Chapter 30
30
GRANT
Tessa’s eyelids had been drooping for many minutes, but it still came as a shock when she fell asleep. “Tess?” I murmured, but the word was met only with her even breathing, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
On one hand, Tessa Davis had said she loved me. Hell, she’d practically said it twice, and I’d been able to say it back. It felt as if I’d spent the last four months sucking in one giant breath, and in three little words I could finally exhale again.
But as I stared at her, looking unusually small and frail in the hospital bed, I wondered if I’d said too much. Had I come off as overly needy? I didn’t know. I wasn’t the type of man who obsessed over every word that came out of my mouth. I said the wrong thing more often than the right—I knew that—but it had never mattered to me before. Now it mattered.
Janelle leaned in through the door. “Things good in here?” she asked.
I nodded. “She fell asleep again.”
“Good. She needs it. How ‘bout you?”
“What about me?” I replied.
“You look a mess, Dr. Dupree,” she said with a grin. “Do you have somewhere to stay? You should go and rest. You know she’ll be in and out for a while, but she’s stable”
“You’re right. She’s going to be in and out, so I’ll just stay here,” I said.
Janelle rolled her eyes. “Call if you need anything, Doctor.”
Behind Janelle, Greyson leaned in the door. Greyson Cole had been my closest friend throughout our residency because he had the kind of personality everyone wanted to be around—optimistic and open. He was an easy man to like.
“Hey. You alone?” he asked, peeking around the room furtively.
It was weird as fuck, but I was too tired to care much right now. Instead, my eyes darted to Tess, as they always did, but she was still sleeping.
“Get him to sleep,” Janelle muttered as she walked out.
“Janelle’s right, you look like shit,” Cole said, a Greyson-Cole-trademark smile spreading across his lips. I remembered it as the kind of smile that always made women smile back, but it had little effect on me. “I told you to go back to my place and rest,” he added.
“Colin told me to use an on-call room,” I said dispassionately, not intending to take either man up on their offer.
“That’s good,” Cole replied, the false cheer in his voice a clear indication the words were sarcastic. “You can wear yourself out double-checking her world-class doctor, Colin-fucking-Burns, then be too tired to actually help the girl when she goes home and there’s no one.”
“Her sister is a doctor,” I grumbled, mostly because it seemed less petulant than reminding Cole I was a doctor, and a damn good one.
“Emily,” he said, the smile falling off his face in an instant.
“You know her?” I asked, surprised.
He shook his head, but his eyes left mine, wandering to Tessa. “Not really, but I ran into her downstairs,” Cole replied.
There was more to that story, I was positive, but Cole clearly didn’t want to talk about it and I was too damn tired to press. I glanced at the door to make sure we were alone, then let my gaze drift back to Tessa. “You want to know something fucked up?”
Greyson perked up. “Always.”
“I’ve been sitting here for twenty hours, and her family doesn’t know we’re together. She wanted to keep it a secret.”
Cole snorted. “Well, cat’s outta the fucking bag, Dupree. I think they know now.”
I glanced at the door once more, even though I knew the Davis family had dispersed a few hours earlier. Nora, Ethan, and Hudson had headed back home, Emily had a shift at the hospital, and Claire and her parents had returned to their hotel room to rest. I was the only one who couldn’t bring myself to leave Tessa’s side.
“They don’t,” I replied flatly.
Greyson scoffed. “Why the fuck else would you sit vigil for a woman? You can’t tell me they’re this naive.”
A few hours ago I’d thought the same thing. Tessa and I would have to be done hiding, because no one would believe I was only a dedicated friend. “I overheard her parents,” I said, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit even as I spoke. My head dropped back, so I was looking at the ceiling. “Tess has a nonbinary friend, and they think the two of them are secretly dating.”
“Is she…” Cole paused, thinking. “Bi?”
“Not that I know of. I’m not even sure what her friend’s sexual preference is, and I doubt Tessa’s parents know either, but Tessa is straight. She’s mine.”
“She can be yours and be bi,” Greyson said with a shrug.
“I know that, Dr. Cole,” I said dryly, and I did, but I’d needed to say the words out loud to someone, to lay just the littlest claim over the woman I’d loved in secret for months. Even if it was only to Cole.
“So, wait. Why do her parents think you’re here?” He was looking at me when I pulled my tired head back up.
“I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping,” I said, though I’d gotten the impression I’d been meant to hear the words.
“But you were, so explain.”
“Tessa’s parents think she’s in the closet and afraid to tell them.”
“And that explains you sitting here, staring at this girl like your heart’s been ripped out of your chest, how, exactly?”
I sighed. “They think I’m a go-between.”
“I don’t know if you’re bad at stories because you’ve been sitting here for twenty hours or if I’m bad at listening because I’ve been on shift for nearly as long, but either way, you’re not making sense.”
“Her parents assume that, because she’s afraid to come out, I’m here to find out what’s going on and relay that information to Val, her friend whom they assume is more-than-a-friend. As if I’m here to help keep her biggest secret.”
“But in actuality you’re here accidentally outing her biggest secret?”
I laughed dryly. “Now you’re getting it.”
“You could just tell them.”
“Tess wouldn’t want that. She’s very private.”
“Apropos,” he muttered, swinging his gaze in my direction, a grin tilting his lips. “You’re a handsome, successful doctor. I thought women wanted to date handsome, successful doctors.” His tone was oddly bitter, but I didn’t push. I was too damn tired.
“It’s a long story. Suffice to say the sisters hate me.”
“Of course it’s her sisters,” he said dryly. The words made it sound like he knew her sisters, but that didn’t make sense, and I didn’t ask as Cole kept talking. “While we’re being honest, can I tell you something?”
“Of course,” I replied seriously, stealing a last glance at Tessa, who remained peacefully asleep, before looking at Greyson fully.
“When you left I thought you were crazy.”
A tiny laugh escaped my nose, but I remained otherwise quiet as he spoke.
“But this past year I’ve been questioning everything…” Cole frowned deeply, an expression that looked out of place on his features. “I want what you have.”
“You want this?” I asked sarcastically, waving to the room around us.
Cole clapped a hand on my knee. “I wasn’t trying to be insensitive, man. You know Burns. He’s amazing. Your girl’s gonna be fine.”
I nodded. “I know that,” I agreed, though I still found it hard to believe.
“I never thought I’d want to give up the rush of surgery, but I don’t have a life. I think I’m ready for something with a little less rush—predictable office hours, a wife, a family.”
My eyes drifted back to Tessa, because I could imagine all those things, too. “I get it,” I replied, though it was hard to tamp down the worry in my heart that I wasn’t meant to have all those things he was so jealous of.
Cole looked down at his watch, and I glanced at the clock in the wall. It was past ten. “I should be out of here, but I still have a fuck-ton of paperwork to do.” He ran his hand through his hair with a weary sigh as he stood, but a small smile tilted his lips once more. “She’s going to be good, and assuming she isn’t a lesbian, you two will be too.” His grin widened, and my lips crooked up in reply. “Give me a call before you head back home, okay?”