Chapter Nineteen
EVELYN
It seemed like everyone in New York had the same idea as me that day: a last-minute bank run before the holidays. The place was packed. I took a number and waited for nearly two hours before I was finally called.
Most importantly, I finally paid off my crippling credit card debt.
The manager even suggested some profitable investments for the considerable sum that remained.
But all I wanted was to get out of there.
I could decide what to do with the rest of the money another day, when the city was less frantic.
I took a taxi back to the Holloways’ house.
Standing at the door, I rummaged through my purse for the key.
I hadn’t cleaned it out in ages, and it was a disaster of conference business cards (why does everyone at those things hand them out?), flyers from the street, and general clutter. Finding a single key felt impossible.
I was about to give up and ring the bell when the door swung open.
Aurora stood there, a huge smile on her face and a Santa hat perched on her head.
I closed my bag and asked, using my voice and my hands, “How did you know I was here?”
She pointed to the small monitor inside that showed the security camera feed.
“Were you watching for me?” I asked. She nodded. “Why?”
Instead of answering, she grabbed my hand and pulled me inside, leading me straight to the living room where the Christmas tree stood. The strings of lights were laid out on the floor, and Logan was untangling the last knotty strand.
“Oh, good, you’re back,” he said, looking up. “Rory was getting impatient. Now we can get started. But first, eat something. I ordered Chinese. If you don’t like it, we can order something else.”
I glanced toward the dining table. Several boxes of Chinese food were open. Anna sat alone in one of the chairs, eating while drawing intently on a white pad with colored pencils. A few empty cartons suggested Logan and Aurora had already eaten.
“‘We’ can get started?” I asked, confused.
Aurora, however, had already begun. She carefully selected an ornament from a box and was searching for the perfect branch.
“Let’s decorate the tree,” Logan said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Let’s? Weren’t you going to the hospital?”
“It’s already the 22nd. I thought I’d start my holiday a little early. I’m not officially hired yet, and my research is well ahead of schedule… I don’t see the harm.”
“You’re starting your holiday? I thought you didn’t stop, even on holidays.”
“I rarely do. Sometimes I go to my mother’s for Christmas lunch with my brothers and then go back to work.”
“Do your patients seriously always schedule surgeries or have the misfortune of getting sick on Christmas Day?”
“To be honest, it’s usually my slowest day. Sometimes I assist the ER team. Last year, I was deep in my research and used the quiet day to make more progress.”
As he spoke, he finished with the lights. Then he picked up a few ornaments and began hanging them.
I did the same, selecting a little angel in a white dress.
As I tied it to a branch, I commented, “You take this workaholic thing very seriously. I loved teaching, but the last thing I wanted to see on Christmas was a text from a student asking if the partner project could be done in a group of three.”
He laughed, and I couldn’t help but notice how much lighter he seemed since the day before. The constant weight of stress he’d been carrying appeared to be lifting.
And I had to admit, he looked incredibly handsome when he smiled.
“Do high school students still ask those kinds of questions?” he asked. “I remember my classmates pulling the same stuff.”
“Teenagers are timeless,” I said with a shrug.
“My work is important to me. Not only on a ‘I love my job’ way. But it’s… difficult to explain.”
“You can try, if you want. It’s going to take us a while to finish this.” I gestured to Aurora, who was now sitting on the floor, meticulously arranging each ornament as if curating a museum exhibit. “And Anna seems very focused on her food and her drawings… and maintaining her signature scowl.”
He lowered his voice so the girl in question wouldn’t hear. “Yeah… I only got her to come out when the food arrived.”
I thought about asking what had happened, but decided to save it for when she wasn’t around.
“So,” I pressed, “explain this ‘unusual’ love for work.”
He paused, seemingly weighing where to begin—or whether he should tell me at all. After all, we weren’t exactly friends. Just two days ago, I would’ve said I hated him, and the feeling was undoubtedly mutual.
Finally, he began, “My father’s family has a long tradition in architecture. They own the largest firm in the country, built by my grandfather and passed down to my father. And you may have met my mother, too…”
“Who doesn’t know Trinity Turner? Even though it’s a bit of a classic now, Fated by Surprise is one of my favorite films.”
“Yes, Trinity Turner,” he confirmed. “Being the son of a Hollywood star meant I grew up in the spotlight. The whole country seemed to expect my brothers and me to go into either the arts or architecture. I was asked about it from childhood, as if I only had two paths. When I chose a third, everyone treated it like a rich kid’s whim.
In college, neither my classmates nor my professors took me seriously.
People would ask if my family was going to build a hospital just for me to ‘play doctor.’”
“So the stupid questions don’t stop after high school, apparently.”
“The point is, I love medicine. I genuinely love saving lives. But I’ve come to want more than that. I don’t just want to be a good doctor, or even a great one. I want to make a name for myself. I want to be the best.”
“I see…” I didn’t fully understand that drive, but I wanted to be supportive, so he’d keep talking. “What’s the focus of your research?”
“Alzheimer’s. A method to completely reverse the disease’s progression when detected in the early stages.”
“That’s fascinating… Derek did some research like that.”
“Who?”
“Doctor Derek Shepherd.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know him. Which hospital does he work at?”
“Oh, he’s actually… a character from Grey’s Anatomy.”
He let out a disbelieving snort. “A TV show? Seriously?”
“The greatest medical drama in television history. I can’t believe you’ve never seen it.”
“I don’t have time for that kind of nonsense.”
I considered that statement pure heresy. Grey’s Anatomy was my comfort show, one I’d watched since I was a teenager. But I let the insult slide for now.
“Right… so, you want to be the best doctor in the world to prove everyone wrong for dismissing you as an eccentric heir…”
“Saying it like that makes it sound… petty. Especially when the work itself could positively impact so many lives.”
“I agree. It is great and important.”
“Thank you. Finally, someone understands. My family acts like it’s some kind of character flaw.”
“Well… my best friend is married to your brother. So, I’ve heard a thing or two. From what I can tell, they’re all incredibly proud of you. Especially Michael.”
“Michael lectures me the most.”
“Maybe because he understands that, as important as your work is… it shouldn’t be everything.”
“I know, I know. The whole ‘family first’ speech. I love my family, Evelyn. But they need to understand I have obligations.”
“Let me tell you what I understand about family.” I paused, mentally scrolling through my life’s greatest hits. “Actually, I don’t understand much.”
“How so?”
“I have the most toxic mother you can imagine. And my father simply… doesn’t care.
He wasn’t the classic workaholic; he was always home.
Watching TV, reading the paper, sleeping, or arguing with my mother.
He’s just… indifferent. My mother, on the other hand, cares too much about all the wrong things.
Appearances and propriety matter more to her than actual happiness.
She looks down on her divorced neighbors, even though many are visibly happier than she is.
Her greatest shame is that I’m twenty-six, single, and childless. Well, more or less single…”
“How can you be ‘more or less’ single?”
“I never wanted a traditional marriage. But I lived with a boyfriend. My mother liked him, so she tolerated it. But after we broke up, her pressure for me to get back with him became a living hell.”
“I’m sorry, Evelyn.”
“It got a lot easier when I found my own family. Camila’s grandmother is my parents' neighbor. I practically grew up in her house. She’s the grandmother I never had, and Camila is the sister I’ve always wanted.”
“It’s great that you could choose your family.”
“But you never needed to, did you? I don’t know much about your father, but your mother is incredible. And your brothers are so close. And now you have two daughters, too.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at Aurora, who was completely absorbed in decorating the tree. Then his gaze shifted to Anna, still at the table, lost in her drawing and oblivious to the festivities. He sighed, turning back to me.
“I’m trying. But I feel like I can’t communicate with either of them. It seems to come so easily to you… you even know sign language.”
“I learned in college and used it with hearing-impaired students. You can learn, too. In fact, it’s important that you do.”
“And what should I learn to talk to Anna?”
“I think the first step with her—with both of them, actually—is learning that they need to come first in your life.”
He nodded. A heavy, comfortable silence fell between us, locked in an unexpected moment of understanding.
I felt a different kind of attraction to Logan Turner then.
It was more than the raw, physical pull I’d felt since the first time I saw him—a pull that was impossible to ignore in a man that beautiful.
Even at my angriest, a stubborn, secret part of me had yearned for him to kiss me, to pull me close.
I’d imagined the feel of his muscles under my hands and his firm grip on my body.
That primal attraction was still there, but now it was joined by something else.
If yesterday I’d thought I might be starting to like him, I now understood the truth: I already liked him.
Maybe more than just a little.
Our gaze was broken when he suddenly looked down. I followed his eyes to see Aurora tugging on his shirt, holding up a red ornament and pointing to a high branch she couldn’t reach.
Logan understood instantly. He scooped her up, lifting her high enough to place the ball exactly where she wanted.
I smiled, unable to help myself. “See? Maybe you’re already learning.”