Chapter 15 Let Me Care for You #2
It followed him through the rest of his shift.
When he finally returned home that evening, Riley was sitting at the dining table surrounded by papers.
He looked up.
“You’re home early.”
Adrian smiled.
“Am I?”
“Compared with your old schedule.”
“Fair.”
Riley pushed some papers aside.
“I got an email today.”
Adrian walked over.
“Good news?”
“Very.”
Riley’s face was bright.
“The location for the studio approved the initial proposal.”
Adrian smiled.
“That’s wonderful.”
“They want to move forward with the next stage.”
“That’s huge.”
“I know.”
Riley looked almost overwhelmed by his own happiness.
“I think this might actually happen.”
Adrian kissed his forehead.
“It will.”
Riley smiled.
“And you?”
Adrian hesitated.
Riley noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Adrian.”
He sighed.
“I received an offer today.”
Riley waited.
“From the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of offer?”
Adrian sat beside him.
“They want me to lead an international trauma program.”
Riley’s expression changed.
“Adrian.”
“It’s significant.”
“How significant?”
“Very.”
Riley smiled.
“That’s incredible.”
Adrian nodded.
“It is.”
“What would you do?”
“Lead the program.”
“Where?”
“Multiple locations.”
Riley waited.
Adrian continued.
“It would involve relocating.”
The smile on Riley’s face faded slightly.
“For how long?”
“At least during the first phase.”
“And after?”
“I don’t know.”
Riley nodded slowly.
Adrian reached for his hand.
“I’m not saying yes.”
“I know.”
“But I wanted you to know.”
Riley looked at him.
“Is this what you wanted?”
The question caught Adrian off guard.
Once, the answer would have been immediate.
Yes.
Without hesitation.
Now he wasn’t sure.
“I used to want something like this.”
Riley smiled faintly.
“Then maybe you should consider it.”
Adrian studied him.
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s an amazing opportunity.”
“It would mean leaving.”
“For a while.”
“Maybe longer.”
Riley looked down at his hands.
Adrian knew what he was thinking.
The pregnancy.
The studio.
Their home.
Everything they had started building.
But Riley didn’t ask Adrian to reject the opportunity.
That made the decision harder.
“I don’t want you to give up your career,” Riley said.
“I’m not asking you to decide for me.”
“I know.”
Riley looked at him.
“But I don’t want you to regret saying no.”
Adrian’s expression softened.
“I don’t want you to regret saying yes either.”
Riley smiled.
“Then we think about it.”
They agreed not to make any decisions that night.
Instead, they ate dinner.
Riley talked about the studio.
Adrian asked questions.
They discussed possible locations and schedules.
The conversation felt normal.
But Adrian couldn’t stop thinking about the contract.
Later, Riley went to bed.
Adrian stayed in the study.
The contract was open on his laptop.
He read the details carefully.
The first phase required extensive travel.
Then relocation.
There would be long stretches away from home.
The leadership role would involve conferences, training programs, administrative meetings, and international coordination.
The salary was substantial.
The professional recognition was enormous.
The opportunity could change his career permanently.
Adrian leaned back.
For years, he had measured success through exactly these things.
He had wanted to become one of the most respected trauma surgeons in his field.
He had wanted leadership.
Influence.
Recognition.
He had wanted to build something that would outlast individual surgeries.
Now that opportunity was sitting in front of him.
And all Adrian could think about was Riley.
He pictured him waking in the morning.
He pictured the pregnancy progressing.
He imagined appointments.
The first ultrasound.
The first visible change.
The first time they heard their baby’s heartbeat.
The first movement.
The first nursery preparations.
He imagined Riley opening his creative therapy studio.
He imagined standing beside him on opening day.
Then Adrian imagined being somewhere else.
Another country.
Another hospital.
Another conference room.
Watching those moments through a screen.
His chest tightened.
He closed his eyes.
He tried to tell himself they could make it work.
They were both adults.
They were capable.
They could travel.
Riley could join him sometimes.
Adrian could return home between assignments.
Technology could keep them connected.
They could plan everything.
For a moment, the argument seemed convincing.
Then he looked at the contract again.
The schedule was brutal.
Even with careful planning, there would be weeks when he couldn’t leave.
Weeks when emergencies and program demands would determine his movements.
Riley’s pregnancy was not a calendar Adrian could control.
Neither was parenthood.
Adrian placed his hands over his face.
He remembered what Riley had told him.
You aren’t the doctor responsible for controlling the outcome.
You are a man hoping to become a father.
The words returned now with unexpected force.
Adrian had spent years building a career around being indispensable.
This opportunity was the ultimate reward for that identity.
But the person he had become with Riley wanted something different.
He wanted to be present.
Not merely available through messages.
Present.
He wanted to hear Riley laugh during pregnancy.
He wanted to attend appointments.
He wanted to feel their baby move.
He wanted to help prepare the nursery.
He wanted to wake beside Riley when the baby was born.
He wanted to be there for the first cry.
The first night.
The first morning.
He wanted to be a father who came home.
Adrian looked at the contract again.
The offer was everything his younger self would have wanted.
That was the problem.
He wasn’t that man anymore.
He glanced toward the bedroom.
Riley was asleep.
Adrian imagined waking him and telling him about the decision.
He wasn’t ready.
Not yet.
He needed to think.
He returned to the contract.
The relocation clause stared back at him.
Adrian read it again.
Then again.
His chest felt heavier with every line.
He had believed he could somehow make both dreams work.
His career.
Their family.
Riley’s studio.
The pregnancy.
The future.
Maybe he could.
Maybe there was a way.
But the more he studied the contract, the clearer one truth became.
Accepting the position would mean giving something up.
Not necessarily his relationship.
Not necessarily his career.
But time.
Time with Riley.
Time during the pregnancy.
Time during the earliest days of their child’s life.
Time he could never recover.
Adrian closed the laptop.
The room was silent.
For the first time, the most frightening part of the offer wasn’t the possibility of failure.
It was the possibility of succeeding at the wrong thing.
He sat alone in the study, staring at the dark screen.
The opportunity he had once dreamed about was finally within reach.
Yet now, all he could think about was what it might cost him.
And as he looked toward the bedroom where Riley slept, Adrian realized that accepting the offer could mean missing much of the pregnancy and the early life of the child they had spent so long hoping for.
For the first time in his career, Adrian didn’t know whether the greatest opportunity in front of him was something he should take.
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