Page 14 of The Holidays with Dr. Mitchell
“You guys can be such dicks,” he said with a laugh. “So much so, I forgot why I even walked in here to talk to Jake.”
“Finding out you’re a sack of shit in bed from your two favorite doctors makes the head spin,” Collin looked at the folders that Jace held in his hand. “Edna Marshall and Harold McKinley seem to be the reason you’re here to visit the Chief,” he said, opening the door and reminding Jace of the charts on ourtwo newest patients. I’d wanted to schedule them for surgery, but I needed to discuss a few things about them with Stone first.
Just as Collin opened the door, Cassidy Blake, one of our front desk administrators who had a serious crush on Stone, was standing there, red in the face, and about to knock on the door.
“Hey, Cass,” Collin said. “If you’re looking for Dr. Stone, he’s in a meeting with Dr. Mitchell.”
It was apparent to everyone that Cassidy wanted this man to step out of her dreams and into her car, but sadly, Jace had a lot of learning to do before the man could or would ever settle down, and none of us saw that happening anytime soon. Why else would Collin and I be giving the man so much shit?
“There’s a woman at reception asking for you, and she’s bothering the staff,” she said, looking at Dr. Stone. “Her name is Michelle Parker, and she called a bunch of times demanding to be patched through to you. Levar transferred her to your line, but you weren’t in, so she kept calling back, asking him to walk the halls to find you. After Levar told her no for thesixth time, she randomly showed up, asking if she could go looking for you herself.”
Collin and I looked at each other in shock and humor. Now it was our turn to get shit from Jace about the hell we just gave him. Naturally, Jace looked at us, arching his eyebrow smugly. Great. All we needed was this tall, dark, handsome man strutting around and shoving his peacock feathers in our faces.
“What do you want us to tell her?” Cassidy demanded, obviously hurt that her crush’s chick was here, harassing the staff with psychotic urgency.
“Let her know I’ll be out in a minute,” Jace said, dismissing Cassidy’s anger.
He turned to Collin and me, “I’m sorry. What were we just speaking about?”
“Oh, this is a topic for a different day,” I said, glancing at my watch. “But you have fun dealing with the one who’s planning to boil your bunny if you don’t get your sexy ass out there and give her more. As for me, my time is up. I have a recital to be at in thirty minutes, and traffic is already a bitch so let’s go over those charts first thing in the morning.”
With that, I grabbed my leather briefcase and followed Collin out to see an extremely stunning woman looking like a viper ready to strike, and we couldn’t resist grinning at the recollection of our foolish lives before we met our wives. I couldn’t count the number of times a full-blown stalker had shown up here and demanded to see me again, insisting she wouldn’t be a one-night stand.
“I’m glad those days are over,” Collin said as we exited the office buildings, taking the words out of my mouth.
“Makes you feel fortunate to be the happily married men you are, doesn’t it?”
“No shit. So, you’re not going to Darcy’s tonight?”
“The bar?” I asked.
“No, I’m talking about Pride and Prejudice; Fitzwilliam Darcy is expecting you at Pemberley post haste,” Collin said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “Yes, dipshit. I’m talking about the bar.”
“Okay, wise-ass,” I started, choosing to steer clear of the fact that Collin knew so much about Pride and Prejudice for fear that he’d start talking about it in depth, and I wasn’t in the mood to banter about romance novels…for once. “I know your head is up your ass half the time, but we also have a friend named Darcy, you know? And since everyone is on pins and needles, wondering if she and Sebastian will pull the trigger and get a place nearby, I didn’t know if that is who you were talking about.”
“Seb still has some more ass-kissing to do if you ask me,” Collin said.
“Well, didn’t we all?”
“Truth. We were all as pathetic as Playboy Stone back there, and if our ladies took us back with a simple sorry, andI can’t live if living is without youplea, we’d never appreciate the lives we have now.”
“Preach,” I answered. “Are Seb and Darcy living together?”
“Sort of,” Collin said. “From what Elena told me, he bought a place, and she’s still officially in Mexico, but I think she’s coming back. Who knows?”
“Well, we shall see if he can pull off a miracle. Going dark on Darcy for all those months doesn’t get a woman like that to trust so easily again, and I’m damn proud of her strength. I do wish she’d move back, though. Ash adores her.”
“We’re completely off track and starting to sound like our wives,” Collin said. “I felt a lot better about my life talking like bastard assholes with Stone. Anyway, about Darcy’s. Jim and everyone else are going to be there. I thought you were going?”
“Dude, it’sthe boy’srecital,” I said as we approached our cars. “I’ve missed more than my fair share of shit with my kids over the last year, and the fucking year is almost over. I’m going to have to pass on the testosterone tug fest at the bar, but go with God and enjoy yourself even though all you fuckers should be there supporting John instead of fueling your whiskey addictions.”
“Speaking of hitting the bottle, it appears that the ladies aren’t stopping at dressing our asses up for trick or treat night. Laney insisted I attend Alex’s birthday party with his kindergarten class. And with that came the task of bringing gluten-free, non-dairy cupcakes for all twenty-five kids in attendance and orchestrating games for the kids to play afterrecess. Not to mention being forced to speak with other parents and chum it up with the teacher—stuff the mothers do, not us.”
“Fucking hell,” I answered. “This is why I’d better be on time tonight. I’m not fucking Cameron Brandt, and I won’t manage to keep my sanity in a room filled with kids.”
“Or kids shoving jellybeans up their noses?”
“That’s different because it’s my kid. I chose to be a doctor and not a teacher for a reason.”
