Page 119 of Doctor's Bossy Match
“What do you mean?”
He exhales through his nose, sets his mug down, then folds his arms across his chest.“You leaving.I knew it was coming.But now that it’s here…”
“You’re gonna miss me?”I tease, nudging him with my shoulder.
“You know I am.”
I turn slightly, studying the tired lines under his eyes.“You never said anything.”
“Didn’t want to make it harder for you,” he says.“Figured you were already carrying enough.”
“I think it’s already hard.”
He nods, like he knows that too well.“You’ve grown into a damn good doctor,” he says, quieter now.“You did it with a lot working against you.”
My stomach tightens.I hesitate, not wanting to ruin this moment.But if I don’t say it now, I never will.“Including you.”
“Yeah.Including me,” he says lightly, his face softening.
I lean back against the counter next to him.“Why?Why’d you have to be so hard on me?”
He looks down at his hands, turning his mug slowly between his palms.“Because I knew what this job could take from you.What it took from me.I didn’t want you walking in here thinking you could just coast through because of your last name.”
“I never thought that.”
“I know,” he says.“But I needed to see you prove it.To them.And… maybe to me, too.”
I let that settle.The hurt and the strange form of love that’s always lived between us.
“And were you ever sure this was right for you?”I ask.“Directing?”
He considers the question for a long beat.“Some days, yes.Other days… I think I just didn’t know how to be anything else.”
I swallow.His words hit deeper than I expect.Because I see it now, the cost of becoming what he is.The way work consumed everything else.The way he’s finally reconnecting with me, realizing what he missed.“I want more than that.I want to be someone who has a whole life.Not just work and exhaustion and… loneliness.”
His eyes flick up to mine.“Then you already have something I never did.”
There’s silence again.But this time, it’s full of understanding, for why he pushed so hard, not just to test me, but to protect me from becoming him.And maybe he understands that I heard him, that his mistakes taught me something valuable.
“Thank you,” I whisper.“For everything.Even when it didn’t feel like support.”
“You’ll be okay in New York.”
“I know.”
“And if you’re not, you call me.Not as your boss,” he adds, the edge of a smile twitching on his lips.“As your dad.”
My throat tightens.“Okay.”
He clears his throat and straightens.“It won’t be the same without you.”
“I’ll come back,” I say.“Visit.Maybe after I settle in, I’ll drive back down for a long weekend or something.”
“You better.”His voice is gruff, but there’s warmth under it now.“Hospital’s not the same without your intelligence and strong opinions.”
I laugh.“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should.”He hesitates.“And, uh… speaking of people not staying still… Nancy and I are catching up.”
