Surprise Delivery(91)

He chuckles softly, “I’ll see myself out.”





Twenty-Eight





Duncan





“Good evening, Doctor Clyburne.”

I give the doorman a smile. “Evening, Donald.”

I’m beat by the time I get home and want nothing more than a hot shower and a comfortable bed. It was a long day and I lost a patient – a kid who’d been hit by a car while riding his bike. I did everything I could think of to save him, but it was too little, too late. I couldn’t do anything. The hardest part was informing his parents – that was something I hated doing more than anything else on this planet. There is no easy way to tell somebody their loved one died on the table.

Watching the light snuffed out of the boy today made me think about Nizar – the kid whose leg I’d saved over in Syria. I don’t know why my mind conjured up that image all of a sudden. Maybe it’s to remind me of something good, or to try to blunt a terrible memory with a good one. I don’t know really. But, as I think about Nizar, knowing that by now, he’s probably back running around with his friends, playing soccer, it makes me feel a little bit better.

Not every day is going to be a successful one, and we are going to lose people. It’s inevitable. So maybe the lesson I need to take away from all of this is to hold onto and cherish those good days, those successful days, to help me get through the bad ones.

I ride the elevator up to my floor and get out. As I walk toward my door, a smile crosses my lips as I find myself wishing Alexis was here waiting for me. I can’t think of a better way to end a tough day than being in her arms.

It’s still amazing to me that all of this is happening. Going from being a guy who figured he’d never find somebody he connects with and was resigned to a life spent not really living, to being a man in love, whose soul is on fire, and is more alive than he’s ever been, has been an unexpected and wild roller coaster ride – a ride I don’t want to end.

The other thing that’s blowing my mind is that I never thought of myself as the fatherly type. I never even really considered being a dad. And yet, when I hold Aurora in my arms and look into her eyes, I feel so profoundly connected to her. There’s something about her – something I can’t put my finger on – that makes me want to protect her. To give her the best life possible.

I want nothing more in my life than to keep both Alexis and Aurora safe. I want nothing more than to spend my days making them both happy and living an amazing life, having grand adventures together.

Like a family.

That thought sends a bolt of disbelief shooting through me. It’s shocking, but it somehow still feels right. As I turn that word over and over in my mind – family – I still can’t get used to the idea that I’m a family man now. Sort of. I mean, they’re not officially my family, but given the way we spend our time together, it sure feels like it. It’s a strange sensation, but not in a bad way. Not at all.

Being with Alexis and Aurora feels right. It feels like being home.

My head is still in the clouds as I slip my key into the lock and open the door. It’s only when I feel a sudden weight crashing into me from behind, and feel something sharp poke me in the arm, that I snap back to reality.

The force of the blow from behind knocks me inward and I stumble into the foyer of my condo. I roll over quickly and scramble to my feet as a man wearing a black ski mask steps inside and closes the door behind him. The dim lighting glints off the long blade in his hand.

My upper arm is stinging, so I quickly strip off my coat and take a look. There’s a spot of blood on my shirt – the fucker stabbed me. Not badly, I don’t think he got more than the tip of the blade through the thick material of my coat, but he stabbed me all the same.

The man is facing me, and although I can only see his eyes through the cut-out holes in the mask, I know exactly who it is.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Brad?” I sneer.

“I warned you,” he growls. “I warned you a bunch of times.”

“So, this is your big plan for revenge?” I ask. “You’re going to murder me to keep me away from her?”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he says.

“The flaw in your plan, though, is that even if you do succeed in killing me – big ‘if’, by the way – Alexis still isn’t going to want you, Brad,” I say. “As they say, she’s just not that into you.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see about that,” he snaps. “When you’re fucking dead, she’s going to need somebody to help comfort her.”

“Yeah, and I’m sure you’ll be the first person she turns to.”

I shouldn’t be taunting an armed man, I know this. But, it’s also really hard to take Brad seriously as an assailant. If he’d wanted to kill me, he should have put that pig sticker through my ribs from behind in the hallway when had the chance. Instead, he gave me a half-hearted kind of poke in the arm – which tells me that he’s not only not thought this all the way through but is too scared to actually do it.

“Let’s not kid ourselves, Brad,” I say. “You’re not going to kill me.”

“The hell I’m not.”

I laugh softly. “I can see your hand shaking from here, man.”