Page 59 of Once Upon A Second Chance
They don’t know that man.
I do.
But what scares me isn’t just their whispers.
It’s what happens if Travis hears them.
I rinse my mug, fingers twitching with nervous energy. “Has anyone… seen him?”
Lena doesn’t ask who I mean.
“Not since the night he showed up at your place. But if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll keep it that way.”
I nod, jaw tight.
But still—when I walk to Exam Room 3, I keep my phone in my pocket. My eyes scan every shadow in the hallway. I flinch when Simmons opens the supply closet too fast.
And when I pass the front window and spot a rust-colored pickup slowly driving past the lot, my heart stumbles.
Not his.
Not this time.
But it could be.
Bymidmorning, the clinic is humming like it always is—phones ringing, doors creaking, the occasional cough echoing from an exam room.
But under it all, I can still feel the edge in the air. Like the storm hasn’t passed so much as paused.
Richard’s voice floats down the hallway, low and steady as he walks a patient through the discharge instructions. I don’t need to see him to know he’s got that reassuring expression on his face—the one that makes even the most anxious patients believe they’re going to be okay.
He’s good at that.
Always has been.
But I also hear something else. The fatigue underneath. The forced calm. Like he’s holding himself in place with dental floss and stubbornness.
When he finally rounds the corner, clipboard in hand, I’m already leaning against the nurse’s station like I’m not totally checking on him.
He glances at me, eyes tired but still warm. “Hey.”
I nod toward the break room. “You should take five. Or twenty. You look like your coffee has given up on you.”
He leans on the counter beside me. “I think my bloodstream is 80% caffeine and 20% clinic soap at this point.”
I bump his arm lightly. “Mmm. Sexy.”
He grins, but it flickers too fast. Doesn’t linger the way it used to.
“You okay?” I ask quietly.
“Fine.”
I give him a look.
“Okay,” he amends, “I’m tired. Simmons keeps giving me that ‘I’m not judging you but I definitely am’ look. Darlene passive-aggressively offered to ‘double check’ my charting three times today. And Patel just left me a granola bar with a sticky note that saidI trust you,so either she’s on my side or she thinks I need protein before I snap and commit homicide.”
I snort. “Honestly? Could go eitherway.”
