CHAPTER 35 Cassie Fields
That Continues to be Unethical
We’ve just finished homework on Monday after school, and I’m about to get dinner started when my phone starts to ring.
I glance at the screen to see it’s my ex-husband calling.
As much as I hate dropping the kids at school on a Friday and not getting to see them again until Monday after school, the major benefit—and the entire reason we set that up as our custody plan—is that I don’t have to see or speak to Alex.
At first it was because it was honestly harder on the kids to have to leave one of us and go to the other one. Getting picked up from school is a different feeling than being separated. But now I see the additional benefits.
“Hello,” I answer curtly. I assume he’s calling about something regarding the kids since they are really the only reason I need to ever communicate with him at all, but my assumption is wrong.
“Luca couldn’t stop talking about how you took them to some football player’s house,” he says.
I sigh. I was never really trying to keep it a secret, but I also wasn’t expecting to be confronted about it by Alex. “So? ”
“Why are you introducing the kids to a patient?”
“It wasn’t like that. It was my weekend with the kids, and I’m doing house calls for a VIP, and not that it’s any of your business, but the patient felt bad he was taking me away from the kids, so he invited them. That’s all.”
“I don’t want them around your patients.”
I bite my tongue at the thought that runs through my head. Well, I didn’t want you fucking some other woman when you were married to me.
“Okay,” I say instead. “I just brought them to my new friend’s house, then.”
“You’re making friends with your patients now? I know you’ve been out of the field a while now, but that continues to be unethical,” he says dryly.
Oh, if he only knew how unethical we were in his pool yesterday morning.
“Thank you for the opinion I didn’t request. Is there anything else?”
“Lily left her stuffed avocado here.”
“Shit,” I mutter. “Can you drop it by?”
“I’m at the hospital until seven, and then I have dinner plans,” he says. “But I could swing it by in between.” The way he says it sounds like he’s doing me a huge favor, and I roll my eyes.
“I would appreciate that,” I say, and I just get the feeling that I’m going to pay for this.
I really need to talk to Lily about being more careful not to leave anything over there.
The doorbell rings at seven fifteen, and Lily is already out of the tub and in her pajamas. I’m thankful Alex actually remembered, but one thing I know about him is that even though he was willing to destroy his family, he loves his kids .
“Lil?” I call since she’s in her bedroom playing. “Door’s for you!” I make my way to answer it, and there stands Alex.
He’s leaning on the door, perhaps in some attempt to come off as a bad boy, but he just looks like a cliché. “I miss you, Cassie,” he says quietly, as if he knows the kids are going to appear any second.
This time, I have zero qualms about whether or not to hold my tongue. I hear Lily’s footsteps coming down the hall, but she’s still far enough away that she’s out of earshot to my hissing voice. “Is that what you were thinking when you were with Sydney?”
He flinches at my words, but he can’t defend himself because his daughter appears at my side.
“Daddy!” she says as her eyes light up.
“You left Guac at my house,” he says, holding up the stuffed avocado.
She snatches it out of his hands. “Guacky!” she squeals, and she hugs it tightly to her chest. “Thank you, Daddy!” she says before she runs back down the hall presumably to add Guacky to her play rotation.
“Thanks for dropping it by,” I say.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.” He looks into the house a bit forlornly, as if he misses living here with the three of us. And I get that. We had a sweet little family dynamic, and he chose himself over it time and time again.
Was it nice having his extra hands around? Yes, sure. You know, when I wasn’t doing all the same things but also taking care of a grown man who was out late at work most nights. Or out late screwing other women. Po-ta-to, po-tah-to.
But that’s sort of the whole thing. He misses me…but I don’t miss him.
Especially not after this weekend. Especially not after having the smallest taste of what else is out there. I know now that I always deserved more than Alex ever gave me, and even if things don’t pan out with Tanner, at least I have that knowledge to hold onto.
The next morning, I head to the office to meet with Dr. Hayward and Dr. Barlow as they examine Tanner’s progress over the last week. I arrive as early as I can after getting the kids off to school so I can sit in on the team meeting again, and once again, I’m met with a bunch of cold shoulders.
I’m starting not to like it here very much, but does it really matter when I’m hardly ever here? I can deal with the dirty looks once a week.
Except…my patient’s surgery is in thirteen days. He’ll have a lot of recovery and months of rehabilitation afterward, but once he’s healthy again, he won’t need me making house calls anymore.
And then what?
I’ll be back here in this office getting dirty looks from Rick, Melissa, Jordan, and Brett. I’ll always be looked at as Hayward’s favorite physical therapist, the one he’ll give the VIP patients to. I’ll stand little to no chance of actually fitting in here—just when I was starting to.
And now I’m spending the weekends I do have free with Tanner, which means I’m isolating myself from my friends, too. I only see the girls at bus pickup, and I’m usually screeching my tires up to the curb to get there on time, which decidedly inhibits our former gossip time.
I’m still adjusting to my life post-divorce. It’s a lot to be literally everything to the kids for eleven days out of every fourteen, and just like Tanner said he’s struggling with his identity lately, I’m realizing that I’m having the same sort of crisis.
I’m a mom when I’m with my kids .
I’m a physical therapist when I’m with Tanner, but in the hours we’re not working…I’m becoming someone I’ve never known before.
And now I need to know…exactly who is Cassie Fields?
I left Cassie Sinclair behind in the divorce, and I only have myself to rely on now. But Tanner makes me feel like I don’t have to bear all the weight alone. Rather than stressing about all the changes or feeling guilt or shame in them, I feel like I have someone who is starting to know the sides of myself that even I don’t know.
And I love that feeling. I want to feel more of it. I want more of Tanner.
“Cassandra?” Dr. Hayward says, and I snap back to attention.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“Can you talk to us about the different quad exercises you’ve been working on with Tanner?”
“Right. Uh…sorry.” I clear my throat as I try to make myself present here in the meeting. It is, after all, the entire reason I’m here. “We have a whole program we run through every day that starts with hamstring curls, leg raises, and mini squats. We’ve added in additional training at this point to keep his core and upper body strong.”
“Rick, you also have an ACL patient, is that right?” Dr. Hayward asks.
Rick nods. “We’ve been doing a lot of the same, which begs the question how the newest member of the therapy team is the one most qualified to work with an NFL quarterback.”
Dr. Hayward turns to him with surprise. “I’ll thank you not to question my decisions, Rick. Not that I need to defend myself, but I was planning to handle this patient myself until he requested in-home care, which wouldn’t have worked with the additional patients in my care. Cassandra has a background in sports medicine and performed her clinicals in that industry, so she was the next natural choice. Given the fact that she was so new and was just starting to establish her patient care, choosing her was both the best for the patient and the least intrusive to the rest of the staff. Did you have any other questions?” He’s incredibly sarcastic as he asks that final question, and Rick remains silent for the rest of the meeting.
But one thing is clear.
He’s not happy I got the patient he wanted, and I don’t know him very well, but I wouldn’t put it past him to figure out a way to sneak in and blow everything up for me.