Page 2 of Beating Heart
“Pops, you’re being real grumpy today.” Cutler raised a brow, and Petra chuckled. I took in my boy, who was wearing a light blue tee that read: Call the vet because these puppies are sick. There was a cartoon photo of a muscled little dude flexing his biceps with a smirk on his face.
“Your dad’s just worried about you. I get it. Doc Dolby will be in shortly.” She clapped me on the shoulder before she stepped out of the room.
“You know I’m not big on surprises,” I said to Cutler as I cleared my throat.
“Doc probably has a friend in town he wants us to meet. And I love surprises.” He shrugged as he moved to the chair with wheels on the bottom and started sliding in each direction.
The door opened, and in walked Doc Dolby, a man I’d known my entire life. He was more gray now, and I teased him constantly about the fact that he appeared to be getting shorter every time I saw him. There was a woman right on his heels who I’d never seen before. She was probably in her late twenties, around my age. She was much younger than any doctor I’d ever met. All the doctors I knew were old. She was petite and lean, with brown hair pulled into a knot at the nape of her neck. She wore a white lab coat over what looked to be a skirt and blouse, and her gaze focused on my son.
“Nash, Cutler, good to see you both,” Doc said as he dropped the file he was carrying onto the counter, and my son rushed to hug him. They’d shared a bond for as long as I could remember. But Cutler had a way of attaching himself to the people in this town. The kid was all heart.
Cutler Heart.
“I feel fine, Doc. I don’t know why Pops brought me here. I should be at camp right now. But maybe it’s ‘cause you’ve got a new friend you want us to meet.”
Doc smiled and then patted the examination bed, motioning for Cutler to jump up and sit. “I asked him to bring you down here. And you’re right, I wanted to introduce you both to someone.”
“Your friend is real pretty,” Cutler said as he waggled his brows, and the woman chuckled but then quickly straightened her features when she looked up to see me watching her.
“Cutler, this is Dr. Chadwick. She’s just moved to town and hasn’t even settled into her new place yet, but she wanted to get started today and was looking forward to meeting you both.”
“Hi, Cutler. I’ve heard lots about you from Doc Dolby. It’s nice to meet you,” she said.
“I just gave her a quick breakdown about what happened this past weekend. We haven’t had time to catch up yet because we had a sick baby over at the hospital early this morning, so I apologize that I didn’t get in here first to speak to you.” Doc was looking at me now.
I narrowed my gaze. “I hope the baby’s all right.”
“Yes. Everything is fine now,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest, as if he were preparing for my wrath.
“So what is this? You’re taking on a partner?”
Dr. Chadwick raised a brow at my question, her plump lips forming a straight line. There was a little spackle of freckles over her nose, and it was the first time my gaze had locked with hers, finding her jade-green eyes watching me now.
“This is a conversation that I’d planned to have privately with you, but with Cutler going to the hospital this weekend, there just hasn’t been time to sit down and do that.” He cleared his throat. “I’m stepping back from the practice, and Emerson here—er, I’m sorry, Dr. Chadwick is going to be taking over things for me here. Magnolia Falls is really lucky to have her. She’s just completed her residency at one of the top children’s hospitals in the country.”
“Not sure how lucky I feel with you springing this on me when we need to get this sh—stuff figured out with Cutler.” I made no attempt to hide my irritation.
My boy could have died.
We didn’t have a plan, and now we were changing doctors.
Someone who didn’t know him, didn’t know us, was going to be deciding what to do moving forward.
“Nash, I’m not abandoning anyone. I’ll still be around for Dr. Chadwick to lean on any time she needs me. I hadn’t found a match to take over my practice, so I was holding out, which is why I hadn’t said anything. And then her application came through, and I jumped on it. She has trained under some of the best doctors in the world during her residency. She’s far more equipped and educated on new cutting-edge medications and procedures than I am. This isn’t something that you need to be worried about. Cutler will be in great hands, and she knows how important he is to me, so she’s agreed to keep me abreast of everything.”
“Pops is being a big grumpleton today. Sorry about that,” Cutler said, smiling up at Dr. Chadwick before glancing at me with this look that told me to stop being a dick.
The kid was six years old.
He didn’t have a fucking clue what was happening.
He saw a pretty lady and wanted to focus on that.
I need a fucking doctor to make sure my boy is okay.
And how good could this woman be when she was just out of residency? Barely old enough to even be here.
“Cutler,” I said, my tone even, but I shot him a warning look that let him know it wasn’t the time or place to try to be funny.
