Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

pretend he knew nothing about it and either wait for her to come to him or to leave, whichever she decided.

Consequences, Clint. You have to do more than talk the talk—you have to be willing to walk the walk. Even if it means walking away.

Despite his inner lecture, he wandered down the hallway—like the idiot he was—and found her in the waiting area, just like Maria had said.

Jessi’s head was down, her hands clasped loosely between her jeans-clad knees. She could have been praying. Hell, maybe that’s what he should be doing right now. Because just seeing her was like a fist to the stomach. A hard one. Hard enough to leave him breathless and off balance.

And all those emotions he’d worked so hard to suppress boiled up to the surface.

The waiting room was full, only five or six seats empty in the whole place and neither of them next to where Jessi was perched. He moved in, catching the eye of an older man, who, although gaunt, still sat at stiff attention. Clint nodded to him, receiving the same in return. He finally got to where Jessi was seated.

“Jess?”

She glanced up, the worry in her green eyes immediately apparent. She popped to her feet. “I was just coming to see you.”

“I know. One of the nurses told me.”

Her teeth came down on her lower lip. “I figured it must look weird. I just couldn’t get up the nerve to …” She glanced around, bringing back the fact that the room was full and now more than one or two sets of eyes were following their exchange with interest.

“I’ll take you back to the office,” he said. “And I’ll run down to the cafeteria and get us some coffee.” He wasn’t sure how smart it was to be alone with her. But as long as he kept the door unlocked, they’d be fine. At least, Clint hoped so.

He went to the cafeteria and ordered their coffees. She liked hers with milk, something he shouldn’t remember, but did. He dumped a packet of sugar into his own brew and headed back to his office.

When he pushed through the door, he noted she still wore the same haunted expression she’d had earlier. Setting her coffee on the desk in front of her, he went around to the other side and slid into his office chair. “What’s going on, Jess?”

“It’s Mom. I—I felt like I had to tell her about … about Chelsea’s baby, since she and my mom are close.” She blinked, maybe seeing something in his face that made her explain further. “I’d already talked to Chelsea about it. She knew I was going to tell her.”

“And how did your mom react?”

Her clenched fingers pressed against her chin. “That’s just it. She’s in the hospital. And I don’t know what to tell Chelsea. I know she’s going to ask as soon as I go in there.”

Shock spurted through his system. “What happened?”

“I think I told you, she hasn’t been quite herself lately. Anyway, when she heard the story, she seemed to be handling it okay, then she suddenly started feeling a weird pressure in her chest.” Jessi blew out a breath. “It turns out one of her arteries is 90 percent blocked. She needs bypass surgery. She’d been having symptoms for about a month, but didn’t want to worry me.”

He immediately went to reach for her hand then stopped when Jessi slid hers off the top of the desk and into her lap.

Keeping her distance. Asking for his professional opinion.

Of course that’s what it was. She’d already told him what she needed to. She wanted to know whether or not she should tell her daughter about what had happened. She hadn’t come to him for comfort or anything else.

Just medical advice about her daughter … his patient.

Right now, though, the last thing he wanted to do was think this thing through. What he wanted was to get out of his chair, walk around the desk and grab her to his chest, holding her while she poured out her heart.

Impulse control.

With his recent track record, holding her was exactly what he shouldn’t do.

He took a sip of his coffee and let the heat wash down his throat and pool in his stomach, adding to the acid already there. “I think you should tell her the truth about your mom’s condition. Maybe not the events preceding the attack but that her doctor found a blockage in an artery and has decided it needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.”

“So you don’t think I should tell her about Mom knowing what happened with the baby?”

“Not unless she asks you point-blank. The truth might eventually come out, but I don’t think you need to hurry into any kind of explanation right now. That can wait until after the surgery. When your mom—and Chelsea—are better.”

The truth might eventually come out.

Great advice, Marks, considering your and Jessi’s current situation. And what had happened to her late husband once that truth had indeed come out.

None of that mattered at the moment. “When is the procedure scheduled?”

“They want to do it as soon as possible. This afternoon, in fact.”

He sat back in his seat. “Maybe it’s good that this happened when it did. At least you were with your mom at the time and knew what to do.”

“Did I, Clint? What was I thinking, just blurting something like that out?”

“You said she’d been having symptoms for a while. Besides, I’m sure you didn’t ‘blurt it out.’ You were doing what you thought was best for your mom and for Chelsea.”

Like he was doing, by continuing to treat Jessi’s daughter? Actually, yes. Nothing had happened to suggest that this couldn’t all work out for the best as far as Chelsea was concerned.

“I just never dreamed it might lead to—”

“I know.” He paused. “Do you want me to be there when they do the procedure?”

“Don’t you have patients?”

Not a direct refusal. More like a hesitation … trying to feel him