Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
Houston was whistling as he strode down the hall the next day towards his office. Josie had put his splint back on, and he was still in career limbo, but he didn’t care. Not much, anyway.
Not when he had Josie to be with on the backside of every day. Not when he was so content he was feeling like a pop love song. If he wasn’t careful he might actually start humming.
Even though Josie had spent the night, those three little words hadn’t managed to force their way past his lips. He’d meant to tell her, but he’d never quite gotten around to it. But it would happen, when the time was right.
Josie wasn’t going anywhere. They were together.
He was breaking every rule he had, starting a relationship with a coworker, but what the hell.
He was tired of being alone, and he’d found that his life could alter at any given moment.
It was better just to enjoy what he had while he could and worry about the future later.
As he went past Tim Sheinberg’s office, he glanced in and saw Tim flagging him down. “Hey, Houston, do you have a minute?”
He was on his way to several patient appointments, but he was early. His eyes had snapped open at dawn, and after a while he’d gotten up and come to the hospital, leaving Josie sleeping in his bed.
“Sure, Tim. What’s up?” He propped himself on the door frame.
“How’s Dr. Adkins doing in the OR?”
Dr. Sheinberg was sitting back in his chair, casual, but the question wasn’t innocent. Houston sensed that.
He also knew he hesitated a fraction of a second too long. “Fine.”
That was probably a slight exaggeration. Josie had the skills—she did—but she moved too slow, her decisions weighed and mulled over too long. He knew why now, but he was in an awkward position.
Protect Josie, hoping she came around eventually, or tell the truth and possibly protect the patient.
“Come in here and close the door.” Tim sat up straighter.
Shit.
Houston followed the directive and sank into a chair across from Tim, forcing himself to stay relaxed. “Is something wrong, Tim?”
Clearly there was. Tim’s fingers drummed on his desk and he fussed with his tie. “Look, Houston, we’ve known each other a long time, and you’re a damn good surgeon. By the book. And we’re friends, right? We’ve hit the bars together a few times, hung out.”
Houston’s concern deepened. He did like Tim, and he respected him professionally, but he had no idea what this was about. “Sure, we’re friends. And I came to Acadia Inlet based on your recommendation.”
Tim nodded, studying him carefully. “Tell me straight, Houston. Are you screwing around with one of my residents?”
His face went hot. Words of denial were on his lips. And indignation that anyone could refer to what he shared with Josie as screwing around. He clamped his mouth shut and said nothing.
Tim sighed. “Look, normally what you do with your dick is none of my business, but we’ve got a problem here.
We’ve got a second-year resident who already has a strike or two against her on her record.
She’s a great doctor, with an incredible rapport with the patients.
They trust her, and she delivers the kind of personal care I haven’t seen in a long time.
But you and I both know her surgical skills are average at best.”
Houston wasn’t sure he knew that, or maybe he did and didn’t want to admit it. Or hear it out loud.
Either way he didn’t like that all his thoughts, all his concerns about getting involved with Josie, were suddenly rearing up, just when he’d convinced himself they wouldn’t.
“She just needs experience.”
Pinning him with a hard stare, Tim snorted.
“What she needs is to prove she’s capable.
And she needs to not be having an affair with you.
Look, if this blows up, you’ll get singed a little, but it’s Josie who will burn.
You know how that shit goes down. Even if she’s just a bit of fun for you, do you want that on your conscience? ”
Houston raked his hand through his hair and tapped his foot, frustrated and furious with himself. “She’s not just a bit of fun. She’s more than that, and I don’t want her to suffer for this, Tim.”
Then Tim smiled, an approving grin on his tan, rugged face.
“Glad to hear it.” He swiveled his chair and faced his computer screen.
“So, we’ll just fix it, all right? If you’re not working together, there’s nothing inappropriate about you seeing each other.
So as of today, we’re transferring Dr. Adkins to St. John’s up the road. ”
“What the hell is this?” Josie read the words in front of her again, as if somehow they were going to mysteriously change into something more palatable.
Sara stopped chewing her sandwich long enough to ask, “What?”
Josie bit the cherry tomato from her salad, wishing it were Dr. Houston Hayes’s head. God, she had trusted him. She had told him that she loved him. She had let him have sex with her on a surfboard. She had told him her fears, and he had turned her in. The sharks were biting, and not in the water.
Damn it, she felt tears forming right in the hospital cafeteria. “I’ve been transferred to St. John’s.”
“Transferred? Why? Can they do that without asking you?”
Josie’s hand shook as it held the paper with the damning words on it. “I didn’t think so. But listen to this. Just listen.”
There was a pit in her stomach and it took everything in her to not cry out of anger and frustration. This was Houston’s doing.
“Dr. Sheinberg wrote this, of course, and that’s all fine.” It was Houston who had gone behind her back. After he made her feel that he could actually care about her.
And now this.
She whispered so no one else in the cafeteria could hear.
“Dr. Adkins is a highly qualified physician who shows advanced knowledge of general medicine as well as orthopedics. Her communication skills are superb in regard to both colleagues and patients, and she works well with other members of the surgical team.”
Josie took a deep breath.
Sara blotted her lips with her napkin. “What does that have to do with a transfer? All that sounds great.”
“I haven’t gotten to the bad part yet.”
Her voice began to tremble as she continued to read. “However, staff surgeon, Dr. Hayes, finds that Dr. Adkins displays a lack of confidence in her abilities in the area of reconstructive orthopedics and recommends Dr. Adkins for the pediatric orthopedic residency at St. John’s Hospital.”
Sara’s mouth fell open.
Josie’s sentiments exactly. How could he do this to her? Forcing her out of Acadia without even discussing it with her? It was comparable to smearing “don’t trust this woman with a scalpel” all over her permanent record.
“The transfer will be effective October first, according to this little gem Dr. Sheinberg presented me with.”
“Houston recommended a transfer?” Sara asked. “He didn’t. He couldn’t.”
“He did. He could.” Josie threw her head down on the table and fought the urge to crumple the paper up into a tiny ball and fling it across the room. Then sob. “He didn’t even tell me.”
Houston had effectively pulled the rug out from under the rest of her career.
“Josie, I don’t know what to say. Maybe he thought he was doing you a favor.”
She snorted, not bothering to look up. “Yeah, right. I don’t call sabotaging my career doing me a favor.”
Her words were muffled through her folded arms. “This is my punishment for getting personal with another staff member.”
His punishment to her. His way to push her away after getting so close the night before.
Control. He always had to be in control, and she threatened that.
It was a toss-up which was the biggest mistake—hooking up with him, or falling in love with him.
They were both colossal regrets.
“Your elbow’s in your salad.”
Josie jerked up and saw a big glob of ranch dressing on her sleeve. Fabulous. Swiping at it with her napkin, she decided what she had to do. “I’m going to go talk to him.”
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Sara pushed up her glasses and frowned. “I don’t think talking to Dr. Hayes is really the best thing to do right now.”
“You’re right.” Josie gripped the paper and narrowed her eyes. Talking was too good for him. “I’ll strangle him.”
Sara shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. I meant that you’re not exactly in the right frame of mind to have a rational discussion with him about this.”
“Rational?” Josie lost it. “You call this rational?” She waved the report around in front of her face. “Houston Hayes doesn’t know the meaning of the word rational. I was born rational.”
“You sure don’t sound it right now.”
Josie took a deep breath. Maybe Sara had a point. But this was about much more than her career. This was about her heart. And the fact that Houston persisted in ripping it into little pieces and stomping on it with his tanned feet.
“Okay, I’m better now. I only want to castrate him, not kill him.”
“Don’t do that,” Sara warned. “You might regret it later.”
Hurt chased through every inch of her, choking off her breath, pounding in her head, and sending a vicious searing pain into her stomach. “I’m never having sex with him again, so it doesn’t matter. Certainly not on a surfboard.”
Sara’s mouth dropped. “You had sex on a surfboard? Holy moly, did that work? I’ve got to find me a surfer.”
It had worked, and then some. “Why? So they can coax you out of your clothes, feed you lies, then ruin your life with cold calculation?” Damn it, tears were in her eyes and her voice warbled like a drunken parrot.
Josie squeezed her eyes shut briefly and fought for control. “I’m going to see him, and I will be calm and rational.”
Even if it killed her.
Picking up her half-eaten salad, she tossed it in the garbage.
“Good luck,” Sara said. “And no throwing things or leaping over the desk and throttling him.”