that, but I’m needed back in the ER.”
Stunned, Virginia stood as he left and then watched through the glass as he jogged down the hall towards the ER.
What just happened?
She slowly sank back down into her chair, feeling a bit like a deer caught in headlights, like someone had just pulled a fast one on her.
The board wouldn’t be happy with her for not reining him in, but then again she didn’t really want to. Dr. Brice was someone who moved to the beat of his own drum. He annoyed the nurses because he couldn’t remember their names, didn’t have much time for interns and, yes, performed a medical procedure in front of a bunch of rich investors, but the point was he saved lives.
His curriculum vitae was impressive. As far she was concerned.
His image, his work in Africa, doing surgery on refugees, brought in good press for the hospital. People had a soft spot for good Samaritans.
Even if the board thought he was a bit of a rogue surgeon.
Virginia rubbed her temples. Her tension headache was becoming stronger. Couldn’t he see how she was trying to make his transition to a metropolitan hospital setting just a bit easier? There was one thing Virginia took away from this meeting today and that was that Dr. Gavin Brice was a bit of a pompous ass.
Dammit.
Gavin glanced at his wristwatch and noticed the time. He was late and Lily was going to kill him. Rose wouldn’t, though, she was so sweet, but Lily was a force to be reckoned with. This was the third time he’d missed taking her to ballet lessons and he’d pinky-sworn that he’d be the one to take her this time instead of Rosalie, the sitter.
He had no idea what he was doing and he was a terrible father figure, but that was the crux of the matter—he wasn’t Lily’s and Rose’s father. He was their uncle, but as he was their only caregiver since their mother, his sister, had died of cancer, he was no longer cool Uncle Gavin who sent them postcards from new and exciting locations as he traveled to different developing countries with Border Free Physicians.
Now he was Mr. Mom and not very good at it. Lily, who was eight, had reminded him of it every day for the last couple of months.
“That’s not how Mom did it.”
Rose was four, all smiles, but she didn’t say a single word.
It’s why he was here, in San Francisco, instead of continuing with Border Free Physicians. He hated not being where he wanted to be, but he’d do anything to take care of those girls. To give them the home life and stability he and his late sister, Casey, had never had.
After all his nieces had been through, there was no way he could drag them from pillar to post, living rough while he worked. He’d had to give up his life as a field trauma physician and get something stable, reliable and in the girls’ hometown.
He needed to give them structure and not rip them away from all they knew. Especially not when their world had been shattered after their mother’s recent death and their father’s when Rose had been only an infant.
He had to be reliable or he could lose the girls to their paternal grandparents. He’d promised Casey he wouldn’t let that happen. It had been only three months since Casey had died and though he’d always said he didn’t want to be tied down, he wouldn’t give the girls up for anything.
Even though he was a hopeless failure.
A cool breeze rolled in off the bay and Gavin shivered. He pulled his coat tighter. Even though it was August, there was a nip in the air and he still wasn’t acclimatized to anything that wasn’t subtropical.
He stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed for the grey minivan he’d inherited from Casey. His motorbike was sitting alone and forgotten under a tarp in the garage, because you couldn’t ferry kids to and from various dance rehearsals, art classes and Girl Scouts’ meetings on the back of a motorcycle.
As he made his way across the parking lot he caught sight of Virginia walking toward her dark, sleek-looking sedan. Gavin paused a moment to watch her move. She was so put together and she moved with fluid grace. Even if she seemed tight, like a taut bowstring most days.
Her dark hair was piled up on her head, not a strand of hair loose. There was a natural look to her and she didn’t need to wear garish makeup to accentuate those dark, chocolate eyes or those ruby lips. Her clothing was stylish and professional but sexy. Today it was the pencil skirt, paired with a crisp shirt and black high heels that showed off her slim but curvy figure in all the right places.
She climbed into her car, and just as she was sitting down her skirt hiked up a bit, giving him a nice view of her stocking-clad thigh.
Gavin’s pulse began to race. If any woman could emulate the princess Snow White it was Dr. Virginia Potter.
He let out a hiss of disgust; he’d been reading Rose far too many fairy tales if he was comparing the chief of surgery to Snow White.
Did that make him a dwarf? Though the way some of those surgeons and nurses moved through the hospital, it was like they were on their way to the mines for the day.
Virginia drove away and Gavin scrubbed his hand over his face. He needed a beer and to veg out in front of the television for a while.
One of the perks of being in the city.
He drove through the streets in a trance, letting the day’s surgeries just roll off his back. When he pulled up into his sister’s pink-colored marina-style home in the outer Richmond district, a twenty-minute commute from the hospital, he finally let out a sigh of relief mixed with frustration.
It had to be pink.
His whole life seemed to be wrapped up in various shades of pink from coral to bubble gum. At least his scrubs weren’t pink.
The lights were all on in the living room above the garage, which meant the girls were home from dance rehearsal. Rosalie’s car was on the street outside. The garage door opened and he pulled the van inside, next to his tarp-covered Harley.
I know, baby. I miss you too.
He sighed with longing, pulling the garage door down and locking it. Rosalie, having seen him pull up, was leaving as he opened the locked gate onto the street that led to the front door.
“Dr. Brice, how was your day?” Rosalie asked, brightly.
“You don’t really want to know. How’s Lily?”
Rosalie gave him a broad, toothy grin as she heaved her bag over her shoulder. “You don’t really want to know.”
“That bad?”
“It’s been a rough day for her.” Rosalie moved past him to the car. “When is your next shift?”
“Tomorrow, but then I’m not on call this weekend. I don’t go back until Wednesday afternoon.”
“Ah, a four-day weekend. Que bueno. I’ll see you tomorrow, Dr. Brice. Have a good night.” Gavin waited until Rosalie was safely in her car and had driven away before
