because that’s all he’ll let you be. It’s okay.” She reaches one manicured hand out to touch my arm and I try not to recoil. “I’m back now. I’m not only here to do a consult, but to finally make sure Dr. Cannon comes back with me. We ended things prematurely, so I know he’ll be happy to see me. There are so many opportunities for him in Atlanta. I’m sure he’ll be happy to know I’ve changed my mind about our relationship. He was positively devastated when I ended it.”
I take a deep breath. My heart threatens to beat out of my chest.Would Asher leave Savannah for this horrible woman?I take note again of her perfectly coifed brown hair and her high cheekbones. She’s tall and thin, and literally everything I am not. Maybe she is what he really wants.
I shrug. “I guess that’s up to him.” I hold my head high as I walk away, determined not to let her see how her words have bothered me. If this is the kind of woman Asher wants, then we really don’t belong together.
Chapter Twenty-Three
