Chapter 2
PIPER
“Dr. Jackson, welcome.”
The nurses at the emergency room station embraced me as I walked through the doors.
“Thank you for your warm welcome,” I said. “It’s good to be back.”
“Have you lived in the area before?”
“A long time ago,” I said. “I wasn’t sure about coming back when I was offered the job, but I figured coming home might do me a bit of good after a grueling residency in New York City.”
“Well, hopefully the small-town life is exactly how you remembered it being.”
Yeah, that was what I was afraid of.
Medical school had been treacherous. I came home frequently to try and get away from all of the hustling and bustling.
And it was nice, coming home. But I figured I would stay in the city after I graduated with my doctorate.
I figured the hospital I worked at would provide me with a position after the connections I’d made.
But when they chose two other doctors over me, I had to scramble like crazy for a job.
Redding wasn’t my first choice. Or even my tenth.
But they offered me a position in their E.R.
and that was where I wanted to be. Right in the heart of all that fucking action.
I was an adrenaline junkie at heart. Bungee jumping.
Skydiving. Deep-sea scuba diving. You name it, I’ve done it.
Underneath my clothes and my white coat are tattoos that covered the most beautiful places of my body.
I’d gotten one after every year completed for medical school.
Eleven years in all, and ten beautifully-colored tattoos in all the right places to make men shiver where they stood.
In my work clothes, I was Piper Jackson. E.R. extraordinaire with creative ways to save people’s lives.
Outside of my work clothes, I was an adrenaline junkie. A woman who wore her jeans a little too tight, her tops a little too short, and bold red lipstick that made any man sink to his knees for a piece of me.
I was also a mother to a beautiful five-year old boy about to start kindergarten.
Five years ago, I made a trip home. I was debating on whether or not being a doctor was the right path for me to take.
I was in my second year of medical school.
I was angry. Alone. Scared. I’d just buried my father and found myself in an empty home that had been willed to me.
The only thing my parents ever had to pass down to me.
They both grew up in Redding and met one another through the grocery store they both worked at.
They married, lived their lives, and worked themselves to the bone until they died.
They passed away with just enough money to pay off their debts and leave absolutely no mark on the world.
Except for in their daughter and grandson.
Burying my father was the hardest thing I’d ever done, and I sought comfort in the arms of a man in a bar that night.
A man with a thick tongue, the language of a sailor, and hands that wouldn’t quit.
I spent my entire summer vacation with him, riding his cock and making him beg my name in ways I knew I’d never forget.
Then that asshole got thrown into jail.
I was worried about moving back to Redding, but the timing seemed right.
Gavin was about to start kindergarten and I had my childhood home that was paid off and occupied by no one.
I moved us in there two weeks ago and got my son enrolled into the elementary school I attended as a child, and that was that.
I was back home.
Part of me was nervous about running into my son’s father.
But he was a troublemaker. I had a penchant for them.
They were good for one-night stands and high-speed flings, especially for an adrenaline junkie like myself.
But for being a father? A role model? Someone who could provide and stick the fuck around?
Hardly.
That man was probably still in jail anyway.
“Incoming! Car accident in the middle of town. Two adults, three children, and one pedestrian. Triage, everyone!”
I ran down the hallway and started coordinating as many supplies as I could.
Redding’s hospital was tiny, at best. It was only myself and another E.R.
doctor that worked the emergency level. When one of us was working, the other was on call.
But with that schedule came a very decent paycheck.
That was one of the reasons why I decided to stick out my medical degree.
After I found out I was pregnant with my son, I knew I would be the sole provider for his life.
And being a doctor made it very easy to do that for Gavin.
The doors burst open and a flood of gurneys came rushing in.
The children were crying and one of the paramedics was on top of the woman, pumping at her chest. I took one of the gurneys and led it into the first room, then started rolling everyone else into the first empty rooms I could find.
Curtains were thrown back and I.V.’s were administered.
Blood seemed to drip everywhere as the paramedics tried to save the woman who had come rolling in with a massive gash to her stomach.
It was chaos from the second I stepped foot into that place.
Children were stitched up and the mother needed blood. The father was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the glass shrapnel from his face. He would need reconstructive surgery and the mother would need a stay in the ICU. But no one was dying today.
Not on my watch.
After four hours of what seemed like endless anger and sorrow, everyone in the accident stabilized.
Including the pedestrian that had been hit.
I sat down in a chair in the corner and drew in a deep breath, relishing in the adrenaline that coursed through my veins.
I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, my mind swirling back to Gavin.
Back to my boy.
It was emergencies like those that made me view our time as precious.
Important. Fleeting. I conjured his face and wondered how his first day of kindergarten was going.
Was he having a good time? Was he making friends?
Were his teachers being kind? My heart ached and soared at the same time.
I could see those lively gray eyes and that thick head of black hair.
Every single day that passed, he looked more and more like his father.
His jaw became more set and his eyes became sterner.
And he was growing like a weed. Monstrous, like the stature of his father.
At five years old, he topped out at over four feet tall.
He soared over other children his age, and every time I looked at him it served to remind me of that night.
That night I spent with his father.
The night I spent with Rock.
“Dr. Jackson?”
“Yep?” I asked.
“The bus is here. Your son wants to see you before he goes to daycare.”
“Then send my boy on in,” I said with a smile.
That was the only other thing that sold me on this hospital in Redding. They had an onsite daycare Gavin could be bussed to after school. Which meant if my shifts ran long or became staggered in any way, he would still be taken care of.
After all, I was alone in this world. No parents to help and no father of my child to watch over him.
And even though I had memories I wanted to run from in my hometown, it seemed as if it had all the amenities to make my journey home worthwhile.
So long as I didn’t run into Gavin’s father.